#this is just my two cents take it with a grain of salt

[anxiouslyextroverted]

DSMP finale and why its not as bad as people say it was - understanding is not forgiveness.

Everyone is saying that its written badly, and that its damage control but Tommy has said this was in the works for months now. Everyone is saying that it isn't a satisfactory conclusion, and maybe that is the case for us; the audience but it is satisfactory for cTommy.

--

cTommy never forgave cDream. He understood him, he saw cDreams past and realised that cDream had morals and had goals. He understood what those goals now were. He saw that happy server that was in the past and realised that cDream missed it. This is not him at all forgiving cDream, this is not him saying that everything that happened to him was fine, he is simply seeing cDreams perspective.

Sure, he apologises but thats him apologising for his own actions and for the bad things he has done in general, this never was meant to imply that cDream was in the right. cTommy even says that he doesn't agree with anything cDream did, he just says that he can see his point now. -

At a surface level, cTommy being sympathetic towards cDream makes no sense, but then you consider his goal behind everything. Why he always went after cDream? and its for closure.

He wanted closure not with cDream dying (as we see in prison lore he can't kill cDream) He thinks he can do it but he can't and thats because by killing him, he never finds out why cDream harmed him.

Abuse victims often need to figure out why their abusers harmed them so they can have that closure, that understanding, they no longer will be kept awake at night wondering for hours 'what did I do wrong?' 'why did they do it to me?' 'did they like hurting me?' ..and if you look at cTommy, he's always wondered why cDream targetted him and what did he do wrong. He just wanted to know why. And this finale provided that answer to him.

cDream isn't being redeemed, he says things like 'you deserved it' and he never apologises. But this isn't about them reconciling, and becoming friends. This is about cTommy finally knowing why he was hurt so many times, and it co-exists with the fact that cDream was never justified in hurting him.

cDream was never forgiven or excused, he was only explained. None of cDreams motivations and desires were painted as correct. And cTommy seeing cDream as human isn't him forgiving him.

You have to consider that cTommys trauma has a big role to play in this whole thing. Why sympathize with cDream? He always did even before exile, he always tried to understand him but got left with evil monologues in response, never knowing the true reasons until he saw that limbo. He just wants it over, he just wants to be free, he smiles because he is free, he gets the reassurance, he realises why cDream thinks everythings his fault and then he finally was at peace.

until the nuke went off.

Theres even a chance that if the nuke didn't go off, cDream would betray cTommy eventually but we'll never know.

The finale ended off with cTommy putting his heart over his head, and also empathizing with the person that hurt him the most just as cTommy has done in the past over and over. Fits cTommy perfectly.

But then both cTommy and cDream achieve what they wanted; the server being simple again.

[kangaracha]

Hi there! Before I ask to be added to any tag lists (or start reading, for that matter,) I just wanted to ask about whether or not you mind having minors reading/ interacting with your work? I couldn’t find any dni’s on the Queendom masterlist or on your profile, so just wanted to be sure… ㅠㅠ (sorry if this is crossing any boundaries 😭🫶🏻)

i'm a big believer in curating and being responsible for your own internet experience, and i live far too busy a life to police my followers, so no, I don't mind! 😂 what you want to come and look at on the internet is your business, and as long as you're not coming round here to cause problems (which you very clearly aren't) i don't have a problem with you

[seventeenlovesthree]

Okay, let's see how long this will last, before it gets taken down by copyright, but still, I HAVE THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS.

Kizuna had already played with our hearts by admitting that there were things about their bonds they did not "mention" before - such as the end of the partnership happening.

Now we have another angle here. Aside from me joking about Rui causing Third Impact as Shinji Ikari, I actually do believe he will rather turn into Homura Akemi and change the fabric of reality into a timeline, in which partnerships between humans and Digimon have never existed in the first place.

This theme feels even more gruesome though, because it may actually play into a theme Tri has used before as well: The idea that the partnerships between humans and Digimon are artificially created - or at least those between actual "Chosen Children" and their Digimon partners, because they were literally made for them. In order for them all to become "child soldiers to fulfill their purpose that can get erased when the duty is done". Which would indicate that the love between them is not real either... I obviously don't know if that will actually be the case, but it would be meta as heck if something like this will happen.

[newbiealliance]

I think people who hate liam have never been mentally ill before in their lives, cause they don't seem to understand that when you're put under certain pressures, yeah. You're going to act irrationally! I really think that people who hate HFJONE either miss the entire point of the show or are pissed off because the main character dared to be upset and act realistically to his stressful situations.

THIS. hfjone WAS NOT by any means perfect, it definitely wasn’t, but what it was good at was portraying how otherwise normal people react under intense pressure, isolation and trauma!!!

season 2 was kind of rushed imo, there Are things it could’ve done better, but it wasn’t bad or anything!! and i love liam’s character arc so much!!! maybe i’m biased because he’s my f/o but i love love how he went from being a normal person, to being irrational and provoked. in the end, anger at his situation caused him to act irrationally and it’s what sealed his fate. and i find it really tragic and awesome

liam is NOT meant to be the ‘good guy’. he’s not meant to be a selfless perfect hero just because he’s the main protagonist. he’s acting out of self preservation because that’s what you do in a traumatizing situation. it doesnt make him a bad person, even if he may have done selfish things. he’s someone with flaws, someone who never should have gone thru the things he did and that applies to almost the ENTIRE CAST.

the setup at the end did kind of fall flat, episodes 15 and 18 were more jarring and rushed imo. but i understand what they were going for. no one in the show deserved what happened to them, not even airy (i have a Lot of thoughts on airy but i’ll save that for another time.)

liam still cared about the other contestants, but in a situation like he was in you would only focus on yourself. especially since once he was back on earth there really was nothing he could do for the others until he figured out what the notes meant. he wasn’t just trying to stop airy for revenge, he wanted to stop airy from ever doing what he did again. he wanted to save others from sharing his fate. and he did succeed, even if it was in a horribly twisted way.

he shouldn’t have tried to kill airy either, but anger clouded his judgment. that should’ve been obvious. someone like him would not randomly try to kill another person for no reason. another example of how trauma can mess with your mind and make you act out in ways you otherwise wouldn’t.

anyways sorry this post got long i just have a bunch of thoughts about mr plecak lol

tl;dr liam is just like me fr and i will not tolerate the slander

[cozyqueerchaos]

please give us the idw salt /gen

are you trying to get me in trouble /hj

[halohamilton]

.

[hellenhighwater]

Hi Hell, congrats on the exciting foster kitten news!

I just applied to adopt a kitten and had my interview for her today. The woman seemed most interested in convincing me of how terrible dry food, traditional litter (she preferred clay), and tap water is for cats. She said the carbohydrates and ingredients were terrible for their kidneys, the dust in litter is bad for their lungs, and the chlorine in water is harmful. I have a 12 year old cat named Scipio who has been using those things all his life, and now I feel guilty and scared for his health. He seems perfectly healthy to me but she said “cats are stoic.” What do you use with the Tiny Terrors? Is she extreme?

Well, I'm not a vet, so the actual answer is that your cat should be getting what their doctor recommends. But I've had those conversations with people before, and I can give my two cents--just take it with a grain of salt.

So...it's basically always true that you can spend more money on fancier 'health' options and there is, to some extent, benefit to the pricier choices. But there's a point at which that benefit is pretty minimal compared to what you get for the midrange price options. This is as true for pet health as it is for people health.

It's true that wet food is usually a better option for cats. Among other things, it helps them stay at a healthy level of hydration, can be easier on their digestive systems, and is often more palatable for cats who are elderly or have dental problems. But that doesn't mean that dry food is inadequate--Mal and Vice used to split a can of wet food daily, and graze dry food whenever they wanted. They're currently eating almost exclusively dry food, because Vice is on a sensitive skin and stomach diet to help address his overgrooming. I would avoid the bottom-end dry foods, because they seem prone to contamination, but that's more manufacturer quality than an issue with the dry food generally. Dry food is usually a nutritionally complete way to feed a cat, and there's nothing wrong with it.

Mal and Vice drink tap water. They have a bowl of still water, and a fountain with an inbuilt filter. The fountain is because if they don't have running water, they will make running water by splashing their bowls all over. I can't speak to chlorine but it's definitely healthier than drinking out of puddles, which is what they would be doing if left to their own devices.

They use clay litter because that's what's effective and affordable. When I'm changing it out I generally give it a few minutes for dust to settle before I let them at it--someone always wants to make a deposit in the clean box--but there's pros and cons to all the litter options out there.

In a perfect world with infinite resources, I'd be feeding the cats a careful balanced diet of fresh-prepared meats and filtered spring water, and they'd take dumps in a tiny kitty toilet that cleaned itself without my help. But that's not really practical or achievable for me, my life, or my cats, and frankly, it's not necessary. I want them to have a good life. It doesn't need to be a perfect one. If your cat is doing well, and their vet is giving them a clean bill of health, you probably have nothing to worry about. I'm not a professional; you should consult your vet and research options for yourself (which is what I do) but you're not doing anything wrong here.

I will say that when I was going through the process of adopting Mal and Vice, some places (usually private rescues) wanted me to jump through INSANE hoops to even apply. I respect that their hearts are in the right place, but... There are hundreds of kittens in shelters right now that need homes desperately, and the quality of the cat has very little to do with the quality of the rescue--they might have more or less vet work done, depending on where they're coming from, but nobody's managed to fundamentally change the nature of the beast. If you can provide a safe home, food, clean water, and attention to a cat, that's really all they need. The rest is just gravy.

[incognita-soul]

hey, i saw in your bio that you work on tall ships and i was wondering if u had any advice.

i’ve been on 2 tall ship sailing trips before (+some dinghy sailing) and got my competent crew recently so i’m pretty inexperienced. on those sailing trips i’ve met young adults who were working on the boats as volunteers. i’d like to be able to volunteer on tall ships one day.

do you have any advice for the best way to gain experience and learn stuff? (if possible on a budget). i’m taking a gap year next year and i’d really like to take the chance to go sailing and get better at it. (i’m in the uk if that’s relevant.)

absolutely no pressure to answer and i’m sorry this is so vague and clueless! anyway, thanks for taking the time to read this. your blog is cool :))

Heya! Thank you, and I'd be happy to give you my two cents! All of my boat experience has been in the US so take my advice with a transatlantic grain of salt, but here goes!

Firstly, two trips and some dinghy sailing and a competent crew cert is actually quite a bit in comparison to your average person starting out in the world of boats, so don't worry about feeling too inexperienced! You're already on a good track. I've been working on tall ships in some capacity for over 10 years and I still don't have any specific certifications (I've got a lot of experience and sea time, I just haven't had time to take any of my courses and exams for actual licensing).

Facebook is (unfortunately) still the best place to network, especially for international opportunities. There are a variety of groups that you can join. I'm personally in Schooner Bums, Tall Ship Opportunities, Women Who Sail, Crew Finder, and a few other private groups specific to the organizations I've worked for. A lot of organizations will post to these groups with job opportunities with specific requirements, so it's fairly easy to get the info you need. I'm sure there are a few groups specific to sailing in the UK. In the US, we have Tall Ships America, which is an organization that provides networking, training, and job opportunities for mostly US based sailors and boats. I'm not sure if the UK has an equivalent organization, but I do recommend even though you are UK based you should peruse their website, especially the Billet Bank, which is where job links are posted:

You're in the UK, so there are a shit ton of boats there but as far as I know most of them are museum boats that don't do a lot of sailing. I will say from personal experience that museum boats with a good volunteer maintenance program are great places to start for establishing a strong set of foundational skills (knots, understanding and maintenance of the rig, carpentry, etc.). You might not get much actual sea time with a museum boat, but you will learn the things that will make you a better sailor. I got into tall ships by working as a historical interpreter and then as part of the sailing/maintenance crew here:

https://www.jyfmuseums.org/visit/jamestown-settlement/living-history/ships#ad-image-0

Most tall ship organizations are based around education, both for the public and for the crew, so it's easy to find a boat with some sort of introductory training program relatively near wherever you live. These range from expensive pay-to-play working vacation type experiences, to paying a fee to participate in a structured comprehensive training curriculum after which you can become long-term crew, to volunteering weekends sanding and oiling blocks in exchange for the opportunity to sail.

Since you said you are taking a gap year, my advice is look for a short-term comprehensive live-aboard program that gets your foot in the door for staying on as regular crew, potentially even paid crew. Idk any specific ones in the UK, but here's the one that the last boat I worked on offers as an example of what i mean:

If you've got time before your gap year starts, try to find something local, like volunteering for a mueseum like I mentioned earlier, so that you get used to the vocabulary and foundational knowledge of boats. That way you can really get the most out of a more immersive program later on and you won't feel too much like an oversaturated sponge trying desperately to sop up more information even though your brain is leaking out of your ears.

I'm not sure if you're wanting to do tall ships longer term or just something one-off for the gap year, but if you're in it for the long haul just be prepared that it's a lot of hard work for not much financial return. I don't mean to discourage you, it's just good to know that upfront. On Lady Washington we have a saying that "we work on an 18th century boat for 18th century wages."

Unfortunately the tall ship industry is kind of hard budget wise. Most training programs cost quite a bit of money, most jobs are either volunteer or don't pay very well (industry standard deckhand pay in the US is about $1000/month), and most higher level positions require various levels of certifications (for which course and exam fees can run pretty high). You can do it on a budget, especially since most long term positions are live aboard so you don't have to pay for rent or groceries, but if you want to make a career out or it, it takes a lot of years of working for less money than you're worth before you start earning real money back.

Despite all that, working on tall ships is still an incredible and fulfilling experience that I recommend to anyone with a love of the sea and learning practical skills!

Sorry I couldn't give you more specific information, as I have yet to work on any UK boats. Good luck, and please tell me when you find a program that works for you!

[mr-mentally-ill]

Woah Mr Mentally Ill posting twice in one day??

...who cares lol

Anyway– I'm here today to talk to you about the use of color in ASOUE. So let's get into it!

Okay let's start off with basics: yellow represents innocence and purple represents evil. In the early days of the first season, Sunny wears yellow colored clothes. As she gets older however, she wears more colors like pink and grey.

Purple is the color that Esmé wears at the opera. It's also the color that the man with the beard but no hair and the woman with hair but no beard wear. In the scene wear the baudelaires help burn down the hotel and help Olaf get away, Violet wears purple.

Again, going back to yellow, look at the island. Now this might be a bit of a stretch, so take it with a grain of salt. So yellow and red make orange right? So someone with not much knowledge on the subject might think that orange and white makes yellow aswell.

This is where the stretch comes in, Ishmael wants to recreate that innocence like we see in Sunny at the start. That's what VFD was supposed to do, keep childlike innocence.

While you would think red would be a color associated with evil in ASOUE, but it doesn't. It mainly represents good. The uniform on the Quequeg is red. In the show, Kit wears it at the opera. In the books, the baudelaires wear it while working at the Hotel Denoument. Klaus also wears it in some early episodes.

Blue would usually be associated with childlike innocence, but in ASOUE it's usually the loss of childlike innocence. Beatrice wears it when she throws the dart that kills Olaf's father. Klaus wears it when they steal a boat, get arrested, in the movie, and all illustrations. Sunny also wears it in later seasons, showing how she is no longer innocent. It is also the color of the sugar bowl.

Green is a neutral color. The hypnotized mill workers wear it. In the show, the baudelaires wear it when they spy on bad people. Olaf wears it in the song "Not how the story goes".

Black and white funnily enough, aren't black and white. They're blurred, both bad and good characters wearing it.

But hey– that's just my two cents!!

(If you guys wanna send me theories to talk about, send me them!)

[do-angels-dream-of-starry-seas]

Okay. So this is my theory - I am going off of David and Jac's words, so take it all with a grain of salt thanks to half of it being from insider info:

From David's post, it sounds like no negotiations have happened yet, with anyone. And you also have David fully acknowledging the renewal efforts and calling out specific streaming services.

Combining this with Jac's thread about talks in Max feeling "lighter" and like "the wheels are unstuck", and them apparently replying to someone in David's insta on whether to look closer into the streaming names, they said to "look into it". With all of this, I'm going to put in my two cents...

I don't think negotiations have started - yet. But, we are now in the stage where OFMD can make negotiation deals with other networks, and at least one of the three networks David called out is highly interested (as Jac said they heard the name passed around as an "interested party" twice).

I'd say to still continue with the petitions, and the calls and the letters. BUT, we got three new names in the mix. I'm gonna make a post once I find their user feedback pages, so overall this just means we need to keep showing enthusiasm in renewal.

Other networks see us when we contact Max. This is a good thing

[vicontheinternet]

I feel like ppl aren’t getting that one of the reasons why the show is so short is maybe because these kids are minors are they have to abide by labor laws and production would have been longer if the show was longer but that’s just my two cents take it with a grain of salt

[atthebell]

Hey i saw your post about the translator and pacs accent from yesterday and thought i would throw in my two cents as a brasillian, though im merelly a hobbyist linguist and havent a degree in it like you so take this with a grain of salt please.

First of you are absolutelly right about pacs time in canada not really affecting how he sounds, i watched tazercrafts content for years and the accent is the same. As you said pac has not been through language loss or anything like that, so much so that he still has a pretty strong brasillian accent when he speaks english and that before joining the qsmp his fluency level was still a little clunky.

I also agree with you that the reason the translator has a hard time with pac/mike/forevers accents is the training data, which is likely composed of mostly paulista accents.

Now heres where i can add smth, so, idk about the UN thing that you mentioned, but as you said a lot a lot of tradicional brasillian media is filmed in rio. So why isnt there much carioca training data? Well, its probably because most of that media is most likely professionally produced for tv, and most of the people who work in entertainment or news (or politics in regards to the UN training data) actually learn how to speak with a "neutral" accent, which is basically just a paulista accent but slower. With very enunciated words and little to no maneirisms (thats why the translator sometimes gets confused with some slang or repetitions cellbit or bagi say even if they sound paulistas). Idk why that is the established neutral accent, but it sort of is.

The stereotype is basically: paulista – as long as you dont use too much slang – makes you sound professional, carioca makes you sound like you like to party, gaucho makes you sound like a bit of farmer, bahiano makes you sound very chiillllllllll (think surfer dude chad type of chill), nordestino makes you sound straight to the point (but also some people think it sounds simple-minded and poor, i personally dont see it but its a think that enough people think that rich people from that region learn to speak like paulistas/teach their children to speak like paulistas), and honestly i dont know what a northern accent sounds like bc they have so little coverage in media. So yeah, i hope this bring some insight, idk why i wrote this i guess i just wanted to share

thank you for your insight! also i don't have a degree in linguistics, for clarity, but i took classes in undergrad and it's a big area of interest for me personally.

good to know i was right about the canada thing! i feel like that's kind of a piece of language misinfo that people talk about a lot and i wanted to clear it up generally along with the fact that it doesn't apply for pac specifically.

and the stuff about media & the paulista accent is super interesting! that's kind of similar to the accent many broadcast news anchors use in the US, which is a kind of general american accent that is meant to not alienate viewers from across the US rather than having a more regional accents (mental floss & insider articles about said "broadcast voice"). i think that being the case for brazilian media makes a lot of sense! my understanding is this is the case in many countries, so if training data was based on traditional media like tv and movies, it would make sense that it would be less able to understand other accents & various types of slang.

thank you for the accents breakdown! it's always cool to learn about regional differences and how they impact social & media settings.

[doctor-badadvice]

This man has not updated his wardrobe since 1947

There's already a few posts discussing outfits and symbolism and while I found them very interesting, I'm a person of strong opinions now writing two characters with chess related names. So here's my two cents (or should I say, nickels) about Bishop's appearance throughout the 2003 show and what tells us about the specific moment of his life that's being portrayed. The focus will be mainly on the palette, but also on whatever influences are behind the designs.

So let's get started!

1815 — Battle of New Orleans

Here's the first disclaimer. I know next to nothing about US history past what little school required me to learn and generically speaking, I've never been interested in the nuances of how people come together to kill each other. History classes were far more interesting to me when we talked about society and culture. So take what I'll say with a grain of salt. My military expertise here is a couple Wikipedia pages.

As far as Bishop's uniform goes, I have no idea what's going on. I read that uniforms were supposedly mainly blue with whatever color corresponded to what the unit's duty was, with the exception of musicians who had their colors swapped. If that's true, Bishop here could have been a musician having a not so great day at work. But the field medics later in the flashback are wearing the same color so it's probably just a choice to keep the color palette consistent.

Other than that, the belt would suggest he had some kind of rank. Though I don't think they were trying to be accurate past the bare minimum. I'm not going to guess what Bishop was up to in his mortal days.

Also, a special mention goes to Bishop's facial hair. He must have been popular in his time.

1870 — Creation of EPF

This is where colors start being relevant but first, another disclaimer. I appreciate the work wiki editors do, but it would be nice to have sources to whatever's stated on a given page, especially if you're providing estimated dates. I can't say I disagree, but it'd be nice to know where the information comes from.

So the wiki says that Bishop was supposedly born in 1776. It means that at the time of EPF's foundation he was nearing his hundredth birthday. No wonder he's dressing in all black. The average life expectancy at the time was about 40 years old. It's very possible Bishop had already outlived most, if not everyone he knew and it's probably something one would struggle to come to terms with.

Design wise, turtlenecks were nothing new at the time. Medieval knights wore garments in a similar shape under their armors well before the 15th century. And yes, I guess that's more of a coat than the average tactical turtleneck, but it still gives him a hitman, or even hunter vibe which is more or less what he was up to at the time.

1947 Roswell. New Mexico/present times

I can finally explain the title now. But first, let’s take a step back!

Bishop’s default outfit is the secret agent outfit™ we’re all well accustomed to. Specifically, I think the closest he takes inspiration from is Agent Smith from the Matrix movies (as I previously mentioned here). Guy in a black suit with shades, apparently impeccable self control and a distinctive way of talking that compels you to listen to him.

There’s so much to say about motivations and themes these two share, but let's focus on the aesthetic side.

These two fools are men in black. Yes, like the movies. The whole trope originates from some old conspiracy theories about the US government hiding aliens. These theories date all the way back to 1947 from some guy named Harold Dahl claiming a man in a dark suit told him not to tell anyone about some UFO sightings. Various fellow ufologists made similar claims over the years, making it a staple of their general paranoia.

Because of the second flashback, it’s possible that Bishop himself was one of these men in black, if not the one the rumors started from. It's a funny thought and I feel like Bishop would also find it amusing to watch people lose their minds about his fashion choices for decades.

Color wise, white has been added to the mix. It’s been a while now since the creation of EPF and Bishop has found some kind of balance in his life. He’s still dead set in his hatred for aliens and clearly enjoys inflicting pain on creatures he sees as undeserving of basic human decency, but he now has some purpose other than looking at the sky for something to shoot down. He leads an elite task force with men and funding devoted to developing a proper defense of the planet. He’s a foe not to be underestimated and a formidable fighter who can and will take on multiple opponents. But he’s also a very scared man who doesn’t wish what happened to him on anyone.

I often praise the show because Bishop can survive getting impaled but he still remains human. He will react with sheer violence to aggression and reform his ways when shown kindness. He will happily stick his hands in turtle soup for some DNA, but also be the best man at his friend's wedding and even attempt dressing up for the occasion despite having been deprived of normal human interactions for more than a century.

(I know it's a little cluttered in this point but I can't just leave out Casual Friday Bishop)

Design wise, I like just how an otherwise elegant attire works during the fight scenes and this detail specifically.

This man’s power is stored in the leggy.

Interlude

So this pic above is me right now.

For context, I usually consider the episodes of the staged alien invasion to the outbreak as part of the same arc. The entire situation is absolutely absurd from Bishop dragging the president into his fanfiction in response to budget cuts, to Baxter's bodily misadventures, to Bishop making a deal with a random ghost over the phone while New York is turning into yet another Umbrella Corp mishap.

But anyways we're here to judge this man's fashion taste and we have two outfits to talk about.

First off, a special mention goes to the catsuit and this pose specifically.

The sass is off the charts.

Though I find this one kind of depressing. There isn't a lot to read in it either other than Baxter grabbing the most generic tactical turtleneck for the sake of keeping Bishop from walking around bare chested (and the scene before this pic clearly shows Bishop isn't afraid to show some titty). But seeing him in all black right after moving to a new body kinda points out that Agent Bishop, leader of the EPF, is kinda on par with a piece of military equipment (and the president probably sees him as much to an extent). He's the mold for an army of supersoldiers for crying out loud.

But he switches back to the usual suit afterwards and what matters here is the supersuit.

S3 onward

Imagine being an alien, member of the starfleet of your planet and senior officer of the invading force tasked with taking over Earth. You have trained hard, wargamed the whole operation a bunch of times and concluded that it will be piss easy to conquer this underdeveloped planet.

You reach the surface, get into formation and then this nerd rolls up.

The best way to describe this suit is "hostile". It's hostile to the animators and to whoever has to stare at this eyesore before Bishop shoots at them.

And I love it. There's nothing quite like a black and red suit of armor with various cybernetics and lights to say that you mean business. It goes very well with how the stakes just start steadily rising from this point of the show onwards and seeing as the suit was ready during the staged invasion, we know that Bishop never really planned to retire after unleashing his army of clones.

It adds that extra bit of cyberpunk that I like to see and it shows that Bishop never truly gives up on anything since we have actually seen this design before.

Bishop was so proud of his Slayer he just stuck with him in spirit.

Couple that with a new coat to take off for extra dramatic effect and— maybe the president was right about not trusting him with unlimited budget.

2105 — New York apparently

Another century has passed and Bishop is still alive and kicking. Well, he doesn't kick as much anymore as it would be unbecoming if the beloved president of the Pan-Galactic Alliance were to go around kicking alien butt.

Jokes aside, you can disagree with Bishop's portrayal in Fast Forward, but they were still trying to do something meaningful with him. The idea of the turtles having to work with him when they were trying to kill each other just the other day is surprisingly deep for a season that felt the need to have the most unfunny robobutler ever.

They were clearly attempting a chess joke switching the palette to white with black streaks. Bishop has completely turned his life around and it even shows in the way he presents himself. It's nice to see just how much he managed to accomplish as well, even though it would have been very interesting to see him have a gradual change of mind, rather than selling us the concept through timeskip magic.

Does the design still hold up then?

Well, Bishop is clearly making an effort to look the least intimidating. He is fairly more patient when others don't immediately do as he says, even asking for help rather than blackmailing, and is still commendably dedicated to his job. He still asserts dominance by showing leggy (seriously, Mr President, that slit doesn't have to go this hard) and he's still deep down, at all times, ready to throw hands.

That's Bishop alright and it's no coincidence that he starts running around shooting aliens the second Baxter shows up in his life again. I'm not much of a fan of his new armor though. I think they were going for a futuristic design but it's the blandest they could think of. It reminds me of Obi-Wan Kenobi's armor in The Clone Wars but it just kinda comes out of nowhere. It would have been cooler if his tunic turned into a set of armor kinda like what the turtles got.

In any case, if you really want to see reformed Bishop really shine, you should check out @adenthemage / @violetvulpini 's art. You will not be disappointed.

[theredhairedmonkey]

I've seen a couple posts treating the TOX game handbook like it's the Bible, that it's an accurate breakdown of the show's main characters, and then fighting about what it all means.

On the one hand, some people are arguing "It says Callum cares more about his inner circle than anyone or anything, so he cares more about his friends than morals." But then others are saying "Rayla's Devotion score is #1, so she cares more about her friends than morals."

So I'm just gonna weigh in and say: Guys, my people, y'all gotta read carefully. Specifically the first paragraph about the main cast:

Fans of The Dragon Prince will recognize these key players in the show! We have assigned all of these die ratings, values, and so forth to reflect where we believe the characters would be at the end of Season Three. This way, should you encounter them in your tales and chronicles, you will feel it reflects the natural place where they are in the story. And though Zym is important, we haven’t included him as a catalyst, as he is still a baby dragon and only Ezran knows what his true die ratings are. Feel free to adjust these aspects for your own playing group, including (but not limited to) when the show’s story advances into future seasons.

In other words: "Here's our breakdown of the characters, but it's just our two cents so take it with a grain of salt, and it's just a snapshot as of s3 and they'll likely change anyway."

In short, don't take it seriously, it's no different than a headcanon about where they stood two years and two seasons ago. Imo the real fun is how the characters line up now as opposed to 3x09, since the whole point is that these values are supposed to change over time:

So, in the spirit of fun, here's where I think each main characters' values stand as of s5:

Callum

Here's Callum in s3:

I think he's the easiest to guess because his character growth lines up with which Arcanum he learns. Because Arc 1 was all about him learning the Sky Arcanum, Liberty represented his most important value ("Destiny is a book you write yourself!"). But as of s5, he has definitely been questioning this ("no matter how hard you try, you'll never control everything"), so this has probably dropped. Meanwhile, I think his learning the Ocean Arcanum has opened him up to understanding hidden depths, so his Truth value would have increased to perhaps being his highest one (similar to Lujanne, whose highest value is also Truth).

Soren

Here is Soren's as of S3:

Soren is also similarly easy to guess. His highest value in S3 is Glory, which I think has definitely stepped down (he was willing to hang back in 5x09 and let the trio fight Claudia while he watches over their friends). Instead, I think his Justice value has shot up, especially in light of his standing up for Elmer ("He deserves dignity!"). By the end of the season, I think his highest values are Justice and Devotion.

Rayla

Here's Rayla in S3:

I think, if anything, Rayla's Devotion score is maxed out, but her Justice score has gone up. Rayla is now even more devoted to Callum than ever, centering everything she does around him and trying her best to be his closest companion. But she's also prioritizing stopping Aaravos over her family, so her sense of Justice is higher too. She might still prioritize Callum over their mission, just not over anyone else.

Ezran

Here's S3 Ez:

Ez is probably the hardest to map, just because he hasn't had many moments of introspection or clear moments of growth. But if I had to guess, I think his sense of Liberty has grown somewhat, especially in light of Soren telling him he should have moments to be a kid lest he "grows up weird."

Claudia

And last but certainly not least:

Like Ez, Claudia's change is kinda hard to pin down mainly because she's remained pretty consistent throughout. If she has changed, she has become even more devotional (representing a dark antithesis to Rayla), while her Liberty score has likely dropped. She is, at least for now, chained to the path she is currently on.

Conclusion

In short, neither mine nor the gamecock author's opinions are authoritative, so YMMV here. Let me know what y'all think, but feel free to disagree and, most importantly, have fun!

[sugarygxodness]

i know hobie age discourse is annoying and frustrating. i've been watching from the sidelines ever since atsv came out and tiktok is being absolutely insufferable about it. i've also seen the plethora of arguments from both sides about it. but i wanted to put in my two cents about hobie's age because it has been yelling for attention inside my heart and i need an outlet for it desperately.

so here is my official warning. ⚠️ if you don't want anything to do with the hobie age discourse, please ignore this post ⚠️ (i doubt anyone is going to see this post anyway)

first of all, i ship punkflower. i respect chaipunk as well, though i do not ship it. when i was watching atsv, it never occured to me that hobie would be older than the spidergang by any more than 2 years. so it boggles my mind that people left their theatre thinking hobie was any older than 19 years old??

second, as i've mentioned, i have seen the plethora of arguments coming from both sides. i have heard (incessantly) about the director talking about early concept hobie being 19/20 years old. i always always take early concepts with a grain of salt because that is what they are - early concepts. from the conception of the spiderverse trilogy, a lot of stuff can change. we know that even though early concept hobie was 19/20 years old, his age is now "up for interpretation". all of us were not in the writing room when they came up with hobie. none of us can say for sure what hobie's age is. so let's leave it at that - hobie's age is up for interpretation. i have also seen people talking about hobie being bitten at 16 years old in the comics and in the movies he says he has been spiderman for 3 years. quick maths - that makes hobie 19? well, maybe. it is also important to note that movie adaptations of comics very often leave out or change information. they do this all the time. they even did it with miles. in the comics, miles morales gets bitten at the age of 13. but in the movies, miles get bitten when he was a freshman in visions academy, 15 years old. if they changed that fact about miles from the comics to the movie adaptation, who's to say they did not do the exact same thing to hobie or any other character? using comic book canon to apply to movie canon is always iffy. across the mcu, there are many many comic details that get changed or left out for the movies. this is just something i want everyone to keep in mind.

third, this is my main point. i'm going to talk about hobie's age from a storytelling point of view. keep in mind, i am not a writer. i do not have any experience writing or making original characters. i just like overanalysing creative aspects of media that i consume and i also briefly studied literature in school. if there is anything you would like to counter about my upcoming argument or add to it, i would love to see it.

from a storytelling point of view, hobie being old than 18 years old makes absolutely NO sense. if we look at miles' conflict during atsv, his whole thing is that he feels betrayed by the adults in his life because all of them view him as this incapable clueless kid who needs to be protected. his parents, while being unaware of his identitiy as spiderman, are too protective of him and doubt everything that he does. while they eventually start to accept the idea of letting their child grow up, they only start doing so when miles is already stuck in another universe. the adults in the spider society betray miles too. miles, upon meeting more spiderpeople, probably thought that they would understand him more than his own parents could. however, the adults in spider society still look down on him and treat him like a child. this is especially evident in peter b, who constantly emphasises that miles "doesn't know any better". miles is 16 (in atsv) and while that IS technically a child, those rules don't really apply to spiderpeople. after all, though he is technically a child, he watched his uncle aaron die right in front of his eyes, he saved the multiverse, and he saves brooklyn from crime every single day. as unfortunate as it is, miles has had to grow up a lot faster than the average kid. miles views himself as an extremely capable spiderman, but it feels like nobody else agrees with him. that is miles' conflict throughout atsv.

so it makes no sense that miles feels constantly betrayed by the adults in his life, yet one of the members of the spidergang that he is surrounded with in atsv is an adult? the whole point is that he feels he cannot depend on the adults in the spider society, so therefore it makes sense that his closest allies (gwen, pav, hobie) would be teenagers. making hobie an adult completely throws this theme out of balance.

furthermore, i hear people say hobie holds a mentor role in miles' life. i disagree. peter b held a mentor role in itsv. this was when miles was newly bitten, had no idea how to use his new powers, and had just lost the only other spiderman he knew. in atsv, miles has grown very well into his role as spiderman. he developed his own spiderman techniques, learned how to use his venom shock and invisibility in an effective way, and successfully saves brooklyn from crime every day. this miles does not need a mentor. this miles feels betrayed by the people he thought he could trust. this miles needs allies. that is what hobie is to miles in atsv.

to me, the r/s between hobie and miles in atsv is very reminiscent of the r/s between a new transfer student in highschool and an upperclassman. imagine this - miles just moved to a new unfamiliar environment and is a transfer student in a highschool where he knows nobody. hobie spots him, somehow decides to help him out, and gives him the ultimate tour of the school. not the proper "this is the gymnasium, we hold our pep rallies here" tour that the student council body would give miles. nah, his tour is more like "this is the best place to smoke weed without getting caught. this bathroom is almost exclusively for hooking up. this teacher once called me out for plagiarism, so he sucks." then he pats miles on the shoulder and tells him that he's got his back. if anyone tried to give him shit, hobie will not hesitate to make their lives hell. this is how i interpret hobie and miles' r/s in atsv. he is not a mentor!!! miles is capable enough to be spiderman without a mentor!!!

lastly, this isn't exactly my place to talk about it, but i have heard a lot of black people talk about how a lot of people place harmful stereotyping and adultification on hobie. and the infuriating tendency for people to be against poc ships rather than white ships. and that is A LOT of food for thought. that's all :)

i ended up writing a lot more than i thought i would. clearly i care too much. oh well atsv brainrot era go brrr

[i-read-that-manga-for-you]

Given

Admittedly, I read this manga a long time ago. Like when chapters were still coming out. I was still in high school at the time (holy fuck) and couldn't really articulate my feelings as well as I can now.

I had left this review (bits and pieces of it) on a manga site and decided I might as well put it on my tumblr, finetuning it, of course. First post, because in spite of its flaws, Given is still close to my heart. And I reread it again (somewhat) to make this a better review. I hope each person who reads this will reimburse me with 50 cents each (jk don't). So here it is. My impression of Given, with !!some!! talk about how SA is treated in BL/Yaoi culture in general.

Or not, this is just my two cents with no anthropology degree.

Do take what I say with a grain of salt, a piece of creative media does not exist in a vacuum, but this review treats it as one at times because I'm not really skilled enough to talk about any wider implications. I'm just some guy giving my review.

Spoilers ahead. Go ahead.

TW: Sexual Assault.

Honestly, this manga made me feel a lot. Good and bad feelings. But let's focus on what I liked.

Ugetsu.

He's on the phone, shhh.

I found Ugetsu to be a very compelling character, and it was a huge shame that he vanished partway through the manga. Basically? I have no criticisms about him as a character, he has his flaws and he's nuanced. He's interesting and compelling, and it's clear that he's someone who is still growing and learning to walk on his own two feet. I won't deny that his relationship with Akihiko was very toxic, but I definitely think this isn't something that can be blamed solely on him.

But with this out of the way. Let's talk about the pairings.

Let's talk about Akiharu.

Kizu Natsuki is an amazing artist... Even when I have certain issues with this manga.

Well. I have a lot of qualms with Akiharu.

For starters, Akihiko assaulted Haruki. I'll never forget that. The fact that they ended up getting together anyway was a huge point of contention for me. Given was framed as a story about love more than a traditional story about BL/yaoi which (sorry) usually leans towards the sex. (This is not to say that sex and romance are separated, well they are but they are linked rather than being one in the same. You can have either, like they're hot/cold water but they come from the same faucet.)

But I feel that having this scene in rather than an argument feels completely wrong. I'm someone who will digest pretty much anything the world throws at me, but the Akiharu assault scene came off wrong and it came off scary. (Note: I say scary but I definitely mean much more than that, I just feel like "shouldn't be romanticized" doesn't encapsulate all of it. This topic is not something I'm qualified to talk about, so I don't want to overstep any boundaries.)

And to be honest, that's good because SA shouldn't be romanticised, for that, a big well done to our author. I just wish the aftermath was dealt with better.

This is terrifying. Please retract your words.

In spite of the SA scene being scary, afterwards all seemed to be resolved the moment it was revealed that Akihiko had nowhere else to go.

Everything for them goes uphill from here. Yay.

I just have to wonder what was the point of that buildup if you were just going to allow things to end nicely like that. With a scene like that, you'd think that the manga was saying that "SA is scary, it's terrifying and it's something that you shouldn't forget even if it's BL/Yaoi." But, why did it end up like this.

What I'm trying to say is: What does it matter that Akihiko apologised (twice), he still assaulted Haruki, he assaulted a friend. Even worse is the way that they're framed as a healthy couple afterwards, this just made me all the more uncomfortable. I feel like this is saying "SA is scary" but also saying "the power of love and friendship absolves everything". I've seen some people talk about the fact that SA happened, but haven't seen them say how it was "resolved". I think it's more to do with yaoi/BL fiction culture, that we've grown to accept SA that is unaddressed in our media to the point that Akihiko's apology is like a prayer more than something that's not even worth a second glance.

Saying that Akiharu started off rocky is an understatement, but if I pretend it never happened, I can say for sure that they are much healthier than Akigetsu, and they deserve each other. It's just not good storytelling especially because I don't really understand the motivations of Haruki liking Akihiko.

I once said that Haruki's character arc was based on Akihiko and that was my bad. I was wrong. Haruki, in fact, has a minor character arc, that isn't really to do with Akihiko, about how he feels insecure surrounded by geniuses in the band and this gets resolved by Akihiko saying that they wouldn't be able to function if all of them were geniuses, and Haruki himself seeing Akihiko hard at work. But I had completely forgotten about this arc, my bad, but my point still stands. Haruki deserved a better character arc.

I don't have a smart comment for this unfortunately. Eat your veggies??

In spite of saying this, I'm not an Akiharu hater, I swear. But I just found that ship much less compelling than Akigetsu in general. Akigetsu was a relationship where they were both incredibly toxic towards each other, there was an imbalance in the fact that Ugetsu literally owned the place they were living in, as well as how he'd kick Akihiko out whenever things were rocky. However, I think the end of their relationship was dealt well on both sides, their toxicity towards each other was framed in a negative light as it should have been. They ended the relationship and went their separate ways, this was the best ending for them. For Akiharu and Akigetsu: The difference between these two relationships is that one was dealt well and the other was dealt wrong. Akiharu deserve each other and Ugetsu deserves to learn how to grow by himself.

Anyway, another point of contention was, in spite of the healthy nature of Akiharu. Somehow, the friendship between the two couples seems to have waned and it was pretty disappointing to see. I think it started before this, but the first time it was obvious to me was this scene.

I know you're in the middle of something, but don't be mean to Mafuyu >:(.

Context: This is Chapter 40. Akiharu are in a moment of intimacy and Uenoyama is knocking at their door trying to get advice.

We've seen that Mafuyu is a very reserved person, to see that Akihiko was so ready to tell Mafuyu to stop coming over (even if it is to stop him from coming over so suddely) right to his face was extremely immature.

Basically, imagine if that had been Mafuyu. Personally, I feel like Mafuyu would have been hurt like hell and closed right back up. This scene is something played for laughs and that's something so disappointing. Given is shown to be a band of friends, but in the end it seemed more like two couples who hang out sometimes. Also the fact that both Akihiko and Haruki are pushing Uenoyama to get Mafuyu to rejoin the band. That's something else that bothers me heavily. That they're treating Mafuyu as Uenoyama's responsibility because they're dating. It's a band that is sure to fall apart if you are not making an effort to support each other equally. I mean, it doesn't have to be entirely equal but points for effort and they get no points here. It's funny because they were at least a little self-aware of this prior.

Dating in a band is something that is nuanced, of course. But it sure is funny to see them practically go down the same route they condemned.

That's my criticism of Akiharu.

So, what about the other instance of SA? I'm talking about Shizusumi and Hiiragi, of course.

Let's talk about Shizuragi.

Here they are! Let's talk about them!

Admittedly the first time around, I wasn't particularly into Shizuragi, I was too busy mourning the absense of Ugetsu. But it was during their sex scene where I realised something was very wrong. I was having flashbacks to the Akiharu assault chapter but this time it was played as "love" rather than something reprehensible. Once again, assault was in the manga and it, once again, resolved with badly.

I feel like sexual assault being played off as "love" and being resolved literally the next chapter with the victim being all kosher with it, should be garnering people's "??? what the fuck"s and not to bat for the opposing team for once but where are the complaints. I've actually seen some people talking about this chapter, but I would have expected more.

Hiiragi said he was scared and was crying, but they still fucked anyway. :D <- smile of shock.

Um what. Haha... ha........ :D <- terrifed smile of shock.

I don't know whether it would have been worse that he knew he was assaulting Hiiragi or whether he didn't know at all. But he knew.

Shizusumi confessed his love the morning after and it was all okay. But, to be honest, the fact that it was played off as being "all okay" makes this even worse. It's normal in yaoi/BL for SA to be played off as love, but you'd think that the last place you'd see this is in Given of all places. SA is SA and the fact that Hiiragi was so accepting of what happened to him afterwards says something about this the culture of BL/yaoi and how we just go along with it says something about this sentiment of how "yaoi is always going to be yaoi".

We're done? We're done.

There are no more SA scenes (that I can remember). But I do want to touch on Mafuyu and Uenoyama as briefly as possible (This is a recount of my experience after all). So, Mafuyama.

Ah, yes. The start of everything.

Admittedly, I didn't actually find their relationship super compelling. This is because I tend to get tunnel vision on characters I like (in this case, I heavily tunnel visioned on Ugetsu). I do like them both, they just didn't fit within my vision. I thought they were sweet but I also see a lot of complaints about how Mafuyu was stuck on Yuki and Uenoyama was getting backseated and I do agree with this. Kind of.

I think Mafuyu's story is about growth as a person, it's like what people say: You don't move on or lose your grief, you grow around it. Grief doesn't get smaller, you just get bigger. The person he loved died and I don't think it's fair to say that he has to get over Yuki. Grief is something that sticks with you everywhere, something you have to carry every day. They're still teenagers, they're still young and still have room to grow.

But as a story? Sheesh, instead of Haruki having no place in their circle. I felt like Uenoyama, even when he's the protagonist, wasn't given his spotlight in his own story. There is no character arc for him, there is nothing for him and that's just not fair. There are two people in a relationship, so why does it always feel like, narratively, Uenoyama always comes as an afterthought?

You could have had a character arc about this... Relationships are meant to be balanced, sweetie...

I just think it's a shame, but they're nowhere near as unhealthy as the other couples in Given, so I'm giving them a gold star.

(Minor irk, I do not remember when this happened but why the hell does Yayoi (Uenoyama's sister) get a character arc (where she comes to an understanding about Mafuyama feelings for each other, but also the gay in general) but the man himself doesn't?)

So, with Mafuyama, I feel like the story could have focused a little more on Uenoyama's side. But I feel like it's similar to how Haruki's story kind of got the backseat to Akigetsu drama happenings at the time. Shrug, we can't have it all.

He's beautiful...

That's honestly... all my thoughts. Wow! That was a lot of them. I think there's a lot to be said about how yaoi treats SA and dub-con in general, even in a manga that's not even focused on the sex.

With that said, I don't think BL shouldn't have SA or dubious scenes but the aftermath should be dealt with better afterwards. I think with Given, it's a start that the SA (at least with Akiharu) wasn't romanticised, but the aftermath was just poorly executed.

But I'm not the yaoi police, I hold no authority and I don't support purity culture. I'm not an anti-anything and I also believe that fiction should be fiction. What people enjoy should no way equate to a person's worldview. But, this was just all my perspective and my opinion. I said it and now I'm done. Haha... Anyway, my paypal is—