#this is the movie but the anime itself it’s romance based but like you can TELL

[convolutedblasphemy]

Characters that are aroace according to me and several other people who have approved these headcanons. Explanation for who they are under the cut + brief summary of the source material because if you haven't consumed these yet, you should! (I need more people to talk about them with)

1. Toshinori Yagi: He's the main characters' mentor and No. 1 Hero in the anime and manga "My Hero Academia" which follows the story of Izuku Midoriya, a high school student who was born without powers in a world where about 80% of the population has superpowers, as he attends a prestigious hero academy to become a licensed superhero. Watch the show.

Aroace level: has never shown romantic or sexual attraction to anyone in canon, has however shown what I interpreted as sex repulsion on a few instances in bonus material. the aces in the fandom crowd around him. it's a popular headcanon.

2. Monkey D. Luffy: Protagonist of One Piece, which follows his very, very long journey across the world with his friends / pirate crew in order to find the One Piece, the most legendary pirate treasure, and become the pirate king. Watch the show.

Aroace level: basically as aroace as you can make a character without explicitly using the terminology. crap ton of evidence to support this both in the source material and in stuff the mangaka said. like genuinely, I consider Luffy an aroace protagonist.

3. Sampo Koski: A playable character in Hoyoverse's turn-based gacha game "Honkai: Star Rail" where a group of people travel on an intergalactic train to different worlds in order to get rid of the Stellarons, known as the "Cancer of All Worlds". He's a jester-type character who scams people. Play the game.

Aroace level: Personal Headcanon with no canon evidence but somehow the aroaces on Tumblr crowd around him.

4. Michael: A timeless being who oversees the neighborhood in which the show is set. The story follows Eleanor Shellstrop who falsely got sent to The Good Place (basically heaven) after she died and is now trying to learn to become a better person so she can stay there. Show is hilarious, teaches you about philosophy and has a lot of unexpected twists and turns! Watch the show.

Aroace level: Listen I do not know a single person, ace or not, who knew what "aroace" is and walked away from this show not under the impression that Michael is aroace. He's a very aroace character. You'll understand if you watch it.

5. Dr. Robotnik: Antagonist of the Sonic The Hedgehog movies. Watch them.

Aroace level: Do not come for me with this one because he gets shipped with his assistant and there's a lot of people saying they're undeniably gay and in love with each other but this is a character who's struggled with alienation a lot and openly mocks the average person's socially expected life; the headcanon basically writes itself.

6. 9th Doctor: Listen, I wouldn't know how to summarize Doctor Who even if I tried but it has time travel, aliens and chaos. Watch the show.

Aroace level: The Doctor in general is a very asexual character (even said by Matt Smith himself), and this one in particular just struck me as very aro as well. He kisses another character in the show but I did not register that as romantic at all...

7. Benjamin Linus: An antagonist (you will go back and forth between loathing his guts and loving him. also he gets beaten up a lot. like an almost comical amount) and pretty major character in "Lost", a show that follows the passengers of a plane crash after they landed on a mysterious, seemingly deserted island where strange things are happening. Watch the show, it's fantastic.

Aroace level: Personal Headcanon. Doesn't have a love interest or displays sexual attraction in a show where a lot of characters do. Singular attempt at romance looked more like display of his mental health issues than genuine romantic attraction.

8. JB Cox: A master thief who's simultaneously very cunning and also very stupid. Basically live action version of Sampo Koski. He's from the series "The Hardy Boys", which follows the teenage brothers Frank and Joe Hardy as they try to solve the mystery behind their mother's murder. Contains murder mystery, crime and secret societies. Watch the show, I have no one to talk about it with. Not a single person.

Aroace level: Not a singular display of romantic or sexual attraction but also he's the only notable character of his age group in this show. Lives in a secret hideout / apartment and spends his life breaking into buildings and stealing things for people who hire him. I cannot look at this man and imagine him as someone with a love life. I just can't.

[minijenn]

Jen Tortures Herself With Every Dreamworks Animated Movie Ever: Megamind

So surprisingly, this is one movie I've never actually seen before outside of all of the memes and all of the love people tend to shower upon it, and after finally seeing it for myself... yeah, I totally get why. Megamind is based as fuck, ya'll.

We focus on, of course, Megamind, who is a supervillain who terrorizes Metro City and is opposed by the heroic Metro Man. At least until Megamind seems to successfully defeat Metro Man, leaving Metro City in his hands and quickly leading him into wanting more than just power alone. While in disguse, he ends up striking up a romance with Roxanne, a local reporter, and at the same time, he ends up creating a new opponent for him to fight to curb his growing boredum in the nerdy (incel) Hal, who quickly becomes more of a villain himself than the hero Megamind wanted him to be. So of course, this leads to all sorts of chaos and hijinks, and while you might think that plot sounds too complicated for its own good, I can surprisingly say, it really isn't!

Yeah, all of the moving pieces here work so well together, interwoven into a really compelling story with some pretty solid emotions and some great character moments. It helps that our cast itself is fantastic; Megamind is such a good lead, he's a genuis, but he's also totally socially graceless and is an absolute lovable goober as a result, one who comes to realize that he can be more than the "villain" stereotype he believed he was forced into being from childhood. Roxanne is also a really good leading lady; she's funny and snarky and has really great chemistry with Megamind throughout.

Metro Man doesn't get a ton of screentime, but he's a great parody on the usual superhero tropes, while Minion is the perfect right hand man (fish?) to Megamind in every way. Even our villain, Hal, or as he comes to be called, Titan, works really well here; he's the kind of asshole who just doesn't take no for an answer that we can all justifably hate (but he's also hilarious in his own right).

The animation is also really great here. I find that Dreamworks movies tend to look their best when their characters are highly stylized, and that's what we get a lot of here. We get a lot of really fun action scenes, both in terms of fighting and Megamind's tech. and strangely enough the special effects here (things like fabric and particle effects, etc) really stood out to me, they were all super well done.

The humor is absolutely fantastic here. It's not as adult as some of Dreamworks earlier days, but instead it relies more on who these characters are and how they interact with each other. I think one of my favorite running gags is Megamind obliviously mispronouncing various words (like school and Metro City). There's a bunch of small bits just like that throughout the movie, and they're all so fast paced and well delivered by a really stellar voice cast. The emotions also strike a cord here; there aren't any tearjerker moments, but you really do feel Megamind's growth here as he falls in love and eventually decides to become the hero he never thought he could be.

So yeah, I really enjoyed this one! It's a shame it took me this long to watch it, because it was super enjoyable all the way through. Also amazing that it never really spawned any legit sequels, but I heard its getting a show next year, so idk. I am probs not gonna watch it. Movie good tho, give it a watch if ya haven't.

Overall Rating: 9/10

Verdict: There is no Queen of England

Previous Review (Shrek Forever After)

Next Review (Kung Fu Panda 2)

[driftwood-fireflies]

"I can easily imagine belonging to one man for my entire life, but he would have to be a whole man, a man who would dominate me, who would subjugate me by his inate strength. And every man—I know this very well—as soon as he falls in love becomes weak, pliable, ridiculous. He puts himself into the woman's hands, kneels down before her. The only man whom I could love permanently would be he before whom I should have to kneel."

--

The above is a quote from the book Venus in Furs, written by the man whom the act of masochism was named after, Leopold von Sacher-Mascoh. I think a lot of his work is of course, foundationally based in sex and gender dynamics and therein difficult to divorce from that context, but since I have an obsession with this damn movie and these two men who make up the core of it, I will at least attempt to in service of making this quote about my gay ship ❤️ indulge me, if you will.

I think the quote reveals some interesting facets of human nature as I can relate them back upon Billy and Stu (STOP LAUGHING. STOP LAUGHING). Though the line in context is spoken by a woman and is chiefly about the way that men love women (particularly in this historical context, as the source text is from 1870) I believe it also carries with it some interesting implications on human nature in romance and sex in general. Wanda speaks about losing her fascination with men who show themselves to be 'weak, pliable, ridiculous.' The way this clashes with typical societal expectations for what love is meant to look like is interesting to me. What is perceived to her (and, in my mind, to Stu, as I read this from his perspective) as weakness is something we might consider fondness. The way the heart grows tender and the gaze softens when resting on the object of one's affection. I could easily see how this could translate in some minds to a revealing of weakness as it smashes the artificial barrier of outward strength to reveal that the hardened exterior does, in fact, protect vital organs just as infallible as [his] own. And for someone who feels either profoundly unsafe or particularly in need of protection, that softness is in itself an attack upon the feeling of safety offered by the exterior coldness. In a sense, the speaker deifies the prospect of a lover by upholding an expectation of rigid emotionless protection. Or if not emotionless, emotions so well hidden so as to be imperceptible. And yet what intrigues me is that the speaker also speaks of belonging to the man in question, making the relationship something of a transaction, and yet I have trouble categorizing it as such. In essence what is being asked for is to belong to [him] in exchange for being belonged to, which when described in those terms is almost prototypical. And yet the dynamic is still subversive because it requires such a lack of what would be considered romance. No, the relationship the speaker asks for is one built primarily on acts of violence and service, of the safety of ownership in exchange for being owned. A dog asks to be collared, as a tag emblazoned with its owners name is the only real measure of safety keeping it tethered to the place it calls home. To treat a dog as an equal ensures only that they will be mistreated, such is the way of animals. And yet it goes even a step beyond this, as the violence demanded by the speaker is not solely reflected outward. [He] asks not for a loyal protector but an indiscriminately dominant figure who will put [him] in [his] own place just as well as he will do to someone else. As I said, that revealing act of softness does nothing but that - reveal softness. It exposes a vulnerability in the man that owns [him] and therein exposes [his] own vulnerability. And so this attraction to the hardened exterior therein makes [him] reflective of that softness, and in that way makes [him] a part of him. In this sense they become a sort of 4-dimensional ouroboros, two headed and somehow always inside of the other just as much as they are eating each other, and yet one and the same. Billy owns Stu in the way a man owns a dog, in the way a parasite owns a host. Stu owns Billy in the way a heart owns its body, in the way the sky owns the sun and moon. They belong to each other just as much as they own each other, reflected in Stu's devotion to being collared and Billy's devotion to mark what's his.

or maybe, it's just a movie, and I wrote an essay for nothing ❤️ who knows. I just like to think about things sometimes

[bthump]

hello! i hope im not bothering you with this ask or anything, but i really love your blog and the thoughts you write, so i wanted to ask if you any other titles you would reccomend that are similar to berserk (not necessarily in terms of setting, but mostly the Vibe) and deal with similar themes (i watched and read devilman!). i would accept anything tbh, be it a book or movie or a series. thanks in advance, hope you have a good week! :)

Thank you very much, and yeah I'd be happy to rec a few other things I like that have some similarities! Some of these similarities are pretty thin lol, but tbf Berserk is pretty unique, at least in terms of media I'm into, and I've seen some good homoerotic movies recently.

Anime/Manga:

Claymore is compared to Berserk fairly regularly, and it's not just for the big swords. There's no griffguts equivalent, but it's got medieval fantasy monster hunting vibes, similar themes wrt human nature (though more shounen, power of love-esque lol), great action scenes and cool monster designs, and a lot of great female characters with interesting relationships, which isn't similar to Berserk but it's a bonus by itself.

I've also seen Vinland Saga compared to Berserk, and again there's no griffguts equivalent, but there's a very Griffith-esque character who has an AU where Griffith became king the old fashioned way vibe, and a central theme is revenge.

An anon a while ago made the point to me that Light from Death Note is similar to Griffith in a few ways, such as wanting to create a kind of ideal world, and being very charismatic and having culty followers who view him as a god.

Books:

tbh I have a bad memory for books I've read, but here are a couple I read specifically because of Berserk similarities:

I read As Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCann because I was told it had griffguts vibes, and it did. Medieval lone wolf is recruited by idealistic blond mercenary who wants to create a utopia, falls in love with him, and gets fucked over. It's very dark, darker in some ways than Berserk, but it was a good read imo. More in depth post on it with warnings here.

Captive Prince by CS Pacat is known for the author having based one of the characters partially on Griffith, and you can tell lol. It's a fun read if you don't mind or are into the tropey sex slave setting, with an engaging gay romance that has surface similarities to griffguts, though the vibe of the relationship was fairly different to me. But like, the political scheming felt like a Golden Age AU to me. It's been a while since I've read it but for warnings there's rape, csa, incest, and sex slavery not portrayed positively but like, used as erotic scene setting if that's a dealbreaker.

TV Shows:

Hannibal! It's got intense homoeroticism, it's got betrayal, it's got an operatic level of intensity, it's fun to dissect analytically, violence revenge and trauma are significant themes, one character tries to escape his life ruining feelings for the other by killing him, and it's just a great time.

Yellowjackets also has strong themes of violence and how it's a temptation, and though I wouldn't compare any of the relationships to griffguts exactly, there's an intense tragic homoerotic friendship that haunts one of the characters decades later.

Xena has a campy overpowered anti hero dressed in black leather wrestling with their inner darkness and in love with a blonde, also a flirty exes kind of relationship with a god (though that's hetero lol). Not really similar tonally and no griffguts equivalent, but it's got some similar themes wrt violence, revenge, human connection saving your soul from darkness, etc, and it's a gr8, fun show.

Black Sails has a kind of love vs revenge thing going on, as well as an attempt to overturn the social order and create a utopian kingdom. In some ways it's similar in tone as well, often pretty dark and violent, but with some very funny moments, and set in a fictionalized historical setting. No griffguts equivalent, but all these shows are extremely gay.

Movies:

Ladyhawke gets a lot of comparisons to Berserk, and may have been one of Miura's inspirations since he cited Rutger Hauer movies. Starcrossed wolf and hawk themed lovers, medieval setting, significant eclipse, it's got the vibes.

Hellraiser is one of Miura's stated inspirations iirc, and I mean yeah lol. It's the godhand as sadomasochists. Idk that there's that much in common in terms of theme, but the aesthetic is there.

Yk what? The Lost Boys. Homoerotic, campy fun, brooding teen is recruited into a gang and has sexual tension with the leader... that should count.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture starts with Spock trying to purge all his emotions after we can only assume breaking up with Kirk, and failing, and it's a parallel to a godlike being learning to love.

Okay hear me out on this one... Sweet Smell of Success is like if there was no Guts and instead the homoeroticism was between Griffith and the King, and it was set in the New York world of 50s gossip columnists, and look, I recently watched and adored this movie and I want to rec it. And hey, it's about doing fucked up shit to feed your ambition and being pretty and charming while you do it.

The Favourite is about a servant seducing and manipulating her way to power in a royal court, kind of an f!Griffith AU without a Guts if you look at it a certain way. But also it's another movie I love and want to rec based on at least one similarity lol.

Uh, Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence is about a dude wanting to fuck a hot charismatic and guilt-ridden blond guy but being too repressed to go for it? Great movie in general. Also Midnight Cowboy is about trauma induced gay repression while we're at it.

And finally, Paul Verhoeven's sci fi trifecta of Robocop, Total Recall, and Starship Troopers have virtually nothing in common with Berserk in terms of theme, character, relationships, etc. But the tone feels exactly like the Black Swordsman arc to me lol, to the point where I've always said that the only live action Hollywood adaption of Berserk I'd accept is the one Verhoeven directed in the 90s in an alternate universe. Miura was directly inspired by one of his 80s movies that I've never seen, Flesh and Blood, and yeah, I feel like you can kind of feel the inspiration.

I have other rec lists, as well as things people have recced to me often on the basis of similarities to Berserk/griffguts that I haven't checked out yet, in this tag, so I'd highly recommend browsing through it for more media suggestions. And if anyone wants to jump in with more recs for things that remind you of Berserk in some way, please do!

[youngerfrankenstein]

So today I watched two movies where the deuteragonist goes kinda nuts and turns into a dragon thing, before the protagonist has to calm them down.

They were both a pretty fun time!

Promare is something I had been meaning to watch for quite a while but somehow never got around to. Glad I finally did!

Promare has quite possibly the Worst oppression allegory I have ever seen. A bunch of people are discriminated against because they burned half the world and killed billions (with a B!) of people. Also it’s not actually anything inherent to them it’s a bunch of alien parasites that will destroy the planet. However, since this is basically just an excuse for robots to fight other robots on fire… I can’t say I really care in the end. Promare is ENTIRELY style over substance, and I mean that in the best way.

The plot is breakneck and stupid. Most of the characters barely register as such. The dialogue is so dumb. And it FUCKING RULES! I’ve seen the film described as “Anime the Anime” and that does kind of sum it up. Everything feels like a ten year old boy smashing his action figures together and you can’t help but get swept up in the enthusiasm.

Helped by the absolutely (excuse the pun) FIRE soundtrack. The energy almost never lets up, and on-the-nose engrish lyrics just add to the experience. Even if you don’t watch the movie holy heck listen to the soundtrack.

The characters may be paper-thing but holy hell are they fun to watch. Our protagonist, Galo, himbo extraordinaire is as ridiculous as he is somehow charming. You can’t help but admire his drive to help people. And his foil, the ironically icy Lio, here to set fires and fight for his rights. Aina, a nice, spunky girl set up as a love interest for about five minutes before it turns out her character has more of a story based around her relationship with her sister. Which is a nice change! In fact the only romance in the story arguably involves CPR for plausible deniability. And our hero remembers to open the airway thank heck. Though whether intentional or just ship tease who knows? And who cares. You can guess who the villain is about ten seconds after he shows up and he is as much a blast to watch as the rest.

And really, this is a movie with a secret robot used to save the day called the Deus X Machina. A movie that ends with two shirtless guys setting the Earth on fire to stop the Earth from being set on fire. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and really neither should you. Let it sweep you away for almost two hours and you will feel much better afterwards.

-

I started reading Nimona around the time it was wrapping up as a webcomic. I have a copy of the graphic novel on my shelf. I was excited when I heard the movie had been greenlit (less so when I heard it was Blue Sky Studios), disappointed by the cancellation and, well, I’m happy it’s here now. While I’ve gotten grouchier over the years, it does make me smile to see these guys on my television, even if they’re not quite the same people either.

Because the movie is very different, and yet much of it feels similar as well. Certain scenes, like the board game, are almost directly from the comic, others are from the comic but not quite the same. The characters are different, Ballister is less jaded, Ambrosius less delusional and Nimona less, well, monstrous. She seems to more beat the snot out of people than commit mass murder. In the comic she’s every bit the monster people fear her to be, though a sympathetic one, and perhaps one who will heal someday. While the ending of the movie is far happier, it fits the new tone. And honestly? I need to stop making comparisons and judge the damn movie on its own merits. Of which it has many!

Our setup is fairly simple, Ballister BlackBoldheart is a new knight of the realm, who immediately gets framed for the murder of the queen and disarmed (heh) by his boyfriend Ambrosius Goldenloin, while on the lam he is approached by a shapeshifter called Nimona who is up for a little mayhem and hijinks. Together they try and clear his name.

My fist fear when I heard Blue Sky studios would be the ones releasing the movie was that a lot of the humour would be Quite Bad. And while there definitely is plenty of that, I think more gags hit than miss. Hell the movie got quite a few laughs out of my dad and he’s a fair bit less likely to chuckle than I am. It is quite a funny movie, which is good because it helps the harsher moments hit harder. Because there are also plenty of those, especially in the final act.

Speaking of, the film is somewhat surprisingly well paced. Scenes tend not to overstay their welcome and the movie flows well. What else flows well? The animation! (My segways not so much) Everything is very smooth, which is rather necessary for all the shapeshifting, and there’s quite an interesting scene made to look as if subway tiles are telling the story of Nimona’s origins (ish).

And the main trio really are quite fun to watch. Ballister, always the underdog, now a public enemy and trying to both clear his name and perhaps open his mind a bit. Ambrosius, golden boy, trying to do the right thing and not always doing a great job. And, of course, Nimona, who’s just here to break shit, though it is quickly clear there’s more underneath, also a pretty blatant trans allegory.

The relationships Ballister has with both the other two are sweet as heck, but also riddled with mistrust that they all have to work to overcome.

And while the movie does get a little preachy at times, it’s a kid’s movie. What do you expect? Rah rah fight the power, all that jazz. I may be too jaded for it but it certainly works.

—

Would recommend checking out both or either if they sound like something you’d enjoy!

[2010s-nostalgia]

frozen hate discussion??? 👀👀 take my hand

no but really. even just aside from how they took a pretty good fairy tale and did... um, nothing with it? nothing interesting at least, frozen is still just a mediocre movie with bad designs and music that's really just okay.

what really bothers me more than anything else is that frozen just comes off as cynical. it's making fun of older movies that are better than it.

every single time someone tries to make a fairy tale edgy/adult or feels the need to point out every unrealistic aspect about it an angel dies. "you can't marry a man you just met" represents a fundamental misunderstanding of both the genre and the disney movies based on it. it's this annoying tongue-in-cheek tone and utter pessimism that quite literally sucks all the magic out of the movie, and then they have the balls to make fun of better films. it's just cynical and grating and honestly coming from disney itself just annoys me. oh you think snow white and cinderella are unrealistic? you think love at first sight is stupid? should we throw a party? should we invite buzzfeed.

whereas movies like shrek, which also try to deconstruct the fairy tale/disney genre, actually work because instead of someone busting out an "erm, actually!" line every five minutes or pulling some cheap twist, they simply tell a story that reverses the tropes. and there's no moment in shrek where the movie turns to the audience and goes "you dumb dumb fuck ass idiots came here to see a fairy tale? well fuck you! twist villain attack!"

I don't much care for tangled either but at least you can tell it was made in earnest. also literally everything frozen was applauded for has been done better before. the sisters thing? lilo and nani have an actual bond. playboy villain? gaston. taking time to fall in love? beauty and the beast? tarzan? hercules? literally like most disney movies? anna and kristoff were together for like a week before saying I love you. get real.

okay thanks mod love your blog <3

I agree with everything. Honestly, making fun of past movies would be okay if it succeeded at all. Enchanted exists, it made the same points, and it worked soooo well. In Frozen, Anna is told she can't marry a man she just met, then gets with Kristoff within like two days. Love's not supposed to be a major part of the story? A whole song is sung by the love interests' family about how they should get together (they get together later). So much of the movie is focused on a romance with so little chemistry instead of being about the sister relationship the film claims to be about!

I should say I don't hate Frozen. It's fine, but I don't want fine, ya know? I want great!!! (Also didn't love Tangled either. Idk what management change happened in the animation department in the mid 2000s, but they really lost the groove around that time. Maybe Bob did a shake up)

[thefloatingstone]

Hi C-puff. Since you know your manga/anime, do you have any suggestions for a person feeling nostalgic for Chobits but not looking to re-read it?

hmmmm~ 🤔

I think it depends what it is you liked about Chobits itself. A Magical Girlfriend anime (not to be confused with magical Girl anime) that I quite like but which is a little all over the place with its anime adaptations is "Oh My Goddess" or "Aah My Goddess" depending on how it's translated. it's a lot lighter than Chobits in tone, but it does have a weird mix of magical girlfriend romance... and a SEVERE interest in motorcycles. The laborious detail the manga has on its machinery is ridiculous. Fujishima Kousuke just completely indulging himself. It's great. Also it has one of the most interesting concepts for how its whole "Goddess" system works. I recommend the movie from the 2000s (which wasn't attached to any specific anime at the time) which if only in aesthetic is one of my favourite "easy to watch" anime movies. It also had a proper anime tv series made for it around 2005 I think?

For something a little grittier that really explores relationships and especially heartache a little more in depth, I'd recommend "Video Girl Ai" which is a 6 episode OVA which is based on the manga Denei Shoujo. It's far more mature (in themes, not in adult content) regarding loneliness and relationships as experienced by normal Japanese teenagers in a way that focuses on the emotional side of things. So if you need something a little less wish fulfillment and a little more personal I'd recommend it.

If you don't mind an ecchi, there is Mahoromatic: The Automatic Maiden which I still have to watch myself past the first 3 episodes, but I find the plot synopsis extremely juicy;

Mahoro Andou is a powerful combat android designed by Vesper, a secret organization protecting the world against alien invaders. Unfortunately, her remaining operational time is running short. If she continues to fight, she will shut down in about one month. However, if she chooses to avoid combat, she can live freely for over a year.

Suguru Misato is a high school boy who lives alone in a large house left behind by his late parents. Like any other boy his age, he has trouble taking care of the house on his own, so he decides to enlist the help of a maid. His problem is solved in the most unexpected way: when a couple of thugs hijack the bus he is riding, a young, beautiful girl wearing a maid outfit saves the day. It turns out that this girl is Mahoro, who has chosen to live her remaining days as Suguru's new maid.

Mahoro makes the best of her remaining time and develops bonds with Suguru and his friends during their peaceful yet lively everyday interactions. However, Mahoro is hiding her true intentions behind becoming Suguru's maid, that being that she is the one responsible for his father's death.

Again, just be aware it IS an Ecchi and as such has a lot of adult humour, however if you're familiar with the Chobits anime it's about on par with that (although the Chobits manga is not as sexually focused as the anime is). Mahoromatic is also a show created by Gainax around the same time as Chobits but before the studio had made FLCL. (it also has some INSANE sakuga in it). Just be aware you're in for a lot of anime tiddy.

Then there's DearS but I wouldn't recommend DearS because it's literally a Chobits ripoff. They have the exact same plot except DearS is even more of an ecchi than Chobits with none of the interesting meta-human commentary and more "look at my hot alien waifu who has the intelligence of a child" thing.

I see a lot of people on MAL also recommend an anime called "Plastic Memories" but I am not familiar with it myself. It's got a pretty decent score tho, and the premise seems interesting as another Android/human love story which also has the plot point of the robot girl's lifespan being on a short timer.

I hope one of those might be what you're looking for!

[asexual-means-no-attraction]

Being in a very mogai-infested fandom is pain, but I'm probably most annoyed by demisexuality being so rampant as a HC. There is no reason for that label to even exist. I just came across a fanfic and decided to read it just to see what the author considers to be "demisexual" and:

[[Casual intimacy isn’t his thing if he’s being honest. The idea of sex without the weight of romance isn’t something he feels he’s comfortable with.]]

That's... literally normal. In fact, it's what I was specifically taught as a child was normal. That sex should only be had with the person I loved, and preferably was already engaged/married to. Because my family is catholic and that's their conservative opinion on sex.

It's totally fine to not be into one night stands or other hookups, but you are not a different sexuality because of it, otherwise being catholic is also a sexuality I guess.

(I didn't proof read any of this, so apologies now)

Gonna go off on a tangent here, but I swear it's related:

Growing up I watched a lot of Disney. And something I noticed a lot in any non animation show or movie, was just how rich everyone was. A house would have only a father and daughter, but have 5 bedrooms, 3 baths, a massive living room and dining room, and a state of the art full blown security system that at the time I didn't actually believe could actually exist cuz no 'normal' person could have that. And that would be the standard for many movies that were very much supposed to be realistic in the settings. They'd even say these people have average jobs. Even the apartment in wizards of Waverly place was HUGE. With each kid having their own bed rooms significantly larger than mine. They literally own a family restaurant that they live upstairs in. But the apartment was bigger than my childhood home. And this is coming from a kid who grew up middle class, the most well of between all my friends. If I were to base what the normal American home looks like based on the media I watched as a kid, I would have a very warped idea of what homes look like. If you actually look at the stats, not even my middle class home is normal.

Mainstream media is produced by rich people (the workers under them not so much, but the actual person in charge generally), and that can easily give a bias or warped view of what's "normal." This is even more exaggerated by the fact that characters in mainstream media are designed to be interesting not normal.

So if you're basing your idea of attraction, dating, sex, etc on what you see in the media, it's going to be warped. Which I feel like ties into your comments quite well.

Usually when I see people try to explain what is and isn't normal for experiences of attraction I get examples of media and fiction. Usually examples of characters having one night stands or being playboys. Which:

1. Flirty play boy characters are common in the media because it's easy to make them a dynamic character. Giving them character development or to gain special feelings quickly give them a whole new perspective that audiences love (this isn't a bad thing for the record).

2. Most irl people who are like these fictional characters don't get nearly as many one night stands as they or the media claim. They aren't nearly as much of a player as they seem. And they're also usually pretty annoying unlike the characters in the shows who are made to be likeable. It's unrealistic in the first place.

3. Media itself is not a good standard of what is normal as it's entirely biased on what the producer deems as normal or average. See my tangent at the beginning. The characters aren't a good way to figure out what's "normal."

I have had people explain things usually actual people as examples which I think ties into my earlier rant in exactly the same way.

How you view the people around you (or more accurately your perception of them) is biased. You have a limited social circle and can't really base what's standard for society off of it. I'm guilty of this too. We all are. It's a very natural thing to assume everyone is like the people that you have experienced with-- for better or for worse..

If you're in your teens and have teenage friends, it's gonna be really easy to feel like they're all obsessed with sex or dating. It's a new thing that you're (hopefully) just now really learning about and exploring. It's easy to go a little overboard with something new. And it's also normal to not be interested in something new. Some kids are gonna be really into dating while others aren't. Some are gonna go from one person to another, others aren't. Cuz no one knows what they're doing. No one knows their boundaries yet. No one knows what they want outta relationship yet. They're figuring it out. Whether you are interested in it or not-- both ends of the spectrum and everything in between is totally normal.

As a young adult you're still figuring things out so it's the same thing. Your own journey to figuring out what/who/how/where you want a relationship is gonna be unique then someone else's. It's normal for each person to have a different journey. This alone isn't some new identity.

Lastly, on a final note. The amount of people who want "sex without romance" is a lot smaller than we're led to believe. And the people who do feel that way are the ones who are abnormal. They may have trauma that influences it, they may not. They could be likeable, they could not. They may be abusers who just want someone to abuse, they may not have any ill will at all. They may be a shitty person, they may not. Regardless, our society pushes "romance goes with sex" a whole hell of a lot more than "sex and romance are separate." Like... a lot so. Historically and in the modern day.

So if your entire reasoning for a whole brand new identity is "I want to connect before we date or have sex," I need you to know how much that is actually extremely normal. And how much you've been influenced by biased media, possibly a shitty friend or ex, and just a warped pov in general (not necessarily of any fault of your own).

[bloody-wonder]

Until now, have you found any couple (canon or non canon) from any media (books, tv series, movies, anime/manga, etc) that the dynamics remind you of Neil/Andrew and Damen/Laurent?

if you're looking for dynamics specifically (as opposed to a full romance arc) the lymond chronicles, the queen's thief and empire of the vampire will scratch that damen/laurent itch.

it's common knowledge, at least in my niche circles, that cs pacat is a big fan of dorothy dunnett's work, that laurent is based on lymond and that his relationship with damen (down to specific scenes) was inspired by lymond's numerous boytoys. so reading the lymond chronicles after captive prince is constantly going aha! *leonardo dicaprio pointing meme*. what these books however don't have is a full romance arc with any of those men which is why you could say capri is, in a sense, a slash fic of the lymond chronicles. it's my favorite series of all time and i can't recommend it enough but it's also rather inaccessible in the beginning and has a steep learning curve - quite a commintment of your time and brain energy but so SO worth it!

the queen's thief is another series heavily inspired by the lymond chronicles and it has multiple ships that reminded me of damen/laurent: gen's love interest is very much a cast iron bitch and they do engage in an intense enemies to lovers romance, with some casualties. costis and kamet's story in thick as thieves is basically if the side quests laurent and damen went on were a whole separate book. and while not a canon romance like the previous two, whatever gen and costis have going on in the king of attolia is very reminiscent of the laurent/damen dynamic in book one (minus the slavery). two things to keep in mind if you decide to pick up the queen's thief: it's sort of ya (??) so the brutality and sexiness, while present, will not be on the same level as capri. and book one doesn't feature any of the above ships so, again, you gotta commit to the whole thing :)

now, while these two recs seem like no-brainers to me, i'm very excited to take this opportunity to yell about empire of the vampire from the rooftops AGAIN!! eotv is basically a story about epic quests and valiant deeds told by a jaded captive vampire hunter to his cunty vampire captor (who is blonde bc yes). jean françois is definitely inspired by anne rice's lestat (as the narrative format as a whole is inspired by interview with the vampire) but his dynamic with gabriel is just Peak Laurent/Damen Banter. "i speak your language better than you speak mine, sweetheart" and "hello, lover" galore! in fact, after i found out that pacat and jay kristoff know each other personally i became convinced that he had either read capri and borrowed the vibe OR *starts rambling about her conspiracy theory about how all australian fantasy authors drink secret australian magic juice that makes them write fun depraved sff, gets smacked on the head, passes out* where was i... ah yes, nasty gay vampires. eotv is very fun and very tropey, also very queer and sexy (esp book two) and it had my toxic yaoi needs covered however comma. jean françois/gabriel is basically them sitting in a room in the frame narrative and exchanging homoerotic barbs, while the story itself is about gabriel's past adventures (also very interesting but less homoerotic). it's unlikely that they're gonna have any sort of romance arc - unless someone reads the books and writes a fic of them. please.

alas, i still can't rec anything that comes close to what nora achieved with andreil. to me, the defining characteristics of their dynamic are two feral cats circling and sniffing each other, intricate rituals, overdramatic dialogue, aspec attraction (on neil's part). while one can attempt to find some of these elements in other stories, you cannot find all of them at once (aspec pov on relationships being particularly rare in fiction). there's just no other couple that manages to strike a perfect balance between the anime levels of drama and chaos on the one hand and the serious themes of trauma, acceptance, consent etc on the other hand. sorry, anon, ig we'll have to keep re-reading aftg until one of the aspiring authors i bet this fandom has a lot of writes their own book inspired by andreil🤷‍♀️

[a3heritageposts]

What's A3

I'm SO glad you asked!

A3! (Act! Addict! Actors!) is a mobile game that was launched in Japan in 2017. (It also got an English version in 2019, but that was discontinued in 2021 and fully shut down in 2022. Sigh.)

The game follows Mankai Company, an acting troupe comprised of twenty (later twenty-four) cute and conventionally attractive male characters, an assortment of side characters, and You, the theatre's director (default name Izumi Tachibana). You play by collecting cards (souped-up jpegs) of the characters through the in-game gambling system or through playing "events" aka limited-time competitions, leveling up your cards' power stats, and then using them to compete in events so you can get more cards like some sort of gacha-based Sisyphean boulder.

Ahem. While the gameplay itself is pretty simplistic - while it can get competitive, it only requires a little bit of strategizing and time management on the player's part. You can literally play while also scrolling through tumblr - the main appeal comes from the story and characters, who are all very fun and interesting. Each character feels nuanced and in-depth, and one of my favorite things about this fandom is the sheer love people have for their faves, whether it's expressed through fanart, fanfiction, memes, or analysis. Despite the premise, the story is actually very light on romance with more of a focus on found family, which I find refreshing. (Don't worry, the romance can still be there if you want it to be XD.) Explaining what I love about each character would be another post entirely, so in conclusion, I'll leave you with these links.

Yaycupcake - the A3 wiki, an absolute godsend, has fan translations of most stories. To get started, read the prologue and Acts 1-4 of the main story, then head on over to the events, which have eleven-episode ministories and exclusive cards with their own backstage stories

This post - links to an archive of the official English translation (highly recommended)

Obligatory spotify playlist link

If you do want to actually download the game, you can do so off the Japan app store using an APK if you're an android user. If you're an iphone user...I can't help you :/. I also recommend downloading a screen translator app if you don't know Japanese, if only so you don't accidentally delete your progress.

Aside from the game, we also have an anime (which I cannot, in good faith, recommend), several stageplays (better, but can be difficult to track down), and a movie (that I haven't seen).

That pretty much covers it? Sorry you unlocked the rambly infodump haha but we're always excited to see interest in our little acting blorbo simulator ^_^

[mademoiselle-cookie]

Obi-Wan is a Gary-Stu?

This accusation really surprised me. How can we see this guy as a perfect and overpowered being? Annoying at worse, everyone has their own sensitivity, but that's not enough to make him a Gary Stu.

(Warning, what follows is only based on my memories. I can forget stuff)

Is he overpowered with the Force? It's never said or shown that he's special in that area, so he's at most just quite powerful. Nothing to do with Yoda or Anakin who are said to have broken records with their midi-chlorians, anyway. He's very good at animal and mind control, and never fails, but the only one it happens to is a Padawan.

Is he physically strong? Although he knows how to fight very well, he is only a simple human (just boosted by the Force). And from a lightsaber mastery point of view, even though he can take 2 Sith at the same time, he also lost several times against Dooku. And if he is obviously excellent with firearms, he uses them twice max (not counting the Kenobi series which I have not seen). Given his age, what little we see of his physical abilities clearly comes from his training and experience, not from an incredible innate talent.

Does he have a prestigious position? He is a Council Member, the governing body of the Jedi Order, but he is also not the Grand Master of the Order or the Head of the Council. Even if he looks younger than the others, it's never emphasized. And the Council itself is subordinate to the Senate. Even a young and kind Senator like Riyo thought she could give him orders as she pleased.

Is it particularly special? He is not the chosen one of a prophecy, nor the person the embodiment of the Force has chosen as his replacement, or the child of a being extremely powerful and important to the Force itself. He is not even the main character of the saga. In TCW, you really only see 3 of his men, very underdeveloped (mostly Cody), and one gets killed without us seeing Obi-Wan's reaction. Nothing like the 501st. Even though The Mandalorians were brought into TCW for storylines about him, his romance with Satine exists completely for Anakin and not for him. The only thing really special about him is how obsessed villains, and especially Siths, are with him (it's indeed one of the Sue's traits).

Do we particularly praise him? He's the only one I remember having a nickname in the movies/series, and his ship is named after him (again, that's the only one it's about. The others are values like the Endurance or the Resolute). But that's background. When it comes to characters paying him compliments, there are quite a few for someone so well-known. I remember Leia asking for his help in ANH, Qui-Gon in TPM (but he also criticizes him a lot) Anakin in AOTC (but same as Qui-Gon), and I believe Satine (but again she spends more time criticizing him and I think she mostly compliments his looks). On the other hand, there are times when praising him was possible, even logical, but completely missed:

in the Malevolence arc, everyone compliments Anakin for going to the enemy ship (while he's just fixing the consequences of his own decisions) but nothing at all about Obi-Wan following him (which everyone knows);

in the Umbara arc, the 501st compares Krell's incompetence to Anakin's skill, but no word on the only other Jedi on the planet, Jedi who loves and protects his men, Jedi who knows about the 501st and reassured blue virus survivors when their own General didn't care, Jedi who will lose one of his most known men for the public;

In Rebel, with the many, many times Rex compliments Anakin, Gregor could have done the same thing, he'd have better reasons to (and I would have cared about his death. I hadn't seen TCW yet at that time).

Anakin (who is admittedly the main character but above all a future Sith who is clearly on this slope apart in TPM) receives MUCH more praise.

Is he of prestigious descent? We don't know his family at all and he never talks about it (again, not seen the Kenobi series). I don't even remember his home planet being mentioned in movies and TV shows. As far as we know, his parents are absolutely nothing special. They are neither kings, nor senators, nor influential, nor rich.

Does he ever fail? Forgetting all about Anakin's downfall because it wasn't his fault, in TPM he lets himself be overcome by anger and grief and almost gets killed by Maul. In the AOTC, he is too arrogant and overprotective to trust Anakin and gets scolded for it. In TCW, he admits that he would have left the Jedi Order for Satine, he allows himself to be dominated by his anger against Maul again, and - even if it is understandable because it was deserved and that he was tortured mentally and physically for several days - the smile he threw at Rex before he killed the Zygerrian does not really fit in with Jedi values.

Does he have a perfect life? His people were slaughtered by his own student whom he raised, the galaxy he swore to protect applauded this genocide, those responsible for this massacre rose to power, his master, the woman he loved and a close friend died before his eyes, he ended up spending 19 years on a desert planet that was nothing, Bail Organa died along with his entire planet, and in the OT era he, Yoda and Luke were the last Jedi alive.

So no.

Of course, when you're next to the walking disaster that is Anakin, it's easy to look perfect (especially since Obi-Wan is literally the foil of Anakin, the example of what he should be or do). Add to the fact that he's played by a handsome, charismatic actor and the character is funny and calm, where main character Anakin was extremely embarrassing and creepy, the comparison stings and can make people who identify with the latter uncomfortable.

That doesn't mean Obi-Wan is actually perfect. He would not have needed to have development arcs in TPM and AOTC. And that's why we love him. Not because he's perfect (95% of people who say that are joking) and everything is easy for him, but because it's extremely, painfully hard. He tries. He always tries to be good, to do good. He always, always does his best. He's just a human, with flaws and selfish desires, which makes his repeated choices to stay on the light side, even after losing everything, even more beautiful.

[mostly-mundane-atla]

You recommended a movie I thought was called White Snake a while ago? I found a movie called Green Snake on that looks like it has the same animation… did I forget the name and it’s actually Green Snake or is this a sequel? (I remember having trouble finding White Snake before. But the beginning of Green Snake could be a sequel beginning…)

Green Snake, or as the original title White Snake 2: The Tribulation of the Green Snake, by Light Chaser Animation is a sequel to White Snake, or White Snake: Origins, and is sometimes just called White Snake 2. It's probably best to watch the first one which spends more time introducing the characters Xiao Bai (or Bianca) and Xiao Qing (or Verta) and their pretty heavily queer coded relationship as sworn sisters (dubs and subtitles don't bother tackling the nuance of sworn sisters and just have them call each other "sister" which combined with the aforementioned queer coding can lead to an "ummm?" reaction if watching without that understanding), but the movie itself is a standalone narrative that implies the significance of that relationship and other aspects like Xiao Bai's love for Xe Xuan and the hairpin to give you an understanding that these things are deeper than they first appear even if you hadn't seen the first movie. A lot of it being good at being a standalone narrative is how these movies approach their source material. Neither is a direct adaptation of the Lady White Snake legend; the first movie is a prequal with the past life of the White Snake's beloved Xe Xuan, and the second movie is a sequel where Xiao Qing tries to escape her banishment to a purgatory for people whose obsessions keep them from reincarnating and save Xiao Bai from her imprisonment under the pagoda. I'd totally recommend the second one. It's not the soft, fluffy historical fantasy romance the first one was, but there's plenty to get from it. The mood is bitter and angsty and the main theme is that love can hurt but sometimes it's worth that hurt. There's this really nice decaying, post-apocalyptic look and feel to this liminal space between past life and reincarnation, the demon designs are fun, the animation is just as action based and fluid as the movie that came before it, and it's incredibly Gay and Trans. Not to mention our beloves patron goddess of fun minor characters, Miss Baoqing Fox herself, has an even bigger role in the second movie.

Also i won't spoil the ending, but there is a bit of a twist and it was so satisfying and joyous in its own way that i could not stop myself from crying.

Definitely recommend, though you should probably watch the original first, even if just for context

[little-lynx]

Hey, i'd just like to inform you that "Pocahontas is a horrific movie based on an actual indigenous child's (the real pocahontas was actually abt 13 and her name is Matoaka) horrific treatment. i don't want to be too graphic about it but i will say she was kidnapped, forcibly married (and sa'd) while she was still a child, had her culture and family torn from her, forced to assimilate to christianity and western values, put on display like some sort of attraction and then died. her life was filled with unimaginable pain and tragedy and it is in VERY poor taste to draw ship art of Peeta and Katniss as, not only a literal child and their abuser/a person who participated in the genocide of indigenous people, but as the whitewashed, anti-native, oversexualized depiction of a child's actual horrific life.

Hey, I’d just like to inform you that my illustration is a submission to “based on fairytales/movies” challenge and is based on Disney movie and absolutely NOT on real story. Disney movie “Pocahontas” has almost nothing in common with real life and was not intended to be historically accurate. And it is NOT. So my illustration doesn’t depict any child abuse, any genocide and certainly is not anti-native. I intentionally used movie costumes so it is clear that my illustration has nothing to do with historical stuff but only beautiful 2D animation film from 1995 which was my favorite when I was a kid.

Movie “Anastasia” (20th Century Fox, 1997) is another example of absolutely incorrect depiction of particular historical character since Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia was brutally murdered by Bolsheviks along with all her family. And still we have beautiful movie with magic and music and dancing and kissing and human speaking albino bat. I could call this movie horrific not only because I’m russian (and depiction of Russia itself in this movie is absolutely disappointing) but also because I’m orthodox Christian and Anastasia and all the imperial family were canonized as holy martyrs by the Russian Orthodox Church. So this movie could be considered offensive from either historical and religious reasons.

But my position is different. For me it is a matter of perception. You can see those movies as something awful and offensive. Or you can see it as an attempt to draw attention and tell something important by using fairytale plot. Like Suzanne Collins used Katniss and Peeta’s romance to speak about war with young adults, the same Disney and 20th Century Fox used Pocahontas and Anastasia to speak about history, to make children get interested, to make them want to learn more. That’s exactly how I discovered the real story about Pocahontas, I saw the movie and loved it and asked questions, then read books and watch documentaries. I hope that there are people who were interested about what really happened with Anastasia after watching this romantic comedy (and we know that there was nothing romantic about revolution, civil war and children murder). I don’t see these movies as something bad. But of course there can be different opinions.

And because there can be different opinions I want to apologize if my illustration upset you. I’m sorry. I had no intention to be disrespectful. I just wanted to pay tribute to my favorite Disney movie about love, acceptance, duty, honor and nature.

You can still consider me as someone who has VERY poor taste of course. Maybe I am.

Peace ✌️.

[popentertainment-interviews]

Dermot Mulroney

Look Out, Old Mack is Back

By Ronald Sklar

Once again, busy actor Dermot Mulroney is stepping – or in this case, singing and dancing – outside his comfort zone.

“I’m always comfortable when I’m having fun,” he insists, however.

This time, the fun presents itself not in another movie (there are lots of them. Check his IMDb), but as an “in concert” production of the Broadway musical Mack & Mabel (three nights only – February 16-18, 2024 – at North Hollywood’s El Portal Theater).

The fully staged, choreographed event is an inaugural production of the All Roads Theater Company; it’s based on the “forgotten” 1970s musical about Tinseltown’s earliest era. Expect Keystone Kops and flappers.

“It’s a romance and a beautiful story,” Dermot says. “It’s a major event in the musical theater world happening for a very short run.”

Dermot stars as silent-film director Mack Sennett and introduces Jenna Rosen as Mabel Normand, who became one of early Hollywood’s biggest stars.

A revival like this is no small thing for both the theater culture and for the actor himself.

“There are thirty people in this company,” Dermot says. “I’m learning so much from all of them.”

That the original show somehow slipped under the cultural radar is a baffling crime – the 1974 production starred no less than Robert Preston and Bernadette Peters; David Merrick produced it, with music and lyrics by Jerry Herman (Hello, Dolly, Mame). The show received eight Tony nominations and won none. Herman was not nominated. It ran for just 66 performances.

Yet somehow, over the decades, the original cast album grew an obsessive fan base, and there is new interest in the story.

Dermot says, “You learn now, in the computer age, that anything and everything has its following. The people who know Mack & Mabel are crazy about it.”

What else is crazy – so crazy that it makes perfect sense – is the shared hope for the show to make its way back to Broadway, fifty years later.

“There is every reason for that to happen,” Dermot says.

So why would a man who is known for so many movies suddenly take to the boards?

“I’ve decided to do Mack & Mabel for two reasons,” Dermot says. “One: I’ve never done this before, singing in a full musical. And two: because I’ve always wanted to do it. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity when it came to me out of the blue.”

Leading man roles sure enough attach themselves to Dermot. He’s been at it for about forty years, starring in everything from My Best Friend’s Wedding to The Wedding Date and Young Guns. On TV, he played Rachel’s boss on Friends, as well as prominent roles in New Girl and Shameless. He is also an accomplished cellist and has played professionally on various on-screen projects as well as in live musical performances.

Mack & Mabel, however, is a whole different animal.

“It’s hugely challenging for me,” Dermot admits. “It’s a world I’ve never inhabited. The two times I’ve been in musicals were in my senior year at Northwestern University, a thousand-seat theater. I sang in an operetta, as Ko-Ko The Executioner in Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado.”

There is also the one that got away: the time that Francis Ford Coppola chose Dermot to play The Big Kahuna in his ambitious Gidget stage musical (alas, it never got past the workshop phase). And he has indeed sung in public before: on the big screen, to Julia Roberts, on a boat (see it here).

Mack & Mabel, though, is the musical Big Time. It fits nicely with his continuing busy career, including a key supporting role in the current hit romcom Anyone But You, as well as his turn as Detective Bailey in Scream 6.

“I’ve just been incredibly blessed,” he says of his journey. “I’ll admit, that’s what I thought the assignment was when I first became an actor, to be a man of a thousand faces.”

His face can now also be regularly seen on social media, as he has pumped up his posts on Instagram. Most of them push his current projects, but he also shares the kick he gets out the universally common misspelling of his name (think “Dermont” on a Starbucks cup).

“That is so fun for me because it’s happened to me my whole life,” he says.

Still, he enters the world of social media carefully, and treads lightly, as online life can sometimes do bad things to our offline attention spans.

The solution?

“We have to re-expand our attention spans,” he says. “That’s why the four-five-six-month learning process on Mack & Mabel has been incredibly good for my brain.”

Find out more about Mack & Mabel here.

Copyright ©2024 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: February 12, 2024.

Photo #1 © 2018 Robby Klein/Contour by Getty Images. Courtesy of Ken Werther PR. All rights reserved.

Photos #2 & 3 © 2024. Courtesy of Ken Werther PR. All rights reserved.

[littlemonstert-blog]

Temari's Overrated

overrated.

I don't dislike Temari's character, I do find her overrated in comparison to other characters and here's why.

Let's look into character wise

Temari's not a bad character either but she literally has like 10 pages worth of screen time in Part 1. 5 pages worth in Part 2 (Shippuden) . Only reason she gets hyped so much is because Naruto fandom has convinced itself to believe a “badass girl who's kinda mean” equals best female character ever.

Her entire character in has been:

Gaara's older sister, She's great at wind style and Temari maybe has a crush on Shikamaru.

My other point, the ShikaTema ship. When you're on any Naruto social media (Twitter, reddit, tiktok etc). You've definitely seen people say it's “the best ship” or “the only ship that makes sense” and “the one ship that everyone likes”. I don't have any problems with it.

But, where were are the romantic moments of Shikatema that made them the best couple in the entire series? The only time they ever even got romantically close to one another was when Shikamaru was looking for a wedding gift for Naruto and Hinata after The Last movie.

Please do not use any filler screencaps because if it didn't happen in the manga its not canon.

And Shikamaru made it clear and that he wasn’t romantically into Temari before this event due to how oblivious he was to Temari.

People shit on Naruto for being oblivious/dense to Hinata’s feelings despite the fact that there is a canon explanation as to why he couldn’t understand Hinata’s feelings. But nobody says anything about Shikamaru being dense to Temari as well despite having a good upbringing and understanding how his parents speak with each other romantically.

Certain (some not all) people claim that Shikamaru and Temari already had chemistry since OG Naruto and only panel they use to support it this:

the only conversation between Shikamaru and Temari that can be seen as chemistry in a sense without it being half-way or taken out of context like most people do with this couple.

People like to compare them to other ships that had WAY more moments and screentime. Just because they have no drama.

most ships, these two characters have little to no interactions. What makes it worse, you can't even give them the benefit of the doubt for having offscreen interactions as when they live three days away from each other. Meanwhile, something like Naruto and Hinata or Sai and Ino likely had interacted offscreen 

Let's be honest here, the author said it himself Naruto is a battle shōnen manga romance was never a main focus. It will always be secondary part or not there at all like other shōnen.

 her power-scaling

This isn't to say Temari is weak I say she is at least Jonin level

As far as war arc, Temari literally doesn't due much at all compared to others. Manga whatever the anime adds is NOT CANON

She did one thing in war arc :

With the help of two other shinobi, she managed to damage base edo third raikage. Assuming he was actually blitzed and didn't just decide to tank it (since they stated they haven't inflicted any significant damage, implying he likely didn't even care to dodge)

This is anime-only aka filler that's not canon to manga

(Even if you did consider this a feat, Madara just dusted himself off like nothing happen and set up for fire style.)

Comparing other Konoha memebers

Can you tell me something important that Temari ever did to develop the plot? People insult female characters like sakura, karin and Ino but they contributed far more than temari. Heck, even tenten with her little screentime helped more than Temari.

Sakura: Contributed alot during the war, became one of the best medical ninja

Hinata: Assisted Ino in redirecting the ten-tails attack by linking her byakugan to Ino’s mind transfer. Saved the whole shinobi alliance including Naruto, Killer B, Might Guy and Kakashi. Helped Naruto when he was about to give-in after witnessing neji’s death.

Ino: Linked everybody multiple times during the war together. She was the only person capable of doing that from her clan. Besides her father.

Karin: Helped Tsunade retore her reserves. Also destroyed multiple shinzu arms that zetsu tried to use to kill team taka and the shinobi. She was one of the most important memebers that sasuke had in team taka.

Tenten: A memeber of the team 10(chapter258) who was sent to rescue Temari’s brother while temari did absolutely nothing. Temari only arrived after gaara had died. Tenten was also one of those who destroyed more than one of kakuzu’s heart.

I shouldn't have say much about Mei & Tsunade.

Could list more but, I want to keep this short.

Temari as a character, has no purpose after the chunin exams arc, where her best feats was defeating Tenten (basically fodder) and defeating an already weakened Tayuya.

Which begs the question.how is Temari a well written character if she's barely around. Only Gaara was the most relevant sibling. The sand village in general wasn't that important. Most notable characters were Gaara, Chiyo and Sasori that were relevant from the Sand. Maybe If I push it, their father the previous Kage and the bijuu Shukaku.

( Edit: Looking back & a comment I can't reply back for a odd reason. Kankuro did have a bit of a bigger role than his sister)

Temari seems like one of the most overrated characters in the show upon her non relevant appearances for the plot compared to other female characters.

again I don't dislike this character, I just think in certain aspects she's overrated.

[salarta]

I said in another recent post how people on CBR being too focused on what Lorna wears and who she fucks kept me from really digging into meaningful topics for Lorna with her upcoming Fall of the House of X moment. I feel like delving a little more into the core issue of that matter.

There's nothing inherently wrong with either topic in isolation. Both topics can take things in interesting directions and bring interesting insights. There are story and development possibilities for both.

But here's the problem: over there, both topics have been done to death. I literally cannot count how many times people on the Polaris thread on CBR decided to spend pages talking about these things. And whereas I do talk about Genosha and its importance for Lorna a lot, I do so because a) the comics keep refusing to even acknowledge that part of her history, and b) that matter is pivotal to understanding who Lorna is and how she thinks.

What she wears and who she fucks is neither of those things.

Someone who hasn't had to deal with this stuff will understandably think "What's the big deal if people talk about those topics even if it's over and over and over again?"

To that, I have to explain that when your conversation is almost entirely about those two topics, the message you're sending to the company and to other fans is that those two things are where the character's focus should be.

Not on more pertinent things like how she would respond to Orchis and other attempts at genocide based on her own past experience with it. Not on how her long history with the X-Men would play into her perception of current events.

The focus ends up being aimed at superficial things. And in the case of sex and potential partners, it brings with it a huge risk of just repeating all the same problems of how she's been depicted around Havok.

When someone focuses mainly on her looks and sex, what they're suggesting is that the best approach to writing Lorna is a very shallow one where nothing of deeper substance needs to be explored.

When you get down to it, this is part of why her treatment over the past decade has been focused on those two things too, including the coffee cup deal. Coffee was a neat quirk when it first appeared, but ended up being a problem once it took the place of doing anything truly meaningful with the character.

Ultimately, the topics of clothes and possible romance are like filler episodes of a TV show. They're fine here and there, to add a little flavor to the characters and bridge gaps. But people don't watch your show for nothing but filler episodes. People don't watch the baseball episode of an anime and think "Oh man I wish they would stop with all the demons and powerful fighting moves and deeper themes of this show to focus entirely on baseball."

The chicken dinner joke from the movie Inside (2023) is another way to put it. Wish I could link a clip or good text for it, but can't find either so I'll just relay.

The movie itself involves Willem Dafoe's character, Nemo, trapped in a high tech condo after a botched art heist, slowly losing his mind from the isolation. He tells a joke about a girl who loves chicken having that for dinner... every single night. Her mom decides to make that for dinner every night, nonstop. In the beginning, the girl is ecstatic to have her favorite meal. But after over a week of eating the exact same thing, she ends up first not caring, then loathing it, then reaching the point of sarcastically saying she loves chicken again cause that's all she ever gets.

That's the "what could Lorna wear and who could she fuck" discussion when it constantly comes up.

It's worse right now, because we're on the cusp of what's shaping to be an excellent story for Lorna having a huge moment. There are so, SO many things that could be discussed about the character and what could be done with her. What parallels we can already see (e.g. bringing Knowhere to Earth being like flinging Krakoa into space in the 70s), which could happen.

But instead, they're once again talking about what she could wear and who she could fuck.

What kind of message does that send when such a huge moment for Lorna leads not to deeper discussion on themes and character, but on superficial stuff? Far more importantly, what does it mean when the superficial stuff actively prevents deeper discussion from happening in any meaningful way?

That's a big part of why I don't mind skipping out on the CBR thread at this juncture. Right now, it really doesn't represent Lorna and why people voted for her to win the X-Men vote. It represents a minority of people who would rather talk about superficial things, and for some people, revert her to past poor depictions.