#the cowboy aesthetic is. first of all. very funny to me

[the-most-pathetic-edge-marquis]

jasper moodboards are the funniest fucking thing on twilight tumblr i'm sorry

[sanctus-ingenium]

WIPs of some of my drawings where i made a full little painting for the sketch to nail colours or values first. i thought it would be fun to do a Behind The Scenes and also show u how some drawings changed, what i kept and what i discarded and at what point i just started adding unplanned details

all these were done using a mixture of sai and procreate

more comments on The Process under the cut

eye of the otherworld is inspired by a real photo i took two weeks ago!

i soooo wanted to draw water that looked like this, weeds and all, so the original colours of that sketch were picked direct from the photo. but i wasn’t satisfied with it so i changed it using a gradient map (you can see it’s crunchy on the borders between colours). for the final, i re-painted everything again using the sketch colours as a guide so that i would not end up with the crunchy edges a gradient map will give u, and so that i could add in extra contrast over the top. the black swirl pattern in the final was an ad lib lol but i’m really happy with how it gives the impression of water or liquid even if it’s not realistic... i will try again to recreate something like this photo tho because i am obsessed. the birds were originally swans but the necks were driving me crazy i needed a bird with a shorter neck and grebes are associated with this location in canon so it was perfect. they have very funny feet. the last detail i added to this was the white flashes in their primary flight feathers (which do not occur in nature btw)

hanged man was an interesting one because it’s based on a sketch i made in 2020 when i first wrote this fun impalement scene

here is félix being impaled for the first time in 2020 by a rusted harpoon that essentially rips his human disguise off to reveal the black carapace underneath

for the coloured sketch in the photoset i re-lined this exact sketch in sai to update it to match my current lineart style, but as you can see i realised the pose itself needed work and not just a re-line so i completely redid it in procreate to exaggerate the pose and gestures. i went into this one already knowing exactly what bg colours i wanted so that was no issue but the hardest part was weirdly figuring out what he was going to be standing on. in canon he is standing on top of a very high wall and leaning back over a fatal drop. the black pencil lines in the clouds and the bird were ad libbed but i liked the idea of throwing the bird in as some extra symbol of freedom the likes of which you will not experience if you have been shot with a harpoon. the green was not working at all so the swap out to more purpley pink tones was last minute. i unified the different colours by using a colour-shifting brush (you’ll see that his gaiters are different colours - i didn’t hand pick those, the colour jitter did)

for Big Pascal... originally it was going to be a confrontation between the guy on the ground and pascal but i wasn’t feeling the standing pose and it ended up being... if not restful then at least maybe a little more benevolent than the shadow of colossus shit it was before. the white cracks in the sky were originally going to be black but it just didn’t work. a lot of people tag this one as some form of cowboy aesthetic which is funny to me. there’s no cowboys here

i do like the lens flare effect in the b&w thumbnail tbh and i think i kind of lost the low camera angle effect in the final

i drew a bonus comic of the two characters interacting during this scene (mostly the lil guy just trying to ignore what’s happening in the sky)

[c-rowlesdraws]

final very superficial appraisal of the live action one piece show:

👍:

-the set design was wonderful and had a cool sense of unreality to it (as in, the environments feel like built sets and it’s part of the fun), it was colorful and theatrical and captured the manga’s blend of piratey genre aesthetics (wooden boards, sailing ships, rolled-up old maps) and “modern” elements like t-shirts and neon signs in a really pleasing way

-the show clicks to the top of the first rollercoaster hill at the end of episode 3 and then goes at the start of ep 4 and it’s just one breathless ride to the finish. I didn’t want the show to end. I do not care about one piece and started watching kind of for the bit but now I’ll actually be really upset if it doesn’t get a second season. That’s how good the second half of this show is.

-I love how all of the characters with colorful hair have clearly-dyed hair where their roots are showing (as opposed to wigs), and in flashbacks to a few of them as children the child actors have the exact same sort of imperfect dye job. It’s wonderful. It adds to the theatrical energy of everything, like “we know you know this is artificial, but we trust you to suspend your disbelief and enjoy this fiction with us”.

-with very few exceptions, all of the actors’ performances are great. They are all cool and fun to watch and there are lots of sweet and funny and emotional moments that work because the writing is sincere. Nobody rolls their eyes for the audience’s benefit at how weeeeird their world is— they live here! I love that.

-the trap beat they did for Arlong’s theme music rules

-this story with its global ocean and seafaring/island-based societies is kind of like “what if Waterworld was like a big colorful carnival” and I love that

-the Snail Phones 🐌

Things I liked less below the cut - 👎:

-Zoro’s backstory bff being depressed because “a girl can beat a boy, but no woman can beat a man [in a swordfight]” was a disappointing line to hear two characters just… play straight in a world that up to that point had seemed pretty non-sexist? But this girl sincerely believes that, and this boy doesn’t push back at all. In this world of self-dismembering clowns and people with axes for arms, you’re telling me that there are no champion swordswomen for little kids to admire? Not one?? From skimming the wiki, it seems like in the manga Kuina’s views are influenced by her sexiest dad, but the show doesn’t include that context.

-Kuina dying offscreen in “an accident” was the only tragic thing in the show that didn’t land for me. It’s just so blatant and funny. You’ve got to get rid of her so she can motivate Zoro, because she’s dead in the manga and that’s how you motivate male main characters, with dead women, but… how? Doesn’t matter! There’s been an accident. Typical backstory girl bff behavior. Call that Fridge To Terabithia.

-Iñaki’s energy as Luffy didn’t always work for me. Some character behavior works in manga and anime, but seems awkward and jarring in real life. It’s very difficult to pull off wild limb-flailing anime exuberance in live-action— live-action Cowboy Bebop’s glimpse of Ed comes to mind. But also, I never really liked Luffy in the parts of the manga I read, either, so maybe I’m just not the target audience for a Luffy in any medium. Iñaki seems like a friendly and chill dude and he certainly gave this role 100%— and also Oda himself loved him for the role, so that says a lot.

-the whole thing with Arlong and his Fishman crew where they’re part of an oppressed and formerly-enslaved minority, so of course they have beef with humans (“but slavery’s been abolished!” shouts a human character), but they’re taking things too far and not just fighting for equality, but domination, which includes extorting, killing, and enslaving humans, starting with this poor little girl here. And since this group are clearly evil and have these big evil plans, it’s cool and great actually for the heroes, who are all humans/members of the majority, to kick their asses and kill a bunch of them. Like… I get there’s a whole thing here with Arlong being twisted by hatred into the very thing he says hates, and maybe we’ll meet more Fishmen later in the story who are just people and not bloodthirsty evildoers, but it’s not a great fictional look?

It takes me back to hbomberguy’s critique of RWBY’s portrayal of the Faunus, and the problems with making your bad guys out of an oppressed ethnic group who, the story says, might have a point, if they went about things peacefully, but are just taking things too far with this domestic terrorism stuff. The Faunus and Arlong should really be writing to their congresspeople instead!

[inkblackorchid]

Hi! How do you feel about the Crashtown mini-arc?

Ahhh, Crashtown. Honestly, I’m extremely in two minds about the arc. See, here’s the thing. When I watch it, it’s a great deal of fun. It’s a very self-contained little story that has all the necessary setup and payoff built into itself, and the cowboy aesthetics in Crashtown’s unique setting, while technically still being part of 5Ds’ largely futuristic canon, are absolutely hilarious. Not to speak of the excellent dramatics, what with Kiryu being in his depressed bitch era and needing the Power of Friendship to remember why it’s nice to be alive. So, in isolation, I find Crashtown very funny and its self-contained story compelling.

However, sometimes, I get a little frustrated knowing how many episodes this arc takes up, because where the larger narrative is concerned, Crashtown accomplishes… Well, nothing, unfortunately. It doesn’t interact with the main plot in any way, doesn’t develop Yusei’s character in a particular way (because we already knew he’s a special kind of loyal-as-a-dog-devoted when it comes to Kiryu; if anything, Crashtown only shows us that he’s also a little more gullible than usual when Kiryu gets brought up), and while it does give Kiryu meaningful character progression, he’s sadly never relevant again after this point in the show (literally the only two times he shows up after this point is during the flashback of everyone cheering Yusei on during his duel with Z-ONE and in the epilogue as he loses to Jack). Worse yet, the whole arc begs the question of why only Kiryu and no other dark signer got this kind of tying-up-loose-ends treatment. (The answer, I believe, is that he’s specifically the dark signer who has the strongest ties to Yusei in particular, which awards him special treatment. That does nothing to justify why Carly, who I’d go as far as saying is at least equally important to Jack as Kiryu is to Yusei, doesn’t get anything like this, though, and is instead sidelined because she has amnesia. You know. Amnesia. Everyone’s favourite trope. Which Kiryu, curiously, also doesn’t have.) And considering how often I lament about the things I wish 5Ds canon had spent more time on, I don’t think it comes as a surprise that it leaves a slight, bitter aftertaste in my mouth that an arc like Crashtown that adds nothing to the larger plot or any character other than Kiryu gets so many episodes while many things I wish the show had addressed don’t get a single one.

So, Crashtown’s kind of a mixed bag for me. I think the best way to sum it up would be this: If you handed me the reins for a full 5Ds rewrite, one of two things would happen. Either the show would gain another twenty or so episodes where I’d try to give all the other dark signers similar treatment as Kiryu in Crashtown, developing both them and the main cast members they interact with more (and also try to make them at least show up one more time before the Ark Cradle arc, even if only to cheer Team 5Ds on during the WRGP), or Crashtown would be left on the cutting room floor entirely, because if the only way to improve the main cast and plot were to find time for all the necessary adjustments within the exact same episode count we already have, Crashtown (and all of the pre-WRGP arc’s pure filler episodes) would be the first thing to go.

Don’t get me wrong, the yeehaw arc has excellent aesthetics, excellent dramatics, and is great fun every time I rewatch it, so I don’t fault anyone for loving it to bits, I absolutely get it. My inner overanalyst/canon rewriter just can’t unsee how many episodes it took up that were desperately needed for other stuff sometimes.

[weidli]

liveblog to von affen und menschen under the cut cause it got long

off to a good start i like the atmosphere

auch wieder mal musikalisch fun which is good cause that's what makes me like züri brännt so much i think

fucking love sunglasses isabelle impeccable

obsessed

theyre doing menschenrechte for menschenaffe als thema and they can't even bring up the basel initiative come onnnnn liegt doch auf der hand

when will they let ME take a nap in peace in the zoo zürich smh

oh isabelle reacts FAST

wo isch d'tessa??? Im Nebel. Mit Gorillas. häääää????

oh i've seen this woman before i just know it

WAS FREYA IN DER LETZTE SCHREY I FUCKING WIN

now i need to go back to that one i love weimar episodes and i love watching actors speak high german when i know they're swiss

we're doing IMPERSONATION i love that for her

tessa das ist jetzt aber nicht sehr vorsichtig

wohnung suspiciously broken into and fucked up and she doesn't even check every room PLEASE. A BIT OF CAUTION

ehrlich gesagt aber auch very funny wie sie einfach gerade aussen telefoniert und nix mitkriegt und der typ da Ach nei jetzt chann i sie nid umbringe blöde jugend und ihri handys immer. awwwwkward

JUST GENERALLY A LOT OF THIS IS REALLY FUNNY ACTUALLY

staring at the mirror having killed her twin sister (notwehr ?) and pretended it was suicide unaware that she is now impersonating the person who committed a whole NOTHER tötungsdelikt possibly a mord: es isch VORBEI . dU dumme sau. yeah pal not sure this one's gonna end well

BAHNHOF ZÜRI TIMES YEEAAAAHHHH

goodness let them sleep

jsjsjsj love all the mirror talking going on this episode . you know this DOES kind of feel like it could've been a weimar plotwise. this is great i mean that as a compliment

auch maximal chaos gerade die hälfte schlaft ein die andere hälfte hat kein plan um was es gerade geht

love tessa throwing tissue ball at noah and him looking very proud when he manages to duck. no one takes that man seriously in here

ach ja die schon oft angedeutete bundesgerichtsstelle für d wegenast

isabelle is so goddamn cute sometimes

immer noch kein plan was der eine kerl eigentlich vor hat aber ok guess we're infiltrating the krankenhaus

the simultaneous wordless sunglassed sighing. i'm in love with this episode

HELP

oh right i forgot about the very first dead guy

somebody please let them sleep

AND THEYRE STILL SHORT ONE they haven't found nicole yet

kdhsj poor isabelle

okay i want to hear about the background child dressed as a cowboy with an arrow in his arm. tell me more

noah just sitting there while isabelle and tessa Construct Theories. i suspect no one's told him anything

this is PROPER iasip conspiracy board shenanigans

tessaaaaaa stop calling it mord if you don't know that it's mord and in fact have no clue what the motive was that's my personal pet peeve >.<

NOW we've got the full set of leichen

at least so far

isabelle taking out her gun to stand there dramatically and aesthetically and tessa's just like Cmon really ???

i love isabelle's euphemisms for kicked the bucket. still adore the time in schoggiläbe at the hotel where they were like oh should we leave a message and she was like No need. Er ist ... schon abgereist. "hat sich Ihrer Haft entzogen" ist nearly as neat

huge fan of charlie and the affen

DU SCHLÄFST? OHNE MICH??

tessa has a sister? noted

so much is happening and there's half an hour left

aaaaand they're lost in the woods

oh right that fuckin other guy we still know nothing about

and NOW isabelles in a garbage can. and tessas shaving a dead chimp

god bless milan truly

isabelle you're slowly losing marbles go get some SLEEP woman

oh but there is some FASCINATING characterization going on at the intersection of isabelle digging the diamond out of garbage bags and climbing into the garbage to do it so she can give something to milan and have something for herself (No one's ever given me anything). and then have tessa list out the lauf der dinge all lead by greed and isabelle says not all of us have a chance at inheriting millions and tessa says what does that have to do with this. the rich kill for greed too just more elegantly and isabelle says you mean they don't get their own hands dirty. nibbling on her gently

MORE hbf

tessas subtle hoodie and sunglasses look very funny to me personally

oh tessa charlie needs you :(

wegenast with the schüfeli funniest fucking thing

i am so much fonder of her after this than i was actually. also the triumvirate momence was real good

Yeah that was a good one :)

[nayeonline]

SPACE.COWBOY (my imagined ITZY comeback)

I’ve made a couple posts about JYP’s shitty management of ITZY, so I decided to do a little thought experiment in what direction I would take ITZY’s discography and aesthetics.

I decided to give them a full album because it’s 2023 and no one should be releasing mini albums this late in their career (this goes for everyone, not just itzy). The album, which I have entitled ‘SPACE.COWBOY’, has 10 tracks, including 1 English pre-release single, 1 Korean title track, two promoted b-sides, and six more b-sides.

For the concept, I decided to draw inspiration from the aesthetics of ‘Cowboy Bebop’ which I referenced in the album name. I really wanted a space aesthetic for ITZY, but I didn’t want it to be just aespa part 2, so I decided a 90s space Faye Valentine aesthetic was the move. Also, ginger Yeji, pink hair Chaeryeong, blonde Yuna, black hair Ryujin and Lia is a must :)

Anyway, into the tracklist!!!

(1) LOG-IN [Fifty Fifty]

When I first heard this song a couple years back, I was struck by how ITZY it sounded. I love it as an album opener, and I think ITZY would body a choreography to it.

(2) YEPPI YEPPI [aespa] (TITLE TRACK)

Same goes for this song, I think it sounds SO ITZY, it’s very evocative of their Dalla Dalla - Icy era, which is exactly the sound I want to hear from them again. This song is so timeless, so fun, and such a perfect ITZY title track.

(3) 3.14159 [Lexie Liu] (English Pre-Release)

I fucking love Lexie Liu, and this song is one of my favourites from her. It’s very whimsical, very psychedelic, and very high energy, which is exactly what ITZY does best. This song has the creativity their last few singles have been lacking. I think Yuna especially would OWN this track.

(4) YALLA [WJSN] (Promoted B-Side)

WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME ABOUT THIS SONG SOONER?! I imagine Chaeryeong being the centre for this song, she has the perfect energy for it. I can definitely see this song going viral on K-Pop TikTok, I love it as a promoted B-Side.

(5) Cast Pearls Before Swine [Purple Kiss]

This is quintessential ITZY. I can see Lia performing this song so clearly, and I think it thematically references their debut self love concept just the right amount. I just really love this song ok, go stream it.

(6) MAGICIAN [Lexie Liu] (Promoted B-Side)

Can you tell I love Lexie Liu yet? This one has a chorus along similar lines to YALLA, and it's so addictive. This is another Yuna type song for me, but I also think Ryujin would be such a stand out on this. I don’t see it being in Mandarin for ITZY, but the hook is mostly onomatopoeia so I don’t think a language change would ruin it at all.

(7) The Great Mermaid [LE SSERAFIM]

I admit, I didn’t see the vision for this song when it first came out, but OH MY GOD do I get it now. I can definitely see this one for ITZY, especially that killer post chorus.

(8) YUCK [Charli XCX]

Charli XCX and ITZY are such a good mix, I couldn’t help giving them one of her most underrated pop anthems. This one has Ryujin written all over it

(9) LUCID [Rina Sawayama] (Promoted B-Side)

Did you really think I wasn’t going to include a Rina song? And this one especially is fucking amazing. Realistically I know the lyrics would be different for a K-Pop release, but just the UK dance-pop vibes alone are so fun. Somi did it with Fast-Forward, and as a Brit it's so funny to see idols release stuff that wouldn’t be out of place on the radio here. Yeji would eat this song up, but IMAGINE THE CHOREOGRAPHY.

(10) LOG-OUT [4s4ki]

Other than the obvious nice parallels with the album intro title, I think this song is such a fun album closer for ITZY. I hate that groups like ITZY consistently release ballads as their album closer, like they have no business singing in a bpm that slow. Obviously I don’t think they would sing in Japanese, but the pure chaos of this track would be such a fun experiment for them. (This one was for u @shyreol)

@a-moth-to-the-light im so interested to see ur thoughts on my made up album, and for ur one if u end up doing it :)

[heehoothefool]

Mmmm I'm bored and it's almost 6 am and I cannot sleep.

I'm gonna assign the Empires SMP s2 cast DnD classes for the fun of it.

Joel: He's a Sorcerer for sure, but idk if wild magic or blue draconic bloodline is more fitting. On one hand, he dipped into a magic fountain to become a God which is very wild magic leaning. On the other hand, blue dragon ancestry would give an obvious affinity to lightning, and an excuse for his obsession with gold and the common teal/blue themes of his Stratos builds. You also can get wings. Idk, I like both a lot here.

Fwhip: Have you seen those funky Redstone signs? This little guy is an artificer all the way. After he made that sick mace? I'm gonna say he'd run the battle smith archetype. Idk funny little goblin tinkerer is just fun to me.

Jimmy: Fighter, gunslinger archetype. He's a cowboy, look at him. What else could he possibly be? I know he doesn't have a gun (yet) but I think he deserves it with all the gunpowder. He's also Just Some Guy and sadly fighter is the most Just Some Guy class there is.

Pixlriffs: The archivist artificer subclass was literally made for this man. Tinkering around with insane redstone, litematica, the obsession with the past and knowing things he shouldn't necessarily know, like it's all there. It's perfect for him. I love him.

Sausage: Oath of Devotion paladin, for sure. He's the protector of Sanctuary, it's his duty to protect his friends and his people, to stay true to them no matter what. He will protect his people and those he cares about. Also you literally get access to the spell Sanctuary as part of the extended spell list. Come on.

Scott: Wild magic Sorcerer. If a wizard gives you a glass eye that is SO going to have random magical consequences, and with how often Owen goes between human and Llama I wouldn't be shocked if it was related. They're also charisma casters and look at him. Look at him.

Joey: Gunslinger fighter again but this time with the pirate background specifically. He literally has a gun. What else could he be?

Oli: The man is literally a college of glamor bard. Like this isn't even a question. Come on now.

False: Oh an artificer all the way, look at the steampunk aesthetic going on here. I wanna give her artillerist because she definitely seems like the type to develop a flamethrower, but I think alchemist fits her lore (the whole amnesia potions thing) a bit better. Another one I'm a little torn on.

Gem: What else could she be but a light cleric? She is the princess of the sun and she started a church for the sun. Light cleric. Boom.

Katherine: Definitely barbarian, but the subclass isn't clear. I might need to homebrew a monster hunter subclass here because while that would normally be a ranger thing I guess, this isn't the first time I've wanted to build a monster hunter with a big sword or big axe. For now, I'll say wolf totem warrior.

Shelby: Wild magic Sorcerer with really bad luck who decided to multiclass into the actual alchemist class on the side, but not enough to pick an archetype. Her spells go wrong all the time, often on accident, she doesn't learn from a book, she's having a great time. Sorry you got polymorphed into a frog lol.

Lizzie: Another wild magic sorcerer except she stopped trying after she turned herself into a cat and decided to instead become an arcane trickster rogue. She is not a cat, she prommy. She totally will not steal from you the moment you aren't looking. She enchanted her mask to make her look human. She is human. Worry more about your chests. Don't ask about the amethyst. She has expertise in deception.

[jodjuya]

Bryan Cranston is my favourite actor of all time.

I've never seen "Breaking Bad" and I likely never will.

But I'm up to season 4 of my "Malcolm in the Middle" rewatch, and my admiration for any other actor has never been higher.

Season 4, episode 18, "Boys at Ranch" puts Lois in the fridge for a whole episode, and without her antagonism we get a whole episode where all of the men and boys get to share the spotlight, and it's such a beautiful love letter to them all. So so so much wholesomeness and the payoff of four seasons' worth of character-growth, and it never stops being breathtakingly funny throughout.

AND THEN it ends on one of the best special effect sequences ever put to film.

Top! Tier! Television!

One of the show's strongest pre-opening gags too.

The absolute pinnacle of sitcom as an art form.

---------------

This episode REALLY drives home hard how Lois is *the* antagonizing force behind her entire family's dysfunction. It's really stark in a greek-tragedy kind of way. 😬

In two days under in the restorative influence of Otto und Gretchen away from Lois' presence, we see Hal, Francis, Piama, Reese, Malcolm, and Dewey instantly self-actualising into their best possible selves.

We see that Francis' season 3 spent at the isolated Alaskan logging camp was restoratively foundational to his growth as a person. He became a better person (a strict, disciplined, reliable, dependable, responsible, intelligent , resourceful (handsome👀) Capable Man) because ALL of his miserable conditions there were directly connected to personal accountability, rather than to abusive sadomasochistic discipline to force him to comply for the pure sake of authoritarianism.

(eg. Military school, and before/during/after that: his mother's parenting)

We see Dewey connect with his feelings, and actively being taught how to reconcile them, using Gretchen's amusing Germanic silliness to ritually link one's emotional healing to the physical pain of disciplined suffering—such that the energetic outburst from you being overwhelmed by your negative emotions is harnessed, instead, for productive pro-social behaviours of Cleaning The House So Hard It Hurts (In A Good Way 🥰) rather than by you merely lashing out in violent destructive behaviours

[¡and all of this initially triggered by an honest discussion about hurt feelings and accidental mistakes without appointing blame OR shame!]

AND then linking the positive endorphins from the physical pain of your frenzy:

bleeding knees, sore muscles, exhaustion, cramps, and so on; (including inhaling chemical fumes)

to conceptualising freeing yourself from your shame and guilt; explaining that hard work _causes_ you to feel better.

Show, don't tell, all the way to the motherfucking bank by the way.

Diagetically, as Gretchen to Dewey;

and also non-diagetically, as the show's writers to its audience; as all of this stuff just /happens/ without *any* of it being explained.

All this to say, is that after Dewey thoughtlessly broke Gretchen's

"this is VERY personally valuable to me, it's so special and important PLEASE do not touch it, but I have told you so, so now I blindly trust you completely okay byeeee"

Hand-Carved Cultural Artifact Doll;

that after that destructive, harmful, thoughtless act (after *explicitly* promising not to do) caused these two side-characters to become so deeply and lovingly connected to each other on their very first day of meeting each other that Dewey earnestly considers Gretchen to be his grandmother and now affectionately refers to her as such.

(to clarify their initial relationship: Dewey's eldest brother, Francis, is Gretchen's employee. She's his second-boss; co-owner of the dude ranch where Francis is foreman (because her Eccentricly German husband fell in love with the aesthetic of wild-west cowboys))

And because Dewey is a nine year old boy who put the doll into his pocket, and then his two malevolantly-stupid older teenage brothers maliciously conspired to defraud the ranch; where Francis is now Mr The-Capable-Man Foreman; to get Dewey to ride an ATV with no approval or supervision of any sane adult; the legs broke off the doll.

Gretchen was heartbroken by this when Dewey confessed (because he's fundamentally a very good little boy).

and so Dewey was feeling very hurt and miserable and ashamed without Gretchen needing to yell at him about it to cause that, because for Gretchen, her emotions aren't on her sleeve, they ARE the sleeve;

and seeing her hurt is like watching someone kick a puppy.

She is only consoled by Otto reassuring her that he will simply make new legs to replace the legs which got smashed off, "and then he'll be even better than he was before! …just like my eighth cousin!" 😂

[Early foreshadowing: you feel better when amends are made; positive action (in both senses of the words) for the sake of fixing things.]

Later, Dewey comes back to Gretchen. He's really upset by how bad he feels for what he did, and so this time he's coming back to her for comfort and reassurance.

She talks to him about what he's feeling, and gives Dewey the vocabulary to talk about what he's feeling and why, and how to talk about what those feelings feel like, without shame or blame or hostility; let alone whether or not he 'deserves' to feel so bad.

And then continues right along with "and THIS is how you make it feel better"—in the unarguable tone of voice an adult uses when they are imprinting some declaration or another about the definitive nature of reality directly into an impressionable young mind, along the lines of "that thing in front of us is called a tree"—with her little speech about how suffering by doing really REALLY hard work *causes* you to feel better!

AND THEN! she continues right along with "I still feel bad too, so this is a perfect time to teach you how to do this, come with me and we'll do it together!!"

And then she does. Lovely montage of Gretchen and Dewey side-by-side doing a sitcom-level of Cleaning So Hard It Becomes Transcendental; her teaching by example exactly what to clean and how, and giving Dewey excited encouragement the whole way.

"oh my god this is such good penance I'm unlocking and healing flashback trauma from when I was a nine year-old!' [AN: Gretchen is in her 50s??]

Like, "fuck yeah, my knees are bleeding! This is so fucking radical! look how fully sick it is that my knees are bleeding from how much I've been kneeling on them while we scrubbed the floor together! Feel the burn baby! 🤩"

Afterwards they're done and the ranchhouse is so spotless you can eat off the floor and they're surfing the endorphin rush together and talking about how amazing they felt after using self-directed scourging to purge their own sins. (people who like Spicy Sex know what I'm talking about 😏)

So that in the end, instead of screaming abuse and vitriol back and forth in *coercing* Dewey to injure himself cleaning too hard for the sheer purpose of corporal punishment for domination, shame, and humiliation;

After Dewey thoughtlessly smashed Gretchen's priceless and highly beloved doll, the two of them ended up with a MORE loving relationship than they started with!! They *both* feel AMAZING,

AND the entire ranch is SPOTLESS!

&&&&&&&&&

We see Malcolm and Reese further engaging in maliciously-stupid destruction, but this time for wholesome loving reconnection reasons.

They steal Hal's no-limit credit card to buy the sitcom-level of Too Many Fireworks, which they plan to set off in an alluded-to Sitcom Evil Prank Scheme to "get back at Francis" after he was Mr The-Capable-Man serious about how much they fucked up with the ATV thing. His brothers seriously endangered their own lives and the lives of other people, and they did so at the place where Francis is employed to literally live out the perfect life of his dreams, and to top it all off, his own dad was the one so stupidly reckless as to blindly sign paperwork without bothering to read what the fuck it actually was that he was signing; so Francis yelled at them all, taking the role their mother always takes, the role that Francis hated so much he literally had himself legally emancipated so that he could run away from school to an incredibly isolated Alaskan lumberjack camp.

Well anyway, the scheme plays out (which resolves Francis torment over escaping his mother only to become her), which also serves to reconnect Hal's independent plotline back to everyone else's.

&&&&&&&&&&

Hal lost in the desert with Otto, both of them INCREDIBLY drunk, having scared off their horses by Doing Stargazing via using their Authentic Cowboy Guns (Otto has the semi-automatic Luger he mentioned in passing in a previous episode) to point out stars; and with Otto bleeding out from a self-inflicted bullet wound in his butt cheeks. ("...I finally hit something! 🥴🥳🥴".

(Because Otto was like "how about a big bottle of scnapps??🎵? I know what's the nice sugar to get nice boys to take their nice medicine of taking about their 🎶~feel~ings~🎶??")

But all that aside, they had finished talking about Hal's feelings and his crisis of confidence in his fatherhood:

"You've only had him for two months! And he's... and he's a MODEL CITIZEN now! I had him for EIGHTEEN YEARS and it was nothing but horrible every single day for every single person!! What did you DO?! How bad of a father must *I* be?!?!"

Otto cuts through Hal's anguish by chiding him for not seeing that the acorn of Francis had NOT fallen far from Hal's tree; that Francis had ALWAYS been a good hardworking honest dependable reliable upstanding man all along, and that these traits came directly from Hal:

"What? You think he suddenly picked up these traits one day because he just found them lying on the side of the road? No! They came from you! And besides, I didn't do a single thing to teach Francis what wasn't already there inside him: I'm definitely no Super Male Role-Model Genius Guy, remember? I am is the guy who is incredibly drunk and lost in the desert dying because of my own bullet in my arse!"

So then Hal becomes bouyed right back up again, and very-drunkenly reassures Otto that there's nothing for them to worry about at all, because Francis is actually so amazing that he's about to rescue them RIGHT NOW!

Literally Cue The Fireworks

(because of Malcolm and Reese's evil scheme paying out: malicious Sitcom evil-genius prank involving Too Many Fireworks directly above the workplace of their has-legal-duty-of-care foreman brother who's personally responsible for the safety of many inexperienced tourists (including grandmas and preschoolers, and his own wife) who are surrounded by and interacting with many heads of livestock, horses, and Cosplay Cowboys); to "get back at him" lol)

And then yeah, one of the greatest special effects ever put to film; depicting the Too Many Fireworks.

Just a fucking masterpiece of television!

[xycuro-illuminati]

Howdy! Remember that one post I did of a "What if?" Where Dante used the Yamato on himself to separate his human and demon half? Well, two years later, I decided to revisit that and give his human half, D, a full redesign and ref! Second image is D with his familiar, the doppelganger, and I gave his demon half, Tony Redgrave, a full design revision too. And an additional pic of D and V being punk and goth shit twins together.

Sp*rdac*st fans DNI

More info on Dante's two halves and the doppelganger.

Dante used the Yamato on himself because he believed that he and Vergil (specifically V) will get along better without the grievances of the past. The idea that all of Dante's punk rock nature, along with his wild behavior, would all be put into his human half is a funny concept to me. D represents all of that and the very faded white tips are a homage to the first design.

Tony Redgrave was the name me and a few friends gave the demon half, where we thought it was funny to put all of Dante's calm and cowboy aesthetic into. Tony is relatively chill and isn't much of a fighter, however, he also holds some of Dante's trauma as well. Due to them being separated, Dante's past resentment towards his demon half is fresh for D, while Tony knows that and tries to stay out of anything hectic. Eventually, the two will learn to accept each other again before they fuse back into Dante.

The doppelganger is D's familiar; they can protect D by forming a force-field around any area temporarily as long as they're in the tattoo. Just like V, D can send the doppelganger out to help him fight (although, D prefers not to and can still use Ebony and Ivory). However, D can only use his familiar for a short period of time, because once the doppelganger realizes there's no enemies left, they will immediately turn against D and try to fight him. The familiar will also use psychological torment on D by shape-shifting into shadowy versions of either Dante (specifically dmc 1 and 2 versions), Nelo Angelo, and Eva. They will replicate their voices as well just to fuck with him. D doesn't send out his familiar a majority of the time, only having to do so if he has no other choice.

[hauntedwoman]

tagged by @youngestdaughtersyndrome to talk about five things i'm obsessed with recently

barbie and the feminist agenda ever since i saw the movie saturday it has baffled me that so many people are holding it to impossible standards. many ppl online are criticizing it for being surface level and a two hour long "toy commercial" when the film is literally being produced by fucking mattel, a multi million dollar corporation. one of the prominent messages communicated in the film is that, in today's day and age, women are expected to be perfect at everything they do all of the time and i think audiences expected the same of this movie. i think the people that went into this movie expecting something progressive and queer and groundbreaking had the wrong expectations. greta gerwig worked as hard as she could to make a movie that had a strong feminist message while also being accessible to mass audiences. yes, the whole feminist monologue is a little bit cheesy but you have to remember that a) children are going to see this movie and i believe that the messages communicated in that monologue are very easy concepts for young girls (and boys) to grasp. b) she had to work through a LOT of red tape. even the scene where barbie tells an old woman that she was beautiful (a non-revolutionary message) was threatened to be cut for run time purposes. with the material she had to work with, i believe that greta made a movie that is funny and forward thinking and something that will stick with audiences for a long time. no, it's not anything that's advanced, but it's still special and has brought joy to so many women. the sheer experience of barbie, being surrounded by women of all ages dressed in pink and unafraid to be feminine and find joy in what society shames us for, is so beautiful and special and i loved every second.

antique photos at the moment, i'd confidently say that my antique photo collection in the 30s. antique photos are probably my favorite thing to buy (besides clothing) when i go antique shopping. i love finding photos of families from the 1900s showing off their family homestead, a couple in the 1950s sharing an intimate christmas morning, a small boy dressed up as a cowboy. these memories might not belong to these people anymore - so now they belong to me. i just love finding these moments captured in time, moments that strengthen the fabric of humanity.

american individualism in the united states today there is no sense of community. outside of organized religion, it's hard to find a way to feel connected with other people. the heightened awareness of individual freedoms and rights that has been a byproduct of online spaces that urge users to bran themselves, there is nowhere for the youth of today to gather and find people that are like them. i believe that bc of this that is why labels for sexuality, gender, and even what mental illnesses we have, have developed online. there are no malls or internet cafes, or parks for our generation to be together in and it's making the average american individual feel as if they are entitled to certain treatment due to having certain labels attached to them. it's all so fascinating how aesthetics and labels and what you look at online shapes our worldview. and yes, capitalism is involved somehow.

caledon hockley if you've been following me any amount of time you know that i've already written many thinkpieces on the antagonist of the 1997 film, titanic. notice how i didn't say villain. that said, i think people tend to forget what cal is like when we first meet him. yes, he's arrogant and pompous ("god himself could not sink this ship") but he doesn't do anything to outwardly control or harm rose. i'm pretty sure he was aware of the fact that she's miserable - sans suicidal. when he brings her the necklace he knows that something is wrong. he really tries in the only way he knows how to get close to her and yet she continues to push him away. i doubt that this is because she's unattracted to him but, rather, more the realization of what her life is going to become once they're married; being a wife and mother to his children, never experiencing any of her dreams. i want to theorize that when they met up until the engagement they were "happy" or at least what could be close enough and what we see in the movie is rose falling out of that happiness and yearning to find it in something or someone else (i.e. jack). i guess what i'm trying to say is that cal doesn't begin to shed light on his more undesirable traits (selfishness and possessiveness) until he can see rose pulling away from him and towards jack. the cal at the beginning of the movie, while he can be annoying and shallow, he's not necessarily a bad person. i think somewhere inside of him he wants to be good. but i mean there's also the whole sexual tension between him and jack and cal's hidden desire to live a life that's so free and easy and emotionally healthy. we also have to remember that he has his own suicidal tendencies - but we don't have time for all of that.

sylvia plath i'm just so so so interested in her personal life and her writings. im slowly making my way through her journals (unabridged bc fuck you ted hughes) and we are both libra moons and have prominent scorpio placements !!! i feel like i identify with her work very deeply and im excited to start reading a biography i got abt her the other day at the used bookstore !! she was such a genius and really set such a precedent for poetry today and just female artists in general she's like the patron saint of girls on antipsychotics and i love her for that

tagging: @truelovewaitsmp3 @sweetsweetjane @jonismitchell @serethereal and any other mutuals inspired to do this !!!!

[mapsofnonexistentplaces]

mr. bepop or faye valentine for the character asks 😸

putting it under the cut ^_^

MR BEEPO FIRST

favorite thing about them

ahh i genuinely just think hes like. a very stylish character like perhaps derivative of the whole show's aesthetic but yeah. hes just a cool jazz cowboy who can do tricks and shotcha. i think the way his like. carefree nature is challenged by the end of the show is really good also.... like yeah this dude is reckless and youre kind of meant to suspend your disbelief at first just to see him pull cool stunts and shit but by the end its very much commented on as a specific flaw of his and its like. yeah! clever way to show off a characters problems being enabled and made worse to the point of them being visible to others.... its cool its cool

least favorite thing about them

i think his hair looks STUPID in official art often i like it when its drawn as just like. visibly curled or messy i guess

favorite line

guess i shotcha....

but also "whatever happens happens". :+)

brOTP + OTP

compounding these because my answers the same. i think its funny to interpret him faye and jet as just like. awkward situational polycule LOL mostly just because when i was watching the show i kept making jokes like. Yuup. these guys are all divorced to each other without ever having been married

nOTP

him and vicious im just not big on "enemies who want to fuck each other secretly" type dynamics

random headcanon

schizoid guy swag....! and also i just like. randomly headcanon him as latino because i was listening to a lot of volta when i was watching the show and i very quickly associated frances the mute with his storyline hah. so hes very much tied up with that in my mind

unpopular opinion

uhhhh i think hes cool but not in the way weird old anime fans think hes cool. i think his self destructive habits make him very interesting....

song i associate with them

CYGNUS VISMUND CYGNUS !!!!!!! i also do have a playlist for him hehe

favorite picture of them

first ones that came to mind :+)

faye time now.....

favorite thing about them

I LIKE THAT SHES JUST LIKE. very openly bratty and annoying and that she does anything she wants. like i think the flippant way she treats the rest of the bebop crew rules i like that shes very selfish and just puts herself first. makes the few moments when she actually gets worried about the others really poignant....

least favorite thing about them

wouldnt say i completely dislike it because i do think it was handled tastefully but i think the subplot of like. oooh yeah guy who revived her from her cryosleep or whatever being someone shes very romantically into made me roll my eyes a bit. i do think it makes her like. presence during the timeframe of the show way stronger but from a story writing standpoint im just like Bah a bit lame that shes The Woman and shes constantly Romancing men

favorite line

none that come to mind i just like it when shes mean 👍 oh uh not a line but it was cool when she just ate dog food that one time

brOTP + OTP

see above answer for spike hah

nOTP

most relationships honestly....... i think she deserves to have some genuine connections with people and aside from spike and jet she really doesnt have any hah.

random headcanon

she would love shitty 90s era pop songs.........

unpopular opinion

unpopular opinion uhhhh i think she is a cool character who is not just a sex object

song i associate with them

hmmmm ^_^

favorite picture of them

love pics of her and ein HEHE

[ghostboyjules]

about me

omg tagged first by @mathomhouse-e and then right as I was abt to post this @wordsinhaled tagged me too!! so delighted and honored to be in this wonderful group of mutuals, y'all make my heart warm 💖🥰

Nickname: Jules, I guess, counts? other than that I don't really have a current one... @weirdfishy has been calling me ghostie tho, which I absolutely adore 🥺💕

Sign: Aquarius Sun, Aries Moon, Gemini Rising (Cap Mercury, and if y'all wanna talk astrology my dm's are always open lmaaoo)

Height: 5'7 or 5'8 on a good day (a.k.a when my sciatica isn't elbow dropping me to death)

Last thing I googled: "piercing places" and before that, "images of a shrimp" which I'm including because I thought that was very funny

Song stuck in my head: surprisingly I don't have one up there right now?? well.. I guess kinda,, but it's like a mix of a couple. All Up In Your Mind by Beyoncé, Genghis Khan by Miike Snow, Go Your Own Way by Fleetwood Mac, and In a Week by Hozier.. weird combo of songs but they're kinda cycling through my brain like a weird spirit box-esque radio station

Number of followers: 713 (😳, most of these are like, weird bots or deactivated blogs but still woah..)

Amount of sleep: hmm generally I get anywhere from 3-7 hrs, but as of right this moment (10:38pm) I've had 4hrs 36mins of Actual Sleep (from last night to when I woke up for work this morning) and then a 2 hr nap (before I started dinner this evening)

Dream job: Archivist of Some Sort™ in the Library of Congress,,, with a specialty in Thanatology?? I don't really know the specifics yet but something along those lines ig, if at all possible

Wearing: ..... a gray Cowboy Garfield t-shirt with the phrase "when I die I may not go to heaven. I don't know if they let cowboys in." and black underwear (THESE ARE MY PAJAMAS, OKAY? had to include the undies so you would get the Look™, I can't just say I'm wearing a t-shirt and leave it at that obvi... ajdjakfkg)

Movies/books that summarize you: my brain can't decide which way it wants to take this, so I'm just gonna answer with the Books/movies that I feel has shaped who I am as a person, currently. LOTR & the Hobbit trilogies, The Raven Cycle series by Maggie Stiefvater, the Conjuring (only the first one 🔪), Spirited Away, and The Labyrinth. OH SHIT almost forgot, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.

Favorite song: this changes daily 😐 rn tho I think probably Blood Upon the Snow by Hozier and Bear McCreary

Favorite instrument: Pipe Organ, Cello, Bass Clarinet, and the voice

Aesthetic: uh... weird goth gay uncle who is lazy and also a witch? is that anything?

Favorite authors: oof alright, well. Maggie Stiefvater, Neil Gaiman, Nora Sakavic, Gege Akutami, Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler), and a handful of Fanfic Authors that I won't list here because I'm terrified of forgetting someone, but know that I am absolutely counting them and will forever remember their names

Random fun fact: I really love playing guitar hero games but I've never once really tried to learn how to play the guitar

thanks again for tagging me, you two 🥺🥰🥰 y'all have already tagged a lot of the peeps I would have tagged in fandom (so if I tag you again, my bad beloved homies just ignore me lmao), but let's see here... @weirdfishy, @watermelon-mafia, @rabooots, @aquilathefighter, @leave-me-alone-doctor, @eel-divinity, @an-asuryampasya, @pacospandora, @rainbowvamp, @runningheadless, and @howlittleweare <3 WHEW no obligation to do this at all obvi, but if you don't, this is just a reminder that ily 😘 if you do tho, I also love you 💖 okay g'night, loves

[rin-yellow]

OKAY OKAY OKAY TIME TO DO WHAT THIS ACCOUNT WAS MADE FOR

Welcome to the true Reader In Yellow experience, I am your host, and it's time for us to SUFFER.

Context first.

SO someone on Twitter (or whatever the muskaloid is calling it now, I ain't fucking know) brought back memories of a book I read like WAAAY long ago and so now I have to share my trauma with y'all.

Prefacing this with trigger warnings: A lot of mentions of human excrement, critiques of odd writing choices, twitter mentioned, mentions of SA, mentions of slavery, mentions of possibly misogyny. Also spoilers for the book I'm gonna be talking about

I'm gonna out myself as a twitter user here (if any of y'all know me on twitter, hi! I am so sorry.) but uhh:

Yeah anyways to sum up the situation Fighting Iron flashbacks are not fun and so I have to rant about this fucking book in a place without a goddamned word limit.

Jake Bible, if you somehow have a tumblr account or a twitter account, you're reading this right now, I'm very sorry.

But also what the fuck, man?

Anyways this was actually a double jumpscare coz I was on the kindle Marketplace recently and Mr Bible brought the book back! But under the title "A Fistful of Mechs" and it has a pretty and fancy new cover. I kinda wonder if he kept the pissing and shitting scenes in.

'Coz it's been a minute since I read the book and I'm wondering if maybe the shitting part was something I was misremembering because there's no way an author is THAT crazy.

But then again I THINK Dead Mech (also by Jake Bible, interesting concept but odd read) also had those kinds of scenes so yeah.

Without further ado it's REVIEW TIME

Okay technically one final further ado,,, FISTFUL OF MECHS ACTUALLY HAS REALLY PRETTY COVER ART

Like I really do like the vibes, although

Ngl it was goofy seeing it with memories of getting THIS on Kindle Unlimited all those years ago:

So anyways.

Because all review ppl summarize their books, and if you don't wanna go to the Bezosinator website to read the back blurb or zoom into the photos of it I included, essentially:

Fighting Iron is a book about cowboys and massive fucking robots. It follows this douche named Clay and his big robot Gibbons, who is a robot who can think. Not sure if Fistful changed the terminology, but in Fighting Iron, Gibbons is referred to as a titular "fighting iron", his thinking AI capabilities having been a thing that was outlawed.

Which is funny, because they do lean into a sort of "lawless wastelands" sort of aesthetic but I guess thinking robots are just a step too far.

It's not even like a good argument against thinking robots either, and I think the author knows it. For the dense: AI irl should be regulated due to its use as fucking parasiteware to collect data. AI in fiction is often just person but robot and in this case, person but really big robot.

If I remember the sequence of events correctly, what happens is that Clay needs fuel for his robot and food for himself and he gets essentially kidnapped or captured or something by this one woman who also ends up like turning him into a slave and (tw) raping him, iirc.

OH and a lot of people REALLY wanna steal his robot.

The rape scene is very uncomfortable and I'm not sure if I remember it correctly but it felt oddly sexualized and just no. Obviously a rape scene isn't SUPPOSED to be comfortable to read otherwise there's something VERY wrong, but it's also like really odd.

(random sidenote: I'm gonna go serious mode for a sec and talk abt myself irl, sorry. Around 2 or 3 years before I read that book I had dealt with being sexually harrassed by some mfer who would constantly hold me in a chokehold and say shit that I'd rather not repeat or remember with any vividity. That sort of shit is never okay, however, this experience may have clouded my judgement when reading that book because the wounds were still somewhat fresh at the time so yeah.)

(worst part is that this was BEFORE I realized I was trans but like god I used to present myself pretty femme back then. I think that experience mighta set me back a few years due to the stigma of that combined with y'know. Idk why I'm even talking abt this, it's a horrible memory. This was meant as a joke review god fucking dammit)

(sorry for getting off track but I felt I had to point this out because it directly contributed to my odd puritan phase because I did NOT want that to ever happen to me again so I like did not trust sexual shit for a minute there.)

AAAANYWAYS, it's rare that sexual assault on males gets tackled in fiction though, so points for that. I don't exactly remember if it was handled too well though.

If I remember correctly, after escaping the slavery lady he then gets kidnapped by a "resistance" faction and then after claiming he hates them, he fights on their side in a big robot rodeo duel thing and in a really cool scene where the robot finds a loophole in the rules of "No AI copilots" by saying that HE is the pilot and that Clay is his copilot.

THis is also the scene where Clay pisses down his robots leg.

I think Clay also shits himself at some point but I can't be bothered to check. So yes, unlike other mecha anime, this one is a book about explosive diarrhea indeed.

Not exactly great.

They then proceed to kill the shit out of the rapist woman who I think they kinda sexualized like as a character but I could be wrong because I read it in my puritan phase where I thought even the MENTION of sex in a book was something terrible and a flaw. So I'm not a reliable source here.

OHHH there was also a cool lady with like burn scars all over her body who fights Clay a few times but I think they kill her off before the big rodeo duel thing. It's a cool death but iirc she gets done in by a construction mech I think, not even the thinking robot, which was sad.

Anyways, things I liked:

-the loophole twist was fun

-Mr Bible sure knows how to write robot fights at times

-Gibbons and Clay had a fun dynamic iirc

-Surprisingly, the main male and female lead do not fuck, which was refreshing because I read this in the middle of binge reading a bunch of borderline-misogynistic kindle unlimited mecha novels I found and those weren't great,,, No clue abt whether or not they do it in the sequel tho

-small points for having them say SLAVERY IS BAD. I shouldn't be awarding points for this but like. Some other kindle novels do not do this?? Especially The Isekai Ones. Ew Ew Ew.

-COOL BURN SCAR LADY. Sadly she supports the rapist woman tho which was fucked up but her character description was still cool af. I'm a sucker for grizzled veteran mecha pilots. I may be horribly misremembering it because I'm fucking gay as shit lol.

speaking of

THings I DIDN'T LIKE:

-they have this really weird fucking scene abt gay people like there's a total of one person in the book iirc who is explicitly stated to be gay and it's played as the butt of a joke (I think???)

-Bible tries REALLY hard to be edgy like some fucking RR Martin knockoff. It doesn't always work and sometimes it gets annoying imo

-Not alot of the resistance faction subplot was too memorable I think

-The rape scene in general

-Guy can NOT find creative ways to describe dead mecha pilots, do NOT let his ass cook.

-The odd descriptions of pissing and shitting. I get the guy wanted a grimy lived-in world but this was NOT exactly my cup of tea.

RAW REACTION FOOTAGE OF MY OLD READTHROUGH NOTES, featuring me from like three years ago:

Note that I was a fucking puritan back then so my notes are NOT great. I censored like ALL my cussing and I'm not sure what I meant by the "communists" part but I think there actually WERE communists in the book and that was a plotpoint?

That mighta been the "resistance faction" I was thinking of

OH I was reviewing this back2back with United States of Japan by Peter Tieryas, which I didn't actually enjoy that much, sorry USJ fans in the chat. Maybe I'll reread and review it here at some point tho!

Also yeah

The book was odd to say the least.

Fighting Iron for y'all. Lot of cowboy, lot of mech, lot of pissing and shitting and weird sex shit and "human jelly" which I dislike that descriptor. Parts of it were fun, parts of it uncomfortable, but it is kind of a formative memory for me lol. I don't recommend it too hard, maybe at some point I'll read the remake "Fistful of Mechs" and its sequel, "A Few Mechs More" and write a REAL review of it that isn't a half-remembered mess. Maybe.

Overall, 4.5/10 read for me, still better than some books I've read. And by some I mean Unity by Jeremy Robinson do NOT get me started on that one because I WILL rant for twelve hours about my irrational hatred for that book do NOT tempt me.

Anyways, that was a wild trip down memory lane.

Maybe I'll do this again some time idfk

But without further adieu, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go and collapse on my bed because this rant took a LOT out of me. This has been your monthly Reader In Yellow Experience, and I bid y'all to stay safe, stay sane, and most importantly, stay Funky.

That last bit is an inside joke that only Three (3) people will get.

[galacticstar]

Movies

3, 10, 19

3 - A movie you think is overrated

Well… I'm sure my opinion in this one will not be shared by many people but it's just my opinion so please don't cancel me LOL

I'll go with Avatar. I really hated the animation style, I think the aesthetic in general is horrible, the characters are all ugly, it's too long and I got bored to death... and the message? well I better don't go talking about it cause it'll be too long and boring to read XD

It's funny but the first movie that came to mind with this question was Titanic… maybe I don't like James Cameron too much LOL

10 - A foreign-language movie you like

The funny part is that for me, english will be listed as foreing language since my native one is Spanish so I really have a huge amount of movies to choose. Anyway, I'll go with one in a language I love and I'm still learning: danish

The movie is Frygtelig Lykkelige and I love it to the point I watched it more than once and I'm ready to watch it again. I love dark humor movies and this one is a great example of the kind, also love Jakob Cedergren as an actor (and wow he is a real eyecandy too) and the rest of the cast was really good too, danish actors are very talented.

19 - A movie you look forward to watching (could be an upcoming release or not)

Right now I can hardly wait to see Strange Way of Life, the new Almodovar's short film with Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke as gay cowboys The first trailer and new images got me hooked and it promises to be hot hot hot

Thanks for the ask, sister!

[scattered-winter]

For the ask game... whichever character appears first in your most recent WIP (or second if you've already answered for that character) - Clone Anon

ayo!!!!!! clone anon!!!!! it's been a hot minute!!! <3

listen the character that appears in my most recent WIP is Jesse McCree from Overwatch and I refuse to apologize for that. he's my skrungly. here's the ramble

favorite thing about him

first of all, my favorite thing about him is that, in a futuristic world with robots and time travel, my mans decided to become a cowboy. what an icon

secondly I love his sense of humor! he's very dry and frank and tbh it's just really fucking funny to see, especially during a fight

least favorite thing about him

idk his deranged cowboy energy has captivated me body and soul. I can't think of a reason to dislike the guy

favorite line

nothing in particular but the fact that he's so dedicated to the cowboy aesthetic that he speaks in a drawl and has all the cowboy sayings??? truly a legend

brOTP

Genji and McCree are BROS and I will DIE ON THIS HILL. they're menaces together <3

nOTP

at first I didn't really know of any but then I remembered a pairing I saw today that made me gag: Gabe and McCree. that's his DAD you sickos!

OTP

I am a yeehan truther myself. partly because of the ship itself, mostly because of the outstanding ship name. also the inherent comedy of dating your best friend's brother. I like to imagine that Genji told McCree a lot of stories about his brother (mostly how he, I dunno, almost murdered him) and so McCree developed a strong dislike for the guy on behalf of his bestie but then he and Hanzo met face to face and he was just "ah. Ah."

also there's the fact that they're literally two sides of a coin I mean C'MON. ITS ALL RIGHT THERE

they were both in an evil gang

they both left said evil gang and thus brought a heavy bounty on their heads

they're both haunted by their pasts

they're both capable of a lot of really fucked up stuff but they're genuinely trying to help make the world a better place

in other words they have captivated me <3 I'm completely normal about these blorbos from a game I've never played, I promise <- lying

random headcanon

he's asexual <3 sorry I don't make the rules

he's also the team's unofficial big brother. don't bother arguing with me. I'm right.

unpopular opinion

everyone hates on it but personally I think his belt buckle is FANTASTIC. you're all just mean and have horrible taste

another unpopular opinion is that I do not see the name change. I Simply Do Not See

song I associate with him

Pale Rider by The Heavy Horses (mostly because it plays in his character short shhh)

I Won't Back Down by Johnny Cash

favorite picture of him

LITERALLY HOW CAN A BABYGIRL BE SO BLORBO AND SO SKRUNGLY AT THE SAME TIME JUST LOOK AT HIM

send me a character!

[chiroptaro]

so first is fine (fee neh)

i think their theme is like. princely/angelic? Im not a huge fan of their music they might be my least favorite unit music wise. You might recognize two of these faces. they were the antagonists in the beginning of the anime

This is Trickstar! Theyre kinda the protags during ! era. The orange one (Subaru) is the face of Enstars

They dont really have like. a theme? Its kinda. wow look how fun it is to be friends! Theyre pretty diverse in music style ive heard. i dont listen to much of their music

Ryuseitai! You know this but their theme is superheroes

Ive already spoken a good deal about them but i like their music

Alkaloid! They have a card theme and are the protags for the !! era

again you might recognize a few faces. i dont havw much to say on their music style again i havent listened muxh to them

Eden!

technically theyre two subunits, Adam and Eve, and they combine to create Eden. Eve is the two on the left, while Adam is the two on the right. I'm not gonna mention the characters but oh my goddd they sure are! characters! Eden was the antagonists for the second half of the anime. Their songs are kinda more rocky and very risque which is funny considering the biblical allegories

Valkyrie! The best unit ever!

Their aesthetic is a very steampunk one and they have a very unique sound i love love love their songs. theyre all very artistic and not at all idol like

2Wink! The twins!

Their style is the most electro of the units its like synth pop. The pink one is Hinata and the blue one is Yuuta theyre literally the trans colors

Crazy:B! They and Alkaloid are a recent (!!) addition. Crazy:B play the antagonists to Alkaloid's protagonists

Theyre very. idk. punk rnb? smth like that idk

UNDEAD! The edgy ones!

their theme is theyre edgy and unruly and uh. thats kinda it? also middle guy is a vampire and blodn guy is a womanizer and right guy is a furry and left guy is Adonis everyones dream man

Ra*bits!

One of these members is a college freshman. The rest are second years. take a wild guess as to whos who <3

This acually isnt that great of a pic since theyre not wearing their usual constumes one sec

theyre just lil sailor boys <3 their music is generally cutesy and upbeat they get to pics bc i love them and also i needed to show you both outfits the secondoen actually isnt even their usual outfits so id add a third image but this is already long

Akatsuki! Ive already talked about them but heres another pic

Againt heyre traditional japanese both in theme and music

Knights! Theyre the most popular unit i think. I'm not a huge Knights fan

apparently theyre the most boybandish sounding? idk i really hate one of their songs tho so theres that the other ones are fine tho

Switch! Theyre magicians. they also have an electronic sound

i like the songs iv eheard from them. Tsumugi (blue) is literally me

MaM

The only solo unit! hes a cowboy

Double Face

this is a special unit bc you might recognize them. thats bc they have their own units, this is a special unit they do all the dirty work of their company like assassinations and whatever idk i skipped the origin story. not sure what their sound is like bc i havent listened to much

ok heres my evaluation on all of them.

fine: they are certainly VERY princely and angelic i absolutely adore their outfits omg theyre SO cool. also WOO MY FAV CLOWN GUY!!!

trickstar!: the power of friendship is definitely a theme wdym. i love their little jackets!

ryuseitai: it's the guys it's my fav go go power rangers!! they have CAPES!!!!!!!!

alkaloid: CARD THEME IS SUCH A COOL IDEA!!! and that's hit tbh creacher rinne's brother right? i forgot his name i want to say hinne but thats def not right lmao (edit it's hiiro i got the h right!!)

eden: theyre all very majestic and gorgeous good gracious. is that an album cover? bc if so its a GREAT one. do they get along with the angel boys bc of. the religious thing (<- thinks i am funny)

valkyrie: STEAMPUNK BEST AESTHETIC YESYESYES I HEART THEM!!! wdym by artistic rather than idol? that sounds very very cool

2wink: trans color palette love that for them

crazy:b: does a little dance i think theyre my favourite i listened to that spider song like twelve times it was SOOOOO GOOOD

undead: ehehe the edgelords. vampire guy is the one u showed me b4 right?

ra*bits: LITTLE SAILOR GUYS!!!!! im guessing the college one is the brown hair bc he's the littlest and animes tend to do that

akatsuki: THE FELLAS!! i loved their thing with the fan waving in the mv u sent me very cool. also that pic is a slay/10 WOW GET IT KINGS

knights: i love the knight theme and also the hair of middle guy & the guy directly to the right of him.

switch!: WOW THE REAL CRANE?? did not kno u were an idol craneberry i support u. their outfits remind me of boy scout uniforms

mam: OMG COWBOY HES SOOOO. I HAVE A CRUNCH ON HIM

doubleface: their outfits are so drippy def one of my favs so far. and it looks like they have sheriff badges maybe? i love assassins good for them