#some themes and new characters and devil fruits were really interesting

[zosanbrainrot]

could you draw Chopper? please

I have a lot of things that I'm procrastinating on so ofc I'm gonna draw for asks, that makes perfect sense

anyway, I saw film Gold recently and one of the things I liked was Chopper's outfit he had in the beginning!

[superectojazzmage]

Just back from Alien Romulus and hoooo boy oh boy. Review/analysis.

Easily the best Alien movie since the first two, which isn't saying much, yeah, but it is legit a really cool and well-made movie, competing with Late Night With The Devil, Longlegs, and Cuckoo for title of my favorite horror movie this year.

In a lot of ways it's about harvesting the few good ideas from the post-2 movies that were squandered and doing them right, plus getting the series back to it's healthier roots, kinda the movie equivalent of someone doing physical therapy to get back in the saddle after an injury. This means it's not quite brand new ground like some may hope for and I've heard some people feel it gets a little derivative at points because of it. I can kinda agree and certainly understand that criticism, but I feel it does what it's aiming for really well and sets things up for future works to go in even crazier directions. Furthermore, it takes a lot of time to try and weld together the disparate post-2 movies in a way that brings the series back to a little coherency.

The atmosphere is really intense and cool, swinging between lovecraftian dread and build-up and high-energy chaos. The aesthetics and special effects are gorgeous, taking full advantage of the progress that technology has made since 2 plus really digging in to the used cassette future vibe of the older films. The characters are likable and actually intelligent (or at least understandable) in behavior like in the first two movies, so you care about what's happening to them instead of just waiting for them to get munched. The action and kills were really cool and creative, the cinematography in general was off-kilter in an awesome way - there's a definite attempt to make the movie feel claustrophobic and intimate. Fede Alvarez did a fantastic job in general, I'd love to see him do more with the series.

It REALLY cranks up the series' psychosexual, freudian, and sexual assault subtext, arguably to a point where it's just plain text. So if you're sensitive to stuff like that or if this is your first go at Alien, be warned for that.

More specific notes go under the header for spoilers. Highly recommend you go in as blind as you can.

Andy and Rain were wonderful leads, their dynamic was fantastic and Calie Spaeny and David Jonsson both turned in great performances. I direly hope they join the first two films' casts as "major" characters for the series going forward.

The effects to make Daniel Betts look like Ian Holms were quite possibly the one and only time the special effects failed. It looks very wonky, which is sad because Betts does a really good job copying Holms' mannerisms for Ash while still making Rook feel like a distinct character.

In addition to the usual themes of sexual unease, genetics, and parenthood, this movie adds in some really interesting themes of familial legacy, the rise of new generations, foundations, etc.. Andy and Rain are like Romulus and Remus of myth, orphaned and left to fend for themselves but growing into founders of a new age - both in-story with their carrying the XX121 substance and evidence of Weyland-Yutani's misdeeds to Yvaga and out-of-story with them being the protagonists of a new era for Alien. Likewise, the Offspring is the first example of an entirely new species, neither human nor alien but taking from the lineages of both through Kay and Big Chap, a Romulus-like founder of it's breed that will later bear fruit in Resurrection with the Ripley clone and Newborn.

I'm really not kidding when I say above that the psychosexual undercurrents are taken to the extreme here. This movie basically sees the ways the original film subtly pin-pricked at those themes, says "fuck that", and deliberately rubs it in your face in a way designed to make sure you can't ignore it. It wants you to be grossed out and to squirm in your chair and it knows exactly how to make it happen.

Alvarez noted in the lead-up to release that he took a lot of influence from Isolation and you can definitely see that in how he depicts the Xenomorphs and the general aura of the film. He further described it as a kind of halfway point between the first and second movies and you can also see that; it has the Lovecraft-style tension and horror of the first, balanced with the energy and action of the second, and it does a really good job finding a middle ground between Ridley Scott and James Cameron's styles while also doing it's own dance.

I mentioned way back at the start how the movie basically harvests the good ideas from 3, Resurrection, Prometheus, and Covenant and gives them the room they deserve while dumping the bad. It does that in both terms of themes/style and continuity/lore. Concepts that those movies bungled like xeno-human hybridism, the black goo, genetic engineering as a focus, and so on are done here more creatively and competently. Themes that those films tried and failed to tackle are handled with significantly more grace. It has the atmosphere and characterization of 3 but none of it's baggage and needlessly depressive tone. It has the body horror and weirdness of Resurrection without taking it to the zany, embarrassing areas that movie went. The effects and creativity of Prometheus and Covenant without any of their awful writing and clumsy messages. Alvarez takes on kind of an Al Ewing-esque "repairman" writing style here.

The Xenomorphs are absolutely deranged in behavior compared to most portrayals, attacking like either cruel sadists or raging chimps and rarely bothering to take hosts. I'm not sure if such a reading was intended, but I got the vibe that the idea is Xenos raised without a queen or hive grow to be basically sociopathic like how real world predatory animals grown without parental figures become feral and dysfunctional. Which would also explain a lot about how the Xeno in the original movie, Big Chap, acts there.

The Offspring's design is fucking wicked and I love it.

One of my few major criticisms is that Big Chap died off-screen instead of getting more to do. What was the point of having him be alive at the start if he wasn't gonna be used beyond a backstory point to set up the main story?

All in all, a very impressive effort and a great return to form for the series that I recommend highly.

[sugiwa]

IM FOAMING AT THE MOUTH FROM THIS NEW CHAPTER

everything i could have possibly wanted was here:

penny leveling up, showing her against tashigi and smoker and then immediately after showing her against garp and sengoku INSANE SUGIWA INSANE, her skipping over garp because she’s sentimental <3 and (maybe) she doesn’t want to taint the memory of playful innocence with garp and luffy, mentioning roci, HER LAUGHING, (“Of course, I’m a Bard. I’ve always been one!”), the named attacks!!

“But she also knew something that Shanks often struggled with. They were in the midst of becoming legends too.” SCREAMS

the thought of reading everyone’s reactions to the events of this chapter I CANT WAIT

buggy is tagged in the story but he’s the only character w haven’t had an encounter with yet, is he going to play a major part in penny’s story?

also, we see penny grasp her conquerors but is her devil fruit still unawakened?

is this the point where penny makes a name for herself independent from Shanks? will she now be Bard Penny and no long Akahime?

okay i’ve talked enough. thank you for the new chapter, it’s amazing and i’m so excited to see what this means for penny going forward.

Okay, I'm going to put this under a read-more tab cause my reply is very long!

Hahaha, I contemplated making Penny depressed for a bit and went back and forth here, but I was like, nah, Penny's going to have the time of her life after this. The Navy's going to try and drag her down, but she's going to hold steady. I'm excited for the next chapter cause we have some pretty shocking events. We do see Penny begin to voice some of her grief, but there's a bigger break coming that allows the Straw Hats to step in and that'll be fun.

I think no matter how hard she tries to be otherwise, Penny very very much is the sentimental type and sometimes that sentiment gets in the way of common sense (but also if she attacked Garp, she might've been in Impel Down right now). Sengoku was 100% not expecting to hear Rocinante's name and Penny took a huge gamble with it, which we've seen her do before and kinda shock people with their own past. It's going to be fun to see the moment where that completely and utterly works against her 😂😂

Named attacks--so far, we've gotten one, which was the one she used against Big Mom and we'll come back to that one much later cause I didn't actually show you guys what it does.

Buggy and Penny will meet and it'll go down about as well as you can imagine. Penny has a very loving view of what she considers Shanks' best friend and Buggy just is not fucking expecting it. He's going to play his own part and we'll see more of him than you expect especially in the time skip 👀

So, I'd say Penny's strength with Haki lies primarily in Conqueror's, though she knows the other forms too, she doesn't really have to use it a lot especially in Paradise. She's slowly building herself back up to full strength, which will be needed as we get closer to Sabaody and Ace's execution. If she had remained on Marineford for much longer, she would've 100% fallen to Sengoku and Garp which is why she made a quick and necessary escape after a flashy show of power 😂

As for her Devil Fruit, it's not awakened. And we're going to see that there's moments when Penny kinda contradicts herself about it. She's actually the one who named it the Kopi Kopi no Mi because that was the easiest frame of reference she had as a kid for what it did. And as we know from the first chapter, it's not actually named in the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia, but as Doffy revealed, it's a fruit that the world government is very interested. And this comes to down to a theme that we've seen crop up in One Piece time and time again which is: scarcity of resources. We've seen wars because of it, the Celestial Dragon's greed and most recently their panic over the lost food stores. And Penny's fruit kinda solves all that with a touch of a hand.

As for the name Bard Penny--I still have a big reveal planned. I don't think Sengoku or the Navy necessarily want this spilling out right after she's attacked them, but they won't tie her to Shanks anymore, because this has now officially gone beyond him. We won't see the Akahime title nor her other one used past this point.

Thank you so so much for reading and dropping in my inbox!!

[kaizokuou-ni-naru]

The Voyage So Far: Paramount War (Part Two)

east blue (1 | 2) || alabasta (1 | 2) || skypiea || water 7 || enies lobby || thriller bark || paramount war (1 | 2) || fishman island || punk hazard || dressrosa (1 | 2) || whole cake island || wano (1 | 2)

ace’s execution is, in a way, the exception that proves the rule when it comes to one piece’s themes of blood and family. ace is set up to die for the crimes of a father he never knew and never wanted, and he does die here, but in the end he dies for the family he did choose, in the form of luffy, rather than the one he didn’t. 

god do i wish we knew more about ms portgas d. rouge. with ace’s storyline pretty much wrapped it looks unlikely that we’re going to be learning more about her than what we got, which in my opinion is an absolute tragedy, because what little we do know about her is amazing and she’s an absolute badass. oda give us more female ds please.

whitebeard’s power is so cool. it might be one of the visually coolest devil fruits we’ve ever seen, in my opinion. he he causes earthquakes and tsunamis while far past his prime; he pulls the sky apart with his bare hands. this whole arc is world-shaking, and whitebeard’s power is perfectly appropriate for it. 

doflamingo’s speech on justice and rightness is one of the most well-remembered quotes from this whole saga, and rightly so. i’ve always found it fascinating, myself, because he’s right. he dead-on hits how the one piece world works- the world government and the marines rule the world not because of any inherent actual goodness or justice or right, but because they won a war a very long time ago. 

in a way, this reminds me of blackbeard’s line of “people’s dreams never die” from jaya. i like how oda isn’t afraid of letting his villains be right about the themes of the story, sometimes even having better awareness of them than the protagonists. 

man, if i had to pick a single favorite spread out of the whole manga, it might be luffy’s marineford entrance. it’s so epic, and so completely unexpected for everyone else there. absolutely nobody was expecting strawhat luffy to drop out of the sky with a posse including two former warlords. it just makes me grin!! so much!! 

it also gets followed up by a solid two pages of just people’s reactions, from smoker’s “what the HELL is he doing with CROCODILE” to moria’s immediate incoherent rage, and i just love that the world and cast of one piece is so well-established and built up that we know exactly how all of those people know luffy and why they react the way they do. 

going back to what i mentioned in the last post about marineford being luffy’s conflict of interest arc, i’d say it’s also the only time where he isn’t the future king first and foremost. in this arc, before anything else, he’s a little brother.

there are a lot of what-if moments in marineford. moments where you kind of have to ask “what if this specific thing hadn’t happened, had gone differently?” would things have turned out differently? squard’s betrayal is one of them. does this change the outcome? would whitebeard have been able to survive if not for this injury? there’s no way to know. marineford is a lot of little tragedies, and they just pile up and up.

marineford has just so many incredibly striking spreads. all of the momentous moments (and there’s a lot of them, in this arc) are done full justice. this is such an image heavy post just because marineford is such an incredibly visually strong arc. 

conqueror’s haki is so cool and i love the way it’s set up and built up throughout this saga, with luffy’s constant inadvertent uses of it, from duval’s bull to marigold and sandersonia to the wolves in impel down, all leading up to this moment. 

i’ve heard people complain about conqueror’s as kind of a deus ex machina, but i honestly love it, it’s very cool and honestly i think it just seems to fit luffy as a power. if there was ever gonna be a character who turned willpower into a weapon, it would be monkey d. luffy. 

i’m gonna take this chance to talk about garp, because this sequence of panels is heavily implied to be garp’s thoughts just before luffy punches him down, and it hurts. garp is a flawed person who makes some bad choices, and there’s no arguing that, but i think it’s very obvious he really, really cares about his grandsons, even if he never could understand them as people and that they never would have been happy as marines. and that’s just tragic, really. 

the moment ace gets freed and the brief span of time where he and luffy can fight together feel so triumphant, and i think it’s one of the reasons the final tragedy of marineford hits so hard and feels so cruel, because luffy succeeds, here. he saves ace. he gives absolutely everything he had and makes it, and saves ace. the ultimate failure isn’t his. there was nothing more he could have done. 

the first time i was reading one piece, i hit this page (which is also the last in the volume) and had to put the book away, take the bus downtown, wander around for a few hours, and buy myself some candy and some new books before i started feeling okay again.

the thing about ace’s death, i think, is that it’s a tragedy, but it also feels so completely essential to the story going forwards and luffy’s character growth specifically that it’s really, really hard to imagine one piece without it. there are a lot of (really excellent!) fix-fics out there for marineford, and although those are often really good and their authors super talented, i think it’s really hard for them to ever hit the same way canon does with regards to this. 

i always think of this scene specifically in contrast to zoro and mihawk’s fight, back on baratie. zoro and mihawk are both people who believe in honor in battle, true victory or death, and that’s reflected in their fight, in zoro’s refusal to turn and run even in the face of imminent death, and mihawk’s respect for that resolve. whitebeard, too, is an honorable man. he refuses to turn to run, even when facing certain death. 

the blackbeard pirates, however, are not. 

i do enjoy how, just like roger’s, ace’s execution backfires tremendously on the marines. this was entirely a predictable outcome, too! this exact thing happened twenty years ago! the marines don’t learn. they don’t change. they’re so assured of their own rightness and power that they make stupid mistakes like holding a massive public execution after the last one blew up in their faces. 

(this is why they need coby so badly, for the record, and why it’s important that he still decides to become a marine after witnessing their corruption firsthand in shells town. the marines are long overdue for a reformation, one that orients them towards real justice.)

i really, really enjoy crocodile in this saga. mostly because he hasn’t been redeemed at all, he’s still pretty much the exact same kinda awful person he was in alabasta, he’s just on luffy’s side this time, and it lets us see him in a better light, when he gets angry at whitebeard for nearly dying or when he helps luffy and jinbe escape to keep the marines from getting their way. few of one piece’s characters are truly so one-dimensional as they can seem, and i really appreciate that. 

i really really love all the interactions between luffy, ace and sabo as kids. they’re so fun and bounce off of each other so well. even though we only see them together for a brief time, they really feel like siblings. (which of course only makes later events hurt so much more.

i’ve always been a little fascinated by the fact that it takes us this long to get luffy’s full backstory. it’s almost a fakeout, because we get part of his backstory in the very first chapter, and we’re kind of led to believe that’s all there is. it’s not until ace’s introduction nearly two hundred chapters in that we’re given any indication there’s more.

but at the same time, it makes sense. marineford is luffy’s focus arc, as arlong park to nami or thriller bark to brook. he hasn’t had a focal arc that’s really about him before this, while all his other crewmates have. it makes sense that this would be when he finally gets his flashback. 

i think it’s cool that dragon and the revolutionaries show up at the grey terminal fire, because it’s one of the only looks we’ve gotten so far into what their actual regular operations are like. and, of course, they’re saving people. i really like this about the revolutionaries, that helping people in trouble is basically their modus operandi, when pretty much everyone else in one piece’s world mostly does saving on an incidental basis if at all. 

i think a lot about how the last line of sabo’s letter to ace is also both of their last words to the strawhats. 

death in one piece always feels much realer and more impactful to me than in most other series, and i think this is part of the reason why: in one piece, we are always shown the mourning. nami at bellemere’s grave, carrot grieving pedro, ace and whitebeard’s funeral. 

there are fewer deaths, comparatively, than most other series, but they’re given so much room to echo. we’re still feeling the impacts of ace’s life and death in the most recent chapters of wano. it ties into the theme of inherited will and all the way back to hiriluk’s final speech, of men not being dead so long as they’re remembered. 

the picture of luffy at marineford always kind of strikes me. he looks so young and so solemn, and yet much more himself than he did when we last saw him losing his mind on amazon lily. i really like it. 

sometimes i just think about the sheer depth of trust and love the strawhats must have in each other to separate for two years, far longer than they were ever together, to solely dedicate themselves to improving for the sake of crew and captain. none of them even hesitate, and none of them ever doubt that the crew will be reformed at the end of it.

after all, luffy keeps his promises. 

[wh6res]

“𝑰’𝑴 𝒀𝑶𝑼𝑹 𝑳𝑰𝑮𝑯𝑻, 𝒀𝑶𝑼𝑹 𝑶𝑵𝑳𝒀 𝑺𝑨𝑽𝑰𝑶𝑼𝑹.”

part of the 21 ways to kill your lover collab hosted by the lovely miss solange @du0tine

pairing. entity! xdj & f! reader | word count. 5.4k

synopsis. he wasn’t a god, he wasn’t a devil, and fuck, he’s surely not an angel, but he will be your saviour and your light ‘till kingdome come.

warnings. tread with caution. yandere/possesive themes, religious themes, violence, mentions of gore, swearing, mentions of ptsd, mentions of physical abuse, a lot of character deaths, manipulation, stalking, and implications of suicide

disclaimer. i do not condone whatever tf i wrote in this nor does it reflect my beliefs or values or morals and such. it is all pure fiction and i also dont think xiaojun from wayv would act like this in real life.

a soul’s vulnerability gives him strength. he has scourged far and wide and has yet to encounter a soul as interesting as yours. he never thought a heart filled with hatred and a fragile mentality can be such a sweet combination. xiaojun would be stupid not to latch his greedy talons onto you.

he hides in the darkest corners of your room at night, unseen and unheard, just watching over you like a predator to his poor unsuspecting gazelle before diving into the anticipated chase. 

he moves in with you into the cheap apartment you got for yourself here in the big city—which he thinks is an awful move because of how lonely it’ll be. but hey, it wasn’t anyone’s fault that you got chased out of your own home by your stepdad, your very own biological mom too scared to say a peep of defense to your name. 

your downfalls became xiaojun’s highlights. 

he would’ve felt sorry for you after finding out about that abusive old man. ugh, he scowls. your stepdad makes the entity’s blood boil and he doesn’t even have blood to begin with. the same man who holds the bible in his left hand when he preaches sermons for the people, is the same hand he uses to hit you across the face. 

the same hand he uses to pull at your hair. the same hand he uses to punch your gut. the same hand he uses to shove your mom down when she tries interfering. 

xiaojun may hate men of god but above all, he absolutely detests the kind your old man is—a faker, who thinks he can get away with the shit mess he’s making. xiaojun would never take that preacher’s murky soul even if he offered it to the entity voluntarily. fake. fake. fake. fake. fake. xiaojun should’ve killed him. xiaojun should’ve slit his throat. xiaojun should’ve torn his eyes out—

ah, ah, ah.

he can’t afford to make you any less vulnerable than you already are, now, can he? after all, he can be anything you want but he’s no angel. 

so he watched from the sidelines. 

watched you cry. watched you bleed. watched your scars form. watched the hate and resentment you have for your own family fester in your heart until it grew to a size you can’t hide within yourself anymore. 

and then you left home. 

xiaojun has to admit, for a second, maybe leaving home will make your soul unworthy, will break the mold he’s already had of you and will completely spoil his well-thought out plans.

so really, he can only scoff when he watches you walk around the apartment wearing that pretty dress on a sunday morning, darting around with calculated steps to shove everything inside your bag to go to church. the dress hangs nicely against your skin but he’d rather you stay and wear nothing. 

maybe you’d finally find contentment and happiness in this place, in this city, on your own. soaring high without a cage, without someone to hold you back—these things fill his thoughts like a plague until you come barging back into the door 30 minutes later. 

he’s been watching you long enough to know church service wouldn’t end for another 30 minutes or so. xiaojun’s eyebrows quirk up. why would his fragile little gazelle come back oh so early? but his question is immediately answered when he detects your shaky breaths and the unshed tears in your glistening eyes

you’re suffering the post-traumatic effects your shit stepdad has caused. seeing another preacher must’ve been a trigger, he thinks, eyeing you with a look on his face. xiaojun felt a little stupid. of course, swimming to the surface will be tough with all that trauma anchoring you down.

it’ll be tough, indeed… so why not sink you even deeper?

it didn’t take much energy for him to start manipulating your dreams. every nap, every deep sleep, he’d replay all the horrible things your stepdad has done to you and he realizes how dreams depicted from his perspective took a larger toll on you versus the ones from your own point of view—witnessing for yourself how weak and helpless you had been seemed to chip away bigger parts of you, he notices. your terrified screams when waking up in cold sweat getting louder and louder with every passing nightmare.

he pushed, and pushed, and pushed until you were standing right at the edge of sanity. until you start questioning your own self-worth and judgment, the invisible chains of the trauma too strong to break. until your radiant skin looked deathly, with gaunt cheeks and white lips. until you developed a fear of sleeping because no, you don’t want to witness those horrors again. no. no. no. no, please don’t hit me—

xiaojun can’t help but admire his handiwork but no, he doesn’t have time for that! 

the next time you fell asleep you had been desperately holding onto your 5th bottle of gatorade like it was a torch breaking through the darkness. you’ve intake so much of the energy drink that your body has grown used to it. you would’ve switched to caffeine, but from how much you drank it prior to the energy drinks, your blood is practically coffee at this point. 

“you’re living in my house now, young lady! i’d like to see some respect from your or i’ll fucking beat it into you!”

“stop! please. hit me instead, hit me!” 

“this is all your fault, bitch! how can you raise one daughter wrong? no wonder your husband left you!”

murky and black, you can’t even see the bottom at this point. it keeps pulling you down, and down, and down, until you couldn’t breathe. until your head feels light. until your heart beats erratically within your ribcage as you fought to the surface. 

with all the negative emotions surging through you in thunderous waves, it’s a wonder how no other lonesome, starving entity has latched onto you like xiaojun. although realistically, he was here first, as if he’ll let any other being like him go near you.

it took a greater amount of energy to twist and manipulate the plotline of certain events in a dream. if xiaojun hadn’t grown strong from all your negativity, he’d never be able to do it. 

he can never forget the day he first appeared to you in a dream. to have you cling onto him as you willingly took his hand—not that he was caught by surprise, anyway. every second of every hour of every day xiaojun spent plotting your demise has led to this fruitful day of “meeting” you for the first time. 

“i’m right here,” he said, shaking fingers tracing over your cheeks. a soft caress you have never experienced. 

the man in your dreams is someone you’ve never met before—you’re positive that you haven’t because you’d never forget a face as handsome as his. he appears like an angel casted over divine light, with a soft smile that can cure the plague as he offers his hands for you to take. it was beautiful, how your nightmares turned into dreams the moment the mysterious man arrived. 

how’d you ever know, that the hand you grabbed is the wolf in sheep’s clothing?

it’s sad really, how you’ve only managed to escape one horror only to jump into the next but xiaojun can’t find it in himself to feel bad. well, maybe a little, it’s a fleeting thought. something that disappeared as quickly as it had passed by.

it was only after a few weeks of constantly appearing in your dreams did his plan start to backfire. the change in your behavior isn’t subtle, either, and it angered him all the more. he didn’t see this coming, not even from lightyears away.

simple to say you’ve grown a little more… how can xiaojun put this into words? well, a little more outgoing. adventurous. meeting new people and going to new places and experiencing new things. he can see everything as clear as day—you were healing from your past, leaving the dark chapters in your life to write newer and brighter ones that revolved on having actual healthy relationships for once. 

his seething anger of his failed plans had made all the windows in your apartment burst into thousand little pieces. if you had fine china dishes displayed on your kitchen cabinets he would’ve broken those too. how can you go against him like this? look at you all happy and smiley even as the room turned ice cold because of xiaojun’s suffocating presence. you never even thought once about it—how naive. 

tormenting you through dreams isn’t working anymore. xiaojun has to up his game if he wants to break you down and revert you back to that paranoid, sensitive, and frail self that couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep, and couldn’t talk to any other human being without feeling the ghost of your abusive step-father’s hands against your skin. 

who says he can only control you through mind games alone? after he’s done what needs to be done, grief and self-pity will go hand in hand. a combination so cruel and heavy on your shoulders that xiaojun can already savor the metallic tangy taste of victory. 

“no! yeji—!”

xiaojun watches unblinking when he makes one of your new friends walk out the sidewalk and right into an overspeeding car. 

tires skidding across the pavement, the breaks not working, glass shattering, bones cracking against the force of the hit—dead, right on the fucking spot.

he’s never heard you scream that loud and he shudders in pleasure as the vibrations of your shrill voice courses through his veins. 

he missed this, your complete and utter misery. 

but he wasn’t done yet. 

“don’t you think it’s a ‘lil chilly in here?” ryujin asks, looking over to your side before drinking the hot chocolate she prepared for both of you. 

grieving together with a friend can be good, hence why you’re now in her apartment a month later after yeji’s funeral. 

you answer after taking a sip. “no, not really.” 

xiaojun grins, giddy and a skip in his step while making his way towards you as he side-eyes your friend, who religiously drank her hot chocolate all the while bundling up next to you so you both can watch the movie together playing on the laptop. 

this one, well, he particularly doesn’t like this one. 

if your other friend was meant to be a casualty, a death borne from not one smidge of personal vendetta, this one, this ryujin is different. heck, he even remembers her fucking name.

no, no, no. xiaojun can feel his skin crawl as ryujin cuddles intimately closer as she stares at you from her peripheral, feeling out whether you’d react or not as she sneaks an arm around your waist. his anger turns a fever pitch, seeing you with someone else driving him up the wall. you were meant to be his sad and hopeless little gazelle and his alone.

xiaojun hoped the poison travels fast or so help him he’ll fucking rip her off of you—and he would’ve, when he saw you and ryujin slowly leaning into one another, head angled and obviously going in for a kiss. he would’ve, when one of ryujin’s hands come up to cup your face. he would’ve… until the poison reached its destination in her body, right when your lips were about to touch. 

ryujin’s lungs seized, breathing becoming an agent to her demise as the oxygen from her lungs disappear into nothingness. the last thing she saw is your horrified face, tears streaming. she swore you were shouting something, probably her name, but it’s overpowered by the incessant ring in her ears.

when her mouth foamed and she laid limp on the couch right next to you, you knew ryujin would never wake again to give you that kiss. 

xiaojun steps back to admire the havoc he wreaked. two of your friends dead, that should be enough to incapacitate you—whether it be permanent or not, he just wants to see you drown in misery. 

and as he slowly dissipates into the void, there’s a little smile on his face as he stares you down, burning the image of your histeria in his head, the echoes of your woeful cries music to his ears. 

you never dared step foot out of your apartment. 

groceries were delivered to your door, trash is slowly but surely building up, and the place was a whole mess. the entity haunting you has never seen you this… shattered, even when you left home. it was like your brain has stopped working and your body turned into nothing more but a cusp of who you used to be. 

it’s scary looking in the mirror and not recognizing the reflection—so, you painted all of them black. it was an in the heat of a moment kind of thing that took place the moment you came home from the police station, on the exact day she passed away before your eyes. 

xiaojun just has to “misplace” a few pints of paint you had used from when you renovated the apartment in the past, putting the cans where you can easily see them and think that the idea belonged to you when in reality, it’s the entity that put the idea in your head. 

there was a blanket over your shoulder when you came back from the station. it wasn’t yours, they gave it to you while you sat opposite to a stoic detective in a cold interrogation room, yet you made no move to shrug it off even after arriving at your apartment, fingers clutching the fabric like a lifeline and refusing to believe whatever that had transpired in ryujin’s apartment. 

eyes unseeing, stumbling with your steps, back hunched with the curse of the universe weighing down on your back—xiaojun couldn’t’ve been more proud of what he had done.

you were spiraling out of control. a self-destructive cycle you cannot seem to fight your way out of as your nightmares came back to haunt you. the tall waves of anxiety and paranoia drowning and pushing you under the surface. 

for once you don’t fight the current, you just let it pull you under. 

every time you close your eyes, you can hear the deafening screech of rubber tires against concrete before the car hits yeji. can vividly see the foams of the poison coming out of ryujin’s mouth as if it was caught on tape and is now playing on loop. 

your other friends have donned you as bad luck, cursed to have a fucked up life and will fuck up other people’s lives too if they get even as close as an arm length to you. too scared to lose any more people, you decided to completely push everyone away and had completely shut yourself out from the world beyond the four corners of your apartment. 

it’s like your trauma from before has come crawling back to you, only now, he brings himself a little friend called guilt. 

what are the odds that your two friends died after the other when the person they’ve each last spent time with was you? even the police found it too much a coincidence. if it wasn’t for the cctv cams in the corners of ryujin’s apartment, you’d be facing trial for a murder you didn’t commit. 

you eye the usb stuck in one of your laptop’s ports. it’s black, with an srj poisoning case written in red ink on the small patch of masking tape pasted onto the back of the plastic. 

after being stuck in an interrogation room for the last two hours, you had sneakily swiped it out of the detective's desk on your way out of the station. you remembered it was the usb with a copy of ryujin’s cctv cams, some underling busting into the interrogation room while in the middle of your questioning, holding the tiny usb between his fingers. 

your stomach churned when the detective looked at you spitefully, as if he couldn’t fucking care less of the evidence presented to him in a silver platter and would thoroughly take pleasure in throwing you in jail himself, guilty or not. the last look he shot you still sends shivers down your spine, the sharpness in his gaze as he regarded you. “you killed them. i know you did.”

a week of self-induced isolation later and you start to believe in it yourself. 

in the middle of screaming your lungs out and cursing the gods above for your sorry excuse of a life, you had thrown the usb somewhere in the apartment. not that you bothered to look for it right after, you were too busy wallowing in self pity before passing out on the living room floor. when you wake up, you’ve forgotten all about it. 

so it was interesting, seeing the usb again after days and days of wallowing in grief. you had fallen off the couch while in the middle of a slumber and you spotted the small piece of tech lying underneath it with the other empty coke cans. 

eyeing the laptop on the coffee table, you remember you haven’t taken a look at the evidence yourself—the detective had given you the stink eye when you tried shuffling closer to peep a look. carelessly, you shove all other objects off the table to pull the laptop closer. you plant yourself on the ground cross-legged, not batting an eyelash even when you feel the crumbs of chips against your skin. 

you boot the laptop on, thankful you’ve yet to forget its password, and plugged the usb in again. it was simple to navigate, to say the least, the folder popping up in a matter of seconds. you thought it stored a whole collection of her cctv footages but alas, it didn’t, saving you the time and energy scourging through unwanted boring files. 

hands shaking, you clicked on the video. 

and it was as if you’re thrown back into that event in your life that has now become a distant memory. the hug ryujin gave you when she opened the door, her words of comfort when you opened up about your deteriorating mental health after your friend passed away, and finally, the warm feel of the mug against the palm of your hand. 

wait a minute. 

you perk up from your seat, groaning aloud when your knee hits the underside of the coffee table at your haste, fingers darting around to press the back 10 seconds button. the sweat starts forming in your forehead and palms, making your hand feel clammy and disgusting but it was the last of your worries. 

did you see that correctly?

the quality is a bit low and the camera angle isn’t optimal. you can only see ryujin’s side profile but her glassy eyes are unmistakable and her actions look robotic at best. 

this is after she made your hot cocoa and had delivered it to your shivering, sniffling form on the couch, all bundled up snug and cozy in the blanket she provided. you remember ryujin winking as she walked back towards her kitchen after you thanked her. 

the way she poured poison in her own mug ruled her case as suicice. the evidence is right there in your face but the unease still sits heavy on your stomach and confusion clouds your brain like cannabis. 

this doesn’t make any sense. 

you knew her, ryujin. she’s never one to succumb to her negative emotions, always facing her problems with head held high. her overall mindset, in general, made her the last person you’d think would ever commit suicide. you’ve replayed the video a thousand times by now, still unable to wrap your head around the fact that she killed herself. 

having the sudden urge for another bottle of gatorade, you pressed the pause button as you try hauling yourself up with your arms. 

you pause. pushing your face closer to the laptop screen, rubbing at your eyes incredulously as you eye the corner of her kitchen. 

ryujin’s apartment isn’t that luxurious, nor is it too rundown, but there can be little exceptions here and there. 

like the cheap LED bulbs attached rather messily onto her ceiling, one of the six sources of light flickering on and off. you remember how many times you’ve told her to get it fixed yet she never really paid you any heed.

with shaking fingers, you replayed it one more time, hoping on everything you believe in that it wasn’t what it looks like. this can’t be it—how is that possible—

it’s him, the man who has appeared like an angel in your dream to sweep you away from evil. but standing in the corner, under the flickering lights of your friend’s kitchen, he looked anything but an angelic. 

your mind is going haywire, your body shook in confusion, and sweat started dribbling down your neck. you would’ve thought you made a mistake because how is this even possible? the angelic man in your dreams isn’t real—he can’t be real, he can’t appear like this when you aren’t even sleeping because he’s not real!

he can’t… right?

he doesn’t look too harmless, what with his hands crossed and leisurely leaning against the wall. but one look at his eyes and you know you’re wrong. even through the shit quality of the cctv footage you can still feel the fury and the absolute hate his eyes held as he stared her down menacingly, unblinking.

stared her down as she made her own cocoa, as she hunches down to open the sink cabinets to get that pesky rat poison, as she poured it on her mug, as she swirls the spoon around to mix the deadly concoction all together in a hauntingly robotic way that looked too much like ryujin was being told what to do.

and as you let the video play the rest of its content and felt like the tragedy was unfolding right before your very eyes again—you couldn’t breathe, panic gripping onto you like a vice, the sharp talons of fear sinking deep under your skin. 

you don’t register the coffee table toppling over in your haste to stand up. desperately putting a distance between you and the laptop as you turned and stumbled towards the hallway leading to your bedroom. 

you stop, pathetically landing on your knees before the open archway. if you hadn’t been shaking in fear before, then you surely were now. 

he’s here—can you even call it a he?

the man stands at the end of the hallway. in that similar, non-threatening stature with his arms crossed and body leaning against the wall. 

but the mischief in his eyes is enough of a warning. 

he’s come for you. 

he’s come to finish the job. 

“finally figured it out?”

you screamed, throwing the closest thing you can at him as you shuffle someplace else in your apartment. his laugh sounded pleasant in the ear when you were off in dreamland, but now? it sounded like nails grating against a chalkboard. 

your legs eventually led you to the front door. appearances be damned. you weren’t even wearing a bra and you haven’t showered for days but fuck no you’re not going to stay here with that—that—that monster!

“baby, don’t leave! the fun hasn’t even started yet!”

you grab the doorknob and twist, practically throwing yourself out into the hallway, eyes frantic as you stumble and land face first against—

sticky. the floor’s sticky and there was a smell you can’t seem to pinpoint. it’s tangy, metallic, and you can almost taste the scent yourself in your tongue and when you look down—you want to throw up. 

lying next to each other in pools of their own blood, lies yeji and ryujin side by side, faces towards each other. their eyes hauntingly empty and unseeing as they stared up at you. 

you shrieked, voice scratching against your dry throat as you threw yourself back into your apartment, the door slamming shut in itself. you didn’t care if there’s now a huge mess of blood staining the carpets on the foyer. you curl in on yourself, hair sticking to your face as you covered your ears and shut your eyes. 

“oh, my love…”

you felt his presence before you can hear him. 

a flashback plays in your head—hot chocolate, soft blankets, and a friend who you loved with all your heart. “don’t you think it’s a little chilly in here?"

you answered. “no, not really?”

the tears start streaming like waterfalls, mixing with the blood and sweat already caked in your face. ryujin knew, she felt it back at her apartment yet you disregarded her completely.

“it’s not your fault,” the entity’s hands are ice cold when he gently pulls at your wrist. “everything is as it should be. now, open your eyes. there’s nothing to be afraid of. i’m not going to hurt you.”

stubbornly, you shook your head as you squeezed your lids even tighter, refusing to look at the monster dead in the eye.

“don’t be like that, my love. if i wanted to hurt you, i would’ve done it a long time ago.”

you don’t listen, hunching and curling your knees even more against your torso as you try to block out his voice. it’s unfair how gentle it sounded but your blood ran cold when you realize this is how he got ryujin to poison herself, this is how he got yeji to walk in front of a speeding car—

“hail mary, full—full of grace,” you pray under your breath, shaking like a leaf. “the lord… the lord is with thee. blessed art thou among women…”

“you’re praying?” there’s an underlying mocking to e in his voice. “this is fucking hilarious!”

your incessant mumbling partnered with how you rocked your body back and forth, made something snap within xiaojun. he already stated he won’t hurt you! did he break you so much that now you’re unable to hear stuff properly, too?

“holy mary, mo—mother of god, pray for us sinners, now and—and at the hour of our death, amen. hail mary, full of grace…”

“stop.” his body twitches, having the sudden urge to pull all his hair out and burn this fucking building to the ground.

yet you continue. “the lord is with thee, blessed art thou among—among women and blessed is the… the fruit of thy womb, jesus…”

“i said stop, [name]. don’t fucking test me.”

“holy mary, mother of god—pray—pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our—”

you screeched in pain as your forehead comes in contact with a mirror, the sound of it shattering is deafening to the ears. his icy fingers let go of your nape, letting you fall hard to the ground. your ears perk up at the sound of streaming water. 

you weren’t in the foyer anymore, you feel cold tiles instead of the rough texture of the dirty carpet underneath you. eyes fluttering, you slowly pry them open, and the first thing you see is the faulty pipes found underneath your bathroom’s sink. patches of your clothes start getting wet. 

“you think a prayer of all things can stop me? i’m insulted!” you hiss when he grabs your face, hands so cold that it feels like you’re skin is burning off. “i was going to play nice.”

he pulls you towards him, hand encased around your throat. he shoves the open hair dryer into the half-filled bath tub as you feel him vibrate against you. “you don’t know how long i waited, how much energy i needed to appear to you like this.”

it’s with dread you realize that he’s actually giggling.

you whine, eyes feeling like it’ll pop out of their sockets when he squeezed your neck tighter. with a sudden rush of adrenaline, you anchor your wrists against his arm but it proves to be useless when he’s too strong. 

“please,” you wheezed. “i did… i did nothing wrong. let go—please.”

in the corner of your eyes, you stare at him from the mirror, stomach twisting in discomfort when you see him throwing his head back, eyes rolling up after taking a long whiff of your hair. “this—this fear you have, my love, only makes me stronger.”

“nothing… i did nothing wrong—please! please… let, let me go…” you’re starting to feel lightheaded, black spots floating around your vision. 

“nothing? are you sure about that?” 

you cringe when he licks up the tears in your face, toes curling at the sheer disgust you feel. but the words he spews next is far worse than the hand he’s wrapped around your throat. 

“didn’t you left your mom alone with that abusive asshole? didn’t you make yeji walk into that incoming car? didn’t you make ryujin drink that poison?”

he whispers them so softly, so gently that you almost mistook them as proclamations of love. 

“no…” your voice breaks. 

“yes. yes, you did,” he knew you like the back of his hand, knew what to say and how to say them for you to break in his arms. “you killed them, my love. you’re a murderer. you don’t even deserve to be alive after all of the things you’ve done.”

it’s almost pathetic how you shake your head, eyes closed, refusing to acknowledge the truth. 

“that’s… that’s not true…”

“you’re a curse to the people you love, the embodiment of they're suffering. don’t you see it?”

“stop lying!—”

“am i?” he retorts, maneuvering you around to face the mirror. you swore you covered the whole thing with black paint. “just look at yourself.”

oh, how badly he wants to shove your face against the mirror but he mustn't get ahead of himself. 

“did any of your friends even visit you to see how you’re doing?” no, they never did. he smiles like he knows what you’re thinking. “the answer is all before you now, my love. you need to see through the haze and accept it for what it really is. no one loves you. even the god you’re praying to didn’t answer. there’s nothing, no one, left.”

and for the first time since he has you in his tight hold, you stopped fighting. sobs wracking through your body as your shoulders slump and accept defeat. 

xiaojun automatically lets you go, cooing like a lover in your ear as he tucks you into his embrace. “you want this all to stop, don’t you? someone to save you?”

you nodded, unable to look at him as his hand came up to wipe away your tears. no one has ever done that for you in months ever since yeji and ryujin died.

“i’m here,” xiaojun says, running fingers through your hair comfortingly. “i’m your light, your only saviour. you want that, right, my love?” choice is a mere illusion but he likes keeping up with formalities. 

you fail to notice the steps he took towards the now overflowing bathtub, too lost in the new highs and lows of emotions you feel. 

“yes.”

it only took seconds to push you into the tub. its water buzzing with a live electric current brought by the hair dryer he dropped only minutes ago.

the effect is instantaneous. he watches your muscle spasm, your skin growing darker as the live water fries your body alive. quickly, xiaojun reaches down to lift your head out the water, not wanting to ruin your pretty face.

the last thing you feel is xiaojun’s cold lips pressing against your own, the gentle caress as he wiped your tears away… and the electricity finally passing through your heart. 

when the entity pulls away from your dead body, he only whispers three things—“mine, at last.”

[op-sheepy]

ok so I'm particularly interested in

Bellamy Law

Law and Bible stuff

Law is a substitute kindergarten teacher

shichibukai applications

reverse hanahaki disease (?? do u spit out flowers when your nemesis walks by?)

if you feel like elaborating on any of these!

This is gonna get long and I actually contemplated posting them separately but would that have been more work? Yeah, that felt like more work so for anyone interested, check under the cut. :D

---------------------------------o

---------------------------------o

Bellamy Law

Hm… This would be an attempt to explore the parallels and contrasts between Bellamy and Law. I've always found it fascinating that the former was a foil to the latter.

They both come from well-off  towns in the North Blue.

Bellamy left because of boredom. Law had no choice because Flevance.

Both ended up seeking Doflamingo  because of  his notoriety as a pirate. Both admired him initially

Doffy favored one over the other though. Bellamy always sought his approval but was never really part of the inner circle Doflamingo cared about.

Law got the dubious privilege of being part of the family despite being absent for so long. Even offered one of the highest seats by Doffy's side for seemingly nothing.

Law had no trouble turning his back on Doffy once he realized the man's nature. Bellamy tried to stick to his principles until the end despite admitting that he new he was wrong.

Bellamy can (and did) quit piracy after his ordeal with Doflamingo. Having the option to live peacefully, perhaps a return to his previous life (the one he considered boring). Law can't do that quite as easily what with his Devil fruit and his reputation.

I thought it would be interesting trying to explore what Bellamy was thinking. Did he hear the Donquixote Pirates talk about their missing 'family'? Did he get to see Doffy be amused at Law's rise as a Supernova while he kept being reminded of his own status? Did Law save Bellamy partially because he also saw what he could have been had Corazon not saved him?

On principle, Bellamy should have hated Trafalgar Law. Does. Bastard even saved him without him wanting it. But there was something about the shadows haunting those eyes and Bellamy started to wonder.

He had heard the family talk about Law before. The child personally taught by Doflamingo, chosen to be his right hand. Never was he compared to the man because Law was just obviously better. Smarter. Stronger. Bellamy was ever just an uncouth thug.

He was allowed to 'borrow' Doflamingo's symbol while Law had an empty seat waiting for his return–a seat Bellamy had wanted enough to risk everything for.

Maybe he had resented, Trafalgar Law for carelessly rejecting the things he had that Bellamy had always desired. In the end too, Trafalgar Law did prove to be better. He'd done as a child what Bellamy had trouble doing even as he was now.

But having been given the chance to observe the other man as they all recovered, he wondered, perhaps for the first time, whether despite Law being better than Bellamy, Bellamy had had it better–barring the poor life choices.

---------------------------------o

---------------------------------o

Law and Bible stuff

This is just me wanting to know how many biblical parallels and themes I can draw from Law, the Donquixote brothers, the characters associated with them, and his backstory. Honestly not sure whether this would become a fic and in what style or I'm gonna give up and just make it a post.

Not gonna elaborate on them much but here are the ideas in more bullet points (yay):

Law gets familiar with all four horsemen of the apocalypse: conquest, war, famine, and death. He even survives them.

Law is like the son in the parable of the prodigal son to the Donquixote pirates. Except the themes are inverted.

Doflamingo and Rocinante -> Cain and Abel

Ope Ope no Mi -> Granting eternal life by sacrificing one's own life

Gods descending or living among humans. Also, Homing and his family being prosecuted for other people's sins.

That scene where they were hanged by their arms outstretched looks like a crucifixion. Also, Rocinante was on the right while Doflamingo was on the left. Similar to how the penitent thief was on the right and the unrepentant one to the left.

Flevance being considered a paradise with walls/fences/gates and somewhere Law cannot return to.

In the panel where the Donquixote pirates are seated at the table, there were thirteen of them with Doffy at the center. Same as The Last Supper

There are a lot more of these (David and Goliath, Solomon, Jonah, Job, etc.) but I kinda lost the notes and some are more visual so I can't really explain it too well. This would is a drabble series to emphasize or highlight the parallels so no proper snippet for this one.

---------------------------------o

---------------------------------o

Law is a substitute kindergarten teacher

Originally an idea to get around most of the Heart Pirates being nameless but evolved to include other characters as kids. Chopper is a kindergarten teacher and he convinces Law to take over his class for a week because somehow Law has the qualifications to and free time. Naturally, he wasn't able to say no.

Unfortunately, despite not being terrible at handling children, Chopper's class is filled with menaces. Also, despite not being terrible, Law can still be awkward so...

"Mr. Trofao–fargar—"

"Trafalgar."

The kid—which one was this one again? Shit, he should really get them name plates or something—scrunched up his face and tried harder, "Tar-pal—"

"Law. Just call me Law."

"Mr. Low"—eh, close enough—"can I go to the bathroom?" Wide imploring eyes stared up at him.

"Sure, go ahead." Law gestured towards the exit of the classroom with his head.

The kid just stared expectantly at him and he tried to suppress the need to narrow his eyes.

"Is there… anything else?"

"Mr. Chopper always comes with me to hold my hand."

Really?

"Mr. Chopper isn't here. You should practice doing it on your own now." He said after a deep inhale.

"But the monsters might get me…"

"No, they won't."

"You don't know that."

"I do." Before the kid could open his mouth again to argue, he added, "Besides, children taste terrible so you're safe."

The kid looked stricken and took a step back from him. Uh oh. Glistening eyes, wobbling lower lip… "Alright! I'll go with you." The kid did not look reassured. In fact he looked like going alone with Law was the last thing he wanted to do. Guess, he kinda implied that he ate children didn't he? Oops.

Well, the kid needs to go and he's not going to be cleaning up after him if he wets himself.

Law glanced at the rest of the children. It was Arts and Craft time and they seemed preoccupied enough. Still, Law doubted Chopper ever left these kids alone–already he could see some of them glancing up at him, waiting for him to leave no doubt to cause trouble. That Monkey kid in particular looked extremely suspicious.

He stood up from his crouch and clapped twice to get everyone's attention.

"Alright. Fall in line. Single file."

There was some grumbling and questioning directed at him. "What's going on?"

Law shrugged. "You're all going to the bathroom."

---------------------------------o

---------------------------------o

Shichibukai Application Forms

Crackfic where the World Government and relevant parties review various Shichbukai Applications. Most submitted by the pirates applying themselves, some produced by their own staff. They discuss and debate. As well as judge pirate resumes.

She scanned the document. Terrible format, really. If you fail to impress within the first page, you've failed entirely. There just wasn't anyone promising enough in this batch of applications or any of the other ones before. The last one had been that clown. "Apprentice to the Pirate King," was a pretty hefty credential.

"Oh, how about this one? Three years experience pillaging, and they even listed all the towns they looted." One of the newly transferred administrative staff said.

"None of these are worth considering at all. You know, when Mihawk was asked to submit his application, he hadn't bothered with all of this. He just sent us a card with his name on it and the title "World's Strongest Swordsman," underneath."

The staff perked up. "Oh, there was an application like that." There was scramble and some shuffling before a plain white card was produced. "Here."

"'From Trafalgar Law'. What does this even mean?"

"Well, it did come with a big box..."

---------------------------------o

---------------------------------o

Reverse Hanahaki Disease

(?? do u spit out flowers when your nemesis walks by?)

Haha. At first it was going to be that way (because it is hilarious) but the inflicted would probably choke to death too soon. Or if both enemies had it, they'd end up just coughing flowers at each other until they stopped being enemies.

The version I ended up going with was that this variant of Hanahaki, instead of afflicting those with unrequited love, affected those in denial instead. The reverse part comes from the original idea that this would usually happen if you somehow fell in love with your nemesis (someone you originally hated). So it's not the thought that the other person can't love you, it's that you can't accept that you love that other person. You get cured by confessing to the person sincerely.

This is actually another KidLaw (surprise!). And the flower coughed up directly represents the person they're in love with (I went with Oda's flower representation for them because I found it funny for plot)

So the idea is that, you get sick but you don't automatically know (maybe) who it is because that's part of being in denial. Kid and Law have many enemies after all. In this story they both get it though not exactly at the same time and not known to the other.

He survived Amber Lead Syndrome only to be killed off by a stupid flower disease that apparently knows more about his own feelings than he does.

He glared at the petals. Tulips. Red.

An image of a cocky grin and a shock of red hair flashed through his mind and—nope. That's not right.

He coughed harder, tears stinging his eyes with the effort. More flowers. Now he has enough for a bouquet.

Alright, he was a doctor. He could do this. Differential time.

First, which variant does he have. He doesn't particularly feel unloved or hopeless. There wasn't anyone he wanted in particular to love him. Ok, nothing. It was maybe safe to say he had that other variant.

Which was stupid because Law had many enemies and he hated all of them.

And cue the racking coughs. More red. He was very familiar with that particular shade.

New theory. This was a new variant that somehow makes you sick when you think of the person you hated the most.

Yes, that had to be it. He thought as he all but collapsed on the floor from the sudden paroxysm.

I knew this was gonna get long. :) Oh well...

Thank you for playing. :D

[opbackgrounds]

So I read the Ace Novel (Part 1)

As promised, I have looked into some of the One Piece novels, but sadly the only one I was able to find was the Ace novel, which has an official translation through Viz. This is as shame as I was morbidly curious about Law’s and genuinely interested in what they came up with for the Heroines series, but I guess those will have to wait for another time. 

For those who aren’t aware, the Ace novel was published in two parts in the One Piece magazine and was written by Sho Hinata, with some bonus art of Ace’s crew by Oda. Part 1 (which is all that I’ve read so far) tells the story of Ace’s journey from East Blue to Sabaody Archipelago, whereas Part 2 presumably goes into his induction to the Whitebeard Pirates.

My tl;dr opinion is that it’s not bad but pretty rushed. Go ahead and give it a read if you’re an Ace stan, but otherwise it’s not exactly breaking any new ground for the series.

The biggest difficulty when writing something for a magazine will always be word count. Part 1 is only 118 pages of actual story—an infinitesimal amount for an ebook—and divided into 3 chapters that read less like an interconnected narrative and more like 3 different installments in a one shot series. Chapter 1 establishes Ace’s firstmate Deuce and tells of how they met, chapter 2 intrudices a marine Nami clone rival for Ace, and chapter 3 is the big climatic showdown that ties all the themes of the novel into one neat little bow before sending Ace off to the New World.

There’s a little connective tissue there where you can see what the author was trying to accomplish, but it’s bare bones storytelling. Anything that has to tell a coherent narrative that covers a long period of time in not a lot of words would. 

For example, Deuce finding out who Ace’s father is and hating him for it, then realizing he’s actually a good guy and deciding that judging people by the reputations of others is wrong happens over the course of like 5 pages, which doubles as the scene explaining how Ace got his Devil Fruit. Chapter 2 sets up Nami Clone Marine as a powerful fighter that Ace and co., were lucky to escape from, only to immediately turn her into a laughing stock at the beginning of chapter 3

And I know that wasn’t the intention, but you can’t develop a Smoker-Luffy or Garp-Roger style rivalry over the course of one scene. It’s impossible. The end result is a lot of telling over showing and some bizarre contrivances (Nami Clone Marine randomly telling Ace her tragic backstory while on top of the Ferris wheel at Sabaody Archipelago five minutes before she learns the marines were the bad guys all along is the most anime thing I have ever read) which is a shame, because during the more extended scenes, there was some interesting writing and character development. 

I feel like the writing is at its strongest at the very beginning and the end. Unsurprisingly, it’s not difficult to get through (I’d put it about middle grade as far as reading level) and the style reminds me a little of a watered down version of the Rick Rioden novels—self aware, with just a touch of irreverence that keeps it from taking itself too seriously

The translation seems to favor accuracy to the text over what I would call a fluid reading experience, so you’ll get sentences here and there that feel wooden or just a little off. 

And Viz must be more lenient with its novels than its manga, because it was a little more liberal with its swearing than what I’ve seen in the manga. I don’t remember any egreigious darns or dangs, and they even slipped in one instance of someone calling another a bastard.

But enough about the writing. As far as themes go, the author did a good job of tying in themes from the manga, the biggest one I noticed early on during Deuces monologue where he brings up living life without regrets. Sun imagry abounds for Ace, which I found especially interesting because it’s pretty common in fanfiction to turn Luffy into the good sunshine lad, whereas Ace was portrayed somewhat differently 

And those last paragraphs are the point of Part 1. Ace takes in degenerates unwanted by even other degenerates. There’s even a nice scene where he offers a home for his marine rival after her entire worldview gets shattered because that’s the kind of guy he is. Ace gives others a place and a purpose...but his crew isn’t the family he seeks. There is a sense where they aren’t really peers or equals, and in that sense he is very, very different from Luffy.

Early on, we learn that Deuce’s real name isn’t really Deuce, and he wears a mask so that no one else knows who he is. Well, as much as he hates it, Ace wasn’t born with the last name Portgas, and he’s got a mask of his own, and it’ll take the likes of Whitebeard himself to tear it down. 

But that’s a story for another time. 

[cutiecrates]

Cutie Reviews: TokyoTreat Oct 19

I think I’m doing pretty good progress wise, please be patient with me as I continue to try to review old boxes~

“October is here, bringing with it those spooky Halloween vibes! Halloween has been growing in popularity in recent years, and since Japan loves their seasonal snacks we had plenty of new, interesting items to choose from! In the spirit of being spooky but kinda cute, we’ve created a Poke-Monster Night for you to enjoy! No sharing these tricky snacks though!“

For this months contest, the winner could receive figures of Naruto and Sasuke from Naruto, while runner-ups won a cute pokeball candy and stamp. Lucky Treat consisted of Full Metal Alchemist, Dragon Quest, AND three devil fruits from One Piece, the Gomu Gomu (Gum), Mera Mera (Flame), and Ope Ope (Operation. Also, they accidentally mislabeled as the “dark dark fruit”). I was very excited that they included the 3 belonging to 3 of my favorite characters~

Pokemon Ramune & Strange Syrup DIY

(Please see top pic for images)

For this month, we get a basic, straight-laced ramune drink. Thank goodness :P as much as I like to try new flavors, sometimes I forget the original is probably the best... especially in comparison to those yucky flavors that I’m still traumatized by <_< and this month we even get a really cute pokemon label.

Ramune is basically that “soda“ flavor you’ll see in Japanese candy. It has a sweet, sort of lemon-ish taste but its not sour. It’s a little like sprite, but in my opinion it tastes way better. It’s especially yummy whenever it’s warm out or if you worked up a thirst. It’s also really fun to open because of the marble inside!

If you have ever wanted to try out Ramune, I would suggest checking on Amazon (they have a variety of fruit flavors too), or maybe the Japan Haul website (the website made through Tokyo Treat and its various brands).

- - - - -

The DIY I just included a bonus pic of because I’ve done it several times. It’s a super-sticky, thick syrup like candy that only requires you to mix the 3 flavors, which are strawberry, soda, and lemon. Together they make grape... which looks like this:

Because this candy was a little old, I think it was a bit off. The lemon and soda flavors were fine, but I noticed that not only was strawberry orange instead of pink, which might explain this... greenish-honey color. It’s usually a little purple if I recall.

Also, it didn’t really taste like grape this time, and it wasn’t as good in my opinion- but I guarantee if you open it as soon as you get it, it tastes much better. If you don’t like sticky/gooey textures you might wanna skip this one though.

Halloween Milk Senbei & Bloody Cola Marshmallow

Since I subscribed like 3 years ago, I’ve only seen senbei in a box once; I was very excited to see it again! It’s stuff like this I wish they would include more of, because I want to try the unique foreign flavors you know?

Anyway, the milk senbei is a plain, very thin melt-in-your mouth cracker-like snack that pretty much tastes like ice cream cone, but a teensy bit sweeter. This one comes with a cola flavored sauce to put on top of it. Each 1 (or one pack, not sure) is around 25-27 calories.

♥ ♥ ♥

I really like the taste of ice cream cones, I don’t know why, I just always have. Meanwhile, the jelly/sauce is purple, but it indeed tastes like cola ♥ it’s very yummy. However... together, they get a strange taste and that I’m not very fond of. I can’t even describe it, but its weird. But eating it in small doses is tolerable.

- - - - -

Speaking of cola, we also got a really cute marshmallow filled with a cola jelly! It’s like they combined two of my favorite things~

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

It’s very soft and yummy, the jelly inside tastes about the same as the sauce from the prior item, but it tastes so much better with the marshmallow.

Apple Pie Kit Kat & Brown Sugar Sweets

Instead of orange kit kats this year, we get to see fun purple one :D these kit kats are inspired by an apple pie. As you can see they also come in a large pack to share with others or to eat yourself. Each pack is 65 calories. 

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

I love the coloring of these, first of all. It’s such a pretty purple, and its fun too. The apple flavor is very prominent, and it has a very small hint of spice, while the wafer brings to mind a sugary crust. It’s sweet, but mildly.

- - - - - -

These are popular for their melty and soft texture, with a very thin, crisp layer of rich brown sugar coating. Each one of these is 17 calories.

♥ ♥ ♥ 

These are kinda basic, but it’s a yummy sweet that isn’t overly sugary. I think it goes good with the apple pie kit kat, and maybe some milk.

Disappearing Taste?! Mixed Gummies, ZomB Grape Gum, & Blue Green Soda Gum

We got 3 gums this month! Our first is very familiar, because we’ve had this gum before. The only difference is this is its washed out, slightly different cousin. Basically, you’re given a set of flavors of gum, in this case yogurt, strawberry, orange, and white grape/muscat. You can eat them as is, or mix the flavors to make new ones, like a fruit drink, melon soda, or different fruits.

What makes this one special however, is that there is a special gumball that supposedly makes the flavor disappear? I mean, isn’t that what gum does normally?

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

This gum is really nice, you get a lot of them per-resealable pouch, and the flavors are always pretty good. Plus I like how the gum is smooth and soft in texture. I didn’t really notice any difference with this one from the last pack I had other than flavors.

- - - - -

Next up, we have the ZomB Gum; a popular Halloween item that we have seen before; I think about 2 or so years back, when we got the red cola vampire version. What makes this gum really fun is that it colors your tongue as you chew it, and it has a delicious grape flavor.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

This gum has the same texture as the other gum, so I really like it. The color effect isn’t nearly as strong as the package shows, but it’s a cute little gimmick, and it tastes great. The flavor lasts about 5 minutes.

- - - -

Our last gum is another brand I’ve had before. I have had both this flavor, and their cola version. It’s pretty much the same concept as the ZomB gum (they’re made by the same brand), but its in two sticks and you get a soda flavor, and a melon flavor.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

I’d pretty much say the same things as I did about the previous two gums. All three were delicious and I would recommend any of them.

Poteco Pumpkin Gratin & Pringles

Here we have two salty, savory snacks for the box. But of course, the Poteco are not new to us, in fact I think last Halloween we got the exact same pack; minus slightly different packaging. Poteco is good and all, but I got so tired of seeing it that I tend to... shy away from it now. This flavor wasn’t really that different from the original/normal Poteco either.

- - - - -

I was a lot more excited for this item, a unique pack of Japanese Pringles :D Looking at the package, this is a type of ramen or noodle bowl flavor. It’s a mystery item in the booklet so I’m not really sure, but for this small can it is 267 calories!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

Honestly, these are so yummy that I don’t even care how many calories there are. The flavor is very strong, it tastes exactly like this cup ramen I like to buy. Trying to describe the flavor, I would say it’s sort of like beef or soy sauce broth, with a hint of a corn taste?

Pokemon Halloween Chocolate & Pikachu Gummies

These are both snacks we’ve had before, so I’ll try to just gist this one.

These crispy snacks are shape like pikachu heads and come in fun, colorful packaging featuring a variety of Pokemon, while the back usually has a fun puzzle or image. Each bag is 83 calories and they are by the brand Tohato.

These are really yummy x3 they have a slightly bitter chocolate taste and remind me a lot of the coco crispy cereals.

- - - - - -

The other snack is also pikachu-shaped, but besides its head, there are also the occasional tail you might find ;3 These are by Lotte, and each pack is 90 calories. The flavor is grape and they taste really good too.

The only real thing to bother me about these is that they didn’t cut the gummy around Pikachu’s ears. It’s a minor thing but it bothers me a little.

Halloween Corn Potage Umaibo

Okay, so... because I talk about this a lot, I’m not actually planning on saying anything about it this time :P long story short, corn potage Umaibo is the best.

Squid Legs & Halloween Pizza Corn Snack

Don’t let the name fool you, these are not real squid legs- they just have a fishy taste. I’ve had these before too, and I have fairly complex feelings about them. On one hand they don’t taste terrible, but I don’t like seafood and the flavor is still unappealing to me. I like their crunchy texture though.

- - - - -

Next up is this corn puff snack featuring a delicious pizza flavor! They taste exactly like the pizza-flavored combos, if you never had those before I would recommend them too~

Pokemon Cola Chewing Candy

This is our final item... and now that I look at it, it kinda looks like a wafer cookie doesn’t it?

Anyway, these are sticks of chewing candy that come in various series and flavors. Before we had some grape Thomas the Tank Engine ones, and this time we get some cola Pokemon. Each wrapper usually includes a unique design, craft, or puzzle of some sort.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ I don’t know if these are hard because they had to sit around for a while, or because that is just how they are. I don’t remember the Thomas ones being so hard, but they weren’t as thick as these. But if you suck on them for a few minutes they soften up, or you can crunch them to softness. The flavor is very yummy, I think it might be my favorite cola flavored item in the box.  

♥ Cutie Ranking ♥

Content - 4.5 out of 5. Everything is very yummy, even though a fair amount of it was repetitive. I really liked it. Theme - 4 out of 5. Well, given the packaging and theme, I could say yeah they did pretty good. We had a decent amount of Pokemon items, but they could have done a little more too I think. Total Rank: 9 out of 10. I really liked this box, I just wish maybe we would have had a couple more unique items.

♥ Cutie’s Scale of Yummy ♥

(I’m sorry, but by this point I’m not really feeling well. I want to finish the review so that I can go lay down DX)

[an-ambivalent]

World Of Envy [Yandere! Fallen Angel! Kim Taehyung] [Reader-Insert]

Warning: As this story contains yandere themes, the characters display behaviors that can be triggering or uncomfortable to read. Read at your own risk. This work is purely fiction. I do not believe any of the mentioned members would display any sort of this behaviour irl.

(Honestly, this chapter isn’t too bad. It’s pretty vanilla compared to my other yandere works but I guess works like these still require warnings).

Word Count: 3K

In the World Of Envy, angels and devils lived in one existing stream but each of their territory was at the end of the stream. In other words, they lived completely opposite one another. As long as they kept to themselves, did not mingle or interfere with the other's business, they lived in peace and tranquility for the most part. Neither angels or devils approved of the each other’s ways. In the past, all of the wars and bloodshed that had occured between them just proved that for them to exist in peace, they needed to call it a truce and let the other be. 

Aforementioned reasons, marriages, and breeding of offsprings happened between persons of the same species except for some exceptional cases. When young, horminal, and rebellious adults believed they could do anything and take over the world, they never thought about the consequences. They made decisions irrationally, before they received the bitter taste of harsh reality that would cause them to have regrets.

Once upon a time, a decade or two ago, an angel had run away to elope with a devil. This story was known and retold by many. Each time it was retold, there was a new twist to it from the person who told it. Eventually, many versions of the story existed. Some came to believe that the devil was an not a devil, but a succubus who had seduced an innocent angel to run away with her. Others believed that this story was nothing but a mere myth, or that an angel had pretended to run away with the devil so he could kill her in secret.

Barely anyone knew the truth about the story -- anyone that was not Kim Taehyung.

Taehyung was the fruit of his parent’s love. He was a half breed mixed between an angel and the devil. He was someone or others may  refer to him as “something” that had never existed before. He knew the real story behind his parent’s love story and that it had no lying. There was no forcing, killing, manipulation, or toxicity. There was only one feeling they shared with each other just like everyone else who were romantically involved with someone -- there was only love between his parents. They had to run away because the underworld had no room for an angel and the heavens had no acceptance for a devil. So certainly, neither would accept someone who was from the both the fallen and the risen side -- there was nowhere a fallen angel could belong in.

Things were not too bad for Taehyung until the unfortunate day their home was found by the magic council. It was forbidden for opposites to love one another. For indulging in such sinful actions, both of his parents were punished harshly. Their wings were clipped away. They were left as flightless birds who could not run away, and then they were burned to death. With how vicious they had been with Taehyung’s parents, one could only imagine what they would done if they found an abomination like Taehyung. Luckily, this was at a time when Taehyung was old enough to know what to do, and he had run away in time and managed to survive. Ever since then, he lived secretively to avoid trouble for himself. Though,  just because he avoided trouble for himself, did not mean he could not cause trouble for others.

The thirst for revenge burnt bright in Taehyung’s heart. He lingered in the shadows a lot. Whenever, he saw how happy everyone was with their families, friends, and someone else, it infuriated him and he was envious.

As far as Taehyung was concerned, his parents would be the only ones who would ever love and accept him for who he was. However, they were taken away from him in mere moments. Seeing others happy, and realising how the rest of the world did not seem to care about their unjust passing, made his blood boil.

It was in that moment that Taehyung decided he would do what was done to his parents as revenge. He would ruin everyone’s happiness and their life like his was ruined.

                          _______________________________________

You were nearing the age of marriage and that meant you were required to socialize with potential partners. It would not be too bad if your parents were not who they were. See, your father was one of the very few angels who was given the opportunity to be part of the magic council. Meanwhile, your mother was considered to be one of the most beautiful angels. She was famous for the purity and majestic beauty of her wings. It was not too far-fetched to say that you were a child from a privileged, wealthy, influential, and powerful family. For this and many other reasons, you were bound to be pursued by many.

As much as you hated attention and had tried to keep to yourself, it was an almost impossible task;   especially considering that you had ended up inheriting wings that were just as awe striking, if not more, as your mother’s.

As an introvert, it really sucked to have extroverted parents who were always in the limelight, and because of that, brought spotlight on you too. Not to mention, you were not interested in getting married in the slightest. Marriage would bound you to one person who for your entire life, and you would be forced into a life of responsibilities. Before settling down,  you wanted enjoy your freedom, go on adventures, and discover yourself. One would not necessarily be restricted after marriage, but that was just how you felt.

The thought of marriage almost made you envious of the devils and their free ways of living. They did whatever they wanted whenever they wanted; their lives were rich with adventures and fun. You wanted to explore, have adventures and fun. However, as an angel yu knew that would never happen.

Angels like yourself, had rules and strict orders which acted as a guideline for the way you should live. You were meant to live a clean and pure life. The restrictions almost made you want to gag in disgust everytime you thought about them. If someone found out that you felt like this, or how you hated your life as an angel which was already set for you, you would certainly get banished.

You were snapped out of your thoughts when you felt yourself being shook gently. You blinked before you turned your head towards the person. You saw that it was someone you were rather familiar with: Jung Hoseok. He was looking down at you with a deep stare, his white wings were raised high behind him, and shone underneath the heavenly light. His eyes flickered to the book you held in your hands, which you had not realized that you were holding upside down. His lips twitched up in a soft smile. He loved your little quirks like this.

From the loving eyes Hoseok stared at you with, to the way his fingers softly brushed your hair behind your ear, lingered on your skin, as he leaned down and his breath fanned your ear made you feel queasy in discomfort.

“Can I talk to you alone?” He asked, his words sounding soft in your ears. You furrowed your eyebrows. Then, your eyes flickered to the side to see others in the holy library watching the two of you with analytical eyes. Their boring gazes manifested your queasiness because you knew exactly what was happening; Hoseok was purposefully being touchy and feely with you in front of everyone to make a point of starting to ‘claim’ you. After all, the more you would be seen with someone close to your marrying age, the more speculations there would about you belonging to them.

You did not like it one bit.

“Sure,” You murmured, with hesitancy in your eyes. Hoseok chose to ignore such a reaction and instead chose to indulge in your submissiveness. He smiled in satisfaction as he gently grabbed your hand, intertwined his fingers with yours, and pulled you to stand up.

“Great, follow me,” He said, and you flew behind him reluctantly as he led you out of the library.

You flew and followed Hoseok until he led you into a secluded area for what you assumed for privacy. You could guess what he wanted to talk about. You aimlessly hoped to whatever higher deity was out there that you would be wrong.

“So [Name], we’ve known each other since we were children,” Hoseok started, and you knew instantly that nope, you were completely right. You should have known really, that with your luck this was bound to happen. Well, you did know and did expect it but not this soon, not before you even reached the age of marriage.

“We grew up together, and for years I have been in love with you. I love the way you smile shyly when you feel awkward, and how your eyes light up when something excites you. You’re absolutely beautiful and I love how magnificent and large your wings are. Our families have known each other since the dawn of our friendship, and I think your parents would be the happiest if you were to choose me. I want to work hard for you and be the reason behind your smile,” Hoseok confessed, and continued to list each thing he loved about you, along with the benefits there would be if you chose him as your spouse. It was obvious from the the way he continued that his confession was scripted. He seemed to have practiced it a lot so it would be perfect for this moment. The effort was appreciated but it was not your style. Scripted, practice, discipline, perfection — he was portraying values of a full-fledged angel; values that forged a person and prompted reheated perfection rather than allowing a person to be sincere or raw in the moment. He was everything ‘perfect’ that you hated about being an angel.

While in the midst of listening to his confession and becoming uncomfortable with each passing moment, you suddenly felt an unnervingly cryptic gaze watching you intensely. For you, the vibe of the atmosphere that was usually pure, had now shifted into something that felt suffocatingly dangerous. The knot of discomfort in your stomach was no longer from Hoseok’s still continuing confession, but from the feeling of being watched by someone with blood lust.

Its presence was too strong, and you wondered why Hoseok was not reacting to it. You held up your hand in a stop signal to signal Hoseok to quiet down.

“Don’t you feel that?” You asked breathily, and in confusion to suddenly being cut off, Hoseok furrowed his eyebrows.

“Feel what?” He answered, with confusion etched in his eyes. Then, moments later, his eyes widened in some sort of realization. A wide smile appeared on Hoseok’s face, and instantly knew what that smile meant. Right away, you knew that what you were talking about, the ‘realisation’ that Hoseok had were were going to be two completely different things.

“Feel your love for me? That’s rather cheesy [Name], even for you—“ Hoseok flirted, but you cut him off when you saw someone with black and white wings fly at the speed of light from behind of Hoseok. The sight had caused you to gasp in shock and for your eyes to widen.

What the hell was that? You wondered, and the sound of Hoseok saying something was disant to you.

“I don’t have time for this. As much as I appreciate you as a friend Hobi, I don’t love you romantically. It seems like fate has something else planned for me than settling down with the angel for the rest of my life so soon,” You said, muttering the last sentence to yourself and rejecting Hoseok. His eyes were widened at your unexpected blalant response. You gave him no time to reply as you fluttered your wings. The strength of the fluttere caused a gust of wind to arise. Then, you jumped high, and took off as fast you could towards the stranger with black and white wings.

                            _______________________________________

You were lead towards the streams in heaven that connected to other places and worlds. Unlike till this moment, when you had been flying freely in whatever way you pleased, in the realm of streams you had to be extremely cautious. This was because one would never know what stream would pull them towards itself, and as a result of that pull, what place they might end up in.

Usually, people were not allowed in the realm of streams without authorisation or a permit. So, if you were to be caught, you would be in big trouble. This, along with the looming dangers of what you had chased, out your nerves on the edge.

As you walked slowly and looked around everywhere warily, you hugged your arms, and wings around yourself as a comforting gesture. Additionally, it also made you physically smaller, which was needed since you did not want to be pulled in by a random stream.

From his hiding spot, Taehyung watched you, and licked his lips in anticipation. You were much more gorgeous in person. The rumours were true after all; the daughter of the angel in the magic council was born with beautiful wings like no other. He had to have them for himself.

Although Taehyung was currently the predator, and unbeknownst to you that you were a prey, he failed to realise that he could become a target too. This was because he was not the only one who was capable of obsessing.

“I-I know you are here,” You bellowed, as you nervously rubbed your arms, and glanced around. Taehyung narrowed his eyes at you, and noticed how the feathers of your wings were twitching in anxiety due to the unknown circumstances — due to him. Tingles of excitement started to course through him.

“I saw you fly here. I don’t know who or what you are but you obviously wanted to bring me here… alone. So, come out or I’ll leave,” You threatened weakly, and he almost found your facade of bravery to be cute. He stayed where he was for a few moments.

Meanwhile, you were inwardly cursing at yourself for flying away and chasing something you had no idea about. Your desperation to experience something new, and breakaway from the stereotypical life that was set for you had caused you to act recklessly. It made you break rules in the past too, but you had never gone this far.

When you received no response for a bit, you sighed in disappointment. Perhaps it had been a figment of your imagination? Reluctantly, you turned around. As you were about to leave, someone flew from behind, wrapped their arms around your waist, and flew away with you.

You gasped in surprise, and were going to turn your head to see who had captured you, until his deep and authoritative stopped you.

“Don’t  turn around. If you do, I won’t be nice to you,” Taehyung stated stoically. You instantly stilled in your movements, and did not budge your head even a bit. All you could do was stare at the various colourful streams you flew past, and wondered where fate would take you. From the way the person holding you was flying, and dodging the pull of each stream with effortless grace, you knew he had to be exceptionally talented.

Taehyung’s gaze flickered towards your head that was looking down, and his lips twitched in a miniscule smile at how obedient you were. He did not expect it, especially since you were the offspring of one of the council members. Your obedience felt … nice. Perhaps, Taehyung would rethink his plans for you, and if you continued to submit so easily to him, then he would reward you, instead of hurt you.

                       _______________________________________

When Taehyung had kidnapped you and brought you to his abode, he was a bit rough with you because he wanted to intimidate you. His entire presence was domineering as he backed you into a corner and began to explain all of his ‘rules’ to you. He gave you two options: you submit to him and court him or return to the heavens without your wings. He was entranced by your beauty so whether he had your entire being to himself, or could just preserve the best part of you for his collection, it did not really matter to him -- as long as he had a piece of you.

What Taehyung did not expect was for you to become entranced by his beauty too, which he had come to think would be perceived as a hideous abomination.

Your eyes were wide and there was an awe stricken expression on your face when you observed his features. He was something you had never seen before — a crossover of an angel and a devil. His hair was blond, and he was dressed in white clothing. However, unlike an angel and like a devil, his sclera was pure black instead of white. One of his irises was a beautiful shade of caramel hazel, and the other was a haunting shade of a red ruby. His wings were large and sumptuous with one being purely white, and the other being as dark as a starless and moonless night; he was breathtaking.

While in the midst of waiting your response, Taehyung never expected you to be brave enough to wrap your wings around him affectionately, and flip him over so that you would be the one cornering him instead.

“You’re so otherworldly and gorgeous,” You breathed, and leaned your face closer to his. Simultaneously, you cupped his face gently in your hands and brushed your thumb softly against his cheek.

His eyes widened in surprise.

“So different, new… I’ve never seen anything like you. Sure, I’ll be yours. I’m interested to see what a hybrid like you can show me. I will be yours as long as you vow to belong to me as much as I will belong to you.”

GOOD ENDING

I can’t add links because then it doesn’t show in the tags :^) you can click on my profile to see Jungkook’s profile and the quiz link

[the-desolated-quill]

Doctor Strange - Marvel Cinematic Universe blog (as requested by 1000+ followers)

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t seen this movie yet, you may want to before reading this review)

Before I start, I just want to say thank you again to all one thousand of my followers (still can’t believe it. That number just doesn’t seem real. LOL). And, as promised, here’s my review of Doctor Strange. I chose to review this movie to mark getting one thousand followers because people have been wanting me to do this review for a long time now (nearly three years in fact) and also because it was this movie, or rather my harsh criticism of this movie, that arguably cemented my reputation on this site. So here we go. Hope you feel it was worth the wait. Enjoy :)

2016. A year of ups and downs to be sure. While it will forever be infamous for the Brexit referendum result, Trump’s victory in the presidential elections and many much beloved celebrity icons dropping dead like fruit flies, it was also the year where two of my all time favourite comic book characters would finally make the jump to the big screen. The first was Deadpool. The second was Doctor Strange. Two characters I thought would never get movie adaptations on account of them both being somewhat niche products. Deadpool was a violent, anarchic parody of antiheroes like Wolverine and the Punisher, while Doctor Strange was a psychedelic fantasy story focused on existentialism and Zen philosophy as well as having its themes and influences deep rooted in various Asian cultures and mythologies. Not exactly mainstream. And yet, against all the odds, both movies found great success at the box office. The difference being Deadpool managed to stay true to the tone and themes of the source material, whereas Doctor Strange... oh dear.

Now my long term followers will be very much aware of my stance on this movie. At the time I refused to watch it due to the casting of Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One, viewing it as not only racist erasure, but also demonstrating a severe lack of understanding on the filmmaker’s part. East Asia isn’t just used as window dressing. It’s vitally important to the story as a whole, so discarding it would be incredibly moronic as well as deeply offensive. Now I’m not going to go into all the reasons why the whitewashing of the Ancient One is racist and why all the excuses Marvel gave at the time was bullshit as I’ve already explained these reasons ad nauseum various times before. If you’re curious, read Doctor Yellowface And The Bullshit Machine, where I explain it all in excruciating detail. Here I’m just going to say that this movie is racist. That’s not my opinion. It’s demonstrably, objectively, scientifically, factually and literally true. If you think otherwise, you’re an idiot. Period. Full stop. End of discussion. Do not pass Go. Do not collect £200. With this in mind, when I sat down to watch this for the first time, I expected to be angered and outraged by it throughout. But I wasn’t. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a bad movie and a bad adaptation of Doctor Strange, but honestly the most remarkable thing about this movie is how unremarkable it is. Which is a problem in more ways than one, but now we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

Lets start with the things I liked. Don’t worry. This won’t take long. There really isn’t that much to like about this film frankly. Even the bits I like have massive caveats to them.

My first shiny gold star has to go to Benedict Wong as Wong. Now as much as I love the comics, I’ll be the first to admit it has massive problems when it comes to how it presents Asian characters. So I’m pleased to report that Wong is the only aspect of the film that’s actually better than the source material. Whereas comic book Wong was Doctor Strange’s manservant, movie Wong plays more of a mentor role in Strange’s story. He’s the librarian of Kamar-Taj, guarding the sacred tomes, and is actually at a higher rank than Strange, which I love. It’s a good shift that refreshes the dynamic between them, and Benedict Wong’s deadpan delivery is exceptional. I just wish we could have spent more time with Wong and Strange. Maybe see Wong actually teach him something.

The second praiseworthy element of the film is the visual effects. This film was nominated for an Academy Award and... yeah, can’t argue with that. The CGI is fairly good for the most part. My favourite part of the whole film was when the Ancient One shows Strange the multiverse for the first time. The visual effects team clearly had a lot of fun coming up with weird and wonderful worlds that we only get a short tantalising glimpse of. (the dimension of hands gave me the shivers). This sequence came the closest to realising Steve Ditko’s vision in my opinion. Beyond that all we see for the rest of the movie is the poxy mirror dimension, which admittedly is cool at first, but quickly becomes dull and repetitive each time its trotted out. There’s even an entire fight sequence between Strange, Mordo and Kaecilius in a distorted version of New York, which would have been impressive if Christopher Nolan hadn’t done it first in Inception. And the less said about the technicolor monstrosity that was the Dark Dimension, the better.

Finally there’s Benedict Cumberbatch as Strange himself. I know some people were disappointed that Marvel didn’t racebend the character and I would have preferred that to, but if we must have a white guy in the role, I’m glad it’s Cumberbatch. He does a decent job in the role and there are moments where Strange almost leaps from the page and onto the screen.

Almost.

Because that’s the problem. Cumberbatch does the best he can, but he’s ultimately let down by the script. This film has a lot of issues, but by far the biggest is the title character. He may be called Doctor Strange, but he’s really Doctor Strange in name only. I was a massive fan of the comics growing up and I’m telling you this guy isn’t Doctor Strange. At least not the Doctor Strange I remember. And the weird thing is this seems almost by design. In order to show him to a mainstream audience, Marvel seem to have felt the need to completely sanitise the character, removing everything about him that made him unique and interesting in order to fit the expectations of the lowest common denominator.

Let me explain.

People often compare Strange unfavourably to Iron Man, and I can understand why to a certain extent. Both represent the epitome of white privilege and materialist obsession and their origin stories focus very heavily on criticising and deconstructing these inherently selfish and unlikable characters. Iron Man is about forcing a capitalist industrialist to take responsibility for the consequences of his actions, whereas Doctor Strange is about forcing an egocentric man to care about the wider world outside of his own bubble of privilege. Both may sound similar, but there’s a key difference between the two. Iron Man’s origin revolves around responsibility whereas Doctor Strange’s origin revolves around relativity. This needs to be understood if you’re going to attempt to adapt Strange and director Scott Derrickson doesn’t seem to understand that at all.

The fatal mistake Derrickson makes with this movie is that he’s trying to make Strange like Iron Man without fully understanding what made the first Iron Man movie good and what sets Strange apart. He’s clearly hit upon the arrogant, egocentric thing, but the problem is people exhibit arrogance and egocentricity in different ways. The comics understood this. Iron Man’s arrogance takes the form of this charismatic, devil may care kind of attitude, whereas Strange’s arrogance was more along the lines of an Ebenezer Scrooge type figure. Someone who’s cold and uncaring. Someone like...

Yeah! Someone like Dr Gregory House from the TV series House M.D.

See, if Iron Man is like Elon Musk, Doctor Strange is like House. Both are arrogant, but in different ways. So to see movie Strange acting all smug and making quips and one liners just didn’t feel right. Which is not to say Strange can’t be funny. The comics had their humorous moments, but it’s not the same kind of humour as Iron Man. Strange should be more cutting. More snarky. He needs to have more of a bite to him. Instead we get the poor man’s version of Robert Downey Jr.

But wait, because it’s actually worse than that. It’s not just Strange’s personality that’s different. Our perception of him is different too. The first Iron Man movie was extremely clear in how we should view Tony Stark. The gambling, the drinking, his lack of responsibility and the way he takes his friends and co-workers for granted. We’re clearly not supposed to like him. That’s why his character arc works. We’re seeing this selfish individual realise how selfish he is and try to make amends. Strange should be similar. He’s a callous arsehole who won’t lift a finger to help someone if the case isn’t interesting enough, seeing it as beneath him. So when the car accident occurs, him getting nerve damage in his hands feels less like a tragedy and more like karma. The universe punishing Strange for his selfish behaviour and forcing him to change. In the movie however, he doesn’t seem like that at all. In fact kind of the opposite. He doesn’t object to helping his ex girlfriend get a bullet out of a patient’s head and he seems to get on well with most of his colleagues, including his ex. Sure he’s a bit of a dick, but he still seems nice enough. The only time we see his Scroogeness come out is after the accident, at which point it’s hard to hate him even after he berates his ex because he’s a decent guy who’s understandably frustrated, which absolutely should not be the case. Strange is a bastard who cares for no one but himself. We’re not supposed to like him. But Marvel and Disney are so preoccupied about getting bums on seats that they’ve actually managed to strip away all the elements that make Strange Strange.

And then there’s the origin story itself, which the film gets completely wrong. Sure the basic elements are still there. Strange, in a last ditch effort to save his hands, travels East to see the Ancient One (except the Ancient One is now in Nepal instead of Tibet because of the Chinese market, but apparently they still can’t cast an Asian person as the Ancient One even though the film no longer has anything to do with Tibet and therefore there should be no issue. Marvel are racist dicks. Case closed), but beyond that everything is changed. In the comics, the Ancient One refuses to heal Strange’s hands because he’s a selfish arsehole who deserves no pity or help from anyone, but then when Baron Mordo tries to assassinate the Ancient One, Strange does the first selfless thing he’s ever done in his miserable life and tries to warn the Ancient One despite having his mouth magically sealed shut by Mordo. Then it’s later revealed that his mouth wasn’t sealed shut at all, and that the Ancient One knew all along Mordo was planning to assassinate him and was merely testing Strange, at which point he invites the good doctor to practice magic in order to stop Mordo in the future. In the movie however, Strange gets kicked out by the Ancient One only to then promptly get let back in after banging on their front door for several hours and gets taught all these spells despite showing no sign of selflessness or willingness to change whatsoever. Oh yeah, and Strange and Mordo are now total besties.

Do you see what I mean about this being a bad adaptation? There’s no longer any conflict. No character arcs. No one learns anything. Everything is just hunky dory and Strange is just magically a good person now. This is truly shit writing.

Everything about this movie seems to have been designed to be as bland and uncomplicated as possible. All the Asian influences and philosophies have been surgically removed to make way for a generic, knock-off Hogwarts for Dummies. The interesting plots and themes have been replaced with a by-the-numbers save the world plot. Even the lore has been simplified to an almost insulting degree. Take the Eye of Agamotto for instance. A powerful magical artefact created by and named after the most powerful sorcerer that ever lived.... reduced to a fucking Infinity Stone.

Oh and the Cloak of Levitation now has a mind and personality of its own because why the fuck not? Who wants to watch something intelligent or philosophical? Lets just make a shitty cross between Harry Potter and Mr. Bean.

And then... there’s the white saviour stuff.

Now I confess I haven’t read the comics for quite some time, so correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure Strange didn’t have a photographic memory. Yet in the movie, that’s the convenient explanation we’re given for why Strange is somehow able to learn complex spells in a matter of days. Spells that are apparently meant to take years to learn, like astral projection and time manipulation. Now the comics had this problem too, what with proclaiming that Strange is not only the Sorcerer Supreme, but the most powerful Sorcerer Supreme that’s ever lived, as though his white skin were like the star power-up from Super Mario Bros, but the movie seems to go out of its way to double down on this bollocks. Oh sure, we see him struggle to create magic portals every now and then, but it doesn’t hide the fact that he’s somehow able to create mirror worlds and time loops despite having little to no training whatsoever. He’s like Rey from Star Wars. He can just pull any random super power out of his arse when the script requires him too.

So having completely botched Strange’s characterisation and journey, how are the rest of the supporting cast? Well like I said, I like this new Wong, even though he’s criminally underused. As for the other characters, it’s a pretty forgettable bunch.

Lets start with the elephant in the room. Tilda Swinton. Having heard all the excuses under the sun as to why Marvel and Disney simply had to cast a bald white woman wearing a bathrobe in an Asian role, I was expecting something pretty spectacular from Swinton, especially after all the praise critics gave her. Instead we get... well... a pretty dull character actually. In fact I’d go as far to say that this is the blandest and most uninspired performance I think I’ve ever seen Swinton give. There’s just nothing there. Now admittedly the Ancient One wasn’t all that complex or well developed in the comics neither, being little more than a racial caricature, but I thought the whole reason they whitewashed the character was to make him/her ‘enigmatic and ethereal.’ Instead we just get the same generic mentor figure we’ve seen dozens of times before. All the stuff about her tapping into the powers of Dormammu to increase her lifespan could have made her more interesting, but the film never fully capitalises on this revelation before she kicks the bucket.

Baron Mordo is pretty much just dead weight, with the great Chiwetel Ejiofor utterly wasted in the role. He’s essentially reduced to being yet another black sidekick for the white lead. Again, the comic book version isn’t all that great neither, but the movie replaces this camp pantomime villain with absolutely bugger all. We don’t get to see any real conflict between him and Strange until the very end and even then it doesn’t really make sense. Mordo is a stickler for rules and so gets pissy with Strange when he breaks the rules in order to save the world, to which I can only ask... what else could he have done? I didn’t see you come up with any bright ideas Mordo, you fucking moron.

Rachel McAdams... exists.

Seriously, why is she in this movie? Why does Doctor Strange need a love interest? Why not just wait and introduce Clea? I could get behind using an ex girlfriend to display how selfish and narcissistic Strange is (a bit cliche I admit, but this is an MCU film we’re talking about. I’m not exactly expecting Citizen Kane here), but as I said before, the two seem to get on quite well. And other than stitching up a stab wound, Christine Palmer pretty much does nothing throughout the majority of the film. So what is she even doing there?

Also it appears the film’s racism doesn’t just extend to Asian people because it turns out Christine Palmer is actually Night Nurse in the comics. The same mantle Claire Temple has, who appears in Marvel’s Netflix shows. Not only does this come off as quite alarmingly racist, it’s also just plain weird. For all their boasts about wanting to create a shared universe, Marvel seems to spend every opportunity it can find to keep the Netflix stuff at arms’ length, to the point where you question why they’re even in the same continuity in the first place. If Strange must have some human connection, why couldn’t it have been Claire Temple? For one thing, Claire’s character is much more interesting than Christine’s (and Rosario Dawson is a much better actor than McAdams. Sorry, but it’s true), and it would be a great opportunity to bridge the gap between the movies and Netflix shows without having to bog the narrative down with exposition. But as I’ve said numerous times in the past, Marvel are more interested in creating a BIG shared universe than a coherent one.

Finally there’s the villains. Nearly always the worst aspect of any MCU film and Strange is no different. We have Kaecilius, played by Hannibal’s Mads Mikkelsen whose performance is more wooden than Pinocchio, and Dormammu, played by Benedict Cumberbatch who seems to be competing with Andy Serkis as to who can play the most CGI/motion capture characters. Both, unsurprisingly, are shite. Kaecilius wants to save the world from death by allowing Dormammu to destroy it.

I don’t get it either.

So you’re probably wondering who was Kaecilius in the comics. I mean I’ve explained everything else, haven’t I? And honestly, I haven’t the faintest idea. Turns out he was a henchman of Baron Mordo who I completely forgot about because he barely ever shows up in the comics. So... they turned Baron Mordo into the black sidekick so that the villain could be played by a white guy. Oh. And guess what race Kaecilius is in the comics.

YYYYYep. He’s Asian. I guess all the Asian actors were sick that day, so they had to cast a white guy.

Oh and you’ll never guess what his backstory is. You’re right! He has none! Other than references to some tragedy, we know absolutely fuck all about him. Critics actually liked this movie?!?!

Oh and don’t get me started on the humour.

Kaecilius: “Mr...?”

Strange: “Doctor.”

Kaecilius: “Mr. Doctor?”

Strange: “No, it’s Strange.”

Kaecilius: “I guess so. Who am I to judge?”

Dear God, someone was paid to write that.

Then there’s the Big Bad Dormammu from the Dark Dimension. (Yes, the same Dark Dimension from Agent Carter and nope, that’s never referenced. In fact this doesn’t even look like the same Dark Dimension as the one from Agent Carter. Although, to be fair, I’d want to forget Season 2 happened as well considering how fucking terrible it was, but come on guys!). In the comics Dormammu is a mystical entity that has a quote ‘unnatural obsession with our material universe’. Could be interesting to explore. Oh but I forget, this is an MCU film. They don’t want interesting. They want safe. So instead we get a purple, floating CGI head and the generic destroyer of worlds archetype. (In fact Dormammu weirdly has more in common with Galactus than the actual Dormammu. Sometimes I wonder if anyone at Marvel Studios have ever even so much as glanced at one of their own comics before).

In conclusion, is this the worst film I’ve ever seen? Admittedly no. It’s not that bad. If you switch your brain off, I can imagine someone having a good time with this film. But you see that’s the problem. You shouldn’t have to switch your brain off to enjoy Doctor Strange. If anything the opposite is true. The comics, despite their faults, were intelligent, surreal and thought provoking, asking questions about our universe and our place within it. Steve Ditko (and only Steve Ditko. The late Stan Lee may have put pen to paper, but it was ultimately Ditko’s ideas and vision, which makes the gratuitous Stan Lee cameo in this film particularly galling to me) created something truly captivating in Doctor Strange. Despite the racial caricatures and white saviour tropes, I still love these comics because of how it explores the world and our relation to that world. How we are just small cogs in a massive and intricate machine. It’s truly groundbreaking and would influence many other comics to come. The Doctor Strange movie doesn’t even begin to do that. It won’t influence anyone. It won’t make anyone think or question their role in the cosmos. In fact, three years later, despite being a huge box office success, it’s largely been forgotten. And that’s a crying shame because Strange deserves so much more.

Doctor Strange may not be the worst comic book movie ever made, but it’s a terrible adaptation of the source material. Anything that made it unique or interesting was carefully removed with surgical precision under the guise of making it more progressive, when in reality they just wanted to make it profitable. But profitable doesn’t mean good, and Doctor Strange doesn’t even come close to being a good movie. I would love to have seen what a director like David Lynch or Ang Lee would have done with this psychedelic material. This movie could and should have been the most intelligent and surreal comic book movie that’s ever been made. A perfect opportunity to allow a visionary filmmaker to go wild and express themselves artistically. Instead it’s just another MCU movie. It’s such a shame.

And people wonder why I’m worried about Deadpool joining the MCU.

[zonamievents]

ZoNami Analysis: The Orange Island Arc and First Impressions!

Hello everyone! Welcome to my new series of posts, where I discuss every Zoro and Nami moment to have ever occurred in the entire series of One Piece. Any scene can merely be friendly, but perhaps we can uncover a hint of something more between them as we go through it all? Let’s find out on this journey together!

Also, I am aware that koukihime has done a similar series on her website, zoroxnami.weebly.com. However, I wanted to perform my own analysis of Zoro and Nami’s relationship, so please bear with me if there are any accidental similarities. Thanks!

Today’s topic is how this ENTIRE arc solidifies Zoro and Nami’s relationship moving forward. First impressions are important, and though Oda-sensei likes to play with how we preceive someone vs how they really impact the story in later arcs, the simplicity of the beginning of the series tells us a lot about how these two are meant to be critical players in the Mugiwara crew, and in each other’s lives.

Picking up from where we left off, Zoro has just stepped in to save Nami’s life from Buggy’s crew! Nami is in great disbelief to find that an infamous pirate hunter like Roronoa Zoro is actually the other half of Luffy’s pirate crew.

As she stands there mistified, Buggy questions if Zoro has suddenly appeared to take his head. Though Zoro tells him that isn’t the case, Buggy instigates a fight and in a matter of seconds, it seems as though the pirate captain was taken down instantaneously. Disappointed and confused, Luffy, Zoro and Nami can’t understand why his crew starts laughing after their boss’ defeat, only for Zoro to learn that not only did he underestimate Buggy, but…

Buggy also has a Devil’s Fruit that allows his body to separate at will.

Luffy, Zoro and Nami know they need to escape, but the situation looks rather grim. However, leave it to Zoro - who now has a stab wound in his left side - to flip an entire canon over and aim it at the Buggy pirates!

After the canon shoots, it is Zoro AGAIN with his inhuman strength lifting the cage that Luffy’s stuck in and trying to carry him down off of a rooftop and onto the ground! Nami is just in awe as she follows them, and though she apparently knows the name ‘Zoro’, it seems she is unaware of just how powerful he truly is.

Nami starts to lose her wonderment when Luffy later picks a fight with ShuShu the dog. But she still brings Luffy the key to the cage so he can get himself free. Defeated for the moment, Zoro sleeps off his injury while Luffy gets himself into even more trouble! Zoro is woken up when Buggy fires another one of his Buggy Balls at the building, and somehow survives the impact so he can join the fight once again!

As the story progresses and the two crews face off - with Nami finally agreeing to ‘cooperate’ with the Straw Hats - Buggy faces off against Luffy, and Cabaji challenges Zoro. At one point in their battle, Cabaji intentionally aims for Zoro’s wound from earlier, and Nami calls him out for such a cheap trick.

And she calls him out on it again, but the third time Cabaji tries to attack his wound, Zoro not only blocks him, he decides to make that particular injury seem a little less interesting…

...by cutting himself! It disturbs even Luffy that he does this, but the tactic works and Cabaji is now focused on the overall fight rather than targeting Zoro’s obvious weakness. Of course, this only makes Nami worry about him more.

Nami leaves the scene shortly after that to go and get the map of the Grand Line that was most likely lost in the explosion. She sneaks off and promises to join up with Luffy and Zoro again if they manage to survive. However, the fight ends up being so engaging that she watches it from the distance before achieving her goal!

After avoiding an enraged Buggy when she steals his treasure - and after Luffy’s inevitable victory against Buggy - Nami groups up with Luffy and the sleeping Zoro and as he wakes up, Zoro says he doesn’t think he can walk. To which Nami replies…

And that’s the major highlight, or theme, of this arc: Luffy and Zoro are meant to show off how powerful they are together, and just how otherworldly their strength can be. Even though this is a Zoro and Nami-centric post, I just want to point out that everything mentioned above happens in order and nothing plot-centric is skipped over. A great deal of Nami’s impression of this crew revolves around her reactions to Zoro’s heroism and just how brutal he can.

But what does this mean for ZoNa?

Why summarize this entire arc and say that it’s worthy of more love from the ZoNa community?

What does the Orange Town story really highlight for us ZoNa fans!?

It shows us that this is where Nami realizes how integral Zoro is to not only the crew, but her survival too. It isn’t meant to impress us as the reader because we’ve already met Zoro - this entire meeting is meant to wow Nami into feeling safe with them.

Before she became a Straw Hat, Nami traveled the seas alone. Why bother getting any sort of outsider involved in her village’s problems? Her willingness to join the crew wasn’t simply because of her dream, but it was because she knew that she needed them to stay alive if it meant she ever encountered someone like Buggy again. Remember, Nami explicitly states in this arc that she thought Devil’s Fruits were nothing more than a myth that pirates tell themselves. For her to see both Buggy and Luffy in action in the East Blue - which she knows is statistically the weakest of all four - means that Nami needs some strong partners in crime if she plans to finish her mission of saving Cocoyashi.

Given her methodical nature, it’s only logical to tag along with such irrefutably strong men to guarantee success. And that’s the perfect way to highlight yet another ‘opposites attract’ aspect of the ZoNa relationship!

The Left Brain vs The Right Brain.

It’s a concept most of us are familiar with: each half of your brain specializes in a specific area of your personality. If you’re more instinctive than strategic, you’re Right Brain is probably your dominate half. If you prefer to plan out your day rather than letting events unfold as they will, than you’re a Left Brain thinker. At first glance, some would call Nami emotional and spastic, but us fans of the character can agree that she is one of the most intelligent and well thought out members of the Straw Hat crew.

Zoro, on the other hand, is a reactionary character. Where Nami would try to concoct a solution, Zoro would prefer to make his own based off of what he feels is best. Though a stone-cold type of character, even his choices in battle come from training that taught him how to hone his instincts in order to guide his body to dodge attacks and execute strikes successfully.

Now, why does this matter?

Because neither one of them is solidly using only one side of their brain.

Together, Zoro and Nami create a proper middle ground - known as the Wise Mind in the example image above - that create a viability for each other. Where one lacks, the other exceeds expectations. Both are impressive characters, but what we get from this arc is the root of Zoro and Nami that truly show the significance they bring out in one another based off of their mere functionality.

In the very first post of this series, I talked about how Nami was the navigator and Zoro works as a protector; this first introduction they have clearly provides the foundation for Nami’s perception of Zoro as the person she ends up relying on the most from here on out. Essentially, their relationship works itself into a very popular theme: the Beauty and the Beast.

If you look at Belle from the Disney version of the tale, she is smart, well-read and cunning. She knows when it’s time to run away and when she needs to step up to the plate, to risk her life for either her father or for the Beast himself. She yearns to have more than the life she leads and it causes her to seek adventures beyond herself. Though her wits can get her into trouble sometimes - and even put her at odds with the Beast - she manages to to prove herself as a worthy partner to stand next to the Beast.

On the other hand, we can look at the Beast himself. He’s very stern, off-putting at times, despite the kind-hearted individual inside. Though others may comment on his brash personality, the Beast stays true to himself but starts to warm up to the idea of having Belle around. The Beast even saves Belle more than once and her respect for him grows when she sees how selfless he can truly be. He isn’t the easiest characters to love in his own story, despite being a clear protagonist. He always has his own goal in the back of his mind and thinks about how it involves the lives of those around him. He’s also the first to tell you he isn’t ‘a fool’.

There is a fantastic, oldie but goodie fanfic written by SF Kitty called “Beauty and the Beast: One Piece Style” from 2006 that shows how fans of ZoNa have picked up on the notion that there are evident ties to this Disney couple, and for good reason! It’s a popular concept that has worked out for many other fictional couples, because each couple acts as the other half to their partner - like the Left Brain meeting the Right Brain to make a Wise Minded couple! And though this arc is summarized simply in this post, I believe that the intention of this story allowed for Zoro to show off his beastly attributes to a rather shell-shocked Nami, just like the Beast does when he saves Belle from the wolves in the Disney adaption of the tale.

Mind you, Nami isn’t as smooth as Belle when she comes back to help Zoro and Luffy, but the similarity exists and that’s good enough for me! 

[alightwhendarknessfell]

My American Satan Review

So I will place any spoilers below the read more line for those that have either already seen the film or don’t plan on seeing it. 

I have been waiting for this movie to come out since it was announced. Clearly, I am a bit bias by the fact that I’m a huge Black Veil Brides fan, but I really was interested in the plot. I went and saw the film last night (in cosplay), and I have to say I enjoyed every second of it. It’s got its faults, and it’s clearly and indie film but it’s one of the best indie films I’ve ever seen. 

I’ve decided to make a list of the pros and cons of the movie, so here we go.  

Pros

The storyline is absolutely incredible. There is so much thought put into even the smallest of details. It’s one of those films where each time you watch it you pick up another little detail. The concept of rock bands/musicians making deals with Satan is a very popular one and it’s honestly shocking this movie hasn’t been made before. It follows the story of Job where the devil and God fight it out over who Job will ultimately follow.  Andy’s character ‘Johnny’ is clearly based off Job. Clearly it also follos the story of Faust (aka why the main character is Johnny Faust) who makes a deal with the devil in exchange for knowledge and success. 

There are actually plot twists that I didn’t see coming (see spoilers) 

Booboo Stewart  is a gorgeous man.. like seriously 

I like that there are clearly things that happen or aspects of the film that are based off of Andy’s actual experiences moving out to Hollywood 

There are some really funny parts to the film,  but also some VERY dark parts. 

Ben Bruce is actually an incredible actor 

My expectations for Andy’s acting weren’t too high and there were some parts where it  was kind of poor but overall he channeled the character and the character’s emotions very well

The ending leaves open the possibility that the story isn’t over  

Remington was a PERFECT choice for vocals, the soundtrack and songs made for the movie are amazing. Seriously if you watch it the song ‘Let Him Burn’  gets a whole new meaning

Since there are actual musicians in the film, it really does paint a very accurate picture of what the life of a rock star is really like. The film doesn’t shy away from the pretty horrific side of it. 

Mr. Capricorn plays an amazing devil holy shit, he was  the perfect choice

The casting was done very well, everyone’s character is very believable 

Cons

There is WAY to much story packed into two hours. The film follows the band from their start then over their 2 years rise to fame. It would often times get confusing as to how much time had passed. There weren’t dates included in different scenes so it was hard to follow the progression. Especially when it came to the drugs, rehab, court dates, etc. It didn’t feel like two years had passed.

There were some major plot holes where it felt like things were left out. For instance (minor spoiler) the band knows automatically that Mr. Capricorn is the devil right after meeting him. To me, it would take a bit more than just one talk with someone to go from not believing in the devil to thinking that you’re sitting with him. 

Gretchen’s character and Johnny’s mom weren’t that good

There were some parts that were not believable, won’t get into them but some things would happen and I would go “yeah right” 

The news interviews were kind of cheesy 

Johnny’s rehab scene was incredibly unbelievable (more in spoilers) 

All in all, though the film was very well done. The acting was, for the most part, good and the movie LOOKED good. I would recommend it if you’re into the emo/rock/metal scene or like Asking Alexandria/Black Veil Brides. It’s not so much horror/thriller but darker. I would also recommend it if you like films with deeply religious themes or important lessons.The film makes you think which I like. My mom went to see it with me (she also liked it) and we’ve both spent the whole day just going over parts of the plot.  I liked that the ending isn’t exactly ‘happy ever after’ as well. And what really won me over was just the amazing plot and writing. I plan on maybe even seeing it again and I’m for sure going to buy it when it comes out on DVD. I do feel like if this film was done by a major movie company it would become a cult classic. 

I’m giving the film two ratings before I go into spoilers. One from the perspective on an indie film and one for overall.  

Overall:  3.5/5 Indie: 4.25/5 

Spoilers below 

So here are my spoilers that I just wanted to give my opinion on. I’m just going to do points and talk about them. 

The ‘Let Him Burn’ Scene: This is hands down one of my favorite scenes from the movie. When the band makes a human sacrifice by burning the local asshole (forgot his name) alive in a van, it was really well done. Instantly you know that Johnny has chosen the devil. He, of course, changes his mind and frees the guy who then is electrocuted but the hesitance in that decision really shows that he has evil in him. This is the evil that Mr. Capricorn exploits. The rest of the band stands by and lets Johnny take the lead. It sets up the film perfectly because while the rest of the band members sort of keeping their souls, for the most part, Johnny completely loses his. Later on in the fight scene at the country bar where Andy once again kills is another amazing scene. 

Is Lilly Mr. Capricorn?: About halfway through the film, I started to suspect that Lilly may, in fact, be the devil/Mr. Capricorn. She’s deeply involved in satanic imagery (Satanic brothel hello). She’s the one who gets Johnny to start doing heroin then fucks him and answers the phone so that Johnny’s girlfriend hears the whole thing. Also, she insists that HE be the one to shoot up, which follows with the whole the devil doesn’t make you do things, he encourages you to do them yourself. She is also never around when Mr. Capricorn is. The band even says “should we tell Lilly?”. Another important point was that she was not around during the conversation with Mr. Capricorn in the bar nor at the human sacrifice. She constantly leads Johnny into danger and temptation. In the final kill scene, Mr. Capricorn tells Johnny that he is in fact who Johnny has been fucking (also fucking his mom). The question of whether he is actually Lilly is left open. Personally, I think Mr. Capricorn does take different forms, Lilly being one of them. Which means the whole time Johnny has been literally fucking the devil (which is a pretty bad ass plot twist). 

Gabriel/Mr. Capricorn: The older black man that Andy keeps running into throughout the film is Gabriel. He and Mr. Capricorn seem to take turns trying to steer Johnny in their direction. This goes back to the whole story of Job. He kept warning Johnny throughout the film but Johnny doesn’t listen. In the very beginning of the movie when he asks Johnny to watch his stuff while he goes into the liquor/convenience store I feel that it was a test. Johnny doesn’t leave the man’s stuff or steal it and instead waits for him to come back. When Johnny looks in Gabriel’s bag there is no liquor in it, just food. To me, this signifies the ability to resist temptation exists. Gabriel also gives Johnny an apple before leaving (the forbidden fruit). Gabriel also makes a comment in the final performance of how they’re both on this stage but got there different ways. 

The Heroin Scene: This was another favorite scene of mine. It was pretty graphic of a scene but then again doing heroin is no joke. I felt like this was a very important moment in the film because it signify’s Johnny going off the deep end. In my opinion, I do think that Lilly and Mr. Capricorn are the same people. So that means that Johnny literally shoots up heroin and has sex with the devil. 

The CNN Interview: This to me the funniest part of the movie. Vic is tripping on acid during the band’s interview with CNN and I just thought it was a beautifully done scene. 

Johnny’s Rehab: This was my least favorite part of the film. Heroin is one of the HARDEST drugs to kick. It was very hard to believe (with no time frame given) that all Johnny had to do was go to this monk(?) rehab facility and meditate and then boom he’s clean. In fact, even the dope sick scene where he can’t go on stage isn’t very realistic. I’ve seen people dope sick they often are violently ill and I felt like it could have been portrayed better. Johnny was just sitting on the floor and coughed a few times then they shoot him up and boom all better. 

The Ending: The ending kind of confused me. So he’s in jail for murdering Mr. Capricorn on stage but it was self-defense? Then the dad of the kid they killed, in the beginning, offers to get him off? I was paying pretty close attention but I still feel like I missed something. Is he going back to the band? He gives this kind of evil smirk at the end which makes me think that in fact, the devil is still working in his favor. He’s once again going to get away with murder. Johnny says that the devil will keep coming back, and in my opinion, I think the lawyer may be the new reincarnation of him. 

And finally, I have my own kind of Andley inspired comments. 

Parallels to Ashley Purdy: I have no way of knowing if this was on purpose or if I’m just reading a lot into it but I noticed a lot of parallels to Andy and Ashley’s relationship with Johnny and Lilly/Mr. Capricorn. First off Lilly is the bassist in the band. Mr. Capricorn/the devil tricks the naive Johnny into signing a contract with him essentially. Of course, it’s come out that Ashley had Andy sign a contract splitting the ownership of the band back when they first met. Lilly also tempts Johnny into doing heroin (Ashley has a past with this) and then ends up having sex with him. 

[kingdomofthelogos]

Sensational Idolatry

Read Jude 1:1-4

Download a printable version here.

Evil will come and break into your life, for its desire is always for you. It comes, not always through grand fanfare with clear declarations of its presence, but often in small subtle ways that creep into your house that it might infect and pervert that which is good, true, and natural. The devil and his demons are not happy to remain in hell, they want to be in your house with you. Hell is wrought with joy when households are twisted and contorted by the wiles of sin. Even the house of God is desired by their licentious appetite, and we may even find ourselves twisting the house of God according to our carnal desires if we are not careful.

Just as there are two ways, the Way of Life and the way of death, Jude illuminates for us two modes of personal character. One is that of mercy, peace, and love abundance. The second is that of hungry licentiousness, the craven life of sensual corruption. Jude, who was one of Christ’s Twelve Apostles, aspires for the faithful to achieve an abundance of mercy, peace, and Christlike love. Moreover, he knows this cannot happen without conflict with the wicked, for sin is always crouching near. Jude understands that victory is found through heavy battle against chaos while nobly standing in the joyous truth of Christ. 

Jude opens his letter in declaration of the contrast between the sheep and wolves in sheep's clothing. Furthermore, there is a cosmic nature to the conflict between the two. It is no mere accident that intruders have crept in; and, it is a constant theme in fallen creation that we must stand against enemies within.

One of the great problems bringing chaos into the world is the fact that people sensationalize God. This sin is devastating, and it is more than a mere footnote in Scripture. This is a mode of thinking which begins in a corrupt understanding of God, and then pours over into all areas of life.

Jude is correct in his precise diagnosis of sensationalism. There is a real and serious problem in that people will shift their God designed senses and emotions out of their proper place and run them up a Tower of Babel to occupy the throne of Heaven. This is both an act of idolatry and tyranny, and it produces a vile rot. Despite the fact that this sin takes place in the arena of the senses, it will quickly overrun everything in life.

Jude's diagnosis is that this sin is phonographic; and, as with all pornography, people indulge a heightened moment of intense satisfaction, but then they lose interest quickly once they've satisfied the flickering itch. There is a reason why pornography makes up such a significant portion of the internet, it is both highly desirable and highly disposable. It is a pathway of ever increasing desire coupled to ever diminishing fulfillment. Moreover, it leads one to a point where they can feel nothing at all, and therefore lose any real ability to use their bodies as God intended. This sad tyranny produces small, temporary satisfactions while rejecting enduring happiness. This same mechanism of rot frequently happens to our faith and every aspect of our lives. Jude is in fact correct, people do turn faith into pornography, and hence the need for ever changing worship to satiate our ever changing appetite.

Once God is sensationalized, so then will be everything else. People will start to question the presence of the Holy Spirit based on whether or not they felt the "movement." They start to question the legitimacy of their family's love based on whether or not they are getting the form of attention they desire. They will question the motive of their neighbor based on how an interaction made them feel. Ideas start to be weighed out as whether or not they are inoffensive and politically correct, whether they are nice or mean. Nothing in life will be taken seriously for its deeper meaning, for truth itself becomes a sensation.

The problem with sensations is not that they are inherently sinful, for God made all things good, but because they can be so fully contained within our person that we start to think our own feelings and sensations dictate what is and what is not. This is the idolatry of feelings. It is the Tower of Babel made complete, where our emotional and hormonal systems make their way to the throne of heaven and decide what is and what is not good.

This is a huge problem in our modern age. Information, news, and interactions with one another is almost entirely designed to be sensational. We like click bait news, where a sensational headline catches our eye, so we snatch up the story and read through the scandal only to forget about it moments later. Never is the question asked of whether or not something is true, and if it is true, then we must do something about. Instead we ask about biases and angles, if something is traditional or modern, if it is what the experts say, how it makes us look, if it is what is popular and what advances a cause. We pleasure ourselves with conversations on social justice without the slightest idea of what is true, but only select ideas of what is felt. Anything is asked but the question of truth. The idolatry of sensation creates a world where we hold no one accountable for anything, and instead we forget that truth and action actually matter. 

The idolatry of sensation is so wretched because it moves the question of truth into the arena of chaos, an arena where there is no standard other than a person's desire for emotional satisfaction. Moreover, it causes us to forget that our thoughts of whether or not we felt the Holy Spirit may have less to do with the Holy Presence and more to do with the person that cut us off on the highway, the breakfast that got a little burnt, or even the dreams we had last night whose emotions lingered on long after we forgot the exact story in the dream. The tyranny of sensationalism is that it lacks any standard other than the self, and only values what the self feels in a given moment. It produces a world were none can think clearly.

But this is not how God designed us to live. Truth is larger than any of us, and even our senses are creations of God that we might have joy while navigate life with Him. Jude's argument is not that the senses are bad, but he knows how dislocated senses can corrupt the true joys of God's design. Pornography gives an ever diminishing small satisfaction in replacement of the large satisfaction of marriage. All sensationally tyranny does this. It replaces the true happiness, the joy unspeakable and full of glory, with a joy that deserves no words and is full of nothing.

Specifically, this is an intense but small satisfaction that a person becomes immediately bored with after they have reached the emotional climax; then, after hitting that climax they discard the material quickly for it serves no further purpose. Later when the itch returns, they will seek out licentious material again, but this time looking for new material, for the previous has lost its novelty and can never quite give the same feeling. This happens with our faith, and these are not my words but Scripture's. We need a new song, a new style of education, a new interpretation, new names and new words, and so forth and so on.

When this infects the church, it creates rot in the heart of believers who are always looking for how God might satisfy their whims without ever a consideration of how they might serve Him. It replaces true joy with discardable garbage, things to be forgotten in a moment because they never really brought fulfillment in the first place.

Now, this does indicate that music and other emotional stirring forces are always sinful, for they are creations of God. All creations of God can draw us to Him, from the logic of mathematical algorithms to the majesties found in both mountains and musical harmony. What we must do to avoid error, is to ask ourselves why we do things. Do we sing out of motivation to God, even if doing so fails to give us a vivid sensation? Or do we sing to satisfy the self? These are serious issues, but this message is not chiefly critique on worship styles. Our entire society has been sensationalized to the point that the public sphere has almost no meaning at all.

Proverbs 18:27 reminds us that the one who first states a case seems right, until the other comes and cross-examines. Truth, and even the presence of God, is not determined by opinion or awareness. Often, we think one thing is the case, only to realize we were wrong. 

Christ tells us how people will know we are His by how we love one another with Christlike love, not by how we feel about the matter. The Scriptures also tell us that there will be dark valleys, moments when we feel as if we are cut off from the light. It is in these moments that we feel as if God's hand has withdrawn. But, God looks upon His creatures and commands endurance, that at a minimum we carry on through the perceived loneliness of the valley of the shadow of death and at least draw interest on a single talent while we await the return of the Master. That at a minimum, we produce some small fruit out of motivated service to Him even as we think Him to be distant. 

God created the sensations, not hell. Sin's power is not to invent new desires, but to have us take the natural desires and pleasures and indulge them in ways, times, and degrees that are the farthest removed from what gives real satisfaction. CS Lewis shared with us a letter from Screwtape, a demon in hell, who revelled in how happy the father below is for you to trade your soul to hell for absolutely nothing in return. Not only is it a certain way for hell to acquire you, but the devil also considers it good style. The senses must be in their proper place, as God designed them, and that is where they give us the most satisfaction. 

Now that we have distinctly identified this sensual idolatry, let us consider the hope of God's truth. There is evangelism in standing against this tyranny. People are liberated when they live and walk in the truth, and the senses bring far more joy in their natural forms than when used as slaves to the sensual idols of small satisfaction.

Do not think that Jude's aspiration to mercy, peace and love comes without a fight. Salvation in Christ did not come without a fight. Tyrannical idols are always around us, and we do well to stand firmly against them. The pathway to mercy, peace, and love is found through combat against sensual idols. Truth and beauty belong to God, and if we are going to enjoy them, then we must fight for them. Do not think that liberty and mercy come without conflict; therefore, let us stand firm with Christ as conquerors against the world.

[robotnik-mun]

Answer ALL OF THEM.

....oh you dirty *BITCH*....!

A cartoon you remember that nobody else does.

At times I feel like the only person on Earth who remembers Exosquad.

It’s a real shame, because Exosquad was one of the best toons of the 90s and proof positive that just because something was made to tie-in to toys, doesn’t mean that it has to be little more than a mindless extended commercial. 

A cartoon you like but nobody else seems to.

That would be Beast Machines. A sequel series to the uber-good Beast Wars, this series caught a lot of derision for its shift in tone, design and character. Given the context though, I didn’t really see it as being ALL that divergent, with our heroes returning to a world where Megatron rules all and forced to learn how to use new, techno-organic bodies in order to combat him. Given the stress of the situation, I thought it wasn’t really THAT much of a stretch that the character’s personalities would change so much given the trauma of what had happened. Ah well. 

A cartoon you don’t like but everybody else seems to. 

That would be the Looney Tunes Show. At times I feel like the only person on Earth who just wasn’t impressed with it. I mean its not horrible or anything, but I feel like I’m the only person around who wasn’t all that wowed by it when it came out. 

A cartoon you wish would be forgotten.

Sausage Party. For being a simplistic, puerile, overhyped puddle of mediocrity, it deserves to be swept into the dustbin of history. 

The worst cartoon you’ve ever seen, and why?

You know, I had to give this some thought, but that would have to be Mr. Pickles.  Mr. Pickles is basically an amalgamation of everything you could ever hate about ‘adult’ cartoons in the US- it’s ugly, unpleasant and pointless. The humor is one note and entirely reliant upon grossing people out in the most nauseating ways possible, and there is literally no one to root for- the dog is the Devil, every human being alive is monstrous, ugly and stupid, the only person who is clued in on this is a feeble old man who lives to be bested and tormented by the devil dog, and given how awful everyone and everything around him is you’re just left to wonder why he bothers. Everything about this series is just irredeemably, endlessly unpleasant. 

The worst moment you’ve ever seen happen in a cartoon.

That would be the ‘Bunny Pajamas’ incident in Hey Arnold. See, there was this episode where quite by accident, Arnold discovered that Iggy, the coolest kid in school, liked to wear Bunny Pajama when sick. After having the information pried out of him by Sid and Stinky, Iggy forces Arnold to walk out in Bunny Pajamas in public as a means of forgiveness, utterly humiliating him in the process. What’s worse is that Sid and Stinky only *guessed* the truth. There was just... nothing after that. No resolution or anything. It was just a weirdly mean-spirited of an otherwise excellent series. 

The worst thing you’ve ever seen happen to a cartoon that ruined it.

The love triangle nonsense in Legend of Korra. I just... couldn’t let myself be invested anymore after it, I just couldn’t. I learned to detest everybody involved, and so I left the series before it could fester any further. 

A cancelled/forgotten cartoon you would bring back to television.

I have to pick just one? Geeze... well, I’m gonna break with tradition, and say War Planets. WE DESERVE AN ACTUAL RESOLUTION DAMMIT!

An animated character you remember but nobody else seems to.

Nilus the Sandman. I seriously feel like the only person who remembers that this guy was ever a thing. 

An animated character you hate the most, and why?

Hmm... that would have to be Cheese. It was bad enough that this utterly useless and unspeakably obnoxious little cretin got more and more screentime on the show, but as time went on he practically became the mascot for Cartoon Network. He represents everything you could possibly hate about a character, and more importantly, the tendancy for executives to latch on to the lowest hanging fruit in the name of grabbing attention and views.  

A non-animated property you would like to see as a cartoon

Oh, that’s easy- Starfox. I’ve always, always wished that there had been a Starfox cartoon out there and given the time the first game was released, I’m kind of amazed we never got one. 

A trope or trend in animation that you dislike.

I’m not all that fond of the reatreat from action toons that has been going on for a while now, or the fact that cartoons are increasingly focused on comedy at the expense of everything else. It’s not so much that I don’t like comedy or anything like that, but I just prefer there to be a bit of variety and feel a genuine regret that things like Batman: The Animated Series or SwatKats are increasingly becoming a phenomenah of the past. Well, who knows, maybe Netflix will give toons like that a place to thrive- Young Justice will be coming back, after all. Here’s hoping that starts a trend, or rather, RE-starts a trend. 

A currently airing cartoon that you know is going to be forgotten about in the future.

Pickle and Peanut. And thank God for that. 

The best episode of a cartoon you really like.

Code of Hero, Beast Wars. One of the best Transformers anything ever, this is always gonna be a favorite. 

The worst episode of a cartoon you really like.

Ro-Becca, from Sonic the Hedgehog. I love you SatAM, always will, but good GOD we could have done without that one. 

A cartoon you feel deserves more recognition than it gets.

Disney’s Gummi Bears. Besides the fact that this series is what really got the ball rolling with Disney’s major TV rennaissance, the series itself is really quite incredible from both a visual and storytelling standpoint, especially with regards for the time that it was released. Despite having a fairly typical ‘Gang of Critters’ setup for the time, right down to each character being named for a trait (Gruffi, Tummi, Cubbi etc), every one of the Gummi Bears has a lot more going on than the surface would indicate, and there is a maturity to the worldbuilding and storytelling that belies what its name and appearance would suggest. Besides that, Princess Calla has to be one of the most badass princesses ever to grace television. This series is a gem, and its a shame it isn’t remembered and recognized more than it is. 

A cartoon you feel deserves less recognition than what it gets.

Sausage Party. I’m mentioning it twice, but it really does not deserve the hype it got or the kind of reviews it got. In the history of adult oriented animation in the US, Sausage Party brings nothing new to the table beyond re-affirming that tired stereotype that ‘mature’ animation must be the most puerile and juvenile minded tripe out there. Everything from its supposed themes to the nature of its humor is just sub-par, and I will never, ever view it as anything more than a cheap gimmick film that banked on novelty rather than anything worthwhile. 

The worst idea you can think of for an animated series.

Lara-Su Chronicles- The Series! 

At what point did you realize a cartoon, any cartoon was starting to get bad?

Well, like many, I started to realize things were going downhill in the ‘03 Ninja Turtles cartoon once we reached the Flash Forward season. Now to be clear, I didn’t think it was a bad premise, and a lot of the ideas and designs in the season had a lot of promise. Unfortunately, that promise wasn’t really met- the season lacked a certain spark that those before it had. The magic was gone, replaced by something that just didn’t do the series justice. I lost track after that season, and from the looks of it I was right for doing so. 

An experience with a cartoon you thought you were going to like but turned you away from it.

Wolverine and the X-men. See, I like X-men. I like Wolverine. So surely, I should like this right? Well, initially I did... but as time went on, Wolverine became less and less tolerable, particularly since it felt like Cyclops was getting shit on as a character to make Wolverine look better even though their dynamics were now completely opposite from what it had traditionally been. Which could have been interesting mind you, but nothing of worth was really done with it. I abandoned the series and never looked back. 

Something you would like to see more than anything in a cartoon.

Hmmm... this is a fandom specific one, but honestly? I’d love to see a Transformers cartoon that does the old ‘Cybertronians Become Human’ bit, but to *actually* do it and explore the concept in a mature way, to explore how immortal war machines respond to suddenly becoming frail, short lived humans and all too aware of the fact, as well as learning how to endure a human existence. Maybe someday it will happen, but for now, I can but wish. 

What do you feel makes a cartoon forgettable?

I think more than anything, writing and plotting can be the key to if a cartoon is remembered or forgotten. Being overly reliant on stock plots and playing it too safe more than anything can make a cartoon bland or cliched. I mean don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot more to it than that, but this is I think more than anything is what leads to a lot of cartoons winding up forgotten. 

[grass-skirt]

Story-driven, character establishing, and power traits where could you rank HxH, Naruto, One Piece, and Tokyo Ghoul? I'm not sure about hxh and tg tho because the story doesn't focus on power fantasy like Naruto or One Piece that deliberately do that for their male child audience but I want to know where you stand!

Anonymous said to grass-skirt:pt.2 I also forgot to add is there anything those certain shows do that you would like to see the other incorporate? I mean I know Kishimoto, being a hxh fan, took parts of HxH and added it to Naruto ( like the Kurta tribe massacare+revenge, hunter exam, etc ) but I mean that doesn’t have to stop there what do you think?

I’m not going to do a formal ranking, but here are some of my thoughts on all this

One Piece: given that this was one of my favorite manga for years I would say that this is overall the best manga on this list (despite how much I think it has declined during the last several years). The set-up for most of the arcs is quite simple and repetitive, but it’s also been very successful and allowed for the in-depth exploration of many characters while also slowly building up and incredibly grand overarching plot and fleshing out an incredibly complex larger world. I also think the framework and application for people’s powers is the best overall here. Devil Fruits are easy to explain and allow for the existence of many diverse abilities that are dynamic. One Piece powers are often described as being “rock paper scissors” rather than many other shonen series set up of direct powerlevels where whoever has the higher powerlevel wins. Unfortunately I’ve lost much of my passion for the series in recent years because of poor pacing, both casual and explicit sexism, and sloppy characterization of both new characters and of many of the Straw Hats. Here and here are two posts that give more detailed examples of this kind of stuff. 

HxH: I have mixed feelings about the manga. It kind of simultaneously does things both very well and kind of poorly in my mind. Like, Gon and his relationship with Killua is wonderful and one of the biggest highlights of the whole series, but IMO Gon’s basic motivation as a character that drove him to become a hunter just plain sucks. The climax to the Chimera Ant arc made me sob my eyes out and was quite unique compared to most shonen manga, but the pacing for much of the story is painfully slow, with the Greed Island arc in the manga being the worst of all. And Nen is interesting, but it is also an overly complicated mess that requires way too much explaining. Like the fight between Hisoka and Steve Carell? It was intense and hella cool but oh god they had to devote so many pages to dense, overly complicated breakdowns of what Chrollo was doing because it was all so wildly complicated. I’ve written plenty about HxH in my “HxH blogging tag” so people should look through that if they want more detailed thoughts. 

Naruto: I think I share the common opinion that Naruto started out great but when drastically downhill as it went on. It had a solid cast, good story arcs with compelling villains, and an easy to understand yet very diverse ability system. But as it went on, the side characters got shoved to the side more and more, everything with Sasuke became a complete clusterfuck, the themes established early on in the series were trampled all over and spat on in the second half of it (”defy your destiny” became “all this IS destiny”), and what used to be a simple set up of chakra and ninjutsu turned into Naurto and Sasuke becoming demigods. You can find my big post about my detailed thoughts on the series here. 

Tokyo Ghoul: I’m not really a big enough fan of it to really give my thoughts on it here. And since I’m not as big a fan of it as these others (even Naruto), I guess that would mean that I think it does an overall worse job when it comes to story and characters. But maybe not. I’m not going to pretend that my lack of interest is entirely due to it having objective shortcomings or anything. 

So each of these series have their own strengths and weaknesses, even within every single on of these categories. I probably made this more complicated (and more critical) than it needed to be, but hey that’s what I’m good at. 

I can’t really say that there’s anything specific I would like to see any of these series take from the others. It’s more that I would like these series to address their own shortcomings. Which is hard though, because often these issues are… fundamental to the stories. Like, I have no idea of HxH could be made less excessively complicated when what has already been established is so incredibly complicated that further development on these already established subjects is going to have to be just as complicated in order to address everything. (And then like, Naruto is over, but Boruto does not seem to be off to that great of a start. That’s a whole other bag of worms there.) 

[stacigiroux]

I grew up in rural America.

I grew up in rural America and I loved it. I still love it, though I no longer find myself able to relate to it as much as I used to. You’re allowed to love something without agreeing with it whole-heartedly. Allow me to explain.

I grew up where my cares were few and my worries were simple; go to school, go to work, come home, spend time with my nuclear, Christian, caucasian family, spend time with friends, save money for vacations and enjoy life. I grew up hopeful, optimistic and to believe the best of all people. My primary personal struggles were relational; wondering who and when I would marry someone and inevitably have an extraneous amount of children. Even at my most “worldly”, my life was incredibly grace-filled and innocent. I am grateful for my childhood and the ways I was so protected from real trial and tribulation.

I am so grateful that my worldview was shaped by a truly incredible community who does, in fact, care deeply about the people they are affiliated with.

I was conservative in most senses of the word, I worked for the Republican party and I lobbied at the Capitol championing for the causes I believed in; hoping and praying that our country’s “Christian values” would reign again one day. Life was good; my voice was loud and I was heard. I grew up believing the word “liberal” was a derogatory term, even though I’d never really known any truly “liberal” people before. Liberal people were evil troll gremlins out to kill babies and dreams; they had no soul and they hated God.  

When I turned 25, after having a token few life experiences outside of that community, I found myself drawn and moving to Seattle. As I shared with community members my newfound and exciting plans, the response was less than enthusiastic.

Contorted faces and looks of disgusted paired with:

“Why would you go THERE?!”

“Ew, you know it’s just a cesspool of secular liberalism.”

“Make sure you buy pepper spray!”

“Do you have a church family you can stay connected to? Make sure you do! Don’t go to any churches on Capitol Hill!”

“You won’t find Jesus in Seattle.”

These are actual responses I received from the people who otherwise loved me well and encouraged me to pursue my dreams. I found a common theme of utter contempt and disgust for Seattle and all of it’s “liberal” inhabitants. This confused me, as one of the primary reasons I felt so compelled to the city was my incredible church and the young people there who vivaciously loved God.

With a simultaneously optimistic and skeptical vision, I moved to Seattle anyways. For the first time in my life, I worked and lived with people who didn’t agree with everything I thought or said. In fact, some of them didn’t agree with ANYTHING I thought or said. And yet, I was able to forge relationships with them that were fun and fruitful. I became friends with the gremlins and started to realize that I had unfairly categorized and written off people who I enjoyed because of ideological differences for much of my life. These people weren’t gremlins, they were incredible, intelligent, life-giving and loving human beings.

Conversely, I found myself almost constantly defending where I came from and the people my newfound friends thought were my community. I was appalled that my new friends thought that all conservatives were bigoted, uneducated hicks who blindly believed everything their pastors told them, desired for women to be less than and hated diversity. Conversations weren’t always easy and sometimes things got heated and I got angry. My liberal friends didn’t understand my conservative friends and it wasn’t something I could change with a brief conversation. Understanding and reconciliation would take time; in some cases, it would take a lifetime. It became something I learned I’d have to reconcile for the sake of the relationship or forsake the relationship.

Subsequently, I began to change in ways I never thought I would. I learned that conservatism isn’t synonymous with Biblical, being right or being loving. I learned that the black and white I thought I knew actually was a dense, thick, foggy grey. I learned that liberalism wasn’t the enemy. I learned that conservatism wouldn’t save America. I learned that I had an immense amount to learn about reality. From that point forward, my perspectives became far less linear as I dated my future husband, got married, entered a new career field, moved to Los Angeles and back again. At present day, my belief system looks vastly different than it did five years ago, though many of my foundations are the same.

I write all of this because I recently posted a status on the day our country inaugurated a new president indicating that I was sad. The likes and reactions flew in, as did the comments. My friends and family responded in ways they saw fit, and special thanks to the first amendment, they said whatever they wanted. I anticipated and expected this, and I chose not to censor or remove any posts from that status. For the most part, things were civil, with a few witty, snarky responses in there that gave me a chuckle and I only lost one Facebook friend.

Interestingly enough, no one asked me why I was sad. No one took the time to investigate my perspective. They made assumptions about my sadness and deduced that my sadness was entirely politically motivated. I’m not saying it was or wasn’t, I just found it interesting that no one reached out privately to ask me. Just assumed, responded and told me how to feel. So interesting.

I reached out to the friend who deleted me on Facebook privately and we had an exchange that I felt was fruitful and helped me to better understand that person’s perspective and frustrations. But something they said to me really resonated. They told me “to be honest, you’ve changed”. I didn’t know why at the time, but my heart felt pained and I found myself whirring that phrase around in my head for days following. I couldn’t deny the observation: I had changed.

We expect all human beings to evolve, grow and mature throughout life. But this observation my friend had made about my change wasn’t intended to be mere observation: it was an accusation. It felt very much like it was character defamation and it hurt like the dickens. Essentially, what this friends perspective was of me seemed to be was, “You used to be right, and now you’re wrong.” It was hurtful and frustrating to realize that the very ideology I was happy to defend in crowds of opposition suddenly turned on me based on an assumption that I no longer subscribed to any of my previous beliefs. All this because I was sad?

I hope I’m always changing. I hope I never stay the same. When I became a Christian, I met a God who told me that if I wanted to stay the same, I could have my way, but I’d die alone and forever be without Him. That terrified me so much that I have spent my life ever since that moment trying to learn as much about who He is and how I can adopt His heart as my own. I met a God who promised me that His ways were not mine and that I had more than a world’s worth of understanding ahead of me and it’d be best if I just learned to trust Him along the crazy ride He had. I have never been the same since and I hope to always grow and change in ways that make me less myself and more the self He would have me be. I beg for change; I weep when I see myself in the same ruts I’ve struggled with for years. I am flawed and failed, but change is something I welcome. To have change be the accusation intended to incite my attitude adjustment or repentance… it was startling and upsetting; to say the least.

I no longer subscribe to a political party or would identify myself with liberalism or conservatism entirely. Make no mistake, however: I promise that I’ll confuse you with my politics. I actively defend the people who I used to be surrounded by to my friends who don’t understand them, and one of my favorite things to do in any conversation that is politically one-sided is to play devil’s advocate and bring up alternative perspectives, even if I don’t personally share them.

But I will always welcome change. I will always welcome recognizing that I was wrong. I hope that I look back on this season of life the way I look back at my then 16 year old self and cringe. I hope that I will have matured so much by age 60 that this writing will cause me a chuckle and an eye roll. I really hope that.

I share all of this to remind each and every person reading it that there is far more to the individual human story than what meets the eye. There is far more complexity to each person and the ideology that they subscribe to than we can deduce from shared statuses and memes on social media.

Inevitably, there will be friends who will read this, draw a conclusion and decide to respond telling me how I’ve been brainwashed or that I’m wrong. And that’s ok. That is their right. But it is also my right to be sad about that.

There is more to life than desperately trying to be the most right or prove your point. Maybe life is about learning about all the ways we are wrong and being grateful that we are loved in spite of it.

Love to all my rights and my lefts. <3