#not saying they need to have beef but i think it would have made sense and enriched the story if

[yugiohz]

i also think it's ooc for all might to keep a neutral stance when it comes to endeavor it doesn't make sense but then again it absolutely does make sense for one supercop to pretend he doesn't see another supercop be a domestic abuser

[batsplat]

i mean yes that's how it works

[soulrph]

chaotic unhinged lines from 2022-2023 (prompt edition).

basically in 2021 i made a list of prompts inspired by lines in tiktok videos and instagram reels that made me laugh so hard i cried! and now i have returned with another list! these may provide an alarmingly clear image of what my sense of humor is (aka broken) but i figure a little levity is always a good thing! more prompts are forthcoming, but in the mean time: bon appetit!

knowledge has always chased you, but you've always been faster.

no... no, that was mango apathy juice. from the farmer's market.

of all these people, you are the one i understand the least. i want to get to know you better, but like, not that much better.

i-i will CHEW YOUR MEAT!! WHAT are you doing?!

ooooh god, no, you wouldn't be long getting frostbit!

you are evil. like a hobbit.

WHY MUST YOU FAIL ME SO OFTEN?!?!!?

i have had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it.

AHEM!! fill my cup.

may god ignore you like you ignored my greetings.

i will avenge you mister van gogh.

call off work bestie, we need you to solve a murder. here's fifteen dollars.

you're not in love. you may think you are, you dumb fuck, but you're not.

go ahead and put the ranch away.

sadly, "hopefully" doth butter no parsnips.

forget school, i want to be an italian sandwich.

you shouldn't skip work, you are a lawyer and he is a hamster.

you can stop roleplaying now. you're free.

her coupon game was so fucking raw.

i'm sorry guys... he's making a salad.

you could get a straight guy here if you learned to make a good pasta. i'll teach you how to make a risotto that'll get you married and out of my basement.

hey, do you want me to get together a plate of roast beef and hide it in our room so we can have night meats?

it's not the most ethical thing in the world, but in a pinch you can hand off a cursed object to basically any baby.

no, children, you're wrong. once upon a time, there was a piece of wood.

and i'm not saying she deserved it, but i am saying that god's timing is always riiiiight.

hydrate or die-drate, ya DICK!

why did the monkey fall out of the tree? because it was DEAD.

new york city is a fictional place written up by someone with a sinister mind and a knack for comedy.

this is grindr my guy.

wait, i didn't finish teaching you the difference between human and wolf anatomy.

it's time to tell your grandmother that she was wrong. do not be afraid.

vanilla vodka... you fucking child.

without ash to rise from, a phoenix would just be a bird getting up.

you are fucking alive. do what you want.

why are you cradling me like a baby, friend? this isn't how guys of my generation hang out.

i hope a hedgehog shits in your cereal, you difficult person.

you know, i am not as mean as i would like to be. and i think people should appreciate that more.

see, i am not a kangaroo.

well, i'd like to help, but... you see... not as much as i'd like not to.

rest in peace you fucking onion fairy.

when god sings with all his creations, will a turtle not be part of the choir?

i fight for a seat in heaven, every. single. day.

map maker? can you find me somewhere on the map where this big man thinks he's the king?

you bald-headed demon...

so... there are 24 million pigs in australia... and 24 million people... so if you ever feel lonely, there's like, a pig out there that's sort of your cosmic twin.

remember, alcohol is god's apology for making us self-aware.

i'm straight!! stop CONFUSING me!!!!!

you guys want something to eat? because... i know we'll die if we don't eat.

he is a BIBLICALLY gorgeous man. i wanna feed him grapes. i wanna fan him with the frond of a date palm from the forests of Lebanon. i wanna find the alabaster vial of perfume oil that one woman broke for jesus and comb it through his hair. like... he's stressing me OUT.

i'm not sad! i'm freaking HUNGRY!

maybe, if we wait a little bit longer, a fuck will fall into my hand, and i can give it to you.

it's not my fault you thought you lived in this IKEA.

let's leave my mother out of this.

jason may kill people but he's not bad enough to kick a dog.

i run for LUMP!

oh no, i'm all out of caring, baby!

you don't think it mcbe that way... but it mcdo.

what is this enticing bowl of white?

serious question, do his nipples sparkle?

what in the reese's peanut butter fuck is going on here?

if your parents don't buy it, stop loving them!

i just hope you know just how much you've decreased productivity today.

that was poetry at its FINEST.

and if you let that motherfucker shenan ONCE, you best believe they're gonna shenanIGAN!

may god bless the dinosaur that died to make the fossil fuel that was treated to become petrol in the car that took her mom to the hospital to give birth to her.

that's modern milk for ya. what a time to be alive.

you have attachment issues. please fix it.

remember when people had secrets? we should bring that back.

the moon landing was an elaborate marriage proposal.

i don't like the cobra chicken.

i didn't know eggs were this expensive? it's time to lay my own, i fear.

so you're saying the reason i don't have a girlfriend is because i'm not a big enough threat yet.

god gave him a top lip, that's why he's so powerful.

it's a common mistake, but frankenstein was actually the author.

i finally got a pocket-sized diary!!! also i don't get the concept of life.

if a beautiful woman disagrees with me, i will immediately change my view. i've no principles.

how did you all end up married to such boiled potatoes?

if so much as one tear drops from their eye... i will slap you back into your mum.

you are ringing a phone that does not like to be rung.

look how Dr. doofenschmirtz had a fucked up childhood but didn't project his trauma onto his teenage daughter. he projected it onto a platypus.

it is mathematically impossible for you to get a wedgie.

i'm breaking up with you. i love you, it's just... i don't think you could protect me from a mummy.

if you can't do fractions....... you will fucking die.

that's right; in the year 1791, all of our bottoms were killed in a Big Bottom Massacre.

people always assume i'm mean. like CAN you BELIEVE THAT CRAP?! like WHAT would make you think i'm MEAN?! I'M THE NICEST PERSON ON THE PLANET!

the chocolate milk is strikingly overpriced and at the same time very easy to steal; another of god's little tests.

someone's gotta tell the waiter that i ordered mashed 'taters and it sure as shit ain't gonna be me.

if i had a week i couldn't list all the reasons that wouldn't work.

[bonefall]

i found a god awful doc about this one person (who, too, is a god awful being) trying to reason why mudClaw would be a bad leader. I'ma try to find the doc but meanwhile I'll submit this because someone could have the link, I'll need your honest thought about it bcs why are we defending oneWhiker now

Anon, buddy, I'm gonna have to sit you down and gently discourage you from casually calling random human people "god awful beings" in my inbox like this. Not when you're just talking about relatively basic media analysis. That isn't ok or normal.

I hope that when I speak harshly, it's coming from a place of condemning hurtful actions and the tangible harm that they cause. I don't appreciate people trying to get me to directly beef with other people directly by requesting I break down their individual posts or analysis documents (when I ask for people to share links, it's so I can see and prepare to counter the ideas because they usually "float downstream" if they get popular); but in a second ask, you linked this document and there's nothing harmful in it. In fact, it's got a far more neutral tone than I'd take if I was writing an analysis about Mudclaw.

If you couldn't tell the difference between a document like this and one that contains active abuse apologia rhetoric, I would be filled with concern. But I don't think you read it. I think you maybe skimmed it and stopped reading, or just heard the title.

Because this document literally says this;

and your takeaway, something you felt so strongly about that you came to me hoping I'd validate it, was "Why Are We Defending Onewhisker Now."

Art is a tool we can use to explore our own biases, and teach us something about ourselves. That overwhelming sense of anger and disgust that you probably felt when you saw "Mudclaw Would Be A Bad Leader" made you jump to an emotional conclusion and you assumed something that was not said. I know the feeling. You might have had a reactionary impulse.

You are not a bad person for doing that-- you're human. You can grow.

Why did it upset you this much, though? Is there something very personal about this that set you off? ...are you spending a lot of time in spaces online that keep you angry? These are questions for you to reflect with.

I do not know the owner of this document or "what they've done," if anything, so I will not link it, because their Discord is at the bottom of the doc. If they are truly a "god awful being", please do not engage, just block and move on. Nothing is accomplished by following around 'A Bad Guy' and boosting their cat takes.

But something VERY bad WOULD be accomplished if I indulged an anon for a situation I know nothing about and unwittingly became part of a harassment campaign. How do I know that you've got good intentions?

I usually just delete unsolicited links to docs and videos that are 'fightbaiting' like this-- trying to get me to beef publicly with a 3rd person. But I've seen more of these than usual lately so I would like to try and cool it down.

[claraswritings]

heyy as a blurb for the Can I Be The One fic- how about a jealous Carmy? Like he knows she picked him but he can’t help but be a littttle bit possessive?? And she actually likes it 🫣

Hey thank you for your nice comment!!

Some SMUT BTC

If you have any other blurb ideas for my Can I Be The One universe let me know :)

Carmy could hear the person next to him at the bar try speak to him but he wasn’t really listening.. he was too focused on you.

You were talking to a guy. A guy who was easily 6’5”, broad shouldered, with a well tailored suit and slicked back red hair. A guy who was animatedly talking to you whilst you nodded politely.

You always were friendly to everyone but he couldn’t help the jealously in the pit of his stomach. Did you think this guy was hot?

‘She picked you. She loves you. She’s still with you even though you’re fucking crazy’ he tries to tell himself but as he sees you laugh politely at something the guy has said. He can’t help it.

‘Well the past three months have been too good to be true’ he told himself, his eyes not shifting off you.

And then like you always do, like you always have, you tapped into that weird ability you have to sense when he needs you and glanced across the room for him, waving him over when your eyes locked.

He doesn’t need to be asked twice.

****

“Carmy, this is Tom. He’s my brothers University friend, he’s from London and he’s a personal trainer for a rugby club”

Carmy rather stiltedly held out his hand and offered a handshake to Tom, who reciprocated.

“Tom, this is Carmy. My boyfriend.” Another person wouldn’t notice the oh so subtly emphasis on the word but Carmy did. “He’s from Chicago and he’s head chef at his own restaurant, aren’t you babe”

You were smiling at him, looking at him so happily but all Carmy could focus on was how this Tom was staring at you.

“Oh interesting.” Tom said as if he thought it was anything but. “Is it as good as Baccchanalia? The beef carpaccio was spectacular there”

“Yes.” You enthused “Carmy has worked in several Michelin star restaurants, he’s won awards, he cooks the best food I’ve ever had. I’m very proud of him”

Tom nodded “Well good for you mate.” He said before turning back to you “Say…there’s this new place in Kesington, my sister does their marketing and can get us a table for two tomorrow if you fancy it. Me and you of course”

Carmy felt his jaw clench and subconsciously he wrapped his arm around your waist. And as if you could sense his tension, you touched his hand in the spot it rested.

“Oh no thank you, Carmen and I are going to the museums, aren’t we babe?” You said politely.

“Next day then?”

“No…I’m good” you said

“Or we can catch up when your friend is back in Chicago?” Tom suggested, placing his hand on your arm, a gesture that made Carmy want to punch this asshole in his perfect jaw.

That was enough.

“Get your hands off my girlfriend.” Carmy took a step closer to Tom, folding his arms to flex his toned biceps. Tom was easily taller, but at this point Carmy would have liked his odds if he did have to lay this guy out

Tom looked a little surprised but didn’t move away from you “Relax, mate, we’re only talking aren’t we? Just an old friend hoping for a catch up…”

“You fuckin’ stupid? She said no thank you.” Carmy pushed Tom off you with a shove.

The other man looked like he was weighing up his options. He opened his mouth to speak but Carmy wouldn’t give him the chance.

“Go on, get the fuck outta here, she’s mine, fucking asshole”

“We should be going.” You added “Goodnight…” you linked your fingers with Carmy’s and led him out of the hall and into the corridor without a further word.

‘Shit you’ve fucked it by being a jealous weirdo. Fucking idiot’

He hoped this wasn’t going to be a fight. You hadn’t really fought, and he wondered if it would even come to that or if you’d just break up with him for making a scene.

Fucking apologize, idiot

“M’sorry about that. I meant you were mine like you’re my girlfriend not like my property or anything weird” he said as you reached the elevators.

“I know” you smiled at him and squeezed his hand as you pressed the call button “I appreciated you standing up for me. It was hot.”

Carmy turned to you a little surprised. “What?”

“It was a kinda sexy. Knowing you’d fight for me…” you said tone low as the doors opened and you both stepped in.

You’d pressed the button for your floor but the lift had barely started moving again before Carmy had hit the emergency stop.

His lips were on yours in a second, tongue slipping into your mouth, teeth biting and pulling on your lip as he pressed you up against the wall.

You let out a surprised throaty sound but responded in turn, hooking your leg around him, using the handrail to support you as your other hand made its way into his hair, pulling lightly as he left red marks on your neck.

Carmy could have sworn he heard the radio telling you, ‘We will have the lift up and running again in five minutes’ but he elected to ignore it, instead sliding a hand up your thigh and under your little black dress to your underwear. As soon as he grazed against the fabric, he could feel you wet and ready for him.

“Fuck you weren’t joking baby”

He touched you through the material putting just enough pressure on that you could almost feel him, as he started kissing you again.

“Stop messing with me, babe,” you muttered into his mouth.

“Okay okay” Carmy muttered “you really are my girl aren’t you” he said, pulling back to look at you”

“You know I am” you said voice low.

Carmy deftly moved the material to one side, stroking your sweet spot with his thumb, eliciting a moan out of you that went straight to him like fire.

“Like that babe” your head thrown back against the wall as he inserted a finger and then another, moving slowly in and out, as his thumb circled over again and again. He moved back a little to watch, savouring seeing you like this, knowing it was all for him, only for him.

“Carmy…” you pulled his hair a little giving him about open mouth, messy kiss, before dropping your head to suck on his neck in a way he knew would leave a mark.

He could feel you tightening around him, drawing close, and spurred on by the down right dirty sounds he was drawing from you, he picked up the pace, going faster and faster until you tensed up, biting lightly on his shoulder as your finish hit you.

You were only catching your breath, his hand still under your dress when you felt the clink and the elevator begin its rise again

“Okay, folks, that should be you moving again.” The crackled voice came from the speaker.

You didn’t say anything until you reached your floor, eyes too busy scanning the lift for CCTV, you didn’t know if you wanted there to be or not.

“Come on,” you kissed him as the doors opened. “Take me to our room and show me I’m your girl”

And for the second time tonight but with a lot more reassurance than the first time, Carmy didn’t have to be asked twice.

[cutecatlov3r]

"𝐢 𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮."

kenma kozume x reader (fem)

some drabbles on your rivals to lovers relationship with kenma !

words: 1.4k

warnings/tw: all characters are 18+, college AU(?), mean! kenma, enemies to lovers, and some suggestive themes.

a/n: I just needed to write about kenma being mean to you and you being mean back, if you want I can make a smut version as well... heavily inspired by the Netflix series "The Beef", made me cry sm . like, comment, re-blog ily ! don't copy my work . not proofread .

★ As soon as he met you he despised you . He couldn't stand the sound of your annoying ass voice, all he wanted was to sit in peace . Usually he doesn't mind being around loud people but you... You pissed him off for some reason, he never wanted to be around you.

"I don't think Kenma likes me..." you whispered in Kuroo's ear. You started to sense Kenma rolling his eyes at you and scoffing every time you spoke. He annoyed you, if he had something to say, you wanted him to say it to your face .

It was so obvious you were talking about Kenma, he sat in front of you and Kuroo. You talked so loud, you couldn't even whisper silently, it irked Kenma even more.

"You're fine Y/n, everyone loves you," Kuroo reassured, patting your back, gently.

Kenma furrowed his eyebrows as he played his game. Yeah right, he can't even stand you. He would never be able to like someone so childish and annoying...

★ He hates the fact that all of his friends adored you. He knows damn well they only like you because you are somewhat attractive. He knows what you are thinking when you show up to their practices in skirts and tank tops, he knows that you're just there because you're a slut .

"Stop distracting our team, just get out of here... We don't want you here anyway," Kenma mumbled, sweat dripping from his forehead.

To be fair, you were kind of distracting Kuroo and Lev by talking to them whenever they got the chance to speak with you. But still! It infuriated you that Kenma worded it like that, it was rude!

"No need to be rude Kenma, I'm here to support my friends," you retorted, crossing your arms. you've about had it with him, you know he doesn't like you. And it pisses you off because you did nothing!

★ Kenma loathed the way his friends talk about you any chance they get. You are a cute girl, those boys just can't help themselves. Still, it makes Kenma frustrated.

"Y/n is so sweet, she made me some brownies today," Kuroo swooned. Kuroo had a little thing for you, you weren't aware of this but all of the boys knew.

"Oh yeah? Well she's planning to wear my jersey the next time we have a game," Yaku teased.

"She said she'll be cheering for me at the next game too. Only me," Lev added, punching Kuroo's shoulder playfully.

Kuroo started to visibly sulk.

"...I hate you guys... She won't be doing any of that, she's going to-"

"Can you guys please shut up? I'm tired of hearing about Y/n, that's all you guys ever talk about. It's annoying," Kenma said, his eyes glued to his phone.

★ Finally, you confronted him at a party in front of everyone. After that day, the two of you HATED each other, or so you thought. You could never see yourself being friends with him, ever.

"What the hell is your problem?! You spilled that drink on me on purpose!" you yelled, very angry at the situation. You were embarrassed, everyone saw, it made you feel like crying. You had issues when it came to having everyone pay attention to you. You only liked being around your group of friends, not the whole damn party.

Kenma did spill his drink on you but it wasn't on purpose, it was a simple accident. He bumped into you as you were dancing with Kuroo and Bokuto, causing his cup to spill on your clothes. Still, he found it amusing when he saw you get angry at the situation, so he did not apologize or even acknowledge you until you called him out.

"I didn't do it on purpose so..."

"Yes you did!" you exclaimed, Kuroo held on to your shoulder, trying to calm you down.

"Let's calm down y/n," Kuroo tried to say.

"Stop trying to defend her idiotic ways. She can handle things herself, she's not a damn baby," Kenma commented, feeling more aggravated

Kenma pinched his eyebrows together.

"What did I ever do to you?! Seriously! You're always so mean for no reason! I knew you didn't like me but holy fuck, spilling a drink on me is a bit much!"

"So bothersome... I'm going to tell you this once. I. Did. Not. You fucking idi-"

Slap!

★ After the whole slap situation Kenma saw you in a different light kind of... He still hated your guts but he did notice how strong and confident you were. He couldn't help but admire some of the good aspects of you. So instead of dreading you, he openly speaks to you, only making rude comments of course. And you did not hold back either.

"What should I wear to Akaashi's party?" you asked, showing off a few outfits to Kuroo and Bokuto. The men sat on the floor, they loved listening to your rants and their favorite thing to do is tell you what to wear.

"The black skirt is cute," Bokuto said, pointing at the skirt in your left hand.

"No way! I like the dress, it always shows off your natural curves," Kuroo added, giving you a sly wink.

You giggled at their suggestions, Kuroo and Bokuto were your favorite friends.

Kenma groaned, bored of the conversation, he was dragged there because he is Kuroo's best friend so he was forced to go wherever he went.

"Do you have an issue?" you asked, sassily, placing your hands on your hips.

"Your voice is so damn annoying,"

You pretended to gasp, gripping your chest. "How mean Kenma!... Is what I would say if I cared. I didn't even want you here so please refrain from making any unnecessary comments,"

Kenma rolled his eyes at your bratty attitude.

★ You two banter all the time, some would consider it flirting but you never saw it in that way. Mutual disrespect for each other... Yeah, only mutual disrespect.

You whined, begging Kuroo not to leave you with Kenma. He was on his way to class, if he went to class, you'd be left with Kenma.

"Please Tetsuro!" you begged, giving him the best puppy eyes you could. "Stay! Skip class! Please!!"

Kuroo smiled, he loved seeing your bratty side, it excited him. "You know I can't n/n, just stay with Kenma, I'll be done in an hour,"

You groaned. Kenma cocked his eyebrow at you.

"Trust me, I'm not happy either," he mumbled, his hands shoved deep into his sweatshirt pockets.

"Oh of course you are Kenma! I know you're in love with me, you love being around me!" you cheered, sarcastically.

Kenma visibly gagged, causing Kuroo to laugh.

★ Eventually though... The two of you were forced to be around each other more, creating an unusual bond. You both don't directly hate each other, you just don't have a super stable friendship. But! You guys can be with each other without having the mean tension.

"Sup bitch, have you seen Kuroo?" you asked, placing your legs on Kenma's lap.

He shoved them off him instantly.

"Disgusting. And I don't know where he is, I think he went to grab some snacks for movie night,"

You hummed to yourself. A happy tune was in your mind and you couldn't help but hum.

"Can you hum quieter? Holy shit, so annoying," Kenma said, pulling his own hair. Obviously he was joking.

And with him saying that, you hummed as loud as you could.

★ Uh oh... Why did he have to walk in on you changing your clothes... That just made some things weird between you two...

"Idiot, where are you-"

Your face burned with embarrassment, you were in the middle of removing your shirt in your room. Why the hell did he have to come in right now?!

The two of you just stared at each other... In complete silence, unsure how to break the awkward tension.

Luckily, Kenma slammed the door shut.

"What the fuck," he thought, taking a deep breath. "No fucking way..." he continued thinking, looking down at his pants.

Kuroo ran to the scene, worried about the door being slammed.

"What's up with you? Oh shit man you have a boner," Kuroo commented, pointing at his pants.

"No shit!"

You heard the whole conversation, shaking your head, wishing you didn't hear anything.

★ After that the two of you just teased each other, meanly, sometimes being harsh. And actually started building a friendship, not a friendly one though.

"Slut,"

"Pervert,"

"You wanted me to walk in on you," Kenma yawned, placing his hands behind his head.

The two of you were currently walking through the hallways, planning to meet up with Kuroo. This was the first time you guys spoke about the situation. It made your cheeks burn thinking about it. But... It made Kenma feel other things.

"Shut up! You probably were spying on me! You wanted to see me like that,"

Kenma shrugged. "I still think you wanted me to walk in on you,". He faked a gasp "Are you in love with me?!"

"You wish," you rolled your eyes.

That's all I have for now... Maybe I'll make a part 2, just wanted to drabble some scenarios :x

[joyce-stick]

The Beef Stroganoff Song! (arbitrary subtitle discourse edition)

So, you may have noticed here that the subtitles in this clip (from Symphogear GX episode 3) are fairly different from what you're used to seeing when people post this video, and the phrasing in the subtitles is fairly different from what the associated memes often say

For those who don't know, Symphogear got itself released on blu-ray by Discotek, and with that came with a new translation authored by Noelle (@ulsairi on twitter ) who is notable for being the only trans lesbian anime translator I know of off the top of my head.

Her translation appears, in my opinion, really rather polished and very good, and I strongly appreciate the way it's written and how much character it adds to the dialogue by giving everyone distinct voices and adapting things into more natural English. It's also a fair bit gayer. I haven't encountered many people who've seen these subs, but I think most fans of the series would consider these a net positive change. There are some people who are mad about these subtitles, and they can die mad.

Anyway, let's talk about the different phrasing of the beef stroganoff song. I'm mostly going to compare to Crunchyroll's subtitles for reference since that seems to be what most others go off of. Here's a link to that version.

So right off the bat we can see here that while CR's translation appears to be a lot more, for lack of a better word, functional, Noelle's translation tries to apply more dialectal force "it's beef stroganoff/Yes! It's THAT beef stroganoff!" And generally communicate through the tone how excited the girls are to get started. Additionally you'll see throughout that the latter is a fair bit more lyrical, there's a lot more punctuation and verbal tics and filler phrases written into the dialogue to express that they are singing, which makes sense since Japanese tends to omit a lot of the sorts of prepositions that Noelle threw in here,

Like, Yumi (yes I went and looked up her name on the wiki) just says "beef stroganoffu" because it's obvious from context that it is beef stroganoff, she doesn't need to spell it out, at least, not in Japanese

(We know like maybe ten hiragana and 1 kanji do not trust us on Japanese this is all just basic shit we learned from online guides)

So this probably leads to a rushed translator from Crunchyroll (they are notoriously crunched for time) who's just trying to Get It Done probably not really bothering to throw in extra additional connecting letters to express the tone of the character, only doing so when it's required to make basic grammatical sense in the target language. So they likely didn't think to make the subtitles have flourishes like this that aren't explicitly in the original Japanese. Noelle meanwhile had the time to consider things like this and take such liberties in order to attempt to convey the same tone that was arguably implied by the Japanese, even if not explicitly put forth

And that's about all the things I should not repeat I guess, TL;DR, these subtitles are more fun to read because the translator had more time to think about the best way to make them more fun while still being accurate to the spirit of the original dialogue, who'd have thought!

(In case you're wondering, the Commie subtitles say kind of the same thing here, and y'know, it doesn't seem like a wrong translation, but also I really dislike this subtitle styling, orange on pink with that font and that drop shadow is just kinda bad. I appreciate the effort but like. Come on. Please fansubbers, please think about if the font and colors you chose actually work with the image you're putting them on)

Moving on!

horizontal and middle rhyme with each other so you can almost actually sing this, actually let me take a moment to try it right now- never mind, I can't sing. Hahaha. I don't actually think it lines up that well with the melody But I thought it did! Didn't I? That's significant, that this actually reads like plausible lyrics to a silly song someone made up instead of a literal translation of a Japanese song

Anyway, here comes the first major difference!

So in the Crunchyroll subtitles, Yumi says "it doesn't have to be beef" which in English (in my estimation) sounds a tad scatterbrained, like, "oh yeah sure beef but whatever really it doesn't actually matter," while Noelle's subtitles rather say "Got no beef? Don't you worry!" Which implies something different.

"It is recommended to use beef, but you may substitute something else if you are sorely lacking in beef" as opposed to "Oh the beef doesn't actually matter, zoinks lol!" CR's translation is kind of a bit funnier in how it sorta comes from nowhere without this qualification, which probably lead to this phrase's memeticness, but Noelle's translation seems more reasonable to me so yeah again, tada, yay for sensicalness.

Now here's another interesting change:

Again, the flat manner in which the CR subtitles say "finish with salt" with rendezvous only being included because that's literally what they said, is sort of absent any stronger emotional implication,

Noelle's translation meanwhile going with "don't forget them, they need it" imparts personhood upon the salt and pepper. The implication being that the girls are saying, "the salt and pepper are in love, please reunite them, they must be in gay love together." Or maybe you think the salt and pepper cannot be forgotten and must be reunited because they are Only Friends.

Whether you choose to believe that this is the salt and pepper getting married, or merely subtext, or an interpretation, or salt and pepper shipping bait, this is a deeply important tonal indicator because it reminds you that these girls are ultimately playing with their food!

"And there, now you're in for a treat!" I don't think I need to explain this one.

Now, here's an interesting one!

In the Crunchyroll subtitles, it just says the memetic "boys don't know this." With no context, no elaboration, no clarity, no qualifiers. Boys don't know. Did the boys magically get their brains wiped? Are the boys biologically incapable? Who knows. Nothing is said but that.

Noelle's subtitles, on the other hand, qualify this statement by saying "Boys aren't taught to cook, so they may not know" (And note again how, it says "kno-ow" to emphasize, once more, that they're singing, and also this lines up with the long "ooooo" sound they make at the end of this lyric, so cool)

There is now context! Boys aren't taught to cook! Anime and Japan's culture in general still pigeonholes people into gender roles! And an anime translator just wrote you a hidden translation note about it! You might be a boy, you might know how to cook, but certain boys in another part of the world aren't traditionally taught cooking, so they may not know

They may not, but they could!

Trust a trans person to express gender facts with subtle nuances like this in anime translations.

And with that lovely bit of good translation and good writing and good localization of a thing to make it make sense to people

Mew!

[physalian]

A Guide to Productive Filler

I was going to write this post about the wonders of fanfic and how it does not do the “forced miscommunication for cheap drama” trope, and it did not stay that post for long.

I’m sure it’s out there, but it’s not saturated in the most popular fics and I think I know why: Fanfic exists in contrast to the established canon, and the canon has forced miscommunication, thus fanfic looks at the perpetual failure of those plotlines and ignores it.

Nobody likes this trope, yet it keeps happening. In TV, at least in the old days when we had full seasons with appropriate and satisfying filler episodes and actual good stories and such (you know, before Disney +) TV shows were contracted to fill a minimum number of episodes and didn’t always have enough content to fill it, especially CW shows.

Enter filler episodes, which, when productive, still entertained the audience with off-beat side quests or gave more screen time to beloved side characters or explored more of the world and the lore. Filler plots meant that you could casually check in on your favorite show once a week, or miss an episode, and not feel completely lost because the plot wasn’t super tight and lean. Some of my favorite episodes of all my favorite TV shows are filler plots and just because they’re “filler,” as in, not a plot-heavy element to advance the narrative, doesn’t mean they were lacking in story.

That was good writing.

Bad filler elements were sh*t like forced miscommunication for cheap drama and it still exists even in the “mini series” that are really just long movies extended to keep people from canceling their subscriptions. TV shows may have one or two head writers, but they’re still written by committee and producers and production companies trying to milk as much from a profitable product as possible, which means they couldn’t write an efficient, epic romance that ended too quickly. They had to faff about for a few seasons before delivering to keep butts on couches tuning in to generate sweet, sweet ad revenue.

Forced miscommunication in TV shows have always made sense in that light. Yeah it’s a product of bad writing, but I can’t point at the head writer or even the staff writer alone and criticize their writing ability because it likely wasn’t their decision.

Forced miscommunication in books, however—that I have no excuse for. Books aren’t written by committee. In this case, I really can just blame the author for their bad choices, which, in turn, maybe came from their favorite TV shows and how they executed similar plot lines.

Fanfic does not do this, usually. It’s not written by committee and has no quota to fulfill to beef up the narrative with extra chapters.

—

So. You want your story to be longer, fanfic or otherwise, but you’re struggling because your plot is too thin and you don’t know where to go from here.

First, a disclaimer: Novellas exist and can be as short as they need to be.

“If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter,” means that  just because it’s long doesn’t mean every word serves a purpose. With enough time, the writer can trim down their thoughts for conciseness and clarity, and say the same thing with better impact with less beating around the bush.

So just because it’s short doesn’t make it bad, just because it’s long doesn’t make it good. It’s about what you do with the words you’ve written.

However, if it really is a thin story lacking substance and oomph, here’s some suggestions that are not sh*t like “forced miscommunication”. These are not meant for generalized application and should be considered heavily before implementing, because any one of them can change your book for the worse by adding in unnecessary detail that distracts from the main story.

1. Consider multiple narrators

Now. I just read a rather bad book that could have lost about ⅔ of its story for a variety of reasons and told the same story in a fraction of the page count. One of those issues was giving the villain several POVs that ruined the suspense and the tension because the reader became privy to their grand plan long before the protagonist and instead of having all our questions dying to be answered with the protagonist, we were waiting around for them to stop fooling around and figure it out already.

With that said, if you have a character of second importance to the protagonist whose perspective would benefit and enrich the story, consider giving them POVs to explore either when the protagonist couldn’t be present, or in contrast to the main narrator’s thoughts on the story and conflict.

I’ve never written anything without multiple POVs and still get carried away sometimes just trying to fill in all the missing time that didn’t add enough to the story to make it worth it. I have deleted POVs from ENNS that were better left up to audience interpretation then all laid out on the table.

This technique very much necessitates restraint, but giving your foil character, your deuteragonist, even your villain some narration “screen time” might help you beef up your word count and tell more than just one biased side of the same story. Fanfic tends to be very efficient with this because, again, one writer working for free tends to want to be efficient and not give pages upon pages of useless prose.

2. Side-quests and character studies

My all time favorite filler episode of any TV show is LOST’s “The Constant”. It focuses entirely on the side character Desmond. He’s an unwilling time-traveler and throughout season 4, struggles to control his temporal displacement and risks dying if he can’t find a “constant” to anchor him to the correct timeline.

This episode is often praised as one of, if not the show’s finest hour. Desmond spends most of the runtime flipping erratically between the past and the present as his romantic relationship spirals for other plot reasons. He ends up making his “constant” his fraught relationship and is able to revert to the past with knowledge of the future to get his then-ex girlfriend’s new phone number so he can call her at an exact date in the future to prove he won’t have given up on them. When Des finally makes that call 8 years later, it’s so emotional, so full of catharsis, so exciting to see him finally reach her after struggling since we met him.

And it has absolutely nothing to do with the plot at large, only Desmond’s arc. It explores some of the world’s lore but doesn’t answer any of the main plot questions or progress any other major character, and Des is the only time traveler so all the risk surrounding time travel is only for him. Critically, it still adheres to the themes of the show and fulfills much of the promises of this character’s role in it.

The show’s worst episode, “Stranger in a Strange Land,” is also filler about protagonist Jack’s tattoos. He makes a relationship with a woman nobody cares about and spends the entirety of the episode’s flashbacks, which is most of the episode’s runtime, dicking around in Thailand. With this quasi-wise woman’s tattoo techniques. Nobody cares what they mean, they didn’t connect with the themes of the show, didn’t tell us anything substantial about Jack or the world, lore, or story, and just felt like a massive waste of time.

If you’re going to write side quests, be more like “The Constant” and less like “Stranger in a Strange Land”. 

3. “Slice of Life” moments

A repeat of referencing this scene and this movie but I don’t care: “Doc Racing” from Cars is just one example. Adding in scenes like these won’t give you tens of thousands of words, but maybe you only need a couple hundred to feel satisfied.

Slice of life moments slow the pacing down, so place them wisely, and just let your characters be people in their world. Small things, human things. In Cars, it’s an old man letting himself enjoy life again when he thinks nobody’s watching. I have a scene in my sci-fi WIP series where two brothers, plagued by their family’s social status, take a drive and pick up greasy drive-thru food to park on a mountain overlook and just watch the city while licking salt off their fingers. I think Across the Spiderverse is about 20 minutes too long, but that scene of Miles and Gwen upside down on the roof before the plot ramps up is another quiet, human moment.

It could be a character who needs a break from the breakneck speed of the plot and the stress to listen to music, walk away from the project and enjoy the sun, anything. Do try to not get overly pretentious trying to make it super metaphorical and poetic, let the audience do it for you. These quiet scenes could end up being the audience’s favorite.

—

If you’re trying to make your book longer, don’t be like Bilbo Baggins, okay? Don’t let your characters be spread thin, like butter scraped over too much bread. Add, don’t stretch. If the romance is on track to come together sooner, let it, or figure out a more meaningful way to delay it than throwing in a dumb argument that won’t mean anything in 20 pages anyway.

This wasn’t an exhaustive list, just what I think could be the most effective with the widest applications across genres.

[ewingstan]

Finished 14.10. Kinda got dueling reactions, because on the one hand I think it is an excitingly tense, knife-twisting conversation. You could practically feel Amy's stomach drop every time Dot revealed something through an off-hand comment. And the ugly knots Amy has tied herself in are captivating in places. I've already said that I don't think her recent habit of blaming other people for not letting her change is in-line with her character, or makes sense as a countertheme to Breakthrough's theme of working to change. But her comment about wishing one of them had died in Gold Morning? That was great. This horrible thought she keeps circling around and trying to steer away from because she knows how horrible it is—for all that it makes her look inhuman, it actually feels the most like something Worm-era Amy would say out of anything she's said this chapter.

That said, that good character work is being applied to the wrong character. "I know its wrong, but I resent that the people who hate me for justified reasons are still alive" is something that the members of Breakthrough should've been dealing with this whole story, not just their villain. Its an emotional reaction that's hideous, and is so wrong on the face of it that it makes you feel heinous, but its also what you'd expect someone who's badly hurt others to feel: to wish that there wasn't someone out there who hated them, and who hated them for good reason. Breakthrough's whole thing is that its made up of people who have horribly hurt others! If this is a story about confronting the hard parts of changing, don't pretend its just the bad evil people who have those types of fucked-up wishes!

But the members of Breakthrough have been given outs. The people who most hate Rain turned out to be brainwashed or evil, so their hate doesn't feel justified the way Vicky's hate for Amy does. The people who hate Sveta are all portrayed as bloodthirsty extremists, so Tress doesn't need to feel bad about wishing them ill. The people who hate Kenzie are beefing with a nine year old. Most of the people who'd have justified reason to hate Ashley are dead.

The one character who was in a situation like Amy's, where they ended up resenting the person they hurt for continuing to exist as a reminder of what they did, was Tristan (because of course). In the flashbacks, he seemed to sometimes wish Byron had actually died rather than having to deal with him being in the back of his mind, trapped and rightfully angry. And it was fascinating to read, because it was horrible, and he knew it was horrible, and yet you could understand why he felt it even as you screamed at him. But then for the non-flashback bulk of the story, Byron has forgiven him and Tristan doesn't need to deal with those thoughts!

If you want to make a story about people changing for the better, you can't have everyone they've wronged either forgive them or turn evil. You gotta explore what being hated for understandable reasons means. And you can't pretend that only the really bad people who never change their behavior have those types of ugly thoughts.

[incorrect-riordanverse]

finally reading tsats here are my live thoughts (spoilers, obviously):

i’m so excited because some pages are darkly decorated and its so cool. still don’t vibe with the title though (the sun IS a star and its peeving me)

why are we talking about dating darth vader 😟 where are we rn (anakin is a yes, but DARTH VADER???)

maybe i’m too old but the jokes are not funny 😭

“this whole place feels like my soul. empty and dark. dark as the pit of the underworld.” <- i don’t care if he’s joking nico would never say thissss 🙏😭 we’re only 10 pages in but please stop butchering my fav character he’s not himselffff i am cringing so bad

i know i’m being dramatic but if they do nico dirty in this book i’m going to end it all

oh my god i don’t think i’ve thought about the words “significant annoyance” in so long. bringing back good memories for sure.

i can tell which parts were written by riordan and which parts were written by oshiro. i don’t think their voices are blending very well together…

also, maybe it’s because it’s the start of the book and they’re trying to familiarise new readers quickly with the characters but it feels like they’re making nico the caricature of ‘emo and shadow and ebony darkness dementia raven way 🥀⛓️🖤’ and will the caricature of ‘happy and sunshine and blonde and flower gleam and glow ☀️🌈🫧’ and i usually like this dynamic when it’s not blatantly pointed out every other page. i have faith they’ll show more complexity than this later on though. future yan will let me know by the end. (future yan here, im not at the end but the characterisation def does get more complex thank gods)

oh ok so it is bob the titan

since when was nico’s actual name niccolo??? how did i forget this detail??

“you have to listen if not you’ll share my fate.” “ominous much?” <- ok he’s finally himself again guys it’s all good

the one-sided beef nico has with percy will never not be funny

“cookie monster appeared over the mouth of the jar, reached inside and gobbled up nico like the chocolate-chip cookie he was.” <- nevermind i’ve gone back to hating this book again

“what was one straight boy when you spent your whole life longing for the impossible?” <- i’m reminded of that time a few years back where everyone made ‘having an unrequited crush on percy’ nico’s whole fanon personality, so i’m glad they addressed this somewhat. this boy has been through so much and people really thought crushing on percy was the biggest thing to focus on about ‘nico angst.’

“we made a mistake. you have to fix it.” <- call me a red flag but if i was nico i would do anything and everything to not go. i would medicate myself so highly on sleeping pills that i can’t dream (doctor bf can go kick rocks). i would track percy and annabeth down and haul their asses into tartarus instead to do it. and if i had to go i would only go in to kill bob myself for sending me those traumatic ass nightmares. no thx. bro willingly jumped in himself and now wants me to save him. nuh uh.

not cupid being will 😭 its like his aphrodite 😭 i am not well.

they always have a really good and emotionally moving scene and they ruin it with a dumb joke. let it be heavy 👏👏

something’s really fishy and i have a feeling that it might not be bob calling for him

if this whole “grumpy ball of darkness” thing continues i will actually lose it

you can’t tell me the percabeth pep talk was actually needed. i will forgive it because i miss them though

im sensing tension in the gap between nico’s connection to the underworld and his relationship with will and i’m here for ittttt. give me the dramaaa

who is the gorgyra girl and why is she in their business sm?

oh shit a will solace pov??? christmas came early 🙏

nevermind that whole nightmare sequence was so fucked up 😭😭

somebody HELP HIM i never thought we would get will angst (nico angst fs, but will???)

DONT JUMP IN THE STYX PLEASE

SOMEBODY TELL HIM HE’S HELPFUL OMG

nico strangling epiales in his sleep is so fucking cool he’s literally HIM he’s literally THAT GUY

[un-bearablysweet]

Ben 10 Omniverse isn't a terrible show, but it often misses its mark for the sake of comedy. And it's not even good comedy either; it's the same old "Lol. Ben's so lazy, ignorant, and irresponsible. It's a wonder how he keeps the Omnitrix at all! LMFAO" And it's like, okay, we get it. Everyone thinks Ben is a moron, but if Ben's a moron, what does that make the people who lose to him? 🤨

One of the times Omniverse misses the mark on what could have been a legendary episode akin to Adventures Time's "The Hall of Egress." It is the episode Universe v. Tennyson.

The episode about Ben going to trial for recreating the universe. Besides seeing Alien X fight, the episode doesn't make any sense. And I entirely blame writers. They did not think of the logistics of how a trial of this sort of magnitude would actually go. I wouldn't be surprised if the trial was just an excuse to see the celestialsapiens in action.

They wanted a reason to explain the different art styles and all the retcons. Which in itself is stupid. As the audience, we know why specific changes are made. They didn't need to hand-feed us retconning; it always happens.

But more to the point, the entire trial is a sham. And it pissed me off to no end!

1. Ben was never subpoenaed. Alien or not, you can't part the sky like the Red Sea and drag someone to court. You have to set an official date and time for trial, allow the defense to acquire a lawyer, and build their defense. This is basic shit, and if your excuse is that it's just a kids cartoon, that doesn't excuse bad writing.

I just can't stand when people brush over essential details.

2. Only in certain circumstances can you forcefully take a person to court. And that is if the suspected criminal is considered a danger to the public or a flight risk. And even then, it's an immediate arrest before going to court for a hearing. Ambush arrests are considered a last resort; considering Ben's positions as a plumber and wielder of the Omnitrix, Ben has little to no criminal record.

3. Due process, refering back to my earlier point, the celestial sapiens would have needed to give notice of charges, and Ben would need to be heard in front of an impartial tribunal. The entire universe is not an impartial jury. There's a reason any Rando can't walk into a courtroom and decide whether a person is guilty. What if several people aren't even aware of the trial? That could skewer the vote in favor of the Plaintiff (Celestialsapiens)

If the writers on Omniverse weren't so focused on having a hate boner for the main character, this could have been a great episode. And it is a hate boner because why else would they pick Mr. Baumann as the first witness. This dude had beef with Ben since early childhood before having the Omnitrix. His opinion is beyond biased.

Also, Rook took the first chance to air his petty grievances with Ben in front of the entire universe in a court of law, and that is beyond shitty. Ben being "ignorant of many things" isn't a proven fact; it's a personal opinion. Also, being ignorant is a crime?

And had Ben been sentenced to death or died in the trial by combat, what was the plan afterward? Rook carries Ben's body to his mother and says,

"Sorry, Ms. Tennyson, your minor child didn't have the mental knowledge and fortitude of a 50-year-old veteran; his death was totally justified. "

If Ben is ignorant of many things, it is because he is young and has only just started exploring the universe. Many toddlers should be behind bars if simply being uninformed is a crime. It's like the show constantly forgets that Ben is still young but insists on punishing him for it.

The court case is to decide whether Ben recreated the universe; his lack of knowledge and irresponsibility are not up for debate. Besides, Rook has only known Ben for a few months; I doubt that makes him a sound judge of character.

I wish they had brought different people to the witness stand. They could have made excellent callbacks by bringing characters like

Tetrax- He is literally the guardian of Omnitrix and decided that even at age 10, the Omnitrix was safe in Ben's hands. Also, the fact that Ben restores the planet Petropia can be used to defend Ben's recreation of the universe. 

Reinrassig III- I'm sure the word of Highbreed Supreme would hold more weight in court than Mr. Bauman. A small store owner on a tiny planet in the far corner of the galaxy. 

Queen Cicely of the Lewodan( ep. Con of Rath) - The mother of the Tiffin, you know, the baby Ben jumped down a man's throat to save. Ben broke the law by doing that but still prevented a massive war. 

Magister Hulka- (ep. Basic Training) Hulka is a well-decorated Plumber and was Ben's academy instructor. Ben passed with flying colors despite disobeying orders, saving Hulka's life. He even gave Ben his medal for creativity and effective tactics. His word holds more weight than Rook Blonko's, a literally rookie in the plumber association.

Azmuth- do I even need to say anything?

Maxx and Xylene are more than familiar with the Omnitrix and Ben himself. 

Paradox is literally the number one expert on the subject.

Could you imagine the cross-examination with these characters? 

And even without proper character witnesses, Ben could argue that what is illegal is not always morally right.

What is the actual crime, the crime of caring too much? And if his crime is recreating the universe without prior permission. The celestialspaiens were a hidden society; how would he have gotten permission?  

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

If Ben was the only living thing left after the universe was destroyed, did he really break the law since no one was there to uphold it?

Especially since he created the universe up until the very moment it was destroyed, so no time would have passed at all.  

Ben's other option was leaving that universe for dead, and pulling a Rick and Morty, but he didn't do that cause he's not a sociopath. 

The only angle that makes sense for this trial to happen is if it wasn't to prosecute Ben, but to send a message. The message that Celestialsapiens are not to be trifled with and that any attempts will be met with extreme prejudice and even death by combat.

The Celestialsapiens have recreated the universe multiple times, with even more drastic changes than just a smoothie flavor. I mean, Grandpa Max can't even open his eyes, and Azmuth's voice has changed several times. They literally point that out in the episode, and yet this is the first time a trial has ever been broadcasted to the universe.

In fact, this is the first time any other aliens have seen a celestialsapien save for Alien X. And even he was deemed a myth. So why now? Why the grand fan fair? Why broadcast the trial at all? They never notified the universe before.

 It's because the celestial aliens were afraid for the first time since their conception. Their entire beings were briefly erased from existence and recreated, and they did not like it! Do you honestly believe that they changed anything about themselves after recreating the universe multiple times? Of course not!  

But Ben doing that sent the species into a mental spiral of worry and anguish with the fear of not being completely yourself. The same curse they've placed upon the universe prior without any hint of guilt.

The trial was about establishing dominance to keep Ben from recreating the universe regardless of his reasoning. But also to prevent other aliens from attempting the same thing. That's why the trial was broadcasted through the galaxy. This was just a bunch of dick-swinging, so the celestialsapiens don't have to face any sort of actual accountability. 

[adobe-outdesign]

Have you reviewed the Farfetch'd line?

Back in the early days of Pokemon, it was more common to see Pokemon based on specific Japanese references that English audiences wouldn't necessarily understand (not that this doesn't still happen, but they seem to acknowledge they're an international brand more these days).

In Farfetch'd's (that name looks so wrong as a possessive) case, it's based on the Japanese proverb "a duck comes bearing spring onions". Ducks are often cooked with onions, so the saying is referring to something that's an unlikely opportunity (the closest English version would probably be a "sitting duck").

The concept is fun, but being a Gen 1 design, it's also maybe a bit too straightforward—it's a duck with a leek, nothing less and nothing more. I do like the expression with those big ol' brows, and it's perfectly fine-looking, but it feels like it could've been pushed more. (I'm kind of surprised it didn't have leek elements built into it and be part grass-type, given that it already has the leak shape built into its head feathers.) It always seemed like the perfect kind of Pokemon to evolve, and apparently GameFreak agreed... kind of.

My major beef with Galarian Farfetch'd is that it exists in the first place. That sounds harsh, but what I mean is that regional-only evolutions are fine when they only make sense coming off a regional with a different concept. For example, Cursola wouldn't make sense when evolving from regular Corsola because the bleached coral theme would come out of nowhere; Obstagoon wouldn't make sense evolving from regular Linoone because it has no reason to turn into Gene Simmons out of nowhere, etc etc.

But with G. Farfetch'd? It's not really all that different from regular Farfetch'd at all, and I definitely don't think Sirfetch'd needed to evolve from a regional; it would've made just as much sense evolving from Kantonian Farfetch'd. So all G. Farfetch'd does is make regular Farfetch'd feel even more obsolete than it already did.

Now, I will say that visually, I do prefer G. Farfetch'd's design. The stupidly huge leek is super fun and brings a lot more to the table conceptually when combined with its extra serious expression and increased strength (especially because it's apparently based on how leeks are bigger in England than Japan). The darker colors are also nice, and it's a nice little touch that the head feathers switch orientation. It's a good improvement over the original, just once again frustrating from a practicality standpoint.

I should also mention really quick that originally, Farfetch'd had this scrapped evo called Madame. I'm... not a big fan, to be honest. I don't know if it's meant to have an SM thing going on with it or if it's just meant to be masquerade-themed, but either way that element comes out of nowhere and the main focus of Farfetch'd, the leek, is too de-emphasized. The feather detailing also feels like too much.

Pre-evo beefs aside, I do really like Sirfetch'd as a design. The concept of just taking the leek and making it into a sword and shield is extremely fun and straightforward, and I like the little details like the sheer length of the sword, the handle being the unpeeled base, and the leaves being the shield. The white body works well with the white parts of the plant and gives it a "white knight" kind of vibe, which is really emphasized by its super stocky body. Conceptually it makes logical sense as an evo; visually, it's fun and easy to understand. No complaints here.

As a whole: Farfetch'd is fine but feels like it could've been pushed more conceptually. G. Farfetch'd has an improved concept and design, but also didn't really need to exist and robs original Farfetch'd of an evo. Regardless, the evo itself is a great design with a solid concept.

[failureface]

thoughts on "Welcome Home, Franklin"

(SPOILERS AHEAD)

Okay, this special was really great.

I love Franklin. He's a sweet boy who never had a unkind thing to say about Charlie Brown- he was the straight man to the wacky antics of the Peanuts gang. But I never got the feeling he was more than that in the strips. This special serves as the backstory and character that Franklin didn't originally get, but sorely needed.

And this special beautifully and gracefully rights some of the wrongs that past Peanuts media made.

I was surprised this film even went there in terms of discussing racism a little. Peanuts is an IP that you expect people to be overly-protective of. 'No, the scene in "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" isn't racist- and it's NOT weird that all the kids are white' is more of what I expected to hear from this. But refreshingly, this special addresses it. Like, YEAH, there IS a lack of diversity! It feels so much better for that stuff to be acknowledged rather than swept under the rug.

I love the fact that Franklin is unsure of himself and his ability to make friends. This makes him super relatable and sympathetic, and also makes a clear connection to why he gravitates towards Charlie Brown. The two of them bond over their shared feeling of being "the Underdog", and not knowing how to make friends or navigate social landscapes. Franklin also opens up Charlie Brown to new experiences and knowledge, telling him about discrimination and introducing him to music he hasn't heard before. Not only that, but Franklin encourages Charlie Brown to be less anxious and push himself further. And Charlie Brown is a much needed friend and sympathetic ear for Franklin. They have each other's back and their bond is undeniable.

That's what this special is truly trying to get at. That friends of different backgrounds and experiences from us can help us to learn and grow as people. I think that's a really wonderful message and one that we all need at any age, and one that we especially need now.

Overall, this special really blew it out of the water, and I gave it five stars.

Special shoutout if you were able to make it to the premiere stream in the Peanuts discord, that made it twice as fun to watch!

Some miscellaneous thoughts under the cut

Franklin's music taste is so elite

The music picks in this movie are honestly fantastic. The soundtrack really elevates the experience and every song is awesome

THE BEACH SCENE! It's so rewarding as a fan to see moments that are plucked straight from the strip. It feels like the people making them really know Peanuts

All the little tiny schrucy crumbs- I eat it up. I know screenshots and gifs will be made and posted and I will be reblogging them.

Lucy and Franklin's beef- I wasn't expecting it but it's so funny and adds some really great dynamics into the fold

Since this is about the friendship between Charlie Brown and Franklin specifically, minor inaccuracies Franklin actually being on Peppermint Patty's baseball team in the strip are forgiven. Some fans more scrupulous than I would probably have an issue with this, but I'm not one of those fans. This isn't 100% faithful to Peanuts Lore but I don't mind.

I LOVED the scene where Charlie Brown wants to pull the breaks and Franklin wants to keep going. It shows so much without saying anything, and it gives way for great conflict that makes sense and comes from real places within the characters

And I love how Franklin is allowed to be mad, and he and Charlie Brown fight. We're not afraid to rock the boat anymore, and it makes Franklin feel so much more human

Just the right amount of Snoopy scenes, this one reached the perfect balance of Snoopy and Story

Everything is just so overwhelmingly cute here I had to restrain myself from writing "cute" or any of its synonyms in my review

"We saved you a seat!" <3333

[mage-ical-character-person]

You know I was wondering what the heck the Vees thought they were talking about when they mention a power vacuum in their bit of the song in The Show Must Go On. Like what are these idiots hoping to accomplish?

and I just now realized.

They say “Overlords hanging by a thread”. “Overlords” plural. Which is weird, because that would mean they’re not just talking about Alastor, but the battle was entirely focused on the hotel.

The only other Overlords even slightly involved are Rosie and Carmilla. So let’s take a look at that for a second! Both of them put a lot of resources into the battle, even if they weren’t present for it themselves.

First of all: Rosie

Rosie’s entire population was sent to the battle. When she’s talking to Charlie before Charlie’s first attempt at her speech, Rosie says

“I can’t exactly command all of Cannibal Town to follow someone else into battle”

“This group sticks together, so in order to convince any of them, you’ll need to convince all of them”

So it seems pretty clearly implied that all of Rosie’s Cannibals were sent into battle. We know that some of them perished, and more were probably injured, which would probably leave Rosie at least a little vulnerable. We don’t know exactly how many Cannibals were lost, and saying she’s “hanging by a thread” seems like a stretch, but the event likely did set her back, and her Cannibals will need time to recover.

I do also feel like the fact that they all ate angel meat will have some sort of effect. Not sure what kind, but angel blood glows and it seems like there would be some weird properties there. Not sure if it’s good or bad.

Either way, Rosie loosing some of her Cannibals would leave her more vulnerable than usual after the battle, even if only slightly. And her association with Alastor means Vox probably has beef with her, so it makes some sense for the Vees to see this as an opening, especially coupled with Alastor being injured and, at the time, missing. He wouldn’t be able to provide Rosie with much backup in that state. (Alastor’s back now and pretending to be fine but I doubt that.) Having both of them in a weakened state at the same time is probably unheard of.

And with how weird Vox is about Alastor, targeting Rosie to mess with him is something I could see happening. I don’t know if that would go well for the Vees, because we haven’t seen what Rosie is capable of, and we haven’t seen much of what Vox is really capable of when facing off against anyone other than Alastor, who has a talent for making Vox act stupider than usual.

Then we have Carmilla, and her case is very interesting, because while she only provided weapons for the battle, that’s still a big investment of resources. Angelic steel is very, very hard to come by in hell, and she provided quite a lot of weapons. While she’ll probably get a good number of them back, there’s a bigger issue here.

Carmilla’s business and by extension her status as an Overlord relies on selling weapons made with angelic steel. Carmilla gets angelic steel from weapons left behind during exterminations.

and uh

Yeah I’m not sure how that’s gonna go for her. Cause it seems like her supply of the materials she needs to stay in her position of power just got cut off completely. Especially since Heaven now knows that leaving behind weapons is what provides the only method of killing angels. After Adam’s death I really don’t think they’re making that mistake again.

So Carmilla seems to be on a track that leads to her power dwindling as she runs out of resources. Sure, she can just work in dealing normal weapons with high craftsmanship, but without her claim to fame of selling weapons that can permanently kill, she will lose a lot of power and influence.

I’m sure Velvette will enjoy that.

Overall, though, while I still think the Vees are dumb and impulsive and biting off more than they can chew… their part of the Finale song makes just a little more sense to me now. Three Overlords in weakened states might leave them some sort of opening.

They really shouldn’t mess with Alastor, though, because not only does Vox lose all logical thought around him, but Charlie considers Alastor a friend by this point. And she is the Princess of Hell, and very protective of her friends. Though she probably wouldn’t hurt the Vees unless she absolutely had to. She’s definitely not a fighter except in extreme circumstances. Katie Killjoy notwithstanding.

[only-one-brain-cell]

Syd fell first but Carmy fell harder

Ok here me out, ok so when Syd and Carmy first met it’s very obvious that he likes her man had heart eyes when she walked through the door. HOWEVER we are talking about Carman Berazatro here so in typical Carmy fashion he repressed his feelings which at this point is just him thinking she’s attractive. (But I’ll get to that later) Sydney meanwhile has been crushing hard core on Carmy, or the Carmy that she’s seen in Food and Wine and made her favourite meal, the Carmy that she had invisioned in her mind. She very quickly is about to find out that she was WRONG (don’t meet your hero’s kids) and that the Carmy in front of her is not at all the Carmy that she imagined. Now Sydney has to deal with that fact and I think in s1 that’s what she’s doing trying to learn the real Carmy… it’s a very though lesson especially during the take out instance. Sydney quits for many reasons but she does come back because while Carmy is a asshole there are moments between them where she sees parts of the Carmy she imagined, the one that’s passionate about food, about cooking and about the restaurant which the two of them are trying so desperately to fix.

Early s2 when their cooking at Carmys is when I believe that Sydney is in. When it’s just them and there’s no stress of the workplace they can finally be them. Carmy opens himself up to Sydney which he doesn’t do often and she likes this version of Carmy, she’s falling in love with this Carmy who is infinitely better then the one she thought of in her head. I’d like to think that during these moments they talk about their family and Carmy opens up about Mikey, about Nat and about Donna so she gets a sense of who Carmy actually is.

Carmy continues to deny his feelings for Sydney he has to try even harder. They are spending more and more time together and she gets him, not only gets him but understands him. She understands him on a level no one else but Mikey seemed to get but he can’t do it. He can’t fuck everything up by trying to be in a relationship with her and she probably doesn’t even like him back so what’s the point. So Carmy continues to deny his feelings and well

Enter Claire.

Carmy initially rejected Claire after giving her a fake number. She did get his actual number and he can try to get over Sydney by being with Claire and try to enjoy his life for tie first time…. Ever. Very quickly he found out that it is not working because he is spending to much time with Claire while he’s desperately needed at the restaurant, the restaurant everyone is working so hard to renovate for him. Because everyone believes in him, that he can make the Bear good, that he can make Mikey proud. But of course Carmy is running away from his problems, from Sydney, from the stress of giving the Beef a whole new makeover and trying to get everything ready in a limited time frame. Of course everyone comes boling over in the finale when he’s locked in the walk in and Carmy decides he’s no longer going to provide himself amusement or enjoyment while in the moment he may have been talking about Claire a unsaid part of that incudes Sydney as well.

So that’s what he does in s3 he is pushing back because I believe the table scene is when he fully realizes I love her I am in deep deep deep love with her and I can’t deny it any further. So he’s going to get her the star because he loves her, he would do anything for her. So he pushes himself, to be better, he pushes everyone else to be better for the business but also for the star. He knows everyone is gonna wind up hating him but as long as Sydney gets what she wants he doesn’t care because she deserves it.

Sydney hates that he’s pushing back and putting all this pressure on her, she hates that she loves him and he’s shutting her out so when Shaprio comes to her with the offer she’s scared. Scared to tell Carmy because of what he’ll say, she’s scared to even consider leaving because of all the friends she’s made. There is such a push and pull with them in s3 where Sydney is pushing mainly herself but also Carmy, she is pushing him to NOT be that guy, to not be the guy she knows he’s not. “You need to calm down” is her wake up to him that this is not ok, that it doesn’t have to be like this. That overnight he did a complete 360 and is now acting like a different person.

Meanwhile Carmy is pulling away from everyone. It’s the only way he knows how to do things, it’s how he was trained. Sure while he’s had positive role models in his life, (Terry) it doesn’t outweigh how her grew up, (Donna) or how he was able to take his skills to the next level. (David) This is Carmys pattern, something he’s done probably ever since childhood always pushing people away aside from Mikey that is and focusing on his skills so he doesn’t have to think about what’s going on in front of him. (again Donna) Carmy avoids problems and Sydney is one problem that he can no longer avoid, that he shouldn’t have to avoid. I am begging Carmy to no longer avoid Sydney and TELL HER THE TRUTH!

I’m also begging Sydney to do the same. Sydney builds up walls for herself, she doesn’t let people in she keeps a distance from most and doesn’t tell them a lot about herself. I believe she chose who to let in like Nat and now Carmy and a part of her hates that she let him in. Because if she wasn’t so in love with him she wouldn’t have, she wouldn’t have been come back in s1 but she did. Now she has to choose if she wants to run away from that, run to Shaprio and his offer or face the music.

Basically both of them are idiots in love who have problems communicating and not dealing with their problems., their two sides of the same coin.

[babybratzmaraj]

What The Fuck.

Three Men, Two Minds, One Outcome, how will Tommy ever think straight after this? atfer lal ihs nicous is a awlyer…

Not actual face claim, just need a nigga with a gun. LMAO

this fic contains: Element of thriller, gun violence, foul language, murder, if you are not okay with any of those warnings please read one of my other babies, you will see a softer variant of this soon♥️

taglist: @megamindsecretlair @thecapodomme @planetblaque (these are ppl i think give a fuck😭😭😭

What. The. fuck.

It’s Blood… blood is everywhere… He, He did this shit. And now, He’s holding his chest, crying and growing weaker, his desperate attempts to reach for the phone, his arm trembling…

“Ayo! Tommy!” Bruce shouted to wake him out of his trance. “I told you to stop calling me that fuckin name,”

Bruce kissed his teeth, rolling his eyes at the attitude he sensed from him. “Nigga loosen the fuck up! We finna go in this store, get some shit for the party, hopefully, condoms witcho ‘Can’t keep a bitch’ ass.” Tommy laughed at that last part, It wasn't his fault that a sexy chocolate nigga like him couldn’t keep a chick, the chicks didn’t want to be kept and he wasn’t in the business for that shit.

“Man get the fuck out the car.” He said, ducking out the car with his phone in his hand, “And you paying this time you larky body ass nigga.” he shot back before going into the store, hearing a car door slam and footsteps shuffling before a Bruce popped in his peripheral. “You just mad bitches want this larky nigga dick!”

The two laughed as they stepped into the store air smacking his nostrils, the crisp clean air with the faint scent of Windex mixing well. Bruce darted straight for the candy aisle as Tommy went for the drinks, He had cotton mouth like a mu’fucka, a nice Ohana fruit punch could quench a nigga thirst.

He opened the door and swiftly grabbed the Ohana that he had been having a taste for a smooth 3 weeks, he hurriedly opened it and took a few sips of it, the flavor with the burst of sweetness layering on his taste buds made him be set at ease, but the commotion he heard up front broke him from that trance.

“This nigga, I swear!” Tommy regretted coming out of the car with Bruce's ass, he is a crashout as many people would say, but he just a dumbass.

Tommy twisted the cap on the bottle tightly before rounding the corner to see Bruce in a commotion with the cashier. Tommy deeply exhaled before approaching the counter to hear the actual conversation.

“You thought shit was finna be sweet? I told you next time I see you, I’m fuckin you up.” Bruce boomed, his voice rising with anger and hatred.

“Your beef ain't with me, it’s with my knuckle-headed ass brother. Like I told you before, What he does, I have no say over.” The man sternly voiced his opinion, It seemed like he was over this whole fiasco as if this wasn’t the first time of its occurrence.

“You heard me say, I do not care, That’s your blood, you stick with gang through and through right?”

“Right.”

“So what if I blow yo shit back? Would you brother come looking for me then?” Bruce threatened, his voice smooth and unfazed as he nonchalantly pulled out his weapon, his eyes blankly set on him. Tommy at this point was stuck, his heart was not where it should be as his heart was in his ass, beating 200 miles per millisecond.

“Yo-” Tommy set down his drink to have his hands, slowly approaching where Bruce stood, his eyes followed the gun which kept moving, unbeknownst to him, The dude came from around his corner to face Bruce, Man to man, not one bone of fear or anxiety attacking his muscles or mental. “What? You gone shoot the wrong nigga? Face it, you ain’t a man my nigga, you a punk ass nigga who hides behind a gun, that don’t have no bullets in it! If you so man enough shoot me.”

“No!” Tommy screeched, his voice cracking from trembling. “It ain't no need for that, Nigga lets go!” But his pleas went unheard, he saw Bruce's knuckles turning white, the gun shaking, the words of his sinking into his skin like lotion, moisturizing his blood cells with heat, his mind running but stuck on one thing, this nigga gotta go

Tommy couldn’t think as his ears suddenly started to hurt, a piercing screech echoed throughout the small store, shaking his head violently to erase the pain from his head. Once the ringing died down a few notches, giving him the okay to investigate the source.

And there. It. Was.

“What. The. fuck.” was all he could say, couldn’t even speak above a whisper as he saw a slumped man on the floor, falling backwards onto the junk food that was behind him. “What the fuck…”

He was stunned that he was still alive, fighting for his right to live, his right to survive, and the privilege to breathe in air, but he was losing his battle. “I’m shot.”

Tommy anchored himself onto the shelf behind him, dragging himself to his feet, glancing up to see Bruce frantically grabbing money out of the cash register and anything that he saw value in. “Help…” His voice trailed off, his light dimmer more and more, his tears mixing with the blood that involuntarily covered his face.

But Tommy couldn’t move, he could barely move, he just got on his feet for Christ sake’s! Just then, a bell dinged, stopping everyone in their tracks.

A lady, somewhat familiar walked into the store, not knowing the horror that she would soon deem the most horrid night of her life.

She laid eyes on the figure crawling on the ground while Bruce laid eyes on her. Shuffling out of his spot his adrenaline raced through his body as he made a dash to the door.

“Run… Don’t look back, that's how niggas die in movies, keep your head straight, don’t be seen, keep your eyes on the road. Don’t. Die. Now.”

Thoughts raced through, the time, a corner! He dashed through an alleyway, Grabbing his phone to make a quick call, and thank god the other person answered…

Find out what happens soon…