#topic 5

[yamcha-thelonewolf]

How would you feel if Toriyama made Yamcha a fighter again and was actually stronger this time? I'll always be thinking how when he smacked Beerus in the back he made a face. What if he wasn't taken just by surprise that he did it but by the power behind it?

Like what if Toriyama did Yamcha dirty and decided he's not strong unless he does not want to fight?

Good question. Yamcha is still a fighter, for me. He never really gave up, even though what DBS showed us seems to say otherwise. I can't accept the fact that he threw in the towel, that was never like him. Yamcha always shows to us, in his own way, that he still has a passion for martial arts. Get it? Martial arts. That thing that long ago in Dragon Ball was the leitmotif of the whole story.

However, I don't think Yamcha has really stopped believing in his potential. It is virtually impossible to do so after reaching such a power level that makes him literally one of the strongest human beings in the world. Plus if we consider the fact that, between him, Tien and Kuririn, Yamcha's features are the most "normal" (he's got a nose and only two eyes) we can also safely say that Yamcha is the strongest human being in the world.

Okay, this is a bit of nonsense that I sometimes like to bring up.... But think about it, it might as well be so if we have to be really precise.

«JUST LOOK HOW SERIOUS HUMAN MY FACE IS!»

So, I would just be happy if his warrior attitude, that was never really buried, was put on display again. Even a little sentence, a hint, a tiny scene where he is seen fighting or training with one of his friends... That would be enough for me.

Yeah, something like that... Dragon Buddies.

For example, I am so glad that he made his return in Moro Arc as a Z-Fighter; I would like to see the animated version of his moment. Unfortunately, I think this is not the beginning of his rebirth. I have always thought that Yamcha's only enemy is Yamcha himself, and partly so, but the truth is that the real villain of his story is Akira Toriyama himself. It pains me to admit it, but it is so. I can't understand why he is pandering so much to the idiocy of the DB fandom making fun of Yamcha.

Yamcha laughing at memes about Yamcha knowing that he could destroy everyone with one finger.

The hell, even in Majin Buu Arc he was amazing. All right, I know, they're fillers, but you want me to be honest? The fillers took better care of him than the canon episodes and the manga. I mean, at the beginning he was presented to us as a 40-year-old man who had now given up martial arts for good, wearing a banana yellow suit, expensive and sadly unsuitable for battles. He just doesn't seem to want to hear about it. But then, after several episodes of him goofing off or being a fanboy in the stands, like everyone else Yamcha dies, and it is in the afterlife that his will to fight is reawakened after so long. As it was with King Kai before. For those who have followed him from the beginning of Dragon Ball, to be able to see Yamcha again happy, excited and strong, with his uniform on like the old days, is a joy to behold.

Relative joy.

Guys, I can't accept the fact that Yamcha has to be dead to feel even more alive, or even worse that his existence depends only on fillers. Yes, I know, it's still better than nothing, though...

Another good job was also done by the OVA Dragon Ball: The Return of Son Goku and Friends!, probably the last work that remembers that Yamcha also exists and especially treats him as a very valuable fighter. I'll talk about it.

This moment is still one of my favorite. It is one of the most badass things about Yamcha, plus it reminds me so much of a scene where Tarzan does the same...

Look! On one side we have the ape man (no, not a saiyan), on the other side the wolf man... Damn, I love it! Well, maybe I'm digressing, but it is curious to notice how the act of undressing is cathartic for both characters. They both strip off a garment that does not really belong to them and wildly bring out their true nature, their animal instincts, but most of all their desire to protect those they love. That's Yamcha. After all, who says Yamcha has to save the world to redeem himself as a character? He can also do so by protecting someone. That is something he can do very well, and I will prove it to you. Anyway, I sincerely hope that his role in the world of Dragon Ball will also be recognized in DBS. I also hope he can use again even his sword, but unfortunately he became a meme and, apart from the Moro Arc, we only saw him slaughtered and humiliated even by his own friends. This is the saddest thing that could have happened, also because in OG Dragon Ball it would NEVER have happened. There is no more demeaning thing than seeing Goku completely ignore one of his close friends, one of the first, and treat him as if he were worth less than zero. Seriously... WTF?! The Goku I love would never have done that.

Alright, that's the real Goku! Thank you!

I mean, maybe Goku wouldn't have invited him to the Tournament anyway, but at least he would have stopped in front of him to say a few comfortably words. As he once did.

Because, you know, that's what you do with friends and those who have been there for you in the good and in the worst of times. Let us remember that Yamcha took care of Goku together with Chichi when the virus struck him in the heart...

Well, I try hard to think that this is all a joke, though I doubt it. I strive to think that the whole attitude that the characters have had in DBS toward Yamcha is just the result of a studied plan to piss him off and spur him to undress again and howl like he used to. But... I know it's not.

Therefore, even though Moro Arc slightly brought our Z warrior back to the forefront and confirmed that Yamcha is still very strong, I still do not consider myself satisfied. What I would like more than anything else is just a confrontation between him and the protagonist, Goku, in which the saiyan helps him believe in himself again. And if it is not Goku, someone else is fine as long as Yamcha is reconsidered with dignity.

I don't think I'm asking for that much. Goku has helped so many people, dinosaurs, mice, monkeys, strangers he has met only once in his life, even bad guys... So why not help the first character who consciously believed in his abilities?

...Guess I have started a new topic. I will definitely talk about the relationship between Yamcha and Goku as soon as I can. Being the main character, a positive assessment of Yamcha by Goku could change the current idea of this character and make him much stronger as a result. I mean, Goku is the Mr. Satan of the real world. What he says is the truth, so it is only up to him to make sure that Yamcha can come back stronger than before.

Thanks for asking! 💕

[monstermonger]

Dragonsong

(So it's Heavensward's 10 year anniversary today…. 🥲 man)

[xinyuehui]

09 ﹢ 魅せられた狂気

光·渊 JUSTICE IN THE DARK · 2025

[sobriety-girl]

˚₊‧⁺⋆♱ 𝖇𝖚𝖙 𝖎𝖒 𝖘𝖔𝖗𝖗𝖞, 𝖎 𝖉𝖔𝖓𝖙 𝖕𝖗𝖆𝖞 𝖙𝖍𝖆𝖙 𝖜𝖆𝖞.

[phantom-thieves-official]

can I say something controversial. I think by interpreting the Maruki reality stuff w Akechi as 'Joker's greatest wish was for Akechi to live bc they're in love!' is kind of a poor read of the text. Not because I don't ship them or whatever, my shipping opinions aren't relevant to this post. But because I think it overlooks a big part of Joker's actual character. He wanted Akechi to live because he saw an innocent person taken advantage of and discarded. He saw someone who needed help. You can even go further with this and say, okay, Akechi wasn't an innocent person - he killed people and tried to kill Joker himself. And what does that mean for Joker's character? It means he saw someone who had done terrible things - some of them to Joker, personally - and he still came away from Shido's palace with the understanding that while he did bad things, Akechi was a victim of Shido's, too. Good, or bad, or in between, that he still was someone in need of help. Joker wanted to help Akechi. He wanted to give Akechi a chance to make things right, and to show him that they didn't have to enemies - that Akechi didn't have to fight the Phantom Thieves, and he didn't have to be alone; that it's never too late to change course and be a better person and that Akechi's life didn't have to be one of hatred and isolation. He could atone for his crimes, still take down shido, and have a group of people to support him. After the terrible things Akechi did as Shido's lapdog, after he sold the thieves out and plotted to murder Joker. Joker still just wanted to help him. Joker saw that while Akechi was undoubtedly a criminal he was also a victim, and there was something in there worth trying to save. But you know what? He couldn't do it. Right as he seemed to be getting through to Akechi, he was killed by Shido's cognitive version.

And so when Maruki's reality brings Akechi back, it means imo that Joker feels guilty. Out of all the people he'd been able to help, Akechi was the one person he just couldn't save. It's not because they're in love, it's because Joker regrets how things worked out. He regrets that he didn't get through to Akechi sooner. He regrets failing a vulnerable and victimized person whom he feels he could have helped. Even if that person hated Joker. Even if that person had previously tried to kill Joker with his own hands. Joker's sense of justice is imo his biggest character trait, followed closely by his massive savior complex. Of course he wanted Akechi to live. Because in Joker's eyes, despite what he'd done to hurt Joker, Akechi was still a victim. He was still someone Joker should have been able to save.

This all comes to a head when Joker chooses to deny Maruki's reality. He's choosing to live with the guilt; to accept he can't save everyone no matter how hard he tries. He's moving beyond the savior complex and recognizing that sometimes, some people are really just unreachable, or don't want to be helped. It's a moment not only of characterization, but of character growth for him.

anyway that's my hot take. by viewing the third semester through a shipping lens exclusively you lose a huge point of characterization for Joker bc you overlook the nuances of Joker's desire to help everyone all the time and the guilt he feels about failing to help Akechi. You misconstrue Joker's desire to help in the first place as coming from a place of love rather than a place of selflessness and justice; a place of 'doing what's right simply because it is the right thing to do.' You miss out on the subtle ways it shows Joker's not biased by hatred or contempt, how despite the heinous things Akechi has done, and despite the harm done to him directly at Akechi's hand, Joker is still capable of seeing that Akechi is a victim, too - which in itself shows that Joker's idea of justice isn't motivated by personal relationships, grudges, or biases.

[felassan]

Mark Darrah video: 'Dragon Age: The Veilguard Has Shipped. Now What?? #/masseffect'

Video description:

"Dragon Age: The Veilguard has shipped. What happens at BioWare now? BioWare structurally finds itself in uncharted territory as it only has a single Project (Mass Effect) active. Chapters: 0:00 Veilguard is out, now what? 0:22 BioWare Structure and History 1:57 Growth 4:45 Consumption 6:28 Sustain 7:27 Contraction 11:14 Leadership Discontinuity 1 12:48 Leadership Discontinuity 2 14:14 One Project At A Time 16:33 Mass Effect 18:50 Will The People Be There? 22:18 FOCUS"

[source]

Key notes from the vid and the comments underneath:

"Up front I should say that I have every confidence that Mass Effect [5] is in fact being worked on and that that project is going to receive all of the support from EA that it might need."

Slowly and painfully BioWare is figuring out that it simply can't do more than one project at a time anymore. It's now a single-project studio. Mark Darrah expects that both Edmonton and Austin will be working on ME5 together

ME5 effectively paused production for 15 months in order to help DA:TV ship

Right now other than some DA:TV clean up/final patches, everyone at BW is working on ME5

However ME5 isn't yet ready to suddenly have a team of 250-300 people working on it, so while some DA:TV devs moved onto it, some DA:TV devs were moved to/are moving to other parts of EA instead. The ME5 team started, but there is a long way between "start" and "ready to scale" up

The ME5 team is figuring out what ME5 is going to be & its structure, then will get ready to ramp up to a much bigger team size

"BW, for the first time really ever, is able to singularly focus on a single project, is able to put everything it has towards a single goal, which is making the best ME it possibly can."

But it remains to be seen whether BW will be able to get its people back when it needs them and is ready for them. There are a few reasons why this might prove difficult. Alternatively, on the flipside, this degree of focus might be exactly what BW needs to move it into the next phase of its life. "Maybe EA is going to prove to be incredibly effective at moving people around and when ME5 looks to start to grow maybe there will be no troubles".

We will probably have hints of what's going on [with ME5] within the next two years. "I have high hopes for ME. I think that once they figure out staffing, BW being focused on one game at a time is probably great for the studio" (though there may be growing pains to get there)

Does Mark Darrah foresee similar issues in the ME5 dev cycle to what DA:TV had? No, because ME5 hasn't had the same two big directional shifts, and it has had no leadership discontinuity (ME5 paused when they went to help DA:TV i.e. it didn't continue without a leader). But we should only really start counting ME5's dev cycle from today. "It really hasn't been that long with a significant team"

The ME5 teases in recent N7 Days were made by a "very small team"

There are still lots of veterans at BW

Mark Darrah doesn't expect to be involved in what BW makes next

More under cut due to length.

BW has existed in different ways/structures through its history. We're currently entering into an "unprecedented time" for BW

The purchase of BW by Elevation Partners, the purchase of BW by EA, when Ray Muzyka & Greg Zeschuk left BW, and the year 2017 in general are the 4 most important events (not including shipping games) that Mark Darrah feels have affected BW the most in its history

BW's strategy over time could be seen as having had 4 different phases: grow, consume, sustain, contract. In the contract phase, though BW maybe didn't realize it yet, the number of projects it was capable of running simultaneously was decreasing slowly/gradually. Why? Projects were getting more expensive, requiring more people/resources/time, and by this point BW had essentially burned off all its 'reserves' from the growth phase i.e. there was no longer any fat left to burn off

After DA:I shipped, Mark Darrah experienced that it was very difficult to find resources if your project wasn't the next project that was due out the door

DLC is a safety valve for processes and staff; a place for devs to work when other projects aren't quite ready for them yet; a place for the next gen of leaders to be grown. These things disappear as DLC does. Mark Darrah is pretty sure that the move away from DLC is coming from EA

In the contract phase, in 2013-14 Anthem was starved out by DA & ME:A. ME:A was also somewhat starved out by DA. Then when ME:A was in the driver's seat, it consumed most of the resources

In late 2016/early 2017 during the push to ship ME:A, as part of that BW began to experience leadership discontinuity. As the DA leader, Mark Darrah led a team of DA people onto ME:A to help it ship (the Dragon Age Finaling Team) for a few months. this sort of thing had happened at BW before but this was the first time when senior leadership moved off the projects they led to do this. this caused a change in philosophy in terms of the way that projects were run

When ME:A shipped and Casey Hudson came back to lead BW, there was then a much much larger leadership discontinuity with Anthem. The Montreal studio was supposed to move over onto Joplin to help kickstart it but it ended up getting taken away and given to the leadership in Montreal. but even if this had happened as it was supposed to, BW may not have been able to be in a place where it was going to be able to ship Anthem and Joplin simultaneously

Three quarters of the senior leadership on Joplin moved to Anthem or left BW. DA continued and became Morrison. The discontinuity had massive consequences for DA4

In 2021/22, this happened again in the opposite direction. The leadership team moved onto DA to help it ship, though rather than leaving some of the team in place, everyone moved. The other project (next Mass Effect) effectively ceased to exist for 15 months in order to help DA4 ship. In 2023 for the first time since 1995 BW was only working on 1 project (DA:TV) & there was nobody working on ME5 or remasters or side projects at that time. Now that DA:TV has shipped, apart from some people on cleanup and final patches, there is no plans for DA:TV DLC and "there is only Mass Effect". "Everyone at BW will be working on Mass Effect."

DA:TV being a 'direct sequel' would have been an unlikely path

With BW now focusing on a single project, Mark Darrah does worry that EA will get "itchy"

It'll be a [long] while to DA5 [hypothetically speaking, if it gets made]

MELE involved a lot of external devs

Shadow Realms was BioWare Austin and was due to: "partially places for people, partially a desire for Austin to get something new."

Mark Darrah expects that the devs are hearing everything being said about DA:TV

BW focuses more on consoles because of sales numbers

Unreal Engine 5 (which ME5 is on) is moving onto other EA projects as well, which may help

There are reasons why DA:TV is the way it is

BW has had external consultants on leadership and structure over the years

Mark Darrah expects that the next Dragon Age will once again be pretty different to the last iteration

BW Austin were brought in to help make Anthem. "What didn't happen (that should have) is that they should have had more directional control over the live service direction."

BW has had difficulty learning from previous games because at least one title was too far along TO learn. but a single game leads to staffing issues

Mark Darrah pitched a dev structure back in 2016/17 which would have had "3 fast follow games then a period of retooling"

EA doesn't really sell IPs

Chance of DA:TV DLC? "That's an EA question. And I expect EA's answer to be no". "I don't think we will see DLC. A new DA would be in the future."

"DA has been looking for larger audiences in every iteration. EA has never understood the franchise"

Remake DA:O or ME1? "While I think it would do well, I don't expect it to happen at any time soon. Also the skillsets required don't really over lap"

"The 3 previous games DAVe was are leaking through in places"

Diagram from the video which shows the flow of people throughout BW's history, made by a member of Mark Darrah's community.

[source]

[bookwyrminspiration]

if I asked very nicely would you all be willing to take a one minute anonymous survey for my linguistics class. if the answer is yes, please click here. thanks :)

(sharing for a better response size would also be very appreciated)

[bayfuzzball7050]

Is this anything

[vervielle]

amedot but this is after they just had their first kiss or something

somebody run me over with a car bro I can't take them anymore PLEASE MAKE THEM CANON PLEASSSEEEE

Anyways

So like I've always thought about Amedots first kiss as like surprising to both of them

Peridot wants to try out something inspired by Camp Pining hearts (which is kissing) and so she did a bunch of research abt it asking people questions and whatnot, and while hanging out with ame one day she kind of just, out of impulse, kissed her (there was obviously build up but it doesn't rlly matter what build up ok this is all make pretendsies for me)

Amethyst ofc knows what this is and is kind of shocked Peridot is so straight forward (but tbh it's less consciously straight forward and more like I have no idea what I'm doing but I want to try it out and I dont know if what I did is bad from Peridots POV because yk she's new to like everything and kinda oblivious and very inexperienced when it comes to romance, at least in my headcanon she is very inexperienced compared to Amethyst ) and Peridot is kinda shocked she did it?? Like Peridot still doesn't fully have the hang of the subject/topic of kissing or even romantic affection in general but I love the idea that Amethyst helps her (even unknowingly) with her feelings since I headcanon/assume per hasn't had that much or actually never had romance at all because of it being such a taboo on home world. Anyways oh yeah and in my little world Amethyst flirts with Peridot a lot ok bye

[luxfuxxvii]

im like. so im trying to figure out just what Bilbo's internal conflict is like, and after reading the book and watching the movies, I've determined that it's a lot Took vs Baggins bullshit. Now what's confusing is that????????

When he's feeling Tookish, he is wide eyed and curious, asks a lot of questions, and works well under pressure; this is where we see his silver tongue. he is naive but he can bullshit his way around anything. hes far more accepting like this, open to new concepts and ideas and other things. like this, he is probably at his wisest.

But when he's feeling Bagginsish?????? hes?????? hes so fucking sassy??????? he's so concerned with propriety and manners that he like?????? just thinks everyone is stupid?????? and thinks everyone is saying things that are completely outrageous????? hes incredibly stubborn. like this, he is at his strongest. and this is also where we see him be an absolute bitch- a passive aggressive one, but a bitch all the same.

idk. im not sure if this is correct or not??? but this is how i differentiate them. I feel like the Tooks were a very wise family, very happy and free, good mediators. while the Bagginses were stubborn little fuckers who were incredibly strong willed and pessimistic beyond belief.

it literally said in the book that you would always know what a Baggins would say at any moment, which implies that a Baggins trait is being stubborn about beliefs and values and such. mind you, they were good values- but they were particularly vicious when it came to opinions.

idk i feel like it is this combination of traits that got him through the quest, and also helped him give up the ring. gotta be stubborn to deal with dwarves. gotta be open minded to get over the culture shock that comes with adventuring with dwarves. gotta be open minded and strong willed to give up the lure of the one ring.

i mean he was an oddity for this stuff, but overall i think its what saved him in the end.

[c7berz]

honestly the hardest part about writing joker and akechi isnt the half-mean, half-sincere, banter layered with double meaning that only the two of them really understand, it's dealing with futaba and haru and striking the balance between "futaba and haru are wrong for feeling slighted by akiren choosing to be close with akechi" and "akiren is wrong for being close with akechi in the first place".

the reason i say joker and akechi (just the two of them, platonically) rather than specifying shuake (specifically romantic) is because any fic about or even just showing their relationship is going to have to contend with this- joker and akechi are (or at least want to be) friends, despite yaldabaoth and shido and everything in the universe setting them up to be enemies.

they're foils to each other, so they have an understanding of the other no other characters have, despite them both having parallels with pretty much all the PTs, but that doesnt change the fact that akechi hurt a lot of people in ways that can never be fixed, and left them with pain that will never go away and while joker can choose to (and imo already has considering everything in third semester) forgive akechi for trying to kill him, specifically, he has no say over how futaba and haru grieve, and yeah if my friend was given a wish for anything in the world and he brought back the guy who killed one of my parents i'd be pretty mad!!

but again joker and akechi are foils- narrative parallels from the bottom up. their stories intersect and overlap in ways the PTs don't, which allows them to have an understanding of each other from the beginning that the PTs would likely take years to replicate. joker and akechi literally defied god and every force pulling them apart to still try to be friends, in the end.

and while joker loves his friends and he knows they love him back, and they support him and are there for him emotionally, theyre never really going to get him the same way that akechi does, and joker isn't wrong for wanting someone to fully understand him in the way he fully understands (or at the very least wants to fully understand) akechi !! and thats exactly what makes it so tricky- nobody here is really wrong, at least not 100%.

this is a conflict that can only really be resolved by having everyone come to a mutual understanding, but honestly that's the hardest part to write!! it's such a complex issue and i have no idea how to go about it lol

this is isn't to say shuake wouldn't work post-canon or anything, just word vomiting to see if that makes my struggle to write this any easier

[menna-mouse]

TADC Ep. 5 Spoilers!!!

GOOSE. GOOSE WHEN I CATCH YOU GOOSE. GOOSE WHEN I-

[tolbyccia]

my three of thems, for the occassion 💕

[rhysska]

Woe, older domestic timber upon ye

Anyway this is entirely indulgent. Every aspect of this is for me I fear. Vaguely canon mostly my personal hcs

Also wanted to play around with half tones. Idk how I feel abt that

Colour! Sort of. Slapped a gradient on there

[insomniacmiss]

GOODBYE, YOU

As a Joe Goldberg fan, I have to speak up about the end of the last season... And no I am not a romanticizing him. Also, I prefer the book version Joe because he is raw and not a watered down version, giving him 'redeemable characteristics'. The first book of 'You' is the one and only you need to read to understand who he really is. Keep seeing people in the comments saying, "Hate book Joe Goldberg because he's creepy and or disgusting compared to the show on Netflix." Hmm, how do I tell you this..? Book Joe is the first and real version of Joe. Netflix show Joe is just a watered down version of him, trying to make him somehow likable because, let's be real, if Joe was not likable, you clearly wouldn't want to watch the show.

With that said; there will be huge spoilers for the Netflix show plus the book(s). If you don't want to be spoiled, don't read this post.

Let's start from the beginning because most fans, or rather 'viewers', forget what the show/books are actually about. The show/books are narrated from the perspective of Joe Goldberg, who at the start was a bookseller with a traumatic childhood. His mom and him were beaten by her various boyfriends and Joe shot her current boyfriend to save his mother. Instead of living with her son in peace, she abandoned him to start a new life/family. The Netflix show wasn't going really deep into his childhood (trauma). However, the book(s) gave us a bit more information about his mother and their toxic relationship dynamic. His mother would drop him off or as Joe said 'dump' him at Key Foods. She would tell him they were playing hide-and-seek but he knew they weren't. Joe would play along. Everyone knew about it but no one called the cops. His mother would then return and slap him hard on the face and scream at him to not 'run away' or pull 'that shit' again. He promised to be a good boy. This was explained in the book 'Hidden Bodies'. His mom wasn't abusive towards Joe in the show. At least I couldn't find anything about his mom slapping him. That's a big difference, in my opinion. His mother was more of a victim in the show who was trying to protect her son while she slapped him hard on the face in the book, pretending Joe ran away when she clearly dumped her son. It wasn't a secret, everybody knew, but she still decided to slap Joe and play this charade. And the fact she slapped him hard told me everything I had to know about his mom. I firmly believe that in the books his mom was abusive towards Joe. You have to read the books thoroughly because he would drop vital information about his past every now and then. Some of Joe's stories are lies that he presents to the reader in order to manipulate you, yes, you.

Sometimes he tells the truth;

I believe him when he tells us his mother dumped him at Key Foods and later slapped him hard and screamed at him, pretending he ran away.

and sometimes he lies;

I do not believe Joe when he tells us he was not the one trying to force himself on his classmate in 4th grade but she was the one who tried to take his virginity.

And yes, there exists a scene in the first book that mentions it. In the end, Joe was the one sent to the psychologist, to the dean's office, and to the counselor where Joe had to show on a 'show-me-who-touched-you-where' doll where he touched her.

Why don't I believe him that he's innocent? Various reasons: I'm aware that Joe is the unreliable narrator. I'm also aware that Joe likes to be honest occasionally so that it's easier for him to feed us lies later on. Very powerful manipulation tactic, by the way... I mean, lying to you, but sprinkling in truths from time to time so that you believe me or can't even tell the difference between lies and truths is powerful. I'm also aware he likes to play the victim all the time. When Beck found his box with her bloody tampon and other stuff in it, Joe tried to blame Beck. It's her own fault she found his box with her stuff in it because she snooped around, she's crazy, it's her pms, she's unhinged, a wild animal. He doesn't see anything wrong with stealing her stuff and keeping it in a box. Because Beck belongs to him, she's just an object. I'm also aware that Joe can and probably would rape a woman. Big words, I know, shocking even! How dare I say such a bad thing? Well, the real Joe Goldberg (book Joe Goldberg) is literally spitting this information right into your face. In the second book 'Hidden Bodies' Joe is falling in 'love' with Love but also tracking down Amy (short summary: after she stole a huge cache of valuable rare books, he tries to track her down.) In one scene Joe's engaging in a conversation with Forty. Both talk about scripts and Joe had written down some of his disturbing fantasies. In one of these fantasies, he catches Amy before she was able to steal his books and flee the shop, keeping her locked up in his cage, using her as a slave. What kind of slave? Sex slave, of course. Because that's the only slave Joe Goldberg wants to keep in his cage. And I don't know about you but I don't think Amy would be overjoyed and consent to that. And if you try to tell me it's just a fantasy, he literally killed Beck because she didn't want to be with him. He also talked about how he could give it to Beck right now even though she was screaming/crying for help. And after Beck managed to ran out of his cage and upstairs, trying to escape through the front door (door was locked!) Joe wrapped his arms around her and pulled her behind the counter. He kissed her neck while she was hitting and scratching him in order for him to let her go. He did stop but kept talking about how she was his broken doll. Joe doesn't give a fuck about consent, he pretends he does. There is also no empathy on his side. Sorry, but, "I could give it to you right now but you have to scream and cry!?" doesn't sound empathetic to me. She's scared, she doesn't want to be there.

The name of the girl in 4th grade is Maureen Grady, her nickname 'Mo'. People called her 'Ho Mo', not funny. Maureen was Joe's crush back then, he describes Maureen in the book as gruff, an odd misfit. They were on a trip with the class, touring the deck of a tall ship, it was according to Joe 'boring' so they ditched the tour and broke into the off-limits hull. According to Joe, Maureen told him she would 'steal his virginity', he then punched her in the face, escaped and told the teachers. Joe also added that Mo's the fucked-up now; a twice-divorced paralegal with a profile on OkCupid and a Pomeranian named Gosling, obviously she'll be alone forever. But after telling us that he then says, he prefers to live in the moment, like it's no big deal. All of that appears weird to me. I mean, Joe obviously stalks her, after years, keeping tabs on Maureen. He also dances around the topic, keeping it vague. Joe never really tells us the whole story. And he never straight up says that he is innocent, that he didn't touch her. And Joe never claims that she did touch him. You know who else dances around a topic..? Liars.

You have to try to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Don't let Joe manipulate you.

The book(s) do a very good job in displaying how misogynistic Joe really is. He keeps talking about tits and pussy and sex, objectifying women every second. Joe does not want love or connection, he wants control, sex.

They toned it down for Netflix but that's no excuse for you to say, "I didn't know!" Joe still objectifies them but not in the same way book Joe does. You actually have to use your brain, shocking. You don't even need a high IQ to understand the message.

This is why the ending of the show was so perfect. People who still didn't understand the point of the show were called out.

MAYBE THE PROBLEM ISN'T ME. MAYBE... IT'S YOU.

Pointing directly at you, calling you out.

"They nerfed Joe!" - "Bad ending!" - "We're women ahh!" - "Feminist ending!" - "They went woke!"

Breaking news: Joe Goldberg was written by a... WOMAN, outrageous, I know! Joe is the bitch/slut/whore of a WOMAN, he belongs to a WOMAN, whoa!

"Come on, it's just a show/fiction, why do they have to lock him up? And not give him a happy ending?" Maybe because both the books and the show are written/produced in a way to criticize a lot that happens in real life. Misogyny, anti-vaccine, forgiving or romanticizing a murderer because of his childhood (trauma.) I enjoyed 'You' because it was talking about real life problems in the fictional world. Why is his name Joe and not Steve? Because of the idiom; 'average Joe'. Both the show and the books want to tell us that someone like Joe exists in real life and he's not the huge, intimidating guy who grabs you, screams at you and threatens you. He could be the sweet bookseller, your employee, your neighbor, your professor or your boss. Joe could be anyone and you wouldn't notice it because he's gentle, he's kind, he's supportive, he 'loves' you in a way no one else has loved you before (or could love you...) 'You' is filled with a lot of messages for us. It's not just a show for fun, it never was supposed to be. If you don't like messages in shows, don't watch 'You'. Not every piece of media is just a silly, little fictional story with no real meaning behind it. And that's okay. 'You' was made for the people who love to see real life getting dissected in a fictional world. And it's not just a silly, little story for you to enjoy. It's a confrontation, showing you what's wrong with the real world.

Joe Goldberg NEVER was a good person, he was just able to fool his victims. Yes, he was also a victim back in his childhood. Yes, he has mommy issues. And yes, Joe has huge abandonment issues. But nothing, NOTHING, that happened to him justifies his disgusting behavior. Joe's just recreating what his mother and him had, over and over again. Joe will never find the destined 'you' because she doesn't exist. All Joe does is projecting, manipulating and claiming. "I did this for YOU so YOU belong to me." Book Joe also loved calling Beck a whore/slut/dirty and no, not in the bedroom. Joe wants to degrade her in his mind, to feel superior. Joe also hates taller girls, he's an insecure man. He doesn't need love or a relationship, Joe needs a lot of therapy and jail (which he got, finally.)

"But why did they have to make a joke out of him? She shot him in the dick!" Joe always was a joke. He lasted 8 seconds in the first season. They started it with a dick joke and they ended it with one; it's perfection. Full circle.

I mean, I get the whole complaining about Bronte and Kate surviving but in the end it was their decision to end the show this way. Is it realistic? No. But if you can ask that, then, please, also ask yourself whether it is realistic for an 'average Joe' to manage to kill that many innocent people without being caught. The answer is; no.

Conclusion: The show may be fictional but the topics/subjects addressed are part of our reality. It is an appeal to our society.

[shimada-death]

Lisa is a pretty curious character to me because in Paranatural there are 2 very separated worlds: the adult world and the child world.

The child world is where most of the story happens, the activity club, the school store, the hitball game, the bully antics..... silly things that seem extremely serious to the kids.

The adult world is the shadows, the glooming apocalypse and the prelude to the near doom of the town. Both worlds coexist but the adults are constantly hiding the harsh reality to the kids.

This is where Lisa comes in, she's the kid who has seen too much, who knows too much, she's the ""adult"" to Violet in that sense. And she's making the same mistakes as the adults in the story by hiding important information and overprotecting her, because now she will try to find her own answers while also losing her faith on her.