#so while i joke that i'm psychic. it's honestly half a joke. because there are some WEIRD things on this side of the family.

[youremyonlyhope]

My uncanny ability to accidentally specifically predict bad things now means that for the second time, a supervisor has told me to stop making predictions while at work since they keep coming true.

This has happened in two different jobs in two different fields now. Yay.

[tabbyofwisdom]

Don't ask me why I'm doing this now. Maybe it's because we're hitting the one year anniversaries of the end of the show, but here's a thesis that I've been ruminating on as to why I believed the symbols from the psychic pointed to Ted.

Presented below the break

My thesis, if it can be called anything, is that each of those symbols were meant for each of the three romantic interests in Rebecca's life, that they symbolized that they were one part of what Rebecca wanted and needed but that they were not the right man. I'm going to break down each symbol. Also, I don't remember reading anything like this but if someone has written something like this, I apologize.

The Green Matchbook: This was for Sam. Sam came into Rebecca's life and showed her that she could have fun again. That love can be fun. In season one, Sassy says, "No, the real Rebecca is silly. Strong, yeah, but not cold." She's relearning fun. But Sam is too young. The power dynamics honestly are really cringy. It's one thing to date someone more than half your age, it's another to date someone you pay that's more than half your age. Aside from that all, their life experiences are totally different. His is just beginning. Rebecca is, to use a metaphor, a phoenix. She's starting it all over for the second time, but she's got a lifetime of experience.

Shite in Nining Armor(honestly, this 'sign' was so stupid, imo): This one is obviously John Stamos Wingsnight. Rebecca's relationship with him was all about learning that love is leaving yourself open to being heartbroken. He obviously was not the person that was meant for her to be that open with......but he was age appropriate.

Upside down, drenched, but safe: Ok, this is the big one and the most controversial. This is boatman. She falls into the water but ends up being fished out by him. Their evening is all about Rebecca learning to let go. She's always dressed to the nine's and is always put together. She never lets her hair down, to be colloquial . That evening she lets herself be Rebecca. 100% her. Silly, in command, sweet, hopeful. We get to see the person Sassy knew but with the strength and stripes that she has earned through her marriage. Flashing back to a year ago, I was so happy to see this. I thought, "This is it. This is Rebecca and now that she's let herself be herself, she can be that with Ted." 😒 I have SO many issues but I'm just going to focus on "Sunflowers". As a woman, I was so nervous throughout the episode. If I was in a foreign country, by myself, fished out of a canal by a strange man, and he threw his phone into the canal(thus eliminating any type of communication) and then he made a joke about how my drink was not spiked, I'd be out of there faster than a Ted Lasso spit take. Again, I was so happy to see Rebecca let herself be....herself but I was just uncomfortable the entire time. When he kissed her foot due to 'habit' I was like, NOPE GIRL, GET OUT OF THERE. He's weird at best. I think the writers were going for "meet-cute" of the 90s and 00s romcom persuasion but we've all come to realize that those movies are rife with misogyny and creepy male behavior and while we may still look back with fondness for them, we don't like to see it in our new media. It wasn't cute. Beyond all that, if you're looking at this through a literary lens, you've seen the two signs so far but the wrong men for Rebecca. Logic would dictate that the third is not right either but that we're close to the end of our journey.

I felt like these signs were pointing the way for Rebecca to realize her feelings for Ted(apparently I was deluding myself). I'm reminded of a post that broke down the response of Darcy and Elizabeth from Pride and Prejudice after the first proposal. They both individually went out and worked on themselves and then came back together after they had realized their faults and worked on them. But the key is that they didn't do it, Darcy does not do this, in order to try again. To try to get the other one back. It was a realization of things, in this case pride and prejudice, that they individually worked on because it was pointed out to them. I bring this up because I see Rebecca's signs, and Ted's therapy(but I'm not going to get into that right now) as them working on themselves. Through these three men, Rebecca learns, or re-learns, things about herself and about what she wants out of a relationship. She gets back to herself, but with the wounds she gained. She is a better and stronger person. They are sign posts pointing to where she should go and where she should be headed. Follow these signs and you will get your lighting.

Rebecca wants someone to have fun with, to feel safe enough to be open to being hurt, and to be herself, wholly and completely. Who in our little show does that for her? There are so many instances where Ted proves time and again that he is all these things. From the insistence of Ted's that Rebecca join the team for the exorcism to his joy at seeing her join the team on the bus in Amsterdam and his laughter at her singing. The absolute care Ted takes to make sure she always feels safe and always has an option to say no, or to voice her concern and the forgiveness he gives her for her sabotage plans. With Ted, Rebecca was always able to be herself. It's slow to come out but through his use of "Oklahoma" we get pure, honest Rebecca. Through Biscuits with the Boss, Ted takes the time to get to know Rebecca, not Ms. Welton, but Rebecca. Ted gets to see the huge generous heart Rebecca has. By the last season Ted is open enough to ask "Am I a mess?" and Rebecca can respond that of course but she is too and that's why they get along.

The show didn't go the way it seemed to logically be going and many of us were left heartbroken and confused. There are many more signs that can be talked about (the September 13th connection, the way Rebecca can tell when Ted is having a panic attack, etc. etc.). Those are for later posts.

If you're still reading, thanks! And you're as crazy as I am :)

[utilitycaster]

Someone needs to fight back by drawing Imogen with sharp angle+narrow frame glasses that sit just on the end of her nose so she looks down through them, and they make her seem distant and haughty about everything.

Ok so anon I know this is you joking (and while personally I'm like let's just not do the glasses*, I agree that angular art styles for Imogen are really good and love to see them), but like...frankly, I'm in a hotel for the night for work and have very little going on so I just want to talk about Imogen! I think she has a somewhat elusive personality, especially compared to Laura's past two characters, both of whom were pretty extroverted and I think the fanon is simply so wildly different from reality that despite her central role she at times feels like an unknown quantity.

Imogen is not sweet and retiring. She's not terribly haughty; but she's definitely a little sharp, even from the start. She's frustrated with the administrator at the Starpoint Academy despite asking for what is essentially a significant favor, and doesn't attempt to hide it - and that's in episode 1. The fanon idea of Imogen didn't even get past the half-hour mark of the first episode of the campaign before zoning out, briefly coming to at the word "headache" because the sickfic fodder alarm went off or something, but Imogen is prickly and possessive of a certain ruthlessness from quite early on. Nor is she the innocent - her first thought to cover up the noise in the hotel room is to grab Dorian and unbutton her shirt. The idea of Laudna being the prickly, worldly one and Imogen the sweet ingenue should have been dead before Bertrand.

I think the best way to describe her though is that she is walled off. There's the figurative but extremely real psychic walls, which she's only recently been able to let down, but in general Imogen just doesn't quite mix into groups. There's always a certain amount of distance that she holds. It's an incredible change from Jester, who was famously the one to bridge gaps, or even Vex, whose post-adventuring career is the most openly political of Vox Machina's. I think Orym's leadership pep talk, while a good thought, fails, because Imogen is comfortable playing the leader in a lie, but ultimately she wants to neither lead nor follow.

Anyway, that's the thing about Imogen: I genuinely do not think she consciously believes herself better than other people, certainly not in an "I'm so awesome" manner; but she does hold herself aloof. She has concrete proof of the terrible thoughts that strangers have and I think does not realize the flaws of her own thought patterns as a result. I don't want to say it's a lack of shame or embarrassment but it certainly feels faintly atrophied. It's like the social contract has been just a bit corrupted. I think I described it before as that she sees hypocrisy as "not honestly saying what you're thinking to your allies" rather than being about a discrepancy of word and action. I also wonder if the fact that Imogen spends so much time in people's heads is tied to the fact that it took her until she was 26 and had no other options in order to leave Gelvaan, despite the fact that she wasn't happy there.

I'm really interested to see how it goes because I don't actually see this as a story that can resolve purely because of the power of love and friendship. I suspect Imogen is just starting to realize these things about herself, and I similarly suspect she doesn't really care for them...but I don't think she knows quite how to stop or change nor does she entirely want to.

I think this sense of being caught between so many things - always being the secret third option - is really well demonstrated with her powers. A pretty consistent theme in Critical Role through both Campaign 2 and 3 is regarding the sources of power and their disconnect from any morality - power simply is, the wielder's choices are what matter. Imogen started out wishing to be rid of her abilities, and she's increasingly moving to embrace them, even as she simultaneously has found out that the source of her powers is likely a literal cosmic horror and her mother is much more than a voice in her dreams. It's fascinating to me that the people she tends to be most honest with are the people with the most unknown pasts, and I feel she's moving towards an era of reinventing herself. Which will put that big question of aloofness at the forefront - it is, to be fair, faster to go alone, and easier to reinvent yourself when the people who knew you before aren't around.

Anyway this is a really long way to say "haughty, not really, but she is all angles, in multiple senses of the word."

*tangent here but: I was scrolling the Imogen tag recently and something I noticed that's very telling is that most art of Imogen in glasses (and to be fair a lot of art generally) isn't described, but when it is, the description also almost always leaves out her glasses. Which really puts the kibosh on the idea this was ever about normalizing glasses or uh, any aids for people with visual impairments, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

About Me: Favorite Pokemon

Pokemon is a series very near and dear to my heart. From my early experiences watching the anime and playing the card game to staying up all night in the hospital playing Pokemon Crystal to getting my first-ever game of my own (Sapphire) and picking my first starter (Torchic), I just have an endless stream of positive memories of this franchise.

Of course, most of the positive memories wouldn’t be half as good without all the Pokémon I befriended along the way. There’s over a thousand of these creatures now and while I don’t think any Pokémon is bad, I’ve obviously come to like some more than other. That’s what this list is for.

Unfortunately, due to the image limit on posts I had to cut this list down from 50 to 30 so that there wouldn’t be twenty boring blank spaces like I had to do with my video game list. A lack of pictures there is whatever, but when I can’t showcase the designs of the critters I’m talking about, there’s a big issue. This means there’s a lot of honorable mentions: Klefki, Jynx, Slither Wing, Lapras, Garbodor, Lunala, every single Eeveelution, Armaldo, Farfetch'd, Sirfetch'd, Ditto, Pheromosa, Buzzwole, Mew, Xurkitree, Lucario, Gimmighoul, Zoroark, Claydol, Walking Wake, Rotom, Porygon2, Chien-Pao, Iron Thorns, Sceptile, Gallade, Togekiss, Spiritomb, Grimmsnarl, Mimikyu, Scrafty, Sigilyph, Zacian, Florges, Eternal Flower Floette, Lilligant, Bisharp, Kingambit, Wishiwashi, Tatsugiri, Bronzong, Rayquaza, Dracovish, Hydreigon, Blacephalon, and Dracozolt. Yeah, there's a thousand of these, so narrowing down my favorites is no easy task.

30. Unown

Unown is probably one of the most worthless Pokemon when it comes to battling seeing as they only know Hidden Power and have pitiful stats (partly because their attacking stats are still spread as if the physical/special split never happened), but I lfind their overall suckiness kind of endearing. I like the weird concept behind them being living hieroglyphs, and the mysteries surrounding them really make me wish they were utilized more in the stories of the games. I'm not asking for them to be as badass as they were in the Entei movie, but come on, throw these guys a bone!

29. Qwilfish

One of the absurdly rare joke Pokemon of Gen II, Qwilfish wasn't one I thought of very often... that is until I got one over the GTS back in the DS days. She was a shiny, her name was Butt Bomb, and her OT was Bakura. Ever since I got her, I have always loved this stupid mine/blowfish hybrid, and I was absolutely elated to find out it got a badass evolution in Overqwil when Pokemon Legends Arceus came out.

28. Sneasler

Speaking of Arceus, I have to say that Sneasler is my favorite Hisuian evolution. I've always loved Sneasel, especially since one in LeafGreen ended up becoming one of my first ever level 100 Pokemon in that game. I kind of didn't like that it lost so much Sneasel-ness upon evolving into Weavile, but Sneasler certainly fixes that problem. It's all right there in the name, where the original is Sneasel, this one is even Sneasler. More Sneasel, less problems.

27. Meowstic

These weird little Psychic cats are just a lot of fun, and I honestly like them more than their more iconic pre-evolutions. Gen VI gets a lot of flak, especially considering how few Pokemon it introduced, but considering it brought this sexually dimorphic extrasensory feline into existence I'm fine with it. Quality over quantity.

26. Kecleon

It has one of the most clunky gimmicks out there, but I'm still fond of this little chameleon. It's such a fun Pokemon to track down be it in Gen III, their remakes, or even Go, and it is one of the single most terrifying foes you can battle in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. I even love its stupid shiny that only changes its stripe.

25. Dudunsparce

After years of fans begging for Dunsparce to finally receive an evolution, one that would be some badass dragon that completely misses the point of Dunsparce's whole joke, Gen IX delivered with... a Dunsparce that has an extra segment in its body. It is genuinely one of the greatest trolls in existence, and the fact there's a special form that's even longer really goes to show that Dunsparce was always perfect and the only thing they could even imagine doing as improvement is giving us more Dunsparce.

24. Alcremie

I love Pokémon with bafflingly cryptic evolution methods, and while Runerigus probably takes the cake in terms of Gen VIII Pokemon, Alcremie quits literally is the cake. The fact you have to decorate it’s pre-evolution, then spin around in a circle with the direction, number of spins, and even time of day affecting the ultimate outcome of what color Alcremie you’ll get. No matter what, the end result is the cutest food-themed Pokémon yet.

23. Shedinja

Finding this Pokémon on my own as a kid was such a fun surprise. The Nincada I’d lovingly raised evolved, but I got not just one evolution but some weird shedded husk? Fucking awesome. Ghost types really have some of the most inventive designs in the whole series, and this one hit point wonder is a shining example of that.

22. Archeops

If there wasn’t an image limit on posts, I could fill up a list with fossil Pokemon as I love almost all of them. But my favorite of them all is definitely this awkward, struggling proto-bird that hits like a truck until it gets too many boo-boos and just gives up. It’s kind of relatable.

21. Iron Valiant

As much as I prefer the Paradox Pokemon in Scarlet to the ones in Violet due to their more wild designs, my favorite Paradox of all is one of the robots. It’s a very unique design among its cybernetic brethren, incorporating elements of both Gardevoir and Gallade into one awesome ‘mon. It’s quite literally the best of both worlds, and the colorless shiny version looks even better.

20. Salazzle

For a series with such a massive furry fandom, it’s honestly pretty impressive they managed to have the restraint to avoid creating a deliberately sexy design for six generations. And when they finally caved in the seventh, they made that design a venomous, fire-breathing succubus salamander. I love this stupid sexy lizard, especially that stunning shiny.

19. Chandelure

Some people hate the Pokémon based on inanimate objects, which I’ve always found stupid; a good chunk of Pokémon are based off of Yokai, and guess what a lot of Yokai are? My favorite of this brand of Pokémon is definitely the killer chandelier ons, another example of how Ghost types get all the coolest designs.

18. Meloetta

Such a simple yet elegant design for this mythical ‘mon. I really wish its gimmick was a bit more useful in combat, but when you look as good as it does it’s forgivable.

17. Milotic

The elegant, defensive counterpart to the rough, offensive Gyarados, Milotic was almost always a bitch and a half to acquire in the older games, but damn if they weren’t worth the effort of fishing up a Feebas!

16. Scizor

How do you make a mantis-velociraptor hybrid monster even cooler? Make it turn into a red steel mantis monster that can dish out and tank hits better than ever. Easily my favorite Pokémon introduced in the

15. Gardevoir

Look, Gardevoir has a bit of a reputation on the internet, but that's not the reason I love it. I've adored it since I was a little kid, playing Sapphire for the first time and adding this pretty Psychic being to my team to help me crush my foes. It's such a beautiful, elegant creature, and contributes a great deal to my overwhelming adoration of the Fairy type after retroactively being given it.

14. Hatterene

Gen VIII got its very own Gardevoir in this beautiful witchy Fairy, but there's a bit of a twist here; where Gardevoir loves and guards its trainer with its life, Hatterene will beat the ever-living shit out of anyone it senses is experiencing strong emotions. It's much more in line with mythical fairies than a lot of its kin, and the fact it's a pretty tough fighter only makes it more appealing to me. Love a girl that's both beautiful and deadly.

13. Roserade

I was always a big fan of Roselia even back as a kid, but I was a bit sad at how it wasn't really a viable fighter. Thankfully, I only needed to wait a single generation for that problem to be solved with a gorgeous evolution. Gen IV really knocked it out of the park with improving old 'mons with great new evolutions, but Roselia got the best of the bunch in my eyes.

12. Tinkaton

This is a Pokemon that just about everyone loves, but how can you not love it? It's a violent little gremlin with a hammer three times as big as its body that loves to antagonize birds by knocking rocks into the sky. The best Fairy Pokemon combine cute designs with those mischievous folkloric fairy antics, and Tinkaton is the best mix of those around.

11. Deoxys

As a kid, I saw a rumor back on the internet saying that if you watched the rockets in Mossdeep City enough times, eventually you'd get to ride one to the moon and battle Deoxys. I laughed this off, thinking this was a fake rumor for a fake Pokemon... and then the movie Destiny Deoxys, one of my favorites of the series, dropped, and I was in that space station every day hoping to go to the moon. I'd have to wait til Gen VI for that dream to be realized, but this bizarre alien virus has always remained one of my favorite Pokemon regardless of how hard to acquire it tends to be.

10. Lurantis

I love how clever it is conceptually; it's a reverse orchid mantis, a plant pretending to be a bug. And it's a very cute plant at that! I don't care if its slow as molasses like nearly every other Alola Pokemon, Lurantis is an absolute cutie and I'm happy it has consistently made the cut even with the Pokedex being trimmed in the newer games.

9. Blaziken

My first ever starter, and one that will always hold a special place in my heart. It's hard not to love an actual fighting cock in a series accused of being superpowered cockfighting.

8. Zeraora

Probably one of the least popular mythical Pokemon out there, but if Zeraora has only one fan, I am that fan. There's just something about its design that really appeals to me, and no, it's not just because I'm a furry.

7. Ceruledge

Ghosts just really have the best designs. A living suit of armor that's also on fire and has flaming ghost swords for hands? Literal perfection.

6. Pyukumuku

Yet another bizarre gimmick Pokemon, in the vein of Shuckle or Wobbuffet as it learns no attacking moves and has pitiful offensive stats in return for sky-high defenses. This little gimmick creature is absurdly adorable compared to those two though, and it fights by barfing up its insides in the form of a giant fist. Plus, it has the best green shiny ever, going from a mere sea cucumber to a sea pickle.

5. Volcarona

Tyranitar and Hydreigon are the Godzilla and Ghidorah of Pokemon, but the trifecta is not complete for that all-out attack without Mothra. Enter Volcarona, the best and most beautiful Bug in the series. It's got absurdly high stats, an incredibly fluffy design, and an absurdly high level requirement to evolve, but boy is it ever worth it.

4. Obstagoon

The only good Gene Simmons ever did for the world is inspire this upgrade for the oft-forgotten Linoone. Of course, much better than its KISS-inspired base color is its shiny alt, which is a garish glam rock/Bowie-esque bright red and blue goon.

3. Meowscarada

I'm usually the type who starts off with a Fire starter, or on rare occasions the Water one. I almost never start with a Grass one... but Scarlet was the exception, because this gorgeous trickster stage magician cat is just too fucking cool to pass up on.

2. Cinderace

God, I love Cinderace. It has such a sleek, cool design that makes it my favorite Fire/Fighting starter despite not even having the Fighting type. It's nimble, acrobatic, and can kick your ass into next Sunday, but it doesn't have that bitch of a type combo despite all signs pointing to it. What a funny bunny.

1. Absol

Absol, and especially its Mega Evolution, are the very best Pokemon to me. I love their design, I love their tragic backstory that over the years has come to acknowledge how the Pokemon has become widely beloved by the fanbase... I trained one up to level 100 back before the Phsyical/Special split, and in those days this thing was next to useless in a fight. That's how deep my love for this Pokemon goes.

[pokemon-ash-aus]

I also had the soft nice thought of obviously later after graduating with degrees ect Peach gets her own Iab maybe with prof oak help and invites her friend over to see and also cause well lore time she supposes, so Peach shows her her lab and the friend is just so thrilled for her like "Oh my Arceus....Peachyy this is brilliant!! You absolutely deserve this wow" just hell YEA friend is doing well! Friend is getting good things!! She's just really happy for Peach and knows Peach absolutely deserves all these good things without a shadow of a doubt like dang you really earned this bestie

And Peach is just lmao letting her friend admire the equipment and space ect before confessing that there's something else she wants to show her and the friend is just oh there's more?? You got a basement? Did you get your fossil ressurection license already??? Do you have the machine??

Just being a bit of a nerd and Peach laughs lightly telling her to settle down ya great nerd as if they both aren't nerds before dropping Transform and revealing her mewtwo form and friend is *buffering processing dial up noise* before kinda just "wow you're beautiful" because brain empty but friend be pretty!!! Cause she's probably always loved Peach in a bestie way absolutely gassed her up a lot lmao cause she thought she was wonderful and pretty and a kind caring soul. Before being like "ah sorry that was probably rude! Thank you for showing me for sharing?" like how the fuck does one respond to this internally like 'thank you for sharing?? What with the class?? Is this kindergarten or something silly bitch?' just mentally regretting sentence while also her science brain is running a thousand miles a minute cause what does this mean?? Before like emotional brain hits it with a stick because that's our FRIEND we don't have to understand!! She's shown us and we're grateful

Peach can probably half see the smoke of her friends brain being confused but she can hear her thoughts basically saying doesn't matter is friend and she was probably already pretty comfortable if she shared this.

Then the friend proceeds to lmao ask zero follow up questions at all about it like welp this is how it is now XD and Peach is probably kind of amused because she's always been pretty dang respectful in that way probably playfully bumps into her like "you're really curious and you wanna know more don't you?"

And she's just "ahhh I'm sorry I dooooo but you're my friend and that'd be really rude to do thatttt" and Peach just laughs and gives her permission to ask

I think at one point the friend asks like where Peach's lisp and stutter went because she'd have swapped to telepathy and Peach explains and friend is kinda like oh makes sense, while missing her actual spoken voice but not saying because she respects Peach chose to switch cause she must prefer telepathy so shes in no right to like bring it up last thing she wants to do is make Peach uncomfortable or self conscious or anything

If in an alternative had seen two Pepper before seeing two Peach she would be like OH THINGS MAKE A LOT MORE SENSE NOW.

But lmao since she hasn't seen two Pepper yet things make LESS sense like where did the child come from then??? Though the random electric shocks she got folding Peach's laundry on laundry day makes sense now!! And the Psychic stuff

Peach probably vaguely admits that yes her brothers are like her but doesn't say more as well not her place to tell and they're probably visiting later so friend can see for herself and honestly she's probably honestly really touched by the gesture that Peach is letting her into her world for a second time and is just like really appreciative, probably awkwardly jokes like "I should've gotten you a plant" and Peach just snorts because what is it with you and getting fucking plants for people's houses oh my god. But it's a good tension breaker and shows they're really still on the same page

It DEFO takes a long time for Peach to even remotely drop her disguise around friends. It took her almost 9 years before she dropped it around Daisy. So more than likely the friend would know more about Ash and Indigo before Peach was okay enough to drop her disguise!

BUT! She would let her know (Hey Im a Pokemon, and i just use transform) before switching over to mimicked Telepathy.

[lazyrabbit755]

Ok so I finished Wednesday...

So first of all I wanna start by saying I really liked the series. I'm gonna go into detail about what I liked and didn't like and what I want to see improved in later seasons (assuming there are any). But overall no matter my criticisms overall I really liked the show as a whole! You might be asking yourself why I'm not just writing a review on IMDB or something? To which my reasoning is that this is my little blog and I am going to exercise my right to rant about my stupid little obsessions on the internet as much as I want!

Just a heads up I am going to go into spoilers so I would highly encourage you to watch the show first and come to your own decisions before reading what some rando on the internet has to say about it. Now with that out of the way, let's get into it...

The Good:

Obviously the art direction is great, I mean it's Tim Burton directing an Addams Family reboot, that's a match made in heaven! The characters were wonderful, I honestly think they carried the show imo. Eugene and Thing were some standouts to me although of course Bianca, Enid and Wednesday were my favorites. I just really feel like Eugene was like the MVP and like was consistently one of the nicest characters both to Wednesday and the other characters (although the scene where he barfs all over the pilgrim bullies was kinda dated, really felt like I was watching an early 2000s movie making fat jokes in poor taste) The music score was lovely it really sold the whole "Goth Girl Hogwarts" vibe which I don't mean as a jab towards Goths cause I'm obviously here for that or I wouldn't be writing about this show.

The not so good:

Tbh the whole teen romance subplot wasn't doing it for me. I mean I get why they wrote it in but it felt kinda forced at times ngl. Like having Wednesday go back and forth between Tyler and Xavier, (the two most boring "straight guy" names of all time btw) after a while it felt like writers ran out of excuses on why Wednesday would be leaving one of the boys hanging while pursuing the other. Yes a lot of people have complained about how boring in general Xavier and Tyler were as characters and I agree! You had on one had an artsy loner boyfriend who has psychic abilities and the power to LITERALLY MAKE HIS DRAWINGS COME TO LIFE and they managed to make him uninteresting and kinda unlikable (that last one being more subjective to myself but you get the point). And on the other hand a literal serial killer boyfriend who turns into a 10ft tall monster with a mommy kink. And like just saying the whole idea that Laurel controls Tyler because she told him the truth about his mother also being a Hyde was kinda weak. Like just say the kid has mommy issues!

In all honesty the main gripe that I have with the show is actually about Wednesday herself. She didn't really get that much character development throughout the season. YES her relationship with Enid was very cute and I love Enid...BUT...the show even acknowledges that Wednesday is kinda a jerk to her friends. Enid straight up tells her to her face that she doesn't like the way she treats her, bringing her along to dangerous investigations and tricking her with the promise of a girls night out. And before we knew that Tyler was the real killer he was in the same boat. I mean she leads him on prioritizing herself first and her investigation and uses him to get what she wants. Same with Xavier who REALLY got the short end of the stick getting PUT IN FUCKING JAIL (even if it was only for a night or so). It felt like towards the second half of the season that Wednesday was going through a series of selfish decisions and having characters highlight them to her face so that she could reflect on her bad actions and grow as a character. But instead of giving us that payoff she literally doesn't grow OR APOLOGIZE to basically anyone! And when she does apologize it's weak as hell! Instead most of the characters she treats like crap come to her and apologize or attempt to rekindle their relationship. I MEAN FOR GOD'S SAKE Enid literally tells Wednesday TO HER FACE, that she is the one making most of the effort in their friendship and instead of apologizing, Wednesday just tells her she doesn't need friends and that she's a gigachad alpha. And Enid just comes back like an episode later and has a change of heart. And her "apology" to Xavier was just pathetic. He just sorta forgave her for everything after being justifiably pissed the fuck off at her for ruining his life and then suddenly forgives her for everything because she took an arrow to the shoulder for him.

Like it feels like the writers ran out of time or something, like they wanted her relationship with Enid and the other characters to have more depth. Like most of the other side characters have at least decent character development arcs, like Enid and Bianca standing up to their Mothers. The thing is I like Wednesday as a character, contrary to what you might have just read I want to root for her! But the writers made it a bit hard towards the end. I know they wanted to sell the whole Goth girl, raven from teen titans, attitude but it's ok guys you can make her a little more likable.

Conclusions:

You may think that I have been a bit harsh or nitpicky about the show. Or perhaps you're thinking "Why the hell did this loser nobody write several paragraphs about some dumb teen drama Netflix show" to which my response is why are you still reading? YES I'm probably a bit harsh on this series or nitpicky but that's because I like it so much! When something that you enjoy is so close to being "perfect" (or at least really well done) it's all the more disappointing when it just barely falls short. If your favorite sports team loses by one point right before the final whistle you're even more crushed that you would've been if they had lost by 8 points.

To conclude despite the cheesy teen romance plot lines and boring ass love interests, I enjoyed my time with this show and if there are more seasons to come (which it's looking like there will be considering the success of the show) I want to see the show do better and improve upon it's previous seasons.

If you read all that borderline incomprehensible word vomit here's a gold star 🌟 you deserve it. 👍 And hey, Thanks for stopping by! I hope you have a great rest of your day/night and if you watched the show lemme know if you agreed with some stuff I said or you think I'm fucking insane for caring so much and writing all this. Either way it's just a show at the end of the day. :)

[fizzingwizard]

At last I caved and am watching new!Xmen 97. Two eps in so far.

The animation is good, it really is... They leaned into the retro style but cleaned up and it looks great. But so far there's next to no atmosphere (except for Storm's bits lol). Even in the middle of the night everyone's lit up bright as day lol. Pet peeve of mine.

Also I really wish western animators would learn a little about dynamic storyboarding from anime. Especially since the faces can be so unemotional, it's important to let body language, lighting, and framing convey what they won't use faces for so they won't look "unmanly"

When the voice actors are talking about normal stuff, they sound awesome. When they're talking about X-men stuff, they sound like they stepped out of the 90s yesterday. Lol. Makes me batty. That one scene where Jean's like "I remember when all of existence was on the brink of destruction and there was Scott" and then segues into some nice female support group with Ororo is a good example.

The jokes are funny. Like they are actually funny you guys x'D Wolvie vs Scott has me in stitches. Beast of course has the best lines. Gambit's pretty good too.

Scott makes a really good show these first couple episodes. I'm enjoying him. He's a lot like X-men Evo Scott. Animated Scotts are always so chipper compared to comics Scott, but at least he's not all burnt out like WatXM Scott or all one note like movie Scott.

They let Jean fight while pregnant! I mean... she was just sitting there using her psychic powers... but still. She fought while pregnant! lol.

When she went into labor I thought it was a missed opportunity for some peak humor. Like they got a good start with Wolvie being her only option for getting her to the hospital, and then the chaos on the ride over was funny. But they ruined it by making half the team just quit fighting and go to the hospital. Of course it's important for Scott to be there, but... Honestly I think it would've been funnier if Jean had no one but Logan. Also Rogue saying "what if I touch the baby by accident" kinda baffled me because no one should be touching a newborn, let alone the mother, without gloves...

Morph upsets me xD In a nice way, I guess. Like they're clearly a stand in for Deadpool. Yes, comics Morph is also like that, but still... they're here to be this universe's Wolverine's Deadpool. And they haven't even had that many good lines yet! I'm sure there'll be more as the season goes on but. Then they even cheer up Logan with not only a six pack of beer but a good old bout of wrestling? CMON THAT'S LOGAN AND KURT'S THING. lol. I'm so offended. No not really. But kinda. Anyway. Morph is sweet even though they've stolen Crawler's role with the beer and the friendly fisticuffs and the insecurity etc etc.

For a less extremely personal and subjective opinion on Morph... I actually am slightly bugged that they're here only because their power is morphing. So the X-men have got Rogue, who can imitate anyone's power once she absorbs it, and Morph, who can just imitate anyones power by morphing. If they have limits in this show it's not clear as of yet. So that is too much power on the X-men if you ask me. Can they not just morph into Juggernaut or something? It is really challenging to balance all X-men powers and use them logically. I feel like you shoot yourself in the foot by tossing in too many of the overpowered types.

I LIKE MORPH OKAY I DO. DON'T COME FOR ME. I'M JUST A DEPRIVED X-FAN FROM YER MOM'S GENERATION OKAY

On a very positive note, I'm thrilled that it's only two episodes in and almost everyone on the cast has stuff to do! Scott and Jean obvs - Magneto and Xavier - Jubilee and (potentially) Roberto - Rogue and Gambit (to be fair Gambit's not really happened yet but the seeds are planted with his crush on Rogue and her involvement with Magneto) - and of course Storm. I'm kinda nervous right now because 97!Storm is one of the best Storms ever, and if she's depowered and gone from the team for long the show will really miss her... But that was a great story arc for her in the comics and I'm really hoping it pans out well in this season too.

notice I didn't mention Wolverine. Well Wolverine's always involved in stuff. I don't have to worry about him lol. I'm happy to let someone else be more relevant to the story for a while.

So the hits keep coming and they don't stop coming, which is great, because everyone has something to do, but is also nuts, because boy the show moves fast. Take a breather ffs. It's EPISODE TWO lmao.

Overall I guess it's what I would have expected from a sequel to the old TAS series, but also rather better than what I would have expected. So that's pretty great.

[avernale]

Have You Seen These New Pokémon? Have you SEEN Them?

I'm going to have to start tagging these so I can find them easier. I haven't done a proper HYSTNP since Grafaiai, apparently, and I had to search by the Pokémon's names to confirm. Another one has just been revealed, so let's see all the ones I've missed real quick.

Maybe I've posted about this one. I know I've talked about it elsewhere. It was revealed in a Japan-only stream of Pokémon scientists or something viewing footage of Pokémon in Paldea. Then they see this thing and are utterly confused and discussing whether or not it's a Paldean Diglett. Nope! It's Wiglett, a Water-type Pokémon that just bears a striking resemblance to Diglett.

I imagine a lot of people think this is a lazy design. I have to wonder how many different faces they went through before giving up and using Diglett's. Or if that was the plan all along. Either way, I feel like this is Game Freak trolling us. It's like one of those Garry's Mod videos where they stretch and distort characters for a joke (and probably can't animate them properly).

When I saw it first in the video's thumbnail, I thought it was merely Paldean Girafarig. Nope! It's Farigiraf, its new evolution! I don't see how this justifies having a palindrome for a name in and of itself, but okay. I suppose its four horns could be interpreted as legs if it were upside-down?

I feel like someone created this on accident while messing with Girafarig's model and accidentally inverted its back half. The result kinda looks like an astronaut, though I would've given that honor to a Flying type. This Pokémon instead remains Normal/Psychic. I suppose its Cud Chew ability, which allows it to eat the same berry twice, is interesting.

Might as well discuss the Electric Gym Leader Iono a bit. She's a V-Tuber. Well, in-universe she's a streamer, but to us she might as well be a V-Tuber. I have to wonder if they intend to use her as a V-Tuber going forward. Hopefully not in anything I'd be inclined to watch, because I already find her annoying. I mean, she's a great character and all, but she's a little too high-energy for me.

Also, have you noticed the name puns? If you haven't, you've probably been pronouncing her name wrong. It's "Eye-On-Oh," like "Ion" (an atom or molecule that holds a charge) or, more importantly, "I dunno." Like in her catchphrase, "Whozawhatsit? Iono!", or her game, "Who's Iono's Partner? I'unno!" I notice people pronouncing it "Ee-On-Oh," and it annoys me a little. You don't have to wait for an official English pronunciation! It's right there in the captions!

When I saw Bellibolt in the thumbnail, I didn't think it was very interesting. Then Iono pointed out its "nostrils" are its real eyes, and for some reason I found it's design way more interesting. It's some kind of plasma ball avocado frog, and I am here for it. Will I put it in my party? I'unno! Maybe if I run into it soon enough.

And, finally, the latest reveal. Some PokéPundits were invited to a hands-on demo, and some mentioned seeing a new Pokémon that the NDA wouldn't allow them to elaborate on. I haven't checked to see if this was it, though, so I have to wonder.

Greavard is a great name. I assume it's a portmanteau of "Grave" and "Bernard," though it's not nearly as big as a Saint Bernard. It appears to prey on unsuspecting travelers by draining their energy as they play with it.

I feel like I've seen this exact design somewhere before. Like in a Hannah-Barbera cartoon or something. I can imagine they're at least an influence. A lot of cartoon dogs, usually bloodhounds and sheepdogs, have hidden eyes like that, but I feel like the whole thing is giving me déja-vu.

So what's my planned team look like now? Let's see...

Quaxly - "Señor Quacks" Ralts - "Señora Carena" Cyclizar/Miraidon - "Señor Huffy"/"Saint Akira" Ceruledge - "Señor Crisis.EXE" Klawf - "Señor Crabs" Wildcard

Honestly, the last two slots may as well be wildcards. It took me too long to remember Klawf, and I'm not sure if I'm as into it as I was when it was revealed. I don't know how long I should keep those slots open, though, but I also want to try and avoid rotating Pokémon in and out of my party like I seem to do every generation.

Also, I've decided to include nicknames this time around. I like to come up with a naming convention sometimes. A lot of Pokémon I caught in Shield have names that end in "-ington" or "-sworth" or begin with "Sir," though for Legendaries and Mythicals I use the title of "Lord" (and a few have "Lady") and Ultra Beasts have "Prince" or "Princess." In Legends Arceus, I end their names with the archaic Japanese honoriffic "-dono," except for Legendaries and Mythicals, which get "-sama." And Alphas get α (the lower-case of the greek letter alpha) at the beginning of theirs. And shinies I generally try to give astrological or sci-fi names.

Since Paldea is generally based on Spain, Portugal, and the general Iberian peninsula area, I thought I'd go with "Señor" or "Señora" based on gender (probably shortened to "Sr"/"Sra" to save space) and "Saint" for Legendaries. I also considered a system revolving around Tera types (in Shield, I gave Gigantamax-capable Pokémon, and sometimes ones I just caught in Max Raid Battles, names with "Max" in them), but I thought that might be too complicated for a mechanic that might not extend beyond this generation. Especially since it applies to every Pokémon in this game, whether you caught it there or not. (And I'm still expecting a reveal of bespoke Terastallized forms, too. Ulterastallization! Make it real!)

Well, that's all I have to say for now. I'm sure I'll have more to say when more Pokémon are revealed, but that remains to be seen.

[ultralaser]

i'm just gonna go ahead and spoil the fuck out of hellboy 2019 bc it's awful and i can't think of a good reason not to

thomas haden church shows up as lobster johnson! but he looks ridiculous, like, a cheap halloween costume version compared to, say, the period costumes in captain america or wonder woman. and he has NO SET UP so he just comes off like a joke, it's not, oh this is a wierd noir pulp hero in **gotham city**, it's, lobster johnson, nazi hunter. is hellboy a world with cool superheroes, and if so, why isn't hellboy one of them? is he an x men now? idk it doesnt work tho

baba yaga shows up! she has a house on chicken legs that's rendered beautifully, but then she has one of the worst face prosthetics i've ever seen, it literally looks like a cheap monster mask from party city. so much for the grace and elegant spookiness of a doug jones suit, this baba yaga mask can't even lip sync well

guy davis kaiju demons show up! but they aren't, cool, they're just, they have as much screen time as the ogdru jahad in hellboy 04, but they show up and start just gruesomly killing ppl, like same with thr giants fight earlier on, the movie uses the r rating to push a lot of just dismemberment, disembowelment, graphic bodily harm, it's gross and mean and dumb and out of character for the comics. therr's the helicopter shot of the tall man walking through the tower bridge, then two bat demons fky up in front of him and tear someone in half and all their guts fall out. what? why

king arthur and merlin show up! merlin is, christian for some reason? and king arthur is boring. this sequence is nearly saved by ian mcshane's narratiom, but not really. witches bad, she created a plague but not, the plague? england is the most important place in history, blah blah, no. king arthur legend of the sword does more with excalibur as a magic artifact, and drunk merlin from transformers the last knight is way more compelling than Christian Merlin, warrior for god

they do the quick ww2 origin flashback, ala thomas and martha wayne, joe chill, pearls. kroenen is there and looks bad, ilsa looks fine, rasputin, tbh feels like they got the same actor who did a poor job in 04, he's generic in a boring way, the whole scene is unnecessary

okay, so, then halfway! through, after hellboy has been sent to england to help the rebel general from rogue one, and they name their perennial giant hunt 'the wild hunt', and they all betray hellboy and stab him with a bunch of spears, and are killed brutally by giants, and then hellboy brutally kills the giants, and is rescued by new girl, who talks to ghosts and was rescued by hellboy from being replaced by a fairy changeling (who is back, running around putting milla back together after king arthur dismembered her and locked her still-living pieces in boxes around england?), and hellboy both knows her from all along but also hasnt been back since, and knows shes a psychic but also hasnt seen her since she was a baby, depending on the scene?

THEN finally daniel dae kim's ben daimio shows up, and he's NOT EVEN IN THE BPRD, he's with british intelligence, and he takes hank's anti-mutation polyjuice serum from days of future past to repress his were-jaguar form, and he has a special gun designed to KILL HELLBOY because he doesnt trust him not to be the actual devil, despite, HIMSELF, being cursed with a monstrous destiny

the scene in the trailer with hellboy, new girl, and daimio on a bprd mission, with hellboy punching daimio to activate his hulking out? THAT'S IN THE **SIX MONTHS LATER** EPILOGUE. the movie ENDS with the three of them finding abe sapien

so this whole thing? is a fucking ORIGIN STORY. it is EVERY SUPERHERO MOVIE FROM 78 TO IRON MAN TWO, it is ONE HERO, ALONE, IN A WORLD WITH NO OTHER HEROES. it's not even the x-men because they're not recruiting hellboy to join their team, it's like if the x-men were just xavier and logan and a nunch of fbi guys.

meanwhile, ddk and new girl are both americans doing british accents, david harbour is still playing hellboy as a 75 year old teenager, and ian mcshane, bless him, is just playing ian mcshane

also, just, i think the intent was for harbour to play it as the stone right hand is just really heavy? but it ends up looking like a cosplayer who misjudged the weight of his prop hand an hour into the con. i want to say del toro did a better job of making it look like, this is actually hellboy's hand, and not, this is ron perlman wearing a wierd prosthetic.

and also, amazing advances in prosthetic technology aside, why didnt they just get dave bautista, if they wanted surly hellboy, or dwayne johnson, if they wanted comic accurate charming hellboy, because neither of those dudes would have needed a muscle suit. hellboy ends up (AGAIN) looking like one of the fucking dwarves in the hobbit, who wore fat suits to look like they were built like john rhys davies, but if they turn their head wrong you can see their prosthetics floating like trump's wig

have the balls to give him his wierd jawline from the comic, or don't fucking bother

okay, okay. OKAY. so, you guys remember the BLOOD TORNADO from blade one, the 'original ending' on the dvd where frost turns into a whirling vortex of blood, and they superimpose the dorff's torso just kind of leaning out of it? and it looked awful both because it's super fake anyways but also unfinished? so, there is an EXTENDED scene where professor mcshane comes back as a ghost, and it's ian mcshane's head pasted onto a super fake ectoplasm tail coming out of new girl's mouth (which also, gross), and they forgot to give him a neck, and he's naked? and it's awful and only not laughable bc, frankly, ian mcshane is a treasure and spends the whole moving swearing a lot

and honestly, the most annoying part is that hellboy 19 cribs the ending from hellboy 04 where hellboy is about to give in to his cursed destiny and join team evil, until some white dude says 'no, stop, you have a choice thanks to your father'

hellboy popped into our plane in 1944 and it is 2019, dude is SEVENTY FIVE YEARS OLD. he is smarter than this shit, or at least, old enough to know better. i'm half his age and i can tell when someone is not negotiating in good faith.

and at least in 04 he was doing it to save liz, in the new movie witch milla ALREADY KILLED IAN MCSHANE and it still takes ghost mcshane to cuss hellboy out back to team good, talking him into using EXCALIBUR to rekill her instead of, destroying the world

and do they reconcile that EXCALIBUR was the key to the hellmouth, that hellboy pulling the sword from the stone started the biblical apocalypse? that england is the villain here? no, they joke that now hellboy is king.

OMG and i forgot merlin shows up again to tell hellboy HE IS LITERALLY DESCENDED FROM KING ARTHUR. his human witch mother fucked satan in the 1600s and gave birth to hellboy in hell, and then four hundred years later rasputin and the nazis summon him to earth as he's still a baby. does this make sense? no. is it comics canon. idk, who cares, it's BAD.

this movie is B A D in almost every way, it is amazing how bad it is. it is clearly a 'gritty' remake of the 2004 film, not in any way a new take on the comics. there are FIFTEEN YEARS of new bprd comics put out since that film for these guys to riff on, and they are still fundamentally misrepresenting beloved characters while also just, making up new bullshit.

but when del toro did that, it was del toro's cool bullshit. this is hellboy from the guys who said 'lets have jaime rape cersei on joffrey's tomb'

[charlesjosephwrites]

I'm quite (read: very) curious about The Magician and BGCD. Can I have some fun facts about those WIPs lol—

Oh howdy! I haven't actually spoken about my wips on here in a hot minute, so it's nice to have an excuse to talk about them. Thank you!

The Magician is currently my main wip! I built it around my superhero special interest, so it's the easiest one to get my brain to engage with consistently. I really need to redo the intro I have up for it because it's kind of outdated at this point, but I can still hit you with some fun facts!

This wip is kind of an homage to some classic superhero media like the 60s era Batman show or the old Superfriends cartoon. I just think modern superheroes tend to take themselves way too seriously. (And you can't tell me that this isn't peak supervillain behavior.)

It was originally going to be a more traditional superhero story with Ms. Psychic as the protagonist, but I wrote a couple scenes from April's pov to try to get to know her better, and she just totally stole the show.

I was apparently projecting some of my autistic traits onto April a couple of years before I even knew I that I'm autistic, which I think is pretty cool to be able to look back and see. April's autism diagnosis is technically a spoiler, but whatever. It actually plays a pretty big role in her character arc later on.

It's going to be a trilogy! Incredibly vague spoilers, but book one is about April trying to make it as a big name supervillain through a bunch of wacky antics, and books two and three are going to be all about her redemption arc after some things happen that make her realize that maybe becoming a supervillain wasn't such a great idea.

One of my favorite reoccurring jokes is that most of April's friends turn out to be some flavor of asexual. She's just like, "Yeah, I'm the Magician! Of course I'm great at finding aces!"

This wip has a huge cast and only like two cishets lmao.

April is just such a dramatic little shit, and I love her so much. This bitch really decided that the only real superhero in the whole city is Her Nemesis and spends like half of book one being mad at her for fighting other supervillains.

April is definitely a Dumbass Gay™. This causes So Many Problems while she's trying to hide her secret identity from her girlfriend because she's just so afraid that Claire wouldn't actually like her if she knew the truth. This spirals so far out of control (RIP).

BGDC has actually been on hiatus for a while because I was having major issues with some plot stuff, and it was stressing me out way too much. I think I have a solution to those issues, so I'll probably be working on it again as soon as ADHD brain is cooperative enough to let me fix my outline. If all goes well, it might be my wip for NaNoWriMo!

Anyways, I've got a few fun facts for you!

BGDC actually stands for Be Gay Do Crime because I've been too lazy to come up with a proper title for this wip. (The Magician technically isn't a proper title either rip)

This wip has a way smaller cast than a lot of my other stories. It's been a bit of a struggle for me, ngl, but I guess that's just something that happens with road trip stories.

Juliet's bastardization arc is a very Fun Time. She starts off as a relatively normal person who was just put in a very bad situation, but things just keep spiraling from there, especially as she gets closer to Irene, who is a Very Bad Influence™.

Irene has a metric fuckton of Backstory Trauma™. A lot of it kind of boils down to the fact that she grew up in a tiny religious farm town in Texas in the 70s, which was not a great time or place to be a queer woman.

Irene tries to keep up the gruff serial killer type persona she's got going on, but honestly she softens up a ton when Juliet's around. She's just,,,, Very Gay.

I've got some fun Crimes planned for this wip! There's some murder, some bank robbery, some good old fashioned running from the police, but I think my favorite would have to be that super gay jewelry store heist where steal engagement rings for each other. It's a weirdly sweet moment.

[youremyonlyhope]

I bought a tarot deck for myself.

Because why not? Because my mental state is crazy right now. Because while I joke I'm psychic it's not always a joke but also I'm a skeptic so really why not mess around with tarot?

Well. The first few spreads I did, I got the Seven of Rods in more than half of them. And I was honestly starting to get a little annoyed that I was apparently shuffling so badly that this card just kept coming.

So. After the last time, I was shuffling again, probably too aggressively, and I mumbled out loud "I just don't understand why you keep showing up."

As I said that, I almost dropped the deck, but managed to catch all the cards except one. I joking said as I picked up the card "Oh, I bet the Seven of Rods was the one who hopped out." and I turned the card over.

It was the Seven of Rods. Of course.

I think I got confused and it was actually the Seven of Swords. Either way that card seems to haunt me.