#they’re witnessing outside of ‘bad’ vs ‘good’ which leads to them having a completely different story in their head compared to what’s

[strawberrybyers]

one thing the asoiaf/got/hotd fandoms are going to do is completely miss the point of the story being told; the complexities of the characters; the imprisonment of the monarchy, classism, intergenerational trauma, bloodlines, and misogyny.

somehow millions of people love the shows and books and yet, cannot for the life of them be able to figure out why the characters maneuver the way they do. it’s being highlighted again just how much the mark is missed within the fandom based on how alicent and rhaenyra are talked about. sure, have your takes. dislike one, love the other. but the character analysis that follows with the reasoning as to why you feel the way you do about a character (especially the female characters) seems to sometimes lack the actual context that is given.

look at how women are treated. look at the ages of the characters. look at how everyone is just a pawn in someone’s game. look at the relationships amongst the families. look at how literally a fucking title and iron throne can control someone’s values because that’s what they’ve been taught is priority.

once again: nothing wrong with having different perspectives on the characters, but for the love of god, please look at the dynamics of the environment these characters are in and ask yourself: well, how could they respond to this in this way if they’ve never been taught anything different?? what other options do they have if they’ve never been given them?? if they are aware of other choices— how can they release themselves from the shackles they were born into when everyone else around them either supports it or is nonchalant because “it’s the way things are”. how can you expect a lone wolf to go into a room of armed hunters and beg to be spared?? ask yourselves these things, then maybe you’ll finally understand why alicent is who she is and why rhaenyra is who she is.

[shslmahoushoujo]

Ok, let’s talk Eren. Because there’s certainly a lot to talk about, and I definitely think that Isayama’s still got a few tricks up his sleeve with him. I’ll definitely want to talk about Historia at some point in the future, too, but I need to get more pieces together there, so for now, let’s dive into a timeline of Eren’s mind. Let’s put the events between chapter 90 and the Marley arc in order, and see what we see. And pay close attention to what we don’t, because that’s every bit as important. And now, brace yourselves if you decide to read this, because boy is it a long one. So, time for a read more break!

So to make this easier, let’s start from the start. The moment the disconnect between Eren and the reader starts. (Side note, I can totally see why the anime made this chapter into a single episode more and more, it’s so important)

At this point, Eren gets all of those memories from the future. We definitely don’t know all he saw (”that scenery” and no doubt something related to why his dad still gave him the power) but we’ve got enough to understand his reaction, specially if we consider the shards from chapter 130 also being some of those memories he got. A horrified “I do all of this?” is probably the first thing that he thinks. And so a year passes. Memories from the past from what his father experienced, and memories from the future of things he’ll do that he just can’t believe he’d even do. At this point, his knowledge of the world is also limited to “Eldia good, Marley bad” which is reinforced by experiencing his father’s memories (as if he experienced them himself, as opposed to everyone else just reading the journals), and that certainly has an effect on him. And so we get to one year later, to the ocean scene, where he poses the question based on the future he’s seen. “Those enemies on the other side of here... If we kill them all... does that mean...”

“That’s what I’m doing in the future, right? That’s what this all leads up to?” is probably what’s going through his head as he poses that. He doesn’t quite understand how it makes sense. And then not long after, his negative biases start being reinforced. Marley comes in with their expeditionary forces and he worries about a full force attack. Then Yelena comes in with a plan from Zeke, which likely makes him start thinking that those memories make more sense.

“It’s gotta be something we must agree on in the future then. Our one option.” See how he immediately jumps to that conclusion. He’s still spending all that time thinking on how those memories make sense, and that seems to be the answer. And his us vs. them view is further built up on by the Survey Corps’ biggest mistake. Notice someone missing?

While the rest of the Levi Squad gets to open their minds about people on the other side of the walls and make connections with the volunteers and POWs, in their extreme wariness to keep Eren away from the potential of Zeke’s manipulations, they keep him from making a connection. Armin and Mikasa see progress, but Eren just sees the glares of POWs and a serious lack of time. He doesn’t get to experience a potential peaceful option that the rest get to. So at that point it is “we follow Zeke’s plan, we use a major show of force against the world, and we buy time”. Memories seem to make sense for the time being. And so another year passes, and things start looking a bit better. A port is built, and they get introduced to what seems like they may just be genuine allies from the outside world

Finally, right? There’s a chance for things to work out. Eren doesn’t get to interact with the volunteers or the POWs, but at least he can see they’ve upheld their side, the port works, and they have allies who’re following them due to a noble cause. We even see Eren smile, probably for the first time in two years! But then...

Suddenly, things get much messier. Kiyomi’s motivation for Azumabito support gets muddier which supports negative biases on his end towards the outside world, and the plan basically means a repeat of what the royal family did for years. The very thing he sees in his memories he’ll make his father put an end to, no less. “Surely I’m not bringing upon the rumbling to support this, right?” must be one of the things that comes up in his head. And so, he makes the push. All options should be checked out, there must be another way. Him using the rumbling could still be part of an alternative plan, after all. The Azumabito head out, and another year passes...

Boy, if you thought Eren’s biases towards the outside world were negative before, they’re hitting rock bottom right here. Everything here keeps supporting the idea that “the world is the enemy”.  And the time aspect comes up yet again. The 104th discuss passing down his titan, and it reminds him time is running out and if he wants to keep his friends safe and prevent the cycle of titans to continue, he needs to do something. And as if things weren’t bad enough yet, after the railway opening ceremony, Yelena comes over and...

Talk about the motherest of all fucks. He already disagreed with Zeke’s plan on the basis of Historia being used as a baby machine and THEN this comes up? And Zeke’s gonna come in one way or the other. The top brass of the military is compromised. Absolutely everything seems against the island at this point. Zeke just wants to euthanize every Subject of Ymir. The Azumabito are just hanging out like vultures waiting for the spoils from the island. Everyone else plain old wants them dead. He didn’t even get to hang out with the volunteers like Onyankopon to see that they genuinely care for the future of the island! It’s not surprising that at this point, this is the conclusion he comes to.

And that’s it, right? Eren just lost all faith in everything except Paradis (and not even all of it) and wants everything to burn, right? Well, it’s certainly what Isayama wants you to think at this point. See, I don’t doubt that, at this point in time, Eren did mean this. But here’s where the fun part comes: We’re still missing parts in the middle. But we have something starting to build up to that something else. We fast forward a month or so, to 123. The first time Eren experiences the outside world by himself.

I think this moment is pretty important. His perception of the world was mostly about his dad’s memories (which he brings up to Mikasa just before). But this is very different. For the first time, he gets to witness firsthand the scale of what he’s considering. And following that... Well, you already see him in this page, he stands out, but he comes into play. Fez kid.

That likely makes Eren think of other future memories that haven’t come to pass, but most important, it begins showing Eren another side of the outside world. See, so far his impressions are that it’s either people like the Azumabito who’re only interested due to having something to gain, or people like Sargent Gross or Zeke who outright want them dead, whether it’s out of hatred or genuinely thinking it’s the right thing. But Fez Kid and the people he’s with are different. They’re just like Eren, Mikasa, and Armin were after the fall of Wall Maria. I do think that this is the first time Eren truly questions going with the Rumbling

But they also do something that could be the key in preventing the potential destructive course Eren was in at the time:

I don’t think many people really consider how huge this is. Just a month or so before, Eren saw the whole outside world as the enemy. Yet here, in this one night, he sees more humanity to the outside world and something far more positive than he’d considered in YEARS. These people don’t even understand them, there’s a language barrier, and yet during that night a connection is built and for once, it’s just Eren actually sharing a good time with others. Sure, he may intend this as a goodbye considering he left the next day either way, but I genuinely think this is the point where he’d start having some hesitation about his plan.

The next day, he leaves, but then we enter ??? territory from the good few months he spent at Marley leading up to the Marley arc. His talk on the basement with Reiner is no doubt Eren at his most honest in quite some time, and based on all we have leading up to this, it’s clear it takes more than just Falco to make him change his views to these:

The story has made that much clear. He no doubt spent a long time on his own before even infiltrating at Fort Slava (the panel of Eren with his Marley arc look at the town near the fort is proof enough), and we also know Fez kid was a part of his life yet again. The fact we still have two unexplained panels of him tells us there’s more we’re missing.

And this is where I think Isayama’s leading the audience into a narrative trap. It reminds me of The Last of Us 2, in a way. Being vague here for people who haven’t watched and/or played the game, Ellie’s flashbacks seem to reinforce a certain perspective on why she’s gone on her quest, only for further ones down the line completely change what we thought she knew and recontextualizing her motivation. I think this is similar, it just happens to be a monthly manga that’s letting you sit on each assumption for months as opposed to it being a 20+ hour long game that you can get through in a few sittings.

But yeah, before I end up digressing even further, that’s what I think is happening. Isayama is reinforcing certain assumptions, and organizing the flashbacks in a way that obfuscates the full truth. At this point, I end up referring to @jaegerbroshoe​‘s theory on Eren finally making full sense of those memories during Willy’s speech in chapter 100. So summing up how I think it went, Eren did mean for the destruction of the world 9 months before current events, upon arriving at the mainland, interacting with Fez kid and haivng to live there for a few months he started questioning his plan and reconsidering what those memories meant (”Do I really do this despite what I’ve now learned?”), and finally, as Willy’s speech happens and he talks to Reiner, he gets some true clarity.

But then you ask, if his plan isn’t the destruction of the world, why would he still push his friends away? I think it’s a complicated situation. First off, he still does intend to make himself into a monster in the eyes of everyone else, and he’s not just gonna go “ha, just kidding!” last second. He needs to commit to the role. But also, because he already locked himself into it. Floch has already formed the Yeagerists. Zeke’s plan is in motion. The Liberio festival and raid is gonna happen either way. And there’s a whole other post I have to make on Historia’s pregnancy at some point, but I suspect it’s fake and that Historia herself isn’t even in Paradis anymore at this point. The memories now make sense, he understands his own plan, but it doesn’t mean he can just walk back on things and pretend there’ll be no consequences. All he has left is to keep moving forward and trust that this last interpretation of his future memories is right.

[rachelbethhines]

Tangled Salt Marathon - The Way of the Willow

Now here’s a controversial episode from season one. Let’s delve into the discourse, shall we. 

Summary:  It's Queen Arianna's birthday, and she receives an unexpected guest: her estranged sister, Willow. Willow and Rapunzel quickly bond, sharing a lot of the same personality traits (most notably them never wearing shoes), and Arianna feels a bit left out. To add to her aggravation, Willow has given her a pet with an annoying rattle. Eventually, Arianna explodes at her sister, letting her know her irritation with her and throws away the rattle. The pet starts to multiply and rampage over the countryside. Meanwhile, Lance and Eugene  take the King camping. 

More Filler, More Poor Pacing, More Fatigue 

This is yet another episode that was moved around. Noticing a pattern yet? It doesn’t effect the plot much, but it kills the pacing dead. By the time you get to this episode you’re just tired and bored and ready for the show to just get on with things. 

Let's Talk About Representation 

So we have here a show that is marketed towards pre-teen little girls run by two middle aged white guys and written primarily by men. The creators have claimed that female relationships are the focus of the show, but only to give us one female friend for our main hero, no other friendships with women in them, just two sister relationships, and only one mother that is even alive. 

Furthermore they go on to break up that single female friendship, refuse to give any focus to the only mother in the show, and then wrap the plot around the dead abusive mom instead, making her unnecessarily even more horrible than she was in the OG film. (just to make the equally abusive father in the show look better)

Meanwhile we get four father figures, all of whom are just some variant on the ‘overprotective estranged dad’ trope. Even though at least two of them could have been easily written to be mothers instead and it’d not change the plot one bit.   

When women talk about about poor representation in media, it’s things like this we are often complaining about. That’s not to say that men can’t write women.  Miyazaki, of Studio Ghibli fame, has made a lifelong career out writing movies for and starring women. Nor is this a claim that the TTS crew are misogynist. You can be well intentioned and still screw up. As is most often the case in films. 

But nevertheless, if you are writing for a demographic that you are not a part of then you need to either include those voices in the development of your story or reach out and consult people within that demographic. And no, you’re wife/niece/daughter/mother does not count here. You need to go beyond your personal social circle, as people who either don’t know you or have worked in the industry can be more open about what is needed in the writing process.  

Sadly there are rumors, (and please keep in mind this is only rumor, and we’ll never know the actual truth due to the fact that production artists are under contract and can’t share things without fearing for their livelihoods) but there are stories of the head showrunner shutting down the opinions of the female storyboard artists who warned him of some these creative decisions. 

Moreover said creator responded to criticisms of how his female characters were written by claiming he ‘knew strong women in his life’ as if that actually had anything to do with his writing skills. It’s a poor response and smacks of ‘Well I can’t be misogynistic, I love women. See, I married one’. Dear, male creators, please don't ever do this. It makes you look bad. 

So Where are Arianna and Willow From, Again?

The show keeps dropping hints that they’re from Corona itself and are born princesses, but that makes little sense. Because if Arianna was the rightful heir she’d have far more political power then she actually does in the show. If we’re to buy the idea that only Rapunzel will be in charge, and not her and Eugene, or even just Eugene. Then we have to accept that it’s because she’s the rightful heir by birth. If so, then Frederic must also be the blood heir or otherwise he wouldn’t be able to do all the things he does in the show. 

TTS is so determine to not have any real world markers in the show and keeping things a ‘fantasy’ that it winds up swinging too far in the opposite direction. To the point that it undermines its own worldbuilding.     

The Conflict Between Willow and Arianna is Good, but Unnecessary 

I’ve seen some debate over ‘who is right’ here, along with tons of unwarranted shade thrown at Willow, but the truth is, it doesn’t matter. Neither side is right or wrong, and for once the conflict in TTS is real, complex, not easily solvable with a ten minute conversation, and is presented evenly so that you know where each side is coming from. But in the end, it doesn’t add anything to the series. 

Willow is never seen outside of this episode. This is the only story that gives Arianna any kind of focus. Rapunzel learns nothing useful from witnessing their squabbles and it’s all build up to a be bad parable/parallel in the series finale. 

It’s a waste. A waste of conflict. A waste of character. A waste of time. 

Had Arianna been treated as an important character to the narrative, like she should have been, then maybe the episode would have fared better. 

Arianna is Reduced to a Pointless Parallel

We talked about it before but this might be the most grievous example of Tangled’s useless parallels.

Willow and Arianna are meant to be ‘foreshadowing’ (and I use that term loosely) for Rapunzel and Cassandra’s conflict in the finale season. Let me count the ways of how bad this actually is..

For starters Willows and Arianna’s conflit isn’t actually the same as Raps and Cass. There’s some overlap, but ultimately theirs is actually deeper and more complex than the Raps vs Cass stuff. It’s also only between them and does not involve ruining the lives of other people. So it’s a weak comparison to begin with.

Cassandra isn’t even here to make the parallel complete. She barely interacts with Arianna and has never met Willow on screen.

Rapunzel learns the wrong lessons from this. She gets encouragement from her aunt to go traveling and a pep talk from her mom during the show’s finale, but she doesn’t actually apply any of the actual context of the arguments being made to her own life. Making the parallel shallow.

Reducing a character from the original film, one that you did not create and who has reasons to be have more plot importance then they are given, to a mere ‘parallel’ for your favorite OC is just bad fanfiction. This is something that I would expect from a seven year old setting out to write their first ever story. Not from grown adults, who are supposedly professionals, who've worked for years in the industry and are employed by the largest entertainment studio in the world.

Now before you jump down my throat, there’s nothing wrong with fanfiction itself, nor with children exploring their favorite stories in ways they find personally fulfilling. But I happen to hold mass produced media to a different, and ultimately higher standard. As well should we all. A television show made by the mouse has more real world impact than a little girl posting on Ao3.

Critiquing stuff like female representation, the behind the scenes hiring processes that leads to either good or bad rep, and the impression these stories can have on people still developing their worldviews is important. Questioning things are needed in order to make change happen. If you never acknowledge how giving a show targeted to women to a male showrunner can cause problems then you’re never going to push the big companies for more female lead shows. Which means more women are left without work.    

This is Subjective but...

I don’t like the Uumlaut being used as the main conflict. Look, if you like the Gremlins references, good for you, but I was promised sword fights and adventure according to the pilot and all I got was a parody of a 80s horror comedy that decided to skip out on the ‘horror’ part. The Uumlaut isn’t threatening enough to be interesting and the lack of real threats and challenges in this show is really starting to weigh things down. Plus it just distracts from the far more interesting human drama going on with Willow and Arianna. 

Like if you don't want action to be the focus of every episode, that’s fine, but commit to that. Don't just half-ass it because you feel the need to shoehorn in an action sequence where it isn’t needed.    

Conclusion

I like Willow as a character, but not this episode. They needed to do more with her to justify her existence, and they needed to do more with Arianna while at it. Sadly, you won't really miss out on much if you decided to skip this episode and that’s a shame. 

Also... 

I’ll forever headcanon that Willow is the wife that Stan mentioned back in Rapunzel’s Enemy and that she’s his and Pete’s beard. You can’t change my mind. Poly relationships for the win! 

[kitten1618x]

GoT Afterthoughts ep. 08x02 ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ (Jonsa Edition)

Guys this episode was sooooooo good! Okay, okay, okay, let’s unpack here! I have lots of thoughts and since this isn’t broken up into parts, this is going to be a long post, so I’m gonna drop this bad boy under a read more. 

We begin in the Great Hall. It appears Jaime is on trial. Queen Dany sits at the head of the table—and imagine having the fucken audacity to sit in Winterfell — in Rickard fucken Starks seat—and in front of his grandchildren, talking about the extermination of Aerys Targaryen like he was some noble king that was just slaughtered by the big bad kingslayer, and NOT the murderous fucken mad Targ king, whom crimes’ you just recently apologized to Jon for, and called him evil to conveniently set yourself apart from him—or did you just forget all that, Dany? Hmmm? IMAGINE the big hairy pair you have to have to actually sit in between the Starks in their own home and utterly disrespect them like that—all while claiming to be in love with one of them? Wow. Just wow. And no, I’m not even sorry for that amazingly clunky run-on sentence, either.

~

I see that Jaime still has no interest in setting the record straight on why he killed Aerys Targaryen. It appears only Brienne will truly ever know about the millions of people he saved that day in doing so. Jaime stands his ground, though, and gives up Cersei’s plans. Tyrion tries to stand up for him, but Dany cuts him off at the knees (no pun intended), embarrassing him in front of everyone, as per ush.

~

For a moment her and Sansa have common ground. Sansa doesn’t trust Jaime either because of the wrongs he committed against her family. Jamie won’t apologize for any of it— their houses were at war. But Brienne vouches for him—my courageous, yet shy bb (God, I love her), and Sansa relents, her mind changed when Brienne says she’d fight beside him. Sansa trusts Brienne with her life, therefore Brienne trusting Jaime with hers is good enough for the Lady of Winterfell.

Dany is clearly not pleased with this turn of events. She turns to Jon, addressing him as Warden of the North and asks him what he thinks — assuming he will take her side, but—

He does not.

~

Dany finally relents as well, grounding out a “very well” between clenched teeth, as Tyrion breathes a sigh of relief that his big bro will not be extra crispy or original recipe’d today. GreyWorm returns Jaime’s sword—rather forcefully, knowing his queen is displeased—as Jaime thanks Dany for her uncharacteristic mercy.

~

Scene Highlights:

Bran blurting out “the things we do for love” and leaving Jaime shooketh

Sansa immediately standing up and leaving without waiting to be dismissed by the queen, and Jon ducking his head to avoid eye contact and then dipping as soon as Dany turns to face him.

~

Which takes us into the corridors of Winterfell and Dany resorting to her favorite pastime when she’s angry about things not going her way: berating her Hand in front of everyone. Luckily for Tyrion it’s just Jorah and Varys to witness it this time. Once again she accuses him of treason, and Tyrion is pretty sure that his time as Hand in her service is fast dwindling.

~

We jump to the forge where Arya stands back admiring Gendry work his magic—a callback to their time at Harrenhall in their younger years. They have a little flirty weaponry banter, and Arya wants to know what the AotD are like. She utters the iconic ‘many faces of death’ lines from the trailer while she impresses Gendry with some dead ass accurate blade throwing. He’ll be getting right on making her that weapon, by the way—and probably walking a little funny while he does it. 😉

~

Jaime seeks out Bran in the Godswood. He apologizes for what he did and tells Bran he’s not that person anymore. “You still would be if you hadn’t pushed me out that window, and I’d still be Brandon Stark.” Wow. Jaime wants to know why Bran didn’t tell them what he did, and Bran basically tells him it’s because they need him. When Jaime inquires “what about afterwards?” Bran drops an ominous “how do you know there will be an afterwards?”

~

We jump back to the Winterfell courtyard, where the Lannister brothers are catching up and commiserating about being in Winterfell again. Dany is different, Tyrion tells Jaime, and Jaime doesn’t seem so convinced. Tyrion wants to know if Cersei lied about the baby, and Jaime tells him that was true (as far as he/we know, people). But what I REALLY love about their conversation is this part:

~

J: She’s always been good at using the truth to tell lies. Don’t be too hard on yourself. She’s fooled me more than anybody.

~

T: She never fooled you. You always knew exactly what she was, and you loved her anyway.

~

The funny, or actually ironic thing about this conversation is they’re talking about Cersei, but if you flip the dialogue between the Lannister brothers here, the same could be said for Dany—especially the bolded part. Think back to the things Tyrion said to Jorah when he kidnapped him back in season 5 — he was confused by Jorah’s blind loyalty, too. How the mighty have fallen, Tyrion.

~

They move their conversation up to the battlements, where Tyrion finds the silver lining that at least he won’t die at Cersei’s hands, and perhaps once he’s torn apart by the dead, he’ll march to Kings Landing and rip her apart too. But he’s talking to himself, because Jaime is too busy watching Brienne supervising the training of her ranks just outside the gates.

~

And my Braime heart is siiiiiiiinging!!!

~

He joins her below, and she calls him out for acting weird and not insulting her as per ush. lol It’s really just an adorable little love spat — complete with awkwardness and frustration and plenty of UST. And as the music lulls romantically, he basically admits that she’s the reason he’s here and even though he’s no longer the fighter that he used to be, he‘d be honored to serve under her command if she’ll have him—which is basically fucken a straight up declaration of love, okay? He literally just said—complete with puppy dog eyes—“I love you.” CHANGE MY MIND!!

~

Brienne is taken aback by this declaration of love and is at loss for words — and so she ducks out, leaving him to watch after her forlornly. And my Braime heart is still siiiiiiiinging!!!!

~

We head back inside of Winterfell, Dany is alone in her chambers — and they aren’t the Lord’s Chambers, that’s for damn sure. She’s not having a very good day, and her expression here certainly reflects that. Jorah enters, asking her forgiveness, reminding her that forgiveness is important. This leads into a conversation where he basically asks her to take it easy on Tyrion and give him another chance.

~

While book!Jorah might be a creep, I truly adore show!Jorah, who laments that when he found out Dany gave Tyrion this position, it broke his heart, but he still believes that Tyrion was the right choice; he’s smart, he owns his mistakes and he learns from them.

~

What I find odd is Dany’s reply: “You’re advising me to forgive the man who stole your position?”

~

Wait... what? When did Tyrion do that? I recall Dany proudly pinning that golden hand pin on a very humbled Tyrion in the season 6 finale—not some rabid dwarf attacking an unsuspecting Jorah and wrestling the position from his gnarled greyscaled hands—and what-the-ever-living-fuck kind of crazy ass dialogue are they giving this girl?

~

Jorah has one other suggestion for her, if she’ll allow him such liberties. Annnnnd now the Sansa/Dany scene makes so much more sense. Dany didn’t seek Sansa out of her own accord to try and bridge the icy gap between them because she’s just so humble and wonderful and loving and good!!!! !!!! !!!! It was actually Ser Jorah’s idea.

~

So Dany takes him up on his suggestion and seeks Sansa out, finding her in the library with Lord Royce. But ahhhh this scene is just so fucken good, so let’s unpack it, shall we?

~

Dany enters and asks that they speak in private, and Sansa cedes to her wishes, dismissing Lord Royce.

~

D - I thought you and I were on the verge of agreement before... about Ser Jaime.

~

S - Brienne has been loyal to me always. I trust her more than anyone.

~

D - I wish I could have that kind of faith in my advisers.

~

Here she takes a low blow at Tyrion again, but Sansa defends him.

~

S - Tyrion is a good man. He was never anything but decent towards me.

~

D - I didn’t ask him to be my hand simply because he was good. I asked him to be my hand because he was good and intelligent and ruthless when he had to be. (See, I told y’all Tyrion didn’t steal the position... and yes, I’m being petty lol). Dany steps closer into Sansa’s space as she continues. He never should have trusted Cersei.

~

S - You never should have either.

~

Sansa drops a truth bomb, insinuating (rightly) that Dany shares the blame here, and Dany doesn’t like this at all. She swallows, containing her anger and paints on a fake smile in her irritation at Sansa’s words.

~

D - I thought he knew his sister.

~

S - Families are complicated.

~

Dany smiles at that and pulls up a seat, indicating for Sansa to do the same.

~

D - Ours certainly have been.

~

S - A sad thing to have in common.

~

D - We have other things in common. We’ve both known what it means to lead people who aren’t inclined to accept a woman’s rule. And we’ve both done a damn good job of it, from what I can tell...

~

Sansa smiles briefly at this. Clearly, Dany is using the compliment strategy again, but not so shallowly this time. Even if she truly believes this, the commonality of them both being women ruling is where this similarity ends. We’ve seen how differently they run things via season 7’s blatant comparison of ‘the three queens’. Sansa stores food, Cersei steals it, and Dany burns it (and yes, I’m going to keep bringing this up). But honestly, who could forget?

vs.

D - (cont.) ...and yet I can’t help feeling like we’re at odds with each other. Why is that?

~

Sansa takes a deep breath but doesn’t reply.

~

D - Your brother?

~

Yeah y’all, they really did that. But again I say, no love triangle brewing here, folks.

~

S - He loves you, you know that? *(I’ll address this in a minute)

~

D - That bothers you?

~

S - Men do stupid things for women. They’re easily manipulated.

~

D - All my life I’ve known one goal. The iron throne. Taking it back from the people that destroyed my family, and almost destroyed yours. My war was against them until I met Jon. Now I’m here, half a world away, fighting Jon’s war alongside him. Tell me, who manipulated whom?

~

Y’all are you serious?!?!? This entire fucken monologue is like literally POLITICAL!JON — I mean, it’s like D&D are literally fucken trolling this relationship so hard. Nothing like hiding some shit right out in plain sight for all the world to not see it. *And if you think for one minute that Sansa is not playing the game here, and that she actually did a complete 180, then I don’t know what to tell you other than, just wait and see.

~

There was a reason that they cut that office scene between her and Jon in the last episode, and after mulling it over with a few of my comrades, I think that it’s possible that Jon came clean and brought Sansa in on it. They have been a unit since they reunited, and a major part of Sansa’s hostility in the last episode was because she felt Dany was encroaching upon that, and she was losing Jon. Romantic or platonic, no one can deny the dynamic is there between Jon and Sansa. I happen to think it’s romantic, and I will die on this hill—but political!jon and jonsa aren’t mutually exclusive!!! !!! Okay, back to our dialogue.

~

S - (releases a small laugh and looks down—and I can’t help hearing Catelyn’s voice in my head: ‘you always look at your feet when you lie’) I should have thanked you the moment you arrived. That was a mistake. 

~

D- (reaching down and placing her hand atop of Sansa’s). I’m here because I love your brother, and I trust him. And I know he’s true to his word. He’s only the second man in my life I can say that about. 

~

S - Who was the first?

~

D- Someone taller. 

~

They both giggle. I assume the other man she’s talking about is Drogo. In any event, I feel Dany is being truly sincere here. This is why people (her stans and the GA both) have a hard time seeing the darkness in her—because one minute she’s sitting narrow-eyed at a table, fighting off a tantrum while she drones on about her father—the fucken mad king—and how her and her brother fantasized about what they would do to the man that murdered him (one can only assume she wasn’t implying knitting him a sweater and mittens), and the next minute she’s all gentle heart and eyes and soft tones about loving and trusting Jon, and giggling with his sister about her ex being much taller than him. I get it. I really do.

~

But here’s the thing about political!jon that the antis and the jonerii always get wrong—at least the version I subscribe to (and yes, there are several variations of it because we aren’t a hive-mind like we’re always accused of being): Jon has every intention of fulfilling his pledge to Dany and whatever that entails—which is why he keeps trying to convince everyone that she’ll be a good queen (including himself). But he doesn’t love her. He simply used the feelings that he recognized that she had for him, to manipulate her to his cause. This doesn’t mean that he’ll throw her out of winterfell and bone his sister when it’s all said and done—because no, Jon isn’t a creep, but he is actually rather cunning when he deems it necessary.

~

However, he won’t have to keep up the charade, or boot her ass out of the north, or any of the other things the jonerii accuse us of ‘fantasizing’ about, because Dany is going to go dark, and everyone will see her for what she truly is. So, let’s return to our dialogue so I can get tf off of this scene! lol

~ S - And what happens afterwards? We defeat the dead, you destroy Cersei, what happens then?

~

D - I take the iron throne. 

~

S - What about the North? (Sansa’s tone drops here as she becomes emotional about her home and her people, the music becomes more ominous as the softness ebbs from Dany’s face). It was taken from us, and we took it back. And we said we’d never bow to anyone else again. (Her tone gets sharper, as she asks again). What about the North?

~

Dany looks angry now. She’s done playing nice, as she pulls her hand back from Sansa’s. The ominous music drones on as they stare at each other, and the maester interrupts them.~Theon has arrived at Winterfell. The music swells, and Theon looks first to a very visibly emotional Sansa, then Dany, and then back to Sansa again before customarily bowing to and acknowledging his queen. Suddenly Dany gives a flying fuck about her ally and inquires about Yara. Theon explains she’s taken back the Iron Islands in her (Dany’s) name.

~

“But why aren’t you with her?” Dany asks, confused at his presence, while the music swells again and Theon looks again, to Sansa—and not his queen. Dany of course notices this, and turns to look at Sansa as well, as Theon directly addresses—you guessed it—Sansa, and not his queen: “I want to fight for Winterfell, Lady Sansa. If you’ll have me.”

~

And oh dear god, I’m so emotional rn, as Sansa’s eyes flood with tears and she runs to envelope Theon in a hug — Theon whom through his own trauma, not only helped to get her away from Ramsay and safely to Jon — but also cared enough for her and the Starks and what he did, to come back and finish making amends!!!! And you know Sansa is so proud of him!!! And I just had a conversation earlier with my bb @scullylikesscience that Theon would likely pledge to protect Bran, and that he will also likely sacrifice himself somehow to save one of the Starks, therefore completing his redemption arc, and I just can’t even rn— 😭😭

~

Scene Highlights:

Lord Royce leaving only when Sansa dismissed him.

Dany witnessing firsthand the devotion that Sansa and the Starks inspire in people.

Also... don’t forget

We’re back out in the courtyard, where Dadvos is serving up dinner to the Northerners with a side of confidence, and Gilly is advising a woman where to go below in the crypts. A little orphan(?) girl with burns on the side of her face asks Davos where she should go and my fucken heart is shattering again because you know he sees Princess Shireen in her!!!

~

And Fuck you Bryan Cogman, you’re killing me!!!

~

She’s not sure where to go because she knows the children are going to the crypts where they’ll be safer, but both of her brothers were soldiers and so she wants to fight too. Auntie Gilly to the rescue: she tells the girl that she’d feel much safer if she was down in the crypts protecting her and her son, and with a purpose, the girl happily accepts her bowl and heads off as Gilly smiles softly at Davos. And god dammit, Liam Cunningham played this scene so well. He literally has me tearing up here!

~

The horn blows for a new arrival, and Edd is here! The last of the Nights Watch are back together again — and Tormund. lol He glomps Jon, affectionately dubbing him his ‘little crow’, and they let Jon know that Last Hearth is done for and anyone else who’s still out there is pretty much part of the AotD now. They have until sunrise to finish preparing. 

~

And the war council has commenced.~We get a little glimpse of what the NK wants, I guess??? Bran says “he wants to erase this world, and I am its memory.” —but why? And then Sam says something pretty poignant that I want @thelawyerthatwaspromised ‘s thoughts/opinion on: “That’s what death is, isn’t it? Forgetting. Being forgotten. If we forget where we’ve been and what we’ve done, we’re not men anymore, just animals.Your memories don’t come from books, your stories aren’t just stories. If I wanted to erase the world, I may not start with you.”

~

Pretty sure those that theorized that Sam is writing A Song of Ice and Fire were right, y’all —  and with such a ‘poetic’ title, to boot.

~

They strategize a plan to ferret the NK out using (a volunteering) Bran as bait in the Godswood. Theon volunteers himself and the Iron Born to stay with Bran and protect him (and jfc here comes the end I predicted for Theon and I hate it so much), as Jon shares that taking out the NK will likely diminish the entire army. They cement their battle plans and Dany insists Tyrion stay in the crypts because she intends to keep him on as Hand. Tormund announces that they are all going to die, but at least they’ll die together, and Jon suggests everyone get some rest. Avoiding eye contact with Dany, he utters “your grace,” and then quickly ducks out on her ass again, leaving her looking confused and frustrated.

~

Scene Highlights:

Jon’s commanding presence in this meeting — even so far as to dismiss everyone, despite the fact that Dany is the queen and supposed to be the one calling the shots. Even her people look to him here for leadership, which is interesting.

Aegon Targaryen and his sister-wives.

Thank you @goodqueenalys ❤️

Alys Karstark making another appearance here, standing beside Theon—yeah, I’m becoming more and more convinced we’re getting a Sansa death fake-out at the expense of this ginger beauty.

~

We head back out to the courtyard where a lonely looking Missandei attempts to befriend some northern children. Unfortunately, she came with the Dragon Queen, so they want nothing to do with her. Grey Worm joins her and the two make plans to leave for Naath after Dany takes the throne — which means that one of them is probably going to die. Sigh.

~

Way up high on the ramparts, Sam asks Jon if he’s told Dany yet. He has not, and so Sam prods him a bit — and oh look, there’s Ghost, off to the side looking like they literally photo-shopped him into the scene. 🙄

~

Edd joins them, and the last of the Watchers On The Wall commiserate, and poke a little fun at Sam. I’m very emotional as Edd says “last man left, burn the rest of us” (which most likely won’t be him) as they pan out to the northern scenery in the distance.

~

The Lannister boys are reminiscing again, this time by the hearth and are joined by Brienne and Podrick. Momma Brienne allows Pod a half cup of wine (which Tyrion overflows) and Jaime encourages her to join them (smitten fool). She does, as well as Davos and Tormund, too—who is fucken hilarious here as he tries to impress Brienne with one of his tall tales, then sloppily downs his horn of sour goats milk. It’s all rather strange. lol

~

There’s a brief scene of Arya and the Hound on the ramparts. She wants to know what he’s doing here—when’s the last time he fought for anyone but himself, as to which he replies: “I fought for you, didn’t I?” True enough. Beric joins them and Arya takes her leave, declaring she doesn’t intend to spend her last hours with these two miserable old shits. lol

~

I’m not sure where she headed off to, but Gendry finds her and presents her with her weapon. Arya wants to know what the red woman wanted with him. He tells her his blood because he’s Robert Baratheon’s bastard — which leads into Arya wanting to know how many women he’s been with. Gendry avoids the question, but Arya persists, many face gaming his ass until he relents. LOL

~

The number is 3, and Arya wants to be number 4. She wants to know what it’s like before she dies. And holy shit, they went there! They kiss passionately, with Arya taking the lead. She orders him to take his own bloody pants off and takes the bull for a ride—if ya know what I mean... 😉

We return to the group before the hearth in the hall. Tyrion remarks that almost all among them had fought the Starks at some point, and yet, here they all are defending them. But yeah, this story is about a Targaryen restoration.

~

In their battle banter, it comes up that Brienne is not a Knight—and while Tormund would happily Knight her gorgeous big-womaned ass ten times over, tradition does not allow her to be one because she’s a woman. Oh the irony that the most honorable of them all—the one who actually is a true knight, cannot be named one. Until Jaime says, “hold my beer!” (or wine, rather).

~

Okay guys, like honestly, this is probably my most favorite scene of the entire series. Everything about it is so beautiful and wholesome, as Jaime declares any Knight can make another Knight and bids Brienne to kneel. She looks to Pod who, with an adoring face, gives her a little nod of encouragement, then she looks to Jaime, and he does the same.

~

The lovely music, the proud faces of all the men who look on with awe as Brienne kneels and Jaime says the words, pressing his blade gently from one shoulder to the other and makes some fucken Westerosi history when he says proudly: “Arise Brienne of Tarth, a Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.”

~

Guuuuuuuys!!!! Omg!!!! I’m definitely ugly CRYING here!!!! Brienne’s eyes welling with tears, her proud smile, all these men clapping and their proud faces!!! Yeah, this is definitely 10/10 my most FAVORITE ever GoT scene!!! Just beautiful!

~

We jump back out to the courtyard where a very adorable and yet insanely stubborn little Lyanna Mormont is arguing with Jorah about going to the crypts. She pledged to fight for the North and she intends to, so she bids her cousin good fortune and leaves to take her place. Sadly, I think that she will not make it through the battle for Winterfell.

~

Sam has come to give Jorah Heartsbane. This is another very loaded and lovely scene, and my heart is pretty heavy, because I’m not very confident that Jorah will make it out of this battle alive, either. Sam tells him: “your father taught me how to be a man. Taught me how to do what’s right. This is right,” as he presents him the sword. Jorah accepts this heartfelt gesture and declares that he will wield it in his memory, to guard the realms of men.

~

BRYAN COGMAN!!!! I’M COMING FOR YOU FOR MAKING ME CRY ALL DAMN NIGHT!!!!

~

But seriously, the dynamic between Jorah and Sam has just been so beautiful. And all the antis can fuck right off with their shit-talking of this beautiful and wholesome creature that is Samwell Tarly!

~

We jump back to the crew before the hearth who are loathe to call it a night. Tyrion wants a song, and we are treated to Pod’s beautiful rendition of Jenny of Oldstones — and this entire montage is so beautiful, as we see how everyone is prepping for battle, spending their last hours with those they love and saying their goodbyes. The desperation in Missandei and GreyWorm’s very passionate goodbye kiss is extremely moving and makes me think this is probably their final kiss goodbye, and Jorah looks so gallant as he swings ‘round his horse, making his father proud and my heart is just swelling with love and dread and ughhhhhhhh!!!!!

~

At first I was a bit upset that none of the Starks were actually together here, but in my rewatch, I’ve come to understand why a little bit more. It seems as if they’ve all revisited their own life’s journey prior to coming home (in this episode). Jon, on the ramparts with Ghost and his remaining brothers of the Nights Watch. Arya, first sharing a brief moment with the Hound and Beric (brothers without banners), and then with Gendry. Sansa sharing a meal with Theon out in the courtyard in the home that holds both good and traumatic memories for both of them. He redeemed himself through her (as Jon said), and they share a bond of both surviving Ramsay and his horrors.

~

Bryan Cogman did NOT disappoint with this lovely episode, which has been what we will surely look back on as a bittersweet eulogy of sorts to some of the beloved characters we’ve come to know over the years. Yeah, this was beautifully done.

~

Ahhh, and lastly, we delve down into the crypts where Jon stands before the statue of his mother. Dany has very obviously (and understandably) grown tired of being avoided and sought him out. When he acknowledges her presence with a brief glance and a very faint smile, she cautiously moves closer and wraps her arms around him. And yep, here it is—the reveal. I honestly thought he would keep it from her as long as he possibly could, but I guess he figures they might all bite it anyway, so fuck it... (i’m kidding!! Or am i??)

~

Dany is taken aback by his words. She releases a shuddering breath and immediately steps away from him, denying it: that’s impossible. Jon tells her he wishes it were — and I fully believe him. Aside from the full-on identity crisis he’s been experiencing, you all know he has no interest in the Iron Throne... all this man has ever wanted was to protect his home, and the ones he loves.

~

Dany thinks there’s a conspiracy against her between Bran and Sam—and now Jon’s tone and demeanor have changed a bit. He takes a step towards her and insists that it’s true, calling her Dany because it’s informal and personal, and he knows now that she’s his aunt—that means she’s still his family—and I think he’s hoping that they’ll still be able to find some common ground with that.

~

But the fact that she’s found actual family—that she’s not really the last Targaryen alone in the world anymore—doesn’t seem to affect her as much as the fact that Jon is the last male heir of their line, and so therefore his claim for the throne overrides hers. A claim he has expressed no want or intent for, mind you. Maybe he intended to tell her no one would have to know, and he’d never contest her claim if she’d agree to leave the North independent when it’s all said and done... who knows? Certainly not Jon, because it’s clear he’s taken aback by her response here.

~

D - if it were true, it would make you the last male heir of House Targaryen (she grounds out those bolded words through clenched teeth and Kit’s micro expressions are on point—jfc, Watch his eyes!!). You’d have a claim to the iron throne.

~

And with the final utterance of Dany’s last words, the war horns sound. As if that doesn’t seem like a harbinger of Targbowl?!?!

~

But I will say, in my honest and most humble opinion, that his delivery here was all wrong. The way Jon lamented the story, it kind of came off as if it’s something he might have known all along... and therefore she most certainly will feel betrayed at this. Especially considering her earlier conversation with Sansa. Which, the crazy ass irony of it all is, with political!jon, he was actually already betraying her—just not about what she’ll think it was. Did I say that right? lol

~

They join Tyrion on the Ramparts, the dead are here. Jon looks towards Dany, nodding as if to ask if she’s ready, and she storms off ahead of him, anger evident on her face.

~

Ahhhhhhhhh, I’m really scared for Jon here, guys...!!! What are your thoughts?

~

Remember to care for yourselves and stay hydrated as we slug through this hellish week!

~

ty @farmgirlusa for your dialogue corrections. 

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Imagine that you were put in charge of a modern, high-budget, well-written Animorphs TV series. What changes to the plot/characters/world would you make while adapting it? (Books that you'd skip, arcs that you'd rearrange, things you would add or outright alter...)

[Important caveat: I have ZERO experience in set design, directing, editing, camerawork, or any other processes involved in TV production, unless we’re going to be super generous and count the bit of scriptwriting and stage-acting I did in high school.  Ergo, these ideas might make no sense in practice.]

Animate it.  I would much much prefer to see an anime-style show to a live-action one for a handful of different reasons:

Battle scenes, morph sequences, and alien appearances wouldn’t be constrained by budget realities.  Although we’ve come a long way from AniTV’s practical effects, in 2019 Runaways still minimizes Old Lace (the sentient dinosaur) and struggles with her somewhat less-than-convincing appearance while she’s onscreen.  I’d like to see real-looking battles between exotic animals and highly unusual aliens.  I’d like to see Ax portrayed as a deer-scorpion-centaur with no mouth who also has complex facial expressions.  I’d like taxxons and hork-bajir that match their descriptions in the books.  CGI for a moderate-budget TV show can’t do that yet.

The characters’ appearances could match their descriptions in the books.  I don’t really care about AniTV’s Jake having blue eyes or Marco having short hair.  I do care about the fact that Cassie is described as short, chubby, dark-skinned, natural-haired, and androgynous in self-presentation… whereas AniTV’s Nadia-Leigh Nascimento is (through no fault of her own and 100% the fault of Nickelodeon) none of those things.  I’d like to see all of the characters drawn in a way that matches their canon racial heritage, and voiced with actors of those ethnicities as well.  For bullshit marketing reasons of bullshit, that’s not as likely to happen in a live-action show.

I’d want the show to convey the frequent mismatches between characters’ physicality and their personalities.  It’s an important motif of the books.  It’s part of the reason that Tobias has been claimed by the trans* community.  It’s a major plot point, lest new viewers think that the vice principal of the school is actually trying to kill his own students.  It doesn’t come off in AniTV, for all that I commend them for even trying (casting Shawn Ashmore’s twin as controller-Jake, portraying Chapman as straight out of Stepford), just because the nature of controller-ness and nothlitization are difficult to convey literally.  Animation has a lot of tricks, from deliberately distorted drawings to screensaver-like “mental space,” that can actually convey concepts like mind control or body dysmorphia pretty well — Alphonse in Fullmetal Alchemist and Aang in Avatar the Last Airbender great examples of body-mind mismatch and multiple consciousnesses in one body, respectively.

Use a cold open for every episode.  I am a sucker for Batman cold opens or any other opening scenes that pick up in the middle of the characters’ everyday lives, because they work so well to convey that there is a crapton of life happening outside of the plot of any given episode.  Several Animorphs books (#9, #14, #35, #41, #51) open this way, to great effect, and I love the way that it gives us slices of life we might not otherwise see (morphing to cheat on science homework, completing entire offscreen missions, having dinner with the family) and help build these characters’ worlds outside of individual episode plots.

Introduce James sooner (and have better disability narratives).  There are several aspects of Animorphs’ social justice consciousness that age okay (Rachel shutting down Marco’s constant flirting) or not well at all (Mertil and Galfinian).  One important way the series could update Animorphs is through having canon disabled characters like James, Mertil, and Loren have bigger roles and not resorting to kill-or-cure narratives.  Maybe James could come in sooner and form a Teen Titans West-esque team with the other Auximorphs so that he and Collette and the others could be recurring supporting characters with unique plotlines.  Maybe Loren could still gain morphing power, but remain blind and brain-damaged so that the hork-bajir need to work with her to figure out accommodations while sleeping rough.

Modify Jake’s and Cassie’s parents to account for the contemporary setting.  The fact that the kids so often disappear all afternoon or even overnight without anyone worrying just wouldn’t translate to a contemporary reimagining of Animorphs.  Tobias and Ax are each other’s only family on the planet whereas Marco’s dad and Rachel’s mom are both overworked single parents.  Jake’s family, however, and Cassie’s…

Cassie’s parents are so freaking cool in canon that they would definitely start to worry if Cassie went for an entire “weekend at Rachel’s” without answering any texts or calls.  Maybe there could be some scenes with them talking about how they have this super-mature responsible daughter whom they can trust not to get into trouble even if she does hate cell phones, but oh well because they’re not big on technology either.

Jake’s parents are… less cool, but they still try their best.  The show might explain their lack of concern about either of their disappearing kids through upping the hippie factor from his mom, maybe until she practices Free-Range Parenting.  (Why yes, it is true that Jake’s family would have the necessary privileges to get away with free-range crap while Cassie’s family would not, because yes it is the case that black families have been arrested for leaving kids alone for 10 minutes while white families are allowed more passes under the law.  Yes, that is a steaming pile of racist bullshit.)  The other way it could go is by having Jake’s parents completely checked out, which could get in the way of plots like #31 that hinge on them genuinely caring about their kids, but could also introduce an interesting dynamic if it partially parentifies Tom.

Include at least one Rashomon plot.  The TV series would by necessity lose the first-person narration, with all its brilliantly subtle shades of bias and misinterpretation.  One way to try and bring that back in would be to convey the same events from multiple points of view with subtle differences in the way that each person perceives what happened.  This could happen somewhere in the Visser One plot, with Rachel interpreting the scene as a straight Animorphs-vs-yeerks battle, while Visser One interprets it as Visser Three incompetently sabotaging her as Animorphs ruin her life, while Marco interprets it as a struggle to protect his mom and also save his friends, while Visser Three interprets it as the andalite bandits flagrantly plotting with Visser One, while Jake interprets it as Marco going off the rails from stress… and the only witness who has a sense of what actually happened is Eva.  Other possibilities abound.

Start with a plan to make one episode per book… and modify as necessary.  There are areas of the series I’d like to see expanded (#50 - #54 covers a lot of ground in relatively little space) and areas that I think could afford to be compacted (#39 - #44 feature a whole lotta nothin’).  But instead of adding or discarding an entire book, I think you could spread out many of the plots by simple virtue of TV shows not being constrained by first-person narration.

Certain books just wouldn’t get straight-translated today anyway (#40, most notably). I don’t think any books are so bad or useless that they couldn’t be modified into decent television episodes.

The ramping-up that leads to open war happens mostly in the background of #44 - #51, but a bunch of scenes with just controllers talking to each other could go into that process in a lot more detail.  This content could help fill out plots like #44 and #48 that frankly don’t have a lot else going on.

The entire plot of Visser happens over a nonspecific period of time between #30 and #45, so instead of getting one book we could get an entire running Yeerk Empire subplot with major consequences for the main plotline.

Similarly, the andalites’ decisions happen mostly offscreen but have major consequences for the Animorphs.  The consequences for the Electorate after the events of #38 could also run for a whole subplot that sets up their decision to nuke Earth in #52.

The biggest absence from the last couple books is Rachel.  Her last book is a friggin’ dream sequence, she acts out of character in #52 especially, and the narration order cuts off directly before giving her one last book.  It wouldn’t be necessary to add an entire episode just to rectify this oversight, when #51 could still be Marco-centric but also show her and Jake on their sabotage mission, and #52 could have the same rough plot but with a few scenes between her and Tobias thrown in for good measure.

Anyway, maybe the various Chronicles could be a handful of Doctor-lite episodes where the Animorphs themselves are incidental and Elfangor or Aldrea has the helm.  Maybe the events of the Chronicles could come out organically over the course of the show, for instance by expanding the memory-dumps Tobias gets in #1 and #33 or having Jara tell Dak’s story in #13 or #23.  The Megamorphses, on the other hand, could pretty easily just occur as regular-series episodes, albeit possibly as two- or three-parters.

Lean into the comic-book aesthetic.  Animorphs is written very much in the style of a graphic novel, from its “teens with superpowers save the world from aliens” plot to its heavy use of onomatopoeia.  Even the use of hypertext symbols around thought-speak hearkens back to the comic book convention of using pointed brackets around alien languages to convey translation.  The show could homage this motif through having dramatic transformation sequences, “uniforms” of multicolored spandex the kids use to morph, an opening credits sequence that emphasizes the power of each animal, and other superhero-comic elements throughout.

Have the violence be consequential.  To keep the examples from earlier: in Fullmetal Alchemist, as well as in Avatar, characters that get hurt stay hurt.  A character getting shot or stabbed is portrayed as a potentially life-changing event.  Characters’ injuries do not disappear between episodes, and even alchemy and waterbending are not portrayed as total fixes.  Characters scar, they become disabled, they spend entire episodes in recovery, they accrue trauma, and they do not shrug off life-ending injuries.  Animorphs helps to justify the idea that six kids could (mostly) survive (most of) an entire war against a friggin empire through making the protagonists nigh-unkillable thanks to their healing abilities, but it nevertheless shows that shooting someone will result in that person bleeding and screaming and possibly dying.  Having a sci-fi or action show meant for children isn’t actually a valid excuse for portraying violence as cool or funny or inconsequential the way that (Avengers Assemble, Teen Titans, Kim Possible, Dragonball Z, Pokemon, etc.) too many children’s sci-fi/action shows opt to do.

[sweet-star-storybook]

Character Comparisons - Episode 1: Arack [Feather Knights] vs. Scorpio [Starglass Zodiac]

Well hi! It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Fear not, the word train has not stopped, but outside of my art a lot of that progress has been behind the scenes lately. I’ll probably make an update post about that later but for now, I’ve got another discussion topic! :D This is an idea I’ve had kicking around for a while that is similar to my OC Design Talk series, but will focus more on a character’s personality and mannerisms rather than their visual designs and the concepts behind them. Specifically, comparing characters that seem to have similar personality traits, and exploring the differences between them to set them apart. Not that having similar characters (especially across different stories) is a bad thing, but I think this will be an interesting way to explore their nuances and examine what makes them unique, even if they’re given a similar foundation for their traits. Every artist or writer has specific character types and tropes that they gravitate towards, and I’m certainly no exception! From what I’ve seen so far, this is also a good way to delve into details about these characters that I might not have ironed out previously, both inside and outside the context of their original stories. So with that, let’s get started, shall we? :D Strap in, this is a long one!

To start, I’ll point out some of the main similarities between these two that prompted me to do this comparison in the first place. As you can probably tell by the art, both of these characters give off a sort of “edgelord” demeanour, intimidating, distant, and probably not the most agreeable. I would say that Scorpio fits this category a bit more than Arack, but I’ll explain why in a bit. 

Scorpio's more the "silent but deadly" type, either not saying much or having his blades speak for him. When he does speak he does so quietly, but with a sharp directness. There are no “frills” to his language, often giving a response with as few words as possible. Excessive frippery exhausts him, and he’ll likely get more agitated if you are unable to get to the point quick enough. He's a tough person to break the ice with, relying on intimidation to ward off others (and usually succeeds). Those who are committed to getting to know him are aware of the danger, but do not fear it.

Arack has similar trust issues, albeit for different reasons, but he's far more outspoken than Scorpio. His lack of trust manifests more in skepticism and analyzing a person’s motive than anything else. His experience as a travelling merchant makes him privy to any attempts at swindling or deception, and this translates to a skill in bartering as well. He's also not shy about calling out lies or other crap either, he has no time to tolerate that. He has skills in sewing and textile work, so his "designer sensibilities" do come out often. If you're doing something bad (or worse, wearing something bad) he will tell you, and he won't sugar coat it. He will provide suggestions for improvement if he feels you are worthy of it, though it still comes off as very forward usually.

Arack does not, however, pick a fight at any opportunity. In fact he is quite skilled at picking his battles to make up for his lack of physical prowess. He’ll make a quick and unassuming escape where possible if it means avoiding a confrontation or escalating one further than necessary. Unlike Scorpio, who is a highly skilled ninja-like warrior trained in weapon use, Arack relies more on his intelligence to get him out of tough scrapes, and has grown quite weary of physical confrontation in general. I would call both of them quick-witted, but for different reasons. Arack can usually find ways to avoid a conflict altogether, while Scorpio, if anyone actually challenges him, would take the opportunity to show his skill and end the fight quickly. Scorpio will take you down if you cross him, but neither go looking for trouble. Both are quick to analyze those around them, and choose who they associate with with precision and care. Scorpio does this out of necessity, at least in his mind, to avoid repeating past history, while Arack does so more out of preference. I would describe Arack as “prickly”, as his outspoken nature makes him rife with sharp comebacks, and if he doesn’t like you, he is quick to use them. His designer sensibilities give him an additional advantage when assessing someone’s personality, typically based on how they dress and carry themselves. This social profiling is actually how he meets Snowy, who, especially in his costume and armour, doesn’t have much to hide. This in turn makes him a reliable judge of character, and one that becomes very useful when recruiting allies later on. Scorpio does similar profiling, but his skepticism is sometimes unwarranted, or is not always as necessary as he deems it to be. More of a reflex, if anything.

Arack’s visual appearance does lend itself to intimidation like Scorpio, but he doesn't actively use it to ward off others. It usually happens anyway, so he has a “take me or leave me” attitude about it. Scared reactions to his appearance do not phase him, at least not to the point of self-deprecation, but he does cover all of his eyes in some way when acting as a merchant. If nothing else, Arack wants his work to speak for itself, so fewer distractions the better. He is quite tired of it all, especially when it happens so often that it’s not worth mulling over anymore. The reason I would describe Scorpio as more fitting of the “edgelord” category is that he is far more mysterious and brooding. You’d be more likely to find him sitting on a rooftop doing just that, even if he does spend this time scouting for tactical reasons. His ninja-esque appearance corroborates this feeling. Arack has nothing to hide, really. He is what he is, and usually doesn’t bother much with concealing himself or his past. He could tell you his father was a selfish king who was responsible for his son’s transformation and then banished him from the kingdom after it all went wrong, but who has time for that? The one exception is Arack’s desire to reject his royalty in general, which he does so virulently. He primarily does this to avoid special treatment and association with his former kingdom, and will not take the opportunity to “throw his weight around” as a royal instead of a commoner. He is very averse to the power structure presented with royalty, especially when the politics of said power often leaves common folk crushed underfoot. So when he ends up with not one but three wingbearers (i.e. the people with the most royal status in this universe) at his side, he is more than a little annoyed. His response when Snowy meets Dee is quite literally “what, another one?” This view does lend itself to a more charitable side to Arack, however, as his first introduction has him giving some blankets he made to a homeless family, but under sworn secrecy. When Arack is later attacked and accused of stabbing another man in the village, that family comes to his rescue by enlisting Snowy’s help to clear his name. His kindness outshone his intimidating appearance and his past as an exiled royal. Scorpio, meanwhile, spends a great deal of his time either hiding his past from others or actively seeking to change it. He’s a lot more “on guard” than Arack, as his story involves not only looking out for Cassie, but looking out for Ophiuchus’s return. In his mind he cannot let his guard down, for if he does, bad things will happen. Scorpio is a lot more vengeful than Arack for this reason, as most of his motivation derives from ending the fight with Ophiuchus and keeping Cassie safe from him, making him the main connector between the protagonist and antagonist for this story. Thus, he is caught in the middle, and it becomes clear pretty quickly that he does not know how to properly deal with it all, even if he’s good at hiding that fact. From Scorpio’s point of view, Cassie’s arrival on the Astral Plane is very much an example of that repeated history that he has tried so hard to avoid. Namely, her role as the next Starglass. Her birthday falls under Scorpio’s sign, and therefore it is his responsibility to train her. This parallels Scorpio’s past with Ophiuchus, who took him under his wing to help him control his poison abilities. Not only has this been a role reversal for Scorpio, but one that he has almost entirely negative experiences with. Teaching is not his forte to begin with, much less for the saviour of the Astral Plane. Ophiuchus was once a much kinder soul, one that Scorpio trusted, and seeing a similar kindness in Cassie brings up that past more often than he’d like.

The two approach their affectionate sides a bit differently too. Neither are prone to public displays of affection, but still rely primarily on actions speaking louder than words. Arack will not declare his devotion to you or your cause outright, likely taking a nonchalant or “okay let’s get this over with” kind of attitude, but he will be there reliably and repeatedly. If you have earned his trust in this way, you can count on him, no questions asked. This does happen in Feather Knights, when the crux of Dragon Knight’s plan to overthrow the kingdoms is revealed. Among the four in Snowy’s group, he’s the only one who completely backs out of navigating the kingdoms’ politics going forward, knowing full well it would lead to a battle that he wished to have no part of. He soon discovers, however, that even he cannot run from a fight entirely, and the rising tensions amongst the villages bring him to more conflict than ever. A kind of conflict that, by that point, could only be fought by taking up steel. But, he still becomes one of the key players in the fight against Dragon Knight, not through steel but through his resourcefulness, rallying allies under Snowy’s name and providing crucial backup in the final fight. He does, albeit begrudgingly, partake in the fight, but focuses more on support for his group (i.e. Snowy, Dee and Loralei) rather than the army as a whole.

Arack is not one for physical contact. Not to the point of touch aversion necessarily, but a hug or something similar simply wouldn’t do much for him emotionally. He may not object to it, but he likely won’t react to it much either. He’d much rather have the companionship itself instead of the usual displays of platonic love, even if he does genuinely care for someone. Displays of creativity or intelligence are far more likely to get you on his good side, but he’s not one to admit it.

Scorpio, on the other hand, is actually far more accepting of such things, but under VERY rare and specific circumstances. Perhaps like a real scorpion, he’s got a hard outer shell but an inside that’s a bit softer than you might expect a poisonous blade slinger to have. He is far more emotionally volatile compared to Arack, so even if those emotions are largely suppressed, one must break through that hard shell to get to this level of comfort as far as affection or friendship is concerned. He relies on the few people who truly “get” him, so even if he only hugs you once in his life, it’ll be at a time where it really counts. And sometimes, he might need it more than you. So hug him, if you dare.

Arack, generally speaking, has fewer walls to break. He is incredibly world weary, especially for his age, but his contentment with independence still shows through in how he treats relationships. As mentioned earlier, he has a very “take me or leave me” sort of attitude, so he rarely feels the effects of abandonment or betrayal as far as those relationships are concerned, at least not in the same way as Scorpio. I wouldn’t say he’s emotionally detached, but he’s not the “touchy feely” type either.

Scorpio has suffered far more emotional pain, and thus the suppression of his emotions is viewed as a necessity. He may not be “touchy feely” either, but a lot of his reliance on intimidation is to protect himself from others out of a lack of trust, especially with his own anger and aforementioned volatility. Anyone familiar with his history could get under his skin far more easily (see: Ophiuchus), regardless of how stone-faced he is otherwise.

If you reach a high level of trust and affection with Scorpio, he would kill for you should the opportunity arise. He may be able to take a life, but if you get on his good side he’ll protect you with his own. He can be quite the guard dog should you be in any danger, and this is no more evident than with his relationship with Cassie. She and Scutum are the two that are closest to him, but the dynamics they share are quite different. With Scutum being a literal shield, he isn’t phased by much, and the odds of him getting hurt in any permanent way are far less likely compared to Cassie.

Not that Scorpio views her as weaker necessarily, especially after dedicating most of his time to training her, but he still feels she is in more need of protection in general. She’s a lot “softer” than an impenetrable shield after all, emotionally and physically. He worries for her more, even if he does so in secret, and develops an older-brother-to-younger-sister relationship with her. Seeing Cassie in emotional pain would hurt as much as seeing her in physical pain, so despite being far less emotionally expressive, he does try to be more than a guard dog for her, in whatever way he can. He may not talk much, but he can listen. This does cause a bit of friction later on in the story when Cassie’s role as the Starglass begins to intersect even further with Scorpio’s past with Ophiuchus, and in some ways, mimicking it. Despite the level of trust he and Cassie have built up at this point, he is still very opposed to the idea of revealing everything that happened with his former mentor, especially from his side of things. He (and the rest of the signs, for that matter) fears that should she learn of the true power of the Starglass and its past dangers, she will inevitably follow the same path as Ophiuchus, willingly or otherwise. Cassie’s cries for transparency are not unwarranted, given that she has to fulfill her role as the Starglass by the end, but that doesn’t make it easier for Scorpio. In fact, his protection over her causes him to actively procrastinate on reaching “the end” of her role, recognizing the Herculean task placed on a 14-year old’s shoulders. Eventually he runs out of options, and goes into the final fight with a lot of inner conflict, and that all comes to a head when the end inevitably arrives. Overall, I would describe both Arack and Scorpio as characters that began with a similar foundation and past history, but ended up on two ends of the same spectrum as far as “world experience” goes. Their universes have different rules of course, and both have a history that they’d rather forget, but how they deal with it is a stark contrast. Arack has already had most of his learning experiences prior to the events of Feather Knights, so things like his identity, purpose and world view are already present to a point where he is comfortable. He still sharpens his social tactics, gains new allies, and learns to navigate a tense political situation during the events of the story, but he does not possess nearly as much inner conflict. Scorpio, on the other hand, is caught in the middle of learning for the majority of Starglass Zodiac, and his inner conflict has direct consequences throughout. This adds a sense of duality into the dynamic between him and Cassie, as he may be the teacher, but he ends up learning as much from her as she does from him by the end. --------- And there you have it, folks! As I said this kind of post will be one of many in the future, and this stuff will develop over time as these stories progress. I’ll probably make a list of these too so you can navigate the excerpts by character or series. For now, I hope you enjoyed this character exploration, and I’ll see you next time! :D

[awed-frog]

"why are angels in suits and archangels in ratty jeans" do you think maybe archangels have something that resembles free will, something regular angels have to struggle a lot to discover within themselves? (yes I read all your tags)

I’m not sure the two things are linked, though? Or linked in that exact way, ie free will automatically leads to freedom to customize your accessories?

Like, if we’re talking clothes, the most striking examples are Michael and Lucifer and how their fashion sense seems to evolve with their vessel.

There could be many reasons for this. Most likely, it’s just a narrative way of showing a clear difference between Dean (or Sam) and their possessed versions, because the fact is, both Lucifer and AU!Michael used to dress in a very similar way to real!Dean and real!Sam, so without the change in clothes, both actors and viewers would have a much harder time telling them apart.

(The interesting exception, of course, is Cas. See below for more speculation.)

As for in-story logic, there are a couple of fashion-related points we can make.

First of all, both in Supernatural and IRL, suits embody a kind of willing submission to your role in society, and what your superiors think and want. While most lines of work have compulsory or traditional ‘uniforms’, suits are not dictated by practical or safety reasons. They simply signal you don’t work with your hands and you get (or hope to get) something of a decent salary. What’s particularly striking about suits is that, on the whole, they’re not really a good choice as ‘standard wear’ for tertiary jobs? Like - for one, most suits just don’t fit the wearer’s body very well. You walk around and you see a lot of people (basically all the women because boobs and curves, but also many men) who just look awkward and cheap. There’s a reason why ‘getting a bespoke suit’, complete with standing on ridiculous tiny podium with four Italian tailors shaking their hands at you is such a popular movie trope and generally shorthand for ‘you’ve made it’, and it’s because off-the-rack suits tend to suck - they fall weirdly on your body, might pull at your joints, and generally look really bad. If you’re Benedict Cumberbatch, you could probably find someting suitable even in Asda, but then again, if you’re Benedict Cumberbatch you’d look good in a sandwich wrapper, so that’s a moot point. And another thing is that suits are incredibly high-maintenance, even if Supernatural pretends otherwise? 

(And that’s another of those ‘black spaces’ we all watch with such rapt attention, by the way, because the boys wearing suits so often implies someone - *coughs* Dean *coughs* - spends a sizable portion of his time buying and looking after those clothes, and probably has a whole room in the Bunker full of fluffy fabric and costumes.)

Anyway - you need to fold them neatly and iron the shit out of them (and ironing shirts, that’s fun) and depending on the fabric every time you fucking move they fucking crease? And finally (I mean, I could go on because I hate them, but you know), finally they’re generally the reflection of an entitled, arrogant society which doesn’t take into account nature or weather. Like, people in suits may look all cool and unruffled inside their fancy AC-ed banks, but try wearing your bespoke woolen monstrosity on the tube, or outside on a summer afternoon, and you’re not likely to come out alive. So where manual workers are mostly forced to wear the same thing year-round to protect themselves from injury (or because their clothes need to be boiled when washed), and other professionals (like teachers) will adapt their wardrobe to seasons and mood, people who’re forced to wear suits truly represent the end of individuality, personality, and choice. 

(Our national bank and our biggest insurance will police everything down to your bra, nail polish and make-up, so while there are people who genuinely enjoy wearing suits - I guess - I’d say for most it’s not really a choice.)

And the sad thing is, we’ve all accepted this as a good & worthy thing: buying your first suit is a sign you’re all grown up, and even if you’re not a corporate slave, you’ll be expected to wear suits at important meetings, weddings and funerals (hell, I know I’ve got a couple in my closet, so I’m not claiming any moral high ground here). What’s even more perverse, and also chimes in with the Supernatural universe, is that true wealth doesn’t give a rat’s ass about suits. As with other stuff, from dead languages to meditation to how well you treat your inferiors, there’s a wide gap between those who think they’re the upper class and the real upper class. This is a detail that often goes unnoticed, both IRL and in fiction, but a show like Billions, for instance, explored it to perfection: most characters will be in suits all the time, because the background is the financial world, but not Axe, our main character, who’ll choose jeans and leather jackets (which probably cost more than your house, and okay, but still: the key is comfort and non-conformity).

(See also: Chuck in his second-hand jacket vs. his archangels preening up and buying stupid stuff as soon as they fall in line.

Or: Chuck wearing whatever the hell he likes while his theoretically more powerful sister is stuffed into luxurious and revealing clothes, complete with pastel nail polish.)

Coming back to Supernatural, this is something of a pattern: normal angels are (almost) always in suits. Cas has a shabby suit hidden by his trademark trench coat - a fashion choice which has many reasons (chief among them, that John Constatine thing) but ends up representing the character’s dilemma and his push towards free will and a different kind of belonging. Both Michael and Lucifer dress shabbily when they’re not following Heaven’s plan, and suit up as soon as they manage to fulfill their expected roles. Raphael, the only archangel to be 100% loyal to the task he was assigned, is always shown in a suit.

(Gabriel, who never fit in, lived and died (twice) in his own personalized wardrobe.)

Something else that’s a headcanon of mine is that angels, generally speaking, don’t give a damn about human stuff because they’re not equipped to understand it. Like, Crowley is susceptible to the joys of a well-cut suit, and also painfully aware of its meaning (as an illiterate, illegimate child of a socially rejected mother, belonging and riches is what he dreamed about, and it’s not a surprise he chose to be apprenticed to a tailor); then again, he’s a demon, not an angel, which means he’s got a deep layer of tortured humanity informing his thoughts and his decisions. On the other hand, what does a suit mean to someone like Lucifer, who’s older than balls, considers humans to be a mistake and the scum of the Earth and is used to see their fashion sense change dramatically every few seconds (to an immortal, fifty years must look like one or two minutes)? No - to Lucifer, and Michael, and possibly Gabriel, the main problem is that they’re not in their rightful vessels; and, as we’ve seen very clearly in Lucifer’s case, the consequences can be irritating and very, very dramatic. So it makes sense, in a way, that they’d focus on keeping their vessels’ skin in one piece without bothering with anything else? Like, Nick!Lucifer changing into a nice Armani would be like a guy being rushed to the ER for organ failure insisting on silver cufflinks on his hospital gown.

(That’s also why, I think, Lucifer never bothered to change anything about Cas’ appearance when he was possessing Cas? It was a way of 1) cutting down his workload, 2) annoying the hell out of Sam and Dean and tricking them for as long as possible and 3) refusing to claim ownership of a vessel Lucifer probably considered dirty and beneath him.)

As a final thought, I always had a problem with that whole ‘angels have no free will’ thing, because the show & tell on that one never matched all that well. I mean: the only angel whose journey we truly witnessed was Cas, and even with Cas, it’s stated outright he always had plenty of free will and a boatload of feelings and opinions - to the point where he had to be reprogrammed several times. Mostly other low-level angel we’ve seen, though, have displayed a remarkable sense of self and very disinct preferences: from Balthazar who did his own thing to hippy!angels who wanted to camp by a river, to Ishim who went against orders to get laid, to Gadreel who took an awful lot of independent decisions, to his subtextual husband/textual parabatai who’d chosen a suburban human life, all the way to Naomi (the highest in hierarchy) and to that cute angel in glasses (the lowest of the low, and rip). So while the ‘tell’ part of this story was always more or less consistent (‘angels can’t understand emotions, can’t make their own choices, Cas is the lone exception’), the ‘show’ part mostly fell short of that message: with the exception of the suit as shorthand for brainlessness and obedience, angels never acted like the brainwashed robots they were supposed to be. In fact, you could even argue that the only two angels who’re pig-headedly determined to follow the path Chuck traced for them are, ironically enough, Michael and Lucifer.

[officialotakudome]

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Attack on Titan Final Season Part 1 Review

The final season to the anime adaptation of Hajime Isayama’s Attack on Titan has begun. Covering the final chapters of the original source which reaches it’s own end April of this year, the story follows Eren who has become completely hardened by war and potentially the visions he experienced after kissing Queen Historia’s hand. Now taking no prisoners Eren renews his thirst for revenge as he infiltrates Marley undercover.

Attack on Titan is a 2013 seinen anime series, it was originally produced by Wit Studio and further produced by MPAA for it’s final season, it is licensed by Funimation. It is currently available on streaming and home media in English. Season four currently airs on Hulu, and Funimation Now.

Editor’s Note: Near complete to complete spoilers for Attack on Titan’s final season thus far may be present within this review.

The final season of Attack on Titan is the darkest yet with themes such as child soldiers among others.

The end begins for Eren Yeager and his friends in a bloody battle of Eldians vs Marleyans. Season four opens with a bit of a 180 having the first four episodes focused on life from the Marley point of view. New leads Falco, his brother Colt, Reiner’s cousin Gabi, and Reiner himself along with two other children & Zeke are the leading characters. The children are the four top candidates to inherit the Armored Titan from Reiner upon his thirteen year cycle reaching it’s limit. Following the successful takeover of an Eldian fort there’s time for peace in Marley, unbeknownst to them however Eldian forces have already invaded Marley from within the shadows.

The original leads are now adult veterans of war in Attack on Titan’s final season.

THE GOOD: The season opens with a battle between Marley and Eldia at an Eldia stronghold that’s in the process of being taken over by Marley. Marley struggles with the overwhelming power the Eldia has stationed at the fort including anti-titan canons. Falco an Eldian child soldier living in Marley who was nearly killed on the battlefield is saved by his brother Colt. While getting patched up he’s reunited with the other child soldiers who are candidates to become the next Armored Titan following Reiner’s life expiring soon due to the time limit. Gabi, Reiner’s cousin and the top candidate to receive his titan is bragging about her skills as a soldier annoying Falco who’s in love with her. Falco’s goal is to inherit the Armored Titan so Gabi doesn’t have her life shortened. As Marley is pinned down by the Eldian forces Gabi comes up with a plan that involves her tricking the Eldians into thinking she’s an innocent girl caught in the battle only for her to derail an Eldian train with a bomb. The Jaw Titan Porco, Cart Titan Pieck , Armored Titan, and Zeke who uses his scream to turn Marley soldiers into titans gain the edge in battle and are able to successfully take the fort. Gabi is commended for her efforts in the battle. She and Falco soon enter a competition to raise their chances of becoming the heir to the Armored Titan with Falco impressing the higher ranks. Meanwhile Falco befriends a handicapped man who turns out to be Eren in disguise. Zeke announces his plan to use the Tybur family and their War Hammer Titan to declare war on Paradis Island with the intention of gaining aide from several other nations. Willy a member of the Tybur family agrees to the plan and sets in motion a theatrical performance explaining the truth behind the history of Eldia and Marley. 

Out in the sea leading to Marley, Armin is discovered using his Colossal Titan to destroy Marley ships as the Survey Corps capture the soldiers to get their forces on their side. They meet a woman named Yelena who has personal interest in meeting Eren Yeager. While in Marley, Eren meets his grandfather without introducing his true identity and even mentally traumatizes him. Reiner himself begins to suffer from mental trauma due to his dual life in Marley and Paradis Island. His view on reality is waning with visions of the past haunting him nearly daily now. Willy begins the theater performance and begins to reveal the truth about the war. Reiner is dragged off by Falco to meet his “new friend” who Reiner instantly recognizes as Eren. Eren reveals that four years have passed since their last meeting. Reiner questions if Eren hates him for being responsible for the death of his mother to which Eren responds that he doesn’t due to himself and Reiner being so similar to each other. As Willy pleads with the nation leaders to join him as he doesn’t want to die, Eren titan shifts killing him and several of those in attendance including one of Gabi and Falco’s friends which Gabi sees much to her horror. As another friend attempts to save her he’s trampled to death by a fleeing crowd. The inheritor of the War Hammer Titan shifts and fights Eren. Nearly killed Eren is saved by Mikasa and the Survey Corps who kill much of Marley’s forces. Eren shifts again and with Mikasa’s help is able to remove the War Hammer Titan’s user from her titan body but she crystalizes before he can eat her. The Jaw Titan, Beast Titan, and Cart Titan arrive for back up after escaping a trap set up by Yelena. Levi attacks and seemingly kills Zeke after removing him from the Beast Titan’s body. Gabi runs off and chases the Survey Corps with a rifle after Sasha kills two Marley soldiers. 

The Survey Corps aide Eren in subduing the Jaw Titan who Eren uses to break the crystallization of the War Hammer Titan’s user successfully eating her and gaining her titan power. Porco is horrified having been used as a tool for his ally’s death. After a brief battle with the Armor Titan, Eren and the others retreat on an airship lead by Hange Zoe. Eren is berated for his plan after being reunited with Armin. Gabi kills a member of the Survey Corps who’s attached to the airship and she along with Falco enter the ship as the Crops celebrate their victory. Gabi shoots and kills Sasha enraging the others who beat her and Falco. Levi imprisons Eren for his actions and lead Gabi and Falco to the back where they’re shocked to find a living Zeke who had been secretly working with the Survey Corps. 

Roles take a shocking reversal in Attack on Titan’s final season.

The final season of Attack on Titan tackles nearly every tragedy of war, invasions, murder (often senseless), torture, child soldiers and the PTSD that comes with surviving it all. If it weren’t for the fantasy of the series Attack on Titan’s final arc would feel a little too close to home for some. I love stories that age characters and show that time moves forward. It’s such good storytelling, but is often lost in today’s entertainment. It’s a nice plot device that tells us sometimes people change often for the better, but in Eren’s case it’s definitely for the worse. He’s been so mentally beaten with all the twists and turns involving his life it’s no wonder as to how he turned out as cold-hearted as he did. As they say war is Hell and there’s a lot of that in the fourth season. The altered perspective from the Marleyans is a bold choice. Outside of Reiner, Zeke, and Eren the series practically abandons the main cast we’ve known for several years now for multiple episodes in favor of newly introduced characters to expand the world and experiment with the plot. 

Attack on Titan season four uses unique 3DCG insertion compared to past industry efforts.

THE BAD: If you’re not too familiar with Attack on Titan there’s gore, a ton of it. So if you’re not into that three seasons in there’s not much reason to expect different from season four. There’s also some 3D animation implemented into many titan sequences. While it looks insanely good compared to past uses of 3DCG in 2D anime it is noticeable and may be a turn off for some viewers. 

Attack on Titan explores the humanity & horrors of war.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Attack on Titan’s final season is a true beginning of the end in every sense of the phrase. Jam packed with fast paced storytelling and action and intense writing focused on a large roster of characters the season rarely misses a beat. It’s a bit sad that both the source material and anime adaptation are both ending so close together but with all good things come an unfortunate closing. Here’s hoping both wrap up the story in an ever-lasting memorable way. Otaku Dome gives Attack on Titan Final Season Part 1 a 90 out of 100. 

[junker-town]

3 winners and 2 losers from the NFC and AFC Championship games

Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports

Tom Brady led the Bucs, and the Bills settled for field goals.

So much has changed in the last year, but with all the world turmoil there remains an ever-present constant: Tom Brady will be in the Super Bowl. Sure, he might have missed last year, but 2021 will mark Brady’s 10th appearance in the game since entering the league 20 years ago. That’s mind-bogglingly absurd. Most players wait their entire careers to play in the Super Bowl, some (like Philip Rivers) can have incredible careers with out experiencing the pageantry once. Brady averages an appearance every other year.

This is different, and Brady made it to the Super Bowl in a very different way. Unless you’re blinded to the game, he really didn’t play very well against the Packers. There was a concerted effort to turn this into a story of Brady conquering the No. 1 seed in the NFC, but in the end it was, much like the prior week against New Orleans, a case where the Tampa Bay defense prevailed. It wasn’t so much that Brady got “bailed out,” as much as the defense ensured that Rodgers couldn’t make a concerted comeback.

Davante Adams, the NFL’s best receiver this season, was held to 67 yards and 9 catches. They reduced his average yards per reception from 11.9 yards in the regular season, to 7.4 yards. While that might not sound like a lot, it’s a huge drop off — and even more astounding considering Tampa Bay was without their two starting safeties for the majority of the game. Antoine Winfield was ruled out before kickoff, and Jordan Whitehead left in the first half. This was destined to be a game where Adams ate the secondary alive, but players stepped up, filled gaps and made the difference.

It’s why it’s okay that Brady threw three touchdowns and three interceptions on the day. Which is hilarious when you think about it, because the Buccaneers moved on from Jameis Winston precisely because he threw as many picks and touchdowns last season. No, obviously Brady and Winston aren’t the same player — it’s just humorous.

Tampa Bay was bad last season because they were close in so many games, and Winston let them down. Brady doesn’t need to be the hero this time around, he just needs to be good enough to be part of the team, not the team. It’s probably a role he relishes a little bit, where he can sit back and be a sounding board for younger players who are bound to be intimidated by the moment. That’s what Brady brings to the table at this point in his career, and honestly, before Sunday I didn’t know if it would be enough — but the Buccaneers proved me wrong. They are a complete football team ready to make a run at the Super Bowl, and while that will be tough against the Chiefs, it’s not impossible.

Loser: Everyone on the Packers except Aaron Rodgers.

A week ago I offered effusive praise for the Packers for how much fun they were having on the field. All of that seemed gone on Sunday. Perhaps it was the pressure of playing at home in front of fans for a berth in the Super Bowl, but everything just looked difficult for a team that made everything appear so easy for much of the season.

The end to this story is the same familiar refrain: Aaron Rodgers was let down by his teammates and coaches. There were a few pivotal moments that Rodgers couldn’t do anything about, that either took the momentum away from Green Bay, or never gave him a chance.

Davante Adams drops a pass in the end zone that’s right on target. The Packers settle for a field goal.

Rodgers throws an interception after referees no-call holding on Sean Murphy-Bunting. It ends a drive at the GB 33 yard line, two plays after a 23 yard completion that had the Packers marching.

Aaron Jones fumbles following a reception at the 25 yard line. Tampa Bay get the ball and score a quick touchdown.

Matt LaFleur elects to kick a field goal with 2:09 left on the clock, instead of letting Rodgers attempt to score and tie the game.

That last point is a little up for debate, because either way the Packers would have needed to stop the Buccaneers in order to win, but it’s the pervasive feeling that the game was taken out of the hands of Green Bay’s best player, and it happened multiple times.

Now Rodgers is sounding pensive about his future, and honestly, who can blame him.

Aaron Rodgers: “A lot of guys futures, they’re uncertain, myself included.”

— Matt Schneidman (@mattschneidman) January 25, 2021

Loser: The referees in Bucs vs. Packers.

I’m not one to complain about refs. I think it’s an easy cop out to single out a missed call and blame a game for it. However, in this case there’s a lot of warranted criticism. The officials decided early on that they were going to let the Buccaneers and Packers go in the secondary. Both teams were jostling, holding, impeding each other all game long.

It benefitted Tampa Bay, it benefitted Green Bay. There were numerous times each team was helped by the lax attitude of officials towards contact in the secondary. The problem arose on the game’s final drive, in which officials called pass interference on Kevin King for grabbing the jersey of Tyler Johnson.

The call came on a 3rd and 4, the last chance for the Packers to get a stop. Instead of seeing a player win the game, we witnessed it taken away by inconsistency. Again, King definitely committed a penalty — on that there’s no question, but there needs to be some form of accountability when players are led to believe they can get away with stuff in coverage, only to see it altered at a pivotal moment.

It was an unfair way to end the game.

Winner: Gutless-ass football.

Big week for fans of conservative boring football, courtesy of the Packers and Bills. We’ve discussed the Packers’ decision to kick a field goal and how it may have led to their loss, but Buffalo’s decision was even more mystifying.

If you watched Bills vs. Chiefs then you know the game wasn’t nearly as close in the first half as the score showed. The only scoring success Buffalo had was courtesy of a muffed punt, which they recovered for a touchdown. Outside of that there really wasn’t much to write home about.

Sitting at 4th and 1, the Bills elected to kick a 20 yard field goal, rather than try for a touchdown. There were 14 seconds left on the clock, and they still had a timeout in hand. This meant they could run a safe play, pick up a yard, and give Josh Allen a few chances at the end zone. Instead they kicked, taking the game to 21-12. It was going to be a two-score game either way, it was just a cowardly move.

Then, without any sense of urgency, the Bills elected for ANOTHER field goal with 5:50 left in the third quarter, cutting the Chiefs to a 24-15 lead. Yep, another two score lead. I know there’s logic about slowly chipping down the lead, but this format just meant Kansas City needed to keep on par by hitting field goals of their own. In totality the Chiefs were out-driving Buffalo, so a field goal made no sense.

The Chiefs scored on the next drive and ended the game.

Winner: The Chiefs.

There is perhaps nothing more difficult than the weight of expectation, and living up to those expectations is so difficult in the NFL. From the first snap of Week 1 everyone predicted the Chiefs would return to the Super Bowl, but actually doing it is an entirely different story.

Patrick Mahomes was incredible on Sunday, but he’s a known quantity at this point. Where the Chiefs really shined was on defense, where they managed to mitigate all the Bills’ weapons and turn them into a shadow of themselves. The biggest regret in football isn’t losing, it’s not living up to your potential — and nobody on the Bills will be happy with how they were unable to move the ball against the Chiefs.

Kansas City is just so dangerous in so many different ways. Their defensive line is stout, their secondary is athletic, they have offensive weapons for days — and every week they’re so well coached they find new ways to needle opposing teams, finding their weaknesses and opening them wide up.

That’s why in two weeks time we’re going to have one hell of a Super Bowl. It’s going to be so fun to see Mahomes and Co. try to work against a tough Buccaneers defense, while seeing one of the greatest minds in NFL history in Tom Brady try to find gaps in Kansas City’s defense.

It’s going to be a blast.

[lookatthisdork]

Opinion piece: DC House of Horror (2017)

First of all SPOILERS for DC House of Horror!

Second, this is only my OPINION. It might be unpopular. It might even be offensive. But I want to talk about this before going back to my normally scheduled “hey look at this cool stuff” and “it’s stupid AU time!” content.

I did not read the Green Arrow and Captain Marvel/Shazam stories since I’m not currently invested in those characters. *shrugs*

The rest are...meh. The whole series seems to have Keith Giffen credited with the plot ideas, but each story has a different script writer. So I have no idea who I’m criticizing in each of these blurbs. Probably Keith. I don’t know.

Bump in the Night (feat Superman; by Edward Lee)

I have admittedly little experience with horror movie conventions, but I’m pretty sure this was aiming for the opening of a monster movie. Creepy, dangerous alien falls from space, kills the locals before making its way to more populated areas. The poor schmuck that finds it first always dies quickly and painfully, which is what happened to Pa Kent here. Kind of a cheap death, but it fits the genre convention.

The dramatic irony of Martha Kent trying to call her husband and her refusing to leave the house when something strange is happening outside were pulled off pretty well. Overall, I think she reads as a spirited but ultimately doomed horror protagonist.

My problem with this is that the alien (”Clark/Baby Superman”) reads as a complete cardboard-cutout monster cliche. Why did he kill Pa and Ma Kent? No reason is even alluded to. He just kills them because they’re there.

(If I were writing this, I would have played up the naive-creepy-child factor. Have Clark accidentally kill Jonathan Kent since he’s a child who doesn’t know his own strength and has never seen a dead person before. If you want to keep the alien-vibe, have him not recognize that he killed a person. Imagine a kid using a magnifying glass on an ant, then replace the ant with Pa and Ma Kent. I like to think that would have been more memorable.)

Man’s World (feat Wonder Woman; by Mary Sangiovanni)

Well, they definitely have the aesthetic they were going for. The mixed chronology is actually not as confusing as I was expecting since the artists made good use of the colors and a wardrobe change to help guide the reader through the flashbacks. I actually felt creeped out by this one.

The only problem is...this doesn’t read like Diana AT ALL. Having Diana not speak English is a great way to keep her menacing, but it also destroys any ability for the audience to know what’s going on in her head. Without her words, we have only her actions, and...she’s just going around killing people? Who haven’t done anything?? (Except the last guy, but he’s one out of six on-page deaths.)

What is her motivation? Why is she doing these things? What happened to Wonder Woman, righteous warrior and defender of the innocent?

(This would have been excellent if it was a villain character instead of Diana, just saying.)

Crazy for You (feat Harley Quinn; by Bryan Smith and Brian Keene)

Is it a ghost? Or is it a hallucination? Both? I’m not sure, and I love that I’m not sure.

That said, I’m definitely not a Harley expert...does she read in-character? I don’t know, she feels flat to me. And something about cutting hard away from witnessing the murders. Unreliable narrator is in effect, I want more concrete details of the murders from Chuck’s point of view.

Last Laugh (feat Batman; by Nick Cutter)

Ha. Hahaha. This is the one I reblogged panels from yesterday. 

Good things first: capitalizing on Batman-Joker parallels has been done since forever, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I think the opening and closing scenes are well-narrated and well-composed. The much smaller batcave and the gun are good hints that something’s very different about this universe. The Joker’s voice was pretty good, for the most part. I wouldn’t change much of anything in the first half of this.

The second half...hahaha.

My beef with this one isn’t that Jason was killed; it was that he was killed for shock value and as an undisguised reference to super-(in)famous Death in the Family. It does not add constructively to the narrative at all. Last Laugh is clearly a hard AU with only the barest resemblance to canon; leaning so hard on canon that you only have one panel (technically two panels) with Jason in your story means that I just get angry instead of mournfully distraught when Jason is killed. It’s cheap and unearned in my opinion.

More broadly, there’s mixed signals as to the nature of Bruce’s delusion. Is he going around beating/killing people dressed as Batman? Or does he do his murders specifically dressed as the Joker? The later red panels indicate the former while the zoom-in on his locker at the end implies the latter. This whole story would have been much stronger if the writer had picked one interpretation and stuck with it from beginning to end.

(I would go with a strong Batman/Joker divide where Batman is still the vigilante and the Joker is the only “one” doing the crimes. Have the blue and red panels read as Batman vs Joker for most of the first read-through, but also have them consistently show Delusion vs Truth for the second read-through. I would also have Joker’s call-outs be a little more ambiguous so the twist actually sneaks up on you as opposed to be super obvious from the first red panel on.

And goddamn, if you’re going to kill Jason, at least have him show up in the narrative beforehand as Robin in the Delusion panel and ordinary-child-Jason in the Truth panel. Have him walk in on something he shouldn’t have, which leads to his murder and Bruce’s subsequent final mental break. Hell, maybe even imply that Robin was never really a thing outside Bruce’s head to really hammer home the death of a child who did nothing wrong.

Work for the tragedy, is all I’m saying.)

Blackest Day (feat Hal Jordan and Justice League; by Brian Keene)

In my opinion, this is the strongest of the lot. Zombie Barry compromising the moon base - because he was looking for help and didn’t realize he was already doomed - is excellent. And terrifying, because Zombie Barry could start the apocalypse by himself, imagine how many people he could bite in a minute. Liked how Hal held onto hope all the way up until he felt himself changing, then decided to take a Last Stand rather than let himself become part of the problem.

Superman being off-planet was cheap. The timeline for the End of the World seems super contracted based on Constantine’s transmission and the way the moon base was wholly in the dark. Wonder Woman and J’onn died very easily. Would have liked more fighting off the zombies, but this was short enough that there wasn’t a lot of time for that.

Having the World actually End...I’m never a fan of complete annihilation by zombies. (And what about Themyscira? Atlantis? Is DC Earth really completely depopulated?)

(I’m just saying, post-zombie-apocalypse AU. I’d read it.)

Unmasked (feat Two Face; by Wrath James White...that’s a weird name)

I think this one’s the weakest of the ones I read. I may not be the most well-read when it comes to Havey/Two-Face, but ugh. Serial Killer Harvey is something I don’t need in an official AU. Not to mention that that is not how skinning a person works - connective tissue between the skin and the muscle would mean that peeling each face would take way more time than shown. 

The Leviathan thing also takes up way too many panels and accomplishes nothing. NOTHING.

[lovelesswiki]

Post-Moonless predictions— Good and Evil (7/10)

previous part<–[here] –> next part

for the last week or so, i’ve been talking about a large theory i’ve been writing. since finishing it, i’ve decided to publish it in parts, since it’s actually about 10 different theories all on one subject. since it’s all written out, i’ll try to be publishing one part of this per day.

essentially, this is a set of theories about what i believe will have to happen in order to properly lead up to a climax–the one we’ve been building up to for years and years now. so, these are what i theorize will happen after the first moonless vs beloved battle, broken up into ten different parts. each theory is explained and theres images for each one.

table of contents (bolded is the post you’re looking at):

moonless and beloved will rematch (1)

soubi will fall into a deep depression and possibly become suicidal (2)

ritsuka will arrive at seven voices, SM’s activity will be revealed (3)

SM will reveal that there was a mole in their organization (4)

kio will be the one to take ritsuka to goura (5)

ritsuka will find things out about soubi and the aoyagi family (6)

SM’s true purpose will be revealed. ritsuka will have to make a decision about good vs evil (7)

seventh SM member will be revealed (8)

nagisa will find out what really happened to sanae (9)

ritsuka will be asked to join SM to fill the aoyagi seat (10)

Theory: ritsuka will discover that SM is a ‘good’ government organization made up of people who have done bad or morally questionable things. he will be forced to begin seeing the world in shades of grey instead of black and white, and this will be important for him in terms of character development and growing up.

Note: this theory is sort of the climax of this series of theories. the things that follow it are important, but most of the theories i’ve written in this series so far have amounted to this and the things that follow this theory will rely on it.

ive said this before and ill say it again–one of the biggest parts of ritsuka’s characterization is the fact that he sees everything in terms of ‘black’ and ‘white’, and this is especially obvious with people. hes very young, and part of the story is about him growing up and maturing into a teenager. among many other things, loveless is a story about growing up. while this extends to many other characters–soubi, natsuo and youji, even some of the more childish adults–it’s particularly obvious with ritsuka, since he’s our main character.

while growing up, it’s detrimental for a person to start to experience the world in shades of grey, and ritsuka notoriously does not do this fully yet. this is the reason that ritsuka is/was struggling so much with labeling seimei as a bad person. for the first five or so volumes, readers were typically only given ritsuka’s side of seimei with only very strong hints into soubi’s seimei, hints that were strongly ignored because of the fact that the story is primarily told through ritsuka’s eyes and ritsuka didn’t want to believe any of the signs that his brother was a bad person. this sustained the ‘mystery’ for about five volumes, before it all came to a head during the wisdom resurrection game, where ritsu, nagisa, and seven all unceremoniously shoved it into both ritsuka and the readers’ faces. from there, it is all completely downhill and seimei’s character turns into one of the most evil and terrible people possible very quickly.

(pictured: 2 assholes and 1 shut-in decide to tell a child that his brother was a terrible person and traumatize him by implying that he’s alive.)

in addition to this, we saw septimal moon in the same way for the first 8 volumes. up until soubi and ritsuka arrive at the school and actually witness SM and who they are, they were seen as an evil organization who had unfairly put out a death warrant for an innocent seimei. at around volume 8, septimal moon does a huge meta heel-face turn and it’s revealed that SM are actually the good guys, and aoyagi seimei has actually raped, murdered, and extorted his way into total criminality, and thats the reason septimal moon unanimously drew up a death warrant for him.

(christ, even the mole and the girl who was your only friend voted to have you murdered. you know youve failed as team-player when literally every one of your co-workers legitimately wants you dead.)

the thing is, though, that we havent actually been told what septimal moon is yet and what they do. now, it’s pretty clear to me what they do, and we’ll get to that in a second, but the fact of the matter is that ritsuka doesn’t know, and that’s pretty important right now.

so what is septimal moon?

to put it simply, there is nothing else it could be but a government organization.

this isn’t exactly a theory. there’s too much evidence pointing to it, and enough evidence that there’s literally nothing else it could be. let’s break this down a little with things we know–SM is an organization. SM has the power and the authority to execute and punish criminals, as well as to detain them and write out death warrants. this means that they have their own system of laws. since they’re very professional about it, we can assume that other government organizations let them do this or work with them. aside from this, SM has an education branch (headed by ritsu), a medical research branch (headed by nagisa), at least 1 hospital and school, a set judge/executioner (mikado), teams that they send out for (law) enforcement, and a lot of resources and funds (funds to do research, funds for building and upkeep of facilities, funds to keep their organization running, funds to pay their members apparently well since nagisa lives in a three bedroom place and mikado has a penthouse apartment). they also are implied to keep detailed records on many, many people (see: the chapter where seven realizes what records were stolen by who the records talked about). each member has a designated role and they vote on things that have an affect on the fighter-sacrifice society.

taking all this into account, i have no idea what else SM could be other than an organization that governs over the fighter-sacrifice world. the world has its own society with its own norms and seemingly, with its own laws, and it operates outside of the legislation of country borders. SM is well respected and well known, as we’ve seen in canon, and in theory should be balanced and should operate well (see above point about the mole for why it currently does not).

so, SM is a government organization that precedes over the fighter-sacrifice world. let’s talk about its make-up. the organization does have a few rules that it operates by. there doesnt seem to be much of an age requirement for having a seat on the council, as mikado is 14 and seimei was 17, and i suspect they will soon be asking an even younger member to join. the seats are passed down throughout the family, but it doesn’t seem to matter what gender the seat goes to, as nagisa, mikado, seven, and chouma are all female and seimei and ritsu are male.

it appears that the council shares power equally, though ritsu is an egotistical narcissist and doesn’t appear to like this. the only requirement to be on the council, besides being one of the seven families, is being a sacrifice. surprisingly, ive seen people debate this, but im going to explain two reasons why this is a fact and not a theory–first, the way fighters are treated as a whole in society and secondly, we are literally told that fighters are not allowed at septimal moon meetings.

lets start with the first part of that. so far, every member who has a confirmed battle role in SM has been a sacrifice. granted, this is only 3 out of the 7 (ritsu, mikado, and seimei), but it’s still pretty significant. however, whats more significant is the way fighters are treated. in the fighter-sacrifice world, fighters are absolutely far, far below sacrifices. this is shown in a couple of different ways, from the fact that it’s completely accepted for a sacrifice to physically beat or verbally put down a fighter, but it’s not accepted for the other way around. in addition to this, fighters are expected to kill themselves if their sacrifices die. this is told to soubi’s face over and over again. however, the opposite is not true. sacrifices are implied to far outlive fighters. whereas a fighter is expected to die early on, sacrifices seem to live far longer. also, there’s the simple fact that sacrifices have an entire system in place for replacements if their fighters die.

to be fair, the bad treatment of fighters seems to be more with the older generation in the series than with the younger generation. for example, mikado seems to view tokino as her equal and does not seem to think of him as lesser. however, ritsu is shown to think of fighters as tools and of entirely lesser beings and even in his youth, he treated his fighter terribly (which ended by him drowning her in a pond with her dying to try to please him). nagisa is said to hate fighters, though it’s interesting to note that kouya, one of her favorites, is a fighter (though youji–a sacrifice–is also her favorite). seimei is seimei and treats his fighters like actual garbage. the point is that even though the younger generation doesnt treat their fighters badly, the practice of doing so is still widely accepted. since the council is made up of people who are widely respected and seen as the governing force of the society, there is no way they would allow a class of people who are seen as lesser onto the council.

secondly, early on in loveless, it’s stated offhandedly that fighters arent actually allowed in septimal moon council meetings. it’s easy to miss, but this was when ai and midori went to report back to septimal moon about ritsuka. ritsu immediately reprimanded midori for brining ai to the council headquarters and told him that she [fighters] weren’t allowed there, so it’s safe to say that fighters aren’t even allowed at council meetings.

given that the requirements to be on the council is to be part of one of the seven families and that the person must be a sacrifice and that the council shares power and votes on issues, it’s fair to say that SM could be considered a parliament. or, more humorously and maybe more accurately, SM can be considered to be like the commission, which is a council of the five families of the mob where activities of the world are monitored and observed and seats are passed down through the family. regardless, it’s fair to say that these rules exist and that the purpose of SM is to act as some sort of government organization separate from that that operates within a country’s borders.

ritsuka doesn’t know any of this, though. or, he might know some things, but he certainly hasnt figured it out yet. hes going to, though, since i dont personally see a way the story can progress with SM in it if he doesnt find out exactly what it is that these people do, especially considering ritsuka’s minor storyline of growing up and starting to see the shades of grey in the world.

the way i see it happening is like this–ritsuka will learn about the organization and will learn that it’s a government organization with laws and rules and branches to help precede over their world. he will learn about the fighter-sacrifice world (though he probably will not yet learn about the origins) and the laws, rules, and society surrounding it. because of all this, he will start to think of SM as a ‘good’ organization because the organization in practice is for the good of the people. he will not immediately see the dysfunction that i talked about in the bulletpoint about the mole.

however, he will start to see it very quickly. in the previous point, i talked about ritsuka discovering soubi’s past with ritsu and discovering the past of his own family, but i didnt expand upon how ritsuka would react to it, and i also discussed SM’s dysfunctional members when i talked about the mole. his reaction is detrimental to this bulletpoint. ritsuka will have to face the fact that the ‘good’ organization has a lot of people in it who have done bad things.

to put this in perspective, let’s have a look at what we currently know about the SM members. first up we have ritsu, who raped and abused soubi in his childhood repeatedly and so severely that it destroyed any ability or chance for soubi to function as a normal person. he is egotistical and narcissistic to the point that it interferes in every relationship that he has. he possibly drowned his fighter in a pond and fans speculate that he may be the cause of the former agatsumas’ deaths. he was obsessed with a woman to the point that he ruined her son as a way to get back at her/replace her. hes the reason that soubi was given to seimei in the first place and the reason soubi cant function socially. he also lied to ritsuka during the WR game and still acts creepily towards soubi. i have no doubt that when ritsuka discovers all this, he is going to be absolutely disgusted with him and everything hes done.

then we have nagisa. in literal terms, nagisa has performed acts of human experimentation. she has experimented on humans and views them as interchangeable parts because she wants to win an imaginary game with ritsu. she views the kids that shes created as worthless and next to nothing and only wants them near her so that she doesnt feel abandoned. she shoved natsuo and youji onto soubi at the drop of a hat and it’s strongly implied that she rarely took care of them at all. i dont think ritsuka will take kindly to any of this, either.

(ah, yes, the Traditional Loveless Parenting Style™)

then we have mikado and chouma. theyve done admittedly less things that are less personal to ritsuka than the above two, but the fact still stands that mikado did support seimei up until his betrayal of her and did seem to know about the things he was doing off to the side and didn’t seem to put a stop to them. we also don’t know if she was betrayed before or after seimei’s death warrant was signed. if it was after, then she stuck with him, despite knowing what he was doing. however, her rape and betrayal might have been what put the death warrant in place, so we don’t know if it happened before or after seimei faked his death. chouma, on the other hand, besides being a mole, caused havoc within kio’s family, and it’s unknown how much of an effect on the family she has. also things that im not sure ritsuka would like.

then we have seimei, who i dont need to go into. hes an asshole.

from this, to a child, it very much seems like SM is made up of ‘bad’ people. or, at least, people who have done bad things. but, the organization is ‘good’ because it tries to do ‘good’ things. the point of this bulletpoint is that this disagreement will cause a lot of struggle within ritsuka, because it goes against the very way that he thinks.

in short, when ritsuka finds out about the true purpose of SM and the stories behind the members, he will be forced to realize that not everything in the world falls into the categories of ‘black’ and ‘white’. the concept of black vs white is very prevalent in loveless, and especially in battles, particularly the loveless vs nisei battle, in which soubi and nisei pitted the concepts of black (evil) vs white (good) against each other.

as a note with this point, i do personally see ritsuka’s perception of seimei changing. a big turning point in this was the discussion of mikado’s betrayal and an even bigger turning point was when seimei came to the graveyard, completely ignored ritsuka, and took the one thing from him that ritsuka had. i personally believe that seimei made a huge mistake in doing this and will be paying for it soon.

[sarahburness]

Top 10 Most Popular Sports Leagues In The World

Being in the most popular sports leagues in the world isn’t that easy for any athlete. That is one good reason why most athletes and personalities in the sports industry are working extra hard just to earn a spot there.

Today, we’re counting down our picks for the 10 top sports leagues in the world. In making the list, we’ve considered leagues from across the globe, their financial success, their atmosphere, and competition.

Australian Football League

Aussie Rules Football and Rugby may seem like very similar sports but apart from the shape of the ball, the two are totally different.

Aussie Rules is played on an oval pitch with four giant posts sticking out from each end. Eighteen players per team take the field in a game full of passing, kicking, and tackling. The league consists of 18 teams with each team competing in a 23-game regular season. It’s followed by a single-elimination playoff series.

Melbourne is the heart and soul of the league. In fact, 9 of the 18 teams call the coastal city home. With a country full of passionate fans, the AFL is a completely unique sporting experience.

Bundesliga

There are a number of incredible football leagues around the world. Considering Germany produces some of the best talents the game has to offer, it’s no surprise they offer one of the most exciting leagues as well. The top division of German football, the Bundesliga, is home to some of the best teams in the world.

Bayern Munich has won The Champions League five times while Borussia Dortmund boasts some of the most passionate fans in Europe. In addition, the Bundesliga is also arguably the best-run league in world football, pulling in $2.84 billion dollars in revenue while still offering some of the cheapest tickets available. Seriously, you can get your hands on Bayern Munich season tickets for as little as 104 Euros. Can’t beat that.

See Also: 3 Of The Best European Football Grounds

PGA

You may not have expected to see golf on this list, but those who’ve learned to appreciate the game know exactly why the PGA Tour is among the top sports leagues in the world.

The truly great golfers in the game test their mettle on the Tour, with the best of the best earning coveted ranked positions. The Tour organizes some of the biggest tournaments in the world, hosting championships like the Masters and The U.S. Open.

The PGA is tax exempt which makes the league’s total revenue unclear. However, with impressive television ratings, the Tour is probably pulling in some equally impressive sponsorship money.

Indian Premier League

Though this cricket league has only been around since 2008, it’s hard to argue against its unprecedented rise as a fan favorite and a hub for the best competition. The Indian Premier League includes eight franchises, each representing major cities in India. They play in a home and away round robin before the four best teams enter a playoff to determine a champion.

The IPL’s quick rise is due, in large part, to their adoption of the newest format of cricket, Twenty20 (20-20). It involves games that last around 3 hours instead of 3 days. It’s fast-paced and exciting. As a result, the IPL ranks fifth in the world in attendance for outdoor sports, averaging nearly 32,000 fans per game.

Formula One

NASCAR might be the tire-squealing champion of America but the world’s favorite and fastest racing sport is, without question, Formula One. Rather than having its drivers race each other on an oval, Formula One takes them on a ride through complex tracks where they’ll have to maneuver sharp turns.

This tests their skills to see which cars can come out on top. With Grand Prix events all over the world, fans of Formula One line the tracks to get a glimpse of the world’s best drivers in action.

NBA

The National Basketball Association is the world’s premier basketball league, drawing the top talents in the U.S. and from all around the globe. Right now, that includes the likes of LeBron, Curry, Durant, Westbrook and other popular names spread throughout a competitive 30-team league. It also has a storied past which includes legends of the game like Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Magic Johnson. There are the classic rivalries, like Celtics/Lakers and Bulls/Knicks, too.

When it’s finals time, the whole world tunes in. Game 7 of The 2016 NBA Finals between the Warriors and Cavs reached 44.5 million viewers. Not bad, considering it was on at the same time as Game of Thrones.

NHL

There’s just something about hockey that gets people excited.

Is it the speed of the game? The tremendous goals? The fighting? Who’s to say?

What we do know, though, is that the NHL is special. It’s a testament to the sport that the league has recovered from two major lockouts since 2004. It only proves just how dedicated and passionate hockey fans truly are.

The NHL has seen legends, like Wayne Gretzky and Bobby Orr, grace the ice as well as current world-class stars like Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby. When playoff season comes around and the beards start to grow, magic is in the air for one of the greatest and most competitive tournaments in sports.

MLB

This one’s all about history, folks.

Major League Baseball is about more than just baseball; it’s part of a Nation’s identity. America’s favorite pastime, baseball is a total experience. It’s about grabbing a hot dog outside the stadium, trying to catch a foul ball, getting up on the big screen, chanting, booing, and making signs. But, let’s not forget the competition.

We could talk about the ugliness of steroid abuse, but we’d rather talk about the Sox vs the Yankees or the Cubs and their curse or the Giants and Dodgers. And even though you may think baseball is losing popularity, in 2015 the MLB still pulled in nearly 10 billion in revenue, so they’re doing just fine… Batter up!

NFL

Are you ready for some football?

Baseball may be America’s pastime, but football is “America’s Game”. Despite having a short season, running from September to February if you count the playoffs, the NFL is a money-making machine. For its 17 weeks of regular season, Americans give up their Sundays to enjoy a day’s worth of televised pigskin and, come playoff time, football fever’s in the air.

This all leads to huge advertising bucks that don’t sacrifice any of the sport’s tradition. In fact, it’s added to it. Tailgating has created its own market for products, while tons of viewers check out the Super Bowl just for the commercials.

Before we unveil our top picks, here are a few honorable mentions. – UFC – La Liga – NASCAR

Premier League

The world’s most popular sport deserves the world’s most popular league. Boasting some of the most exciting, fast-paced football from some of the best players on the planet, the Premier League is the gold standard for football.

Teams are solid from the top of the table to the bottom and on any given match day, you can witness an upset. With famous and storied clubs such as Manchester United, Liverpool, and Arsenal, Premier League rivalries are a sight to behold.

The Premier League boasts the most lucrative television contract in sports, securing its global reach and bringing in fans from anywhere and everywhere. In March 2015, Liverpool vs United drew 700 million viewers. By comparison, the Super Bowl only had 114 million.

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