#maybe to show how far the protag has come in life how things have gotten better. he has new friends and new familial bonds and people who

[bibiana112]

Girl are you okay? Cause you've been looking through the "My lesbian experience with loneliness" tag again

Well the short answer is no :D

[waywardsalt]

wait wait wait im making a connection here. p5 protag initially gets in trouble and falsely accused of assault when he stops shido from assaulting that woman before the story begins and this fucks his life up a bit. in the rank 8 confidant scene with sojiro we have futaba’s uncle try to approach futaba, who is clearly upset by him, and the protag moves in front of her to protect her, and the uncle trips(?) and threatens to accuse the protag of assault and sue him, like what happened with shido at the very beginning. but this time sojiro and futaba are there as witnesses and sojiro immediately called bullshit to protect the protag. the protag’s dialogue options after the event are apologetic and like he’s making excuses for why he got in the way, like he’s still afraid he’ll end up the same way he did with shido. but this time he has sojiro to protect him (and futaba) and this time his interference to protect someone does not end in a false assault accusation and instead he is backed up by and supported by the people around him who are a sort of foster family for him, he’s not alone and kicked to the curb they have his back hang on. hang on. is this coherent. it’s a like the incident that caused the protag to be falsely accused but instead of the one he protected testifying against him and everyone turning against him and refusing to back him up this time he has the support of the people who care about him. hang on

[munchychumpkins]

My Opinions On Characters That No One Asked For: Millie

So, since everyone and their mother have given there two cents on Millie as a character, i figured i’d throw my hat in the ring cause i’ve honestly got nothing better to do on tumblr.com

For the most part, i kind of agree. Millie is kind of one-dimensional

Her entire character atm relies on Moxxie being present and being the center of her attention, she hasn’t had significant growth outside of their relationship together

Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s cute, it’s entertaining, the majority of the fandom is in agreement (from what i’ve seen) that this is a healthy, stable relationship

But beyond that, Millie doesn’t have much character that we’ve explored yet

To repeat literally every post i’ve seen on this subject, she’s good at her job, she likes what she does, she’s violent, protective, and sweet to her friends

In a way, that kind of makes me excited for her, because there’s still so much to be learned about her, it leaves more… wiggle room, i suppose, for her to behave certain ways that can’t be deemed out of character because we haven’t seen what that character truly is yet

Now yes, at the point of me writing this we are 3 episodes into season 2 and we haven’t gotten a Millie dedicated episode yet, it’s a problem, it needs to be fixed, waiting this long for it was a mistake but a bigger mistake would be not doing it at all

So what are some things that could possibly happen that would give Millie a reason to grow outside of Moxxie?

Well think about what we know so far

She is always beside Moxxie

She will defend Moxxie with her life

She has violent tendencies when she needs them

So how do you expand on a character who’s growth has so far been dependent on another?

Give them a reason to separate

And before anyone assumes i’m asking for them to break up, calm your tits, that’s not what i’m saying

Make it so that, even if only for one episode, Millie’s can’t be at Moxxie’s side 24/7, they are apart and there’s nothing she can do about it, she has to grow on her own because her usual motivation isn’t there anymore

When you want characters to grow as characters, you put them in scenarios that they aren’t comfortable with, that they aren’t used to

Maybe Moxxie gets sick and can’t come into work, and Millie, for one reason or another, gets stuck on the other side and has to use her own know-how to get back, because Moxxie is literally incapable of helping her atm

There’s plenty of things that could be done to enhance Millie as a character, we just have to get there

So far, the main focuses of the series have been Blitz, Stolas, and Mox, and as much as i love and enjoy seeing how they’ve all grown and how each is being expanded upon, you can’t have one of your main protagonists remain stagnant for an extended period of time, your story will suffer from it

I don’t dislike Mills by any means, i’d actually go as far to say that she’s one of my favorites and the one i’m most excited to see grow outside of Stolas, and i don’t think Vivz has ‘ruined the series’ by waiting this long to expound upon one of her main protags, but the bottom line is that it is needed at this point, because people have begun to grow tired of the same tropes that have been fed to us over this one specific character time and time again

Anyways, watch Helluva Boss, 10/10, one of my favorite shows, highly recommend

[dangermousie]

This scene is SO viscerally painful!

I started screaming. Literally. It’s out as bluntly as could be.

The way this runs as a refrain - no matter how he hurt her, how far away he got, how much she lost him, at least she felt she knew him, that he was hers through that connection, that knowledge. That “I know you, you are Ecevit” refrain is haunting.

He tries to defuse...

Oh God.

She does not realize this, but it’s her confessing unmistakably that she’s never loved Bilal and she still loves Ecevit.

Oh. My. GOD!

And again that refrain...

This is downright Victorian and I am DYINGGGGG in the best, worst way!

AAAAA! The way she confesses that seeing him with someone else is killing her.

(So I still know you, is what she means!)

And we come to the crux of it. And it’s easy to dismiss her words as her placing unrealistic expectations of sainthood on one very damaged man (because they are), or to wish she said it gentler (because she should have) or driven by the fact that she’s never been this hurt herself so it’s easy for her to say (because that’s a valid point) but I cannot get mad at her because it’s all driven by her terror that she does not know this new Ecevit at all actually, that he is not the person she loves any more, that the last connection has been severed. And also at least, she is the sole person who is not seeing his descent as a good thing, not shoving him into the darkness harder.

And we see the flashback where Bilal tells her about the plan and what strikes me is the pleasure he takes in it not because it’s closer to his idea of justice (though still not perfect, nothing but a bullet to the head would satisfy him) but because to him it’s vindication his way is correct; that he managed to drag Ecevit with him and also that the perfect Ecevit is not perfect but can also turn into a monster from pain - he has so much inferiority about Ecevit - about the latter’s control and even the fact that he was Ahu’s first choice, and this is him showing that Ecevit is not any better and thus Bilal is not any worse. Ecevit maybe making Bilal better but Bilal is making Ecevit worse and honestly they need to separate ASAP.

Jesus God. You are dismantling all the internal supports Ecevit built for himself to have a sense of identity and purpose and to get through life. You want his reaction to trauma to mirror yours but this is how you cope but his destruction.

(The way he calls him “your Ecevit” gave me shivers. He has never gotten over Ahu preferring Ecevit first and a cruel, damaged part of him is reveling in hurting her.)

FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK this is so wrong and so messed up and so entwined and so consuming.

You are a terrible boyfriend and Ecevit is also incredibly damaged. Ahu’s choices are bleak.

She has every right to say this and I get why she does but I have gotten to the irrationally protective of Ecevit stage so shut up shut up shut up shut up I just need someone he loves and trusts to give the man a big hug and tell him he is doing well and will be OK and let him get some sleep. He’s gonna die, I know it, but even in Kara Sevda and Ezel and Poyraz Karayel and Menekse ve Halil and other notorious Turkish show tragedies, the protags got SOME interval of happiness before that!

(and not Bilal, how telling.)

Her human moral compass that is Ecevit has broken and like - I get why she is lashing out but STOP. He’s not Jesus, he’s a flesh and blood man under unimaginable trauma and pressure, give him some grace!

[cheritsundere]

Let’s See how Far We’ve Come

This post is purely self indulgent, but the newest pokemon op has been living rent free in my head for 2 days and I just had to jot down all my thoughts. There are SO many parallels and symbolism present to show how far Satoshi, Gou, and Koharu have come in the anime, based on direct comparisons in the past openings to the present. This is going to be a long post, so the full analysis is below the cut so as not to fill your dashes with an unescapable SatoGou ride.

Before we even begin, let’s get the obvious out of the way: Satoshi and Gou’s VAs are the ones singing the song. This is a deliberate choice that the directors/animators/crew want us to take notice of. They are the ones duetting and singing together - this is their OP, their story. As such, everything in this OP should be viewed as not just happening for our sakes as the audiences as an intro to the world and characters, it is Satoshi and Gou personally showing us how they view the world and each other. This is no longer a third-party’s view on our two protags, this is their viewpoint and perspective.

The opening starts off with the, now very iconic, scene of SatoGou standing with their pokemon on the grassy plains with the title card, but now even that has changed. 

Almost immediately, the differences start. Before, the camera is simply climbing up the hill before landing on SatoGou with their starters. Now, The camera follows a Pidgey as it flies by all their current companions at the Sakuragi Lab. This presents us with a metaphor that, where OP1 was a gentle ascent, in the current OP, the boys and Koharu are soaring towards their dreams fast, much like the Pidgey.

Cute first clue that the boys have gotten closer: as it lands on SatoGou, both of the boys and their pokemon get literally closer, before the title card moves past them onto Vermillion City, where before the camera would simply linger on the both of them standing to the vast blue yonder.

Speaking of which, I always found it interesting that Gou and Co. are from Vermillion to begin with. It could have been any city, not even in Kanto, but it’s deliberately Vermillion. While it may not mean anything: Vermillion is a deep red color, matching with Gou’s design, and symbolizes life and eternity. I wonder if maybe this is a nod that Satoshi has found his forever traveling partner, whether we view this as romantic or platonic is neither here nor there, and it is the anime director’s way of saying “hey, this is our final form of the show” and maybe another hint that this will be Satoshi’s last journey - if Journey’s ever ends, it will follow a new protag or the anime finishes completely and only does yearly OVA’s to promote the games/merch. Food for thought.

Continuing on:

In the first opening, the boys are shown separately, doing their own thing in the present - Satoshi playing with Pikachu, Gou packing with Scorbunny

The new opening instead chooses to spend this moment reflecting on SatoGou’s past - Satoshi first meeting Pikachu and Gou first encountering Mew -

Both of these moments in time being what led them on to their current path. A path that, wouldn’t you know it? 

Leads to them meeting each other and their current adventure. 

Also, let’s go back and focus on Koharu back there for a second too, because she has changed a lot even just in these few moments. 

In the first OP, Koharu is distant from the gang, almost cold and impassionate, even just kinda poking at Yamper who, even tho she likes, she keeps at a distance.

In this OP, Koharu has found her passion for pokemon, Eevee being a big factor, present in every shot Koharu is in. She waves to the boys as they leave, finally understanding and supporting them, as well as traveling with them to go visit Hikari, the Sato to her Gou. I think it’s wonderful to compare her start and finish and see how much she has grown thanks to everyone she’s met.

Let’s go back to SatoGou now, looking at the iconic paper cutouts and how they’ve changed:

While SatoGou are definitely alongside one another, they are still cutout separately with different reactions to something happening. Meanwhile in the current OP:

SatoGou are cut out from the same sheet of paper, now interacting with one another and side by side. They are no longer two research buddies who happen to travel together, they are two friends on the same journey together, even if they have different goals. Speaking of which, this might blow your mind (I know it did mine once I noticed): 

In OP1, Gou is reaching toward Mew, his goal, then opens his eyes to which Satoshi then joins him, literally appearing in his life and taking him by surprise. This really shows how happy Gou is to find someone who is standing beside him and supporting him on this journey, someone who get’s his goal and doesn’t laugh or scoff at it. I think this is one of the reasons the ship name of “firstfriendshipping” still feels so right for the two even though Gou has always had Koharu. Yes, he cares about and likes being around her, but he’s never had a true companion who really gets him. Satoshi does though, and in that way, he’s his first real “friend”. Despite having a friend beside him though, Gou’s  goal is this this unattainable Mew and it is his goal alone. In the newest OP however?

First off, I just really love the cinematography of this, but more importantly, the symbolism is off the charts here. 

Where before Gou is standing alone before Satoshi appears into his life, Gou is now alongside his three Galar pokemon. They don’t just appear beside him like Satoshi, they are right behind him, pushing him forward to be able to reach that star in the sky - another interesting change in this OP btw: Mew is not a Sun, so far and shining so bright that it’s unreachable. Mew is now a little star that pops up off of a Pokeball, one of the very stars that appears every time he makes a nice catch. And, even more interesting, is that transition to Satoshi that every SatoGou fan took notice of immediately. 

I just want to kind of linger on this frame and compare it to another OP for one second - OP 2, in particular.

In OP 2, we get this shot of Gou, his eyes reflecting his goal of catching every pokemon on his way to Mew. I find this so SO intentional on the part of the animators to compare these two shots and what they mean. Yes, the transition from Gou to Satoshi through a zoom in on Gou’s eyes is, of course, just straight up cool. It’s a good transition - smooth, sleek, and eye-catching. But it’s also just way too symbolic for no reason. What’s reflected in the character’s eyes during OPs are always meaningful, such as in the shot above from OP2 and also a similar shot with Koharu and Eevee in OP3

We know, it means a lot to have something reflected in your eyes. So, what can we infer it means that neither Mew nor Pokemon is reflected in Gou’s eyes in the newest OP but instead Satoshi? I think it’s pretty self-explanatory, tbh. Gou’s dream, his goal, is no longer just to catch Mew - he wants to see Satoshi reach his own goal one day, to be in a stadium competing and wining the championship, becoming a Pokemon Master. Satoshi, in this way, is Gou’s new dream. 

Satoshi, meanwhile, has also grown a lot. We all know that Satoshi has tons and tons of Pokemon, so I find it interesting that OP1 takes a staunch approach at only showing Satoshi with Pikachu, not even hinting at what pokemon he might catch in the future of the show like Farfetch’d and hatching Riolu. In every other Pokemon OP before Journeys, Satoshi is shown with the rest of his team, expanding more and more until he reaches his full party. In OP1 tho, Satoshi only has Pikachu, symbolizing and pointing out how Satoshi always “restarts” his adventure with just Pikachu when he goes to a new region. How has this changed in the newest OP tho?

Not only does Satoshi have his full team, he also still has his pokemon from before, his Greninja,

 his Alola team, and probably we’ll even see the others one day, considering how many other old companions and regions are coming back. Which brings me onto my next point - 

We really have some of the greatest hits here, huh? Satoshi no longer has a single region - a single friendgroup or rival - influencing his dreams anymore. Satoshi has had and made many rivals and friends through his journeys and OP4 acknowledges this. We aren’t forgetting anything about where Satoshi has come from or how much he’s grown. All his past journeys have accumulated to make him into the person he is today: 

The person who will take on Dande and who is traveling alongside Gou. 

What a wonderful OP. Every frame is so well considered and symbolic, I appreciate it so much. I hope my super long breakdown and comparison of it made you appreciate it slightly more now too. 

[neapolinyan]

About the ask thing, you know i gotta go with someone from PLA lmao

If nobody's asked yet, Volo. If he has been already asked, then how about Irida? ^^

YOURE FINE nobodys snagged the volo ask yet! time to talk about my favourite spoingly little meow meow. cracks knuckles. prepare for some LONG rambles here folks

favorite thing about them:

this is very small but i love his hair with the cap on. i can wear my hair like that (and have done so in the past, low messy buns are VERY nice) and its just cool to see a character with it. plus his hair is also just a nice touch to make him resemble cynthia without being a carbon copy like a lot of the other ancestors. really throws into question who's the real ancestor of cynthia, him or cogita - the physical similarities are obvious, but the game never suggests they're related so it's fun to consider the idea that volo's a sham in every sense of the word, even down to his presumed ancestry.

least favorite thing about them:

i like rambling about his motivations but religion toes a VERY fine line with me so i am forced to keep it brief. i am so mad /j

favorite line:

"You outsider! It's almost as if you were spat out of the space-time rift just to get in my way!"

not sure WHY it's my favourite, but i guess it really just hammers home the protagonist's impact on him. i've said time and time again in my own silly little ramble spaces that volo wouldn't have gotten this far without the protagonist's interference - he grew frantic after learning both the fact they were gathering plates and, eventually, their connection to arceus, and i refuse to believe he's always been this deranged. the protag's presence in his life tipped him off the edge, and if not for them i can confidently say he would have grown old with still no answers from arceus. maybe he'd still be finding some way to live for hundreds and hundreds of years to find his answers, but the protag's being there sped things up dramatically and this line REALLY shows it. they got him closer to his goal than he could've ever dreamed of, but their experience being from the future and understanding pokemon better than HE does (and he's very advanced, mind you) means that they were always going to get in his way.

brOTP:

HIM AND AREZU. pla server people you know where i'm going with this, but they're besties. volo lets her mess with his hair (as long as she doesn't cut it too short and nothing's terribly permanent, he likes it the way it is) and he takes the opportunity to nap while she's working.

additionally, i love the idea of volo and irida having a sibling-like relationship. they battle a lot <3333 he helps her train so that the next time she battles adaman, boy does he have a surprise coming his way

(volo watches them battle from the sidelines and his sides hurt from laughing too much when irida absolutely pummels his pokemon into the dirt and nearly nicks adaman while they're at it)

OTP:

appraisalshipping and poisonhealshipping. did you really expect anything else <3

nOTP:

HAAAAATE hate hate volo/protagonist. ignoring the obvious main first reason that the protagonist is canonically FIFTEEN while volo is absolutely an adult, it's toxic as hell no matter which way you look at it. volo clearly hates, envies and wants to get rid of the protagonist and isn't afraid to use force to get his way. even after he loses, there's about five seconds of "he's given up" catharsis before you get the means to visit arceus and he blows up again. you cannot fix him, please stop trying

(self inserts are kind of a half-n-half situation. i love oc/canon, go off guys i love you, but people who change nothing except age up the main character still lean into that toxic category of a relationship)

random headcanon:

not only does he shirk his merchant duties, but he has a habit of giving discounts (or just free stuff) to people he likes, or people he thinks need the materials and it's just not worth making them fork out the big stacks for. he empathises with young kids just starting out with battered pokemon and zero healing items from being in the wilds too long.

ginter doesn't like it, but volo just doesn't think it's right to refuse aid to a kid just because they're a few hundred short.

unpopular opinion:

i've seen so many people talk about his little face he makes when you beat him in his first two battles like "he is two seconds from ripping you apart, this is his customer service smile"

but tbh! i think it gives him more character than 'two-faced asshole who lied about his entire identity upbringing and favourite hobbies' if you separate it from his whole betrayal, he's-been-using-you-for-a-good-while postgame moment. he's one of the first pokemon trainers! he likes battling. he had to level his pokemon that high somehow, on wild pokemon or whatever, and he eagerly challenges you when you don't have a ton of work on your plate. you can say he battles you to scope out your potential, but the first time he battles you you're not even an official survey corps member.

i just think he likes battling, and his little smile after being defeated is genuine. maybe he's a bit of a sore loser if you want to push it, but i don't think he's about to maul some kid he just met.

song i associate with them:

CRACKS OUT THE VOLO PLAYLIST /J

okay but. rabbit heart (raise it up) by florence and the machine, mad iqs by idkhow and ancient dreams in a modern land by marina are like a top three.

favorite picture of them:

aforementioned silly little losing smile :)

[epicspheal]

( this is gonna be long super sorry!!!) I have some Thoughts™ about Lusamine cause I'm conflicted. I love Lusamine as a character. And by that i mean I love to hate her. Rich white woman that's probably from Kalos( France) abuses her children, constantly gaslight them to make her the victim, and etc. It doesn't matter if she gone crazy, she's still an abuser.

The reason USUM boils my blood at times is because it goes the route of " oh yeah I wanted to save everyone" route which completely glosses over the fact that she abused and controlled her children for so long to the point of them both running away. And this one is purely headcanon in my part, cause I doubt Nintendo intended this, but she is, again, a rich white woman in comparison to the majority poc Alola. Is it infuriating how they welcomed her( well, at least on the front) after everything she's done? Yes. Is it a sad reality? Also yes. But it I'm still gonna complain. It also seems that Lillie and Gladion forgave her so easily? Of course, they have their own right to feel however they feel about their mother( especially if there was genuine good memories prior everything that happened), but like???? Idk it rubs me the wrong way.

But here's where I'm conflicted. Pokemon masters have shown a redeemed Lusamine. I understand masters is it's own thing, but also it's really interesting cause when you think about it, out of the Bad Parents Club, she's kinda the most likely to get that???( Other than Rose). Like by the end of SM, she finally acknowledge Lillie, and maybe going to Kanto will also mean getting therapy, which could lead to the Redeemed Lusamine we see in Masters( and what USUM were trying to sell). I personally feel like the other two, Giovanni and Ghetsis, are too far gone. So, like, Lusamine has a chance. But I hate her. I made an oc with the goal of at one point throwing hands with Lusamine for a REASON( other than parallels with her own life but that's different). Also when you take into account what lead her to this point, you kinda understand ( NOT JUSTIFY) her decent into madness. I guess what I'm trying to say is that they really should have portrayed her "redemption" better( putting quotations in redemption cause we don't know if she fully learned her lesson or not).

Okay that's all. Super sorry this got very long, I just have many Thoughts ™.

Hi there @ihopethisendswell! Oh boy Gen 7's story is not my favorite for multiple reasons and the shift between SM and USUM's handling of Lusamine was a big one. Like honestly if they truly wanted to redeem Lusamine USUM should've been a sequel rather than retelling because that way a few years would've passed, Lillie and Gladion could've healed on their own and Lusamine could've gotten some time to get herself together and maybe earn a redemption. But honestly I didn't want Lusamine to be redeemed. Let her rot in the "crappy parents" brigade with Giovanni and Ghetsis. I've said this before in a previous ask that I already didn't care for the Aether Family Plot to begin with but I at least enjoyed finally having the main villain be a woman and her being just absolutely a piece of crap too. I I don't like that they tried to redeem they chose her, and in such a haphazard way. Let the women be irredeemly evil. We need to see more of that in fiction. Unrestrained cruelty knows no gender.

But then again Lusamine's writing flops just fall in line with other issues Gamefreak has with writing female characters. Right in step with "Let's make Lillie, the one female child character whose been cursed with a crappy parent be the only helpless, passive one to the point of pretty much being the load while Silver, N and her own brother Gladion who also have shitty parents get to have more agency and fight to them. Because girls are the only ones who can be damsels and boys have to be tough."

Oh and I can't forget "Let's make Professor Burnet mostly irrelevant to the plots of SM despite her field of research being the most valuable concerning the whole research plot. Can't have a female researcher be useful" As you can see I have a lot of gripes with the gen 7 plot.

But your point about how Lusamine was handled in the majority POC region of Alola is probably my biggest issue with the Aether family. Because I really didn't care for the fact that the blonde family took up so much presence and importance in the story at the expense of the POC characters who were actually born and raised in the region. Like there was two whole plotlines of the Hau trying to live with the burden of being a Kahuna's grandson and Kukui trying to show pride in his home region by creating league while also not stepping on the traditions that make Alola's island challenge so sacred and special but we don't get to see it because it's the Aether Family show. Gamefreak has had a rather prevalent issue in writing when it comes to balancing story plotlines in general, but Gen 7's botched handling really stood out to me. The Alolans had really interesting stories that I wish had of gotten more prominence rather than being shoved off to the side like they were in canon. I hope whenever we get gen 7 remakes they add more depth to Hau, Kukui, Guzma, Acerola, and Hapu's stories because their stories as natives deserve as much attention as Lillie being able to find her confidence. Finally there should've definitely been a "press x to punch Lusamine's lights out" option in game. Like you I made alolan champion OC specifically just straight up give Lusamine a black eye. Yeah it meant aging her up to around 17 instead of the canon protags age of 11. so she could have more force behind that punch but it was worth it :D

[iacon-stargazer]

THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE: MUN & MUSE

fill out & repost ♥ this meme definitely favors canons more, but i hope oc’s still can make it somehow work with their own lore, and lil’ fandom of friends & mutuals. multimuses pick the muse you are the most invested in atm.

tagged by: stolen from @oneshallfall like.... months ago. im a slow gremlin hjksd. it's been in my drafts and i finally decided to finish the last few sections while working on clearing them out

tagging: steal it

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

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

is your character considered hot™ in the fandom?  Well.../ NO / IDK. (i know optimus is but i don’t really... know about orion? i have seen a handful of fanartists who turn him into a very sexualized moe baby but i’m not sure about the fandom at large)

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

are they underrated?  YES / NO. (lmao there’s like no fan content with him unless it’s with megatronus) 

were they relevant to the main story?  YES / NO.

were they relevant to the main character?  YES / NO / THEY’RE THE PROTAG.

are they widely known in their world?  YES / NO. (not yet.... lol)

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

HOW STRICTLY DO YOU FOLLOW CANON?

This... this is a trick question in this goddamn mess of a continuity. That said, I try my absolute best to make my portrayal coherent with the TFP show... even if said show contradicts itself at times. I take inspiration from the earlier parts (the thirteen primes section) of the Covenant of Primus for his origin backstory, but ignore the rest of the Covenant since it makes absolutely no sense with his characterization in... literally anything else. I’ve peeked at Exodus and it utterly sucks, but I’ve picked up bits and pieces of concepts that originated there just from spending time in the fandom. Aside from that... I spend a ton of time thinking about how to weave everything together in a way that both makes sense and makes for a character development arc.

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

Orion is genuinely kind, thoughtful, and introspective, very loving of the world around him.

He’s also a more complex character than is initially obvious - despite mostly being good sweet pure baby nerd he’s still flawed, with many of those flaws being his strengths put into the wrong situation. His strong morals can lead to dogmatism, and he’s only slightly less likely to deliver lectures than Optimus. His determination to be kind and help everyone can come off as unintentionally patronizing at times; he has a very “well-intentioned semi-privileged middle class” perspective that he’s not always self-aware of. However, he’s also willing to look at himself critically and learn/adapt. 

Essentially, he has many of the same traits as Optimus... just more or less apparent and/or developed. He's less confident than he eventually becomes through his future experience with leadership, wanting to change the world for the better but sometimes struggling to ground his plans in reality—something that continues to apply, but with reduced intensity and frequency over time. Idealistic cinnamon roll will eventually develop some realism, though never really quite enough. His selflessness remains a strength for now, but we know that eventually it will dip into martyristic tendencies.

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

He could be potentially ‘boring’ in some senses. he’s the polite, considerate ‘next door’ type, who has for most of his life has just lived as a very average middle caste nobody. He’s more laid-back than he eventually becomes as optimus, but where others might get into trouble and shenanigans he’s most likely to just express concern. And since I try to keep him at least mostly ic, even with non-serious posts, this can derail ‘fun’ stuff and I fear dissuade some interaction.

While I try my best to give him realistic flaws that work with his character, he could still be seen as a little too good. very kind, understanding, forgiving, patient, considerate... almost endlessly so. A lot of my “he’s so good and pure” interpretation comes from using his having been the thirteenth prime as backstory, where he was pretty much the epitome of that, but some might not like the “he was a literal deity in a past life” idea for its “super special chosen one protagonist” elements.

His responsiveness to his environment can also be a downside. He’s not the type to start things; he just reacts and responds, standing his ground and finding himself when things get crazy around him. without megatronus, he may have eventually attempted political campaigning, but it wouldn’t have gotten very far. He needs to have more intense characters or events around him for major plots to really go places. Without those nothing would ever happen besides slice of life fluff, because he’s content with that kind of life.

WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO RP YOUR MUSE?  

Honestly I just wanted to write op/ratch fhsjkdjsdh. But I also wanted to be able to interact with a variety of muses and so I chose Orion over Optimus because he’s not so emotionally closed off, which I figured would give more flexibility beyond the handful of characters op would reasonably have close personal and/or plot-important relationships with. Also, I can relate to him on a thought-process level which lets me get into his head easily, which additionally made him an appealing choice for my first real rp muse.

WHAT KEEPS YOUR INSPIRATION GOING?  

I just love him so much, especially with the layers of his character I've built up around him. I don't always have inspiration to write or rp, but I think about him a lot. When I do find motivation to write, it's generally out of wanting to continue to work on developing him and just having a chance to express his characterization.

SOME MORE PERSONAL QUESTIONS FOR THE MUN.

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

do you frequently write headcanons?  YES / NO.

do you sometimes write drabbles? YES / NO.  (i should do it more...)

do you think a lot about your muse during the day? YES / NO.

are you confident in your portrayal?   YES / NO. (at least most days fhsdhfskj)

are you confident in your writing?  YES / NO. (it waxes and wanes. I know I'm a good writer but I could still be better...)

are you a sensitive person?  YES / NO.

DO YOU ACCEPT CRITICISM WELL ABOUT YOUR PORTRAYAL?

I’ll be honest; I’ve never gotten criticism. I haven’t been here very long in comparison to some and I’ve never been that popular, so I figure I’m pretty easy to just ignore. I guess how I would feel about it would depend on what it was and how it was delivered, though I like to think I would be reasonable regardless

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

yes? yes absolutely?

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

I would be curious to hear their reasoning, but I think enough about how everything fits together that chances are I would agree to disagree

IF SOMEONE DISAGREES WITH YOUR PORTRAYAL, HOW WOULD YOU TAKE IT?

Depends on if their disagreement makes sense. Maybe I’ll give back my own reasoning for why I characterize the way I do. Maybe I’ll just agree to disagree, if their view is just totally different from mine. If they have valid points I’ll probably overthink it and spiral into self doubt. In all cases I’ll spill my thoughts to friends on discord.

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

......Orion in general or? ... fhsjkdhf...... Well if it was mine specifically that might hurt lol. But at the same time.... I doubt i’d agree with their takes either so... fair enough.

ARE YOU OKAY WITH PEOPLE POINTING OUT YOUR GRAMMATICAL ERRORS?  

Sure. I’m good at grammar so if something glaring is there it’s probably a typo I missed and I’ll be grateful for the chance to edit it out before more people see it lol

DO YOU THINK YOU ARE EASY GOING AS A MUN?  

Yeah. I’m pretty quiet most of the time because I just don’t have energy to talk to a lot of people, and I never want to get caught in drama. I honestly wouldn’t know what to do in a situation like that. I tend to avoid conflict, I’m quick to apologize, and polite with anyone I don’t know very well.

[drink-n-watch]

Another week, another brand-new episode of Psycho Pass. I’m going to hold back and be all mysterious and stuff. Because that’s how I do. I definitely don’t blurt out exactly how I feel about a show in the very first line of every post and then there’s no point in reading the rest. Nuh-huh. No siree. I gots some restraint! Who do you take me for! So instead, Matt, how are you enjoying season 3 so far. It may just be 3 episodes in but as they are double length, it’s now longer than most movies!

Oh, so does that mean it’s my turn to blurt out my thoughts in a single sentence? Okay, um, err, this show is still as consistently excellent as I thought it was based on the previous two episodes! Oh no, I hope I’ll have something to write for the rest of the review now!

Is that so? Fascinating. I can see how you would think and/or feel that way! (I write my part first… I have no clue what Matt said at this point…

So let’s get right into it. First I just a few general comments on my part. I enjoy high stakes corruption stories and although that’s also what season 1 was, the fact that this allows us to look into the public face of Sybil a bit more, through the device of gubernatorial elections is a great angle in my opinion. Diving into what has to be extremely complex and unique politics of a Sybil controlled society has so much potential.

I had to look up what “gubernatorial” meant (we don’t have anything like that in Australia, so forgive my ignorance), but yes I think politics and the world of ‘Psycho Pass’ is a perfect fit. 

I mean what powers do politicians even hold in such circumstances. Are elections largely a population suppression tactics. Something to keep the masses happy? If so, why are they so incredibly high stakes. Seems ridiculous to be going through all this for what amounts to a reality show (which might explain why both candidates are entertainers). So much potential!

What do you think?

I mean, if I know anything about politics and people its that ambitious people will always be ambitious and wanting to be ‘the best’ regardless of the world they live in–so even if politics amount to nothing more than a popularity contest without any real power or ability to change anything outside of Sybil’s system–people are still going to strive for that, people are going to kill for that even. We’ve seen time and time again in the real world that people do extreme things to get what they want, even if to ‘outsiders’ their goals seem ridiculous or pointless.

 Yakusuji really surprised me as a character this week. For a second there I thought they were going with a “bad guy is bad” sort of characterization but then it all took a very sharp right turn! I still don’t know if his character is sincere or if it’s all a big act. Either way, I didn’t expect it and I like it! Maybe it’s my suspicious nature that leads me to think he’s less than sincere but Psycho Pass did teach me not to trust anyone!

He’s definitely an interesting character but the way his character ties into Enforcer Todoroki’s subplot makes for a compelling bit of character development. As for whether he’s ‘on the level’ I don’t buy it…

I did find the assault scene a bit blunt. Not as in too brutal (mind you I thought it was hilarious that someone could kick a skull in so hard as to actually make it explode!) but just a little too straight forward. At least that’s what I thought as I was watching it. In hindsight though, if this was a political machination and not just the random terrorist attack they are making it out to be on the surface, then this type of direct and flamboyant assault is exactly what would be the most effective!

Yeah I took it to be that they were being intentionally flashy, down to the attackers wearing the same clothes, I found it to be a very intimidating scene.

How does anyone in this universe manage to keep their hue clear? I was only watching those little holo assistant thingies pop up for a few minutes (like the old Clippy office assistant) and I already felt my urge to murder rise. I wouldn’t last a day if I had to deal with those things and keep my thoughts in check!

I loved the idea of someone being physically assaulted and then a little pop-up comes up warning them that they were receiving injuries in-line with someone being assaulted, it’s that kind of AI assistant mentality that makes me hate AI assistants like ‘Alexa’ and ‘Siri’ all the more (but that’s a rant for another day).

As our heroes were chasing the attackers down, we got some surprising bit of universe building and musing on the dual nature of justice and law. One of my very favourite lines from the first season was said in a similar context. As Akane was chasing down criminals she said something to the effect that there’s a misconception that laws are there to protect people but it’s really up to people to protect the laws. I love that idea. It really epitomized Akane’s character and the fact that that’s what’s going through her mind in a high-pressure situation was just perfect.

We got something similar this week with Arata capping off a chase explaining that even in a Sybil controlled society it is imperative to exercise human judgement “that’s why dominators have triggers”. It’s a great line! And one that solidifies Arata’s devotion to ideals rather than establishments.

I’m glad you brought it up, that line really stood out to me too, the importance of the human aspect in an (at times) inhumane system.

Matt, you mentioned last week that you felt the writers of Psycho Pass season 3 had gotten around to reading old US news, it seems that they’ve moved on to more recent fare as the general depiction of the mudslinging politics does seem very familiar to what has been happening not too far south from my own home in the past few years!

Immigration’s a tricky thing, ain’t it?

Although, aside from the winky topical references, it does make a lot of sense that a society as portrayed in Psycho Pass would be particularly xenophobic. To be honest, I was really surprised they even had large scale immigration. I figured the country would have been largely sealed off!

So far, the themes of racial/cultural tension are handled a little naively and way too simplified for my tastes. However, I do realize that with everything going on in this narrative, you got to take some shortcuts.

I suppose there’s still time for a more nuanced discussion on immigration from this show, I imagine someone like you Irina, an immigrant yourself, would have a lot more to say on the subject than most people?

What did you think of Haruki Enomyia? I’m asking cause I have no clue what to make of them.

Difficult to say, for a second I thought they might be setting them up as a bigger villain for this story but I think they’re probably going to end up just another pawn in the bigger game being played. I think they were more just here to give us an idea of what kind of life Kazumichi had in the slums before joining the force. Though I think him just walking around the town with Arata did that well enough.

Am I the only one who noticed all the food in this episode? Maybe I was just hungry, but everything looked delicious!

C’mon Irina, all anime food looks delicious!

Ok back to more serious stuff, we got some very decent character-building backstory for both Kei and Arata. Now normally, this would not be my thing. It was delivered in straight exposition and boy oh boy was it all tragic! Taken independently, both of their backgrounds would have had me gently rolling my eyes and moving on without a second thought. Oh my, an anime protag with a tragic backstory! But it’s in how these stories intertwine to create such a bizarre picture of their relationship that brings the whole thing to a higher level.

It’s kind of interesting that they chose to more or less have our entire supporting cast learn this complicated backstory at the same time via the expositional method you mentioned. On the one hand I guess it helps to have everyone on the same page with their history but it makes me wonder if it was done for a more specific reason. Like one of the Enforcers using this information against our dynamic duo or the opposite and it puts more faith in them and brings closer as a team–who can say for sure?

In fact, the peculiar dynamic between Kei and Arata is truly fascinating and so far, a strong point of the season for me.

Agreed.

A few little random thoughts:

I quite like both the OP and ED. I like the visuals in the OP better, in fact, I like them a lot, but I prefer the ED song!

The interiors are really beautiful this season. I’m not so taken by the architecture, but room designs consistently catch my eye.

Also, I didn’t know where to fit it in the review, but I liked the statement that acting weak releases cortisol making you feel more relaxed. The behavioural neuroscience angle is one I like a lot and I hope they develop it more as Psycho Pass is the perfect universe to explore this in.

I thought it was interesting–if briefly mentioned–but I have to wonder if it was just the writer showing off some fancy things he learned on wikipedia and wanting to put it into the show (okay that was a bit catty of me, apologies to the writer of Psycho Pass).

Oh I guess I should finally admit it. I really liked this episode. More than the last. So far, I think the writing may be a touch weaker than I had hoped. There’s a lot of slightly clumsy exposition. But I’m also starting to see the foundations of a potentially fascinating story with some very intriguing dynamics. I’m excited. When the episode ended I was both surprised by how quickly it had gone by and a little bummed I couldn’t watch the next one right away!

I have to agree (we seem to agreeing a lot this time!) our new characters feel like they’re living up to the potential of this show’s world while adding interesting things to it too. Political corruption, a shadow organisation called ‘Bifrost’ pulling the strings (cool name by the way) plus all the internal machinations at the various levels of law enforcement and interpersonal relationships too makes for a rich and compelling tapestry. If you’re a person who adheres to the 3 episode rule and you haven’t given this show a chance yet then 3 excellent episodes in a row should be proof enough that Psycho Pass is back and firing on all cylinders!

Psycho Pass s3 ep3 – Tensions Flare Another week, another brand-new episode of Psycho Pass. I’m going to hold back and be all mysterious and stuff.

[our-happygirl500-fan]

Shuichi Saihara and Kaede Akamatsu For the mene!

 GIVE ME A CHARACTER, and I’ll break their ass down:

Shichi Saihara

How I feel about this character

Sigh, so much wasted potential. Like the fandom version of Saihara who’s relatable™ and is nice to Ouma is pretty cool, and people like him because he’s pretty much a typical YA novel protag in a way but I don’t think he’s all that good a protagonist or character. There were a lot of things I had problems with and since the game was mainly from his perspective a lot of fans and lets players that I watched fell into the trap of absolving Kaede for her actions, liking Maki (despite her many many many many flaws) and demonizing Ouma instead of looking at and appreciating the characters themselves. I don’t like how he always seems to cling to someone and puts whoever he’s clinging to on a pedestal and I was really bitter even before playing the game about Kaede being fridged for him.

Like Maki I think there’s a lot of the writer telling you to like a character so most people do but he isn’t really all that good as a person or a detective. It’s always pissed me off how much more Ouma did in investigating and trying to end the killing game than Saihara did. They definitely wouldn’t have gotten as far without Ouma but never acknowledge it, all Saihara does is continue the game through solving the trials and moving to end it at the very very end.

I might have liked him if he hadn’t been the protagonist maybe but he was and there is just so much terrible writing. Writing-wise he and Maki might be the worst written characters in the game.

One thing I want in fiction is a character in some way or another facing the consequences for their actions and when Saihara’s whole deal is he doesn’t want to do anything because he doesn’t want to face any form of negative consequence that frustrates me.

Also I don’t like his design the hat was my favorite part.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Kiibo? As you probably noticed I’m not a huge fan of his character so I don’t really ship him a lot, I guess him and Kaede if we’re going canon but even then I prefer Kaede with other people consider how she was reduced to Saihara’s love interest when for so long we had thought of her as the protagonist leading up to the game.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

The survivor trio, I like them all hanging out after the game and all that.

My unpopular opinion about this character

If they had made Saihara a girl I think I would have liked their character a lot more, it’s unpopular because of the whole ‘weak girl stereotype’ but for me Saihara’s character isn’t about weakness it’s about learning that if you can act if you can do something then you should even if you might not like the result. If Saihara had been a girl we would have gotten a better design probably. We’ d have a female protagonist like we had been promised, Kaito would be viewed with less toxic masculinity, I would get to deal with Saiouma a lot less because no yaoi fangirls which would personally make me very happy and Kaede and Saihara would be lesbians so you know no downsides to that.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

I actually wish that he had been the second victim instead of Hoshi, 1. because Hoshi is a much more interesting character and I would have enjoyed him living longer 2. it makes more sense for Tojo to kill a detective to give her more of a chance of getting through the trial the actual hard part of escaping the school than going for the person easiest to kill. Also I think it would be interesting to see a character who is dedicated to getting stronger after losing someone close to them only for them to die anyway, it would also be really interesting for Kaito’s development to have the person he just announced he was going to take under his wing die. Also, the fans would keep waiting for whoever was the third protagonist to die only for it not to happen, I personally would have prefered Ouma as the third protagonist because it would have been such a good arc for him because he’s the only one who knows what’s going on so he’d have to try and lead the trials no one else could but to do that he’d have to figure out how to step outside his own comfort zone and his identity as a liar to get them to listen to him which I would have enjoyed watching. We’d also get Ouma insight and actually see someone properly investigating the school which is 10/10 good stuff, I understand that there are some things Kodaka couldn’t show which is why I think the perspective would be good to be switched back and forth between Kaito and Kokichi, it would be funny because the first time this happens everyone would be like ‘oh god they’ve killed off another protag and Kaito’s next’ only for Ouma to show up alive again and the perspective handed back to him again.

Either that or Tsumugi is forced to become the protagonist to keep the game moving but it would be presented as her getting out of her ‘plain girl shell’ only for the reveal that she’s the mastermind which would be a huge trip for the player.

Kaede Akamatsu

How I feel about this character

Really like her, I’m actually really into music so I loved her design and when they announced that she was going to be a protag I was skeptical thinking ‘no way are they going to give us this’ but also really excited. I liked having a more headstrong character as a protagonist and prefer her over Saihara. Super angry about her getting fridged and framed, she deserved better.

I think the fandom is doing her dirty just as much as canon did, not everyone but in a lot of fanfiction she reduced to just the supportive friend type or perky love interest or add on to the training trio, come on give her her own friend group don’t just tag her onto her love interests group. It makes me feel as if Saihara is allowed a life outside Kaede but she’s not allowed a life outside of him.

I love Kaede and her ride or die nature and the fact that she’s straight up willing to kill for her friends 3 days after meeting them and she deserves so much more than being reduced to Saihara’s love interest, Kaede dump Saihara’s bitch ass and date Tenko instead.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Tenko! Rantaro, I think they have a good dynamic and Komaru Naegi my two underappreciated girl protags together. Other than that I’m not a huge fan of shipping her romantically with people since she was reduced to a fridged love interest in canon.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Ouma actually, I wanted them to form a dynamic duo where they just snark at each other. Also, I like them being friends because a lot of their character is being reduced to them liking Saihara by the fandom and they both deserve so much better than Saihara honestly. Canon and Fandom did them both dirty in that regard.

My unpopular opinion about this character

 Kaemaki while beautiful and gay wouldn’t work. Once Kaede learns Maki’s real talent they would have a falling out and Kaede would have as big of a prejudice as Ouma against Maki. In interviews we’re told Kaede has a strong sense of justice which is part of the reason why she tried to kill the mastermind; I see Kaede with her sense of justice and everything having a fall out with Maki when she learns her real talent. A lot of their friendship is based on Maki the SHSL ‘childcaregiver’ not Maki the SHSL assassin and Kaede wouldn’t just accept it she’d need to go through a lot before being ready to be Maki’s friend again.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

Have you read “I’d Trade My life For Yours”? Because that I want that! God I wish it was an actual game for me to play, who do I have to pay to make it an actual game!? I’m not joking I’m 100 percent serious! I’d really had loved to see her continue on as the protagonist and watch her lose her optimism and grow more cynical and more like her pregame self, also watching someone start out as the leader of the group and them slowly lose that influence is really good. Also it would be so good to watch a protag go from “let’s all work together!” to “Stop murdering eachother you assholes!” just going from Naegi to Hinata through the course of the game, it would have been glorious, we could have had it all.

[em-exceeds-change-zearu]

I have a question, because I trust your expert opinion on these matters.... What do you think of yugioh sevens?

sorry it took so long for me to answer you, anon! i was puzzling over how to answer this for a long time, because i really wanted to give my honest opinion but i had a Lot to say and not all of it positive. also i’m in the middle of moving out of my apartment with the husband and that’s really busy lol.

so. hm. okay. given that I’ve only seen the first episode so far (I watched it when it first came out and haven’t gotten the chance to see the other two), I can’t say my opinion will be super informed! however, I can give my initial first impressions based on what I saw from the first time I watched it! the impressions will be under the cut, but let’s just say that my opinions are. Mixed. again, my opinions should be taken with a grain of salt, because i’ve only seen episode one and I really expect the show to show it’s true colors by mid-season, but this is just a really quick first impression after mulling over my initial impressions for a few days. 

I think overall, my impressions of the first episode is that I can see the potential, but the execution is somewhat shoddy. It honestly doesn’t feel like the producers used the extra six months or so from ending VRAINS early to their best advantage here, but there’s an...effort? I can at least see why people are charmed by the show so far. I’ll break it down piece by piece to show what initial problems I had with it that prevented me from enjoying it fully. It’s still a very charming show, and I plan on giving it a chance, but I feel like the show itself is still finding its footing. And that’s to be expected, most ygo spinoffs are just Like That when they start, but it’s definitely one of the weaker starts to a series i’ve seen. I’ll break it down by its aspects to show what I both like and dislike about it!

Setting - Okay, so I’m actually rather charmed by the setting itself. It feels like it’s a direct callout to how the ygo meta has gotten in real life - there are a few decks that stand out over the rest and sometimes tournaments can come down to being between one type of deck and its counter. Yuga wanting to make his own type of dueling because he feels like the world around him is getting stale is incredibly charming, and the rules he’s come up with absolutely feel like something an elementary schooler would come up with (I used to make fun of pendulum summoning being the same type of thing, but this is just straight up reminding me of the days when pokemon trading cards were super popular and none of us little brats knew the rules so we made up our own as we went along). Yuga’s a little kid who dreams about giant dueling robots and wants dueling to have the mystery and fun and pizzaz it used to, and who doesn’t? I support this baby boy and his dueling robot dreams. 

The world around him is established to be pretty restrictive and somewhat eerie as well - the school is largely managed by robots that regulate things down to the smallest level (I don’t think there’s even any adults around, which ???), and even the smallest innovations Yuga does to help make life more efficient, like adding a carrier to his bike to carry his bookbag, are rejected as out of line. There’s actually a nice level of show and don’t tell here and there, like showing how the robots scan each student while greeting them happily at the door, or how duel disks are automatically shut down and locked during school hours. One particularly chilling moment is watching robots clamp down on students trying to trade cards informally in the schoolyard, calmly and cheerily informing them that such trading is prohibited and must be done in a sanctioned G-Corp trading location. What seals the deal is that the student’s don’t express annoyance and anger at this, merely accepting such a restrictive rule as a mildly inconvenient part of life - which shows how such an indoctrinative lifestyle has already affected their manner of thinking. I feel like the first episode would have benefited more from being stretched out into two episodes instead of trying to cram a duel inside the end of the first episode, because the crammed nature of it all meant these moments are very few and far between, lost in how quickly the episode rushes through these plot points.

Characters - Okay, overall the dynamics of our main cast look like they can be really cute. We have our rebellious protagonist that wants to shake up everything and have fun, our uptight class president that wants to enforce the rules but gets swept up in the chaos protag-kun brings, the rival character that thinks protag-kun could change the world around him and looks at him with respect and also might possibly be a chuuni dumbass, and the token female character who’s Totally Not Interested In This Dueling Thing, No Way, Really. But honestly, in the first episode a lot of this characterization is lost in...screaming, actually. They’re very. Loud. Particularly our president, who honestly looks like he’s got multiple facets to his character (he briefly expresses admiration for yuga’s modified bike and its convenience before immediately reverting to screaming about rules, eventually does come around to helping yuga out because he doesn’t want to get Insta-Banned for being near him, etc), but we lose so much of it because, again, he spends 95% of the time screaming. we also get a lot of forced humor and gonk-y reactions that seem kind of exaggerated, partially because said reactions tend to be Spelled Out for us as opposed to just letting us see it happen, but this is lack of how the characters are themselves and more about how they’re being handled so far. which i’ll explain more when i get to talking about storyboarding.

music - it’s...okay? the OP is growing on me and is actually pretty cute, but I’m not getting anything that stands out. the BGM hasn’t really had any pieces that really get my attention so far, but maybe we’ll see something better in the future? i don’t know

storyboarding - okay. I’m not going to be talking about the animation because i’m not harping on the style (although it does admittedly look woefully generic and not very YGO at all) given that they’ve moved to a completely different (and cheaper?) movie studio. i’m not going to talk about the shoddy cgi or the stilted animation or anything like that. i’m specifically talking about the storyboarding itself, how scenes are being framed and arranged, and how the main story is being told. and this key part is where SEVENS entirely falls apart. 

the problem is that the story is going by entirely too fast and is craming all sorts of things into its timeslot. the characters react loudly and obnoxiously to every little thing, with exaggerated pratfalls and gonkfaces as opposed to...actual reactions. it’s understandable from yuga and possibly even the high strung class president, but when even characters that are established to be a little more mellow minded (see, rook and romin) end up acting like that, it kind of contradicts what little we know about them. Not that it’s bad for them to act like that, but it has more impact if we see this after we have established characters for them (although if rook is actually established to be a chuuni dumbass later, i would immediately forgive them for that instance specifically, because that’s adorable). it honestly comes off as the animereaction equivalent of Johnny Test - all the exaggerated sound effects and janky reactions to compensate for the lack of animation or storytelling. it’s kind of upsetting to look at.

speaking of establishing character. It’s honestly done rather poorly for a first episode, which is a problem. I need to have a reason to be invested in these characters, and when you rush through their introductions it leaves me wanting. for example, my previously mentioned example of our class president clearly showing interest in yuga’s inventions but having it completely smothered in his need to appeal to authority and his high strung anxiety is a good point! but we get so little of it that it’s very much lost in his constant screaming and yelling - so seeing him portrayed as part of yuga’s friend group from day one is a bit jarring. another more telling example is rook immediately showing interest in yuga because this kid really keeps trying to modify his duel disk. okay cool. why. why should we care about this. we haven’t seen any instance of him before this, and when he’s introduced he talks about this Secret Hidden Backdoor Legend That’s Totally Prominent!!!! except we don’t see any hints in the series leading up to it, it literally comes out of nowhere. there’s no mystery or mystique in this, we haven’t seen rook try challenging this on his own, he’s just immediately dropping the wham ball of OH YEAH I ALREADY BANNED MYSELF, OOPS. speaking of: why is it bad that they get banned?? what happens? obviously you get locked out of your duel disk but then what? clearly, it should affect these kids’ standing in society somehow because the extreme control over said disks and card management means something, but we see rook attending school like nothing is wrong. nobody notices him, he’s not established as a troublemaker or a wanted figure by the nearby robots, he’s just...there. so there’s no emotional impact to seeing that yuga is one strike away from being banned, or that rook was already Banned (you’d think him getting banned at such a young age would cause Problems, but See it’s Fine, So). also yuga reminiscing about how he’d forgotten what he wanted to do with his new style of rush dueling and how he wanted to bring fun back into it falls really flat because, again, we can’t really see why it’s important for him to do this. him spelling it out for us suddenly when he’s close to losing a duel lacks the emotional impact because we haven’t seen how it affects him specifically. we can see little things - he’s already tried so many times, he keeps printing out little robot designs, he’s somewhat annoyed with being locked out of his disk during school or harranged for every little thing he does, but we haven’t had enough time to see why this is so important to him or why he does what he does. 

again, a large majority of these problems would be solved if they handled this the way zexal and vrains handled it - having most of the worldbuilding be in episode 1 and introducing the main duel mechanic in episode 2 with a full on duel that was started at the end of episode 1. maybe show some standard dueling as a contrast and use those show-not-tell instances from the setting to show how restrictive or repetitive it is (maybe yuga and co hanging out at one of those G-Corp Mandated Trading Stations after school and watching/playing some duels? yuga trying to show off rush dueling in there and getting kicked out?), then introduce rush dueling as a thing in episode 2 when he’s introduced to the Secret Backdoor Trial by Rook after seeing hints/rumors/etc about Mystery Programmer Man Who Did This For Some Reason. but rushing it through like this, especially when introducing a Whole New Dueling Format AND a new type of card, isn’t ideal. but trying to cram things together like this makes the weakness in storyboarding really stand out, and it taints an otherwise good story. not that the story in itself is bad, but it’s not presented particularly well.

it could be like how vrains clearly improved in storyboarding after episode 14 or so, after the initial rush was over with, so i’m willing to give sevens another chance on this. but this isn’t a very strong way to introduce us to the characters or the world they want to show us. 

overall: charming ideas, shoddy execution, will be looking to see if they improve on this. i’m willing to give it a chance, though, because yuga is a darling boy that deserves it. also the class president. i may not remember his name but i also stan him.

[yang-in-there-girl-blog]

So. WHAT ANIME AM I WATCHING NOW?

today im watching a show called “Kokoro Connect” a story about 5 high school friends, miss traumatized, takes no shits, best girl, little fuck boi, and our knight in shining armor protag sir densealot, who out of nowhere start body switching. the first few episodes we’re introduced to their characters and how they go about the whole personality switches. after theyve gotten somewhat comfortable with it “knock knock” guess whos here! its listless god! telling them their show sucks and he wants them to be more entertaining for him, you know classic listless god.  

now on episode 3 we find out “hey, all these girls are pretty Fucked Up!” starting off with yui aka miss trauma who has androphobia. near the end of the episode, its late at night after everyone went home then general clueless and yui switch and find out that she was crying herself to sleep cause fuck boi wouldnt stop blowing up her phone. she calls him and is all like “hey dont worry about that, i wasnt crying you where crying.” so they agree to meet in a park to talk about it. we find out that her fear of men comes from being almost raped when she was younger. wow, this show took a pretty dark turn. this is when our chivalrous idiot decides to teach her a lesson of self defense and empathy and Kicks Her In The Balls! telling her this is a sure fire way to take down any man. bet your period isnt so bad now huh. they switch back while hes still in pain as a form of karma and shes fine now.

 in episode 4 we learn about the other 2 girls problems. best girl lori has a kinda personality disorder that stems from a life of trauma, fun, and this whole personality switching is really starting to fuck with her. her and taichi talk about it together cause all he wants to do is help people, but is going to end up hurting them later with doing so im sure. she says sh doesnt even know who she is anymore because all shes done for years is change her personality to fit the situation shes in. mostly to avoid getting hurt by her abusive father. taichi promises that no matter what he will always be able to recognize her.

boss ass bitch inaba cant trust anyone, especially her best friends, everyone is an enemy to her and shes always been this way, fun, and this whole personality switching is really starting to fuck with her. shes paranoid that someones going to doing something bad or commit a crime while in her body and this paranoia is making her physically sick. main shit taichi’s problem is he always wants to help everone and our strong honey inaba fucking hates it. since inaba finally opened up to him, in a way to help make her trust him he tells her his deepest most kept secret, and hoooooooo boy i did not expect him to say what he did. it is just a shock that he would ever say that to anyone, like my god, thats just not something you say to one of your best friends. ill let you watch and find out what it is on your own.         ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

ep 5 is the last one i watched and it starts with yui and resident fuck boi aoki confessing his love for her.. AGAIN. this thirsty asshole will just not give up, he knows damn welll that she has a traumatic fear of men, and has turned him down like 100 times already. but this boy just wont quit, and she turns him down again. the other 3 are watching this all go down from the bushes cause like listless god heartseed, they want some entertainment. inaba also really wanted taichi and lori to see it cause shes been trying to hook them up for 3 episodes now. but our dense hero can never take a hint. later in the club room taichi is waitin and in walks inaba who is in loris’ body. she cuts right to the chase and asks what he thinks of lori. he goes on about liking her as a friend and doesnt want to mess up what they have, and was about to say something else but gets interrupted by inaba walking in. he notices that inabas herself so that mean.. GASP... it was a prank. lori was trying to get some info outta him but starts crying and takes of running. taichi broke his promis cause he couldnt tell it was lori all along, it was a test and he failed. he chases her down to the river where they talked last episode. denounced her trauma and personality disorder as not being as bad a thing as she thinks it is. and comes out and tells her he loves her.

this is when shit takes a turn. heartseed takes over loris body cause hes getting bored with the show and wants some more action. in a way to show how powerful he is, he stands lori up on the railing and makes her fall backwards off the bridge into the river. fucking dick move heartseed, not cool. lori’s sent to the hospital and is in bad condition, the 4 are there waiting to see how shes doing. “knock knock” whos there? motha fuckin heartseed walks out and says, “hey shitlords, i dont think you know how powerful and bored i am. imma give you 30 minutes, in this time you can switch with anyone, but at the end of 30 min lori and whoevers in her body will die. see you later fuckers” so now everyones freaking out, taichi being the selfless freak he is says he’ll be the one to die, aoki says lori should die. they all fight for a while then all swap with lori to tell her about the situation and she chooses to sacrifice herself. she talks with everyone privately and gives her last farewells. taichi is the last one she talks to and lori is now in inabas body. she tells him she never got to give him a response to his confession. so she tells him she loves him and wants to have a lasting memory before she dies and kisses him. finally the kiss we’ve all been waiting for and best girl finally got some before she died. heartseed comes back and asks for their answere, lori tells him that she will die in her body and he puts them back to normal. and doctor walks out of her room and in the worst version of its just a prank ive seen in years, tells them that loris going to be just fine. heartseed pops in again to be like “hahahaha ho boy now that was some grade A television i tell you what. you shoulda seen the looks on your faces hahaha its just a prank, i fooled you shit kids, i cant believe you fell for it. but you know what i know this was a pretty dick move, but i was bored and you were getting to stale. no hard feelings right, hey to make it up to you have this cake i got as a get well soon gift. later fuckers.” so that shit happened. now theyre all back at school eating the cake, and inaba turns to taichi saying “hey! i heard you stole my first kiss! im gonna get you for this.” haha jokes and that was the end of episode 5

this is as far as ive watched so far but as im watching this show maybe ill try doing shorter episode recaps like this. we’ll see if these go anywhere. see ya next time

[hoenn-hakase]

I don’t babble about my personal stories very often, but I really wanted to share this for some reason and I’m not sure anyone is interested enough for me to babble directly. But I can’t stop thinking about it. -rolls around whining-

I ended up going through some old notebooks the other day and a specific group has been on my mind. You ever just sit back and think, not on just the plot, but the overall consequences and go “DAAAAAMN I am horrible to my characters D8” Like, in the series I’m working on, there’s a group of seemingly unrelated characters but they all have one very big event of importance to their back story. And while this major connecting plot element explains their individual situations, motivations, and character relations (as well as possibly being a cause in the motivations of other characters), it’s…. not a good thing.

Keeping this vague to stick to the basics. So the main characters involved in this backstory were a group of six who during “The Great War” were part of an experimental military unit after the government had spent several years testing and honing this mysterious Substance they discovered could be used to “improve” their troops. There were already other units of “super soldiers” who had done well and were already in combat, but this group was to be like the next big thing since even with their enhancements, it had only turned the war from a losing battle to even ground. The country needed something to give them an edge to officially turn the tide. Long story short, they discovered some serious dark magic but the experimental unit was fine for two years and proved fruitful to the cause, so they decided to expand on the project. This backfired horribly because the “power source” couldn’t handle being the overload of new members and, being sentient, decided to fulfil it’s new requirement by taking a few “shortcuts” which in turn created a living nightmare for those caught on the wrong side.

Of after these six characters supposedly got their “happily ever after” for escaping the nightmare:

-       Character 1 ended up leading a massive rebellion, creating a civil war in the already broken-by-the-big-war kingdom, and eventually overthrew the government that had forsaken him and others like him. This created something of a power vacuum that lead to the rise of the Big Bad in book One. Since then, Character 1 has become somewhat disfigured by his extensive exposure to the “Substance,” and disillusioned to find that the new tyrant is no better than the last one, his rebellion has instead turned into a resistance movement. Instead of trying to fight back anymore, he’s become the leader of a highly-fortified township that serves as a refuge for those wanting to escape the reign of the Big Bad. Unfortunately, while he can help train those still wanting to fight, he fears his fighting days are over. As the Big Bad has weaponized the Substance in a new way, Character 1 can’t shake the internal fear that coming into direct contact with that stuff wouldn’t kill him, but instead send him back to the hell-state he fought so hard to escape from.

 -       Character 2 and Character 1 stayed friends for some time before events with the Big Bad made it hard to stay in touch. Unlike Character 1 though, 2 doesn’t have a fear of the Substance or of the Big Bad. Having gotten a taste for the power Substance can provide, he’s continued the experimentations on himself for several years before the start of the series and by the time our Protags meet him, he's in WAAAY over his head in his struggle to control the power he's obtained. And yet, he still feels like he’s not strong enough, because as powerful as he is, Character 2 wants to somehow become strong enough to take on Big Bad and all his armies by himself with the possible intention of taking over as he wants to be powerful enough to ensure nothing like this ever happens again. His obsession has caused him to spend a lot of time alone due to people being scared of him and unfortunately, he really SHOULDN’T be left alone as it just leads him to making himself worse.

 -       Character 3 was VERY young when he entered the program, and really only got in due to his father’s connections in the military. He still passed all his preliminaries to see if he’d be suited for the program, and the logic of him going into this unit instead was the promise that it kept him far from the frontlines and guaranteed him to return home safe. Physically, he returned just fine, though his father kept saying he felt that somehow he had returned… wrong. After he went home, he managed to settle down and had a kid before the civil war broke out. As the one leading the rebellion was an old friend of his, Character 3 was more than happy to join in the fight again. And his growing aggression only seemed to continue even after returned home. He had plans, BIG PLANS that didn’t sit well his elders and after being deemed dangerous, he was somewhat sent into exile back to the lands he seemingly belonged to. Years later, no thanks to help from the True Villain of the series, he finally made it back with the delusions of him having some “great destiny” to fulfil and was going to reclaim his birthright by force if need be. He could regain that “happily ever after” if he followed the True Villain’s instructions, leading to him playing up the role of the Big Bad in book 3. …Until his role in the “grand scheme” caused him to be betrayed by one good friend, costed him his entire army and one of his dearest and most loyal companions, and almost lost him his daughter. Not to mention, even after he came to his senses, he’s physically looking to be as bad off as Character 1 now due to being exposed to Substance once again to great extent. While he does want to help the good guys (because damn the foul creature who used and abused him), it’s really hard to accept such help because of how mentally troubled he is. Not very dangerous anymore, but his previous connections with the True Villain have lead to some severe paranoia, and sometimes his explanations just don’t make any sense.

 -       Character 4 and 5 were both able to go home quietly to their individual families and tried to settle down. They both are parents to some of the protags in Book 2, though neither plays a vital role in the main series itself. Character 4 however never truly got over things and spent a rather fruitful, though somewhat lonely, life as he remained distant to his friends and family. He never made contact with the other five ever again, and seems to tense up when they’re mentioned. His strained relations with his son, unfortunately, are a key fact in the entire series’ events as his son is basically the cause of like EVERYTHING after accidentally getting his hands on the power source to the Substance. (Honestly, protag looks at Character 3 after he’s been defeated and realizes they did have a few things in common. It’s enough to make him at least want to sit down and have a talk with the old man about what the heck happened.) While Character 4’s fate by this point is still pending…. It’s probably not good considering he’s either missing, dead, or unknowing being held to the whims of his son; which considering their relationship would not be a good thing.

 -       Character 5 probably got out the best of all of them, as he lived a seemingly normal life with the only major tragedy coming up during the civil war. It was because of that event he cut off ties all together with Characters 1, 2, and 3 (4 had already cut off from them by that point anyway), and he became something of a recluse within his hometown. Not that he avoided people, he still loved company, but he never really could integrate back into their society. Ended up being a stay-at-home dad and claimed he didn’t go out much due to some “injury” he received during the war, although what exactly no one is really certain, but the odd scars on his back serve curiosity well enough to believe him.

 -       Character 6 has me worried because, while she is spoken of often by the others in fond memory or her importance to the war is noted, she’s currently only a backstory character. As in, while she was important for that point in history, she hasn’t shown up in the main story. Which would be great to think she went home, settled down, maybe had a family (maybe is a relation to someone we know in the main story), the fact we don’t know what happened after “happily ever after” gives me the hope that she had no major tragedies to draw her out of hiding. I’m worried though because, as my characters tend to do so, IF she should show up in the series, I’m afraid we’ll find out all kinds of heartsick that’s happened either since then or that she WAS living her life happily until story events came up to bring skeletons out of the closet. Either way, STAY WHERE YOU ARE, GIRL! I LOVE YOU, BUT YOU DON’T WANT TO BE INVOLVED HERE! Seriously though, my brain has been trying to look at some other characters who don’t have a backstory and going “… Is that secretly you? Some twenty years later in the timeline, did I finally finds you?”

I just… damn though. The worst part in thinking about all this though is WE NEVER ACTUALLY SEE WHAT HAPPENED TO THESE GUYS! We get told what happened from Characters 1 and 2, and we find out about Character 3’s involvement even if he doesn’t explain what happened to him directly, but even then it’s more of a summary to what happened. Like I know this happens a lot in series where there’s some major event that happened before the plot that’s constantly alluded to but it’s just sort of bizarre seeing how many different directions the group took from going through the same thing.  Ranging from utterly broken to possibly moved onto to bigger and better things. I just… -rolling around in feels-

[theboykingofhell]

would you by any chance be up to just answer all of them rn

sjdnflskjdsnfdgsdfg this is gonna kill me and i’m so excited

READ MORE FOR ONCE to spare yalls dashboards

and i took out the ones i answered already tbh OK LET’S GO

1 : What age-group do you write?

YA!!!! i have always always wanted to write for teens. since i’ve gotten older, i do also wanna write for young adults but definitely like anything between 13-25 is the people i rly dedicate my stories to

2 : What genre do you write?

again, the closest thing i’d subscribe to genre-wise is YA... i get bored only doing the same thing over and over, but atm i have the most scifis (the most being two) so i guess that! i do fucking LOVE horror and realistic fiction tho

3 : Do you outline according to big ideas or small details?

how small are we talking... i do rly obsessively outline tho, i get the main big plot points down and then i like to know what those lil details in between are.. so...

5 : Do you write better with or without deadlines?

DON’T GIVE ME A DEADLINEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE..................

like, sure, i’ll DO it, but will i LIKE IT.. NAH... PROBABLY NOT... i did nanowrimo once, it was a great experience but was the final product good? nah... so... nnnnnah

6 : What would be the biggest compliment you could hope to receive on your current WIP?

GOSH I DONT KNOW.... JUST... ASKING FOR MORE, I GUESS??????? actually the biggest compliment is people building on my ideas or asking me questions about it tbh, anything that shows how engaged they rly got is NICE... i also do rly like when people compliment my prose tho kfgsdfgs

7 : How long is your current WIP?

tsg is 9449 words as of rn! i am far too lazy to open up the other documents and check but they are FAR shorter! 

10 : Do you brain-storm story ideas alone or with others?

bothhhhh... i do have way more fun with other people though, and i think other people help more cuz they can make connections and ask questions i wouldn’t think of. most importantly, if there are plot holes, maybe they’ll find them for me.. or maybe even solve them!!! eee the best

11 : Do you base your characters off of real people?

y e s yes yes i do i have so many... like, there’s a cara in every story, there’s a maeve and britt in every story, if i know you for long enough, you’ll def appear SOMEwhere.

12 : Is your writing space clean or cluttered?

what is this ‘clean’ you speak of

13 : Do you write character-driven or plot-driven stories?

def characters, man, i wouldn’t even write a plot if you’d let me... i literally have so many stories where the plot IS just the characters kind of just. living. yes. so good

14 : Do you have a favorite writing-related quote?

if i DID i forgot it

15 : If you transport your original characters into another author’s world, which world would you choose?

imma be honest, if i had to pick any author in the world it would be britt @mmementommori‘s verse. i absolutely fucking ADORE everything that went into that story, the verse is fascinating and perfect and my characters would fit in so well and also would be tortured for all of eternity. what could be better???

19 : Would you rather live in your characters’ world, or have your characters come live in our world?

i wanna live in tsg cuz then vampires would be real and i could finally be one, y es

20 : What book would you love to see adapted for the big or small screen?

i’ve been watching a lot of... rly... gay... amazing movies... like, beautifully made and SO grand and larger than life and so CAREFULLY LOVINGLY made... like the handmaiden or moonlight.. and because of that, i would LOVE to see tsg as a movie. i think it’d fit right in and the idea of a lgbt horror movie hitting the scren is... g o d

21 : Do you finish most of the stories you start?

yyyees and nnnoooo....more no than yes... the furthest i get usually is the first draft and onto revising and then i get bored and move on but i’m getting better

22 : Has your own writing ever made you cry?

what is this ‘cry’ you speak of

actually once i did this rp scene with @mvgitek and... imma be real... there might’ve been a tear or two

23 : Are you proud or anxious to show off your writing?

anxious the first couple of seconds, proud the rest of the time. i don’t doubt that my writing is good but also... WILL THEY THINK MY WRITING IS GOOD???

24 : When did you start considering yourself a writer?

in the 3rd grade when i started making lil paperback books for all the kids in my class. maybe even a lil bit before that

28 : On a scale of 1-10, how much do you stress about choosing character names?

def a 1 omg. name is usually one of the first things that pop up for me. if it doesn’t pop up immediately when my baby is a lil shyer, i give them a placeholder. no big. it’ll come eventually

29 : Do you tend to underwrite or overwrite in a first draft?

overwrite... in that... i write the first draft like its the only draft, cuz it pretty much will be i hate revising so much jfkgsg

30 : Does writing calm you down or stress you out?

calm, i suppose... i can and have zoned out and just written for hours, like, ten hours straight, more than that... that’s a nice feeling yes

31 : What trope do you actually like?

what’s with the phrasing of this question... as if i’m only pretending to like most tropes...also i can never remember tropes off the top of my head and i still have 20 questions to go sO..SKIPPING...

32 : Do you give your side-characters extensive backstories?

Y E P.... is it really a side-character if you don’t obsess about them more than the mains at times because they’re so complex and you love them so much

33 : Do you flesh-out characters before you write, or let their personalities develop over time?

nah those fuckers jump outta the brain womb fully formed, pretty much. their personalities do develop more as i write but i have a rly good grasp of them before i even start the story

34 : Describe your old writing in one word.

amazingwhatalittlecutieohmygodimisshavingthissymplisticwritingstylelikeyoubitchyoudidntevenrealizewhatyouhadandnowitsGONE

35 : Is it more fun to write villains or heroes? 

VILLAINS... duh....

36 : Do you write with a black and white sense of morality?

nah... largely cuz my own morality is skewed, also because most of the point of the stories is exploring morality and what it means and seeing how it gets corrupted in the protags

37 : What’s one piece of advice you would give to new writers?

you will be so much happier if you stop writing like anyone else and stop writing what people want you to write and just write for you and you only, everything else falls into place after you accept this!! AND PRACTICE

38 : What’s one piece of writing advice you try--but fail--to follow?

i hate almost all writing advice so there isn’t anything i’m attempting that i’m not doing tbh cuz i don’t wanna do any of it i’m a brat haha

39 : How important is positive reinforcement to you as a writer?

it’s important as in i’m narcissistic so anything negative puts me into a blind rage which is a damper on my mood omsfjgsfgs. also it keeps me vibing and keeps me hyped to channel out more work faster

40 : What would you ask your favorite author if given one question?

‘how the fuck’

41 : Do you find it distracting to read while you’re writing a first draft?

NAH i feel it to be absolutely necessary tbh. when i don’t read, i don’t write nearly as often and sometimes not even as well. i find other books to be rly healthy friendly competition, and when i read, immediately after i think ‘why isn’t my stuff published? why isn’t my book on the shelves with this one? i should get to work holy fuck’

42 : Do critiques motivate or discourage you?

depends! again, narcissistic, but i’ve gotten better and i do want to learn more. as long as it’s constructive and, by constructive, i mean that it still compliments me a lot and gives me the good AND the not-so-good then it’s fine, i get motivated. i never get discouraged, i’m either hype or i’m livid, which gives me evil hype and i write more outta spite haha

44 : How do you decide what story idea to work on?

i just get... the vibe... where suddenly i wanna work on a story so i do. sometimes i can tell a story isn’t ready so even if i feel like working on it, i won’t, but otherwise, i just wait for the vibe...

46 : What Hogwarts house would your protagonist(s) be in?

slytherin: red, bert, nora, amara, nathaniel, mal, katherine, tyler, eve and avery

gryffindor: black, nisha, rachel, caleb (unless i’m mean and make him a slytherin), cupid, aurora, frank, nicky, tasha, sinclair

ravenclaw: aaron, andrey, astra, antionette, blair, lucia

hufflepuff: jackie (unless i’m mean and make him a slytherin), cassandra, danny, ezra, emily, skylar, anna, null

47 : Where do you see yourself as a writer in five years?

book or two published, working on another three or so but who knows omfhsjgs

48 : Would you ever co-write?

i wanna co-write something so BAD......!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

49 : Are you a fast and rushed writer or a slow and deliberate writer?

fast and rushed omfg i can’t write slow for shit.. wish i could.. i’m getting better

OH MY GOD I’M DONE WOWWWWWWWWWWWWW THANK YOU SO MUCH ANGEL

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Ancient Magus’ Bride 24 (FINAL) | ReLIFE OVAs 2 - 4 (FINAL) | Mahou Shoujo Ore 1 | Gakuen Babysitters 12 (FINAL) | Zoku Touken Ranbu Hanamaru 12 (FINAL) | Dances with the Dragons 1

The spring season came early on Crunchyroll, but HiDive is locking me out in exchange.

Ancient Magus’ Bride 24 (FINAL)

Aw, c’mon Chise. Beating people up is not how you do things, that’s a shonen protag’s role!

Noticeably, Elias seems to be “the child”.

Who’s the “weirdo”??? Chise? Elias?

The confetti kind of looks like flowers…

Alrightttttttttttttttt…this show just went into lecherous and out of the comfort zone territory when I remembered Chise is 15. Wearing a bridal outfit and exchanging rings. Yipe.

Wait, so what happened to Joseph’s eye? The dragon arm I get, but…

I was wondering what was under those gloves of Elias’s, so now you know. *The More You Know star shoots past*

I’m kinda confused. That ending was sweet but it was abrupt and didn’t solve much. Actually, I think it bred quite a few questions I won’t get answered anywhere but the manga…ergh. Dangit, manga!

ReLIFE OVA 2

Didn’t think I’d see Sumire (the volleyball teacher) again.

Interestingly the kanji combo for human and fish (in that order) is “mermaid” but the other way around is “fishman”…hmm…

I had some yakisoba recently. It has a distinctive flavour to it…dang, now I’m hungry.

It’s the brother again. He’ll be important, alright.

For reference, the ED is CHE.R.RY buy YUI.

Mahou Shoujo Ore 1

Yay! This show is my first debut for the spring season so I couldn’t be happier – I’m actually getting my magical boys (unlike my magical girls, which are likely to be locked away behind HiDive’s paywall)! It’s not about rocks (LOL) but ore in this case refers to the Japanese male pronoun.

Ah, this is so PreCure. It’s like I’ve come home. Welcome home, Saki!

Nice boat!

That “It was all a dream” definitely isn’t in the original, but it does set people’s expectations up, eh? The ol’ bait-and-switch.

Henshin = Transformation. It’s not “Transform” unless it has suru on the end.

The face in the song subs is a good touch.

Honeyed Flash, eh? (LOL)

Glass Galaxy is the ED if you’re not in the know.

Those stretched faces, kinda like Saitama’s…are from the original manga…(I feel sorry for admitting that now.)

Some animation of Saki is definitely 2010s, but it keeps feeling like this show was from 10 years ago from the stripped-back style. It’s quite the whiplash, but it’s not something I was ever bothered over (if you remember Saiyuki Reload Blast, that was a similar dilemma).

“…you’re an old hag once you’re over 15…” – Aside from vaguely calling back YOI’s young ages for retiring (which makes me kind of sad), there are PreCure girls who are over 15 (Cure Moonlight was 17) and the Outer Senshi were all older than 15 with the exception of Sailor Saturn, IIRC.

I think the OKAN on Sayori’s apron is meant to be short for okaasan, although I might be wrong there. (*still imagining what a wonderful world we live in, to be blessed with an adaption of this manga…even with two anime-original characters…*)

Okay…there was one shot there that reiterated why I don’t watch anime in public.

Monokubo, eh? (LOL)

Gakuen Babysitters 12 (FINAL)

Did Kotaro always call Saikawa Sai-chan???

Yikes, Kamitani isn’t that discerning about the age of who he hits after all. I thought it was just Taka-related abuse for most of the episodes…or maybe I’m generalising too much.

Eh, insensitive mu-oh, never mind.

Is the present for Ryuichi a smartphone? It is, isn’t it?

So that’s the end of another series. See you next time!

Zoku Touken Ranbu Hanamaru 12 (FINAL)

According to the rules of the game, you can only have one party in one time period at a time. Therefore, by bending the rules, you make for a more compelling anime…huh. They did it in Katsugeki too, although it was in a slightly different way.

Oh boy, I looked into this and this white-looking outfit is Yasusada’s Kiwame! Ooh, I was looking forward to this in Katsugeki and I finally get it! (I left before Kiwame was a thing, so I finally get to vicariously live out my Kiwame fantasies, LOL.)

If you’ve made it this far in TR, you obviously know how much Yasusada values Okita-kun…I’m so proud of my boy, even if he wasn’t a particularly special sword to me…

It’s wonderful to know that feeling – that I’ve supported TR from before the animes happened because of one measly sword known as Kashuu Kiyomitsu. That I now have friends all over the world with their own favourite swords who I can chat to anytime I want, because Toshiki Masuda got involved with a small franchise that got really big (in Japan). I think that’s a power of Boueibu’s “rookie system”, if I were to give it a name.

…With that, I say “farewell” to 2 seasons of Hanamaru! See you again someday!

ReLIFE OVA 3

Aw, Kariu and Ohga out on a lovers’ holiday…these guys are too adorable.

Arata says “You were made for each other” with such a straight face I can’t even…LOL.

Is it just me, or did they get more inventive with the backgrounds because the OVAs were straight to disc content?

My eyes have gotten so attuned to CGI I can tell the basket is CGI…I think that’s what made me toss (Space Battleship) Tiramisu off my list temporarily, come to think of it.

Arata still smokes? Oh dear…

Ferret Town, LOL.

Give Arata some eye contact, Hishiro! C’mon!

I think it’s kind of obvious, but they picked blue for the boys and pink for the girls in the background.

These picture slideshows are pretty cool (kinda like YoI…?). Less animation to do, as well.

The shop Hishiro looks at provides ramen and tsukemen.

Huh? For some reason, when I look at this “Genus Port” place, I’m reminded of a place which I think is in Los Angeles (or it could be in Las Vegas or Hong Kong, I don’t remember). There’s a bunch of shops around there, a fountain and a painted sky on the roof, plus a fancy yellow brick “building” in the middle somewhere. I think it was vaguely Italian or other European-looking in shop aesthetic, but that’s all I can get from the depths of my brain…

The words “grow up” have a very special meaning here in two different ways.

I’m still wondering, why does the guy always have to fall in love first? If the guy isn’t in love first, the girl sometimes gets laughed at or people just call it a transient crush. It’s quite saddening, to get your feelings crushed like that.

Score one! The song is La La La Love Song by Toshinobu Kubota with Naomi Campbell.

The final episode is called “Life”, which doesn’t match “Seed” or “Need” at all. Nor does it match “Date”. Fair weather charms would be teru teru bouzu.

ReLIFE OVA 4 (FINAL)

Did I see the map of Japan on the wall in the original series??? Or is that a new addition?

Aw, this scene where they just cry for a minute really got to me. Not that I cried, but it really hit me in the feels.

I’ve never heard this phrase before…”pat answer”? Okay…?

I think Onoya just wanted senpai to notice her, LOL.

The revelation that Arata wanted to work for the ReLIFE lab startled even me, and I tackled the series long before a lot of people got in on it!

Yoake-san’s got a moon on his icon. Considering his surname means “daybreak” and one kanji means “night”, it makes complete sense.

I couldn’t read the nameplate, but you can tell from the clothing colours that’s Ohga’s house.

I found this article on hikikomori one time and thought it would be relevant to share here, actually. It’s talking about a company that gets hikikomori to be social again through repeated correspondence…kind of like ReLIFE itself.

As soon as I saw the line “Fate may tear us far apart”, I knew the ED for this episode was “Button”.

Why do I get the feeling there’s still something left for me to see…?

I was so dang close to crying when they remembered each other! Gah! I need to recover, but I have some new episodes on tap as well. So, with that, it’s the end of our time with each other, ReLIFE. Farewell, and until next time.

Dances with the Dragons 1

I think, out of simplicity, I’ll call this show “Saredo” (“Even Still”) instead. As to how I was attracted to this show, it was because not only are there some great voices at the helm, but I think “physics x magic” could really go places as a concept.

Guy with big sword. It reminds me of a lot of shonen anime, like D Gray Man…or even Deltora Quest…

“SareRyuu”? That seems like a strange name, I think “Saredo” suits it better.

The only thing I fixated on in Gigina’s full name was the weird mention of “Ashley” somewhere in it. If anyone were to tease him, that would be a wide opening for them to attack him with.

This is looking like a Grancrest all over again, which spells bad things (LOL) about this show. Despite that, an Aini seems to be the spell Gayus (learnt his name from promo material) was using.

Gayus and Gigina have a great rapport. If they decide to go comedy with this show, it seems that would be very welcome here.

My mind is blown…it’s a sword, but it also provides armour and kind of acts like a gun in how it does that…amazing…

I feel like I’m really back in the driver’s seat, now that I’m getting my first new action anime in 2 seasons! Winter wasn’t bad but it can’t keep an action anime fan down!

Gigina’s a competent dragon slayer, eh? Slay me instead *wink wink, nudge nudge*! (LOL)

So an Altar is a special type of dragon, one that’s so special it has to be in a league of its own. Duly noted.

This show is screaming for a dub, for some reason…that’s my thoughts on it, anyway.

Notably, Kenryu in Japanese could translate to “sword dragon” with the right kanji combo.

Wow, this show is really political. I’ve getting Grancrest vibes all over again…

Uh…I guess I was wrong on the overall quality of humour in this show. The Horton joke was so black, I couldn’t see through it!

Is it possible in this world to arrest a dragon for murder? Or do you just slay it?

“They must be pretty good.”

Gayus is such a Kunikida, LOL. Except he drinks…uh…coffee? Tea? Not sure what his beverage of choice is, actually.

Juku and jushiki…are you trying to make my head spin with all the tongue twisters???

Wow, those green gems even have names like guns!

Well…Gigina isn’t quite Dazai, but I guess every straight man needs someone more frivolous to play off of…

“Falusi” appears to be a Hungarian word for villager (at least, Wiktionary said that when I checked it)…which obviously doesn’t work here. Stupid fantasy words…

The cut between the screaming man and Gayus wasn’t the best…

“Science-oriented”? Y’mean there are ones that are magic-oriented as well? Ooh.

*squints at this dude with black hair* He kinda looks like Ibusuki Ata (Boueibu Happy Kiss).

Someone went all out on the aesthetic for the ED! Wowee…

Even though these fantasy words and names are going to make my head spin and I’m sure this show isn’t for everyone, I’ll be keeping it on for now. You can tell it’s more competent than Mahou Shoujo Ore from the air it holds, but Mahou Shoujo Ore is a lot more fun…so this’ll be a tough decision if I have to cut either of them…

[bidickgrayson]

i’ve finally almost gotten to the place in persona 3 where i stopped playing a couple years ago. just got to october, and i stopped some time in november in my first playthrough

it’s interesting to revisit shinjiro’s death a couple years later, because that death was one of the few things i remembered with any kind of detail. i remember being very angry at the storyline that had a ten-year-old kid plot revenge for the death of his mother. couldn’t really understand that urge/the fact that that kind of storyline was coming from a TEN YEAR OLD

and i’m still not a fan, but i am a little less directly angry with ken. the first time, i wasn’t expecting it, and so i was just angry that ken got shinjiro into a situation where he was killed lol. i had a lot more sympathy for ken this time around, when i knew what was coming the whole time, and could remind myself more rationally that ken didn’t actually kill shinjiro

really where i disagree with the writing around shinjiro’s death the most is around the aftermath, primarily around akihiko’s reaction. first of all, BULLSHIT on the fact that akihiko was like “we need to stop treating ken like a kid” because HE IS A KID!!!! what are you talking about!!!! “he needs to make his own decisions” like OKAY i get that you want to respect his autonomy but....he was just a kid who plotted a revenge-murder of a high schooler who killed his mom in front of him, only to watch in horror as that high schooler THROWS HIMSELF IN FRONT OF A GUNSHOT TO SAVE THE KID’S LIFE and then died in front of the kid. there’s no acknowledgement of the trauma, because they’re trying to treat this precocious ten-year-old like he’s an adult, when frankly, no adult would go through that without some trauma!! it’s just dumb. and i can forgive the sees members for some of it, because this is a bunch of high schoolers dealing with some heavy shit with no good adult supervision (lol @ ikutsuki), and they’re all just kids themselves, so i can’t really blame them for not knowing the best way to handle it and stumbling through on their own

also, what makes it worse is that it was literally just revealed that ken was suicidal/wanted to die like, just a while before, and tbf none of the other sees members knew, but i knew as the audience, and so to have akihiko go like “well, he’s gonna do what he’s gonna do” was so jarring and distressing. GET THIS KID SOME HELP! but. whatever. and then ken of course decides to come back and has a new resolve, and it’s treated as though that’s the really strong thing to do and not a definitely unhealthy lack of concern for mental well-being. “i’m strong so i’m not going to let the multiple traumatic events/my suicidal ideations (as a ten-year-old!) distract me from our mission”

also, back to direct reactions to shinjiro’s death, and maybe this is more personal preference, but i really Cannot Relate at all to akihiko’s resolution in the face of it. i remember that disconnect was jarring to me when i first played it years ago too. because he’s sad, and then very quickly he’s not sad because “it’s what shinjiro would have wanted”. and i just can’t relate to how quick he came to terms with the death, because this was literally akihiko’s oldest friend. and when the other’s express sadness, he’s like, don’t be sad, it’s what shinjiro wanted. LIKE WTF it is still sad??? i just think a better balance between acceptance and grief could have been found, because i really feel like they jumped over the majority of the grief that i would expect from shinjiro’s oldest friend, which is very jarring. but. i mean, who knows, maybe that would be realistic to some. it feels like a shortcut to me tho. i like akihiko, but this particular instance really disconnected me from his character

i’ve heard that with the female protagonist in p3p, you can do a social link so shinjiro doesn’t end up dead. and i’m really curious how that plays out (/why the social link changes it). i just wanna be able to say “YOU’RE A HIGH SCHOOLER, YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BELIEVE YOUR DEATH IS THE BEST WAY THINGS CAN PLAY OUT ( :( )”

anyway, some other thoughts while i’m here:

my vague recollection of p3 having some social links with ppl who weren’t really good people was correct. or maybe i should say, weren’t people i really found sympathetic. like, the devil link with the shady businessman (which i still haven’t completed), or the magician link with the classmate kenji (he has called me SO MANY TIMES, and i have turned him down every time, because if there’s going to links i don’t complete, i am fine with one of them being his. i just.....am not interested in his quest to fuck his teacher, i don’t enjoy it. i know i completed his in my last playthrough, but i can’t remember how it resolves but....god i could not care less about kenji). then there’s the hermit link with the teacher online (she’s so annoying lol, and i hate that she tells protag that she has a crush on the irl him, like, fuck off. also, she’s such a bad/unsympathetic teacher, it made me really miss kawakami, who had flaws but was ultimately a good teacher imo). oh, then there’s the emperor link with hidetoshi on the student council who....lol, that’s another link i completed last time but have barely touched this time, because i really dislike him. i kinda remember him softening towards the end of the link, but so much of the first part is just about enabling him being a tyrannical class council member which is not fun. and i ultimately like the tower/monk link, but he’s another character who....doesn’t really seem like that nice of a person. but i do like him because he likes the protag

the other links for the most part are good. it’s interesting the differences between p5 and p3 social links, because p5 had a definite theme to all of the links (/the whole game lol) where they were all ultimately good people who were misunderstood/unfairly judged/treated somehow (altho i haven’t done the iwai link all the way through, i imagine it ends up similarly because he’s a somewhat decent person “doing evil to combat evil” iirc). but there’s no real theme for the p3 links as far as i can tell. which makes sense, because in p5 there is a specific reason to have links with them all because they end up helping you, and they all end up as accomplices to all of the crimes the thieves commit lol

i really dislike that you have to romance all of your female classmates in order to complete their social links. what is friendship lol. really really really makes it feel a whole lot cheaper, and really makes it hard for me to care. very glad they stopped making that a requirement in p3p and beyond

what also make it hard for me to care?? the blank and unemotional p3 protagonist lol. i really have a hard time connecting to him, because he doesn’t really do much?? he’s just a blank wall for all of the social links, and it really disconnects me from the emotions of it. some girl will be confessing her feelings to him, and i’m just like, hm, fascinating, who cares, he’s gonna go on a date with another girl tomorrow. it doesn’t feel real to me at all. maybe i’m just totally unfairly biased toward p5 (and i don’t want to compare endlessly, bc p5 is newer and clearly they’ve made many improvements over the years, but it’s the easiest comparison at hand), but when someone talked to joker about how much he meant to them, i bought into it a lot more than i do with mr. low energy, the p3 protag. joker felt like an actual character to me, that i could care about, who i could understand/imagine his feelings and reactions to things. but for the p3 protag, it’s a lot of, well, i GUESS he COULD care about shinjiro dying, but you sure as heck have to read a whole lot into it to get to that conclusion, because the strongest reaction you can make him have to it is to have him tell the callous students at the assembly to “shut up.” which is nice, but hardly anything at all lol. i just find him difficult to project my emotions onto him in the game, unlike joker, who i didn’t have as much trouble believing in his genuine feeling for the people he talked to. i think also, people reacted to joker in a much more specific way that made him more real than the p3 protag, who kind of feels like a ghost most times, except for his social links where he shows up just to say exactly what the other person wants to hear lol. idk, i’m looking forward to replaying p5 and paying more attention to joker this time

(my feelings on the p3 protag are gonna be interesting come end-game, because if i understand correctly from the vague spoilers i’ve gotten about p3, the protag is gonna sacrifice himself to save the world. i keep trying to remind myself/play with that in mind, because i don’t think someone would sacrifice himself if he was actually as unemotional and detached as he sometimes comes across as)

80% of my rage at this game comes from being unable to control my specific party members in battle and so they do things that i don’t want them to, 10% comes from enemy advantage attacks (especially when i swing at them, but they hit me first), 9% comes from this game challenging me/punishing me for being underleveled when i’m playing on easy and don’t want any challenge at all because i want to get past the silly fighting business and back to social links/story, and a special 1% goes to the sleeping table boss in tartarus, which definitely was a primary punisher for me being underleveled and caused me to yell angrily at my screen yesterday

oh, ikutsuki. it’s funny, because p3 was the first persona game i played, and very early on, i was like, i don’t trust ikutsuki at all, so when the reveal came that you should not, in fact, trust ikutsuki, i wasn’t at all surprised. but it’s funny to replay it, knowing that persona likes the “this guy is not what he seems” trope, and realize that...there wasn’t really a specific giveaway instance where ikutsuki said something that was off (a la pancakes, or adachi showing up to a private conversation with interesting timing), it was just a sort of feeling i got about this weird adult who was having these high schoolers be responsible for saving the world, apparently. he really is a terrible terrible advisor though, lol, even knowing he’s evil. it’s sad to realize that the only adult help these kids have got is someone who is absolutely not on their side, and they’re truly on their own