#they are so three dimensional Im in awe like how do you even show such humanity in a character

[irascible-iridescent]

I do enjoy the Jean as a character and his dynamic with Harry makes me crazy, on the other hand I hate Jean fans here

[yeo-rims]

can i just say i really appreciate your reviews on kdramas in general. youre one of the few blogs that actually appreciates good writing for what it is rather than what you would have liked it to be. so many reviews about little women on things people 'didnt understand' or 'didnt make sense' are solely because the show or the characters didnt move in the direction fans specifically wanted them to. when overall the writing was complex and well thought out, almost every character was three dimensional and flawed and real and went through their own personal growth, and the ending was conclusive and tied up loose ends to make up for all the plot twists. idk i just think that this drama is receiving more hate than the appreciation it deserves and i feel like youre one of the only people who really tries to appreciate its details and symbolism and meaning and i wanted to say thank you for that

oh god, this is so sweet! thank you so much. I am obsessed with writing about the shows that I'm enjoying, it's part of how i interact with them, and if there is something that I've realized is that I'd much rather focus on what I am seeing rather than what I wish it was, because nothing will ever be perfectly crafted for me, but that's why watching something that challenges our perspective is so good.

That's not to say i don't criticize when I think it deserves, some of my favorite shows had moments that made me completely upset, but I tend to think if that's from a personal viewing experience or if it is just the writing not being as complex as it is trying to be, or if the text isn't making much sense. Recently I've read a review on The Red Sleeve and they liked that the court ladies in that show were the villains because it gave Deok Im agency. I never thought it like that, but I could see where they were coming from. For me, as I've written before, made me dislike seeing their complexity reduced to petty revenge, even though, it is still a show that I really loved. When I was watching 2521 this year I had a different sort of disappointment, it came from me wanting a different ending, but I could see how the ending we got was not bad, just different.

The thing about Little Women is that the ending was actually what I wanted and coincidently what I think made sense and also gave us that sense of justice served that I personally love in stories about class/money. I wasn't watching the show to see them fail and die and spend their lives in jail/ i would've hated that message so much. I was just thinking about how, in my personal opinion, think Hwa Young was only incarcerated because the moment she involved In Joo in her revenge (even if it wasn't with ill intent) she was using the same logic behind the General's ideology. Not nearly as awful, but still by failing to see how complicated that money would make In Joo's life, she put someone that is like her (poor) in danger. That was the only mistake she's done, and that's why in the end her app is popular, she will still have money once she's out of jail, and In Joo forgave her, walked through acid for her, and in the process killing Sang Ah. Because the money they stole was, actually, never the Won's family money. The money the rich gets by exploiting the poor isn't something they actually earned, is it? So the show never went that route of "In Joo was actually in the wrong for stealing, she should pay for that" that some shows do by the end, like how many revenge shows we know that the male lead has to spend time in jail/running away? Granted, In Joo has been through hell, but her ending is literally a new beginning, it's what that house represents. She can start over in a house like that and rest her soul.

Yes, it was her dream to be with her sisters, but was it In Hye and In Kyung's dream to be with her? Why must we consider only 1/3 of the sisters when thinking about everyone's ending. Considering how much In Joo was still willing to sacrifice in order to let In Kyung have a nice future, do we really want her to still live for others? Yes, Do Il could've stayed, but why would he, really? At that moment, at least. They all need time to heal, and healing is different for everyone. In Joo isn't alone, she has Hwa Young, her sisters albeit distant, and even her parents in the group chat. And she can start over and make new friends and buy expensive ice cream with that money, even if she killed Sang Ah in the process, even if she lies and steal. I get not everyone is watching dramas for how long I am, but still, this is such a different take from what we normally see. Every sister got part of that money, even In Kyung who was against it! Because they deserve that shit, for everything they've been through, for everything they couldn't have been before. Even Do Il got the money and got out with no time in jail, why so? He never betrayed In Joo (moral of the story: don't be a class traitor lol).

But honestly, the show uses its extravagance to talk about the ideology behind capitalism in a way that isn't like, say, squid game. Little Women is genuinely fun, it is so creepy at times, the rich are insane like people were so obsessed over plot twists they forgot to see what was in front of them. A mutual of mine on twitter said something about how straightforward this story is (compared to other things jsk wrote) and honestly!! people overcomplicated the show and if they didn't give them the slightest explanation to things that were honestly very easy to get... then it had plot holes? At this point is not the show's fault anymore. Even if I also got confused at first with In Joo leaving jail so quickly I feel like she paid a fine or something, because in the next scene they are talking about the grandma's house being sold. What I mean is, sometimes a show really won't give any clues, but Little Women actually gave us enough for us to understand what was happening without it being spelled to us every single time. The team behind it trusted us that much, man.

Anyways!!! thank you! for these kind words, it really brightened my day <2

[raisinchallah]

sitting here thinking about bbc merlin at 2 am its like ok i am someone who is desperately fascinated by bad television but i feel like i literally want to study the people who made merlin like bugs under a microscope here because i have just never seen a show fail so completely at its basic premise its like idk truly incredible like the implication from the very first episode is like... at some point uther will die arthur will ascend to the throne and arthur will have learned to be a better person and respect merlin and other people merlin will reveal he has magic and that will be complicated and eventually magic will be restored to the land and like presumably the knights of the round table will feature and morgana might betray them and so on give or take a few other common parts of arthurian mythos like arthur could die at the end he could not gwen and lancelot could be a thing so on but like you know very clear little story here and like they spend the rest of the show just kicking and screaming trying to avoid that conclusion at like all costs and i just quite literally do not get it like again if they wanted an episodic show they could have done that they had plenty of weird fun little adventures that literally could have been the focus but no yet another big bad yet another attempt on uthers life my god their absolute fucking obsession with having a main character close to death is insane ur screaming at the tv just kill him (uther) already... again like the various famous knights could have been introduced undergoing a similar journey of like being young and unsure add some variety to various stories expand the cast and concepts like literally anything but its like plot baiting constantly like oh maybe some kind of big thing will change maybe arthur will become a better person maybe uther will die and its like hah psyche you wish morganas little realizing she has magic thing is the only solid overarching plot line but she instantly becomes the worst 2 dimensional villain the second shes evil its insane i just literally i literally i know this has all been said but akd;lkfj;ld truly i think the most baffling thing was just keeping arthur as the most insufferable awful person well into season 3 like zero character growth nobody grew morgana just became evil and merlin more of a doormat and gwens story mostly focused on being arthurs love interest while he still was being like such a selfish asshole so again ur screaming at ur tv u dont need him!! im so sorry ive said this all before but like again how hard would it be to like have uther killed mid season three arthur ascend to the throne and deal with the challenges that would come with that become maybe slightly a better person continue reassessing his feelings on magic after the reveal about uthers lies about his mother and so on remove the bans on magic merlin tells arthur somehow and like it could still end on arthurs death just like after that all happened like one of the most well known books of arthurian legends is literally called le morte d’arthur which also side note super funny to me they used up that episode title in season 1 where he didnt even die like ok..stop the lies the games

[aguecheek]

knocking politely on your door. do you have any twelfth night hot takes it's okay if not im just hyperfixating on it so intensely rn

bro listen to me i ALWAYS have twelfth night hot takes. BIG DISCLAIMER that all of this is completely subjective and absolutely not authoritatively true in any way shape or form. if you disagree with me at all, you’re well within your rights to do so, and I don’t feel the need to convince you otherwise. This is ONE POSSIBLE INTERPRETATION. What I’m talking abt in this post is one way I think I’d like to see the play interpreted and performed one day, because I think it adds a lot to the dynamics and gives the actors a ton of new things to explore in a way that could keep the play fresh, especially for actors or audiences who have potentially seen it done a bunch of times. Twelfth Night is one of Shakespeares most openly and explicitly lgbt plays, and I love thinking about new ways you could explore that. 

Anyway my hot take of the day is that Olivia is a lesbian experiencing comphet!! More below the cut.

I think that one of the reasons she’s spending so long mourning her father and brother is (yes, obviously she’s in mourning, I don’t mean to undermine that) at least partially because it’s a viable excuse to turn away suitors like Orsino. She spends all her time cooped up inside, turning away any men that come to the door, spending all her time instead with Maria, Malvolio, Feste, and Toby. Andrew only comes in later, and honestly I’m gonna talk about her relationship to a few of the aforementioned people and how it fits into this narrative in a hot sec. 

In my opinion, she latches onto Cesario because she perceives him as nonthreatening, sort of a “safe” man. Then, later in the show, when she mistakes Sebastian for Cesario and marries him, I feel as if it’s because she doesn’t actually love Cesario, and nor does she actually love Sebastian. So when she gets married, it feels very much like she’s marrying a Man, not a Person, you get me? 

Okay, now I wanna talk abt Toby, Maria, Andrew, Feste, and Malvolio. Toby and Andrew first! Toby is Olivia’s uncle, and he’s pretty invested in marrying her off to Andrew.  There are two different interpretations of that intention that could fit into this narrative. The first is the obvious route: homophobic toby. the second is, i think, a much more interesting one, which is the consideration that toby and Andrew may or may not have been having a thing. This is when you get into the possible potential story that Toby’s somehow figured out what his niece is dealing with and is trying to be helpful by taking her off the market but remaining with Andrew himself, giving all three of them that freedom to be in their proper relationships, while keeping up appearances. This also possibly explains one of the reasons he’s so willing to throw Malvolio under the bus for Olivia’s love. Because he knows she can’t ever accept his advances. Do i think he’s right for trying to set Olivia up with Andrew in this hypothetical subtextual narrative? No, not really, but do I get where he’s coming from? Yeah.

Feste is interesting, because he’s a clown. And clowns are ALWAYS interesting. Feste is, I think, slightly more interesting than most clowns. Because he actively influences the plot, and has relationships within the circle of characters. He and Olivia have this wonderful teasing relationship, where he sometimes seems almost to take on a mentor-like figure for her? I don’t know if anyone else picked up on that when reading it or watching it, but there are a couple moments that make me go Hm, that was kinda cute and uncle-y, yknow? Anyway, clowns always strike me as strange fourth-dimensional genderless beings, not bound by the confines of the fourth wall or the world of the story. Feste ESPECIALLY, though. Like touchstone’s just an asshole, Lear’s fool is mostly just fourth-wall breaking and goofy, and feste like……..knows things. This is my really roundabout way of saying i think feste is olivia’s personal GSA LMAO

Maria I don’t have much to say about, like I think there could  be something between her and olivia, but that would just depend on the actors playing them. There are a few moments textually, but not so much that it’s a super easy read of things.

Now, Malvolio is Interesting. Because take this narrative and then put in the cross-gartered stocking scene. I’ve been trying to put my emotions about the way this could play out down for a really long time, and I’ve having a hard time doing it. I just think it would be really awful for both of them. If you took my quiz you probably know that I have a lot of sympathy for malvolio and that i think what was done to him was unforgivable. But i have a lot of sympathy for olivia too, and I just think that this scene could be very funny or very heartbreaking or both and I’d love to work with two incredibly experienced actors to see what they could do with it.

Ok ok ok now let me talk about olivia, viola, and malvolio, because they all have something super interesting in common—the ‘vol’ root, meaning ‘wishing.’ It shows up in words like benevolent, and in other characters like Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet. Twelfth Night is about a lot of things, but with the fact that three characters have the vol root? It’s interesting to think about. Olivia spends most of the play wishing for Cesario, Viola spends most of the play wishing for Orsino, and Malvolio… well, his name is a literal direct converse to Benvolio’s name, Malvolio means ill-wishing and benvolio means good-wishing, but that’s tangential. Malvolio still spends the play wishing. What he’s wishing for is up for debate, is he wishing for Olivia? For status? For love in general? Up to the actor. But I think the important point I’m trying to make here is that Viola is the only one who actually gets what she’s wishing for. Olivia marries someone, yes, but she doesn’t marry cesario. Cesario who is...wait for it...Viola. (Not including potential interpretations that present Viola as trans or nonbinary, I LOVE those interpretations and absolutely don’t mean to undermine them in any way with the point I’m making here. For the purposes of this narrative, I feel the need to present Viola as a woman or female-aligned.) Olivia spends the play wishing for a woman and then marries the closest male equivalent that’s available. If that isn’t a narrative that could easily be presented as a lesbian with comphet, I’ll eat my sword.

Final thing I wanted to point out is Olivia’s direct parallel to Antonio. She spends the play pining for Viola, while Antonio spends the play pining for Sebastian. I think it’s made pretty clear in 5.1 that Sebastian returns Antonio’s feelings, at least partially, which often gives me pause to wonder about what tha means for Olivia and Sebastian’s marriage. All i’m saying is that if olivia’s a lesbian, and sebastian’s with antonio, they’ve essentially accidentally achieved what toby hypothetically set out to do with sir andrew.

Basically, I guess all I’m saying is that theres a ton of meat there for actors to sink their teeth into, and I’d really love to put on a version of this show that follows this narrative when im in college, because i think there’s so much to explore with lesbian olivia that mostly isn’t all that touched on. When people think of lgbt themes in twelfth night, often their minds will leap to sebastian and antonio, or orsino and viola, and I absolutely know why, and to be honest I do the same. But i think theres a fuckton to be explored with lesbian olivia, and that it’s worth spending some time contemplating, even if you ultimately decide that this interpretation of the character is not your cup of tea.

[moonlit-imagines]

Headcanons for being best friends with Donna and Kory

Donna Troy/Kory Anders x reader

warnings:

a/n: sam!!!! sending love!!! 💖💖 do i remember anything about s2? unlikely but lets see how far i go 😌

prompt: @myriadimagines: “HEY LACEY do you mind if i request a titans headcanon for being best friends with donna and kory? thank you so much and i hope you have an amazing day!!”

you were a former titan, still an active vigilante tho!!

after the titans disbanded, you disappeared for a while to do your own thing

as time went on, you missed your teammates, so you gave donna a call

she was out of the hero-biz as of then but that didn’t mean she didn’t wanna see you!!

wasn’t long before you moved into her apartment, you two missed being roommates tbh

“pajama night?”

*gasp* “PAJAMA NIGHT!”

you changed up your game a bit, donna was like your P.I., giving you intel on whatever she may come across

you were the brawn of the operation, getting shit done where you could

it was surreal seeing dick again, but nevertheless, you were glad to see another familiar face

“wow, the gang is back together again”

doing some more vigilante work with donna and him, felt like the good old times

until you three had to haul ass to go intervene in some crazy, inter-dimensional bullshit

oh oh oh! this is where you meet kory!

she wasn’t very nice when you met her but she definitely made up for it later on

especially after she regained her memories

there wasn’t much time here to become all buddy-buddy, but after all the chaos and all that

“so, miss anders, care to join me and donna in our own little crusade?”

“it’d be my pleasure”

you, donna, and kory went on your own little missions and grew to absolutely adore kory

i mean, what was not to love about her? absolute badass but same amout of sweetheart

“guess what day it is!” -you

“tuesday?” -kory

*gasp* “TACO TUESDAY!!!” -donna

kory loved learning about the two of you

and you guys loved hearing any bit of information about kory’s past

donna and kory were legendary compared to yourself, but they always made sure you all felt like equals

i mean, seriously. kory is an alien, donna was trained on themyscira. you just put on a suit and ran around the city

“donna! kori! donna! kori!”

“yes, y/n?”

“you guys are the best”

casually leaning on each other after pulling all-night missions

“you tired?”

“what makes you say that?” *yawning*

“right...”

i sincerely think one of you starts humming a song while patrolling and the other starts tapping along and someone else starts singing and its just a beautiful experience

70s-era music is kory’s favorite, but you try to introduce her to a wider variety

telling old stories about yourselves and people you’ve encountered over the years

“listen, donna was wonder woman’s sidekick and i’ve gotta say: that is the coolest gig ever. i only met diana once but i froze, i couldn’t believe she was talking to me. i didn’t even freeze when i met batman! fuckin’ BATMAN! it just goes to show how cool wonder woman is”

“yeah, y/n didn’t even freeze when they met me”

“really, donna? nooo, i didn’t freeze because i loved you right away!!!”

“good save”

kory told stories of tamaran that always left you wanting more

“yeah, my sister was...not the greatest if im being honest”

“dude, if i ever meet her, i’ll fight her for you”

“i appreciate that but i’m pretty sure she’d kill you in an instant”

*sipping your can of pop and muttering* “im still gonna do it”

gettin’ shimmer and gettin’ tacos and gettin’ confuzzled bc kory vanished, but she called and let you know she’d be fine and back soon

going back to the ol’ titans tower

brought some bad memories with it tbh

“havent been here in a while”

“same”

being SURROUNDED BY CHILDREN

“oh my god. they’re everywhere”

donna and you bunking together 😌

“i miss kory”

“me too, y/n...me too”

midnight snacks

kory coming back!

“oh, thank god, kory!!! i missed you so much”

you jumped into her arms

“yeah, y/n wouldn’t shut up about you”

“aw, well i missed you guys, too”

supporting each other through these stressful times

there wasn’t much time to chillax but you tried

you’d “reserve” the living room for you and your lovely gals

but rachel was allowed to sit with you, anyone else and you’d kick them out

“we love rachel so she can stay”

(im definitely getting this timeline wrong bc im forgetting a lot of things and trying to read the fandom page and i cant remember shit????)

comforting donna after garth is brought up again

she really needed some hugs

deathstroke made his comeback and it was not cool at all not at all it actually sucked and then kory was comforting you

“hey, none of this is your fault, y/n. i’m here for you, we all are”

(forgetting every single plot point ah hah hah)

okay so everything was fine for a minute, people were saved, teammates were saved, villains were defeated...almost too good to be true

and then donna made her sacrifice to save dawn and you couldn’t even process it, it happened so fast

“donna, no!”

you fell next to her body and cried, rachel on one side and kory on the other

she didn’t deserve this and you would’ve given anything to save her

but the damage was done and you had to accept it

you kept kory close, she wouldn’t have it any other way

you decided to stick with the titans for a while, you didn’t want to go back to your shared apartment just yet

donna and kory would always be your best friends 🥺

taglist: @cullens-stuff // @lotsoffandomrecs //

[strangeandforlornbooks]

best books with morally ambiguous narrators!

all y’all’s problematic faves and villains! :) also included are third person narrators but in books with morally ambiguous leads/themes 

Sci-fi

Scythe by Neal Shusterman: in a future free from pain, disease, and war, people can live forever. ‘scythes’ are given the power to decide who lives and who dies to preserve the balance. sad and kinda gives of hunger games vibes, if you like that.

Neuromancer by William Gibson: basically invented the cyberpunk genre. strange and removed protagonists. (a team of computer hackers have to face off against an evil AI). you kind of dislike everyone and suddenly you’re crying over them. one of those trippy sci-fi classics.

The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut: very beautiful and very very sad (same author as slaughterhouse five). the richest man in america has to face a martian invasion. more about free will and bad people doing good things than a plot that makes any kind of sense.

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick: set in an alternate universe where the germans and japanese won world war two. not really like the tv show at all- it’s not an action story, and there’s not really the hope to somehow fix the world that drives a lot of dystopia stories. instead its about how people survive and connect to one another in a hopeless society.

The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow: a supercomputer convinces the leaders of the world to keep the peace for hundreds of years by taking their children hostage and obliterating any city that disobeys. what happens to the hostage protagonists when war seems inevitable? lots of morally fraught decisions and characters slowly losing their identity. (plus a fun lesbian romance)

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson: a brilliant mathematician and a dedicated marine fight to keep the ultra secret in world war two. fifty years later,  a tech company discovers what remains of their story. one of the most memorable sequences in the book is a japanese soldier slowly becoming disillusioned with his nation and horrified by the war even as he continues to fight.

Blade Runner by Philip K. Dick: another one of those sci-fi classics that’s not at all like the movie. there is a bounty hunter for robots, though, as well as a weird religion that probably is referencing catholicism and a decaying society with a shortage of pets. kind of a trip.

Wilder Girls by Rory Power: girls trapped in a boarding school on an isolated island must face a creeping rot that affects the animals and plants on the island as well as their own bodies. the protagonists will do anything to survive and keep each other safe. very tense (and bonus lesbian romance whoo)

The Fifth Season by N K Jemisin: three women are gifted with the ability to control the earth’s energy in a world where those who can do so are forced into hiding or slavery. some veryyyy dark choices here but lots of strong female characters.

Historical Fiction

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters: two victorian lesbians fall in love as they plot to betray each other in horrific ways. lots of plot twists, plucky thieves, gothic settings, and a great romance.

Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiwicz: a powerful roman soldier in the time of Nero plots to kidnap a young woman after he falls in love with her, only to learn more about the mysterious christian religion she follows. very melodramatic but some terrific prose. 

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr: a blind girl in France and a brilliant German boy recruited by the military struggle through the chaos of the second world war. ends with a bang (iykyk.) very sad, reads like poetry.

Boxers by Gene Luen Yang: graphic novel reveals the story of a young boy fighting in the boxer rebellion in early twentieth century china. the sequel, saints, is also excellent. beautifully and sympathetically shows the protagonist’s descent into evil- the reader really understands each step along the way.

Fantasy

Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake: three triplets separated at birth, each with their own magical powers, have to fight to the death to gain the throne. lots of fun honestly

Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo: everyone in these books is highly problematic but you love them all anyway. a ragtag game of criminals plan a heist on a magical fortress. some terrific tragic back stories, repressed feelings, and revenge schemes.

The Dark Tower series by Stephen King: idk how to describe these frankly but if you can put up with King’s appalling writing of female characters they’re pretty interesting. fantasy epic about saving the world/universe, sort of. cowboys and prophecies and overlapping dimensions and drug addicts galore.

The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud: lots of fun! a twelve year old decides to summon a demon for his cute lil revenge scheme. sarcastic demon narrator. lighthearted until s*** gets real suddenly.

Elegy and Swansong by Vale Aida: fantasy epic with machiavellian lesbians and enemies to lovers to enemies to ??? to lovers. charming and exciting and lovely characters.

The False Prince by Jennifer Nielsen: an orphan boy must compete with a few others for the chance to impersonate a dead prince. really dark but very tense and exciting and good twists.

The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu: fantasy epic. heroes overthrow an evil empire and then struggle as the revolution dissolves into warring factions. interesting world building and three dimensional characters, even if they only have a small part.

Circe by Madeline Miller: the story behind the witch who turns men into pigs in the odyssey. madeline miller really said, i just used my classics degree to write a beautiful gay love story and now im going to write a powerful feminist retelling because i can. queen. an amazing and satisfying book that kills me a lil bit because of the two lines referencing the song of achilles.

Heartless by Marissa Meyer: the tragic backstory for the queen of hearts in alice in wonderland. a little predictable but very fun with a compelling protagonist

A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) by George RR Martin: ok I know we all hate GRRM and rightfully so but admittedly these books do have some great characters and great scenes. they deserve better than GRRM though. also he will probably never finish the books anyway....

A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket: not really fantasy but not really anything else either. plucky, intelligent, and kind children fight off evil plots for thirteen books until suddenly you realize the world is not nearly as black and white as you thought. 

Classics

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier: gothic romance!! a new wife is curious about the mysterious death of her predecessor in a creepy old house in the British countryside...good twists and lovely prose.

A Separate Peace by John Knowles: not really morally ambiguous but one awful decision suddenly has awful consequences and certain people are haunted by guilt forever.... really really really beautiful and really really really sad. boys in a boarding school grow up together under the shadow of world war two.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy: while imperial russia slowly decays a beautiful young woman begins a destructive affair. a long book. very russian. the ending is incredibly tense and well written.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding: I think you know the plot to this one. the prose is better than you remember and the last scene is always exciting.

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie: one by one, the guests on an island are slowly picked off. one of Christie’s darkest mysteries- no happy ending here! very tense and great twists.

Contemporary

The Secret History by Donna Tartt: inspired the whole dark academia aesthetic. college students get a little too into ancient greece and it does not end very well. lovely prose but I found the characters unlikable.

Honorable Mentions

The Dublin Saga by Edward Rutherford: has literally a billion protagonists, but some of them are morally ambiguous ig? follows a few families stories’ from the 400s ad to irish independence in the 20s. beautifully captures the weight and movement of irish history.

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer: how morally ambiguous can you be if you’re, like, eleven? a lot if you’re a criminal genius who wants to kidnap a fairy for your evil-ish plan apparently!

Redemption by Leon Uris: literally my favorite novel ever. the sequel to Trinity but can stand alone. various irish families struggle through the horrors of world war one. the hero isn’t really morally ambiguous, but the main theme of the novel is extremely bad people suddenly questioning their choices and eventually redeeming themselves. sweeping themes of love, screwed up families, redemption, and patriotism.

The Lymond Chronicles and House of Niccolo by Dorothy Dunnett: heroes redeem themselves/try to get rich/try to save their country in early renaissance Europe. if I actually knew what happened in these books I'm sure it would be morally ambiguous but its too confusing for me. in each book you spend at least a third convinced the protagonist is evil, though. lots of exciting sword fights, tragic romances, plot twists, and kicking english butt.

Bonus: Protagonist is less morally ambiguous and more very screwed up and sad all the time

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt: you know this one bc its quoted in all those quote compilations. basically the story of how one horrible event traumatizes a young man and how he develops a connection to a painting. really really really good.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro: hard to describe but strange... not an action novel or a dystopia really but sort of along those lines. very hopeless.

[mookybear12404]

AND please do Jester from CR

How I feel about this character- 

when i started watching the show i was worried i was going to be annoyed by her but NOPE I LOVE HER SO MUCH SHE IS SO SWEET I LOVE HER AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH MY BLUE DAUGHTER

All the people I ship romantically with this character-

HMMMMMMMMM OKAY this is uh..... lets just say literally anything i write here is worthy of death threats in this fandom apparently?? so uh im so sorry please don’t kill me your ships are valid and all that

For starters I’m not usually a big shipper, and when i do ship its more of a “i think this has the potential to be cute!” and less “IF THIS DOESN’T HAPPEN I WILL BE DISAPPOINTED WITH THE CANON.” 

I would say that when i first started watching this I really liked her and Fjord. they have SO many cute moments together and its very clear how much she crushes on him. i fell in love TEN times more when I found out the actors were married irl! 

I stopped shipping them entirely when i saw the clip of Travis saying, “I’ll never play romance in this show ever.” and assumed that was the end of that. 

During this time, I found myself shipping a ship i NEVER thought i would ship. Caleb and Jester had a lot of cute moments together, (the whole fight and then make-up over money, her freaking out because she thought he was dead, Caleb getting in on her prank on the piano guy, them dancing together, etc. I also saw a clip during this time for the scene where he says “im the transmutation wizard but you are the one who changes people.) and what was originally just a “hey this is kinda cute but whatever” turned into a FULL ship the moment I saw the clip of Liam saying “Caleb is uselessly in love with Jester Lavorre.” 

I thought I might actually have a ship for once, but two things kinda made me go back to neutral ground. 

For one, I was VERY firm in the belief that Caleb should NOT be dating anyone until he gets himself sorted out. That man has some SERIOUS mental illness problems he needs to work through. From what I understand, that hasn’t fully happened yet.

Secondly, I recently found out that Travis has not only taking back his statement about romance, but is actively shipping his own character with Jester and even put a song about it on the playlist. 

At this point? I’m still on ep 40 and just happy to sit along for the ride and see where it goes, and in the meantime, enjoy whatever art becomes it it. I don’t really mind whatever happens, in the end im just here for the found family!! 

(sorry for this one turning long but i know with this fandom you gotta explain everything when it comes to jester.) 

My non-romantic OTP for this character

HER AND NOTT. OH MY GOODNESS THEY ARE SO CUTE AHHHHHHH. I love 1) their whole “detective agency” and the single braincell they share in it. 2) the moment where Nott said “cased closed” when she rescued her from the slave traders???? TEARS FLOWING. 3) the scene where jester gives her flowers and nott gets super confused and jesters like “you’re a girl and i know girl like flowers!!” and nott is just like SO confused and happy and full of awe. She’s always been seen as a goblin and nobody ever acknowledges her femininity. Same with Jester insisting that she is beautiful!  

My unpopular opinion about this character

SHE IS NOT A ROMANCE MACHINE/ MANIC PIXIE DREAM GIRL HERE TO FULFILL WHATEVER SHIP YOU WANT FOR HER. SHE IS AN INCREDIBLY WELL WRITTEN THREE DIMENSIONAL CHARACTER AND SHOULD BE TREATED AS SUCH!!!! 

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

I don’t know what has or hasn’t been addressed in canon yet but I REALLY HOPE WE GET SOME RELATIONSHIP BUILDING WITH HER FATHER

[mysaldate]

(UM seduction methods anon here) Im in awe over how much you write for so many character, every day! Do you have any hc on how they live? (where they live? living conditions?) BUT please dont push yourself or anything either!

Thank you so much for worrying about me! I’m simply trying to do my very best for all of you! And thank you also for such wonderful and original requests!

The living conditions of the Upper Moons headcanons

Daki&Gyuutaro

This one will be short since we know quite a lot about them. They’ve lived in the red lights district for their whole lives. In the streets and usually with little more than just their clothes on but they had each other.

They stayed in even after they became a demons. No surprise, there’s plenty of food and nobody will really care if a couple girls disappears.

They don’t have separate rooms of course. These two are literally inseparable so of course they wouldn’t bother with something like that. There’s nobody to tease them about it either since people are not aware of there even being two of them and as for their fellow demons, those just don’t care. Except maybe for Douma but he wouldn’t tease them about it.

We got to see their room so there’s not much to be said about the decorations either. Daki is a stylish girl and she likes to show it off even in the way she sets up their room – even if nobody much gets to see it.

Kaigaku

He never really had much of a home per say. He became an orphan at a young age (if he wasn’t abandoned as a baby already) and then was chased out of Gyomei’s temple as well. Jigoro took him in but unfortunately enough, that relationship didn’t really work out either. Strangely enough, he felt most at home when he was outside, travelling from one mission to another.

After he became a demon, he stayed with Kokushibou for a short period of time but that was just before Muzan approved of his existence. After that, he had to find his own territory – which wasn’t really too hard anyway. He picked a run-down old house as his shelter from the sun for the day but he didn’t really care much how it looked, at least not at first.

It’s not that he wouldn’t like company but there’s not really anyone to share his place with. Humans wouldn’t hang out with him, other demons literally can’t. Other Upper Moons won’t.

He first didn’t care at all how the place looked but after some time, he decided that since he didn’t have anything to do during the day anyway, he could at least try to decorate the place a bit. So while the sun is up, he does little things inside, like sweeping the floors or painting the walls. He even learnt to sew to make curtains. And at night, when he’s not out hunting, he does other reparations. Even he is surprised by how much fun he can have, giving the place a personal touch.

Gyokko

Being an artist, it’s not unlikely that he lived in an open, arid room before he became a demon. Lots of sunlight too. And occassionally, a companion or two but those never really stuck around for long. His place was filled with various unfinished art pieces.

Now that he’s a demon, he can’t have the luxury of a sunny appartment. His pots, however, work as a little pocket dimension so that’s an upgrade? Of sorts? It doesn’t really have a set shape either, it’s a little bit like Nakime’s Infinity Fortress but shapeless, like the walls are made of water or another liquid and constantly change form.

He lives with plenty of goldfish. The entire place is nearly filled with aquariums of various shapes and forms. You know how people make mazes for hamsters, guinea pigs or even cats? Well, those are nothing when compared to the lengths Gyokko goes to for his fishies. It’s not just glass, coloured or plain, either. Sometimes he would use the nichirin blades or pretty hairpieces of his victims’ to decorate the elaborate fishtanks as well. If a human ever strays in, it’s the last thing they say.

Gyokko LOVES decoration. Aside from his fishtanks, he has numerous statues, paintings and just about everything else you can think of. Both handmade and stolen. For his handmade art, he usually uses bodies or bodyparts of his victims, possibly their blood too. It serves both as an artpiece and a food reserve just in case he ever gets to a position where he’s forced to starve. Surprisingly enough, his pots are great at preserving things. Oh, and let’s not forget about the amount of detail he puts to the exterior of his pots! 

Hantengu

Back when he was a human, he didn’t really have a home, naturally. He couldn’t afford it. And most people wouldn’t let him stay more than one night, chasing him out often with sticks and stones. He had to travel all the time and preferably somewhere far away where the rumors about him didn’t reach yet. Due to this, he becomes restless when he has to spend a long time in one place.

Now, as a demon, he also doesn’t stay in one place all the time. He usually sneaks in a house, kills the family and stays there for a few days before moving on to the next one. Some of his other personalities, namely Sekido and Karaku, find this a little useless and bothersome but they wouldn’t really fight him on it.

Speaking of whom, his other personalities split when they have time to be alone as well, taking care of him and the house. It’s a great way to keep him safe as well since at least one of them is always on guard for possible intruders. They get along... somewhat well. There are the usual conflicts between Sekido and the others. Karaku is careless about their cover, Yoroko likes to make pranks on them and Aizetsu tends to lock himself in his room for hours on end. Poor Sekido is left with the task of housework, making sure they don’t get discovered too soon, acting as the voice of reason... and he still has to go out hunting and stay on guard when it’s his turn.

Yoroko likes decorating stuff and Karaku loves to watch him but their taste is strange to everyone but them. Surprisingly enough, Hantengu as well as Aizetsu both can actually create rather beautiful tapestries and Zohakuten sometimes paints when Sekido is just too done with the three useless dorks.

Nakime

She used to be your typical hikikomori. Nakime spent all her time in her room, with nothing but a pile of books and her biwa. It wasn’t a big room either. While her room did have windows, she prefered them covered and read in the light of an oil lamp. As expected, it wasn’t too good for her eyes...

She lives in the Dimensional Infinity Fortress now. A place she can fully control and knows everything about, one that bends to her will and where she can transport anyone anywhere at any time, just as she wants. The only exception seems to be Muzan who comes and goes as he sees fit (at least until the current arc but y’all already know how I feel about that). It’s not that she minds it, she still knows where and when he enters and leaves and even if she didn’t, it’s not like he would ambush and kill her for no reason (right?).

Despite providing rooms specifically suited for the Upper Moons, she much enjoys her solitude. Even when they’re in and she has to keep an eye on them (I’m sorry, I’ll stop with the puns now), she keeps her distance. Try to annoy her, or even just seek her company, and you will mercilessly get thrown out. An exception, again, is Muzan. He doesn’t live there with  her though and only seeks her out when he has work for her to do.

Decoration of the rooms varies greatly, mostly based on what are they used for. Most of the Fortress is not decorated since Nakime sees no reason to waste time and effort on that. However, there are special parts that deserve special attention. Just as an example, there’s Muzan’s upside-down lab, Douma’s lotus pond, that traditional japanese area Kokushibou first appeared in... And of course, the execution platform that’s now decorated with the red of the Lower Moons’ blood.

Akaza

Again, we have a very good canon idea about his life as a human. First living with his father and then spending some time in the streets, he eventually ended up staying at Keizo’s house, taking care of Koyuki. He had his own room there too but it didn’t really matter because he spent most of his time by Koyuki’s side anyway. Rumor has it he dragged his futon to her once when she was having a nightmare and never moved out until she got all better.

He’s pretty much a street rat as of now, looking for challenges and new foes to fight for the most part. During the days, he usually stays still outside, in dense forests or deep caves. He’s not particularly picky. Sometimes he stays there during the night too, setting up a campfire and waiting for someone to wander close. For some reason, he doesn’t really like cities, especially during the festival season.

So yeah, he lives alone. At least usually he does. It’s not all that rare for Douma to find and bother visit him. He doesn’t want company. Getting attached would make him weak. The more people you care about, the easier it is to take advantage of you.

The only thing he cultivates in his surroundings is his own body. No, I’m not talking about the tattoos, though those certainly are a decoration as well. Rather, it’s his muscles and strength. However, he still prefers to have some manners over raw power, hence why he keeps refusing Douma’s more than generous offers to hunt down some girls together even if that could make him stronger.

Douma

Grew up in the temple in the forest. High up on a mountain overlooking a small town, it’s not a place with the most access to society. But cults are usually like that. When he was about three years old, his father planted two magnolia trees in the courtyard so that the place is a little more lively and the trees can grow tall to provide lots of shade in summer since the sun could be quite annoying. If only he knew...

Loyal as he is, Douma stays at the temple even now. He had it expanded a little and even had a lotus pond build right behind his room so he can calm his thoughts at least a bit after every session. He used to need it more than he does now, especially since he now also has the one made by Nakime that is way better and more spacious.

Canonically, there is at least one temple servant staying with Douma at the temple. But honestly, it wouldn’t be quite like him to satisfy himself with a single person. There’s probably a number of people taking care of the place, both temple servants and maidens. They also serve as a source of entertainment and possibly even as a last-resort snack just in case. There also used to be Kotoha and Inosuke for a short period of time but well...

While he is quite childish and it might sound just like him to go overboard with decorating stuff, that’s not entirely true. Really, the most he has is the skull closet with engraved golden door. That and the pot in which he planted Kotoha’s head but that one is a gift from Gyokko so it doesn’t really count.

Kokushibou

As with most of them, we were blessed with enough info on Kokushibou’s, or rather Michikatsu’s, homes. Growing up a samurai, he never had time to spare, little to no friends and a bride who was most likely found for him without him having any say in it, it’s really not that much of a surprise he would elect to leave it all behind and become a demon slayer since it gave him significantly more freedom.

Even as a demon, not much have changed. During the day, he stays at a mansion like the samurai lord he is, and at night, he goes out to hunt down the pests in the area, more often than not treating himself with a bountiful feast while he’s at it. He also has a room in the Infinity Fortress but like the majority of the Upper Moon demons (actually everyone but Douma), he enjoys his solitude way more.

He has a few servants at the mansion. Ones that get replaced every once in a while when they mysteriously disappear. But the salary is high enough to let any major rumors die out in a blink (I know, I promised, I’m sorry) so the most he has to deal with are whispers about him overworking his servants to the point where they rather abandon the money and run away under the cloak of the night.

You would probably find the house eerily plain but he’s used to it. The backyard is where he spends most of his time aside from his room and those two are the only actually decorated places in the house. And they’re still kept neat and practical for the most part. He rarely has anything that wouldn’t serve a purpose, both when it comes to items and people.

[jewpacabruhs]

bruv im still jus. wow. theres so much to say but. do u kno how good it feels... to be jewish, to accidentally fixate on one eric cartman & love him more than any other fictional character for almost seven years now, and then to see him in a little yarmulke, standing at kyle's side while he recites from the torah? do you know how validating that is?

i gotta get personal for a second here. idk how, but in the last few yrs my relationship with my own jewishness has been deeply influenced and intertwined with south park, as ironic and ridiculous as that sounds. i grew up secular, completely nonpracticing; as a child, i was only ethnically jewish, and saw jews as strictly an ethnicity, and a popularly hated one to boot. and it scared me. ive talked about it before, but as a child hearing about the shoah and about antisemitism, i couldn't understand. i thought it was looks for a while, which confused me, because ive got blonde hair and blue eyes and all my family that got caught up in nazi europe did/do too. i remember thinking as a second grader that i would've been spared for that reason; why didn't a good chunk of my family? but i grew up in a mormon neighborhood, with plenty of other blonde kids, and they stayed away from me like i had a disease. this was before puberty, before my hair got a little frizzier and my nose got a little bigger, when i looked just like any of them. but already, at age 8, i was an outsider. i wasn't one of them and i never would be, and they wanted me to know that.

and then i started to get it. it clicked even more once i got to high school and got called a kike every other day - but prior to high school, you know what i found, and you know what really pushed me towards understanding what being a secular jew in america meant? south park. and as a dumb little sixth grader with no critical thinking skills, you know what shaped my opinions on my own people? south park.

and that's good and bad. good because i do sincerely think kyle broflovski is excellent fictional representation for jewish people, maybe one of the top few ever shown on television. he gets on my nerves at times, but he's good through and through, he's well written and multi-dimensional, he's not a walking stereotype but he still has prominent jewish features that jewish viewers can look at and see in themselves, his morals and viewpoints and beliefs are obviously deeply influenced by judaism, hes deeply proud of his heritage and culture... and that all means a lot to me. and by the amount of jewish sp fans that adore kyle, it means a lot to them too.

the bad thing is, yeah, i can't deny it, during older seasons, cartman's treatment of kyle probably taught a lot of young and dumb viewers how to view jews in real life. have i, as a kyman shipper and cartman stan, justified that within a fictional and narrative context? yes. but it doesn't change the real-world effect; south park, but specifically cartman, since he's the mouthpiece, likely did cause some easily-influenced people to pick up antisemitic beliefs. did this contribute to the rise of the alt-right? debatable, but to some extent, possibly. was that m&t's intention and should south park be canceled and denounced? fuck no, i'll always love it lol, and fuck censorship. but it is something that should be taken into account.

matt and trey clearly regret that, and understand that it's no longer acceptable or fitting or needed in today's sociopolitical climate - or, okay, maybe they don't even regret it; they just understand that when fiction becomes reality, the fictional jackass isn't necessary when there's one right there in real life, sitting in the oval office, yeah? old cartman doesn't deserve or need a voice, not when real, awful people actually have one right now. and m&t are actively trying to change cartman for the better and really, really backpedal on his bigotry, while still doing it in a way that makes sense from a story-telling perspective. it's not a complete uncharacteristic change of character; it's shifting with the times and writing it into the character's arc so that it's a logical and plausible development in cartman's story.

cartman's behavior in the last few seasons is consistent character development. m&t themselves are pushing it, and clearly it's sincere; cartman's not faking. unless they're building up a surprise twist over the last, what, three to four seasons, that he was faking the whole time! woah! if so it better be a damn good pay off, because that's a lot of time invested. though that seems more forward-thinking than sp tends to be. they're intentionally stuck in the short-term, aren't they? plot-wise. but their character development is pretty long-term, and right now, cartman is consistently decent, and if it comes across as faking, it's because cartman's over-dramatic in how he speaks, and trey does that intentionally.

that's a tonal thing, and it's hard to say in a fictional character, but as someone who struggles with empathy myself, empathy and sincerity don't go hand in hand. you can lack empathy while still caring enough to sincerely and wholeheartedly apologize for something and mean that apology. not feeling remorse doesn't mean you can't apologize genuinely; the two don't go hand in hand. you can be mentally ill in any capacity, even a psychopath, and still deeply care about things or people, just not in the way someone else might. so you can headcanon that cartman's still a psycho/sociopath, though right now that's actually kinda going against canon, but don't rain on other's parades if they're happy he's exhibiting healthy growth. besides, and i repeat: what could cartman exploit out of faking sincerity for several seasons? nothing, so why bother? he wouldn't, unless it's literal in-show subconscious growth.

does that mean he's magically developed empathy? no. is it becoming less probable he's a legitimate sociopath/psychopath (while still possibly having better-disguised antisocial tendencies)? yes. does he seem to have better coping or anger management skills? somehow, yes! he seems to be legitimately healthier. does this mean he's no longer accountable for his past misdeeds, and even his present, less-severe ones? of course not! and you can still hate him all you want, but modern cartman is not the same as older cartman, and shouldn't be treated as such. because is this growth? absolutely.

he's clearly healthier, even happier. he's less angry, he's still a little shit but he no longer relies on bigotry or cruelty or anger to get the negative attention he thrives off, rather he gravitates towards being simply annoying. you know why he called ice? pettiness, immaturity, a little bit of spite, and a need for silly revenge. he's being intentionally petty, but going about it in a sly but no longer psychopathic way. less hannibal lector and more, idk, regina george, lol. extremely different on the antagonist scale. and cartman's been both.

and maybe it's personal bias on what type of human is worse within fiction, someone unstable and bizarre with violent tendencies (which is how he's come to be viewed in pop culture & some of the fandom, as a result of eps like scott tenorman must die), versus someone inclined towards pettiness and more silent and, i dunno, social-status-and-pride-driven types of revenge (cartman in general when he's not being particularly awful, tbh)... but i think it'd be pretty universally agreed that the latter is at the very least more tolerable, manageable, and even likeable - and certainly more redeemable. let's put it this way; if cartman continued on the path he was on, he'd be one of those tiki holding fucks, wearing a confederate flag hat, and he'd treat kyle soooo much worse. instead, m&t have turned him into a hypocritical false-woke ignorant dumbass - but that's strongly less problematique than it's counterpart, and it works.

because cartman simply serves a different narrative purpose now. and that's not sloppy writing; it's well-timed evolution of a character that stepped into a pre-9/11, pre-trump, pre-social media world! so much has changed, and south park is reflecting that in its characters, most notably in a character who was stuck in the, what, 1960s with his beliefs? that was fine way back when, but matt&trey are smart dudes - they understand that sometimes things have to change. besides, they love cartman, too. he's their favorite. but they understand that when real people act like him, it's not so comedic or satirical or funny, & they don't want to look at cartman, at their creation who they've invested twenty-two years in, and see the all-too-real hate of modern radical white america.

i think we know enough about matt&trey's social stances these days, and the empathy they've seemed to develop after having kids, to understand that they're no longer in their "apathy is best, everyone is stupid" phase. current south park is left-leaning and admittedly preachy at times, but i wouldn't want it any other way. g-d knows it's better this way than if they'd embraced and decided to appeal to their right-libertarian following instead. cartman's evolved in a progressive and positive way, and it's fucking dope, especially to us cartman stans who so badly want him to be good. and he is good right! he's doing so good!

and i know im up my own ass rn but yall know how much i myself have campaigned for jewish kyman/cartman and how much i just deeply and truly adore it, and to see it actualized in a canon episode to some extent? that meant the world to me. i couldn't believe my eyes. i was tellin lai - that's the most genuine, pure, almost violent happiness ive felt in my soul in years. that was like a straight shot of serotonin to the heart. that simple little scene made me so fucken happy yall dont even know. & theres a lot to be said about the political commentary and plenty of other people are analyzing that, but im a simple jewish kyman & cartman stan and boy ive been fed good fjskfkdkdkfk!!!

[shikai-the-storyteller]

Homestretch....the final Cyberverse episodes... :’(

Season 3: Episodes 21 - 26

Episode 21

Ok so before we start, I gotta fess up and say I got spoiled for something because Twitter Sucks, so I know Tarn is in this series. Here are my predictions about that: 

Megatron said he rescued Astrotrain from a tyrant. I thought he meant an Alt!Universe version of him, but now that I know This Bastard is gonna be in it, I’m guessing it’s Tarn

If Megatron DID save Astrotrain from Tarn, it’d be hilarious if Tarn & co. weren’t actually planning to kill Astrotrain, they were just using him as transport, in which case Megatron essentially car-jacked (train-jacked?) them.

As much as I rag on Tarn and the DJD I actually do genuinely love the idea of an Autobot + Decepticon teamup against the DJD THAT WOULD BE SO FRICKIN COOL....

Anyways, on to the episode!

Pics taken 10 seconds before disaster, rip Cosmos.

MEDIA BOT and Cosmos! :D GOSH COSMOS REALLY IS CONFIRMED FOR BABY THAT”S ADORABLE.....I’m so glad he’s finally back in a cartoon

OH WHOOPS I FORGOT WINDBLADE WAS FRICKIN DEAD (ish)

LUNA 3???

The “FORBIDDEN” moon? 

Chromia: You can go there anyways! Bee: Huh?  Chromia: When have the rules ever stopped you before? Bee: Fair point

BRO WHY DO YOU HAVE A TOY OF SQUIDSCREAM

aw I love all those photos of him and cosmos, that’s cute

Oh no did he quit the business because he lost Cosmos???

METEOR-FIRE what a cool name

I like this dude a lot

I love that he’s obviously depressed about losing his partner but immediately gets convinced to go break into Luna 3 lmao

HE’S GOT CUTE CAMERAS WITH HIM I love that

LMAO I was gonna say “Wow you just flip the switches alright” THEN HE JUST RIPS THE CORDS OUT I love this guy

Hmm suspicious

Aw I love the space-shots of Cybertron, what a gorgeous planet....

Oh hello cannon-fodder #418

SHOCKWAVE SHOCKWAVE SHOCKWAVE!!!!!

IT”S THE GRUDGE LMAO

It’s probably a sim that shows you the scariest thing you can think of

BLURR!!! AW THAT’S SO SAD

Ok I take it back, it’s probably like MTMTE’s “Cyberutopia” thing where it reads your memory files

Watch the cameras Bee!!!

“Bee, I don’t mean to alarm you, but the alien presence has taken over my circuits” *HEAD DOES A 180* GOSH I LOVE THIS FRICKIN SHOW

The facial expressions in this show are SO FUN Bee’s so expressive I love that

I like that Meteor-Fire is so chill about this, this ain’t his first rodeo

He just snaps his neck back into place that’s so freaky and they play it off so well lol

PRETTY SPACE BALL???? PRETTY SPACE BALL!!! HEY HASBRO CAN YOU MAKE A TOY OF THIS I WANT IT!!!!!!

Gosh I’d legit buy a gem like this if it had constellations engraved on it THAT’S SO PRETTY I LOVE IT

It’s a good thing that Bee’s got Meteor-Fire with him, this is his field!!!

Oh lmao JUST KIDDING I GUESS

Well so much for the alien, rest in pieces

I think Saling already said this in their liveblog but I love that Bee’s collecting Windblade’s parts a-la-Megaman X2 style

COSMOS!!!!!! Yay I’m so glad they got him back!!!

Meteor-Fire: Look everybody, Cosmos is back!!! :D ME TOO BUD I’m so excited to see my space-baby

RODDY AND ARCEE!!!! I love that Percy took over for Maccadam, but that’s also so sad!!! ALSO WHY HAS HE NOT FIXED HIS EYES, RATCHET PLEASE HELP THIS POOR GUY

Episode 22  

OHH PRETTY PLANET

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The background designers on this show are great

Rodimus: That place has nothing but bad memories for me Every Drift fan simultaneously: Mood....

I really don’t think they’ll bring Drift back (unless he’s like, a zombie, which would still suck) so that’s a bummer

Rodimus: *Talking about his trauma* Me, very distracted: Wow Bee looks really cute here

SERIOUSLY THOUGH THEY NEED RUNG IN THIS SERIES They need a therapist in every Transformers series, all these bots need therapy (though tbf they tried to give Starscream therapy and that sure didn’t help, pft)

GRIMLOCK MAYBE DON’T--oh ok too late WELL THERE THEY GO

Repugnis?? I don’t remember who that is

A CITY?????? PRETTY

INSECTICON

lmao the frickin voice actor for that grey dude cracked me up

BEE MAYBE DON’T IMMEDIATELY TRUST THEM

Energon masters???? What

Interesting that they used “She” for Grimlock

Affluence?? 

Oh great these guys are the Cybertronian bourgeoisie 

Oh boy they’re just wasting energon huh

THE SHOCKS????

That’s a pretty bubble but JEEZ

OH NO WHY CAN”T HE TRANSFORM??

WAIT WHERE”S THE AUDIO oh wait no OP did mention there was an audio dropout

Is Grimlock gonna make friends with the bugs!!!

OH RIGHT the bug is Repugnis 

Aw the bugs are way nicer than the bourgeoisie, surprising absolutely no one

HELL YEAH, EAT THE RICH GRIMLOCK

“If we let you go, things will change! We like things the way they are” jeez

I wonder how the Shocks came about

It frickin figures

PRISON BREAK BEE!!!!

EAT HIM GRIMLOCK!!!

“Well this is quite astonishing” cute....

YEAH I WAS WONDERING IF THEY HAD THE SAME ALT MODE they looked like they had bug-bits, I didn’t realize that thing was keeping them from transforming though

Episode 23   

Oh right Megatron has a Matrix of Leadership I FORGOT ABOUT THAT

I ALSO FORGOT WHIRL WAS IN THIS SERIES, MY BABY.....

JETFIRE WATCH OUT YOU BIG NERD

“Rack ‘n Ruin and Ratchet” OH IS THIS GONNA BE A RATCHET EPISODE??? PLEASE?????? PLEASE SAY RATCHET EPISODE

Aw poor Rack n Ruin...

RATCHET BABY BOY!!! I forgot he was a New Yorker in this series lmao

“I LOVE Jetfire!”  “I know, me too!” CUTE....

I love that every continuity has Ratchet stuck with someone who annoys him in a ship

I love that Ratchet’s not even concerned

RATCHET’S DESIGN IN CYBERVERSE IS SO CUTE...

Wait UNSPACE???? Isn’t that where they sent a bunch of bad people????

Different Quantum Frequencies??? Dimensionally aligned??? MAN I LOVE THIS GOOFY SHOW

“It’s a blue-purple” CUTE....

UH OH HERE COMES ASTROTRAIN throwing dead-end??

I love that Astrotrain is so HUGE compared to everyone else, thank you Cyberverse for my life

“Every time..” LMAO GOSH THIS SHOW IS LITERALLY THE BEST someone please make a gif of that. I love that this implies that every time someone rides in Astrotrain they get ejected at 100 mph and skid 50 ft face-first, that’s such a delightful mental image. I think this 5 second scene is legitimately one of my favorite goofs / scenes in this show IT’S JUST THAT GOOD

You can tell I really enjoyed something when I make a meme of it

IT”S ILLEGAL TO BE THIS CUTE!!!!!!!!

OK IT’S LEGITIMATELY A LITTLE FRIGHTENING TO SEE HOW HUGE ASTROTRAIN IS WHEN IN ATTACK-MODE, HE SO EASILY PICKED THEM UP but that’s why it’s cool for him to be SO much bigger than they are, I LOVE BIG CYBERTRONIANS

LMAO I LOVE ASTROTRAIN he’s such a turd to DeadEnd

“Time to pay Ratchet a house-call. ‘Cuz he’s a doctor!” I almost snorted my drink up my nose, I LOVE THE DORKY HUMOR IN THIS SHOW

I swear this series was made with me in mind

TWO HEADS, NO BRAINCELLS

You wonder if Shadow Striker and Soundwave ever just rock-paper-scissor to see who has to deal with the latest Autobot bs that day

“And we don’t” OH SHOOT THEY’RE BEING LEFT OUT OF THE DECEPTICON’S PLANS TOO...This is more dire than I thought

Man I really do love Shadow Striker and Soundwave, they’re the only competent Decepticons

OH NO NOT RATCHET!!! NO!!!!!

Ohh so Astrotrain is still a triple changer in this series!! :O

WOW A SHOT TO THE HEAD REALLY DIDN”T DO ANYTHING HUH

REST IN PIECES DEADEND lmao he and Percy both have good survival stats it seems

NICE MOVES GRANDPA glad your hips still work lol

Oh good I’m glad they actually kept the purple thing

RIP Rack n Ruin

DEADEND YOU DONT EVEN KNOW WHAT THAT IS

YEAHHHHH SHADOW STRIKER AND SOUNDWAVE!!!!!

“You’ve been told this area is off-limits” Oh shoot so Megatron really doesn’t trust them with this huh??? Must be some serious stuff they saw while universe-hopping

“Make us” SOUNDWAVE I WOULD DIE FOR YOU MY SASSY BOY

Love that he’s pissing off this dude who’s literally 4 times his height, love my son

Shadow Striker & Soundwave are Goth / Jock solidarity

Ratchet: Yeah yeah yeah I know Cuteeee

Wow they’re really not gonna help Shadow Striker and Soundwave????

THEY’RE LITERALLY JUST DOLL-SIZE IN HIS HANDS which is probably a not great reminder for Soundwave after that Dr. Tentacle Dude incident

Astrotrain: *bops their faces together* heehee Soundwave: BI Shadow Striker: >8(

JEEZ, BYE ASTROTRAIN

THE STYLE IS SO JARRING I LOVE IT!!! I LOVE UNSPACE AND HOW IT LOOKS (especially when contrasted with the regular drawing-style of the show. Really great artistic choice!)

Oh shoot so Astrotrain can just leave whenever huh

Aw what cute high fives, man this show has such good vibes

Episode 24  

NOOOO ONLY THREE EPISODES LEFT.....

:(((((

WINDLBADE!!!! I hope she’ll be ok

DID it work?? Wait you guys still have two frickin shards left, YOU”RE SO BAD AT THIS

A SHARK????? WTF

HE JUST PICKED HER UP AND DIPPED WTF WHO IS THAT

It’s not Skybyte obviously but he’s a shark too so WHO IS THAT

OHH IS THAT THE HALL OF RECORDS???? 

Wait wtf the Decepticons are attacking?? Oh wait RACK N RUIN DID YOU REALLY TELL THEM THAT

OH NO HE FROZE

WHOA  WHAT”S HAPPENING

WHAT OPTIMUS NO

WHAT”S HAPPENING!!!!! WTF

I WAS GONNA MAKE A BSOD JOKE BUT I TAKE IT ALL BACK OPTIMUS PLEASE BE OK YOU CAN’T DIE IN THIS SERIES

Is this referencing the other time when he glitched oh no....I knew that’d come back to bite us

In other news, I love that we’re learning more about the life and (cyber)biology of Cybertron, I’m so glad we got to have pretty much almost the entire series set on Cybertron

I MEAN JUST LOOK AT THAT!!! THAT’S SO COOL!!! This is the stuff I want to see in Transformers shows!!!

Hasbro could literally make a nature documentary set on Cybertron and I’d be ecstatic. Gimme more details about their world and architecture and city stuff

“Fellow Primes, why have I been summoned?” Oh shoot so the other past primes can just jack OP’s consciousness whenever??? That frickin sucks. I do love the Atlantis vibes I’m ge HOLY FRICK IS THAT MAC

AHHHHHHHH MACCADAM!!!!!!!!!!! GRANDPA!!!!!!! PLEASE GIVE OPTIMUS DAD ADVICE!!!!!! IM SO GLAD WE GET TO SEE HIM AGAIN

Chromia: Bee are you crazy?? Bee: YES! *jumps off the ship*

I love that this weird storm cloud area is basically like an ocean, that’s so cool

OH NO BEE!!!!!!!

Jeez that startled me, the shark sounds just like Bee

“Well you’re doing a scrap job” lmao Chromia please

Oh it’s the Argon Sea, it IS an ocean pft

“An ancient evil” hooo boy

BEE he’s so cute. Wait don’t just jump down a random hole AT LEAST WAIT FOR CHROMIA

CREEPY TENTACLE STUFF AGAIN, JEEZ CYBERVERSE

KICK HIS BUTT CHROMIA

Aw man, not you too Bee

MISTRESS OF FLAME!!!! I get so excited about every IDW reference haha, I love Caminus and I love that they’re letting that still exist

JEEZ THAT”S NOT CREEPY AT ALL

Is this a Titan???? IT IS A TITAN

It’s like a Cthulu titan huh

Chromia: That is THE creepiest thing I’ve ever heard THANK YOU CHROMIA, SAME THOUGHT

Chromia’s just like “This doesn’t even come close to my Top 10 list of BS I’ve had to deal with lately”

More weird smoke, oh great

JEEZ THAT’S A FREAKY TITAN

Me, crying softly: GAY RIGHTS....(and Bee). MAN THE FRIENSHIPS IN THIS SHOW ARE SO GREAT :’)

ALCHEMIST PRIME!!!!!!!!! I FRICKIN KNEW YOU WERE A PRIME

“But this is not about me” I WANNA KNOW MORE ABOUT YOU THOUGH

Wait why is a part of Windblade in Megatron’s Matrix

WHY WOULD THEY ALSO BE IN THE OTHER MATRIX oh they mean alt-universe them

It’s frickin HYSTERICAL that every time Optimus has some ~deep spiritual~ conversation with the past Primes he’s just standing there frozen while the Autobots wait for him to unfreeze like he’s some kind of ancient computer doing updates. Like, that’s legitimately one of the funniest pieces of information canon’s given us so far, thank you for my life Cyberverse writers.

I wonder if Arcee and the other bots ever take selfies with him while he’s frozen like that THERE’S SO MUCH POTENTIAL FOR COMEDY HERE

Optimus: *is frozen for a couple hours while talking to old Primes* Autobots: *put on PJs and unroll their sleeping bags so they can have a slumber party while waiting for him*

Heck now I’m just imagining them playing truth or dare or some similar game while waiting for Optimus to wake up. 

I’m sure at some point during their voyage on the Ark, Optimus froze and they all played the “who can do this silly / embarrassing thing in front of Optimus and get away with it before he wakes up” game. Like, Rodimus somersaults down the hall while spouting fire in front of Optimus, Bee does a handstand while singing the alphabet backwards, etc, and whoever’s in front of Optimus when he “wakes up” loses. (It’d be even funnier if Optimus kept pretending to be frozen while they played until someone did something REALLY embarrassing and he unfroze to freak them out. Then again, the Matrix going back into his chest would probably be too much of a giveaway huh)

OH NO I WAS SO CAUGHT UP IN THE EUPHORIA OF THIS IDEA I FORGOT THERE’S ONLY TOO EPISODES LEFT NOW....

Episode 25

I love Astrotrain’s design (both in bot-mode and his alt mode) because he just looks like a grumpy evil train and that makes me so happy.

Also RAIN!!! I love rain and this looks so pretty

LMAO ASTROTRAIN YOU’RE SUCH A TURD I had no opinion of him before this show but now I frickin love him

HE PULLED THE CHAIR OUT FROM UNDER HIM

“I HAVE HIS MATRIX” OH NO DID HE STEAL THIS FROM SHATTERED GLASS’ OPTIMUS OH FRICK

Megatron running like that while holding the Matrix in his hands reminds me so vividly of a younger sibling stealing their older sibling’s diary and fleeing at top-speed from said older sibling and that’s hilarious to me. Megatron is so petty

Dang, so that’s how his eye got messed up. Ngl it’s a good look

CYBER COWS!!!!

Wow that wall is so WEAK the Decepticons are so dumb lmao

Oh yeah they have a new furry on their team

Rodimus: Math isn’t my strong-suit.

Arcee: Especially me!  Arcee you are ADORABLE

OH SHOOT MEGATRON CAN TALK TO THE PAST PRIMES TOO...DANG

WINDBLADE!!! MAKE WINDBLADE A PRIME YOU COWARDS

Ok I know I said “Shattered-Glass Optimus” earlier but based on that spoiler some moron on Twitter posted, IT’S PROBABLY TARN...man I wish I hadn’t seen that spoiler but despite that IM STILL EXCITED

Makes you wonder how TARN got the Matrix though (not that I can’t guess 8( )

Oh my gosh I just realized we have the potential to see Windblade kick Tarn’s butt in this series. Cyberverse PLEASE, I’D LOVE TO SEE THAT

Ah so Astrotrain is the new scientist

Ur bugs are probably dead dude

LASERBEAK!!!!

RAVAGE??? Oh no that’s the furry dude MAN I GET SO EXCITED EVERY TIME, I KEEP FORGETTING

As much as I Die for loyal Soundwave, it’s really cool seeing him being his own character and acting on his own in this series and trusting his own judgement / surveillance! It’s so good. Soundwave you’re so smart (and I love that he loves Laserbeak :’) )

*SOBBING* CASE IN POINT...HE PET THE BABY..

OHOHO IT”S *THE* INSECTICONS

Oh shoot the Insecticons are deserting 

“No one can stop him. Not even you” dang son

“He doesn’t want us. He wants you” OH BOY

MY BABY WHIRL!!!! THAT’S MY BOY

SEEKERS!!! I forgot we still had a few who Starscream didn’t frickin kill

NICE JUMP-ATTACK OPTIMUS I love that he cuts the dude’s weapon in half meanwhile Grimlock just frickin eats the guy lmao. So much for Optimus’ mercy

FRICK FRICK FRICK IT IS TARN

OK TARN OBJECTIVELY SUCKS BUT AT THE SAME TIME I ACTUALLY DO LOVE HIM BECAUSE HOLY FRICK IS HE A DANGEROUS CHARACTER AND THERE’S SO MUCH TO PLAY WITH THERE, I CANT WAIT TO SEE HIM AND HOW THEY USE HIM FOR THE STORY AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dead End: Yeah, I see your point Lmao I love this guy

Everyone’s gonna frickin die in this series

OH NO WHIRL oh wait yeah he and Dead End know each other, Whirl’s fine

SOUNDWAVE CAN YOU AND SHADOW STRIKER CHILL FOR 2 SECONDS

I love Skybyte’s voice

WOW MEGATRON, YOU”RE ONLY PROTECTING HALF THE PLANET, JEEZ

OH SHOOT

OH SHOOT

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh so that’s why they had a wall, Megatron you turd

WHIRL NO!!!!!!! oh he’s fine thank goodness

Did Megatron get taller??? He looks taller than Optimus now

Just use Optimus’ matrix you big baby

“It’s time I called in that debt you owe me. Now it’s time for you to save me” I LEGITIMATELY SHRIEKED OUT LOUD, AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

THERE HE IS, THERE HE IS THERE HE IS!!!!!!!

SCREW PAST ME’S OPINION, TARN IS FRICKIN COOL AS HELL

OH SHOOT THERE’S A TON OF HIM WTF

WHERE’S THAT FRICKIN “THERE IT IS, THERE IT IS, THERE!!! IT!!! IS!!!” MEME BECAUSE THAT’S BEEN ME THIS ENTIRE EPISODE HOLY HECK

Episode 26

MORE PRIME NAMES!!! A) that’s very pretty B) LEGIT THOUGH IF WINDBLADE’S THE ONE WHO KICKS TARN’S BUTT I’LL GO APE

OH FRICK IF OPTIMUS IS THERE THEN TARN REALLY DID KILL HIM or it means he beefed it in that universe, as he usually does

“I wish I’d gotten to know you better” 8((((((

What happened to Alt!Universe Optimus!!!!!!! How did you die!!!

Windblade: Optimus, you’re speaking in riddles... Optimus: I always do, it comes with the job of Prime. Windblade: Oh right

“A perfect Decepticon race” HOO BOYZY.....

“All because I spared your life” MAN THAT HURTS

At least they aren’t attacking them right now?

HOW CAN THEY POSSIBLY RESOLVE THIS SERIES IN 10 MINUTES

ASTROTRAIN YOU COWARD not that I blame him, every bot for themself I guess

OH NO THE HURT PUPPY WHINE MAKES ME SO SAD

HELL YEAH SOUNDWAVE SAVE MY BABY BEE

I TAKE IT BACK TARN IS CANCELED, HE HIT SOUNDWAVE

*AND* HE GRABBED CHROMIA, YOU”RE CANCELED, ALL THESE CLONES ARE CANCELED

SOUNDWAVE IS THE ONLY VALID DECEPTICON

Optimus: Can’t keep-- Megatron: WE MUST! Me: *SOBS*

OPTIMUS AND MEGATRON BACK-TO-BACK FIGHTING AHHHHHHHHHH, IT”S THE LITTLE-THINGS

Definitely not the right time for this joke but: AU where instead of saying “Powers of Cybertron, unite!” they say “GAY RIGHTS” to activate their Matrix powers

Frick what if they kill MEGATRON in this series

HECK YEAH EVERYONE’S GETTING AN UPGRADE

Megatron: We must join our Matrixes together! Optimus: Now REALLY isn’t the best time for a marriage proposal Megatron: What Optimus: What

Thank you for telling Optimus to get down for once instead of just blasting him AND the Tarn-copies, Megatron

OH FRICK IT IS ALT-UNIVERSE MEGATRON NOT TARN WHO’S THE BIG BAD

I LEGIT STOPPED BREATHING DURING THIS ENTIRE SEQUENCE AHHHH

THIS IS INFINITELY BETTER (AND WORSE) THAN I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE AHHHHHHHHHHHHH

THAT MEANS ALT!UNIVERSE MEGATRON DID KILL OPTIMUS...MEANWHILE OUR UNIVERSE’S MEGATRON SPARED OPTIMUS...MAN THAT HURTS ME SO BAD

MEGATRON NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OPTIMUS SAVE HIM SAVE HIM PLEASE SOMEHOW SAVE HIM!!!!!

OPTIMUS LITERALLY FRICKIN RAN ACROSS THE ROOM TO CATCH HIM, MY HEART CAN’T TAKE THIS DRAMA

NO!!!! NO!!!!!!!!!!! YOU CAN”T DO THIS TO ME CYBERVERSE

“Prime...one shall stand...one shall....” THIS IS THE SADDEST FRICKIN THING THAT”S HAPPENED IM LEGIT GONNA CRY, NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“Hold on...my friend...” IM GONNA BAWL MY EYES OUT OPTIMUS

I legit had to take a moment to get up and do a lap around my room while processing what happened LIKE OK I KNOW THEY PROBABLY (???) WON’T PERMA-KILL MEGATRON BUT FRICK DUDE THAT WAS SO EMOTIONAL

MEGAOP RIGHTS....BUT AT WHAT COST

What’s fricking me up rn (granted, several things are fricking me up right now) is that this universe’s Megatron knew he could’ve achieved his goals if he’d just killed Optimus. He said so himself; he could’ve had it all but he failed “all because I spared your [Optimus’] life”. Whatever he saw in that other universe convinced him that killing Optimus just wasn’t worth it (or perhaps, deep deep DEEP down, he really doesn’t want to kill his old friend).

I’m rewatching that last minute and this feels like a frickin fanfiction. I’m Living but also Dying

I KNOW THIS IS A VERY TENSE SCENE BUT MEGATRON’S “I won’t pay for anything!” MADE ME LAUGH

SOUNDWAVE STANDING BETWEEN SHADOW-STRIKER AND MEGATRON!!!!!!!!! STANDING UP TO MEGATRON!!!! SOBS I LOVE SOUNDWAVE SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!! BUT ALSO PLEASE BE CAREFUL MY SWEET BOY!!!!! IF YOU GET HURT ILL NEVER BE OVER IT

Two reasons he could’ve done that: to keep Shadow Striker from getting super pissed off and lashing out at this enemy who’s way above their level, or because the “jacked up Frankenstein experiment” thing is a sore subject for her and Soundwave recognizes that (and frankly I’m leaning toward option B because SOBS....I LOVE THEIR FRIENDSHIP)

GOTH FRIENDS!!!

OH OK THANK GOODNESS, MEGATRON ISN’T DEAD DEAD YET

Dang so Megatron did kill Optimus

OH NO WE’RE GETTING A FLASHBACK

FRICK THAT”S SO GRUESOME, HE JUST RIPPED OPTIMUS’ CHEST OPEN

YOU ALREADY KNOW THE MOST PERFECT DECEPTICON, HIS NAME IS SOUNDWAVE!!! YOU JUST DON’T APPRECIATE HIM YOU BIG BULLY

Oh shoot so the Quints came to that world too

DANG HE JUST WRECKED THEIR SHIP HUH....

I’m loving this throwback to the IDW design

WOW Y’ALL JUST IMMEDIATELY WENT “SURE WE’RE ONBOARD” (I mean, good way to stay alive but C’MON GUYS....)

“I have no need for any of you” WHOOPS SO MUCH FOR THAT should’ve seen that coming

THIS SUCKS SO BAD

NONONONO!!!! MEGATRON!!!!

HECK NOW HE HAS THE MATRIX

wow you guys really just let Megatron fall to the floor COME ON OPTIMUS WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR SMOOTH MOVES

NICE ONE BEE!!!!!!

YEAH WERE ARE ARCEE AND HOT ROD

FRICK YEAH WHIRL, MESS HIM UP!!!!!!!!!

YEAH SHADOW STRIKER!!!!!!

RATCHET PUNCHING TARN HELL YEAH!!!!!!!!!!

FRICK HE CAN JUST MATERIALIZE LIKE THAT TOO

WELL THAT DIDN’T LAST LONG

BEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“And now you will pay the price...for being a hero” DANG THAT”S A COOL LINE BUT DON’T HURT MY BOY

FRICK HIM UP OPTIMUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WINDBLADE NOW WOULD BE A GOOD TIME TO SAVE EVERYONE

YEAHHHH WINDBLADE!!!!!!!

Yeah don’t turn your back on the body please

YO Astrotrain came back

ASTROTRAIN THAT SOUNDS SO CREEPY AND ALSO THAT’S SUCH A BAD IDEA, JUST KILL HIM

I know this is a kid’s show but PLEASE DO SOMETHING TO MAKE SURE HE WON’T POP BACK UP IN A FEW YEARS WITH ANOTHER ARMY

IM GLAD WINDBLADE IS BACK AND IM LOVING THE HUG BUT DID MEGATRON LEGIT FRICKIN DIE????

WHAT!!! WHAT THAT CAN’T BE IT!?!?!? HOW COULD YOU END IT LIKE THAT NO!!!!!!! THAT WAS SO ABRUPT nO!!!!!!!!!! 

The last few episodes were such an adrenaline rush I CAN”T BELIEVE WE CAME DOWN FROM THAT HIGH SO QUICKLY....IS MEGATRON ALIVE??? KICKSTARTER TO FUND ONE MORE EPISODE???? SPARE ANOTHER EPISODE FOR A POOR FAN???

MAN I wish we could’ve stayed in the universe of this show for a little longer but dang!!! That was really really good!!! I’m so grateful we got to have such a wonderful series like Cyberverse! :’) Thank you to everyone who worked on this incredible show!!!

Man now I gotta wait for WfC for new Transformers content....at least I can look through the tag w/out getting spoiled now

A few more thoughts now that I’ve re-read my liveblog:

If Megatron could hop into the Matrix of Leadership he possessed, I wonder if he ever had a chance to talk to that universe’s Optimus Prime... :( based on what he said, probably not, but that makes me so sad!!!! Did they ever get the chance to work things out!!! IS MEGATRON ALIVE OR NOT.....

[unproduciblesmackdown]

i’m always 2 exhausted even by thinkng about it to even begin discussing At Length what’s So Exhausting About Billions’es Handling Of Their Trans Character (which is way way better than it could be) but like, some of the main points of it are

taylor can outright say that they’re nonbinary One Time, but otherwise their gender can only be Made Relevant via other people misgendering them and/or by being transphobic towards them, and this happens like. loads of times. and sometimes in ways that feel a touch excessive / kind of indulgent in reminding us like haha don’t forget this character Is Seen As ___ by people and their body and presentation is a matter of Fascination for cis audiences, but not necessarily respected, and we can see the character navigate this but they won’t discuss it at length b/c why would any trans person Want to talk about being trans OR have another trans person in their life to talk to, cuz what are the odds of That. 

in relation to that last point: taylor can’t talk about their Not Cis experiences / reality, or even hardly mention it directly / by name, but the show can keep writing them as reaching out to random useless cis people in their life when these cis people are having some kind of super particular individual problem, and taylor laying out some really REALLY watered-down, vague, indirect version of their being trans as a way to show they Relate to whatever dumbass situation this awful cishet person has gotten themself into. being in some kind of frustrating situation? feeling alienated or isolated or undermined or misunderstood or judged? well i guess you’re experiencing a tiny bit of the trans existence! except you are not. and like, of Course a character would look like an asshole if they were like “boy taylor, now that i’ve had a rough week due to some really dumb problem, i think i understand what it must be like for you to be nonbinary!!!” but it’s fine if Taylor Chooses To Relate Their Transness to whatever some cishet loser is dealing with. no, being #outed as i-do-bdsm is nothing like being an out lgbtq individual. and like all these people in taylor’s sphere are nightmare people who don’t deserve their sympathy in the first place but that’s another gripe lmfao

can’t believe that was the “brief overview” version lmao but anyways, i was thinking about another weird and kinda frustrating thing that someone brought up on twitter

well actually it was kinda what two people were talking about on twitter, and the first thing was how like, yknow in a show like this where the ppl focus of the series (supposed to be axe and chuck i guess like eugh can you even imagine) are Supposed To Be Assholes? it’s always like, how those main chars in “prestige drama” are generally men who are *meant* to be seen as shitty and probably dumbasses, and yet like, there’s an inherent Sympathetic Treatment in focusing on them and in having their godawful exploits drive a lot of the plot and action and suspense and etc, and it’s not exactly enough to just say like “oh but you’re suppoooosed to Know that they suck”

but the second thing was how in “Prestige Drama” Tv With Shitty Protagonists, there has this tendency to have the crappy usually-cishet-white-abled-men main chars be like, not ever really display any “””especial””” level of bigotry?? saying something how like, any big -isms or -phobias seems to be reserved for the “”””real”””” bad guys. and that kinda ties in a bit i think with how, even if there’s the “well they’re supposed to seem unsympathetic” justification, they’re still........not really supposed to seem too unsympathetic. and it’s not that anyone would ever think it’s ~realistic~ for a nonbinary person to be in the world of High Finance and be able to announce their pronouns and have their identity for-the-most-part respected by everyone right off the bat, and i sure don’t want billions to be going for that ~realism~ on this one thing (especially when it doesn’t exactly try to strictly hold itself to Realism in plenty of other regards) and have taylor dealing with constant misgendering and likely no one with authority consistently watching out for them in this manner and people telling shitty jokes behind their back and etc etc etc which might be more ~realistic~ but please don’t.........

but at the same time it’s awfully convenient that apparently everyone at axe cap is such a committed Trans Ally that even when taylor defects by the end of s3 and everyone is like “booo hiss we hate taylor” they all feel free to disrespect taylor in pretty much any way Except for showing any signs of transphobia, ever. very nice that none of these characters have to bear the burden of being labeled A Real Jerk for insulting taylor on the grounds of their being trans (other insults are fine). like the guy on twitter said, bigotry is only for the Really real bad guys who really only need to be one-dimensional or in the background or otherwise not given that much attention.

like it exasperated me So much when there was some scene with axe and wags and wendy (like, scream. already i’m in hell. for gods sake) where wendy’s getting the green light to try to sabotage taylor’s relationship with their dad (to.....destabilize their fund?? just kinda bum them out, possibly??? it seems to be the latter 9_9 ) and axe is like “yeah fuck it, go for it, grrrr i hate taylor >:| “ and wendy says something in which she then Pauses and adds a footnote to her sentence, in which she clarifies that by “them,” she is referring to taylor, not taylor and [someone else she’d mentioned in the same sentence]. it’s just exhausting, ugh. like, yeah yeah believe me everyone who uses singular They pronouns knows allll about how oh no, there’s the chance for Ambiguity now!!! we never have that problem with other pronouns ever!!! and it means we deserve to force people to pick He or She! and it’s just like, ugh. yeah thank you for reminding us that these three bastards who are currently plotting how to permanently destroy a familial relationship of tay’s are nevertheless being sure to Respect Their Pronouns while doing so!!! not that they *shouldn’t* but like, as fucking though. and it’s just so......fucking unnecessary ugh. you don’t have to awkwardly make sure to point out you were using ~the singular They~ right then just as this clunky reminder that oh i’m not Transphobic @ them tho........like shut up thanks so much. i would like for taylor to never have to interact with wendy again, but god knows im sure that wish won’t come true. like, you didn’t have to clarify in the first place. and it’s so nice that all these nightmare individuals are such committed #allies. ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[rosetowersfanfic]

The Best Laid Plans of Ducks and Mutants

After another plan goes awry, Negaduck berates his team. Afterwards they pick up the pieces and get pizza.

Based on my au/reboot idea

Negaduck sat leaning back into the shadows from behind his desk, glaring at the rest of the team assembled before him.

“Well boys, does anyone here know why the heist failed? Again!” He snarled.

The Fearsome Five had planned to rob a bank that night; their leader had found a way to discreetly cut a hole in the side of the building from the alleyway right into the vault. Negaduck’s plan had required total silence to avoid notice; this had promptly gone south halfway through, as a mistake had lead to nearby security guards being alerted and the five of them having to retreat before Darkwing Duck showed up.

Negaduck eyed Megavolt. “How ‘bout you, Sparky? You remember what happened?”

Megavolt trembled, struggling to remember the plan itself, let alone how it went wrong.

“Hey, don’t pick on him! It’s not his fault we almost got caught!” Quackerjack snapped, slamming his hands onto the desk.

Negaduck leaned forward into the toymaker’s face. “True. I do believe it was because someone was laughing at his own lame jokes!”

Quackerjack scowled. “I was bored, so Mr Banana Brain told me a joke to pass the time.”

He brought out the toy in question and put on a squeaky voice. “Hey, don’t blame me, Smee! I’m not the one who can’t sit still for more than ten minutes.”

Bushroot snorted. “A real leader would’ve planned for Quackerjack’s boredom, like you should’ve last time at that museum.”

Negaduck’s eye twitched. “You wanna repeat that, Turnip Brain?” He growled.

“Now, now everyone. Experts would agree that the limited time offer on Quacky’s attention span is not easy to predict,” Liquidator offered nervously, sliding up to Negaduck’s side.

“Boss, maybe we should let him stay behind to play next time we have a quiet mission, huh?” He shrunk down until he was shorter than Negaduck and clasped his hands behind his back in hopes of appearing placating.

Negaduck rubbed his face. “Oh shuddup ya kiss up. Last I heard, the lookout is supposed to warn his team before security bust us and call for backup, instead of napping!”

He took a bag of cement out from under the desk. “Wanna explain that, ya wet noodle?”

Liquidator trembled. “I-I figured you’re amazing plan would go off without a hitch a-and, um…”

“Just drop it, Negaduck! We didn’t get captured and no one even knows it was us, quit being a jerk and go plot a better plan,” Bushroot said heatedly.

For a while, the mutated duck and inter-dimensional terrorist were engaged in a stare-off.

Eventually, Negaduck broke eye contact and jumped out of his seat.

“Ya know what, between the sniveling, the nonsense, the sucking up, and the useless criticism, I’ve just about had with you morons for the night.”

With that, Negaduck stomped off to his private rooms.

Bushroot huffed. “Licks’, you need to start standing up to Negadork. Your like a doormat around him.”

Liquidator pouted. “The survey shows I’m not the only one scared of the boss.”

He pointed to Megavolt, currently in a fetal position on the floor. Quackerjack was sat beside him, petting his head gently.

“Oh yeah, well you still haven’t explained why you fell asleep,” Quackerjack retorted.

Megavolt blinked. “Hey, yeah! If you’d seen those guards in time, Quacky coulda sorted them out before he started laughing! Now Negaduck’s mad and it’s all your fault!” He yelled, now remembering what happened.

Quackerjack frowned. “That’s not what I meant, Sparky.” The toymaker didn’t like when his friends fought and blamed each other. “It’s probably Negaduck’s fault anyway.” Everyone turning against one another just gave him more power.

Bushroot frowned. “Although, I have to ask. Why did you fall asleep? You usually don’t need it.”

Liquidator frowned. “Experts agree that three days straight on stakeout makes even the most energetic worker a bit tired,” he answered, his voice weary.

Bushroot clenched his fists. For the heist, everyone had been assigned different roles; Quackerjack and Megavolt built the machine to cut into the vault, Negaduck would use it, and Brushroot would grab the cash. Liquidator had been ordered to stakeout the bank to learn the security guards’ patterns, and on the night of the heist he would be on lookout. It was, however, a little known fact that while Liquidator didn’t need as much sleep as a mortal would, he was still a living being who needed his rest. Normally, the water dog took power naps every so often to function poperly, but by the sounds of things Negaduck hadn’t even allowed that.

“See Megsy, it all goes back to Negadweeb. He made Licky exhausted and let me get bored.” Quackerjack tugged at his hat and whined. “That meanie always ruins everything! Why do we even work for him anyways?!”

Bushroot took a deep breath. “Because like it or not, Negaduck’s the only one with any chance of taking down Negadrip. We need him.”

Everyone looked at the floor sullenly as the tension settled on them like lead. As the caped crusader’s counterpart, Negaduck was the only one who could possibly defeat him, alongside the other most dangerous criminals in St. Canard. He needed them, and they needed him, leading to an unfortunate alliance to the short-tempered criminal.

On the other hand, the four of them had become good friends almost immediately, so they at least had each other to help cope with their leader.

Quackerjack suddenly bounced up onto his feet. “Ugh, I hate it when everyone gets all mopey! Who wants pizza?!”

The others couldn’t help but grin. Quackerjack’s answer to all of life’s woes usually involved toys and food. He was also the only one who could lift everyone’s mood after a meeting with Negaduck.

“Alright, let’s get pizza,” Bushroot agreed. “We can go to my place and hang out.”

“Why can’t we go to my hideout?” Quackerjack and Megavolt said in unison.

“Because I’m not dealing with light bulbs or toys everywhere and I wanna check on my plants,” Bushroot answered.

Liquidator slung his arm around Bushroot’s shoulders. “Then let’s go, go, go!”

After a pit stop at a small pizzeria that served decent food and didn’t question when super villains and heroes alike dropped by - no matter how beaten up they sometimes were when they arrived - the four headed over to Bushroot’s greenhouse.

Everyone settled around the table with three boxes of pizza. Reggie couldn’t actually eat normal food anymore so after tending to his plants he settled down with his roots in a box of soil; Bud could eat, but this involved dissolving the food around where his stomach once was, so he had to sit with the table up to his chest so he wouldn’t gross out Elmo, and to avoid Jack poking at him trying to see how it worked.

“Seriously, Buddy. Why didn’t you tell Negadork you needed rest? Or just come to me about it, I could’ve sorted it out,” Reggie sighed.

Bud rubbed his shoulders. “It pays not to start fights with the boss,” he answered awkwardly.

Reggie rolled his eyes. “You’re a water elemental. You know what kind of power you have, so use it! Make a point. Or at least don’t let yourself be pushed around if you won’t actually fight back, just make the point that you can.”

Reggie knew all about dealing with bullies and bad bosses of course. Once upon a time he had let himself get pushed around and had eventually had his whole world pulled out from under him. As a mutant, however, Reginald Bushroot hardly knew the meaning of the word fear.

Bud was of the same opinion, and had also put on a confident front in his old life; but to get to where he had been he’d kissed up to his old bosses to get on top, now those instincts came back whenever he saw Negaduck. Also, the guy just plain scared him.

“Aw, let ‘im be Reggie, we can’t all be angry at everything all the time like you. Frankly it just sounds exhausting,” Jack said.

Reggie rolled his eyes. “Like you can talk about being exhausting, Jack, and stop playing with your food.”

Jack looked up from his attempts to make faces on his pizza slice with the toppings.

“Ya know, Reg, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” he grinned.

Everyone else groaned at the bad joke.

“Oh please, that one was hilarious and you all know it.”

“I just wish he wouldn’t push us around like that,” Elmo said, staring at his pizza forlornly. “I mean, we’re not the only ones who screw up our plans,” he stopped and frowned, “I think. He’s messed up some too, right?”

Jack nodded and patted his friend’s shoulder. “Absolutely. Like that time he got so mad he set off the laser cannon early before Dripwing got anywhere near it and we got our butts kicked before it could recharge.”

“Was that the time we held the mayor for ransom, or the time we took over the harbour?”

“I think those were the same plan, we kept the mayor in the brig on that big ship.”

Soon the evening turned to complaining about Negaduck and the various ways he’d ruined his own plans, or had just generally upset anyone in the group.

“Ya know what?!” Jack announced, bagning his fist on the table. “We should all just boot Negadork outta the team. We keep losing with him anyway, he hasn’t beaten Dripwing, and he’s a big old meanie!”

Elmo shook his head frantically. “Not a chance, he’d kill us.”

Bud nodded in agreement. “Experts agree that Negaduck would wipe out a riot without a second thought.”

“Oh please, if he can’t take out Darkwing, what chance does he have against three mutants and Jack,” Reggie said.

“Just cause he can’t beat Darkwing, doesn’t mean Negaduck is weak,” Elmo explained. “And besides, Darkwing never actually wants to hurt us, Negaduck wouldn’t hold back.”

Everyone sighed. It was true, whilst the caped crusader was certainly the bane of their existence, no one could say he didn’t care about their welfare, often trying to detain the four of them as quickly and painlessly as possible. His little sidekick, Quiverwing Quack, was a bit of a wild card in that regard; but on the most part she followed in her mentor’s footsteps to help others as much as possible.

Negaduck, on the other hand, revelled in violence and mayhem. As much as he needed the Fearsome Five’s help, as Darkwing was always just barely a step ahead of him, he was also just as capable of dealing with them as his counterpart, and far more willing to tear each of them to pieces, molecule by molecule, should they rise up.

Jack squirmed in his seat. “Ugh, everyone’s getting all depressed again! Let’s go watch a movie.”

They couldn’t agree more, wanting to be rid of the hopeless feelings clogging their thoughts, at least temporarily. Soon, Reggie had set up his stolen TV and found a movie. The three of them squeezed onto his stolen sofa, with Bud resting happily in a paddling pool.

A few hours later everyone was out cold in the dim light of the TV, the credits rolling; Jack and Elmo leaned against each other, Reggie was draped over the arm of the sofa as close to Bud as he could be without actually being in the paddling pool, and Bud relaxed his dog-like form to simply be a puddle for the night. For a little while, they just let each other feel safe.

[shinobi98]

I'vee written this from episode 29 through 32-ish and I want to dump a quick review of what I think of the characters at this point. Just for the lols for when I finish the show and I find I was completely wrong on most of them! Im using a compiled list on Google drive for the characters, so following that order they are split into clans.

Here we go.

Wei Wuxian. I really liked him at the beginning (what a funny cinnamon roll) but ever since he went missing into Burial Grounds I'm not sure...I see his points -especially when he criticised the Jins and stood up for the Wens- , but I can't believe he doesn't see he's being corrupted. Like come on. Just let the others help you for once, this is just looking for troubles. On thin ice. Used to be 9/10

Lan Zhan. Didn't like him much - or at all - when he was introduced in Clouds Recessess. I thought he was a stick in the mud and I wasn't too fond of him. He's missing for good chunks of the story. As my opinion of WWX deteriorated, I like him more or more because he's the one making sense out of the two, this gets him a passing score, even if barely. 6/10

Jian Cheng. He was my sweet sweet baby. Unparalleled sibling energy with WWX, cute angsty ship with Wen Qing, likable personality, the drama with the core. He had it all. But at some point...I don't know man. I just don't agree with anything he says anymore, and he's just becoming more and more sulky about his inferiority complex as a Clan Leader. I feel that, not counting the 16 years later part I didn't watch yet, he should get the title of co-protagonist rather than Wangji, since he's much more involved in the plot. Used to be a 8/10, still pending.

Jian Yanli. I like her. I feel like a dumb ass for getting attached and only remembering halfway through the flashback part that she's going to die, as per the first few episodes. I'm hating every second of it, like why killing her when the show is full of unpleasant people? Poor Li. Also the ship is a big plus. This kind of drama is just *chef kiss*- (and edit: after I watched the last episode of the night and she died...it's fine I'm not crying.) 8/10

Jian Fengmian. I don't really care much about him one way or the other. A little whipped by his wife - not that it is bad per se, but she really is bad so - , didn't particularly like that he favored WWX over JC. I think he could have been better, but he was pretty decent. 7/10

Madame Yu. No. 1/10

Lan Zichen. Possibly the last dude I 100% trust in this show not to let me down - as long as he isn't influenced too much by Mang Yao. I like him in a sort of uninvolved way. Don't look forward to see him on screen, don't wonder where he is or what he is doing, pleased when he shows up and does his sensible thing and then disappears again. Kept me on my toes after he escaped from Could Recesses though, but really took him so long to come back I almost forgot I was worrying about him. Way to go Zichen. 7/10

Lan Qiren. He's alright? I don't care much. Pretty dope when he took a stand against the Wans when they attacked, but I find him to be a little too much sometimes. 6/10

The files lists some juniors I haven't seen yet. They seem baby? Cute. I assume they are going to be so-and-so 's children, like in a Boruto way. Looking forward to see all the characters paired up.

Jin Guangshan. I thought he was annoying because he had a bunch of illegitimate children that I lost track of but then he became even more annoying with his very transparent power grab -and the fact that no one seems concerned is baffling to me. Overall I think I would have pretty much liked it more if the son Zixuan was clan leader and we didn't have to deal with this piece of work. 2/10

Jin Zixuan. As I was writing this post this man went through all sort of things. From proposing to having a child to being murdered. Honestly, we didn't start off the right foot when he booked the inn where WWX & co wanted to stay. I kept wishing he would kick the bucket because I hated how he treated Yanli, and I thought he would wind up to be a minor villain...while it seems he was the only normal member of his family. I feel bad for hating him so much. 8/10.

Jin Ling. Biggest reason why I thought his dad would be a bad guy. For the first part, I thought the Jins would be the villains because of him, and not the Wens, though in the end I wasn't that off the mark in a sense. He was just a cartoonish villain. I have yet to see him again after the flashback part, but his first introduction was awful. 3/10

Meng Yao. So the thing is, I was really partial towards him at the beginning. The bit at Cloud Recesses? The part with the Nie family? Perfect. Felt so bad for how everyone treated him. I started to excuse what he was doing like "it's ok, the head of guards is a dick to him" "it's okay he was double crossing the bad guys eheh" "it's ok he is...murdering civilians?" But seriously he let me down so hard. Also his face looks so different I didn't recognise him at first. At the beginning I thought I could maybe have a cute ship with Zichen but to tell the truth I don't want Meng Yao anywhere near him now. I seriously thought he wanted to murder infant Jin Ling at some point there to climb the ladder and become Clan Leader. I'm sure he set WWX up and schemed to murder the last dregs of the Wens and Zixuan. 1/10

Jin Zixun. Pretty inconsequential. Could have done with him imo. I'm only including him because I love when WWX goes "I don't even know who you are" like three times and that's a mood because where the heck did he come from.

Mo Xuanyu. I don't get why he looks like WWX. I sort understand why they used the same actor but story-wise I don't understand. How can random people look at him and recognise WWX? Also, he is kinda stupid for giving up his life to be possessed by a bad guy to get revenge but whatever floats your boat I guess. 4/10

Nie Mingjue. I don't care much for him. He bullies his brother too much and his short temper is annoying even though often justified. I thought I could kinda always rely on him to be the voice of reason despite not liking his character but then he said the stupidest thing in the show "I'm not sitting on that chair" and left it to the Jin Sect Leader...look how that worked out. Love how he basically disappeared after that, I think because he knew he screwed up big time (jk). 6/10

Nie Huaisang. Funny. Definetly underused. I hoped he would be part of the main gang. When he stopped showing up, the show took a terrible turn in its atmosphere. Please come back as sect leader in the 16 years later part (I mean, who else is there? I hope he didn't die in the meantime because he isn't showing up in this final battle). I wish I saw him swing a sword at the least once but alas. 7/10.

Wen Ruohan. I mean. What can you expect. Typical bad guy sitting on top of a lava pond that controls zombies. Wasn't expecting much development from his character and he surely didn't deliver. A good 2-dimensional bad guy to kill without thinking too hard about anything I guess. Awful person tho. 4/10

Wen Xu. I didn't even realize there were two young Wens. I thought he was his brother at first, but without the spice. Literally why was he there. 4/10

Wen Chao. He sucks, don't get me wrong. But watching him coming up with all sorts of awful things is very entertaining. 2/10 as a person, 9/10 as a villain. Cheered when he died.

Wen Lingjiao. Same as her lover, but more annoying because she got on my nerves sometimes. I was so glad when she got it. The (1) good thing coming out of WWX's corruption. 2/10

Wen Zhuliu. I really want to know what drove him to serve Chao with such devotion. His technique was kinda cool. I think he would have been an okay guy but sadly he associated with Chao. 4/10

Wen Ning. I thought "No, poor Ning is dead" ten times already and still counting. Please WWX just let him die. He is/was just a sweetheart and I loved him with all my heart. His death and everything that came after it filled me with rage, when i thought he died I was brokenhearted, and the fact that he gets blamed for killing people when it's arguably WWX's fault is so unfair. We didn't deserve Wen Ning. I don't really like that he became the Ghost General tho. 10/10

Wen Qing. I liked her. Same as her brother, how their story ended up upset me. I hoped they would get to live peacefully in their commune in the woods. That part of the story was *chef kiss*. The romance with JC lacked closure imo but I understand that they both had things going on and they would need to stretch the story too much to get the together or at the least talk about their feelings. I hoped till the end she wouldn't be killed because I knew Ning came bad 16 years later, so they must have avoided being executed, but more realistically I guess he's just a zombie and she's just dead. I lowkey shipped her with WWX though I feel this would be an unpopular opinion in the fandom -when I learned WWX has a different endgame ship I was kinda bummed sorry. I thought we would get a sort of love triangles with JC, I can't say I'm disappointed because it would have been a terrible plot. They really have a good platonic relationship, I loved to see them build that village. 8/10

Song Lan/ Xiao Xingchen / Xue Yang. What's the deal with them? They seemed to be set up to come back but only Song Lan does a passing appearance. Are they coming back? What was their significance? So weird because the untamed usually doesn't introduce characters to just drop them when the episode's over.

[merry-the-cookie]

jared kleinman for the character thing?

What I love about them: his wit, he’s such an ass but he’s funny in canon and it is so badly needed. i like how complex he is, and weirdly enough i appreciate that he stays true to himself in canon tbh im not fond of canon jared fldhsksglsj i do love the dynamic he could have with connor, which is why i ship them a lot fkdksglsj i think i can appreciate him in the confines of his relationships with others…sorry jared




What I hate about them: he just. reminds me of bad friends i had. i dont like how awful he is to evan (and connor god that school shooter chic line? kill me) but again, im glad he stays consistent during the musical. i appreciate how three dimensional the characters are, my issue with jared is more personal lol

although i wish there was some resolution for his character. also the bathbombs joke? dead forever


Favorite Moment/Quote: oh man…i like the part when he fights with evan in good for you. when evan yells at him to tell everyone he pretended to be a kid who killed himself and stuff. idk it reminds u how messy the situation really is and its pretty intense for both jared and evan and i like it. i also like the part in disappear when jared tries to talk and evan cuts him (i swear its not to see jared suFFER) it just. its little but it tells a lot

as to fav quote? you WHAT! i cant believe you tried to kiss zoe murphy! on her brothers bed! a f t e r h e d i e d


What I would like to see more focus on: mending his relationship with evan correctly and not in the half assed way we see in 99% fics. or just growing as a person, even if away from evan, and understanding why the betrayal he felt was really just long coming fksglshks. also more cryptid hunter conman aus. and in the show, damn i wish we wouldve heard him sing more ffs


What I would like to see less focus on: turning him into a meme, but also dismissing the years of Terrible between him and evan and letting em off the hook like? pls. give me some well written jared idk


Favorite pairing with: coNMANNNNN


Favorite friendship: id like to see more of jared and alana friendship tbh


NOTP: idk jared/zoe? its just kinda weird to me. i dont really care tho/>


Favorite headcanon: hes really into cryptids and aliens and stuff and connor and him bond over that (and, in the anim student au: they bond over all nighters messing with the 3d programs and recreating memes, high on sleep deprivation, giggling at 4am over a fucky walking cycle animation)

Thank u!!

[kameliendame]

I never saw your review/opinion - what did you think about POB's Swan Lake (the live webcast last year with Amandine Albisson, Mathieu Ganio and François Alu)?

Ive received asks about this before, im just gonna copypaste my answers in this ask if you dont mind! its too much to rewrite everything again. Warning: its really long.

(1) YES I DID AND I LOVED IT! This is the best ballet Nureyev has produced, nothing like any of his other works. He kept it quite minimalistic not only with the choreography but also with the sets and costumes. I love the pastel theme in the first act and then the continuation of those colours in the third act but with darker hues like purple and magenta. It’s stunning. As for the dancing, it couldnt get any better. The corps de ballet danced SO WELL, they are all extremely neat and precise and i do not get why people said their technique arent up to standard at all. Highlights of the evening for me was the corps dancing in the first act, especially Gorse, Park, Bourdon and Visocchi as the four leading ladies, and Thibault and Hurel in the Neapolitan dance. They were on a completely other level. I get that there are young dancers with lots of potential in the company but they dont even come close to the artistry, stage presence and musicality of the more expierenced dancers. I was a bit underwhelmed by the pas de trois, (Louvet/O'Neill/Baulac) especially compared by the magic that Thibault and Hurel produced when they were on stage for a criminally short time. It wasnt bad but surrounding all the hype around these three i expected more of them. They werent particularly musical (but i blame the conductor for that, the tempo was too slow and didnt allow them to dance properly) or brought out anything out of the choreography, they just ticked all the technical boxes. It was quite bland if you ask me. If these people are supposed to be next in line to be étoile they have a LOT of work to do. Instead I was more impressed by dancers of the corps, Fanny Gorse and Aubane Philbert in particular were beautiful swans with gorgeous épaulement. Bourdon and Park danced with the authority of Odette and were overcast as Big Swans. Visocchi and Révillion were a dream pairing, Marque and Kirscher moved with stylish grace and looked like they could bend gravity at their will. Joannides was a very lively and vibrant Princess. I also liked Raveau and Colasante in the Spanish dance, they had fleshed out characters and real chemistry together. What an improvement since I last saw them together in Le Palais. Thats all I can think of right now! Yes I know I havent said anything about Ganio/Albisson/Alu, but I didnt quite know what to think of their performance so I’m gonna rewatch it today and see what I can make of it. I was left with mixed feelings and some thoughts that I cant exactly put to words so maybe watching it again will make things more clear for me.

(2) I agree with you on that, I had some doubts about her being chosen for the broadcast, but after rewatching it I have changed my mind. Although I do have some criticism about her performance. The problem with Albisson is that it takes her a very long time to get in character. It was the same with her Juliet and Giselle and now also with her Odette/Odile. When I saw her Juliet she didnt warm up to Ganio until the wedding scene, which is like halfway through the ballet already! Her Giselle performance went like that too, her first act was mediocre at best. This is a problem because ballets like these are about love at first sight, even if it is an artistic choice of her to be distant at first it doesnt make any sense because it clashes with the narrative. Her first act Odette was extremely cold, detached and absent overall, she looked awkward in the pas de deux, as if she didnt want to be there in the first place. It strangely reminded me of the pas de deux in the Firebird where Ivan Tsarevich catches the Firebird and she tries to get away. I did not feel like Odette was falling in love with Siegfried at all, not even gradually. There was zero chemistry between the two. I dont think she even looked him straight in the eye once during the pas de deux. But I must add that she was up to the task technically, aesthetically and musically. Albisson is a very musical dancer who actually listens to the music and follows it accordingly. She doesnt linger in her steps but reacts to any change in the music instantly. It was very nice to watch and the only good thing about her Act II performance. She might have been emotionally stunted at first but, when she does get in character, my god, what a stupendous dancer she is! She finally warmed up in the third act, when a deliciously evil Odile enters the scene, and immediately you know what shes after: Siegfrieds heart. Every moment, every tilt of the head was directed towards him. It resulted in an extremely engaging pas de deux where she finally acknowledges Ganio’s presence, none of which happed just one act before. She went for the stereotypical smirky-face, sharp and jerky movements Odile (which I absolutely hate) but for some reason it worked for her (and it didnt annoy me as it usually does). She was a bewitching Odile with an electrifying gaze piercing right through Siegfried but she used that gaze not only on him but also on the audience, as if she wanted to enchant every single person on stage and in the audience. What a magnificent performance. In the third act there was nothing left of the tepid Odette of Act II, she danced with more abandon and recklesness, completely throwing herself in Siegfrieds arms. It was a fitting reaction to his betrayal.

Some thoughts on Ganio: I have never liked him and everytime I see him dance I am more convinced that I do not like his dancing. So far ive seen his Desire, Romeo and now Siegfried, and there is literally no difference between the three. Zero. I have tried so many times to see what’s so special about him but I just cant. He is an extremely boring dancer who does not know how to portray a character that isnt a cutout cardboard of a princely figure. There is no nuance in his performance, nothing that makes you think the person on stage is an actual person with a motive. He just comes on stage, dances his variation and afterwards I dont even remember he was there. He’s like the male Svetlana Zakharova. Technically and physically gifted but has got nothing more to offer than that.

Thoughts on Alu: “Just because Im not cast as Siegfried doesnt mean I cant be the star of the show” was probably his main thought before he took on this role!!!!! The best Rothbart Ive ever seen! He made it look like he was the main character and siegfried and odette were mere pawns in his masterplan (whatever that was - killing siegfried maybe??) Here was a fleshed out character with a story to tell and motives to his actions, a true dancer-actor to the bone. Im sitting here still in awe of his magnificent jumps in the third act variation. He made Ganio look even more bleak and one dimensional in comparison. And not to mention he almost outdanced Ganio and Albisson with that variation and with the roaring bravos and applause he got afterwards I think many would agree with me.

[gontagokuhara]

um hi! i dont mean to bother you but,,i was wondering if you could give some tips for writing connor/evan/jared? your fanfic is good at staying away from being ooc and like..how do u .. do it;..."?? are you god??

dndnddns hi!! ok so if im misunderstanding this ask im sorr but i think it means how i write each individual character as opposed to sincerely three so! i’ll do that

(also Disclaimer™ this is not thr One Tru Way to write them,, this is just how i characterize them nd ofc their fharacters are open to interpretation!)

ok so evan,, a fallacy some writers have when writing evan is that they make his whole personality Stutter Boy. like, yes, evan talks w a stutter at times, but there are also times when he gains a fair bit of confidence and can speak unimpeded. he also sometimes goes off on tangents (a good example: in the beginning of the show when he’s writing his letter to himself, and veers into talkin about his sweaty hands, etc) which showcases an aspect of his anxiety without being overbearing!

what i’d say is most important about evan is to give him a personality outside of his anxiety (and the tree thing, for the love of god, blease dont overkill the tree thing) because his mental illness isnt all that he is!

ive made a few posts about connor so ill keep it fairly brief. connor is a very complex character, and he can be tricky to portray accurately. big things to avoid would be reducing him to his mental illness(es), and writing him as being explosive and angry without cause, which we know from canon he isnt.

i personally see connor as fairly open and eager to make friends, but peoples idea of him gives him trouble with that. he tries to be kind, and makes an effort not to be awful, but something always seems to get in the way of him making a genuine connection.

something to be aware of is the fact that connor is not the person evan made up! actual connor is paranoid, distant from his family and has his guard up most of the time, and while underneath that hes fairly open, its important to recognize the fact that he is totally different from the connor that evan created.

and jared, my favorite!! ive seen some really good characterization of jared (highlighting his arrogant and crude persona that he uses to cover up some pretty big insecurities) and some really bad (showing him as an abusive, heartless ass for the sake of it and making him pretty one dimensional.)

jared makes a lot of jokes (not all of them in good taste), and overcompensates a /lot/ when he feels his confidence is threatened. hes a pretty closed off person when it comes down to it (its canon he lies a lot), and id bet that thats a cover for a lot of hidden issues on his part.

jared is a complex character, just like everyone else, and making him one dimensional is a disservice to his character. yes, hes nasty at times, but hes also insecure and willing to help evan through a lot, even if he masks his true intentions.

to write all of them, i’d say whats most important is to not gloss over their negative + ugly features and simply focus on only the “good” aspects of them. evan will lie about a lot of serious things if it benefits him, connor is reckless and absolutely awful at times, and jared is rude and obnoxious.

but at the same time, dont focus just on the ugly! a huge point of the show is that every person has good and bad in them, and we shouldnt take things at face value. all of these characters have immense potential to be great, and if you can work well with the source material, you can produce some pretty incredible content!

i hope this helped you!! 💜💜