#this isn't a commentary on characters it's just. trio

[soulsxng]

"I just find it odd...the situation seems like it has taken an entirely different direction than what it originally had. Where these 'hunters' were pickier with their targets when the attacks first began on the Aifaen and Vasyrus, that is no longer the case-- they appear to have instead set their sights on Brinnela's four species as a whole. As though someone new has taken over the operation. Which would insinuate that whatever the original organizer hoped to obtain from all this...they've since acquired it..."

Setia's king trails off, watching his normally rather energetic, and perhaps more importantly clingy parent hover statically in the air. Silent, and unmoving from where they had remained since their much adored child had arrived.

The Creationary Being had briefly assured Fekik that they were listening to him, but the way their form seemed to grow increasingly more agitated as he did so made it more than evident that something serious was going on.

Just as he was opening his mouth to ask what was wrong, however, the ever shifting mass of energy suddenly began to change colors at a rapid pace. Swirling about as if in a rage.

"̷A̴g̶a̸i̸n̸,̶ ̴w̵i̷t̶h̵ ̷t̷h̷e̶i̶r̶ ̴t̸r̸i̴c̷k̸e̶r̸y̸?̵ ̸T̴o̶ ̶c̶o̷r̷r̵u̵p̸t̴ ̴y̷e̸t̷ ̴m̴o̷r̴e̶ ̶o̶f̷ ̷o̵u̷r̶ ̸c̷r̶e̴a̷t̸i̸o̴n̷s̵,̶ ̴a̵f̶t̴e̸r̴ ̸w̷e̸ ̷s̵o̸ ̶b̴e̵n̵e̴v̸o̷l̶e̴n̴t̴l̴y̴ ̵a̶l̷l̷o̴w̶e̶d̵ ̵t̷h̶e̷m̶ ̸t̴o̷ ̸r̴e̴s̴i̸d̵e̶ ̶i̴n̸ ̴o̵u̴r̵ ̷p̷l̸a̵n̴e̴ ̵o̸f̷ ̶e̸x̴i̸s̴t̷e̸n̶c̶e̸?̸ ̷S̵u̷c̷h̵ ̶f̵o̷l̴l̷y̸ ̷w̵i̸l̶l̷ ̷n̵o̵t̵ ̶b̴e̶ ̴f̵o̶r̵g̷i̵v̴e̵n̷ ̶s̸o̸ ̶e̶a̷s̷i̶l̷y̸ ̵a̸ ̵s̷e̴c̶o̸n̸d̵ ̴t̷i̷m̵e̵!̵"̴

The following burst of reverberation was so powerful that it not only drowned out the Setana's words, but served to push him back a few feet, as well. Ippuru was summoning the other Creationary Beings in their trio...as well as a third. The one that had found their way into this plane some time ago, now.

Just what exactly was going on?

[nonbinarypirat]

Heyyy so I saw you were open to questions and doing commentary!! So I was wondering do you think Azz and Iruma’s relationship is different than Clara’s and Iruma’s? And and also would love to hear any love trio thoughts🙏 tysm !!!!

this is a great question!! as a spoiler, i am deeply in love and invested in the soulmate group and love the connections they have together and on one on one ways. yes! i do think they are different in many ways! Here's a little break down on my thoughts on their relationships :) .Get ready for word vomit, i went overboard

Azz and Iruma: Azz and Iruma relationship is one of deep personal openess. That isn't to say that they leave Clara out of their personal feelings, they do, but both of them lacked the normal carefree freedom as kids. Azz because of his brilliance and Iruma because of his parents.

Due to this, we see they often fall into sharing thoughts and anxieties with each other in their solo interactions. Azz and Iruma have also known each other the longest, at least a week or two went by before meeting Clara. So Azz met Iruma VERY much when Iruma was at his weakest moment, when he was so confused about the world he found himself in. And despite the weridness with their relationship at the start, Azz has always been there with Iruma, he's the third person he ever met here. With Azz having toned down is extreme admiration to Iruma this has made these moments possible between them.

I also don't want to make it seem like they don't joke with each other, we have seen that they do. They have both changed so much when it comes to having fun thanks to Clara. Now, they are able to have a shopping day and be silly. But without Clara to really push the envelope when it comes to fun, they have more calculated fun.

Clara and Iruma: Very much a playful cutesy relationship. (I honestly hope we get more interactions of just the two of them in the future.) Clara represents the childhood Iruma never had, never could have, and therefore allows him to explore childlike wonder. How to open up in more expressive ways, carefree exploration, amd fun to the fullest extent. And by doing so, Clara is able to understand Iruma's moods better than most since we let our guards down completely during moments of pure relaxation.

We see this when Clara immediately saw Iruma was upset and needed to let out his emotions and just be a child. She knows when Iruma is genuinely happy and when he's stressed and doesn't know how to express it. And we have seen that Iruma greatly appreciates Clara for letting him experience and understand playing, something he never had the time to do before. And by being around Iruma, Clara has been able to develop strong moral and logical thinking. Clara has always been a character that is more aware of what's going on then she let's on. But I think the childlike part got in the way of full development in this aspect of her character.

With Iruma, she is able to explore and understand more complex ideas and thinking. One issue with being so isolated like Clara was is that she never got to explore any type of critical reasoning. These things can only be developed by interacting with others. And so, in the beginning Clara was very short sighted and immature. Now, she not only has the love trio, she also has the misfits and it's not clear if she would have been able to create this friend circle without meeting Iruma. She has grown so much as a character and I love seeing her be mature and willing to make sacrifices (putting aside Iruma time because Azz needed it more) while still being chaotically happy.

Love Trio: What can I say that probably hasn't been screamed about in a different post. They are soulmates, deeply connected to each other in every way and bring out the best in each other. They don't "complete" each other, more like they allow for each other to be themselves to the fulllest. They all default to too serious/angry (Azz), too hyper/inconsiderate (Clara) and too in his own way/"yes man" (Iruma) when apart and together, make up for their weaknesses and boost their strengths.

Each of them has been important to the other's growth. They all have their place in the love trio and deeply love their roles too. The love trios relationship is based on deep trust, mutual (and healthy) dependency, and joy. By being with each other, they have created a safe space to allow expressiveness and vulnerablity while still leaving room for fun and happiness.

And it's so cute to see how close and personal they all get. Especially Asmodeus who always felt more standoffish to physical affection in the beginnings, even with Iruma besides a hand of the shoulder. As the story progresses, we see them be more comfortable with each other and that shows in their physical closeness. It's just a wonderful design choice on the artistic side of things and perfect for showing them care more for each other. On a personal note, my headcannon is a queerplatonic poly relationship (though sometimes I ship it as a full on romantic relationship) so it's even cuter to me.

anyway, those are my thoughts and interpretations of the relationships! since this post become super duper large, I will make a seperate post about Azz and Clara and link it in the comments because their relationship is shaping up to be very cute too and not just iruma focused :)

[subwaytostardew]

Subway to Stardew - Passenger Events - Saloon Part 2

This plays after you see the first saloon event (submas having lunch with Elliott!) and visit on a Friday after reaching 3 hearts with Elesa.

Commentary under the read-more!

Did you notice the sprites? No? Great! I finally stopped procrastinating and recolored their spritesheets so now they don't share the same brown outline and match vanilla style a bit more!

Sprite-wise... they're over 80. Emmet's in his 90's.

So many sprites.....

Also... Elesa's back! We have a basic outline for what would happen in Elesa's events, but we haven't written anything for her yet... She has plans though! She's rounding up all the artists for it. Meanwhile, submas are still struggling with passenger relations.

Elesa's storyline is going to be fun to plan out but one of her B plots is making sure Ingo and Emmet take their breaks!

Elesa's fun. She's a bit awkward herself (girl can NOT keep a secret for the life of her) but she's doing things. Nimbasa trio share a braincell and they pass it around throughout this event.

We wanted to show a little more insight into their life in the valley and how others feel about them. This time, you're catching them on a bad day. One of my favorite things about Stardew is how everyone is very much flawed in some way and everyone is an unreliable narrator. I love how it just presents life in a run-down town as is and it's up to you to interpret whatever glimpses you get.

Trying to merge the two different media's in terms of tone and seriousness is a bit complex. Pokémon - as a franchise - is at the end of a the day; kid friendly. Stardew Valley, while may look happy go lucky and cute touches upon some really heavy topics.

We are basically skirting the lines here and there with the themes and even trying to make it in character for the Pokémon characters as well.

Taking a kid friendly characters and just trying to touch upon tough subjects while also trying not to seem OOC or off - is tough. So creative liberties it is.

Not everyone gets along in Stardew. I tried to emphasize that in Sebastian's distaste for submas. He would hate being their neighbor. He's cranky because he can't sleep in until 10:00 AM anymore because they're already at work before it turns 6:00 in the morning. Extreme opposites with their problems.

Sebastian and Submas DO NOT get along... They may tolerate each other at the end of the story but they just do not mix well.

I also think that Sebastian would just project a lot of his personal problems onto them... He already does that with Maru. He's not the best taking out his frustrations in the right direction. Haven't finished Maru's passenger event yet (another battle event...) but submas would be decently close with her since she has an interest in Pokemon and Sebastian would take that as "siding" against him. They are also decently aquainted with Demetrius which isn't the best for Sebastian's dad issues. He's not fond of the invasive species they brought in but they do appreciate infodumping to each other about mechanics and such.

Oh, Demetrius... I'm going to have fun with world building info-dumps with him. Ya'll like world building? Well, talk to the villagers, they may have a glimpse into things.

I do headcanon Demetrius (pretty much painfully canon...), Maru, and Sebastian as autistic themselves just like the Nimbasa trio. Unfortunately, that does not necessarily mean that they'll always have solidarity. For one, Sebastian's sensitivity to loud noises puts him at odds with Ingo. Submas fare better with the more infodumpy types.

Sibling relations are a sore subject for all of them so submas are horrified at even the thought of splitting tracks and hating each other because they have codependency issues; Sebastian has an inferiority complex and hates how they make him feel like even more of a failure because he doesn't like Maru. Neither parties are exactly healthy, but you can pick between who you're going for! (I was curious as to what the deal was with Sebastian so he was the first bachelor I married... I think you can tell that I divorced him.)

Sebastian has his issues... He was also going to be my first bachelor but uhh, I went with Harvey. I still love Sebastian as a character tho, he is really complex especially family dynamic wise. I do feel bad for him....

He does. I do appreciate how messy his family dynamic is, but I'm a little biased against him since I appreciate Maru and Demetrius more (sorry). I really like how he doesn't handle his issues healthily (I mean... look at Emmet.) and it's interesting to compare him to the other characters.

Like Sam! Sam's a good kid (college age 20 something year old...) and actually really emotionally mature even if he's a bit childish at times. Abigail... isn't quite all there yet but she has a strong sense of what's right and wrong. She's less hesitant than Sam when it comes to things, but Sam serves a bit as damage control here. I headcanon Sam and Abigail to have ADHD so they kind of have an idea about submas being autistic and what that entails, but it's not at the forefront of their mind. It doesn't help that their autism manifests in verrrrry different ways and they don't really know them all that well in the first place. It's a bit awkward between them but they're okay with each other.

We had a bit of fun determining the heart point changes between each route. Personally, I think friendship decreases are hilarious. Also if you don't back up anyone in this situation then... 🤨

(1) Sebastian -

Ingo -100 | Emmet -250 | Sebastian +250 | Sam -5 | Abigail -15

(2) Ingo -

Ingo +40 | Emmet +5 | Sebastian -100 | Sam -20 | Abigail -25

(3) Emmet -

Ingo +25 | Emmet +30 | Sebastian -100 | Sam -5 | Abigail -5

(4) Sam and Abigail -

Ingo +20 | Emmet +5 | Sebastian -40 | Sam +50 | Abigail +50

(5) Nobody -

Ingo -50 | Emmet -200 | Sebastian -200 | Sam -50 | Abigail -50

I don't see friendship decreases as characters getting angry at you per se. It can always just be them feeling awkward and wanting to distance themselves from you for a bit. For example, if you reject Ingo in his 8 heart event, you get knocked down two hearts just so you can get more friendly-but-not-too-friendly dialogue before it stagnates again at 8 hearts.

The "true ending" is Sam and Abigail's route since they're fairly neutral picks. You should stand up for them! Sebastian would agree that him lashing out was wrong, but he just doesn't want to talk to you about it. Why would he? You would just lecture him or something.

Bad ending is not siding with anybody like a coward. Sebastian's being a bit of a bully here (mainly to a grown man a whole head taller than him, but still, his friends got caught in the crossfire) and if you're wishy-washy then that's just odd of you as the town's farmer and supposed protagonist that goes out of their way to befriend everyone. Not a good look.

Sebastian's route is a bit of a jab at how his romance plays out. A few people have mentioned Emmet and Sebastian being friends with each other under the reasoning that they're lonely autists (but mostly just being favorites, which I get) buuuut... Not sure why you would go for Sebastian when submas is right there. Pick one or the other. They're enemies here. I can't quite see them getting along past that surface-level analysis. Smoking alone is a hard No. from Emmet since birds are super sensitive to airborne toxins (so much so, you can't even have non-stick pans around them!) and he's protective over his defeatist of an Archeops.

Ingo's route is more for fun than anything. If you really want Ingo, you do get the most points with him for mentioning him, but he's confused as to why you're trying to win him over now of all times. He's concerned about Emmet first and foremost!

Emmet has trust issues so even the slightest red flag puts a quite a bit of distance between you. He has low point increases because it's hard to win his trust. In this situation, a point increase mostly just means you didn't do anything wrong. If you side with him, that's what you're supposed to do since he's the side against Sebastian. He may be getting picked on, but he's a bit of an instigator himself. His own route aside, Ingo would be most pleased to see you speak up for his brother. Ingo's route is only has the highest point increases for him because it's well, his.

As for the bar fight... It was a bit difficult to figure out how to make it play out believably and interestingly despite it being three New Yorkers against some grocery store owner. Ingo is more focused on defense, de-escalation, and protecting his passengers (in this case, the college kids). He can take a hit and doesn't want to resort to making any attacks unless absolutely necessary, so he was blocking for the most part. Had Ingo not been the designated grocery shopper, Pierre and Emmet probably would have already killed each other. Emmet doesn't have the patience to deal with Pierre. He thinks Reshiram will smite him for upcharging them and will take it upon himself to deliver the justice of truth. Emmet's swinging at Pierre. Unfortunately, he doesn't have the best defense nor balance when he's kicking and punching. Pierre's too drunk to talk about it, but even sober he suspects that submas are working with Joja because as far as he knows, he saw Morris walk away from the Railroad when they first arrived.

Ah yes. Joja stuff. *Realigns stacks of papers* Lets touch upon Joja here for a moment and Pierre's view of things. When Submas first came around. Pierre was already suspicious of them - more confused if anything - why are two major city boys who also- mind you- come from a foreign region and bring along Pokémon. Take interest in a small town? With an abandon railroad? Right off the bat he does not have a great view; he is worried about his store, his income, and family and this is stemmed all due to Joja Mart.

Now Pierre spots Morris heading towards the railroad - of course Pierre does not know what the interactions between Submas and Morris are. In his mind it's Submas making a deal to work with them or is already with them! Pierre already hates Morris as it is.

That is why he is so passive aggressive to Ingo and Emmet. Just this time around - Pierre is drunk... and Abigail's friend is being "annoyed" by them.

Well... outright agressive in this event haha. I don't quite remember how the idea was finalized, but we decided that they would get into a barfight when doing another "showing passenger relations at the Saloon" event.

As for Joja itself. I most definitely headcannon them in this whole crossover universe as the typical "bad guy" Pokémon team. However they have already won/succeeded (Pokémon are no longer in The Ferngill Republic....) However things are now being shaken up and changing.

I could go on and on about Joja and how I view them... but I think that will be a separate post (if people want to know)

The fight was a pain to debug. For one, Pierre kept running off into the void like a coward. Ingo's lines about staying behind the yellow line were made in the debugging phase because I got fed up with him for doing that.

Worse yet. 1.6 broke the Pokemon animations so now I have to go back into every event and redo everything (RIP green bean X-Scissor). The old method I was using no longer worked; before, I was using the addObject command. Now they show up as error signs because the sprites that were previously on the sheet called from were removed as they are not valid objects.

I ended up having to figure out the temporarySprites command to replace the "using a Pokeball" animation. There are no instances of it being used in vanilla. Nobody seemed to figure it out either, so I had to make a mini-event just to test its usage and figure it out.

I eventually did. Thanks to the help of my emotional support Emmet.

Ah yes... 1.6 has broken some events. Small things. (events are still playable) But we will definitely be revisiting some events to improve or make better. Or to just fix.

I have so much backtracking to do 😭😭😭😭😭 Oh well... I thought events were safe to work on since barely anything about them changed in 1.6... I was wrong.

The ending had quite a bit of revising for concision and tone. It was much more lighthearted in Kade's drafts, but I figured that Emmet is low on steam and probably would have gone nonverbal after everything. Too much passenger interaction for the day. He just wants to depart back to his home station.

Yeah there was a lot of dialog and exposition cut. (Hmm no wonder why it's only 13 minutes long. lol)

Only 13 minutes... Still a lot considering that most vanilla events are around the 1-3 minute mark...

Poor Emmet.. and Ingo. I won't lie, when first seeing the event I burst out laughing during the fistfight. Just somthing about Ingo suddenly collapsing due to Pierre. BUT THEY'RE OKAY - ISH.

It's a bit comical! I had fun ragdolling them. Emmet was going to be much more swingy in his attacks but I ended up not keeping it in since it just didn't look right when used as an animation frame.

We at least kept one of the rag-doll sprite as a "knock back" from Pierre. Which transitions well with his passed out sprite.

Until next time! Thank you for boarding!

[waddles-ex-machina]

hi please bear with me while i go insane about the colours in Hilda (aka I'm looking at the trio's season 3 designs and losing my mind)

SO in most visual media, quite a bit of thought goes into the colours they use and how those colours interact with one another - not in a "the curtains are blue bc [character] is sad" kind of way but in terms of which colours stand out and which are harmonious, and even if the viewer doesn't know any colour theory (like me, lol) and isn't paying attention to it, I think it still helps reinforce what we know about the characters, and influence what we take away from the show. visual design is a language and colour is one of the key aspects of it and if you want to hear about how Hilda uses colour in so many clever ways, to guide the viewer's eye or distinguish important characters, there's a really excellent video on that made by someone who actually does know what they're talking about, but one thing I wanna talk about based on my own limited knowledge is how it tells us about the characters -

FOR EXAMPLE Johanna - so you have Hilda, who is dressed in bright primary colours, especially her signature blue hair which makes her stand out as different even more - and then there's her mother, who has, by contrast, a much more toned down colour palette. she broadly shares the colour red with her daughter, but a less-saturated shade and her standard outfit consists of that, brown trousers and sometimes her yellow coat. Hilda's signature blue is completely absent from her design (and even if the creators didn't want to give Johanna the same hair colour as her daughter, they could have added some small blue accent of clothing if they'd wanted to, but chose not to), leaving her with purely warm, harmonious colours. she has an almost completely different palette to her daughter, but still just enough similarity (particularly with her yellow coat) to reinforce that the two are related in some way. (I'm not saying that Hilda is related to everyone who wears yellow in the show, just that the fact they share a colour helps tie them together on screen)

(yep, this is the screencap i'm choosing to illustrate this point it's fantastic)

most importantly (to me, anyway), Johanna's colours are warm. they're safe. to me, the dominance of warm colours and absence of Hilda's blue signify that Johanna is a safe person to Hilda, someone who is supposed to be a respite from her adventures rather than someone who dives into them with her (which, y'know, ties in quite nicely to Hilda's line in Stone Forest about preferring to adventure on her own and then come home to her mum, and how in the show she generally likes to keep her adventures and home life separate... (I could probably write an essay on how Hilda and Johanna's issues in season 2 were kind of a commentary on how Johanna has been coded as the safe stable bg character and how she is actively trying to go beyond that role but I shouldn't tbh)). the point is, they are connected, but Johanna doesn't have the same adventurous streak that Hilda does, so they have some of their warmer colours in common, but not Hilda's unusual, stand-out blue.

(I could also talk about Kaisa here and her copyright claim on the colour purple, but truthfully all I would be doing is paraphrasing the excellent video I linked earlier, so I won't. however I do think its fun to compare her to Johanna, in the sense that here are two adults who Hilda often comes to for guidance, and one is all warm gentle colours that match the home decor and the other all monochrome with two little hints of a colour we rarely see elsewhere in the show, suggesting that this is a character of particular interest.. it kind of hammers in how one is meant to embody the safety and comfort of Hilda's home life and the other is literally there to point hilda at things that might kill her lmao)

that was supposed to be a quick example and it got away from me so uh ANYWAY what I'm getting at here is that in Hilda's friend group, I believe their colour palettes were constructed in a similar way - they work together to tell you about the group

I feel like Hilda as a show is known for making excellent use of a limited colour palette - a lot of the characters have at least one black or brown item of clothing and just one or two stand-out colours, particularly the main trio. you can easily look at Hilda, David and Frida come away with one particular colour associated with them - blue or red for Hilda, orange for David, and...blue again for Frida, which doesn't sound great on paper but works well in the show because Hilda's palette also has a lot of red, so when the two characters are put together it doesn't seem like blue is dominating the colours. I also find Frida's colour palette (basically just her hoodie, lol) super interesting because it used to be different.

now, I haven't spoken to anyone who worked on the show about this, this is purely conjecture, but if you've ever googled the characters you've probably seen an official-looking turnaround page of Frida in a purple hoodie.

this is real pre-prod show art, and considering the purple hoodie made it all the way through the design pipeline to be included in the turnaround (generally the last stage of character design, as this is what would be given to the riggers to make the character rig)....and was even posted on twitter months before the show aired -

then I think it's safe to say that her hoodie was changed after the fact (2 or 3 episodes into production, by my vague guess looking at the date of this tweet) - not too hard to do, if your show is 2D rig animation, luckily - but if you're me and like reading into things way too hard, this begs the question of why. having purple as Frida's signature colour is perfectly serviceable and sets her apart from Hilda and David nicely. but what her new hoodie colour does is the opposite - it ties them all together

(the other possible explanation is that maybe Kaisa's design was finalised later in production than this turnaround was made (speaking purely from my own experience, secondary characters who appear in later episodes are often finalised later than the main characters, just ahead of the episode they're needed for, and Kaisa wasn't needed until halfway through the first season) and someone noticed that her and Frida sharing the colour purple made them look a little too similar...(I'm sure ppl who like the idea of Frida and Kaisa being witch sisters are yelling through the screen rn that this would've been a good thing and maybe lightly foreshadowed Frida becoming a witch, like Kaisa, but this was all set at the start of season 1, probably a bit too early to start hinting at the witch stuff :') we will come back to this tho)

anyway I love the trio's designs bc if you put Hilda and David next to eachother, they don't visually have much in common, but if you put Frida there then suddenly they're a unit. they got rid of her signature colour and gave her her friends' ones. she quite literally ties the group together so that they look cohesive as a whole

and this is absolutely me digging too deep in things here but her being the one to bring the group's colour palette together also lends itself thematically to their falling out at the end of season 1, and how Frida leaving also caused Hilda and David's friendship to struggle. they are a set and it doesn't work the same if they're not all there. Frida sharing Hilda's signature blue could also lend itself to the idea that Frida shares her love of adventures to a greater extent than David does (though maybe that's closer to 'blue curtains' territory tbh). anyway I love the design of this show so much

SO (if you actually made it this far down I'm so impressed) the thing that sparked all of this was...if this is what the trio's designs are doing in seasons 1-2.....what are the season 3 designs doing

no but this is super interesting to me, Hilda essentially just traded her skirt for leggings and left her colour palette intact, but David and Frida changed theirs entirely and I'm fascinated. both their signature colours are GONE. is it to imply that they've grown and changed in the duration of the time skip? is it David's turn on the 'having a colour in common with Hilda'?? but particularly I want to draw attention to Frida bc now that her hoodie is gone her original purple is BACK and (if there is any weight to my theory that she was changed bc she looked too similar to Kaisa) what's even more interesting is that they doubled down on the witch vibes. she literally has Kaisa's exact colour palette minus the dark purple cape lining. Kaisa's design reflected her personality as this unknowable person with a hint of mystery to her - all monochrome with that pop of an unusual colour - are we to expect the same of Frida? is this a sign that she's leaning further into witchcraft than before? does her contrast to Hilda and David signify that she's come more into her own and has a stronger sense of her own identity (something something closure for her issues in season 1)? or do we take things way too literally and assume that season 3 has her breaking off on her own from the group? or maybe it means absolutely nothing and someone on the design team just thought grey/purple was a neat combo. I know I've talked in this post as if I know things but here I truly don't and I'm obsessed w the possibilities. what does it mean what does it all mean

anyway that's all for this delusional fever dream post, hope you enjoyed and if you made it this far down you deserve some kind of prize

[lutawolf]

Between Us Episode 1 Commentary and Review.

The intro is so them!

I also adore the contrast colors of red and blue. These colors are often used to represent water and fire. Both Greek and Chinese cultures recognize these colors as Ying and Yang.

Oh! These character relationships are gonna be fun! There are so many coconuts. Names are gonna be a Bitch! Ahh. We just gonna call nerd dude, nerd dude.

Oh, look at Win coming out with that strong Daddy energy. I like it, I love it! I want more of it!

The trio is back! I love these cuties 😍 Damn Win. Just shut the elevator door. I love how sweet he is with his brother. Omg. He better be watching porn and didn't just leave someone hanging. That shits rude.

Poor Team is stressing. You got this Boo! Such coconuts. Oh, look at the feels from nerd boy. Dean and Pharm moment. Everybody losing their shit up in here! Up in here!

Oh damn. That minor flashback hit the feels. Trio giving love and support. Now, the supermarket moment. They added additional moments. I adore this friendship, so I'm good with it. Look at Team being tough and supportive. He is such a big brother even though he is the youngest.

Win followed. Why you follow Win? Hmm. You just made yourself fall more. Got nobody to blame but yourself.

I hated working out on the beach. You guys, it hurts like a bitch. Resistance. It trains like nothing else but sucks and not in a good way. Let me once again point out the red and blue to you guys.

Oops, Team got hurt. Again, I really enjoy how they portray friendships in this series. Oh, Win dropped into Daddy voice. Me likes. Look at that set face. Why are you so mad, Win? 🤪

"Have you ever lost something really important to you, and then suddenly you found it." Dude, that is the best description of meeting someone from a past life! Yes! "I've never lost anything, and if I did, I didn't care that much." That's about to change, buddy boy. Their friendship is special.

"I never had anything important.""I think more likely you never let anything be important." "There is nothing truly mine in the first place. There is nothing that will say with me forever." "Win, you can't live your life like this forever. One day. When you find the one. You'll do everything in your power to not lose them."

Win showered and changed, looking for Team. The Coconuts strike again. Bless them. Poor Team 🤣🤣🤣 Yay for us though!

Ha! Yes! Daddy and shy boy! Hell to the yeah. Oh, damn that kiss. Follow!! Follow!! There's the Brat Tamer. Ugh. Yesssss. Oh, be still my heart. He is checking in to make sure he isn't drunk. Look at him double-checking. 😍 More consent check-in! Ahhhhhhh!!!!!! 🎉😍💑 Command right out of the box. Verbally consent to this. We also setting the tone.

Fuck me! The chemistry ✨️The right out the box tone. That's all, Dom. "Where are you?" "Win's room." "Who is this person? In front of you?" This is so hot. "Win." 😍

Suddenly, it's hot in here. "Call me Hai Win." "Hai Win." Dude, look at the beautiful submission.

This was so good. I can't wait for next week. Hope you guys enjoyed as well! 💜💜💜

[marcsnuffy]

Categorizing Blue Lock videos on YouTube because I'm bored

1. Manga chapter recaps.

Usually over 2 minutes, under 10 minutes. They will usually include the word "analysis" in the title even if they're just summaries with casual commentary. More often than not, the thumbnails include a brightly colored manga panel with a lot of eye strain-y VFX.

The titles usually include an attention-grabbing phrase, such as: "[character] AWAKENS?!" (or "ENTERS FLOW STATE?!"), "[character, usually Isagi] DESTROYS [character]", or "[character, recently it's been Kaiser] IS A FRAUD?!"

2. Blue Lock as a source for life lessons

Basically, someone takes a philosophy from the story and applies it to real life. More often than not, they're related to the mere concept of egoism and how to use it to improve your life.

It's usually people who say they used to be in a situation in which they slowly let themselves get carried away by what others asked/wanted from them or by their fears, instead of doing what they really want to do until they watched Blue Lock. Which isn't that bad, however sometimes they say things in such a way that I worry that they're taking Ego's monologues a little bit too seriously.

Some videos focus on the lesson they got from the series in general, some focus on a specific character. The ones I've seen around are Isagi, Bachira, Barou and Noa focused, but there are way more. There's a Nagi one and I can't wait to watch that one because it's probably from an anime only who has No Idea what's happening to him now.

These have summaries in them too, but the commentary has more thought put into it at least. There's some motivational music in the background. The thumbnails include a character, text and maaaybe a graph or something. The titles are stuff like "How [character] does [whatever it is they do] and how you can do too" or "Becoming an Egoist Blue Lock Style"

3. People reacting to bllk for the first time

Around ten to almost thirty minutes. Half of them involve people who either love or hate football, the former usually find it (bllk) weird and point out the unrealistic bits and the latter will usually find it hype. The thumbnails will include the people reacting with surprised/shocked/appalled faces with some anime visual beside them.

The other half are people reacting to how unrealistic/corny/gay it is. The thumbnail will either include an anime picture of a character, usually Isagi. If it's about the manga 9/10 times Shidou (or something he said) will be on the thumbnail. The title is either something like "I read Blue lock and..." or a toned down version of "wtf is going on on blue lock". There are also summaries/recaps in these videos but they're done in a comedic way.

4. Powerscaling/shonenhead content

Rankings, values, hypothetical 1v1s, potential team combinantions, panels that look cool, building something using a filter that randomizes a character, the best trio/duo/goal/team/character/etc. Dramatically colored manga panels. Short, usually in the form of a youtube short. There's usually phonk music in the background. You'll know it when you see it.

5. Misc.

Compilations, be it dub compilations (must include the "THIS GUY IS BUILT DIFFERENT!" line) or character compilations OR gay moments compilations. Fun fact videos. Gacha Life videos. Those videos where Rin's english line is edited funny. Blue Lock with realistic timing (videos last less than a minute). Blue Lock tricks IRL (these are fun). Insane theories. and

[hamofjustice]

very slight teal mask and indigo disc story spoilers (the kind that'll probably help decide if you want them or not instead of ruin it for you, probably?) and very long commentary about it. mostly about how they've chosen to advertise it

gonna hit you with my longest run-on sentence yet, here we go.

the fact that we had to datamine the teal mask, a DLC whose only returning character is jacq and does not add a line to or scene of anyone else (well, mentions of heath and clavell, i guess?) due to being available to do at any badge count, the fact that we had to dig and pry in unintended ways, just to finally prove that our implied greatest treasures nemona arven and penny would at least be available to hang out with in the indigo disc...

with no new images footage or mentions of the friend trio of in any of the six months since the DLCs were announced, and ten months after these kids opened their hearts and dorm rooms to us, saying we could hang out any time from now on, and turned out to be statues with one line of dialogue after we had already gone on an adventure with them following us around, helping us in battle, and getting to know each other as we walked, and our rival promised to keep up with our strength forever, then never got any stronger...

and now, in the narrative's timeline, we run off to another country to transfer away from our rival for life's school to one she would fit into perfectly the MOMENT she opens up to us about her problems and how she's so much happier now that we're the first person she can actually connect with and be herself around, and shows clear signs of worry that you're going to leave if she doesn't make you promise not to...

and also shortly after Arven became effectively a high school orphan, who's still treated as kind of a butt monkey dumbass for some reason, when he was putting everything he had into researching how to save his dog, his only dependable family, instead of going to class (i guess he's not telling anybody what he's going through, as usual with these kids)...

because TPC did not think these characters being present in the second DLC in any form and not actually having their newfound, hard-earned sense of belonging ruined by the basic premise of said transfer-student DLC was worth advertising at any point, and only showed off gym leaders Katy and Kofu... and that was only if you even bothered to look at the website to notice the feature at all, because hanging out with, battling, and trading with all of the past characters who aren't present in Paldea anymore is now actually a feature, but wasn't in the trailer...

is fucking mind boggling to me.

why is it a secret that they're in the DLC. why would they not just. tell people that as soon as they revealed the DLC. why is it still supposed to be a secret now, half a year later. why weren't they in the first half. why did they not think we'd be worried that they aren't in the second half.

silly me, why would you want to advertise giving people more of the story and main plot-driving characters, the main thing people defend the rushed game for, or that they might get some resolution, or reassure them that the vaguely happy ending to their sad stories isn't going to be ruined like they've implied it will be? that'd be silly. the only way anyone is going to find that out is through hacking

but at least we were finally able to pry that basic fucking information out of them against their will, the only thing I wanted to know about the DLC before I'd buy it, because they left in placeholder stubs for it by accident. oops. wouldn't want to tell people who were on the fence about getting the DLC this information on purpose or anything. need to keep it a secret

we were able to confirm through our own digging that nemona (and many others) are at least allowed to hang out with us, but the thing that would make both her as a character and me as a Pokemon player happier than we've ever been is if she actually got to enroll with us. why wouldn't she go, right? what do a school and society that don't respect her and an empty home where her parents should be have to offer, compared to living her dream with her favorite person, surrounded by people just like her? who can stop a champion from going wherever she wants? but for that to be the case, one of the "club rooms" we found references to would have to be hers. only us kieran and carmine clearly have what are marked as dorm room objects.

i'm glad we're getting what we're getting, but it's still no guarantee that nemona arven and penny will continue to be important to the story that they were the driving forces of, or get the true resolutions and healthier happy endings that they deserve, or that our "true equal" will ever be any stronger or more important to our character than our home ec teacher, or that they'll ever actually get to be a friend group on screen without life or death situations or harrowing grief being involved

oops! accidentally wrote decent character arcs and relationships in a pokemon game! they're going to spend time together in the postgame! abort abort abort quick shove them off into different countries before they hug

okay that's just me being cynical, they will almost certainly be important to the story, but... TPC has the power to make me not cynical and they keep choosing not to do that. but they do keep making really sappy recap videos using previous cutscene footage, like this attachment and uncertainty is something they're milking on purpose

maybe stringing people along with how much they miss the funny, cute, loving, strong characters, or are worried about these three lonely and isolated kids dealing with parental neglect, ptsd and self loathing, autism and motor impairments, identity issues, and more, whose problems are clearly not resolved yet if they can be at all, will... help sell more plushies and gacha pulls, and get people consuming more spinoffs, or something? idk, maybe

love to stop and helplessly gaze upon penny's depression pile every day before i go do tera raids / link battles with strangers (i don't actually do this but i might if poke portal worked indoors)

that all being said! it's pretty damn cool that hanging out with NPCs in a meaningful way and staging selfies with them and stuff is actually a game feature at all. that much is reassuring. it's a step in the right direction considering 90% of pokemon gameplay for a lot of people takes place after the credits roll and everyone normally despawns or becomes a one liner / repeating boss fight statue, or maybe if you're lucky a Multi Battle partner. it was just implied this game would be different, is all. i just don't know why they've chosen to string their audience along this way. wanting to have friends shouldn't throw up a $35 tollgate right as you go to talk to them that takes a year to open, and over six months to find out if it'll kill them when it opens.

i'd like to see pokemon postgame feel more like an animal crossing life sim type game in the future, personally, and this feature is a step toward that. i'd love if it one of your rewards for completing indigo disc was being able to take anyone you like as a follower as you go about your business and have them get on miraidon/koraidon with you as needed so your movement isn't impeded by it, even if there was no dialogue for it or anything. it's 2023, i shouldn't have to imagine something happening in a video game, or have to fill in my own fanfic to make a story satisfying, it should just be happening, on the screen. dammit. having a follower that goes with you everywhere even if you drive or have a following pokemon already was a feature in teal mask, so why not utilize it permanently?

(is the obvious player arven nemona penny 4v1 battle being saved for the final boss or something, is that why tera raids with them aren't a thing you can just do normally?)

Long story short: The basic transfer-student premise of The Indigo Disc implies that we ruin Nemona's happy ending and rub the one she really wants in her face to go enjoy it with Carmine instead for being more marketable, and I don't think they're even aware of why that would be a problem. Why have we not been reassured to the contrary in the last 6 months? I think a lot of us are waiting for this DLC anxiously instead of eagerly, especially after the first half.

[pynkhues]

Okay, feel free not to answer this but does it feel like the fandom has generally had a harsher/less sympathetic view of Kendall in a post-finale/S4 world or is that just me? I feel like I see a lot more takes that position Kendall as the sole or primary inheritor of Logan’s poison when all of the siblings have elements of Logan dripping through and they’ve all suffered from his abuse (as opposed to just certain siblings - which I see way more than I previously did). It might just be me, but does it seem like the views/commentary around the siblings has changed? (Please note I mean no shade to anyone, just generally super interested in how the fandom view of characters evolves over time/morphs with recency bias)

Hey! Sorry it took me a few days to get to this (I'm a little slow across the board these days), but yeah, I'd say that I agree with you. There tends to be this fixation in fandom on which sibling was abused the most or which is the most likely to be abusive in the future, when the reality is their experiences aren't numbers you can compare. You can't compare Roman maybe being hit more (which again, isn't something we actually even know), with the psychological abuse of Logan humiliating Kendall as a boy by making him compete with and then wait on one of the few relationships he has outside of the family.

These aren't things that are quantifiable, and similarly, the insidious ways that the golden trio behave in the final season (or throughout the show's run) aren't things that can be plugged into a pie graph to give a sense of which of the three of them is the 'worst'.

I do think Roman and Shiv in some ways feel more defensible in the final season for some because Roman does seem to accept his ousting while Shiv's narrative feels so doomed, but I think a lot of that comes down to the woobification of Roman by a vocal portion of the fandom and the very specific and gendered bleakness of Shiv's arc.

It doesn't help of course that there's a sense that if it weren't for Shiv, Kendall would've 'won', which I think is a false reading of the show in general. The show has worn all its opinions on its sleeve since season 1, and Kendall as a character isn't one who wins even when he does. He, in Roman's words in 3.01 after Kendall's arguably had the biggest win he does across the course of the show, self-destructs. I don't imagine had he become CEO it would've gone any differently.

I do think there's also this desire to see all three of the golden trio's acts in s3 in isolation - it's easier to end sympathetically with Roman because he broke at his father's funeral, when literally an episode earlier he was instating a fascist in one of the most powerful roles in the worlds. It's easier to end sympathetically with Shiv, who kills her brother and faces a broken end. It's harder to end sympathetically with Kendall, who alienates his family, threatens to take custody of his children off his wife, takes back a crucial truth and has to be forced out of a legacy he feels entitled to.

There's a sense of character death there, but no more than there is for Shiv or Roman, the former who has lost any ethical or moral core she may have ever had, and the latter who's lost any sense of purpose and destroyed a country in the process (even if in the end it was Kendall's choice, Mencken was always Roman's man).

To look at Kendall's actions in isolation though negates the particular insidious abuse Kendall faced in his life, and even in death. Kendall's alienation from his children takes on a far greater depth for instance when you consider it in the context of Roman echoing their father's words that they were never family to begin with, just as his terrible treatment of both Rava and Jess at his father's funeral takes on added weight when you consider the fact that he's not only grieving his father, but is feeling increasingly alone after his sister betrayed him and he's worried his brother's going to cut him out now that Mencken's president.

Does that make his behaviour okay? Of course not! But to view these moments in isolation paints them as inherently abusive instead of the long tail of abuse in a very lonely man who's only sense of self-worth is tied to the ghost of a dead man

The fandom's always been fickle with the characters though, so I imagine it'll come full circle. Don't forget at the start of the season a loud portion of the fandom was arguing Connor was the worst one because Kieran said he bought a person in an interview, haha.

[andbrokenmemories]

because twig operates in the realm of vague interest. It masters stringing you along with neat biopunk vistas and weird developments and cute, low-nourishment character moments. its playing a shell game with its characters and setting to keep you engaged for just a little while longer. it is wildbow with all the monetary incentive and experience of the first two serials stabbing at a story kernel, a set of prototype ideas, the initial imperfect gristle worm and pact were made out of. the stories that sat in past wildbows graveyard now blown up to make a medal out of a kernel. And every other wildbow protagonist *bleeds* on the page with the *point* of them, acted out in a relentless march. the singular depth of taylor, the living and unwilling microcosm of Blake, the blunt grating commentaries on social justice of the trio. Victoria Dallon

But Sy is the text presenting the kind of character the text knows Wildbow likes to write. a corkscrew of the order of character creation. a character with the rich inner monologue and unique psychology the text might just be able to flesh out, do something with, find the bleeding-heart point along the way. Sylvester is a shell. He is a thing meant to contain meaning, at some point, by the end. And at every turn, the text reveals what's under the cup, and it's a little piece of paper reading "Wouldn't it be fucked up if..?"

The shell curves in on itself to provide the illusion of its own multifaceted depth. like resolution loss from looking at the reflected mirrors within a mirror, every step that is taken with the character tropeifies his psychology further and further. a guy with the suffering of Blake and a guy with none of the empathy of the text like Blake; the first protagonist to play with romance and sex in a wildbow text doesn't do it for any worldbuilt out reason or resolution, but because it'd be interesting to read if it were written well, wouldn't it? Wouldn't it. Sy being a heartbreaker I guess reads as callous for callousnesses sake because it got put on the permanent backburner because it stopped being something to wrung something out of. We're not in the business of character exploration, we need to find more fucked up things to smile and nod at. More gore and viscera. More oddities. This is a text of oddities and enjoying fucked up things. It's a text that likes little ideas that look smart, in the way dogshit ID disorder caricatures look smart, look 'really makes you think'. Look alien. It is Wildbow as xenoficition writer and xenoficition as "what if there was a guy with voices in his head that told him to KILL people" and wow, wow, isn't it wildbows most underrated work. A real character piece, so many interesting ideas. So much *interest*. Wouldn't it be interesting if. Wouldn't it be fucked up if

[allgoldenelite]

idk if this makes any sense, but.

so recently, i've seen the following interpretation floating around: whenever kenny talks about don being family in his promo and stuff, and whenever he makes it clear that BCC crossed a line now because they hurt somebody who can never reasonably consent to what the elite is used to, he is in reality not talking about don at all, or at least, the work is commenting on kenny lying or using don as a sort of mental scapegoat for the people he actually cares about [insert names here, in this case from most people i have seen it being hangman], because this is juxtaposed with kenny accepting the screwdriver from matt (who says "for hangman?").

and it made me think.

because a) there's precedent for this: especially as a heel (right now i'd say the elite are in the process of being faces again), kenny has a tendency to avoid (especially the names of) people close to him, or transpose the pain or caring he associates with those people onto something else (championships, matches, other responsibilities). everyone remembers "AJ styles, prince devitt, and who?" but there are a couple of other examples. notably, as the collector, he put so much emphasis on him and don; it was always "me and don, we are family", "don this, don that", instead of mentioning or talking what was really going on (his tensions with the bucks). later this would even spill onto other characters (saying that him and the good brothers make a really good trio/team, which is just explicit enough to pass as commentary on kenny's avoidance of the bucks at that point).

and b) i feel almost like if this were another medium, like a theater play or a book, there could very reasonably be a twist that don isn't real. that his existence is a product of kenny's psyche as he tries to avoid confronting reality (sort of like some apparitions in silent hill). that by focusing so much on don, it's easier for kenny to blend out the things that would cause him to otherwise shatter into a million pieces. he always styled himself as an "unstoppable android", and a machine needs a version of reality parsed through its OS that allows it to march on in spite of how frightening the actual happenings behind the veneer of said OS are. in a way, it could be said that don is kenny's OS rn. don is still his own person who does things kenny wouldn't do or doesn't do things he would do, but it would imo fit with kenny's arcs that often thematically feature isolation and self-hatred, to "invent" a companion who has totally always been your bestest buddy since you were 6 years old and played the invisible strings to help you be where you are now.

don entered the stage as a true character in the elite's story around the jericho feud back in new japan, but it wasn't until the collector that he was heavily cemented by kenny as an important existence, someone whom he had secretly plotted with "for years" in order to orchestrate his belt-hunting run (among other things), and by then he began interacting with other characters in way that deviated from our then current understanding of kenny's morals and ideas, despite how close the two claimed to be. i've written before about how to me, the collector is a paradoxical being and the final manifestation of all the ugly and dark parts inside kenny that he couldn't exorcise, "much, much worse" than the cleaner could ever be. think if the cleaner is a juvenile street thug, the collector is the boss in his penthouse making a fortune off of people's suffering.

but, it's important to remember that kenny isn't fundamentally evil. he has gone on record in character to state that it was his own fear of confronting his darker feelings about ibushi that pushed him towards joining bullet club and turning into the "pitch-black devil" he became. heartbreak makes a villain, etc. it's not that boilerplate simple, humans are complicated beings even (especially) in wrestling, and that is also true for kenny's story in AEW, which started to take a turn for the worse as soon as he started tagging with hangman. the collector is paradoxical because he both wants to and doesn't want to exist, because he thinks the things he's doing are necessary and cruel at the same time, because he desires what he fears and fears what he desires (finding true fulfillment in tagging, hangman becoming champion, corrupting the bucks, the list goes on). it would make sense to me if such a being required a mental shield to focus on and withstand the pressure of the two sides of the paradox constantly pulling at your psyche, threatening to destroy it. as it fits within his own machinations, don is the perfect candidate for that.

now, this isn't to say i think kenny is going to turn heel again because there is an increased emphasis on him and don "being family" again. it's just a piece of the text that i find interesting to analyze. even if kenny doesn't turn, in order to inflict upon BCC the brutality that they inflict on people you care about, you have to go to some pretty dark places. and every time kenny does go to such places, the past has shown that he pushes others away so that his true feelings—kindness, compassion, an arrogance that's more a beautiful sibling of pride than an ugly child of hurt—do not get in the way. it just depends on how he emerges on the other side once said brutality is inflicted.

either way, i have to imagine that under normal circumstances, when/if (?) the thing happens that finally tips the bucket over and causes kenny to shake off all that hair dye from 6 years ago and see don for the fucked up manipulator of himself and his friends that he is, it's going to deal a pretty heavy blow to him. it's not too dissimilar to an abusive relationship: from the outside it's so easy to see and go "oh this guy is a grade a asshole, they need to dump him already", but when you're in it, it's everything but easy.

i say normal circumstances because i have a feeling that the way this is actually going to be resolved in the work is going to involve some kind of hook that if not fully, at least partially avoids such shattering of the mind. that could be a number of things: the "betrayal" (really that's been going on for years, but see above) being so brutal and surprising that kenny's mind snaps right from heartbroken into justified, or the situation involving a bright light that makes it much easier to bear. i'll leave it up to you to decide who or what that's gonna be.

thanks for coming to my ted talk ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[drbtinglecannon]

Hi, friend!!! I hope everything's been going well so far for you today.

For the character ask game: I'm gonna switch it up and say Eberwolf today haha. And/or (whichever you prefer) Kabru, now that we're at it.

Thanks pal, things are going. We live in interesting times and it sucks haha. I hope you and the cats had a lovely weekend!!

Eberwolf

How I feel about this character

A cute gremlin, I really do love thinking about his dynamic with Darius, Raine, and Hunter. His design is really adorable while also not really making any sense haha, like why does he have a button nose and not a snout, why does he wag his ponytail, haha. I wonder a lot about how he became CH and how he and Darius became so close

All the people I ship romantically with this character

None, though as absolute peak cursed content EberxHooty is funny

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Darius, obviously, there's no contest. The surrender scene still makes me insane. Like at that time we knew basically nothing about them, especially Eberwolf, but they very blatantly showed how important they were to each other in that scene. It was so cool how it was a moment that showed characters outside the main circle caring so deeply for one another, like I know Luz Eda & King are the protags but there's still stuff happening outside of them y'know

And like that scene happened after Darius' failed "only the small ones will die" joke! I don't call them an OTP but they are absolutely the same caliber, they're a pair do not separate

My unpopular opinion about this character

I think content that pokes fun at Darius is better if Eberwolf is there, if that makes sense. Like it isn't as good if it's just Eda or Raine teasing him over something

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

An Eberwolf centric episode like if we got one for each Coven Head, or a rebel trio episode, or a scene of Eberwolf defending Darius similarly to the surrender scene. There's so much we could've learned if the show wasn't cancelled :')

---

Kabru

How I feel about this character

Oh god where to begin. Kabru is so fascinating and well-written; all the ways he foils to Laios, how his trauma impacts his appetite while being in a story all about the importance of food and taking up space, the way he's so perceptive he can easily read others and how that manifests in how he interacts with everyone in his party (like that art of how physically close he gets to each member of his team based on their comfort level), his design and backstory and all the interesting political commentaries of it all, if Kabru was in a standard shonen he'd be the protag haha.

I really hope as the rest of the anime comes out the fandom adopts a better overall understanding of him :')

All the people I ship romantically with this character

I do enjoy Labru the most, but I really like Kablaishuro(???? I know their platonic trio name idk the ot3 name). Laios's dynamic with Kabru & Shuro individually are really good but so is Kabru & Shuro's dynamic together, and that's why I was bummed when they cut the bell page from the anime it was so funny haha

Labru is just, it's so funny and versatile. They're opposites attract, and foils, and advisor x king, and oblivious vs repressed, autism4autism, etc, there're so many things that it hits and all of them are enjoyable haha. Adding Shuro makes it a million times funnier

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Kabru and Rin! It is complicated because Rin is in love with Kabru and he either doesn't reciprocate her feelings or isn't aware of them, but I ultimately don't think they're be very good together romantically. They know each other really well given their history but I feel like the choice to make Kabru not return her feelings in whatever way is like a way to say he knows it wouldn't work out. Idk they're a good duo but not as a ship

My unpopular opinion about this character

It's possible to like one of labru or kabumisu and not like the other and being normal about it 👍

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

Hm, I'm not sure. I guess I wish the anime was handling him differently, this one blog I follow called dungeonmeshistash went into more about how the anime is making Kabru cooler than he was in the manga by taking away some of his other expressions and cringe moments. It's not like, "the anime is garbage" level but it is still a bit annoying. I'm wondering how it'll keep differing from the manga as the anime finishes

[berlinini]

Some thoughts on the Silver Tongues MV. I tried to avoid seeing other interpretations but obviously not much of this will be brand new.

It's very much British (as Louis is) and references his upbringing in Donny in some interesting ways: what looks like a teenager's bedroom (obvious), the shots of the houses ('terraced dreams' in Common People), the vintage car, and the fact that the band plays in the living room (an hommage to his first band? or at least the idea that he started making music as a teenager, that music makes him feel at home?)

When alone, all the characters are sad (angry even) and looking straight ahead, including Louis in the opening scene. You understand why he doesn't "feel like going home" - it's lonely and sad. Contrast with the warmth and energy of the scenes in the pub that matches "when I'm with you I'm so much happier". You get that one lonely guy in the pub who looks sad, but his whole body language changes once his friends reach him.

The inclusion of Louis' bandmates: not the first time we see them in an MV, but this time they're not just playing music. I view it as a continuation of Louis having his real friends play his party crew in the Miss You MV. But the contrast with the rest of the characters being young makes me think Louis is saying: this was me then (younger) and this is still me (now). I'm still a normal guy who goes to the pub with his mates.

Call me crazy but some of the younger characters make me think of other people around Louis: the redhead teenager for Oli, the blonde girl with Krystle's bangs, even that one tall guy could make you think about Chris. Might just be a coincidence!

The characters beeing linked by being in the same communal spaces like the pub and the street (Louis walks down the street alone, the car parked, then the boxing besides the car, same street where the guys are smoking weed by the window, at the end everyone gathered on that same street). They also seem to be in the same room... I'm taking this as a commentary on the universal experience of growing up in a working class family in Donny? Or as @slvertongues points out: being alone in a room full of people.

The trio of guys boxing - siblings? A reference to family?

The first time he sings "when I'm with you I'm so much happier", we see the teenage girl closing her fist - which is the opposite of the lyrics. There's also the anger in the guy in his bathroom and the siblings boxing, reminding us that adolescence is full of angst. And as pointed out

The fashion: the Umbro England 1996 jersey, the Burberry shirt and the Fred Perry jacket and polo: classic British brands that Louis wears and that are associated with football/pub/chav culture.

Finally, several elements of this MV would fit perfectly with the things Louis talks about in Change(s).

The MV isn't exactly groundbreaking - it's making me think of one of Zayn's and one of Sam Fender's. But Louis is taking the concept and making it his own with little references. And as @silverfoxlou told me, he's reclaiming that part of himself - the '10% too British', the part that he had to erase to fit in, and probably was made ashamed of his family and social background. So just like the album, he's saying 'this is me'.

[semper-legens]

113. The Exiles, by Christina Baker Kline

Owned: No, library Page count: 372 My summary: In 1800s Tasmania, a young girl is taken from her home and forced to live with people who want to civilise her. In London, a governess is accused of theft, and sentenced to transportation to Van Diemen's Land. Their paths will cross in strange and unexpected ways, across Australia's troubled history. My rating: 3/5 My commentary:

This one was calling to me from the shelf for a while. I'm interested in the idea of convict transportation in general, and a book that delves into the complexity of white settlers and white convicts on indigenous land held a lot of promise for me. It…didn't quite live up to that promise, however. Oh, the book wasn't bad by any means, but I found its focus to be, well, unfocused, and the story seemed to just be a long string of random events rather than a contemplation of Australian identity. And its racial politics were a little strange. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, but I wouldn't tell you to straight-up avoid it, either?

One of our POV characters is Evangeline, a woman who was once a governess for a couple of children, had a tryst with her employer's (adult) son, and was accused of stealing and sentenced to transportation, despite being pregnant at the time. She's an odd duck, a little too high-class for her fellow transportees, but treated like scum for falling prey to the sin of lust, despite her beau being more to blame. She never quite fits into the world of the prison ship. She's got a strong sense of justice and attempts to help her fellow prisoners, in particular her friends Olive and Hazel, but she doesn't quite have the right kind of street smarts to survive. She has a run-in with a sailor, who is attempting to rape Hazel and swears revenge when she stops him. So he pushes her overboard. Gotta admit, wasn't expecting that.

The story then switches to Hazel, a sixteen year old Scottish herbalist convicted of stealing a spoon. She pretends to be Evangeline's kid's mother, so the kid (Ruby) will be looked after and not completely abandoned, with a view to taking full custody when her sentence has been served. She's a little savvier than Evangeline, more guarded. It makes a nice contrast, but it's when Hazel becomes a narrator that the story really starts to lose its focus. We watch Hazel working as a midwife then a maid, but other than 'Hazel gets out of prison and gets Ruby back' we don't really have a throughline to care about. And some plot elements just seemed too…convenient. Evangeline had befriended the doctor, Dunne, on the convict ship, and Hazel manages to get a message to him to adopt Ruby and hire her as a nurse. Conflict over. The abusive sailor comes back right at the end, seemingly because the author realised she didn't have a dramatic climax. The story doesn't end so much as just peter out. It's disappointing, this book had a solid first act, but peaked there.

If it seems like I've taken a while to get to Matthina, that's deliberate. She's the first POV character, she's the only one of the trio who was an actual, definite historical figure. And yet…she feels like something of an afterthought. Matthina's story is heartbreaking. Taken from her home, an island where aboriginal Tasmanians were sent, to be the 'adopted' daughter of Sir John Franklin, notable Ice Idiot and the Governor of Tasmania at the time. Matthina had some family at the time, but the Franklins wanted her, so they got her. She was raised by them in order to 'civilise' and 'whiten' her. Which is disgusting. She was left behind at an orphanage when Franklin returned to England (the same orphanage where her older sister had died) and as far as records can tell, she died aged 17 or 18, drowning in a puddle while struggling with alcoholism. It's a tragic tale, and yet in this book it's secondary to Evangeline, Hazel, and Ruby. Matthina isn't given the same focus that the white characters are, and after the Franklins send her to the orphanage she basically disappears from the narrative apart from a final cameo when Hazel comes across her. It just feels like the story drops her, like it's far more interested in the white women, and the plight of aboriginal Australians is treated like it's somehow less important than the plight of the white convicts. And that just leaves a sour taste in my mouth, you know?

Next, back to a YA story I very much enjoyed, and a world run by monsters.

[mobolanz]

For the OC questions: 5, 24, 31 and 40!

Sweeeet!:D thank you for yet another ask oml <3 🤧

Let's see!(⁠ﾉ⁠◕⁠ヮ⁠◕⁠)⁠ﾉ⁠*⁠.⁠✧

5. If you could make only one of your OCs popular/known, who would it be?

Oh pretty much my semi-self insert & sailor moon oc Mia Hideno (Amethyst as a villain) 🤧 I mean it's also the one I have the biggest history with, and my 2nd most developed and thought out one after Evelyn(unless we speak lore/inspo wise where it's an equal footing) . Like imma be fr here I'm surprised that an anime/manga that named 90% and counting of its villains after minerals/gemstones there wasn't anyone in canon after that (like,,,it can be the sailor earth of villain ocs <3). Plus I'm very much set on how her story goes (with multiple endings.) So all I need is to resume my SM rewatch that was paused after aot pt.3 trailer was released and I'm on it! (⁠ﾉ⁠◕⁠ヮ⁠◕⁠)⁠ﾉ⁠*⁠.⁠✧

And like,,, her and demande,,, my og oc ship that's still kicking today 😆💎💐 what I clung on to until creating reinelyn :")

24. If you could meet one OC of yours, who would it be and why??

Ahhh right, I knew right away who would it be and that reminded me- I don't think I've introduced aya here yet have I?:3

Because shopping with her would be the dream tbh. Your wardrobe would feel like a blessing had struck it. Also she sweet 🤧🤧

31. Pick one OC of yours and explain what their tumblr blog would be like (what they reblog, layout, anything really)

Just one? :c I'm going with main trio for this one

Evelyn: mostly just pretty and cute aesthetic pictures and philosophical/ motivational quotes. She doesn't have that much free time on her hands so when she does it rather be in a positive territory that doesn't drain her further. Although should she befriend anyone also continuously support whatever they make by sharing it with commentary.

Mia: exclusive art account. A close resemblance to the one I have myself indeed (semi-self insert indeed xD). Should she have a personal one kinda like Evelyn's but also a lot of character meta/analysis posts reblogged. For certain a villain apologist 😆

Cecille: mostly short personal posts, doesn't bother with anything that isn't pfp and a snarky line for the blog title. probably gets anon hate claiming her attitude is ass so she replies with one 🥱 (as in "ain't reading all that") and leaves it. (I love her 🤧)

40. Any fond memories linked to your characters? Feel free to share!

Honestly nothing overly specific of an event considering I kept a lot about them to myself for a long time but,,, let's say these

For Mia just about how everytime I have a brainrot for her it's like the muse had struck me I had to keep a list if I burn out before doing them all so it can be pulled for next time 🤧💐

In Evelyn's case it's more recent knowing pretty much everyone I talk about her with is interested & likes her🥹. I mean that really gives me a chance to go and further ny writing skill and it's also nice to look in her tag and see old and new stuff

My pride and joy that's what she is ✨ :")

Some oc questions

[sofipitch]

Even though I don’t think hating a character/what a character does should = hating an actor (not directed at you at all just a psa) it is valid to feel some type of way. Especially with what SR’s said about Lestat (borderline woobifying him) in hindsight it is a little weird and has me like 🤨 ‘I have some questions. I think because most actors don’t actually have much control over the trajectory of the narrative they’ll usually just embrace what they’re given and sing it’s praises regardless of whether or not criticisms and questions are warranted due to putting so much of themselves into the work. With SR it seems like he needs to kin Lestat in order to get into that headspace. He has given incredibly detailed and thoughtful commentary and seems to love to talk about it so I’d like to think he’d be open for critical discussion. But it’s probably not good promotion for the show so who knows.

Yeah I wish we got to interview him ourselves bc a lot of what he has said, or JA has said, that I thought was cute, like SR saying "lies lies lies" about Louis's part of the script/interview, just leaves me with a sick taste in my mouth. I haven't listened to it and I'm not sure I'm strong enough, but I wish it had been one of the trio that had been interviewed on the AMC podcast, like it's nice to include the actress who played Grace but she isn't the one I have questions for rn. And a part of me wonders if that was on purpose

[izloveshorses]

What about your most recent one?

send me a fic and i'll write up a director's cut commentary for it!

No More Pretend:

this one is sort of a combination of a few ideas and concepts that have been sitting in the back of my notes for a while, but i was never sure where i would put them/when i would get to them. so if it reads like three parts, this is why lol. i have been wanting to write the trio Improving and Performing A Con together for a while, and then i wanted to write a classic traveling sequence bed sharing moment, and i wanted anya and dmitry to bond over some shared trauma while having a little slumber party. it came together somewhat nicely, no?

you just know dimya had to pretend to be married at least once during the traveling sequence. it's too delicious and awkward not to think about. even though they're not as malicious against each other as they were at the start of the show by this point they still haven't quite crossed into the 'friends' threshold yet, so i don't think they would be exactly enthusiastic about the idea. and we don't see enough of vlad and dmitry working together to pull a smaller con. i think they would have, like, preexisting characters they play, depending on who they're trying to trick, and sometimes even have costumes and stuff (think dwight and jim playing brothers on the office to make a sale, for lack of a better example). and while anya doesn't like lying, i think she loves acting, pretending, playing a part. so it's delightful when she gets to exist in that sort of gray area.

i read a book recently where one of the main girls had to pretend she was kidnapped over the phone, and was like sobbing and yelling and stuff, but when she hung up she just wiped her tears away like 😌 and i just knew i had to write anya doing something like that at one point. idk about y'all but the bit where she reveals her 'pregnancy' is so funny to me. everyone is so uncomfortable. at this point in their relationship dimya would definitely be particularly squeamish about the thought of anya carrying his baby, but it was so fun to write, and i think dmitry is like really obviously attracted by her ability to act so well (obvious to us, maybe not to anya lol).

the bit where dmitry gives anya her food belongs to a thread that i ended up not pulling, but i think i was trying to think of excuses for them to go take a walk in the middle of the night, and one of those would've been that dmitry actually was hungry so anya was gonna be like smh let's go find an open kitchen or a bakery somewhere 😤 but this was already getting so long. i do like including dmitry feeding her in a lot of my fics, it's just such a simple and quiet way he can take care of her. and i just think she is so so hungry.

this isn't that important, but i really like the line where anya originally thought dmitry messing with his hair was a vanity thing but she's since learned it's actually just a nervous tick, that never gets old to me. she's just... always watching him 👀

the latter half of this fic was a lot more complicated to write. little confrontations and scuffles are always so hard to write with them, since they both know the other can handle themselves, but i think dmitry is protective of his own, and i think anya has mixed feelings about that whole thing. it's basically like... being vulnerable is just really Really hard lol. physical responses to past trauma are so So embarrassing to have. like, logically you know you're safe, whatever, but you feel all hot and sweaty and itchy and breathing is really hard and your hands are shaking and you just know you look like you're about to crack, and it's embarrassing!! so someone witnessing that as it happens is really uncomfortable!!

anya's trauma is a little more difficult to conceal than his, and i think she would be a little embarrassed to be seen as someone who falls apart so easily, so she's assuming he just sees a mess of a person, since he has witnessed a lot of her little panics and meltdowns by this point. and she really cares about his opinion of her for some reason. so of course she gets defensive and of course she misinterprets his protectiveness/attempt to relate as just a clinical obligation and fascination with a 'crazy' girl, and of course he gets defensive right back. but deep down they're both equals™ on every level and there's this deep respect they have for each other above all else. they're just bad at communicating that lol.

and on top of all of this, they have to share a bed, so they're about as uncomfortable as they can get. but this fic ended up being about sitting in the discomfort a little bit, and that discomfort brings out a vulnerability and sign of trust they probably wouldn't have reached without it. they're ironically the most authentic and honest they've been with each other while lying to strangers for food and shelter lol.

and again, trauma is embarrassing. she's already had to be so vulnerable with him, now she has to force him to witness her nightmares firsthand. it's like... when you're anxious, you build up a little thing in your head until it seems impossible to stop thinking of it that way. and this fic ended up being a little bit about consent and autonomy, too, and i think dmitry feels bad anya was put in this situation to begin with, no matter how dire the circumstances are. idk how y'all feel about them having kids, but i liked how they get to discuss the idea this way, apprehensive yet open for debate at the same time. slumber party talk fr <33

dmitry's confession is sort of the big punch of the whole fic. i had that scene written on a scrap document deep in my fic folder, like, years ago, but i never attached it to anything larger until now. i was nervous about posting this fic because while i've hinted at dmitry having some sexual trauma and a history of prostitution, i've never written him explicitly saying All That before. it's definitely a headcanon i will carry with me to my grave tho 😤 he just has so much Self Loathing already, being objectified and seen as someone only good for his body and nothing else had to have affected him. and of course he tries to downplay it, make it sound not so bad or at least not as bad as what anya has been through, but anya thinks it's important that he understands how similar they really are, how they understand each other, how grateful she is that he shared this with her and he trusts her enough.

i didn't want this whole scene to be super sad and heavy, even with the darker topic, so hopefully it's still sweet enough to swallow. we're trying to set them up to be besties by the time they hit paris, after all <3 and what's an izloveshorses bed sharing fic without some platonic snuggling 😤

overall, this one was fun to write. working on something in canonverse between long au chapters always feels like coming home <3