#ok but i’m actually kinda devastated by the watcher stuff

[snkpolls]

SnK S3E09 Poll Results (Manga Reader Version)

The poll closed with 494 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Please note that this is the results of the manga reader poll. Anime only watchers are suggested not to read if you do not wish to be spoiled about certain events! Anime only viewers, click here to view your poll results!

RATE THE EPISODE 486 Responses

Nearly adapted completely verbatim from the manga, overall the episode ranking was very positive this week, with no votes for it being awful. Seems each week keeps getting better and better!

All in all, brilliant episode. 10/10 would watch again, despite giant exploding guts.

It was great, especially what they did with Rod Reiss 120 meters Titan. I feel this was executed better than the manga. Hopefully, WIT Studio continues this way with season 3 and the next seasons of Attack on Titan.

Best episode of the season so far in my opinion! Was about to have a heart attack towards the end tho when I thought they flew over the flashback:(

In my opinion it was the best episode of the season. The animation rivaled levi vs kenny from the first two episodes

Amazing! My fav episode so far. Can't see anything bad this episode, except for that cliffhanger.... RIP Kenny

The animation was like Titan steam, cause it blew my away

Incredible devotion to detail. Best looking episode so far!

This season honestly just keeps getting better and better. The first few eps were a little shocking with the rearrangements and pacing changes, but now I'm back to being a WIT stan.

Easily one of the top 8 episodes of the entire series for me, so far.

HOW ABOUT THAT BARRICADES ORCHESTRAL REARRANGE? 480 Responses

Overall the fandom was positively hyped hearing that new arrangements of Barricades in the background. Now we’re all just asking, “where is the damn ost!?”

I NEED THE OST IN MY POSSESSION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE PLEASE OH MY GOD.   The Barricades remix was incredible?!?!?!?!!?!?

Really good music

the soundtracks were amazing man

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING WERE YOUR FAVORITE OVERALL SCENES? 486 Responses

Overall, most voters were stoked to see Rod’s face reveal more than anything. Following closely after that is Historia declaring herself the ruler of the walls, Levi finding Kenny by the collapsed cave and the Survey Corps taking out Rod.

YAASSS! Historia just named herself queen! I loved that part!

One little niggling thing for me is that scene where Eren watches Mikasa lift barrels effortlessly. I liked how the focus on her strength was made obvious by showing a brief glimpse of episode 1 -the time Mikasa was NOT strong enough. It made my heart weep man.

GOD I LOVE THE REISS TITAN. SEEING IT ANIMATED WAS SO FUCKING SICK.

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING WERE YOUR FAVORITE MC CHARACTER INTERACTIONS? 483 Responses

Eren accidentally inferring that Levi is a tiny, old man was voted most enjoyable scene of the episode, followed closely by Levi regrettably telling Kenny that he’s done for. Historia being firm about her stance with Erwin was another highly voted scene, along with Eren putting his game face back on.

I really liked Historia's characterization in this episode. It was nice to see her standing her ground in front of Erwin and the scene where she defeats her father was the episode's highlight for me.

HOW COOL WAS IT TO SEE THE POV OF A MINDLESS TITAN? 485 Responses

Overall, respondents were pretty stoked to see how a pure titan senses other humans.

YOUR REACTION TO ROD’S TITAN’S FACE REVEAL? 484 Responses

44% of respondents agree that the animation of Rod’s gruesome face was simply “awesome!” 25% were disgusted and 21% saw nothing but nightmare fuel. Ultimately we can all agree WIT really did a good job on this one!

ADORE

It set my gag reflex off like crazy, that shit was so disgusting! IMAGINE THE SMELL.

Finally! Gruesome details like that are an important part of the SnK universe and shouldn't be left out.

I'm glad WIT finally had the guts to go all out with Rod's titan form. It was definitely needed.

As Zackly would say: beautiful

I love that kind of macabre things but holy cannoli, I flinched so hard after seeing it. BIG KUDOS to the guys who animated this, it was a disgusting perfection.

Awesome disgusting & horrifying

If I were one of the soldiers I would've just shit my pants right there

Horrifyingly awesome! Awesomely horrifying?! THERE WAS BOTH RECOIL AND DELIGHT.

Wow it was awesome! It was so good to see first his eyes and then how devastated his face was. He had holes for eyes and the blood was like tears which fits with what Ymir said about mindless titans - that is incredible suffering.

It was absolutely disgusting and everything I was hoping for! Amazing!

Seriously don't get why it has to be so gross

I loved Rod’s Titan. It’s the stuff of nightmares.

Oh cool! Oh god.

WHO DREW IT BETTER - ISAYAMA OR WIT? 484 Responses

While Isayama drew Levi’s wanted poster better in the eyes of the fandom, WIT won the vote for Erwin’s talented left-handed drawing of Rod. We all thought it was beautiful either way!

Erwin actually draws better than me AND I WENT TO DRAWING CLASS FFS

WHOSE GRAVE DO YOU THINK EREN WAS VISITING? 481 Responses

Over half of respondents believe that Eren was visiting Hannes’ grave sometime between the events of Clash and Uprising arcs. 28% believe he was paying respects to a member of the original Levi Squad, while 25% believe it wasn’t anyone notable. Some write in answers had creative ideas:

A brat, I hope he's dead

His hopes and dreams

Can’t be Hannes or Squad Levi because they haven’t had time since the expedition for funerals. I think it’s Marco’s and the funeral was for the Battle of Trost.

I think it was an unnamed soldier's grave, but I was really hoping for it to be Hannes'

No idea, maybe a random soldier from Trost? When they're in titan territory how can they even stop to pick up what's left of bodies? I know they did after they escaped Annie but I never bought it much.

Mine, for this episode has killed me dead

Carla's empty grave.

Marco or some of his other comrades

HOW MUCH DO YOU RELATE TO EREN PUNCHING HIMSELF? 483 Responses

Half of respondents feel like Eren punching himself is a big and relatable mood (or perhaps, some of you relate to wanting to punch him?). 33% sometimes feel this way while 16% apparently never get this frustrated with themselves.

Didn't really like the Eren punching himself bit but he did kinda need it.

i wANT TO HUG MY DEPRESSED SON :(

HOW DID YOU LIKE THOSE THROWBACK FLASHBACKS FROM SEASON 1? 484 Responses

44% of respondents have appreciated seeing the nostalgic look of Season 1 peppered in with the current animation. 27% think that it’s pretty surreal to see the differences put together, and 22% didn’t really care or notice either way.

It was great to remind us about times when everything seemed so simple...

All those flashbacks annoyed me to be honest.

I thought that they should have reanimated it at first, but then I realized it would require more work which takes too much time

It’s so cool to see how much the animation has improved

I miss season 1 character designs

Im crying, missing my thicc lines

WOULD YOU ACCEPT HISTORIA AS YOUR RULER? 485 Responses

The majority of voters would be thrilled to bow down to Historia and accept her rule. 22% wouldn’t mind, while a smaller percentage would rather nope out of that situation.

Historia can rule me anytime, anywhere ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Hisu could knock the shit out of me and I'd be thankful, honestly

Historia is bae

If anyone insults Historia i hope Rods titan guts fall on their head.

ROD IS A TINY OLD MAN. IS LEVI A TINY OLD MAN TOO? 483 Responses

41% of voters used this question to pay respects to Eren - who most definitely was shook by the realization that he used the words “tiny” and “old” in front of Levi. No respondents agree that Levi is old but everyone can agree that Levi is tiny.

Tiny old man is bestboi

WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT THE ADDED MOMENT WHERE EREN GAINS CONFIDENCE IN HIMSELF AGAIN? 479 Responses

Over half of voters believed the added scene was a good way to show Eren getting back on his feet after his meltdown. 14% agree that it got them hyped up for what’s coming. 10%, however, believe that the moment canceled out his previous behavior and didn’t make a lot of sense.

I liked it and he looked great but it did seem out of nowhere that he got he confidence back so quickly.

Huh? That was added?

It was awesome. I liked that part as it showed Eren's natural self and weaker state. He was relatable.

It felt out of place? Like it came out of nowhere.

Objectively, it was a great step in his character development. I just don't care about him, that's all.

I felt like he didnt really have to gain confidence to do his part, it was very shounen-like but I guess its ok

I wish my crises of confidence were that short

It negated his previous (and/or future) behaviour imo but DAMN SON HE‘S HANDSOME. RIP IN PEPPERONI MY OVARIES.

It's a little bit of hope that'll be crushed in the next arc.

makes me wonder how they’ll change (if at all) his ‘i’m not special, just the son of a special man’ moment later on with keith

WE FINALLY GOT TO SEE HOW TITANS SEEK OUT HUMANS WITH THEIR “6TH SENSE”! HEAT SENSORY! ARE YOU GLAD THAT ISAYAMA FINALLY ANSWERED OUR QUESTION WITH THIS EPISODE? 481 Responses

43% of voters appreciated the added detail, while ⅓ of voters were excited to finally have this sensory detail shown to us! A small percentage were unimpressed.

I think it's not heat, but actual human sensory.

But surly that would attract them to animals and so heat sensory can't be the ENTIRE process of detecting humans.

H E A T P A T H S

I'm pretty sure titan vision was 'souls' seen with PATHS and not heat detection or else titan would eat animals, at least that's what I thought when watching that scene

That still doesn't answer how and why titans differentiate between humans and other living things.

I knew it, but one question. Why do they need eyes if they got a sixth sense? Is the 6th sense an insurance if their eyes failed them? The 6th sense could be the work of PATHs lol...nah most likely heat detection.

P A T H S

We don’t know if it was heat sensory, but it was good.

DID THE RISE OF QUEEN HISTORIA MEET YOUR EXPECTATIONS? 482 Responses

Nearly half of respondents got what they expected overall, while about 40% had their expectations exceeded. Just under 10% of voters weren’t very impressed with the way it was adapted. Overall, the love for Historia is very real.

Game of thrones "Mhysa" soundtrack just kept playing in my head when she proclaimed herself as the queen to the citizens. It was REALLY well done, I loved every minute of her scenes

Underwhelmed is a strong word. I think the scene in the manga was stronger, but the anime was still pretty good. The battle was absolutely great, I just feel her final declaration carried a bit more panache in the manga.

It was very okay

Historia really rocked. She is the true badass of this arc.

I was expecting a little more intense music, but yeah, that was fine the way they did it though.

Not a fan of the moment in the Manga, it felt shoehorned imo. Masterful adaptation, however

This is on me because the scene was done great but I wasn't as hyped as I thought I'd be which upset me because I've been waiting to see this for years.

THE SEIYUUS FOR ZEKE, REINER AND BERTOLT WERE REVEALED TO  BE IN THE NEXT EPISODE. HOW HYPED ARE YOU TO SEE THEM? 483 Responses

The vast majority of the fandom are excited to see Reiner and Bertolt come back to the screen along with their warchief, Zeke!

Gimme that warriors next episode!

I can't wait for next episode to see my babies Reiner and Berutoto ;__; Miss them

I love Pieck and hope she shows up next wieck.

I want Zeke already

ACKERDUO PARALLELS! HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT THEM SLICING AND DICING UP ROD’S GLAZED HAM TITAN IN UNISON? 481 Responses

The majority of voters were hyped to see Mikasa and Levi slicing up flesh. 23% were just happy for any parallels given some of the other things that were cut or minced up this season. A smaller percentage didn’t really care.

Ackerbrilliant!!

It amuses me how Ackermanns to Isayama are a different race of humans haha.

Ackerduo? More like Ackerdivas.

The Ackermans are such an eye-candy

Always a pleasure to see them in action 👌💯

imagine being that chill freefalling through the sky

as expected of Mikasa, don't care about Levi

I only care about Levi

HOW MANY OF YOU HAD HEART ATTACKS WHEN YOU THOUGHT KENNY’S FLASHBACKS WERE ONLY GOING TO HAPPEN IN A SPAN OF 10 SECONDS? 473 Responses

The vast majority of respondents were fooled for a few moments while watching the episode this week, worried that Levi and Kenny’s entire backstory got shoved into just a few moments. The preview eased our worries quickly enough though, thankfully! Many commenters weren’t fooled for a second, though:

I knew it was just a teaser for  next episode, not worried at all

Eh, I wasn't fooled by that, just a little confused. Nice addition to the scene though!

I wasn't ready for it to be in this episode! And yeah I began to panick like "they're not going to show us just that, right??" Still, I'm not ready to see the whole flashback thing next episode... 😭😭

I expected the flashbacks the next episode because of the episode titles.

I had a feeling that they were going to dedicate an episode or at least part of an episode to Kenny's flashbacks

I knew there was no way they'd do that, the thought never crossed my mind

I was more interested in seeing how they'd play out other important parts from them. They chose some great highlights to have people wondering what the deal with Kenny's past is while also making the transition into the full flashback feel less abrupt than in the manga, where I felt I had missed a chapter in between at first.

That thought never actually occurred to me. Pretty obvious that it was set-up for the next episode.

There's been too many heart-attack moments already. I've been reduced to a fandom grandma who sips her tea and says "Don't get your knickers in a twist, wait for it...

HOW DO YOU THINK THE STORY WOULD HAVE CHANGED IF EREN HAD BEEN EATEN IN THE CAVE? 206 Responses

You guys had some pretty interesting responses! Most people agree the story would have been effectively over and Paradis wiped out. We can't publish all of the responses, but here were some which stood out (or made us laugh):

Drastically! The people of Paradis would have their minds wiped, except for Mikasa and Levi. Historia would become a slave to the First King's "hide behind the walls" ideology. The SC would be disbanded and Erwin executed. So the whole island would be doomed when Marley invade again, and take Historia with the Founding Titan power away.

Pieck kills everyone

All the walldians would have died since there would be no way for the Survey Corps to take the Founding Titan and Attack Titan back from Historia or Rod Reiss and when the marleyans would have inevitably attacked, the walldians would have been erased from the face of the earth. Perhaps by an atomic bomb.

Levi for main protagonist!

Historia would have been controlled by the will of the First King and mind-wiped everyone. But not all things are lost. Levi and Mikasa would still be there, having all of their memories intact. Kenny and his squad would also still be alive, but Kenny would still not have much to live for anymore. Mikasa and Historia would have had a huge confrontation, with Mikasa almost killing Historia for eating Eren, but in the end, she can't bring over herself to kill her because Eren is ""alive"" within Historia now. Mikasa's liege to Eren will be slowly turning into a desire to protect Historia at all cost.

Erwin will be alive / Kenny will be alive / Berth will be alive / Sasha will be alive / Marlow will be alive / Moblit will be alive / Hanji will have their left eye / Zackly will be down with his shit machine

That's actually a great idea. Knowing where the author decided to take the plot, it wouldn't have worked, of course, but I would've loved to see the rest of the 104th taking over the story after Eren's death.

No future manbun eren :(

Historia might have more controll over the ability, If she becomes queen then the scouts will lose their hope for humanity. Mikasa will most likely be.... A little upset... Overall this question is difficult to answer because it creates a Senario with multiple different senarios within it. For example will historia become queen or remain in the scouts? It's just too difficult because of the different potential timelines created from this alternate event.

Zeke upon landing on Paradis: Where's Ereh?

I have never thought about that tbh. I guess we'd have no story at all, since the cycle of Titan inheritance would have not been broken and life would go back to as it was before the "story" started. Though Maria knows what Isayama had prepared for us in the upcoming manga chapters

they wouldve sold his organs on the black market

Oh wow, I never really thought of that. If Rod ate him then the story would probably end then and there because of the memory wipe (but a rebellion led by the Ackermans?? The possibilities are endless!). If Historia ate him then *maybe* she wouldn't do the memory wipe. It's interesting to speculate. The fate of the Survey Corps would come into question and that would become the focus of the story.

yea im not gonna write an alternate fanfiction for you

WHAT SCENE FROM THE PREVIEW ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO? 483 Responses

34% of voters are most looking forward to Levi and Kenny’s final heartbreaking exchange. 26% are excited to see Kenny’s backstory and his friendship with Uri unfold. 20% specifically are looking forward to Kenny and Uri’s first meeting. Where’s baby Levi!?

I'm not ready for Kenny's flashbacks next episode!! We're going to see small Levi and Kuchel and... I'm already crying 😭😭

AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH URIKEN MY FRAGILE GAY HEART WILL NOT SURVIVE THE NEXT EPISIDE ASDFGHJKLZXCVBNM

I want the WHOLE backstory of Kenny taking care of Levi IMMEDIATELY!!!

NEXT EPISODE MY MAN WILL DIE!! I CAN’T DO THISSSSS

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE EPISODE?

Beautiful animation, but I hope the next ep fills me with feels. I feel incredibly lackluster about Historia and her characterization this arc.

I always wondered in the manga how titan Rod didn't splatter his intestines on the Walls even without a skin. Like, it felt all too much clean, so anime made sense and a bit of splatter never hurt nobody! But with that scene, why WIT censors things like Levi killing humans??? They quite contradict themselves lol

Storyboards were handled by the man who storyboarded End of Eva and the Rebuilds, huh? Certainly paid off. I don't think his input was limited to storyboarding either, while easy to miss the first time around, Rod's agonized scream as he dies after Historia sees his memories is pretty disturbing and haunting. Very good stuff.

I'm sure that a lot of people will write about the battle against the Rod's titan and about Historia, so I will skip it. I have really nothing to add here except the fact that I really loved how strong, brave and mature Historia was in this episode.

Historia taking down her father gave me so many feels! I can't wait to see her get crowned and then punch Levi, he had such a heartwarming smile!

Historia is sooo fucking badass. I love Eren so much God bless his soul.

Erwin looked fucking great this episode.

Something about the anime didn't quite hit the mark, particularly in regards to the scene of Eren noticing the 3 kids and Armin giving him the pep talk. It's practically panel for panel, but the feel was just different somehow.

IT WAS A-MAZING! WE GOT THE SCENE WITH EREN INSULTING LEVI BY ACCIDENT (tho I was a bit disappointed that Levi didnt look as pissed as in the manga), WE GOT REALLY CREEPY UGLY ROD TITAN FACE, WE GOT KENNY AND LEVI MEETING, A SUPER COOL SEQUENCE OF EREN RUNNING TO GIVE ROD TITAN EXPLOSIVE CANDY, ARMIN WAS THERE, HISTORIA LOOKED COOL, ERWIN'S BLESSED ART SKILLS, IT HAD SO MANY GOOD STUFF

This episode was perfect in every way, except for Rod Reiss' giant fucking stomach just squelching onto the wall- yech!!! For a series with man eating monsters as its premise, nothing has ever made me feel as horrifyingly disgusted as that scene did. *shudder*

Seeing the serum bowl in the episode gave me chills OH MY GOOOOD I'M NOT MENTALLY READY FOR WHAT IS COMING

Historia was so good in this ep and the animation for the rod reiss titan was KILLER. WIT outdid themselves with that adaptation

RETURN TO SHIGANSHINA IS SO CLOSE I CAN ALMOST TASTE IT. I'VE SUFFERED THROUGH THIS ARC, NOW GIVE IT TO ME WIT. GIVE ME MY CHILDREN.

No additional thoughts but thanks for making this survey every week :p

WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES? 430 Responses

Thanks again to everyone who participated! We’ll see you again on Tuesday! 

[jennycalendar]

i’m thinking about my ideal slow burn giles/jenny again so here have my various headcanons re: how that’d play out through s2.

this got. incredibly long. so i’m putting it under a cut

ok. right after i robot, which is the puppet show, which is probably my favorite episode of btvs ever for reasons i still cannot figure out, there’s like....one scene at the end where jenny’s in the audience next to giles during the horrible monologues. this serves both to 1) remind us of jenny’s existence and 2) imply that giles may or may not have made a friend on staff, which is pretty cool.

canon s1 stays about the same after that, but s2 doesn’t start with moony eyes and jenny wearing soft pastels!! instead of snyder showing up to make a cameo that heightens the twosome-of-cuteness vibe, we literally just see giles and jenny walking up the steps to school together while jenny complains about having to come back (”i nearly got eaten before senior prom...god, i hate that i can say that sentence”) and giles asks, “then why did you come back?” there’s sort of a weird, tense beat where jenny looks genuinely uncomfortable (foreshadowing angelus WAY earlier in the season, bc jenny’s involvement is very clearly something that the writers came up with as some weird contrived Extra Thing so let’s make it less of a plot device) and then she comes up with some really awful excuse that leaves giles a little puzzled n frustrated.

jenny and giles go to the football game together as investigative buddies, making her a legit scooby based on merit instead of the fact that she’s dating giles, and they argue through most of the game about whether or not going to the game was even necessary in the first place. xander and willow show up and immediately start teasing them about being on a date. jenny laughs it off but giles looks MORTIFIED

they keep. on. arguing. literally every episode there’s a jenny/giles argument about something inane and stupid, even if it lasts for only a few seconds before one of the scoobies tells them to Please Stop. but the thing is, these arguments aren’t actually aggressive & passionately angry like in s1? it’s more annoyed than anything, and slowly the arguments start transitioning into actual logical discussions

sjlksdljk this in itself is transitioning into an imagine-if-canon-had-treated-jenny-like-her-own-character post but jenny’s scenes aren’t restricted to scenes with giles. she shows up in her own scenes too, and as time goes on, those scenes get significantly more foreboding bc the angelus arc is coming up

in the dark age, things mostly go the same. except jenny and giles aren’t dating, so the dazed hug is a little weird, and jenny coming on to giles is something that’s immediately met with suspicion & then Full-Out Panic. of course jenny’s fine, but she’s incredibly distant around giles; even though she doesn’t leave the scoobies, things are tense n weird between them (heightened by the fact that giles has suddenly realized that he may have slightly romantic feelings for jenny, and. that’s worthy of some more panic actually)

jenny gets a scene after the dark age where she thanks angel for saving her life. it’s very awkward and stilted and she doesn’t really look at him when she says it, and at the end of that episode, you overhear a phone conversation between her and her uncle re: angel being redeemable (more foreshadowing!!! more narrative coherency!!!!)

meanwhile giles is fucking hopeless. he’s not asking jenny out bc he wants to give her as much space as possible and he also is starting to really value their friendship (which has by this point become something that is surprisingly sweet & supportive) but he keeps on getting all blushy and shy whenever she compliments him. jenny hasn’t noticed this at all bc in this canon, her priorities aren’t just him, they’re him and willow and buffy and sometimes xander and yeah, even angel, which is freaking her out way too much for her to notice that her best friend is into her

oh yeah. giles and jenny are best friends. that happened at some point and there’s definitely a staff meeting (probably during ted, which also goes differently!! because that episode is a horror show!!) where they’ve sort of teamed up to argue with everyone else instead of each other.

and then all the stuff goes down with angelus.

it’s not actually a surprise this time around though? because there’s been a lot of hinting and a lot of ominousness surrounding jenny’s character, so instead of it being this Big Dramatic Reveal that jenny was Evil All Along, the episode actually has a subplot that focuses on her stress and her newfound worry and compassion for angel and the Big Dramatic Reveal is actually that jenny was Good All Along.

the “betrayal” arc goes...relatively the same at first, but then shifts a little? i’m very firmly of the mind that jenny, incredibly emotionally guarded, still would decide that she could Handle Things On Her Own and keep her motives secret, but when she finds out that angel could lose his soul, she kinda panics and throws herself into research re: how to actually stop that from happening. and that’s where buffy finds her, and they have a initially angry confrontation that kinda ends when buffy realizes that jenny was trying to figure out a way to somehow help and only recently found out about the happiness clause. so.

here’s a twist: everyone’s able to forgive jenny but giles. buffy is still sad and hurt and furious, but she and jenny actually become weirdly closer bc jenny’s always incredibly reassuring and tells her lots of stories about all her awful old boyfriends (+ a few of her girlfriends), and this kinda hurts giles, because he wants to be there for buffy too! and anyway jenny lied to all of them, so why should buffy care so much about what jenny has to say? most of it all really stems from the fact, though, that this was the first time in a very long time that he Trusted Someone and then it turned out that she was keeping secrets and he is just really, really hurt by that. so their relationship turns contentious and strained again and it’s kind of awful and sad.

but then comes passion. jenny’s been staying late at the library working on researching possibly ways to re-soul angel, albeit much more above board and non-secretive than in canon, and this time around giles is the one who gets a talking-to from buffy, only what she wants him to know is that she misses him being there for her and she wishes he wasn’t always arguing with ms. calendar because she kinda needs her watcher right now. and that’s kinda a wake-up call for giles--that jenny’s been doing the job of a watcher while he’s been sulking--so he heads back to school to apologize,

and nearly collides with a terrified jenny, right before he sees angelus close behind. giles grabs jenny’s hand and they run to his car, taking off at a probably-illegal speed. he ends up staying at jenny’s apartment that night; his house isn’t safe. there’s a very quiet, very sweet scene between them where they finally make up, followed by a hug that comes dangerously close to becoming a kiss. kind of a landmark moment for both of them; jenny realizes that she might be into giles, giles realizes that he’s in love with jenny. basically jenny’s really behind the curve

the resouling ritual happens the next episode!! it’s sort of a subplot going on (complete with lots of awkward shy mutual pining between giles & jenny), and at the end of the episode, it’s revealed that angel has gotten his soul back. which is a good thing, but also kinda bad, because he has to legitimately address a lot of the stuff that he’s done & attempted to brush under the rug

angel and jenny have another conversation during the episode after that, which is probably a two-part season finale. this one’s more about responsibility & sacrifice & what you owe to the people you hurt, and they both kinda get something from it. angel tells buffy that he loves her, but that he needs to actually figure himself out and start making amends to the people he hurt in whatever ways he can, and buffy’s devastated by this but she does eventually understand. he decides to leave sunnydale, but it’s left very open-ended; he might come back again someday (and probably does, but that’s another story)

meanwhile, jenny’s been ordered to follow angel out of sunnydale, and spends the last episode of s2 giving the concept some serious thought while angel prepares to leave. she knows that it’s her familial responsibility to do so, and she knows she could do a lot of good helping angel fight evil, but she also really hates the thought of leaving sunnydale.

of course, she brings the concept up to giles, who Definitely Does Not Want Jenny To Leave, but also doesn’t want to come off as clingy. he stumbles through a weird, stammery version of a pros and cons list and inadvertently admits that she’s incredibly important to him, which is. a lot for jenny to take in. she decides to talk to buffy, who’s kinda projecting a little, and who is Very Adamant about jenny being needed in sunnydale (it’s v clearly implied that buffy is feeling frightened & abandoned & wants someone to stay) particularly for giles’s sake.

jenny kinda takes this in and decides to stay. this is all a subplot to the buffy/angel goodbye and how buffy’s handling angel’s leaving so it’s a small decision, but still a noticeable one. the end scene is in the library again with all the scoobies gathered around the table, and if you look very closely, you’ll notice jenny reach out and take giles’s hand.

[core-crystal]

On Concrit, “Con”crit, Mary Sues, and idk man I just kinda rambled more than I meant to here but take it anyway

Okay story time bc that concrit post got me thinking. Now, I will preface this with I do actively feed off of and encourage concrit on the things I post nowadays because I AM using fic to improve while exploring characters I wish had gotten more in canon etc. etc. etc.

But if an author doesn’t ask for concrit, don’t give concrit. “I liked this” is fine. “I loved” this is great! But like. Ok this is gonna get winded so

I started writing fanfiction and posting it in a public space around age 11. I was in middle school, and I was BAD. Of course I was bad, I was an 11 year old writing Invader Zim fanfiction in class instead of taking notes, typing it up, and posting it as-is. I was typo-free, I had a basic understanding of grammar conventions, but I had no idea what made good characters, how to have good characterization, or what went in to a good story. I just wanted to write.

After maybe one and a half years of writing my stories and being a tweenaged kid on the internet, I started getting concrit. Except it wasn’t concrit. It was a line-by-line deconstruction of every mistake and misstep I made. It got posted on an entirely separate website with the critter going in, adding a line break, and giving commentary in bold, like making notes on a manuscript. It wasn’t gentle. It wasn’t kind. It was ruthless. And there were commenters on this website, it was like, a wordpress blog or something, and they joined in. Every mistake I could possibly have made, they ripped in to, and they went on my ff.net profile and took it a step further, dissecting my character from what I thought were fun little copy-and-paste slogans, profile bits, and the like.

I was 12 when someone showed me my work being ripped apart, random adults on the internet begging for the fanfiction to end so they didn’t have to read any more of it. The site was dedicated to ripping apart different fanfics like this, having started with My Immortal and moved on to bad fics in all manner of fandoms on ff.net, and there were grown adults theorizing that I was actually the alt account of another fanfic author they genuinely, one they’d run off the internet and who’d gone completely incognito after they got to her.

I was absolutely devastated. I was 12, and here was a group of people dedicated to just... making fun of me? Because I was 12 and writing? I’d never been taught how to write well, just how to put the words on the page and to put dialogue in quotations followed by the usual he said, she said.

I stopped writing anything but poetry and stuff for school for more than three years. I kept my stories to myself, I closed up, and I withdrew from the friends I had made and the account I had loved so dearly. I tried my hand at a small amount of original fiction. It lost its spark. I didn’t start writing again until some close friends of mine and I started roleplaying in written notebooks, and we had fun with it, and I eventually started writing again as a 15-year old, once I convinced myself that I really was having fun and no one was going to come out of nowhere to tear me open yet again.

I started writing homestuck fanfic. And it went great! I actually went back and took in to account some of the things the critter I won’t name (although I very much remember their name) pointed out that could be fixed, stuff like how a question mark at the end of dialogue acts like a comma, and your dialogue tag following that shouldn’t be capitalized. Things that really were valid commentary and could be taken in to improve myself. I gained lots of watchers on deviantART writing reader inserts, and I was having tons of fun with it, although I was a little misdirected, and I cringe looking at the fics now. They were popular, which is great if you use that to measure quality.

But imagine if they’d been gentle with me. Imagine if the unnamed critter had said, hey, do you want some advice to improve your writing? Hey, can I point out a small grammar thing I’ve noticed in your fic? Would you like a beta reader?

Imagine if I’d gotten constructive criticism, imagine if people had taken the time to recognize that there are children on the internet, that maybe the reason these mistakes were made were because the author simply didn’t know any better, imagine if people had been kind.

I lost three years of potential improvement because people wanted me to “improve” my writing. I like to think I’m pretty decent at writing nowadays, and yet, I lost three years to “concrit”. Imagine if I had those three years to improve. Sure, there were other writing hiatuses, I fell into a deep depression later in high school due to personal shit I won’t go in to, but just...

Even now, I’ve only very recently been comfortable having fun with my original characters again. I’d been trying very hard not to make them like the OC anonymous critters had so willingly destroyed, despite the fact that my OCs were mine and mine alone to read about, and then I suddenly remembered that I can do what I want, and I wanted to give my character cool powers and a tragic backstory and amazing skills and make them related to a primary cast member and have them fall in love with whoever I liked in the canon and get love in return, so I started doing that.

Be kind. Everyone improves with kindness and with time. No one improves under cruelty. And not everyone WANTS to improve. Sometimes... people write and post their writing for themselves, and for the people like them who need that story. Not everyone is writing to become the next popular author, and they maybe shouldn’t be.

Be kind. Let people have fun.

Be kind.