#the fact that they made the main character a literal sheep in the anime and manga is so iconic

[novorehere]

Can I make some fanart of your sheep plz???

Absolutely!! I just want to be very clear though, I do not own the sheep avatar, nor did I design it 😅 It’s literally the official main character from O/bey me. The plush I have is official merch. Lots of people use it as their “avatar” so to speak!

Just wanted to let everyone who isn’t familiar with the franchise know :)

[ilovescaredysquirrel2]

So I watched that Under the Boardwalk movie and it's surprisingly amazing? + my thoughts on other upcoming movies

Okay, when my friend texted me the trailer I was shocked to find out it was by Nickelodeon and Paramount (When I think of Nickelodeon I think of perverted jokes in trashy sitcoms and cartoons) but when Nickelodeon actually has something good, I'm surprised! I feel like I have sort of a love-hate relationship with Nickelodeon stuff as I do with Disney, but there's more stuff by Nickelodeon that I love more than there is Disney, and I mostly have more nostalgia for Nickelodeon (I'm not like other people 0w0). There was literally one foot joke in the movie! Just one! Not filled with dirty jokes either, and it had a good message!

The message and the songs were actually amazing and the characters were adorable and sweet! They actually had amazing character development, which I wasn't expecting from this movie. Armen and Ramona had a cute relationship with Armen being the scared one at first but then turns to being the braver one, and Ramona being the wildcard and adventurous one but ending up needing rescued in the end. They could have done the whole "damsel in distress needs rescued by guy" type of thing that I get sick of seeing in old Disney movies, but they didn't! Ramona's sister, Shelly was adorable as well, and she was deaf and couldn't hear but she didn't let that stop her from trying to save her sister! I also love how the big tough guy Bobby had a soft side and didn't pick on Armen like we would expect him to. Like, the big tough strong crabs were actually Armen's friends and supported him even though he wasn't like them. Also, can we talk about the villain? Like, it was cool to see the posh spoiled rich boy be the villain but also just a guy you gotta hate (he tried hitting on Ramona, Shelly, and their mom which was weird). Like, they combined the snobby spoiled rich mama's boy traits with also making him a womanizer and full of himself. Almost like Victor Quartermaine but without the lip fillers, and more of a flirty womanizer. (spoilers; even the villain, Meiko, got redemption in the end). I also liked how they showed the humans in the story as well. They didn't try and make the humans seem all evil but still had the dumb human antagonist who gave them different shells and tried to sell them, but that's only a minor part in the movie and not the main conflict which is a plus! Like, I don't like when animal movies try to make all the humans seem evil (I kind of like how the movie Barnyard, which is also Paramount and Nickelodeon, did kind of the same thing where the animals weren't afraid of being eaten by humans, they were just trying to hide from them).

I also noticed other details I thought was cool, besides the fact that they made fun of... you know who **cough cough dirty dan**, with the one foot joke. Or at least I hope they were making fun of him (at a scene where Armen and Ramona were in a photobooth together they were going through filters and Armen ended up as a foot and Ramona was laughing at him). I also love that this movie was a musical and included songs that fit in with the "cheesy teen beach musical" type of vibes, but they also made it take place in New Jersey and the conflict was focused around the sea crabs coming up and bothering the land crabs. It was also a good anti-racism type of symbolism because they were both crabs, and it's not the same as what Zootopia or Sheep & Wolves did and use other animals (although Sheep & Wolves is still a great movie). Like, I can't ship a fox and a rabbit but I can ship a sea crab and a land crab because they're BOTH CRABS! I noticed a lot of other little details in it and I'm really proud of Paramount on this one! I don't understand but I'm curious to know if they have an animation studio in Italy, since I saw the Italian flag in the background of some scenes. If they do have an animation studio there, then that's awesome! If not, it's still fine, I'm just curious! I'm an American and I support other countries when it comes to them making animated family movies. Just to see a smaller foreign studio make a movie that's better than what Disney puts out...

Also, I'm still pumped up about Butterfly Tale and I'm furious that it won't be released in the U.S any time soon. If you're in Canada, please go see Butterfly Tale and give that smaller studio some support because Butterfly Tale looks like an amazing movie and my friend loved it! And idc about this knock off Chicken Run sequel dawn of the nugget or some crap, I still consider Chicken Run a DreamWorks movie and I don't want Netflix and Sam Fell to ruin what was once amazing. This Chicken Run 2 looks so dumb and they ruined the movie, this is totally a knock off, no telling me otherwise. DreamWorks isn't working on it and Aardman only works on it because they're being forced to by Netflix. At least I can still support DreamWorks by going to see Trolls 3, but the villain designs look hideous (at least we get that Broppy romance), and i doubt that it'll beat Under the Boardwalk or Butterfly Tale.

nyway, tell me your thoughts on what I said in either of these paragraphs and feel free to state your opinions, even if you don't agree!

[mrcompass]

The Devil(s) of Metal Fight Beyblde.

Dr. Ziggurat, the main antagonist of Beyblade Metal Masters, shares many parallels and similarities with the Christian Devil.

He is a ruthless and manipulative executive of an enterprise called Hades Inc., who enjoys making "deals" with other people. Note that Hades and Hell were interchangeably used in Greek mythology to describe the afterlife. The deals he makes are almost like demonic contracts: Zeo had to become a lab rat to save Toby, losing his sanity in the process. Ziggurat takes advantage of desperate people like Zeo and even Julian.

Ziggurat transformed Toby into Faust, whose name comes from the main character of a German legend. Faust, inspired by Johann Georg Faust, made a contract with the devil: Mephistopheles would serve him, and after a certain number of years, the devil would take his soul. Faust sacrificed his soul either to gain knowledge or for material and personal gain, depending on the version. Toby accepted the arrangement against his will, and even if he was cured, he lost himself in the process. He can play Beyblade again, but as Faust, he is only a soulless tool.

The doctor himself seems to have "sold his soul," since he doesn't care about ethics or the fact that he is using children for his experiments. Hikaru explicitly said that some of the bladers incompatible with the arrangement system were so impacted by it that they had to end their careers.

Physically, Ziggurat appears taller than most of the cast, though this is because they are all children. He has spikes of hair at the back of his head, like Damian, that emulate horns. He also wears a dark gray suit, which contrasts sharply with all the colorful characters (even his collaborators, Daidoji and Pluto, seem more colorful than him). He is as gray and dark as the hellish world Damian creates with his Kerbecs.

His name comes from ancient structures called ziggurats, built by the Mesopotamians for cult practices. Daidoji's name means (literally) "great road/way to the temple". They were both part of the Hades cult, lead by Pluto who lived in a temple. However, Ziggurat can also be a reference to the German word "Ziege," which means goat. Ziggurat's design also emulates the animal, with his goatee and spiky hair. His Beyblade is Spiral Capricorn, and in the anime, its Bey beast is often depicted as a simple goat.

This animal is often tied to the Devil and is one of the forms it takes. The painter Goya depicted a gathering of witches with "Witches' Sabbath" (Goya, 1798), where the Devil takes the form of a goat and is offered children to eat. While the doctor doesn't (seem to) eat children, he effectively despises them and shows a lot of disdain towards them. He also steals their innocence in a way. Zeo and Toby do not take back their Aries Bey; they now use Beys with the Spiral fusion wheel, reminiscent of Spiral Capricorn. Aries is a sheep and is typically associated with innocence. They cannot go back to who they were; they are permanently scarred by what they have been through during their time in Haves Inc.

In the scene where Zeo is stopping Ziggurat, he is at the bottom of the stairs, symbolizing a shift in power dynamics between them. This positioning could also symbolize Zeo casting Ziggurat back to Hell, as Hell is below the Earth in popular culture.

"JoJo's Bizarre Adventure" has previously utilized its antagonists, DIO (assimilated to God) and Diavolo (a mafia boss, assimilated to the devil), in a similar manner. DIO is upstairs (heaven), while Diavolo is at the bottom of the stairs (hell). I would add that in the Metal Saga, it is common for villains to fall: Nemesis and Daidoji fell into a pit, and Hades City fell into the abyss of the sea.

These falls can be interpreted as both a physical defeat and a symbolic triumph over an evil that is cast back into hell.

Ziggurat is a more traditional version of the devil who makes deals with people and manipulates them, while Nemesis embodies the devil of the apocalypse, wishing for total chaos.

[fostopia]

hi............. if you are up to it i would very much like hearing about your ocs

** 11/20/23 edit: IM USING THIS AS AN EXCUSE TO POST THIS

* Funfact! I only remembered about this ask now because my friend asked me about the same ocs and it came to mind so I’m picking the old draft back up

Anon you have no idea what you’re getting yourself into

Fun fact about me dear readers I have over 278 oc’s (11/20 edit: now 347) and counting all are fully developed too. However, we’re gonna focus on the ones I posted previously

The ask to make my day OKAY

BACKGROUND

Was on a whiteboard with a bud and he made the joke about throwing a baby he was holding, I told him to do it and drew ‘C supports baby throwing’ which lead to the "#cforpresident" hashtag being drawn by him. This silly little thing promptly dissolved into a full fledged au because none of us are capable of being normal

There’s three universes sorta associated with this au, and there’s no actual name to it— it just.. exists.

PRESIDENT C

The first version of this character in this AU, C (no real name here, just C) is the President [It’s sorta unconfirmed what the fuck he’s the president of but we kept making the joke of him being POTUS so maybe the canon world in this is just… our irl world.] My man’s Vice President is unconfirmed because my bud Sarah who ‘ran against me’ swapped to swat last second so.. guess there is no Vice President. C had a husband (Ace), got married before he entered office and got unlucky cause his spouse is fucking dead. He’s sorta just tired of this shit™️. In this world monster begins aren’t rare but they’re not exactly accepted, even more so if you look dangerous. C is a shapeshifter with his default look replacing his head with a ball of black matter; it’s an odd substance, as it gives off a look of a black hole but you could literally shove your hand into his face and bam your arm is in a weird kind of pocket dimension (this can only occur when he allows it though, so don’t try it you’ll punch the President.)

His other look, however, is much more human but simultaneously is used far less. That look is defaulted to a demon, and although he can change aspects none are permanently and he’ll always revert back to the demon look Oh yeah President C is morally good but he has cannibalized a vampire-bat shifter so, sometimes his morals are off.

His backstory is pretty sparse, I don’t have any ideas for his family life before presidency; he just showed up running for President and gained popularity real fast. He’s very advanced with his shapeshifting, he can use it to become people and even objects or full animals. His main team consists of Orin, the swat captain, and Sarah, who’s a rank below Orin. Sarah’s very responsible and very underpaid while Orin is horrible irresponsible and uses Sarah’s payment on Panda Express. President doesn’t let that slide when he finds out; but otherwise he has a good connection with them both.

TYRANT C

This one was a ‘what-if’ personality/role swap of the President C au; instead of being the morally good, demon presidents— Tyrant C (still just C here) is the morally corrupted, sheep president. Just like President, he’s a shapeshifter with the base for being the black matter head one; however he generally uses the humanoid sheep one more often as a way to seem more innocent and harmless— like a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

He’s fuuucked up, his whole point is gaining power and he’s lucky that the force that follows him is so loyal. In this one he had a husband as well, Zander (Ace’s alternate universe self), however the two married purely for tax benefits, the fact that it would help C’s campaign to be a queer president. They were a tragic case of right time, wrong person. Although both of them had truly loved each other to an extent (C didn’t know what love felt like so he hasn’t realized at the time while Zander was constantly bouncing between love and hate) both of them kept fighting. Tyrant was the one to act first but trust me, if Zander had lived longer, he might’ve killed Tyrant first.

He gets away with it because corrupt fucker, however he quickly finds that he needs somebody else to fill in for the spot that Zander had earlier; somebody to bounce ideas off of— and who better to than his SWAT captain, Orin. Orin is a huge simp. He’s actually responsible here however Sarah’s personality doesn’t swap and instead she just doesn’t like Tyrant too much. So, Tyrant decides to seduce Orin to get him wrapped around his finger because really; if he’s got the swat captain he’s got the power of his team too… yeah no, he falls in love on accident. Then he’s forced to acknowledge that this is what love feels like.

He’s a lot less good with his shapeshifting; only able to shift between his void matter and the goat one with even that taking to much energy as he wasn’t able to use them as he grew. He’s a man cut off from the world, however not from sorrow and guilt the same way President did.

Tyrant’s meant to be much more complex than President; his backstory includes shit like abuse from parental figures, cult shit, and with him having been raised with so much negativity he’s completely convinced that this is how everything has to be. Violence and evil have always been his normal; he was a kid groomed into a mindset that never left until he felt something beyond anger for the first time. He’s fucked up, he’s done some real horrible shit, but he doesn’t know that being good is on the table. He’s at a point where learning to grow won’t do anything to reverse years of trauma and anger. Tyrant has regrets he can never voice due to his nailed in beliefs, he will never be able to fully accept that he had loved Zander, that the king sized bed in his home feels too empty. He can’t acknowledge the way he makes two cups off coffee sometimes, one just the way his fiancé used to drink his. He can never come to terms with the fact that he regretted killing him. He can never accept that he misses his parent despite their abuse, that deep down he wishes he were still their little boy oh so willing to help mom and dad out with their ‘buisness’. Tyrant wants to, really, he does. However, some people aren’t capable of accepting that reality. He grew up within a world that called him a monster, and he was merely giving back what they had started.

[64ko]

I watched it from start to end so this will not be a spoiler free post but.

things I liked:

the music. Of course. The music was genuinely the highlight of this, ESPECIALLY during the final fight because the game music playing was so exciting to hear. I love the game, so. Easy point. I also liked the song Sex Bob-Omb sang and Black Sheep returned even for a moment. I really wish we actually had Envy singing, but I always have YouTube for that.

The fight scenes were fun, especially Gideon and Matthew’s fight. I also really loved the movie-genre changing scenes with Ramona and Roxie. I also adored the “vs” game screens that came up and seeing Scott DIE was such a shock I couldn’t believe it. I also really enjoyed the additions to Matthew’s ability which leads me to…

The focus on the exes. The comic, obviously, didn’t delve that much into them but the anime focuses almost exclusively on them. I actually really liked the additions to them, such as Matthew’s powers or how they grew as people during the epilogue. I loved seeing more flashbacks with them, ESPECIALLY with Roxie and Lucas Lee. Seeing Ramona up and leaving Roxie and showing they had a GENUINELY good relationship before she ran, seeing her care about Lucas Lee before leaving him. It did a lot to establish the exes not just as evil for evil’s sake, but made them feel more like characters. I do have some mixed feelings about Todd, however.

I loved Roxie’s episode and the focus on Ramona realizing she hurt people and needing to own up to it. I love that she understood her hand in her past mistakes and owned up to them. Roxie’s arc was literally one of the top episodes for me. I also love that Roxie wasn’t delegated to being a “sexy phase”. Ramona and Roxie loved each other and Ramona doesn’t deny it. She didn’t have a “sexy phase”, Ramona is bisexual.

They didn’t put Knives and Kim together. They played music but Knives never did more than that. They didn’t even have her kissing Scott in this which is nice. Despite the fact Scott Pilgrim was dating a high schooler. I really loved the friendship that developed between Knives and Stephen AND the ending of her in the band. I really liked that due to the fact I’ve always had some… mixed feeling about Stephen at the end of the comic, LOL. It’s fun seeing Sex Bob-Omb play.

And as for the things I. Didn’t like.

They took SCOTT out of SCOTT PILGRIM. They literally took the MAIN CHARACTER out of his own media! It was a completely different story than what I was expecting which could’ve been fine, but… it really felt as if so much was taken out by the sheer fact Scott wasn’t even in the Scott Pilgrim anime except to set up this weird whodunit mystery AU. Focusing on the side characters should NEVER come at the expense of the main character and they literally took the MAIN CHARACTER out!

The “twist Villain” being Scott. Why. All of Scott’s character growth gets washed down the drain for some paltry attempt at a NegaScott future villain “fight yourself” ending. It’s lame. It’s bad. It takes away every moment of growth Scott has during the comic. You’re really telling me Scott ends up right back where he started at? Really? Some overgrown man child that never learned from his past? Which is literally what he does in the comics? And he’s even worse than when Envy broke up with him? Like… that seems so ridiculous. All the growth Scott goes through was for nothing. Scott literally accepts his flaws, which is HOW he beats NegaScott, and is why he ends up beating Gideon at the end. Having Scott never grow from that, especially THIRTEEN years later is… it really sucks. Scott isn’t a saint, but the best part about Scott is that he’s a normal guy that was able to grow. And the anime took that away from him with their twist ending.

wallace. I adore Wallace so much. He’s my second favorite character, tied with Ramona. I adore him. But I also adore his relationship with Scott. Wallace is his FRIEND and I will say that Wallace is Scott’s best friend. Wallace actually cares about Scott in the comics and the anime made Wallace act like he was some leech that he hated. He couldn’t wait to get Scott out of his life and that! Really sucks! Especially because Wallace wanted to be friends with Scott first!!

I know this was never supposed to be a faithful adaptation and I DID enjoy the anime, but I feel as if, specifically, the villain being Scott was genuinely a bad choice. It undermines Scott and everything that happened in the first comic. It really makes it seem as if Scott didn’t learn or grow. And that sucks because Scott is not a good person - none of them are! But they all grow throughout the course of the comic! And that’s the point!… and then to basically say that didn’t matter, Scott is still an asshole that would rather become a douche than fight for his relationship is… a choice. I liked the anime, just not the villain, LOL

[testicoolarcancer]

Passion Project - Cyberchain

May, 2018 (14 years old)

As you probably already knew, this is my presentation regarding my passion project. The product of this whole passion project process was really a short story that I’m planning on elaborating on. But a main thing that I really focused on and admittedly struggled with was coming up with the general scaffolding and ideas to actually base this story on. So, I’m going to be sharing how that worked out with you guys.

A short story wasn’t really what I had first envisioned myself doing for the passion project. At first, it was really oriented on the idea of blockchain. With the intense media hype around the use of it in Bitcoin and Cryptokitty, I kind of wanted to delve deeper into the subject, especially when most people think of it as the same thing as Bitcoin ( just a tool to make you get rich really, really fast). So I asked my stepdad how it worked (at the time he was working for a company which was initially researching the possibilities and developing software incorporating blockchain tech into it). After he described how it worked we settled on the idea that Blockchain is a wonderful idea but at the same time nobody has any idea whatsoever as to how to use it (except for with Bitcoin, which is pretty much useless). So I did some deeper digging and found some REALLY COOL possible ways that people have addressed legally, and thought that they would work really well as the central or side-point of a story. A science fiction story.

But usually, most science fiction stories have pretty optimistic ideas as to the future developments of human society. People colonize other planets, avoiding population crises and, miraculously, food shortages. But blockchain as it is is a simple way of solving disputes and showing data in an unwarped and uncensored manner. If you placed blockchain in a utopian space society, it would easily be outshone by the general awe and prosperity in the area. What I needed was a type of science fiction that would compliment the nature of blockchain. One where corporate giants loomed over the general public. One where shady underground deal are made, where the intentions of characters are really very hard to detect due to the fact that everyone’s trying to madly scrabble to survive. That is, except for those in higher up class positions. This is a relatively apt description of Cyberpunk, a genre of science fiction set in a lawless  subculture of an oppressive society dominated by computer technology. Recently, I had been drawn to the genre as current events and scientific developments alike began to eerily mirror it like the pop culture classics of Ghost in the Shell and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. It was perfect. And because of the unusual focus on blockchain tech (as cyberpunk usually sticks to the ideas of androids and what it means to be human), it would be all the more unique in two senses.

Before I go on, I’d like to add some of the main uses of blockchain the story ended up focusing on. Two sources that largely contributed certain ideas to my story were the Economist magazine and Perkins Coie law review.

Biotrade. So, essentially, the documentation and trade of certain species of animals and plants that could be used in the production of commodity, allowing the country housing these (often developing, theoretically) to gain money from this trade. I thought it would be interesting if there was a more literal version of this in our story, particularly when cyberpunk often queries what it is to be human. As a result, genetic data and other things coming from humans could be traded and seen open-sourcedly. Or maybe this darker side of biotrade could masquerade as the former. Additionally, smaller uses of blockchain like in Cryptocurrencies and Digital Land and Property Management would most likely be taken for granted by a society in the near-ish future.

The story takes place in a futuristic, yet decaying version of Seattle. Because what better place to write about than the city with already-futuristic looking pieces of architecture written as the big center of a company that produces androids in probably the most famous piece of cyberpunk literature, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? By Philip K. Dick?

One of the most important aspects of the story that has the capability to completely wreck the whole thing or save it is its characters. And particularly important is the perspective the story is being shown from.

Hayden Walker: The character our story follows. Hayden is a wealthy twenty-something-year-old who is the main investor in his childhood friend Clara Chen’s company, C Link. Being upper class and having grown up when the world was fairer (both in appearance and in rules) less polluted gives him a naïve and quite appalled perspective into the hidden corruption tainting C Link. Having a more optimistic perspective into the gritty world of cyberpunk seems intriguing, but difficult to write. As a result, the role he plays is something similar to the opposite of an anti-hero. 

Rana Karim: The character who is the real protagonist of the story. Rayna is a gifted activist-hacker who grew up in the slums of Seattle and has come to learn about the sketchy underground dealings C Link has been making. And has just realized some uncanny connections between it and the disturbing things that had been occurring in the slums. If she is able to prove these two are connected, then she could probably get Clara Chen persecuted for multiple human rights abuses and might be able to turn C Link’s own police personnel against her, due to the fact that most of the police and security guards in the area are actually sourced from the slums.

Colton Dubois: Colton is a famous pop-singer who has widely endorsed “going green” by supporting C Link’s services of helping preserve the little forests and ecosystems around Seattle by making them matter as a commodity. Attending many of the company’s sponsored events, he becomes unhappily wrapped up in all of the stuff that follows, then gains a bit of enthusiasm when evidence begins to point to CEO Clara Chen to be at fault. He’s quite openly homosexual.

Butter: Hayden’s robotic butler. Butter is a butter yellow robot made in humanoid shape (but still not an android, he insists) who is rather parentlike as well as a friend to Hayden. Butter’s attitude is one that is rather hard to place. At times, they are very friendly and almost benevolent feeling, even though all authority comes from their general sort of bossiness at all other times.

Lucas Greyson: Lucas Greyson is almost a hermit in the slums of Seattle. He hates robots and androids and the fact that they have been freed by law and now have the same rights as humans. They stole his job 6 years ago, and he can never get it back! But before that, he had a high-ranking security job at a genetics laboratory that was in some fishy affairs with C Link. The characters need to get information from him, but he refuses to let them hear it “before they know how to shoot a bullet”. A real antitechnology type guy.

Clara Chen: C Link CEO, Clara Chen, has always been very introverted, but has become a bit of a shadow recently, being shown on the news at a declining rate, randomly appearing and disappearing in unusual locations. Her best friend throughout school was Hayden Walker, but due to a new but confidential project, has faded from everybody’s lives.

C-link: the infamous company that is headed by Clara Chen could be considered responsible for preserving the ecosystems in and around the Seattle area.

What does C Link do?

Uses blockchain to create a digital, open-source and permanent/incorruptible ledger of transactions made in regard to the species of animal, plant, bacteria, or insect internationally traded. As a result, the company receives lots of money from the crumbling North American government and the countries that the transactions are taking place with. This encourages people’s efforts to conserve these valuable biological resources.

However, there is a darker side to C Link. One that takes the term “biotrade” very literally. This one works very similarly, but the ledger of this underground version is only visible to very specific people to erase controversy as to what belongs to who. And, most importantly, it trades human genetics, genetic information, and body parts-illegally. This helps fuel uncertified laboratories that work on genetically engineering human beings in attempt to make them resistant to the strains that climate change puts on the human race, but at disturbing costs.

To put it simply, I’m probably going to spoil a lot in this coming synopsis. So brace yourselves.

Intro Bit: We get an introduction to the city of Seattle at night and, through dialogue between Hayden Walker and Butter, we get a sense of the developments the city has gone through.

Time skip

Going to Work: Hayden and Butter go to their workplace, which is basically a nightclub where celebrities go to fund and endorse C Link. There’s some shenanigans with Hayden and Colton Dubois, then Hayden leaves.

Action!: Before the duo can get to their hovercar, the electricity of the area goes down. In the complete darkness, somebody shuts off Butter remotely and drags Hayden into an alleyway. The person, who Hayden assumes is a cyberterrorist of some type, demands for him to transfer a third of all his bitcoin into their account, since bitcoin doesn’t go through any managing entity like a bank, making the results permanent. He complies, and, the mystery person seeing him either as trustworthy or easily pressured into doing something, deems him worthy of explanation.

Explanation: It turns out that Hayden’s assumption about his abductor being a cyberterrorist wasn’t entirely wrong. Rayna Karim is her name, and she explains that there had been some things happening recently with his friend’s company. Because Rayna seems genuinely concerned, being a hacktivist and all, he believes this.

Rising Action: Before doing anything else, Rayna and Hayden go to retrieve Butter. Now, they travel to the slums to get some information from an old luddite named Lucas Greyson, who apparently has some information for the trio and was contacted through a chat, and then a private chat on the dark web. When they arrive in the slums, everybody’s unusually sickly, and get attacked by weird genetically mutated monster people. The trio are really quite bad at defending themselves, with Rayna being the only one who really knows how to fight, and with none of them having any actual weapons. Before they can get killed, Mr. Greyson steps out of an old dilapidated building and shoots the creatures, saving the three central characters.

That is essentially all that I have so far.

[anime-grimmy-art]

What do you do when there’s not much to an AU? You make up your own stuff, ofc. And as is per usual when I make Character Designs, I make up a shit ton of lore too.

The ramblings under the cut, but what I’m really interested in, is what you guys think. Do you guys have any headcanons/ideas for this AU? Let me hear them! Also, if you don’t wanna read on tumblr, here’s the Google Docs link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/151yshHxnb_--P6eMKkwkI2dee9xC_Llb/view?usp=sharing

Before I get into the characters’ roles, here’s some general facts and backstory of their town:

- Basically, it’s Undertale meets Harvest Moon / Stardew Valley. Well, kinda. I at least used that approach for coming up for the jobs for the characters. You know, how there’s always a general store, a doctor, a smithy, etc.

- The usual story of a HM game is that you come to a town that’s way past its glory days and you, as the player/farmer, help them get back to that. The “backstory” of the town is that that already kinda happened. I’ll get into it more in the character description, but basically when Asgore was still mayor, the town got really popular. Then yadda yadda, a certain tragedy happened, two kids died, and the town suddenly got very bad publicity. There was a lot of stuff going on back then, bad reputation being spread and also a lot of law stuff, cos, you know, supposed child murder ‘n all, so Asgore made the decision to shut off the town to ppl from outside. This was in the interest of most monsters living there, because as fun as it is to have a lot of people coming there, most just wanted to live a quiet life. Not everyone was happy with that though, so many moved away from town and some others are trying to get the town back on its feet. But more on that later.

On to the characters:

I’m just gonna start with the skelebros, cos it’s their fault in the first place I got so invested.

Basically, they are what the player is in hm/sdv. They just showed up one day, took over the abandoned farmhouse and began their life there. The two came to town way after it was “closed” and since then a new mayor has opened the possibility for new residents to move in. Their farm helps the economy of the town a lot and the mayor, like usually in hm games, is trying to use that to make the town more known again. The skelebros aren’t really working towards that goal however.

So, now a bit more detail on them individually.

Papyrus:

- The design is mostly based on what’s “canon” in this au.

- He works mostly on the fields and is in charge of the crops. Their fields aren’t spectacularly big, but still big enough to plant a few dozen rows of veggies. 

- Paps also helps out a lot in town when he has the time. He helps Asgore with his plants, he goes fishing with Undyne, helps Toriel carry crates around and so on. This is inspired by the part-time job mechanic in HM ToT.

- Unbelievably, in this AU Pap is not an absolutely awful cook. Since he helps out at Muffet’s and Grillby’s a lot, they tend to show him some tricks to cooking. Even though Pap’s not a big fan of the greasy or overly sweet cooking those two do, he picks up a lot.

Sans:

- Again, design mostly based on the “canon” look. Maybe a bit more baggy.

- This is finally an AU this dude gets to rest. Since there are no resets and he doesn’t have to see his bro die again and again, for once in his life, he’s not a sad ball of depression. He’s just a chill and lazy dude that loves to make puns. Though, since he’s not too experienced with the feelings of loss, helplessness or grieving, he still tends to hide behind puns and fakes smiles if he does feel bad.

- Sans is in charge of the animals on the farm. Papyrus begrudgingly gave him that role since Pap’s loud demeanour and hectic movements usually scare the animals. Sans’ relaxed attitude draws the animals to him naturally and even if Pap mostly finds him sleep against a tree, in a stack of hay or on one of the sheep, the animals are always fed, healthy and relaxed, so Sans seems to be doing his job.

- Sans always has a small chic sit inside his hoodie or hat. Is it always the same one? Who knows, maybe.

- Sans also, somehow, can produce eggs out of thin air. Grab into his hoodie pocket, in his pants pocket, in his hat, in his slipper, there’s suddenly always an egg there. On good days he can even make butter or cheese appear. 

Gaster:

- He’s literally just a scarecrow in this. Though, if you ask any of the bros why they designed their scarecrow that way, they won’t have an answer.

Frisk&Toriel:

- Frisk is mostly based on what I wore myself as a kid in summer. Just a loose shirt with a cappy. Toriel basically has her ut gown, just with an apron on top.

- Frisk just appeared outside the “magical” forest one day. Napstablook and his cousin found them and brought them to Toriel, who has been taking care of them since.

- Toriel runs the general store in town, but also often takes care of the few kids that still live there.

- Frisk usually helps out in Toriels store, plays with the other kids or sits around at Asgore’s. They’re notorious for nabbing small snacks, mostly from Asgore’s plants. You’ll always find them munching on something. 

- Frisk was in town before the skelebros. Since they’d moved in, Frisk often went to spy on their farm. After a small incident with angry chicken, Frisk got to know the two better and now they see them as something between brothers and uncles.

- But Frisk honestly gets along with everyone. Just like in UT, they’ve not only been adopted by Toriel but literally everyone.

- Toriel and Asgore’s relationship is not as bad as in the main game, since, you know, Asgore didn’t kill literal children, but there’s still tension between them. Back when Asriel and Chara died and the whole thing with the bad rep for the town began, Toriel felt betrayed by Asgore focusing more on the town than giving their deceased kids the grieving they deserved. They’re not divorced, but Toriel still moved out and said needed space to think. Now that Frisk is in the picture though, the both of them are slowly coming to even ground and may even be able to talk things out and clear up the uncertainty of their decisions.

Asgore:

-Asgore has his UT Ending / Deltarune clothes, just with a gardener’s belt.

- He’s the previous mayor of the town, but after all the crap that happened, he stepped down from the position. Now he has his own little shop and sells seeds, saplings, homegrown veggies and fertilizer. So, basically what e.g. the Marimba Farm is in HM AP

- His main customer is Papyrus and they’re on friendly terms. Asgore is worried about how much and how hard Pap works, so he often gives him a discount. 

- Since his family’s past tragedy, Asgore is kind of nervous around kids. So, when he first met Frisk, he hoped they’d not visit him too often. But to his chagrin, Frisk took an instant liking to him and spends a lot of time at his shop (and steals eats the fresh grown veggies). Now, he’s really grateful for that, because for one, he loves Frisk as dearly as he had his own children, and also because now the tension and mistrust between him and Toriel seem to grow smaller day by day.

Undyne&Alphys:

- I gave Undyne a pretty basic fisher’s outfit. Alphys basically has Elli from HM’s outfit, just a bit more doctory stuff added. She still has her canon lab coat too.

- In essence, Undyne and Alphys have 2 completely different jobs. Alphys is the resident doctor and Undyne runs the fish market.

Two things. Yes, I know Alphys is more a mechanic than a doctor, she fits the aesthetic though, so she’s the doc now. And no, Undyne being a fisherwoman is not cannibalism, think of it more as a shark hunting smaller fish.

- The reason I lump them together is because they act as the local “smithy”. Alphys is still really tech savvy in this (I mean, Mettaton is still part of this AU), so she takes on most problems with electronics and stuff. For Undyne, I didn’t want to lose her Royal Guard’s Captain image, so she’s really good at handling tools (and weapons, but Al doesn’t let her make them anymore). So basically, if there’s a broken tool, you can be sure that either Undyne or Alphys can fix it.

- As for relationships, those two are still an item. Alphys is still really shy and a shut-off, but since Undyne and Pap become best friends, she gets to know the skelebros better. She and Sans especially get along well, since most of the time Undyne and Papyrus are let loose, they sit back and talk about science-y stuff. (no, Sans doesn’t have a background in science but he’s still into sci-fi)

- Alphys has a bit of a strained relationship with both Asgore and Mettaton.

Back when Chara and Asriel died, it was because of “illness” (maybe poisoning?). Alphys feels awful because with her back then limited knowledge on medicine she couldn’t help the two. Asgore doesn’t hold anything against her but Alphys can’t help but feel guilty.

Alphys still built Mettaton’s body in this one. The two had a really big disagreement, because Mettaton hated the fact the town was going to close, and he couldn’t understand how Alphys could feel otherwise, even more so endorse the idea.

Mettaton, Napstablook, Mad Dummy/Mew Mew:

- Napsta and Dummy are pretty self-explanatory, they got straw hats. Mettaton’s outfit is a bit of a joke cos it’s a play on “work at the top and party at the bottom”. The tie has two different sides, one with the yellow red pattern, the other completely red. His “top part” is the business part, because when he’s on tv or in the mayors’ office, you don’t usually see his feet. The bottom is his party/dance part, cos his dancing/entertainment channels mostly feature his legs. 

- Mettaton, still a robot, Napstablook and Mad Dummy are all still cousins in this AU.

- Originally, they all lived and worked at the Blook Farm, the Animal Farm of this AU. Mettaton, however, despised that simple live and after befriending Alphys and her building him a body, he left the Farm to pursue bigger things. 

- Mettaton runs the local tv network. From weather to game shows, he does it all. He also runs the tailor shop in town that sells his designer clothes and merchandise. After Asgore stepped down, Mettaton also took over the role of town’s mayor and now works towards making the place more known again. Not everybody is happy with him doing that though.

- One of those people is the Mad Dummy. He can’t stand people anyways and he always claims that history would just repeat itself.

- Since the whole family is made of ghosts, they have different dummies and scarecrows they can use to take care of the animals. To mock Mettaton and kinda get back at Alphys for giving MTT such an opportunity, Mad Dummy found the blueprints for the Mew Mew robot and now modelled one of their scarecrows after it. 

- Napstablook isn’t fond of taking over obejcts like his cousins do, so he mostly takes care of the snails. Somehow, he can interact with them even when incorporeal. 

Muffet&Grillby:

- The two of them run the Inn together. Muffet cooks in the daytime and makes desserts, Grillby manages the bar in the evening. 

- The two still can’t really stand each other but working together like this benefits them both because their rivalry just spurs them on more.

- Even though Grillby is a patient person, somehow Muffet is the only person who riles him up enough to retaliate. (Well, maybe except for Sans, he’s a strong second).

So, basically everything between those two is a challenge in some way. Even if Papyrus doesn’t notice, even his cooking lessons are a challenge for them. 

- Even though they’re constantly bickering, after working together for so many years, there’s a strange level of respect and trust between them. Even if back when they first started this business, they’d pour salt into an already open wound, nowadays they’d know better and just take a step back from the other or even comfort the other (on very rare occasions only). 

Asriel&Chara:

- They be dead. Kinda.

Some Characters that’d live in that town too but that I haven’t made designs for:

- Gerson is the original smithy of the town. He’d grown up in a family of smiths, but he’d always had an appreciation for the sea. That’s why, when the town became more deserted and Undyne had a good enough skill level as smith, he took up the Captains hat and now mostly spends his days out on sea. He also ferries people to places if they need him to. Oh, and just like in canon, Undyne learned most of her skills from him.

- Burgerpants is a poor dude Mettaton basically kidnapped when he was trying to get fame in the city. Now Burgerpants works wherever MTT needs him to, be that as cameraman for the tv shows, cashier in his tailor shop or his slave secretary in the mayor’s office.

- MK is Frisk’s best kid friend. MK’s parents are in charge of shipping the goods out of town and paying the individual people. MK’s the one that usually collects the goods at the end of the day.

- Other than that, there are only a few people in town. I’d imagine the older folks or the really young families stayed in town after it was closed. I think the librarby dude would still run the library. Some Snowdin residents like the stone family or the dogs also might still live there. 

[ritasalami]

So the Magia Record anime just aired its series finale and holy cow it was a literal sh*t show. Some thoughts, some facts and more below! I will probably need to write a part 2.

WARNING FOR SPOILERS DON´T COMPLAIN AFTERWARDS

Okay before we get into the mess that was the writing and animation, some debuts first. Here are the following magical girls that made their debut in these final episodes: - Kanoko - Hanna Sasara (School Uniform only) - Masara - Aimi - Kokoro - Asuka - Sasara - Riko, Natsuki and Konomi (First non-doppel and afterwards as Magical Girls) - Ayaka - Ren (Magical Girl form debut) - Rika (first visual debut, only was heard before) - Emiri - Hinano - Mayu, Ria and Manaka (Magical Girl debut) - Karin (School uniform only) - Madokami - Hagumu (not sure about her) During Kyubey´s speech there was an artistic background that displayed several magical girls including: - Some of the unnamed girls from Madoka Magica episode 12 - Yuuma Chitose - Oriko Mikuni - D´Arc / Tart (Magical Girl form, unlike her civilian self from MM ep 12) - Kazumi - Suzune Amane - Madoka´s ballet form from the concept movie - Cool Homura

There was a really funny shot of Ria in her Magical Girl outfit that I liked, just saying. Before I go on this rant, here is a quick summary of what I´m going to say: Rushed - Bad Writing all over the place - Underused Characters - overused character - Literally pointless story

Where do I start? Okay lets start with who and why they kicked the bucket! That´s always fun! Momoko and Mifuyu: Oh boy this did piss off a lot of people and rightfully so! Mifuyu cheated death during the game´s main story and this is a more fitting way for her to go down. Still very bad decision. Talking about very bad decision: Momoko joining Mifuyu on her suicide mission. It was a very touching moment and kinda fitting for these two since they are really protective of those who are in need. But what made this decision so bad was the fact that their friendship has not been established well enough to justify their decision. Yes we know they used to be friends but how close were they? We don´t know that. There have always been rumors that someone on the writing staff wanted Momoko gone and now it´s happened. If it had been Momoko and Mitama it would have been more reasonable since they are much closer but oh well. Rest in peace sheep grandma and bad timing big sis, you deserved better. Touka, Nemu and Ui: I dont know where to start with these three. There was an event in the game that dealt with the aftermath of their actions and had Nemu and Touka want to die in order to atone for their sins. Well unlucky with the game, the anime granted them their wish. After losing control over Eve they lock Iroha up and summon their doppels to literally suicide bomb launch themselves into Eve. Ui, still inside lil Kyubey, joins them and they FAIL at killing Eve. I don´t know what else to say, that´s three dead children. I mean their goal was to save Iroha and they somewhat managed to do that (I say somewhat since the doppels are bad and probably gone they just delayed her death). Alina: Talking about underused characters. She had an amazing start in season 1 and disappeared during season 2 only to show up again. She was pretty in character for most of season 3 until it was time for her Holy Alina debut. So she shows up, fuses her doppel with Eve and in turns becomes part of Eve´s body. Her plan is to turn everyone into magical girls to see all of humanity witch out. It happens so fast and without magical artist playing that you are just confused as to whats happening. She doesn´t even fight and just flies after Walpurgisnacht. She survives the attack from Nemu and Touka only to be blasted to death by Iroha and Yachiyo. Bye Bye Amazing Artist you deserved so much more. Kuroe:

I know people will hate me for this but Kuroe was a bad character that took up too much time that the anime didnt have. She didnt do anything important other than showing us how good a person Iroha is. Overcome by her insecurities and guilt over someone probably dying because of her she leaves Kamihama in her doppel syndrome to witch out. Afterwards Iroha stabs her witch to death. Bye bye you underwhelming character. She was always insecure and aware of her weakness but the anime wasting time to build her up only to dispose of her in the end is brutal. This is time that could have gone towards Alina.

Some things I liked about this finale is seeing all of the local magical girls show up to help injured people and fight Eve. Alina trying to get strawberry milk was a nice detail. Rena and Kaede had some wholesome moments. Now to the worst part: The ending and what it implies. The story ends with the Magius and Ui being dead, Momoko being dead and leaving behind her friends, Mifuyu having died saving the feathers and Kuroe being irrelevant once again. The doppel system is probably gone (and was very bad in the anime) and the city is in ruins. The story ends with the entire city and its girls being in a worse condition than at the beginning, which renders everything that has happened pointless. The magius plan failed completly and everyone dying as the result of it was meaningless. Even worse is the fact that it´s implied that Madoka and the others died as well since we see Homura leaving the current timeline after the end credits. So its back to square one with nothing to build on. At least the original anime ended on a hopefull note but not this one. Also Yachiyo only caring about Iroha and not giving two f*cks that Momoko and Mifuyu died is insulting to her character (which is handled much better in the game). It´s almost funny how the anime tried to squeeze both Karin and Madokami into the final scene as reminder that they did not forgot about them. People died over nothing and even though the anime shows us the Kamihama Magia Union is going to happens means nothing since without the doppel and system there is no way for them to save magical girls. Season 3 bad, me no likey.

[pot8toqueen]

Last one! Weirdly I managed to have the same amount of people for each one... GO ME!!

Tokoyami Fumikage:

• Is really a chaos gremlin

• Everyone doesn't think it's him when their house gets griefed (all griefs are harmless and never result in builds getting destroyed)

• Once convinced Aziawa to help fill a build Yamada had done with bats; the bats all despond before Yamada could see the damage

• He and Midoriya tend to team up and pull elaborate pranks on everyone. They even get Sero in on them if Redstone is required!

• Skin is literally just all black with yellow glowing eyes

• Let's dark shadow back seat game

• Dark Shadow has gotten to build a greenhouse once

• They both built a nightclub, it's not as pretty as anything Yamada or other builders can do but they love it!

• Tokoyami actually enjoys when Hawks is on, because Hawks actually sounds like a little kid and genuinely enjoys playing with Tokoyami when they play!

• Hawks also is eager to hear what Tokoyami has to teach, and it's a little satisfying being faster than the hero at something.

Todoroki Shoto:

• Is worse at the game then Hawks

• Midoriya loves to hang around him the most because Shoto is absolutely adorable at the game

• Shoto hates killing anything because he doesn't want to hurt them; he thinks the sounds they make when you hit them are the animals and such yelling in pain!

• He eats only bread and other vegetables.

• He actually requested his skin be Soba noodles, Denki did one better! (you know those skins where the head is an item and the body is the head?) Well Shoto is a tiny Shoto with a large bowl of Soba on his head being carried.

• He plays in third person so he can look at his skin all the time! He really loves it!

• Midoriya cried over how cute it was

• Shoto likes trying to feed people the Soba on his head, only to his friends (Bakugo keeps hitting him when he offers the Soba)

• Has killed basically everyone at least once, all for various reasons the top one being he was bored.

• Killed Midoriya, because Midoriya accidentally hit his dog.

• Feeds all his pets till they have hearts floating, keeps getting babies by doing that but won't stop!

• Went to see the Ender Dragon and what happens when you beat the game because Sero was talking about killing the Ender Dragon. He didn't help because he was amazed by the dragon. Sero gave him the egg and an Ender chest.

Hagakure Toru:

• Just tends to stalk people and scare the shit out of them

• Has a wide variety of skins that are all different mobs

• Once Bakugo thought she was a Creeper and tried to lure her into his creeper pit; Realized it was Toru when he couldn't name tag her

• Follows Aziawa and always gets stabbed because he thinks she's a mob, he then hits her with his stupid Stick for scaring him

• Wears golden helmets because their crowns

• Her main skin is a princess skin

• She once was Ricardo, was quickly banned by Iida for the skin

• Toru likes to just chill and not really do much in the game

• Helps Todoroki with gathering things for his pets!

Bakugo Katsuki:

• Use to play when he and Midoriya were little

• Was and still is a huge Minecraft nerd, he knows random facts and stuff

• Was the one who taught Aoyoma about the Jeb sheep and how to get mobs to be upside down!

• His two favorite mobs are pigs and creepers, he loves pigs because he found out Creepers were supposed to be a pig but the file glitched and made a creeper and they just kept them in the game!

• He loves to mine and do parkour

• He was one of the first ones Denki brought onto any of the servers, Bakugo actually really enjoys playing with everyone!

• Bakugo mines in a very specific way and often follows the others down to fix their stairs down so that it is how he likes it (Mines it so the character won't hit their head going down the mine)

• Even though he's been playing for a long time he's never beaten the game and doesn't plan on trying any time soon

• His old skin before Denki made him a new one, was one he found online as a kid

• His new skin is a creeper wearing a pig hat, he often takes screenshots because he loves it a lot!

• He's had to make three different creeper pits; he lost the first one due to not name tagging any of his creepers, the second one was because Hawks fell in it, and the third one was because he got to close to a creeper while trying to name tag it!

• He has started a fourth pit, and so far has six creepers in it. He also has a pig pit near the main house, as well as a pig in his room.

• Bakugo often challenges Aziawa to fights, but due to Aziawa having such heavily enchanted armour and weapons Aziawa wins 9x out of ten (unless Bakugo has golden apples on him)

• Is deathly afraid of witches, only the witches as he'll be innocently doing something and a witch will be behind him or in a cave system a wall over and laugh just after creepy music will play, scaring the shit out of him. Only witches do this, so he is afraid.

Midoriya Izuku:

• Has never actually played this, even though he watched Bakugo play it growing up

• Knows a lot through Bakugo and from his attempts to impress him by looking up information on it

• Is a fucking gremlin

• Dies the most

• Denki gave him his own channel in the discord server where he frequently updates everyone's deaths, kills, and such

• Midoriya often griefs everyone using silly methods, like filling rooms with Axolotl, or the time he sent Aziawa into a temple and jumped down and landed on the pressure plate. He'd removed the tnt but the second of panic from the teacher was hilarious! (He got detention)

• Has a texture pack that makes everything look soft and friendly, he often coos over the texture pack

• He likes all animals, doesn't necessarily have a favorite especially for a pet!

• Knows how badly Bakugo hates witches and will sometimes brave mining to kill them, even if Bakugo gets extra bitchy about it

• Cried the first time he found his favorite flowers planted outside the main house

• he picks them up and stores them in his chest to keep safe

• Often writes books saying how much he appreciates and loves everyone, never signs it and just leaves the book where he knows they will find it.

• Everyone knows it's from him still (Aziawa got an Ender chest just to store the flowers given to him and the books, then got mad when their wasn't enough room)

Mineta Minoru:

• Surprisingly harmless and not as gross as would be expected

• Untill he builds inappropriate structures

• Gets banned the most

• Likes to do enchantments and fishing

• Had some cats but they were mysteriously crushed under sand (Midoriya did it because he got uncomfortable with their names)

• Thought he knew the most about the game, till Midoriya and Bakugo started to do shit he didn't know was possible

• Spent a literal day making a picture in some ocean and using a map! He has it in his room, no one has discovered the picture (you can decide how bad the picture is)

• Doesn't hang out with Denki a lot because they don't really like doing the same things

• Trades with Aziawa raw fish to not be banned (Aziawa keeps unbanning him for more raw fish)

• It's a running joke now that he is the Fish Dealer, Aziawa doesn't like the joke

• Skin got changed to a fish in a trenchcoat

Yaoyorozu Momo:

• She doesn't really find the game that fun, but plays it because her friends all have fun and it makes her happy

• Found a texture pack that made everything look more regal and nice/smooth (also has shaders on)

• Her favorite thing to do in the game is fix/light up villages she finds, make them less weirdly loaded in

• Midoriya has a seperate counter for how many villages she's fixed

• She has a problem of making cakes and pumpkin pies

• Stumbled across Sero's secret mountain hide out, didn't tell anyone

• Helps Iida sometimes keep the place clean

• Gives Aziawa pumpkin pies, so he can keep health (he has a supply of food from all of the class)

• Visits Tsyu the most because her house looks beautiful with her texture pack and shaders! Makes her crave tea

Shinso Hitoshi:

• joined the servers a little before Hawks did, and only joined because both Denki and Midoriya wouldn't stop with big puppy eyes

• Doesn't talk in the voice chat, but does listen in and often responds via typing in the Minecraft chat

• refuses to put on any skin Denki makes for him, no matter how much he feels appreciated or genuinely enjoys the design

• Skin is a nyan-cat (an old one he made when he was little)

• Doesn't do much but will help out if asked

• Has a big ass army of cats, he leaves them sitting everywhere to piss off Aziawa. Only because he knows Aziawa wants all the cats and to come across a tamed cat is aggravating

• doesn't live in the main house even though he has a room

• Built a house in the jungle that's behind the main house, he wanted to live with the ocelots

• Present Mic made the house for him because he couldn't get it to look how he wanted it to

• He thanks Yamada by not bullying him

• Is the worst gremlin of them all, often steals random items and holds onto them until noticed and they start to get angry then he silently returns the item back in its proper place

• Does this to Bakugo the most

• Is a little worried Midoriya will get him back, as somehow Midoriya manages to notice it's him and adds it to his "griefer" score

• is in a fake marriage in the game with half the class, had a wedding and everything with each spouse (all the other spouses were on the alter too)

• Often stops by each spouse for a kiss and food then leaves (that's also when he takes things)

• Married Midoriya first, then Todoroki followed by Denki who wanted in on it. He also married Momo because she is one of the more calm ones.

• Aziawa hasn't attended a single wedding, and nearly bashed his head in when Shinsou sent him wedding invitations each time (not in game just handed them to him in the hallways)

• Present Mic built the altar and officiated the whole thing, everyone learned that technically Yamada can legally marry people. Because of that information Shinsou says that he's genuinely married to half of class 1a

This made me happy! I hope you all enjoyed my three little bits of headcanon!!

[linklethehistorian]

New Working Link to DarkestJay’s English Translation of Fifteen & Commentary on the Discrepancies Therein (PLEASE READ)

Information below the cut for length, as well as spoiler information relating to my article.

If recently you’ve tried to access DarkestJay8686’s English Translation of Fifteen on WattPad through the link I provided at the beginning of my article, you’ve probably already noticed that that link is, unfortunately, very dead; the reason that this has happened is because, sadly, as of late, they — and other translators in the fandom who also post their works to WattPad — have been facing a struggle with their works constantly being flagged on the site and forcibly removed for copyright reasons multiple times over, forcing them to eventually give up and move their content somewhere else where it would be safe from harm.

Upon learning of their arrival on a new, safer platform, I had considered simply exchanging the old link out for the new one at the beginning of my article, where it was before, and altering my notes to reflect this, and I’m sure that I still will as soon as I can find the time to rework everything properly, but in the meanwhile, there’s something I’ve also badly needed to discuss with you all about these translations for some time, and what better time and way, I thought, than to do it in this post where I provide you with the new link?

I’m sure that many of you reading both my article and their translation have noticed that back in the Arcade scene, there was something I had mentioned happening in the novel that didn’t quite match up with DarkestJay’s presentation of those events — namely, Sheep being the first to leave the building, instead of Dazai and Chuuya; well, that difference is actually quite important as one of the main reasons why, while their work may overall be excellent and I do encourage everyone to read it regardless, I still personally would never recommend making it the only thing you read if you want to truly understand Fifteen and all of its events 100% correctly.

Yes, I am saying exactly what you think I’m saying: my information within my article was NOT incorrect — Jay’s translation of the scene, however, was, and if you don’t believe me, you can go read Lea’s translation of the scene and see it for yourself.

Now, before I say anything else, I want to make this 100% clear: I in no way am intending to imply that Jay’s work on the whole is anything but exceptional, nor am I even remotely saying that you shouldn’t read at all; in fact, I highly recommend you do read it in its entirety, because despite a few small mis-steps, as someone who owns two copies of the original Japanese light novel, has read many an English translation, and knows this story extensively well, I will be the first to very enthusiastically say that this translation is actually quite good and very, very helpful overall — an absolutely essential resource for anyone who does not speak the original language but still wants to read, experience and understand Fifteen as if they could. I am extremely, extremely grateful and appreciative of their hard work in making that possible for all English speakers, and I don’t ever want to come across as anything else or make it seem like any of that is any less than true.

That being said, though, it nevertheless absolutely cannot and should not be your only resource on the matter, because if it is, you will unavoidably end up being misled on some matters — unintentionally, of course, but still misled all the same.

Because this was translated well after the anime came out — unlike Lea’s partial but nonetheless equally wonderful translation, which came into existence very shortly after the novel was first handed out in theaters alongside DEAD APPLE, a whole year before the animated adaption was even a concept — DarkestJay’s translation does have some points where it is extremely clear that said television show’s rather poorly handled and highly inaccurate interpretation very heavily affected the OP’s perception of things, and thus caused the OP, Jay, to incorrectly interpret and translate certain parts of some scenes and/or dialogue that otherwise might not have been super clear to someone not fully, extensively familiar with the language.

Specifically, as I mentioned above, there is the one particular instance among the many that I can easily point out: due to the pre-knowledge of the anime’s awful take on the story, there is a point in this translation where Jay simply assumes it to be true that Dazai and Chuuya were the ones to leave the Arcade, with Sheep calling out to their retreating backs, and thus incorrectly translates it as such, when in fact it unfolds in exactly the opposite manner in the original version of the tale; likewise, there are also many bits of dialogue throughout the entirety of the book where the perceived “understanding” of the characters’ nature’s as the show wrongly presented them caused Jay to take the liberty of wording things in certain different ways, or make certain alterations to the type of punctuation used that Jay believed suited them, rather than leaving them in their unaltered states, as they were intended to be read.

This is the major issue with going into a project like this with this kind of confirmation bias; no matter how good your intentions may be, because you expect that you already understand something or know what’s going to happen, you’re much more likely to think it’s safe to cut corners, and rather than carefully researching the context, tone, and other specifics and particulars of every line before you write it out and post it — the way you would if you started with a completely blank slate and no idea of what would happen in it — you will more often than not just assume that it plays out in the way you expect it to if it seems close enough, and quickly go with that presumption as if it is fact without bothering to make 100% sure of it.

Again, no offense to OP, because translation work is very hard, and as I said, overall, it is a wonderful translation and I do think it’s well worth the read, but problems like this are why I personally recommend anyone reading this to also check out Lea’s translated summary with excerpts and translation of the bonus chapter in conjunction with Jay’s, as Lea’s came out long before a Fifteen anime was even a concept and, as such, was completely unbiased — therefore being an excellent source to check facts against where possible.

Of course, there are definitely also some points where both translations are different but neither is actually wrong — as while Lea’s is less literal about every phrasing so it’s not super awkward sounding in English and flows better to read, Jay’s is almost always more literal instead, and thus differences in personal preference for wording can easily diverge while still getting the point across fine in both — but these instances are much different from the ones where it is clear Jay actually slipped up, so I’m sure you won’t have trouble defining them. As much as I would like to be of help in this regard, I must sadly inform you that I will not personally be pointing out all of these slip-ups here at this time, nor do I have any plan to do so at any time in the foreseeable future. for I have neither the time nor the desire to go about critiquing a fellow fan’s work when I’m already dedicating enough time and energy just to writing about the mountain of mistakes that the anime made without also adding more difficult and unnecessary extra work onto that.

If you have any questions about a particular line in the translation and if it indeed is correct, you can absolutely feel free to send me an ask about it and I will try to help you with it to the best of my ability, but beyond that, I will not be engaging with the matter much farther than I already have.

(However, on one last note, I will, for now, add that — as I expect this might become a point of much contention and is something that will come up in my article later on, anyway — the “it must be because I love you” scene that you will find in Jay’s translation is actually not exactly one such instance where a mistake was made, at least in regards to the “‘I love you” bit; if you’re curious about the exact details of how that all works, you can read about it in my post here. So yes, that does indeed exist, and you are free to take it in whatever way you want. I’m not personally an SKK shipper myself, but if that’s your thing, then good for you — go for it and enjoy it; it can be canon support for your ship if you want it to be.)

Thank you for reading, and, as promised, here is the link to Jay’s new account, as well as their Twitter, and where you can currently access their translation of Fifteen. Enjoy.

[See the recent related addendum]

[View the masterlist of my article]

[stina-is-a-punk-rocker]

disney’s ‘the hunchback of notre dame’, early 2000s kid nostalgia, and other midnight musings

“What the fuck, Stina? I thought this was a blog for book reviews!” you say.

“Books, amongst other things. Hence the -ish suffix,” I say. “And all my mediocre ‘reviews’ are hit-or-miss in terms of engagement, so I’m pretty much free to post whatever the fuck I want.”

I toss my head. My hair whacks me in the face.

The first time I watched Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame was been circa 2006, in the ‘movie room’ of my preschool, huddled around a CRT TV with the rest of my five-year-old classmates. Not much about the film particularly stood out to me at the age.

Fast-forward fifteen years later; I’m cooped up in quarantine, hundreds of thousands of miles away from that first viewing. I’m living my best life, rejoicing in my introverted tendencies and having a laugh at the expense of all the suffering extroverts. I haven’t moved from my bed all day, except for the bare necessities, and I’m bingeing YouTube videos. All is well.

I discovered Lindsay Ellis’s channel quite recently- embarrassingly enough, through her videos on Omegaverse and the whole Addison Cain fiasco. I stumbled down the rabbit-hole of her channel, and here I am, a few dozen videos later, and I find her one on this film.

Which, of course, led me to want to re-watch the film, with the eyes and mind (supposedly) of an adult. And it went far beyond and above my expectations.

The film is dark, much darker than the average Disney film of today- not just thematically, but the graphics too. Except for the first parts with the Festival of Fools and the last scene, the rest seems to have a dark filter put over it all. Obviously, given its themes (I’m pulling these out of my arse; I’m a STEM major and I have zero to no knowledge about film) of freedom and equality, acceptance of those different from us, corruption and lust- all that good shit, in other words- you can’t exactly have sunshine and rainbows. But it’s such a stark contrast from what I’ve been accustomed to from Disney; Frozen has Hans about to decapitate Elsa, but the background remains bright and light; Simba sobbing next to Mufasa’s body in The Lion King is heart-wrenching, but a few scenes later, we have an anthropomorphic meerkat-boar duo singing about eating bugs and farting and all that classy stuff, so it’s not as traumatizing.

The themes are a lot more on-the-nose than a lot of other kids’ movies (forgive me if I err, I am aged and forgetful)- cue la Esmeralda saying, “What do they have against people who are different, anyway?”- you get what’s essentially the same ‘accept others regardless of their differences’, ‘prejudice is bad’ morals from, say, Zootopia, but having given the main characters fursuits makes it less obvious than in this movie.

(Or maybe I’m just a dumbass. I have no elaborate notes for this; I’m high on sugar and deprived of sleep so I might be spewing bullshit.)

Admittedly, the resolution is a bit… unrealistic. The citizens of Paris = sheep, essentially; they go from throwing fruit in Quasimodo’s face because the guards started it, to helping defeat them. Maybe there’s something about mob mentality in there, but I find it hard to believe that people who showed up to watch Esmeralda burn to death were suddenly totally cool with not getting what they didn’t pay for. But then again, this is a Disney movie, and you can’t make kids too cynical too early on. Let them have their innocence and ‘people will be with the heroes in times of peril because humanity is inherently good!’ before they realize that humanity kinda fuckin’ sucks.

The characters are some of the most human from those I’ve seen in Disney (other honorable mentions: the main characters of The Emperor’s New Groove, Moana, Tangled, Anna from Frozen). Quasimodo’s the main character (lol DUH, will I ever say anything not obvious?), and he’s so lovable, but not without flaws- he’s biased against gypsies in the beginning because Frollo’s the literal scum of the earth. To borrow from the K-pop fans’ dictionary: UwU he’s so pure!

Esmeralda sparks a bit of controversy because she’s another POC leading lady from a Disney film of the 90’s (a list including Jasmine, and, sigh- Pocahontas) who’s markedly more sexualized than the white Disney princesses. It’s not something I particularly noticed nor cared about until I saw it being brought up- I mean, the woman shows a bit of cleavage and then dances for a couple of seconds- but. I’m just putting that out there.

She’s an empowering heroine without having to belt in in your face (not me making a dig at Naomi Scott’s Jasmine from the Aladdin live action film), and I also love how her role in taking down the Big Bad doesn’t have to do with her ‘power of seduction’ (the scene in the animated Aladdin film where Jasmine kissed Jafar truly traumatized me as a kid).

Phoebus is… well, he exists. Kind of a Regulus Black archetype, but not exactly. The guy on the bad side who turns good and all is forgiven. Well, at least it’s not the ‘her love made him a better man’ trope. And he is a good guy. Even if he did spend a considerable amount of his adult years on the side of the bad guys.

Systemic oppression? Nah, it’s one or two corrupt baddies. But again, it’s a Disney film, we need everything to work out for the good guys in the end.

Let’s get the gargoyles out of the way. To reference Lindsay Ellis’s video (she’s a lot smarter than I am and breaks this down better than I ever could): yes, the comedy’s oft ill-timed and inappropriate… for an adult audience. And the primary demographic of Disney films, especially princess ones (obviously Esmeralda isn’t a princess, nor does she marry into royalty, nor is she included in the group of princesses in the dumpster fire that is Ralph Breaks the Internet, but I had a book imaginatively titled ‘Disney Princess Stories’ as a kid that included Esmeralda’s story alongside Belle’s and Ariel’s, so I’m calling her a princess), are kids. And kids love fart jokes.

Additionally, I have a theory-that-is-not-really-a-theory-but-a-pretty-obvious-thing-that-happens that the gargoyles are figments of Quasimodo’s imagination, and the, at times crass and ridiculous things they say are just the voices in Quasimodo’s head (THIS IS OBVIOUS, STINA, YOU HAVEN’T STUMBLED ACROSS A STARTLING NEW REVELATION); maybe what he imagines normal townspeople to act like.

And then we have Judge Judy Chrissy Teigen Frollo. This dude is the embodiment of pure evil. He’s bigoted and rapey and abusive and one of Disney’s most successful villains- even better than Mother Gothel, who previously held the crown. It’s rare that a villain genuinely terrifies me, especially a cartoon one. Frollo, unlike your typical fairytale antagonist who wants power/fame/fortune/to overthrow Olympus, is far more sinister; driven from deep-rooted hatred instead of plain greed. He’s so much closer to people in positions of power and authority even in the modern world, and that element of reality makes him so much better as an antagonist instead of a literal sheep who hates carnivores (seriously, Disney, enough with the twist villains- they’re not working out).

Also, Hellfire slaps. In fact, the entire soundtrack does.

Speaking about Hellfire, I love the contrast between that and Heaven’s Light; how Esmeralda is viewed by Frollo (an object to possess, “Destroy Esmeralda, and let her taste the fires of hell; or else, let her be mine and mine alone”) as opposed to Quasimodo (someone with free will, “I dare to dream that she might even care for me”).

Another argument brought up, and admittedly one I had as a child was, ‘but if the whole point of the movie is acceptance and love as opposed to lust, why didn’t Quasimodo get the girl?’ Which, years later, I realize is an extremely misogynistic way to look at it. As Princess Jasmine said four years before The Hunchback was released, she is not a prize to be won. Quasimodo is Frollo’s antithesis; he lets Esmeralda choose, and she chose Phoebus. And Quasimodo accepted that, because he is good and kind and sweet and loving. Severus Snape, take note.

On a sidenote, I’m always kind of caught out of left field when the plot in films moves really fast- I’m really not a movie-watching type; I prefer to read, and books usually indicate how much time passes from one main plot point to another, and there are little slice-of-life, filler parts that tie in to character development and moving the plot forward, but at a snail’s pace. So, whenever I’m watching a movie and it’s one important event after another, I usually haven’t had enough of a refractory period to process it.

Let’s pretend that I segued smoothly into the next part of this (already tedious and long drawn out) review.

The Hunchback is the darkest film I’ve ever seen come out from Disney. Re-watching it as an adult made me pause every so often and wonder why the hell I wasn’t traumatized by it as a kid. I mean, the whole movie kicks off with Frollo about to throw an infant down a well. And then there’s that horrifying shot of the stone renditions of the Israelite kings on the church walls. Frollo falls to his death into fire. I mean, good riddance, but still. I guess it’s because the kids’ shows of today are awfully censored and polished so kids don’t have nightmares forevermore.

Update: tried to watch The Hunchback of Notre Dame 2. Exited just as fast as I clicked on it. Disney sequels really ain’t shit (yes, I’m looking at you, Frozen 2).

[ordinaryschmuck]

Top 20 BEST Animated Series of the 2010s-7th Place

>Insert long exaggerated sigh here<

It’s here that I really, really, REALLY hope nobody that I know personally is reading these.

(Also, sorry that this was a day late)

#7-My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (2010-2019)

The Plot: In the land of Equestria, a unicorn named Twilight Sparkle moves to a happy little town called Ponyville to learn about the magic of friendship. There, she meets her best friends Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie. Together they’ll do what most friends do. Which is to sing songs, defeat creatures who seek to destroy everything, and learn that friendship truly is magic.

Now, I know what you might be thinking. Hell, I knew what you were thinking before I even explained the plot: “Isn’t this just a show for little girls that twenty-year-old losers fell in love with? How is this in the top 10?!” Now I’ll be the first to admit, there was a time when I didn’t get it either. When I heard that a fanbase grew around a My Little Pony reboot, I thought people were losing their minds. But, on one fateful day in 2014, my curiosity got the better of me, and I decided to watch ONE episode that seemed interesting to me. Unfortunately, it was the first episode in season two, and I had no idea what was going on within the first few minutes. So then I decided to watch the entirety of season one and then ONLY watch that episode in season two. And the episode after that because apparently, it was a two-parter. And then I watched the next episode after THAT because it also seemed interesting to me, plus the episode after that, for no reason other than I just wanted to. And then I watched all the rest of the series until the season four finale. And the two spin-off movies called Equestria Girls and Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks. Soon, I found myself reading fan-fiction, writing fan-fiction, looking at fanart, and even reading these spin-off comics that aren’t even canon, but I just couldn’t leave this magical world because it TOOK ALMOST A WHOLE YEAR FOR THE FIFTH SEASON TO PREMIER! ALL BECAUSE I JUST WANTED TO WATCH AN EPISODE WHERE A CHAOS CREATURE MENTALLY BROKE OUR MANE CHARACTERS! AND YES! I DID WRITE MANE INSTEAD OF MAIN BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT THIS SHOW DOES TO YOU! IT MAKES YOU SO ACCUSTOMED TO THE WRITING AND LINGO, THAT’S WITHIN BOTH THE SHOW AND IT’S INSANE FANDOM, THAT YOU’LL END UP CATCHING YOURSELF FROM SAYING MANEHATTAN INSTEAD OF MANHATTAN!

>SCREAMS WITH INSANITY<

…

So as you can tell, this show is surprisingly good once you get infested.

The biggest hook it has is the animation. While it doesn’t beat The Amazing World of Gumball’s quality, it is pretty impressive when considering that it’s all done in flash animation. Most flash animated cartoons tend to look cheap and slow, and Friendship is Magic is thankfully one of the rare exceptions. The movements are insanely smooth, and the facial expressions are pretty comical to look at. Even in the background of scenes, viewers will notice a lot of little jokes the animators put in. Seriously, the biggest reason why I kept watching the series for so long was that it was nice to look at (which is the case for most people, from what I’ve heard). And the best part? The animation somehow gets better with each passing season. And only 0.1% of the time does it show it’s cheapness, which isn’t that big of a deal considering there are two hundred and thirty-two episodes with a twenty-two-minute runtime. That’s nearly five thousand, one hundred, and four hours of animation that’s good for 99.9% of the time. While you could argue that it’s not the best, it is still pretty good animation quality.

Another thing that drew me in was the comedy. Keep in mind, this doesn’t mean Friendship is Magic is the funniest show on the list (that also goes to Gumball). Humor is subjective, and just because I found myself laughing with this series, that doesn’t mean everyone will be on the same page. That being said, I was surprised by the fact that I found the show funny in the first place. It’s hard to pinpoint what type of humor the show relies on (for me, at least). For some cases, Friendship is Magic has dialogue-based jokes that use smart or random lines to get a laugh out of audiences. Other times it's visual humor that requires slapstick or comical facial expressions that will make people laugh. But while its comedy falls between two different spectrums, that doesn’t change the fact that I find myself losing it every once in a while. Even during some of the worst episodes of Friendship is Magic, there’s at least one line or gag that got me to chuckle at least once.

However, both the animation and the comedy cannot top the main selling point of this series: The characters. Friendship is Magic might just have one of the biggest cast of characters out of any show on this list. Most of them manage to be funny, relatable, and are downright likable to watch. What’s even more astonishing is how well this show handles character growth. To be fair, there can be certain characters whose development is slow, but for the most part, everybody grows significantly with each new lesson they’ve learned. There are even moments when the characters say something along the lines of “I’m no longer that pony I used to be anymore because I finally learned how to change.” However, this doesn’t mean that every pony in the show is worth the time. There are a few unlikeable characters, but they’re either meant to be unlikable, forgotten after an episode’s end, or are redeemed after a triumphant return.

This is good because it’s the characters that make the stories in the show work. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is split into two different storytelling genres: Slice of life comedy and adventure fantasy. And unlike Steven Universe, it’s Friendship is Magic that mixes both these genres together perfectly. I’m not joking when I say that an episode where Twilight rekindles an old friendship can be just as intriguing as an episode where Twilight fights this soul-sucking centaur made to look like the devil. Hell, some fans even argue that the slice of life episodes are even better than the adventurous episodes. Because while the adventure episodes are cool and action-packed, it’s the slice of life episodes where the characters are allowed to grow the most and are actually given time to be themselves. As for the grand adventures, while their fun to see, the cast is forced to stick to their central personality traits to move the plot forward.

Unfortunately, as fun as this show can be, I can’t wholeheartedly recommend it. Not because there are elements that I think are bad, but because there are elements that might turn people away from watching. And the most significant repulse this show has is also the most important hook.

Yes, the characters in this show are great, but there’s also a lot of them. Some might even say too many. By season nine alone, there are a total of twenty-seven different characters that have the possibility of taking/sharing the spotlight in an episode. And that’s not even counting important figures, recurring antagonists, supporting characters, and even recognizable background ponies (yes, that’s a thing). Because if you want to add those to the mix, you’ve got yourself a total of one hundred and twenty-seven characters (give or take). That is one hundred and twenty-seven different names, faces, and personalities to try to keep track of. Luckily the personalities are easy enough to remember, and it’s mostly the most (in)famous figures that make a return. Even for some of the obscure characters, the show is kind enough to give a brief recap so the audience can get caught up. However, this is reasonably a lot to take in for a casual viewer. Case in point, in season eight, the show decided to add six new characters to the main cast, and it only took me a season and a half to learn their names correctly. It’s even worse since these “new” characters can sometimes feel like carbon copies of the Mane Six (Yes, that’s how the main six characters in the show are referred to as. Deal with it).

And the excessive amount of unnecessary characters are just one issue to deal with. The lessons that the show teaches are another. Before I say anything, I want to clarify that this show has fantastic lessons it teaches kids. In fact, there are even great lessons that are perfect for adults and only adults (know your audience, I guess). However, here’s the thing about morals: Not everyone will share the same view on what’s good and bad to teach children. Every person on this planet has their own life experiences, and with those experiences come different ideas of how the world works. One person can believe that a lesson is good, where others view it as awful and potentially dangerous. Things get especially bad when specific morals are misinterpreted or taken too literally. The best example is the episode “Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep.” I believe that there are two possible lessons within the episode. One is that to truly be forgiven, a person must seek forgiveness from themselves and others. The other conceivable moral is that the cure for self-destruction is to get over it and move on without any professional help whatsoever. Now, take a wild guess on which lesson gets talked about more. And in all honesty, I blame poor/rushed writing that causes specific morals to be muddled, as well as a person’s own life experience in whether or not you find an episode’s lesson to be intriguing or insulting.

Another thing that depends on one’s own personality is (kinda spoilers ahead) how this show handles reformations. I may have commented on how Steven Universe uses redemption poorly, but it’s even worse in Friendship is Magic. This show seems to have the idea that the transition from bad to good is as simple as flipping a light switch. Now, on the one hand, this is not something I should be mad about. The show’s title is Friendship is Magic. So, of course, the series would push that making friends will lead to peace and prosperity. Where making enemies will lead to war and violence. The problem is that from a storytelling standpoint, it isn’t that entertaining. Or, at the very least, not as much as it should be. The art of a good reformation is taking the time for the transition to be believable. Characters suddenly deciding to become good seemingly out of nowhere will do nothing but have audiences rip their hair out of frustration. It doesn’t help that most of the villain’s reasoning and backstories are pretty pathetic when they actually should be sympathetic. However, while the reformation itself can be frustrating, I personally think some characters are made more intriguing post redemption. Don’t get me wrong, these villains were great as they were, being the perfect mix of both funny and terrifying. But when the show actually allows characters to grow and deserve the hand-er-hoof of friendship, they begin to have more fascinating personalities to dissect. Now, not everyone is going to feel this way. And if you genuinely believe these villains were better as villains, I can absolutely see why. But for me, I’ve come to enjoy how far these ex-cons have come from their more evil days. 

But none of this compares to the final controversial element that this show has to offer, where there is a fifty/fifty chance that you’re either going to love it or hate it. I, of course, am talking about...the songs. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic has four different types of songs. Depending on the episode, these musical numbers have many purposes. They can move the story forward, only work within the episode’s context, try to one-up Disney, and reveal everything you need to know about a character. Now here’s the thing about the music: I don’t hate it. I’ll admit that the lyrics are pretty lackluster most of the time, but at least most of them sound pleasing to my ears. But I have heard how some people seem to hate these little numbers, and I’m willing to put money on that fans even skip them. Everybody has their own tastes in music, and there’s nothing I can do to convince them otherwise. Only respect their opinions and hope they do the same to mine.

In the end, your enjoyment of this series, once again, depends on who you are. Some of you might think this is a dumb kid's show that should only be viewed by children. Some of you will understand that this show has great characters, comedy, and animation, but you just don’t think it’s for you. And some of you might be like me. A person overwhelmed with curiosity over the weirdest phenomenon in the last eleven years and ended up being pleasantly surprised with how magical the show turned out to be.

(And just a heads up, you don’t have to watch the Equestria Girls spin off series or movies in order to enjoy Friendship is Magic. EG isn’t technically canon, and the only noteworthy thing that makes it worthwhile is Sunset Shimmer. And while I personally don’t hate it, I completely understand how others will. But you do need to see My Little Pony: The Movie (2017), though. It surprisingly plays a big part in season 8 and beyond.)

[lovelyloveylou]

Howdy everyone! Did you guess what series my most canon breaking s/i is from? It’s Bleach! Because of course it is. Here i am back again reposting this profile, hopefully to the right blog and hopefully with a read more XD I’d like to introduce you to my gal Etsuko so let’s do that under the cut~ Images made on the pastel girl app!

Princess Etsuko Abe/Etsuko Zaraki

Approximately 1,000 years old, though if anyone asks she ballparks herself around 530 since that’s about as long as she’s been conscious

Birthday is March 20th

5’2

120lbs

Squad 11, 4th Seat

Zanpakuto - Tetsu Hitsuji/Iron Sheep – Kido Type – Command is Sink Tetsu Hitsuji

Shipped with Kenpachi Zaraki

Relationship status Married! Though I’ll discus their relationship at all it’s points

Anniversary is January 26th

Kids? Yes! There’s 11 of em counting Yachiru so I’ll probably make a separate post about them XD Their names are Minako, Fumi, Rentaro, Ikue, Kana, Chika, Suguru, Ryuunosuke, Tomo, and Jubei. Minako, Chika, and Ryuunosuke are their biological children, the other 7 are adopted~

Story? Yes but not written! I do however have several filler arcs worth of content sitting around in my brain that I might occasionally write about. If they were part of the anime she, Setsuko, and Tsubame would be the main characters for the Spirit Callers arc, which would reveal the existence of more elemental spirits that exist all throughout Soul Society and the Human World and a group that seeks to control them and then the Lost Princess’s arc which would revel their parentage immediately after. They would also be minor characters in the short Magical Souls arc where my insert who ships with Mayuri ropes a couple of my other ocs into becoming magical girls via unethical soul science! It’s a fun time.

     A bit of background~ Etsuko and her sister are the daughters of the Soul King. Born some few decades after the birth of Yhwach to a different mother, the girls were kept away from the world and others out of fear that they too could share their souls. Like their half brother they could not hear, see, or speak when they were born and rested quietly in a sort of stasis for some 500 years before they began to slowly awaken and grow. They manifested a large amount of spiritual power from a young age, Etsuko being the more powerful of the two. It’s unclear if this extra power comes from her being older or because of the concept she embodies as an extension of her father. Either way she grew into enormous power and for a period in her childhood was rather unruly with it. She is the embodiment of Chaos, while her sister embodies Order, though you wouldn’t guess it meeting them now. She graduates from the academy and joins Squad 11 as their 4th seat two years before the start of the manga.

    Her Personality~ Etsuko is a kind, quiet, and very determined woman, sometimes naïve, and a hard worker. Because of her strength and the nature of her abilities her mother took special care to shape her into someone considerate and with good temperament. Through this training and conditioning she built up a steady work ethic that is an asset to squad 11 (and poor overworked Yumichika). Much of the empathy and emotional understanding came naturally once the rush of being what amounted to a super powered child wore off and Etsuko realized she could do real and lasting harm to others if she didn’t keep her abilities in check. She strives to be kind, polite, and patient in all things, extending the same grace her mother offered her in her difficult moments. In the same vein however she can be quite strict if you’re not actually trying.

     She quite often appears nervous or timid, especially in new or crowded social situations. This is because her social development was somewhat stunted given the limited number of people she had to socialize with on her level in the Soul Palace and she doesn’t always navigate conversations gracefully or understand all the references people make. Because of her seeming anxiety though people assume they can take advantage of her easily or push her around, they quickly learn though that she is not quick to bend to the will of others and is not a person to be trifled with. While she’s quite willing to go with the flow in most circumstances anyone looking to manipulate her is likely to meet the sharp edge of her sword. This easy temperament combined with her intolerance for bullshit lends her quite well to her position in the 11th. The Shinigami stationed under her feel comfortable enough to approach her with questions and concerns knowing she won’t judge them harshly and perform to their best ability knowing that they’ll be praised easily and recognized for their growth.  She inspires loyalty and despite her awkward socialization is an endearing and genuinely caring person which lends her friends rather easily.

And a few headcanons before we go

She eats A LOT, all the time. Her metabolism is exceptionally high on account of her larger than average amount of reiatsu. Depending on the day she could out eat Kenpachi in a single meal. As it stands she eats several more times a day than him, though in normal-ish portions.

Because she eats so much she’s gotten very good at cooking! It’s her favorite hobby actually and she treats anyone who happens to catch her in the kitchens to some of whatever she’s making. There are members of the squad that park themselves just outside the barracks kitchen throughout the day specifically so they can eat her cooking.

Her nickname around the squad is Princess. Early into her time there Yachiru asked why she eats so slowly and sits to straight and Etsuko told her it’s because that’s polite and “Princesses must always be polite.” No one took her off hand declaration of royalty seriously but the title stuck, at first a little mocking and then fond. There’s some hilarious faces when the squad finds out that nickname is also an actual title.

She’s very good at kido but prefers physical battle. Part of the reason for this is that, occasionally, spells will go awry because of her reiatsu. As an embodiment of chaos her spiritual pressure is prone to being, well, chaotic, and can cause odd manifestations of that power.

The other reason she prefers to just fight with swords is that she likes the physicality of it. She quite likes physical activities in general!

The photos above depict her in a possible version of her princess garb, the outfit she wears while working at a cafe in Karakura town during the Magical Souls arc, and her style during the epilogue 10 years from the end of the 1000 years blood war.

I could literally go on about her for forever but I’ll stop here! Keep an eye out for ship headcanons and also for Setsuko and Tsubame’s profiles. Also if you enjoy bleach pls be gentle!!! These girls and their stories are pure, canonbreaking self indulgence born from a convo I had with my friends where we lamented the fact that the poor soul king at the least deserves a loving wife and at least one decent child XD Also also if you have Bleach ships can our s/i’s please be friends? These girls need more friends XD. Thanks for reading this far btw! You’re a trooper.

[meta-squash]

Journal For Plague Lovers part 6

Me And Stephen Hawking

“I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We have created life in our own image.” – stephen hawking –

1/ Underground car park born at Stonehenge Rivers Wyle, Bourne, [blacked out] destroying Queen mother stuffed for exhibition Three strikes yr out – execution – pizza 2/ Dante III, spider robot, Mount Spurrr Increased plastic surgery for pubic hair Sanitation police, crime of proportion. [blacked out] 3/ Paisleyism and ecumenism and cenotaph bombers [blacked out] wearing policing Soviet labour medals sold for Coca Cola [blacked out] 4/ [blacked out] 82 million watch Gorilla Meets Whale [blacked out] [blacked out]

BRIDGE

Herman the bull and Tracy the sheep Transgenic milk containing human protein Their bacteria cheaper than lab baby food Attention, today it’s a cow, tomorrow it’s you

CHORUS

African Punch and Judy shows only rice price 100,000 watch Giant Haystacks Bombay fight Oh the joy, me and Stephen Hawking we laugh Missed the sex revolution when we failed the physical

hahahaha (joke)

[The image on the facing page is a marble sculpture titled St. Teresa in Ecstasy, by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, finished in 1652. It is in the Roman church of Santa Maria della Vittoria. It features Theresa in a state of ecstasy as an angel descends to plunge his hands into her heart.]

Reference explanations:

Most of these references are based off of news articles Richey read in 1994, either general summary-like references or nearly direct quotes from articles, mostly from The Indepedent.*

The Stephen Hawking quote is from a speech he gave at Boston's Macworld Expo quoted in the 4th August 1994 issue of the Daily News. A similar quote is in his 1996 lecture Life In The Universe.

Stonehenge is a prehistoric ring of standing stones. It’s managed by English Heritage and owned by the Crown. It is associated with death and burial, and bodies have been excavated in the area around the site. It is aligned to the sunset of the winter solstice and the opposing sunrise of the summer solstice. The “underground car park” line is a reference to proposal made in 1994 to close the A303 and turn the road into an underground tunnel that will pass directly under the site of Stonehenge itself. (Apparently said proposal was approved November 2020.)

I think “Wyle” is a misspelling of “Wylye”, which is a river in south west England. River Bourne is nearby; both go through Wiltshire county. Said county contains the Salisbury Plain, which also contains Stonehenge. The Rivers Wylye and Bourne are both part of the Hampshire Avon catchment. In August ‘94 the county was granted a multi-million pound package to protect the catchment from pollution and monitor buildings developments and water flow rates.

The “queen mother” line may refer to the Queen Mother’s 90th birthday parade in 1990. The Queen mother celebrated her 94th birthday in 1994, and a few informal photos of her were released in The Mirror in an article about it.

“Three strikes yr out – execution – pizza” is a reference to the “three strikes rule” proposed in California. A rule was proposed 1994 and passed in 1995 that allowed someone to be sentenced to life in prison if it was their third repeat offense, and if they had a previous conviction for a violent offense. A man named Jerry Dewayne Williams was arrested July 30 1994 for stealing a slice of pizza and due to this law was later sentenced to 25 years to life.

Mount Spurr is an Alaskan mountain. Its last volcanic eruption was 1992. Dante II was a spider-like robot from NASA that explored Mt Spurr’s volcanic crater in order to gather information and entered the crater in July 1994. It managed to gather information but on the way out of the crater, got stuck in the mud and fell back into the crater. Not sure if “Dante III” is a mis-type.

Dante’s Inferno is about the main eponymous character entering Hell and traversing its rings in order to reach purgatory and then paradise to find his lover Beatrice.

“Increased plastic surgery for pubic hair” is a reference to an article in the The Independent on 27 August 1994 which talked about men getting plastic surgery and liposuction. (The article is titled “Men who want a perfect body,” which certainly hits upon one of Richey’s preoccupations.) It mentions that there are “more and more images for men to look at, in much the same way female images have been pushed for years.” In a paragraph about penis enlargement surgery, it mentions that a complication from said surgery can be ingrown pubic hairs.

“Sanitation police, crime of proportion.” is likely a reference to an article by Zoe Heller called “How I fell foul of New York’s sanitation police.” The Sanitation Police in NY are responsible for dealing with things like theft of recyclables, littering, illegal dumping, improper disposal of solid waste, etc. They can issue summonses for citizens who mix recyclable and non-recyclable materials (which, from what I can gather, is what the Heller article is about).

Ian Paisley was a loyalist politician and Protestant religious leader in Northern Ireland. He promoted a form of Biblical literalism and anti-Catholicism, which he described as “Bible Protestantism” In the mid-late 1960s, he led and instigated loyalist opposition to the Catholic civil rights movement in Northern Ireland. Throughout the Troubles, Paisley was seen as a firebrand and the face of hardline unionism. He opposed all attempts to resolve the conflict through power-sharing between unionists and Irish nationalists/republicans, and all attempts to involve the Republic of Ireland in Northern affairs. A retrospective article about him was published in The Independent in September 1994.

Ecumenism is any effort aimed at the unity of Christians throughout the world. Most often, it specifically means the visible unity of Christian churches in some form.

“Cenotaph bombers” is a reference to the Remembrance Day Bombing that took place 8 November 1987 in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland. An IRA bomb was detonated near a war memorial during a Remembrance Sunday ceremony. 11 people were killed and 63 injured. The IRA’s target had been soldiers parading to the memorial, not civilians. In August 1994, a ceasefire was announced by the Provisional IRA. In reaction to the ceasefire, Ian Paisley claimed that Northern Ireland would plummet into civil war.

“Soviet labour medals sold for Coca Cola.” The Soviet Union had medals for labour to honor workers for many years of hard work in the national economy, sciences, culture, education, manufacturing, healthcare, government agencies and public organizations. It was established in 1974 and stopped being awarded in 1991 after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. There was an article in The Independent on 5 April 1994 about a new British embassy being built in Berlin. It mentioned that the Russian embassy was next door, and that Russian traders would sit across the street from the embassy and sell post-war bric-a-brac like Lenin flags and Hero Of Socialist Labour medals.

“82 million watch Gorilla Meets Whale” is a reference to Godzilla, because the original Japanese name “Gojira” is a portmanteau of the words “gorira” (gorilla) and “kojira” (whale). By 1994, over 82 million people had seen the first 20 Godzilla films. Richey got that figure from an article  in The Independent about the cultural history of the films and their critique of environmental and economic problems. The other thing I could find was a reference to the fact that Godzilla represented Japanese fear of nuclear testing etc: On March 1, 1954, the U.S. conducted a hydrogen bomb test called Bravo shot at Rongelap Atoll in the Marshall Islands. As a result of this nuclear test radioactive dust fell not only on many Marshall Islanders but famously on a Japanese tuna fishing boat called the 5th Lucky Dragon, irradiating all twenty-three fishermen. The effect of these nuclear tests on Japanese, a who had previously experienced the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the heels of the destruction by bombing of virtually all other major cities, was to strengthen anti-nuclear sentiments, giving rising to a powerful anti-nuclear movement that spread across Japan in the form of a citizens’ petition initiated by women opposing nuclear tests. The petition, the largest of its kind ever, was signed by 32 million Japanese. That August, the first Conference Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs was held in Hiroshima. The 5th Lucky Dragon became the model for the boat called “Eiko Maru” attacked by Godzilla.

Herman the bull was the first genetically modified bovine in the world. Scientists injected the embryo with human gene coding for lactoferrin. Eight calves were born from Herman in 1994. All calves inherited the lactoferrin production gene.

Tracy the sheep was a transgenically modified sheep in Scotland, made to produce alpha 1-antitrypsin, which is a substance that was regarded in the 1990s as a potential pharmaceutical for the treatments of emphysema and cystic fibrosis. Alpha 1-antitrypsin comprised 50% of the total protein in Tracy’s milk.

“Attention, today it’s a cow, tomorrow it’s you” is an almost direct copy of an anti-genetic modification poster from the Dutch society for prevention of cruelty of animals, which portrays a topless woman with udders in place of breasts over the caption: 'Today a cow, tomorrow you.”

Punch and Judy was a traditional puppet show. It was usually very violent, with the characters of Punch and Judy (or Punch and another character) fighting and hitting each other. It is handled by a single puppeteer, and audiences are encourage to participate a la panto. It comes from commedia dell’arte.

“Only rice price” may be a reference to a 1976 film called Network. I may be making connections where there aren’t any, though. “What’s that got to do with the price of [blank]?” is a well known phrase (usually it’s “the price of tea in China”). In Network, “the price of rice” is the phrase used. The main character is a new broadcaster whose channel is failing, and he threatens to commit suicide on air. This causes the channel viewing to go up, so the heads of the channel decide to exploit this and allow the character to say whatever he wants and generally spew angry tirades. Eventually he is killed. But the “rice price” line comes from a monologue in which the character berates those watching the show, and tells them that they never read books or newspapers and that television is not news, it’s entertainment and amusement parks. Television is described as being able to make or break people, and as “indifferent to suffering, insensitive to joy. All of life is reduced to the common rubble of banality.”

Giant Haystacks was a wrestler in the 70s. He was 6′11″ and weigh 638 pounds. There’s no info about him ever being in a fight in Bombay. The “Bombay fight” line could be a reference to the Bombay Riots that occurred in 92/93, but again there doesn’t seem to be any connection to Giant Haystacks.

Stephen Hawking is a theoretical physicist and cosmologist. He suffered from ALS or motor neuron disease, which left him paralyzed and necessitated the use of a speech-generating communication device. He worked with theories on relativity and black holes (which I do not understand and could not explain because I am not a scientist.) In 1988 he wrote A Brief History Of Time. He died in 2018.

The sexual revolution was a social movement started in the 60s and continued through 80s which challenged certain sexual and relationship norms/conventions. It argued for freedom to sex before marriage, right to abortions and the pill or other forms of contraception, normalization of pornography, homosexuality, other forms of sexuality, and public nudity.

*Many, many thanks to a reddit user who messaged me with all of this new information!  They did a ton of research and found all these references in old newspaper archives and 80s/90s BBC documentaries, which I never would have thought to check.

[king-paimon]

HNK Opinion: Defending the Earth gems

This has been a post that I’d been meaning to post for a good, long while and because the new chapter is supposedly focusing on the earth gems, I thought now would be a good time to post it, especially since the chapter will be popping up soon. This post was constructed BEFORE the Chapter 83 leak, so there won’t be any information from that chapter here.

Warning: This post contains opinions and critiques that may be very different from most in the HnK fandom, especially regarding the earth gems and their currently destroyed relationship with Phos. I know some will strongly disagree with me and I hope I won’t upset you too much with what I have to say. I promise, I’m not looking for a fight; I just want to give my honest thoughts about these characters as well as how I feel about the fandom’s treatment towards them thus far. I was honestly debating on whether to post this for a long time because I was scared of any backlash...But you know what? I’m going for it.This will be another really long post. If you want to comment or discuss anything in this post, feel free to reblog, comment, or even send an ask. I’d love to have a conversation about this. Again, hopefully I won’t make too many people upset. And sorry for my messy formatting again; I’m not very confident in my writing skills. Anyways, here we GO!

I must first say that these thoughts have been festering in my mind for a while, especially after noticing many posts about the growing hatred towards the earth gems, especially in the most recent chapters. Some people being angry at them for not listening to Phos, fighting him, shattering him, and in the latest chapters, chasing Phos down like an animal. So… yeah, I can see why they’re getting a lot of hate. But, in my opinion, this isn’t fair to them.

I want to make it clear that I don’t think that the earth gems are completely in the right for all of their actions, but I also don’t think they’re in the wrong. Simply based from what happened in the story from the earth gems’ perspective, especially their interactions with Phos ever since he first came back from the moon, most of their actions and shifted attitude towards Phos is justifiable. (With emphasis on most)

Burnt bridges: The destroyed relationship between Phos and the earth gems

Recall what happened the first two times that Phos came back from the moon but see if from the earth gems’ perspective:

The first time: Phos convinces (or to not sugarcoat: manipulates) a good handful of the gems to go with him to the moon, a place where many of their other comrades had been taken and had not come back. Most of the gems already had their own reasons for wanting to go to the moon, save for Padparadscha and Cairgorm, and Phos intentionally feed into their curiosity to get them to go with him. (Chapter 60, page 13; Chapter 65, page 04) Other than his one-sided confrontation with Adamant, I’m pretty sure he didn’t tell the full truth behind his actions to the other gems: he just gave his selected few bait that would influence them to come with him to the moon. And though he did do it for their benefit (or so he wants to believe), the main drive behind this act to get a reaction from Adamant for Aechmea. Some of the earth gems were already wary of Phos because of how he was acting but this main act sealed how most of the earth gems would see Phos from then on: a wolf in sheep’s clothing. (or: a Lunarian in gem clothing, though it’s literally the other way around… I hope you get what I mean)

(Chapter 60, page 13)

(Chapter 65, page 04)

The second time: Phos comes back with clear stated intentions of ‘breaking’ Adamant. Throughout the two chapters, Phos repeatedly tells the gems that Adamant was just ‘a broken machine’ who didn’t truly care about them and that dealing with him and for the other gems to change ‘was for their own good.’  

(Chapter 69, page 19)

(Page 70, page 09)

So, at least to me, it made sense that the earth gems would be reacted the way that they did. However, I’ll give credit to Phos for actually speaking some of the truth behind his actions, though Bort refused to listen.  

(Chapter 70, page 07)

But honestly, after what he did the first visit he came back, why would Bort believe Phos? This information was coming from Phos after all, and he’s now known by the others for his manipulating skills and is believed to be corrupted by the Lunarians and his own weak will (according to Bort), so why should they trust what he’s saying? Sure, Adamant advocated for Phos and pleaded with the earth gems to go to the moon, but besides seeing Padparadscha move again though was described as also being ‘nuts’ and possibly also ‘corrupted’, they still don’t have reason to believe going to the moon is a good idea. And as far as they’ve seen, Phos’s actions seemed to benefit the Lunarians more than them.

Maybe if Phos told them all of this instead of taking the others to the moon, maybe the gems would’ve been more willing to believe him?  But after all that had happened thus far, I think that ship had sailed, for this event just further cemented the distrust the earth gems had with Phos. At least Euclase seems to be one of the very few who’s still interested in salvaging the relationship, whether it’s because he does want the relationship back or use it to figure out what exactly was going on with Phos and the other moon gems.

The third time: I think it was at this point of the story that I started seeing parts of the fandom strongly disliking the earth gems, and while I totally understand where they’re coming from, I strongly don’t agree. Yes, this time Phos came back with intentions to just talk, to possible negotiate with Adamant and the other gems and yes, it would have been nice to have the earth gems listen to what Phos had to say. But really… after what happened the last two times he came back and after seeing how the earth gems were processing everything, why would anyone think that the earth gems welcome Phos back with open arms? Other than Euclase and maybe Cinnabar, the kinship the others once felt for Phos is gone.

The other part of these chapters that generated a lot of anger towards the earth gems was the shattering of Phos. Again, I understand the anger but this action, in my opinion, is also reasonable if you look at what happened from their perspective. We as the readers assume that Phos reaching out towards Adamant at the end of chapter 77 was a desperate, pleading gesture. (Chapter 77, page 18) But from the earth gems perspective, this was another act of aggression. Remember, the gems have already witnessed Phos act aggressively towards Adamant multiple times both before and after he went to the moon, and the gems knew that Phos had ill intentions for Adamant the last time came back, hence why they not only hid Adamant but fought Phos. With that in mind, the earth gems simply acted accordingly by continuing to protect Adamant from Phos. (Also, it’s kind of hard to tell how fast those alloy tentacles were moving. Based on how the page was laid out, it could’ve been a slow movement, but it could’ve been a fast one, too. If it was a fast motion, then it would also make sense why the gems quickly threw their weapons at Phos.) And I’m sure that this engrained perception of Phos has been further strengthened after the gems clearly witness Phos attacking Adamant after the 200-year skip in chapters 79 and 80. Again, from their perspective, they see Phos attacking and they acted accordingly.

So, after all of this, what does Phos’s track record look like in the eyes of the earth gems:

Phos broke the trust of his fellow gems

Phos manipulated most of the susceptible gems with half-truth/empty promises for better things, and he took most of them to the moon, the final resting place of past gems

Phos was willing to attack Adamant or the other gems, almost remorselessly

And though Phos may try to convince them, as well as himself, that he did these things for the greater good of all of them, these were still some very shady things that he did. So much so that if the manga was solely from the perspective of the earth gems, Phos would be painted as the villain of the story.

(Chapter 60, page 15)

Speaking of villains, I can’t help but feel like some of these facts parallel with another certain character…

(I don’t care what chapter/page I got this from. He’s always look like he’s up to something bad)

Ok... I admit. This is a bit of a stretch and I’m looking too much into this, but I can’t help but see some parallels between them, mainly with how they manipulate others for personal gain, though Aechmea is still clearly the worse and Phos is simply a poor victim of his influence who seems to get the worse out of it and currently, it doesn’t look like Phos will get out of his grasp anytime soon.

I sincerely hope someone can snap him out of it before it’s truly too late.  

My thoughts of the Fandom’s attitude towards the earth gems:

I am going to be a little heated in this section. I promise I’m not attacking anyone in particular: I’m just… really slight irritated by this certain idea that I’ve seen circulating for a while.

As mentioned before, I noticed some anger or rather frustration from the fandom towards the earth gems through chapters 70-82. So based off these past actions, was it really surprising that most the earth gems weren’t too willing to listen to Phos after he comes back a third time? I know several readers have stated that “The earth gems should have listened to what Phos had to say! They’re being unfair to Phos!” I think it was comments like this that sort of rubbed me the wrong way. 

Given the limited understanding that the earth gems have of the situation and Phos’s past actions, what sort of reaction were you guys hoping for, exactly? I’m honestly curious. After everything that they have experienced with Phos, would you expect them to just be like this?:

“Oh, hi Phos? Welcome back! I know the last time you were here, not only did you lie to us repeatedly but you also took some of our family to the moon to then come back again to ‘break’ Adamant, while telling us that you did it ‘for our own good’ without a proper explanation... but that’s water under the bridge! I’ll totally listen to what you have to say and not think that it was influenced by the Lunarians, who have taken most of our loved ones away to never be seen again!”

Ok... that was harsh of me to say or mock and I’m truly sorry to anyone that I might’ve offended but this is how I feel about this mentality.  I just don’t understand why some readers thought the earth gems would just listen to what Phos had to say after everything that happened or why they would be angry that they didn’t. Maybe I’m missing something... 

This is an honest question to anyone who reads this: What was the scenario you were hoping for upon Phos’ return? And if you were in the earth gems shoes, how would you’ve reacted? I personally can’t picture Chapter 79 and 80 go in any other direction given everything else that happened up till that point.

If things had played out differently, maybe the end result would’ve been less... harsh. Maybe if Phos was more honest with all of them when he first came back from the moon, maybe they would’ve believed more. But I know, considering the circumstances before then, specifically Adamant being elusive and not forthcoming himself, I see why Phos made his decisions, even though a lot of them were not morally good. If only they were freakn’ honest with each other, Phos and the others  But it’s too late now. Whether he intended to or not, he successfully burned bridges and when he tried to erect them back up, the earth gems tore them back down. You reap what you sow. And now Phos is in the worst mindset and I’m . Again, unlike many in the fandom, whether joking or not, I really don’t want this to lead to Phos truly going berserk and destroying the other gems. That would break my heart more than it already has and I can only imagine how Phos would feel afterwards.

Final words:

I realize that what I’ve said probably won’t sit well with some fans and they will likely disagree with me, but that’s fine. Like I said before, I didn’t intend on picking a fight with anyone and really hope didn’t offend anyone too much.  To the critics of the earth gems, even though I may disagree with you, I still respect your opinions. I just felt the need to defend the earth gems because I felt they were getting very little support for a while. Again, I’m not saying that the earth gems were completely in right nor Phos deserved what happened to him.  I am saying that I can at least understand why they acted the way that they did, just like Phos, and I just personally felt it’s unfair that they are detested for their actions while Phos doesn’t seem to get a lot of criticism for his actions. 

Maybe the new chapter will change the tune of some of the earth gems’ harsher critics, maybe it won’t. Maybe it’ll even have me change my stance on them a bit. We’ll have to wait and see I guess.

I’m nervous and excited to see what’ll happen next. But regardless of what happens, I do still hope in the end that the gems, including Phos, will come back together somehow and have a true happy ending. (Not in the morbid way, please? No turning everyone into dust or incorporating them into Phos’s broken body. Please no. Haruko Ichikawa I beg you.)

Until then…someone give that gem a hug! Please?

[goldtips]

like... idk if i like babylon or not honestly. i was really into it the first two eps when it was straight up mystery / investigation but....... magase’s entire characterization confuses me. she’s literally satan incarnate and we learn nothing about her except apparently shes a fucking sex devil ever since she popped out of the womb or some shit??? like. i literally cannot sense any type of complexity or motivation from her, i’m more confused than intrigued by all the cryptic dialogue / imagery that the shows trying to force 

also the whole suicide law debate was really dumb - you’d think that people wouldn’t be so easily swayed. like...im sorry just bc something was morally justified back in bce doesn’t mean you can just incorporate it into modern law/life and think that things will be 100% fine. the homosexuality argument is also not convincing bc homosexuality was condoned by the romans, so arguably we are returning to what was originally the norm??? also, slavery and pederasty were also condoned by the romans... and those two things are.... wrong on so many levels and have no chance of being accepted through our modern standards, must less be legalized, so...your point is what??? :))

second, how are you going to compare marijuana to suicide, marijuana has barely any fatal / long-lasting ill effects whilst suicide is literally DEATH OK. and where are the fucking statistics my man, you just pulled everything out your asshole huh? there are academic journals literally one (1) google search away that report of the increased problematic usage of marijuana after the legalization of it??? and thats still not counting the product thats still being circulated on the black market, like bro you really winged this one huh

third, the ??? economic implications would be fucking huge ok. think about it, if suicide was legalized and the drug was sold over the fucking counter how would it be controlled? what safeguards will there be? we dont know right? how will the system be refined then, trial and error? and in that span of time of that refinement, how many casualties will occur, or loopholes will be exploited, how many children or uninformed/mentally incapable persons will fall victim to weak/inadequate ass laws and/or that fucking pill due to misinformation or a poorly made decision? u know how much international backlash the govt will have if that happens? like? excuse me? no economic implications?????? UM your entire fucking system would collapse because of a lack of international or even local trust/support

ALSO how the fuck did the canadian govt get the senate / house of commons approval for the fucking bill, and why is the cia involved? they literally have no jurisdiction to investigate issues that aren’t directly related to matters of terrorism / american people,,,why are they here investigating magase :)))

also when the gamer presidents son asked him whether or not suicide is bad he literally said: oh well. i’m still deciding on it - heck, man, you dont fucking say that to a child??/ that is messed up? keep your fkd up thoughts to yourself gdi :)) and the whole rant about how the bible doesn’t disapprove of suicide? do you also want to consider how adulterers were stoned to death in the bible? how its sinful to wear mixed fabrics, ripped clothing or....eat ...small animals..? LIKE ARE YOU GOING TO SAY JUST BECAUSE the bible said that its sinful that you’re not going to ..buy clothes with nylon and cotton? or not eat escargot? i’m sorry but if you’re going to read the bible without any consideration for historical norms then go big or go home...bich.

this show just. makes people seem like fucking sheep - and makes the govt and literally every political candidate apart from the mayor look fucking inept and it irritates the shit out of me holy hell. you’d think there would be more public outcry but people are so passive and utterly miserable in the babylon verse that i guess suicide is fine to them?? lmao

ALSO the main characters keep fucking dying and the whole idea of a show turning into a tragedy really turns me off, like we’re just supposed to accept that ai magase is some indomitable force that can never be overpowered or resisted like. ok. that is so un-fucking-satifying ??? also the fact that she chopped up the assistant for no reason apart from shock value. what was her motive, even. i guess shes just fucking evil ha.

like. this show started good, and its not that i dislike the horror/psychological aspect to it but unless some drastic plot twist occurs to tie up the loose ends and provide some consistency/realism to save this burning wreck of an animu, i dont think its going anywhere but the bottom of the proverbial ocean of mediocre seasonal animes