#wHY??? it’s not like the spell existing is retconned so WHY bitch WHY

[ziracona]

How getting to DAI right after DAO -> DA2 felt.

[missnight0wl]

Y7Ch57: The Final “Battle”

*sigh*

Ok, let’s talk about this disaster.

Ah, yes. Because everyone knows that as soon as Dumbledore is not at Hogwarts, the faculty becomes totally incapable of doing anything – including people like Minerva Badass McGonagall or Filius Former-Duelling-Champion Flitwick. Yes, of course.

Funny that you say that, Jae. I’ll actually come back to it a little later.

You know what? No. Rowan would cry at least for a week straight if they knew how fucking stupid everyone is at this point.

All right, that might be my biggest problem with this whole “battle” because… WHY?? Why do we even care whether or not they get to Hogwarts? Minnie alone would kick their asses in under a minute – and quite frankly, I’d love to see it. Just let them through!

WHY THE FUCK DO WE CARE?!

Ok, so it’s never really explained who’s exactly Perry’s target here. Sure, we’re told it’s about an adult Legilimens, and MC deduced that both Dumbledore and Snape are adult Legilmenses. Still, it’s never addressed directly again, and it kinda bothers me. But whatever, I guess. Apparently, we’re supposed to assume that it’s indeed Snape who’s Perry’s target. But like… if there’s anyone at Hogwarts fully capable of defending themselves... IT’S SNAPE. Like… just imagine this encounter.

Perry: Severus Snape? I have a proposition for you that--

Snape: *lazily waves his wand*

Perry: *flies over the Black Lake, slightly smoking because of the impact of Snape’s spell that hit him*

Or…

Perry: Severus Snape? I’m Peregrine Lastname, I’m the father of MC and Jacob. I--

Snape: Sectumsempra!

Perry: AAAAAAAAAA!

Snape: I suffered years because of your two spawns.

Perry: Help! I’m bleeding out!

Snape: Yes, that’s a very accurate description of my suffering.

Seriously, why do we care?! I swear, this fucking “battle” has no stakes whatsoever, and I just don’t understand why it even exists.

Another absurd: why the fuck Verucca wants to kill Peregrine?

Ok, so at least it’s clear that Verucca is indeed a Snyde because apparently, all the Snydes are stupid bitches. If Verucca thought just for a moment, she’d realise that the Ministry focusing on Peregrine meant they’re focusing less on her. And that means she can do whatever she wants more freely. But whatever, I guess.

And here’s another stupidity. If Verucca wants to lead R, all she has to do is to convince other members that Perry is insane and that she’d be better for the whole organisation. Like, it should be super easy after he fucked up with the recent mind control test. And who fucking cares that he ruined R’s name or whatever? Rebel people against Perry, lay low for some time, change the name of the organisation, and enjoy your fucking profit! What would Perry do when left alone??

Because I’m gonna do it myself!

A friendly reminder that Verucca is also Merula’s mother’s sister (according to Y5Ch28) which means it’s quite likely Merula’s parents are cousins – which is not rare among pureblood families, after all :)

I know, it’s really disappointing.

Also, the Circle of Khanna behind us, especially Ben and Corey (and especially if you chose to ban Merula from the Circle a couple of chapters ago):

No, really, it’s just… so pathetic, considering that the vast majority of the Circle never cared about Merula and Merula never cared about them.

I… I’m…

HOW EVERYTHING ABOUT IT IS SO BAD??

Also, WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS FIRE?!?!?! How anyone at JC looked at this and was like: “Yeah, that’s good enough”?! I swear we had dragon fire animations before better than this abomination…

Ok, but Ben’s utter disappointment in this scene is the only good thing in this damn chapter. I can even say I actually enjoyed it.

I mean… Yeah, there were 17 of you and 7 of them, so… By the way, I talked more more about the fighting alone in this post.

Ok, but does anyone remember that R is supposed to be an international organisation? Was it simply retconned or are we supposed to believe that an international organisation has like… 14 members? Am I counting it correctly? Perry, 7 idiots he brought with him, Verucca, Merula, Shiratori, Burke, Zenith Xeep, and Rakepick. Right?

I don’t know how it’s possible, but this whole situation gets more and more pathetic the more I think about it.

Also, I mentioned in the post linked above that I felt more threatened by Mrs Norris in Y1. But you know what else had more tension than this damn “battle”? Our very first trip to Knockturn Alley. Remember this?

Now, let’s compare those situations.

Honestly, it’s just so upsetting that this game used to be created by people who actually could create tension for one simple event that doesn’t even matter that much in the great picture, and now we’re getting… THIS. The final “battle” with R had literally no stakes. There was no logic and therefore also no threats. I felt absolutely nothing, and I’m truly baffled remembering how many emotions this story could give me back in Y5.

Unfortunately, it all changed with the extremely stupid end of Y5, and it was getting only worse ever since. It’s like JC’s greatest ambition is making things worse than Y5Ch31 was.

But let’s move on because I’m not done.

MC’s reaction is about as emotional as I felt during this whole chapter. It’s just hilarious, sorry not sorry.

Ok, so at first, I wanted to leave this part because JC clearly doesn’t know what they’re doing anymore. But you know what? I’m gonna rant. Because no, Rowan’s sacrifice was not honoured. And quite frankly, you keep desecrating it by still using it at this point.

Learning the truth was something very important for Rowan. I mean, this is our conversation from the end of Y1:

By the end of Y7, I’m pretty sure we didn’t solve a single mystery of the story. And what’s the worst is that we didn’t solve the mystery of Rowan’s death. Sure, Peregrine told us that Rakepick went rogue or whatever. But it still makes no fucking sense.

First of all, only an idiot would believe in anything Peregrine says. But more importantly, we actually know about things suggesting that Peregrine lies. In the insane route, Rakepick in Azkaban is absolutely terrified of R, so how she’d go rogue if that’s the case? On top of that, we saw in Olivia’s memories that Rakepick talked with someone from R about Duncan brewing his potion. Yet, Peregrine claimed that R didn’t get involved with the Cursed Vaults until Jacob went missing. You know what it means? It means that Perry fucking lied. And if he lied about something this important, why should we believe him about anything else?

Moreover, we still don’t know why Rowan died. Rakepick told us in Azkaban that it wasn’t Rowan who was supposed to die that night. Then who? Ben? Why? Sure, Rakepick herself claimed in the Forest that she wanted to kill MC. And sure, you can say it makes sense if she saw MC as her competition – except it makes no sense! Why? Because it only made things harder for her. And the game even addressed that!

Why would Rakepick make things so much harder for herself just to get rid of her competition? Especially since she should’ve known where the Sunken Vault is because we know that R was there before (thanks to the note from the Weird Sisters TLSQ). But even if she didn’t know… it still would be more reasonable to not draw attention to herself and simply use it to work on getting to the Vault before MC.

You didn’t honour Rowan’s sacrifice. You ignored about 95% of things that ever happened in the game.

[theskyexists]

Played the Hogwarts game via my brother via a friend of my brother's who bought it (idiot)...... It is........ Hm. The dialogue in it is terrible. That is to say, lifeless, often pointless. Fig keeps talking over you the first hour which is not really endearing. The pandering is kinda irksome (headmaster black, professor weasely). The games copy all of the movies mistakes, including giving the students and teachers etc. trousers and skirts and blouses instead of GOWNS. Hogwarts is so so so quiet. And kinda.....weirdly....marbled? So far. The nice goblin is indeed less hook-nosed. The Goblins are evil for no stated reason yet. They just...are? The evil goblin obviously has a classic lower class accent or whatever. THUG GOBLIN. Absolutely insane writing choice to have Miriam (Jewish name?) be prof figs WIFE who DIED only MONTHS AGO, and have fig respond with zero emotion to a message from her that wasn't sent to him in the first place nor any response to a good friend's death right in front of him (who was said to be a good apparator two minutes ago but doesn't apparate away from a dragons mouth), murdered presumably by the same people. Why are there 40 students in the whole great hall. There's a good progression of spell learning so far, but extremely railroaded first two hours of walking with some NPC at snails pace. Wayyyy too many things to collect, too overwhelming. Collecting is as simple as walking by and casting a spell so far - bland. So many obvious thing in the castle so far that I simply don't have access to yet. annoying. The combat is extremely simple. This is almost a-blind-dog-clicking-could-beat-this Lego Harry Potter game level. No IDEA nor any INDICATION why main character is transferring in in fifth year having never studied magic before. There isn't even any game mechanic reason for this, nor in-story. There is no memorable soundtrack, which is impressive (derogatory) for a Harry Potter game. There also generally IS NO music. Weird.

Positive: all the character options are pretty and feature a quite diverse range of (ethnic) features which are easily mixed and matched (though skewed). another negative: Dont know how I ended up in a skirt though, I guess the character creation railroads you into certain costume through the pre-sets. Despite being able to select voices and wizard/witch status independently. Even though lots of girl NPC's have trousers. Ironically some letter by some professor implies sexism doesn't actually exist in the magical world - only in Muggle world. A fine fantasy if I didn't know about the irony of it all....also quite a retcon. And a double edges sword about SUPERIOR witches/wizards.

I like doing tasks and so I WAS sucked into the very simple doing tasks game loop. Exploring isn't really very fun tbh.... There aren't really secret passages so far? There isn't any platforming... Peeves looks solid and not like a ghost? The castle is populated but not exactly bustling. Not quite lifeless but so damn chill does anybody go to classes?

The fantasy this game presents is being a magical prodigy for no discernible reason and acing all classes, competitions, duels etc. Literally, pleasure to have in class, sir. That is the protagonist's only character trait: teacher's pet and optionally: arrogant lil shit. I actually chose my characters face for its neutral bitch face, but the game kept forcing her to smile in the starter cut scenes.

Where's quidditch wtf. It's not SO hard to make an avatar fly and make the player awkwardly catch a ball in mid-air. Anyway. It looks good. It just doesn't.....feel like Hogwarts much. Not exactly magical. Maybe I've outgrown it completely to the depths of my heart. Maybe every further iteration of this stretched-thin franchise's products only gets worse. Maybe Rowling's undeniable sense for what appeals to the imagination is missing. Maybe if I didnt know where this is going i could simply enjoy doing my tasks, and the so far clunky, stupid but 'fine' to mediocre experience. Or maybe it just sucks.

[dragonflyxparodies]

okay so i have finished all three winx movies and seasons 1-5 (i’ve started season 6).

Season one is Best Season. Holds up super well as a twenty-something rewatching a massive part of my childhood. It’s The Labyrinth tier of Good. Trix are best villains here. Icy spends the whole season flirting with Bloom. 10/10.

Season two is p good, I’m only side-eyeing it because I distinctly remember Darkar as a villain, and it turns out only because this is the season with Hot Bloom, and shes not even there for that long and also Darkar is just. so cringe. layla/aisha is fucking incredible though, 9/10.

season three is uh, Fine. I absolutely hate valtor. I grew up on the Labyrinth, and if Darkar made me cringe just bc he was like, campy??? Valtor made me cringe because he was a fucking try-hard, and I’m still laughing over it. Objectively more threatening villain; the creators just wanted to fuck him too much for him to be Good though. It’s just knock-off Gareth who appears w/his own little guitar riff. also also hate the trix being petty bitches and fighting each other for a dude who is so transparently manipulating them, they deserved to literally rip him limb from limb and go about stealing all the other planets’ magic on their own.

Season four was ass. First twenty episodes aren’t even worth existing. Great concepts, they just waste so much time on the winx and their respective partners cheating on each other and hammering in that you can’t possibly have a platonic relationship w/someone of the opposite sex once you’re in a relationship, and that’s Toxic AF. Roxy as a character was pretty good though?? I just hate that they didn’t give her anything unique. She’s a straight up copy of Bloom as far as her arcs go, down to her exact fucking backstory?? And that’s ass for her. She was pretty well fleshed out as a character, and Deserved Better, especially because the winx spend the whole season alternately lecturing and infantilizing her. They coulda done a lot of interesting shit this season, basically, and didn’t. OH. Tecna gets kudos bc in ep 1 she’s ready to full on straight up murder a small child for hurting flora on accident and I approve of Tecna going apeshit in any situation, so, they did good there.

Season five was very meh. very forgettable. It exists solely to establish Icy is a monsterfucker lmfao. also, layla/aisha can’t catch a fucking break, did the winx just not tell anyone she went straight to murder when Nabu died, bc why the hell else would Trittanus (sp?) have straight up promised to murder her entire family and then been shocked when she immediately tried to stab him. I think it’s fucking hilarious that S4 went through so much trouble to avoid giving the girls violent spells (idk if y’all picked up on that - layla/aisha is the only one who got violent spells) only for this season to just give them a whole arsenal of “X punch/kick/stab/etc” spells lol. also also also trittanus himself, what the fuck, literally every single one of his family members, subjects, and People Who Know Him do nothing but talk shit about him and you’re *surprised* he tried to kill y’all??? 3d animation was ass, the selkies were horrifying to look at, also Trittanus seemed to straight up absorb pollution on earth so what the fuck was the problem??? like he created more to beget more pollutants/toxins in ONE episode, but the rest of it, he straight up just took them and left?? so like. no. let him go to town. and then deal w/him later. also the winx turning an oil rig into an oil right that’s run on solar/wind power had me fucking cackling like. oh my fucking god. most capitalist Thing ever i stg lmfao.

AND. The movies. Were. Uh. Third one was dumb af. But the first two were pretty decent. I actually hate the concept of bringing Sparks/Domino back with all its people and royalty just. fine and alive and all? probably why i like the second one better lol. i like the “Eraklyon was supposed to protect Sparks/Domino and betrayed them” thing, that’s p cool. Also Bloom and Daphne having a consistent and v close sibling bond is adorable, even if they didn’t actually work for it in the show, i can buy it Just Being Like That.

So far I don’t really have any thoughts about S6 except uh, they def straight up retconned daphne also being a fairy of the dragon flame, right? right. i don’t like how they’ve so drastically weakened her just so the winx can be the ~heroes~ of the series or whatnot.

idk i have more to say but i have shit i’m supposed to be doing

[darkpoisonouslove]

Winx Club Season 5 Thoughts Part 1

It’s been so hard for me to make myself start this season because I know it only goes downhill from here but here I am at last. I don’t remember anything from this season and am prepared to hate the transformations (Harmonix because it’s impractical and Sirenix because it’s ugly) so let’s do this.

- I already hate the hair and I haven’t made it past the intro yet. This is promising.

- This is off to a great start. I got the wrong episode. Not by my mistake, however. Now that I found the actual first one, let’s actually do this.

5x01:

- It’s weird to see magic so publicly on Earth. At least they’re having fun. Though, I have to say that I am not a fan of the idea of them having a band. And they have unfair advantage over every other Earth band because they can do their own advertizing without having to pay a cent and it will still be better than any other band can afford since it’s magic. They should have just dropped the band.

- I am gagging over the fact that they have Roxy praise Bloom for the help but not the other Winx girls. They were all there for her and fought to protect her and tried to teach her magic. And at one point she even said she wanted to be like Stella. But now she says that only Bloom is like a big sister. Obviously a plot device to bring in Daphne since she will be resurrected this season and they have to set it up. Especially after season 4 forgot all about her. I am still gagging, though.

- You know, I could have loved the whole ecological message but I am pretty sure they are going to fuck it up anyway. Or just not take it anywhere.

- Ugh, Helia’s hair is so ugly. But at least Sky’s is as well. But what is that box Sky has? Not another engagement ring, please, for the love of everything sacred!

- Ahh, pendant. Yeah, their relationship is going so well that they will need magic to keep it in tact. Though, good luck for both of them will be to just split up and find someone that is actually good for them. Also, why doesn’t Brandon know about that? He is literally the squire and best friend of the prince.

- Poor Layla. She must be missing Nabu like crazy. Please, let her have a season to mourn and don’t shove a new love interest in her face right away. It took her a season and a half to get the first one and he was killed. She needs some fucking time!

- Love that everyone agrees that Sky’s hair is terrible. Even Bloom’s “It looks... great” sounds like a lie.

- Why is Sky going back to Red Fountain? Didn’t he finish that? God, just let them move on already. Also, he is not A Crown Prince now. He was the Crown Prince ever since he was born. He was crowned as the king of Eraklyon. Man, are they retconning everything?

- If Bloom cared so much about what he had to say, she could have asked Musa to give them a sec. I like the little Flora and Sky interaction, though. If only it could have been on a topic different than Bloom. I wish the Specialists would interact with Winx other than their girlfriends more. It would sell the friend group vibe better.

- Aww, I wish Layla wouldn’t hide her pain over Nabu. She probably doesn’t want to affect the others with it and doesn’t want them fretting over her either but this is just so sad.

- Love how Bloom doesn’t even remember Tressa. For a moment there I thought that it was her getting crowned which would have been cooler but yeah. Also, Nereus and Tritannus are almost identical. What the hell makes Nereus hot and Tritannus not? I am so annoyed I started rhyming.

- I love the idea of underwater tech!

- Lmao, gotta love how the king has already picked a favorite. And it doesn’t seem to be a recent choice either. Idk about Tritannus yet, but I don’t like this guy. I am all for him being attacked. He even reacted like an absolute asshole. He reminds me of Erendor.

- Ah, of course. Trident. We couldn’t possibly have another weapon when it comes to merfolk.

- Tbh Tressa would be the best ruler. She seems to have learned her lesson and become braver. And if she’s protecting her brother and doing all the work anyway, why not just crown her?

- Didn’t Flora tell him to wait until he is alone with Bloom? Why did he think a good moment to give her the pendant would be when Layla is visibly worried about what is going on and everyone is there with them? I wish he’d drop it and it would break.

- How the fuck can Flora tell that there is oil spilling into the ocean? The ocean is Layla’s domain and Flora has never been shown to be able to communicate with marine plant life.

- I hate how they had to show that Timmy is obviously physically weaker than Sky. It would’ve made sense for him to had built some muscle at the very least after 4-5 years in Red Fountain.

- How the hell did Tecna delete the oil? You can’t just erase matter out of existence. There should be a rule against that.

- Yeah, I was just going to say that closing the pipes is not going to work if they don’t stop the flow of oil. The pipes might explode but it will keep spilling. Seriously, this is basic logic. Nice move. Now it will be harder to stop because the spill moved underwater.

- What happened to Layla’s wings? Is the oil sticking to them and hindering their movements? You’d think she could prevent that with magic.

- This is what happens when you carelessly put something so important in your pocket. You don’t even need to be running a rescue mission. There’s a high chance that you’re gonna lose it anyway. Also, love how Bloom just left the other guy to drown and no one else went after him either.

- Layla’s awesome. She even managed to pull that guy out even though she was struggling a lot with it. I hate the fact that they forgot she taught the others a spell to breathe underwater in season 3, though. They could have used it. But of course, that would have probably rendered Harmonix unnecessary.

- Wow, they renovated the whole platform to make it eco? Why don’t they just do that with all of the oil platforms on Earth then? It’s not like it took much effort. I want to add to this that if they’d just done that (which probably would have taken a couple of days), they could have easily defeated Tritannus later because his only source of pollution in the first half of the season has been Earth. Because there is ocean pollution only on Earth, you know. They could have used that to incorporate an ecological message, except that would have taken work on their part. And also, most of the toxic substances Tritannus consumed were spilled on purpose by the Trix. So there goes a great wasted opportunity for a thematic message.

5x02:

- Here are my bad bitches. What the hell are they doing underwater, though? It’s kinda cruel to put them in a prison that forces them to use magic if they want to survive it. What happens if they tire out? They could die,

- Aaaand for some reason Bloom is the vocalist of the band even though Musa is literally the fairy of music and the only one that was initially having a contract signed.

- I hope nobody is expecting any commentary from me on the musical performances because I am telling you from now that I will be skipping absolutely all of them.

- The selkies look ridiculous. I could appreciate the idea of having small beings being powerful guardians but they will certainly not serve any greater purpose than the pixies did so this is going to be annoying at best. Also, the selkie of Earth was still there even when the fairies weren’t, right? This somehow implies that magical beings couldn’t stop the disasters that mankind causes to Earth even though the previous season said that it was the disappearance of fairies that threw the Earth into chaos.

- Aww, look at Stella and Brandon! So good when there’s no stupid drama.

- People really went cleaning the beach not just willingly but enthusiastically? That sounds a little unbelievable. I mean, they were supposed to be at a concert and that was an abrupt change.

- Correction, I wish Sky hadn’t lost the pendant so that he could have given it to her and this would have been over. Now he is going to sulk about it for ages and he is probably going to fuck up in a self-fulfilled prophecy kinda manner and I am so not here for it. Just shut up about Bloom and Sky and focus on the action, please.

- Well, Icy is now canonically a monster fucker. Even though she thought Valtor was ugly as hell in season 3 when he turned into a demon. He was uglier than Tritanus in all fairness but still. This seems inconsistent. And I hate her voice. Not to mention that she is already acting OOC when she’s not thinking about getting out even but about fucking him. Come on!

- Is the whole turning into a monster thing some sort of reverse Beauty and the Beast? That could have been interesting... but, of course, this is Winx.

- Yep, the selkies are absolutely useless.

- If the Trix don’t have powers, then how are they breathing underwater? Also, how does toxic waste restore ice and storm powers (there is some connection to darkness at least)? And if they went that route, they could have made their powers have an element of toxicity to them to make it more interesting instead of just having a guy boost their powers yet again. Honestly, the only good thing that came out of this is that Darcy and Stormy seem to be thinking more independently now which would be necessary in order for the DramaTM between the Trix later (that is just about the only thing I remember from this season).

- I wish Darcy would have used her hypnotic powers more in the previous seasons. They are so cool and would be pretty hard to deal with once you’re hit. It could have made for more interesting fights.

- If Tritannus was good, he could actually help cleanse the oceans by sucking out all toxic waste. He likes being a monster anyway.

- Okay, but the Trix know Bloom is from Earth. They should have known it was Winx from the second they felt the fairy magic in the air. That took them long enough btw.

- Of course, the monsters can also go on land even though they are mer-creatures. Makes perfect sense.

- Love how Musa and Flora are using new spells yet they look and act exactly the same way like the old ones so it is just same shit, different story. The writers are so unoriginal.

- Layla is strong! And Winx seem to be a little too strong against the Trix. Although, Believix is supposed to be really powerful anyway.

- This could have been the perfect setup for an Icy x Bloom romance. Sky lost the pendant so his relationship with Bloom is doomed and he later lost his memory so why not just break them up. Diaspro can have him if she still wants him (I don’t know why she would but anyway) and Bloom can get with Icy after Icy realizes Tritannus is not the right one for her. Everyone wins, especially, us, the audience. And it could have been a good way to show that Diaspro has reformed and she and Sky could actually be an okay couple. Or better yet, she dumps him and gets together with Bloom and Icy.

- Layla just kicked Tritanus in the face. Boy, I stan! And the underwater battle with weapons instead of magic is super cool, I love it! Wish there’d been more of that but, of course, only Layla can pull that off and we can’t spend more than a minute focusing on anyone else other than Bloom. Why didn’t Tritannus recognize Layla, though? Or did he just not care?

- Icy crying out for help? By a man? So not here for this. It is ridiculously out of character. How is he so powerful? Once again the villain is so strong it is a wonder they ever got to live long enough to get to the finale let alone defeat him.

5x03:

- Well, Winx sure are at the top of the popularity wave again despite the last time we saw them at Alfea being very different. Also, why is it the beginning of another school year yet again? Honestly, I am so sick of all of this.

- Sky is seriously annoying me with that stupid pendant and he is also the one that is fucking up their relationship with his stupid behavior. He should just focus on being a good boyfriend and do the best he can. I get it that in a world of magic superstitions probably have more merit, but he still has control over his own life and the choices he makes. He can “save” their relationship despite the omen of doom.

- Ugh, don’t tell me there will be Helia and Flora drama in this season to compensate for the lack of such in the last? Why did he only introduce Flora as his friend and not as his girlfriend? And how is he so close with the princess of Linphea? Is he from Linphea as well?

- I agree with Stella. Just when we all thought they were done, they started making even more transformations.

- I don’t think we’ve seen Daphne be anything but calm but it’s understandable when she is talking about the thing that made her a disembodied spirit. Still it feels weird to see her not believe that Bloom can handle whatever comes her way. Especially after the defeat of the Ancestral Witches. I guess that is what bugs me in this scene.

- Wow, Darcy admitted that Winx are stronger than them and neither Icy, nor Stormy protested? It’s good that they’re self-aware. It just seems a little OOC. And another power up in two consecutive episodes? Seriously? Will they ever get anything done on their own again?

- At least Sky is asking for advice. I am surprised that they are letting him interact with Flora yet again but I actually kinda like it.

- Why are they all gasping in surprise. They have been to the archive already when Bloom stole the Codex in season 2. It is the same room; they have seen it. Get over it already.

(- *sigh* I just lost my thoughts on half the episode. This season is not agreeing with me.)

- Flora was acting weird while Crystal was helping Helia. It was kind of like she was mad it was Crystal who could save him and not her and that is weird for Flora. I think she would have just been grateful he was saved.

- I suffer when the books suffer... and they did suffer a lot in this episode. Also, how come Stormy is creating life again? This still doesn’t make sense to me but compared to other things, it is more minor.

- I love Darcy’s hypnotic powers and the fact that she was using them on Stella. I think I might be starting to seriously consider this ship (as opposed to just entertaining the possibility of a cool dynamic between them). I mean, Stella looked like she’s seen the hottest new fashion collection and I know it was the magic but still. I kinda want a Darcy who is on her own (without her sisters) and manipulating/spelling Stella into being with her so that she could make place for herself in the Solarian court. And then she falls in love, of course.

- Just please tell me Sky won’t be without his memories for the rest of the season because that will just be too annoying. If they are going for drama, it would be good to at least make it relevant instead of shoving it in there by the ton for the sake of it.

5x04:

- Since when is the whole school so invested in Bloom? They weren’t when she was actually there and even though Winx are kind of legends now, you can bet your ass that there were still fairies that don’t like them. Not to mention that they shouldn’t all know what the hell happened when no one was there to witness it. Why would they let the whole school know if Erendor doesn’t even know yet?

- You are seriously telling me that Stella hadn’t considered being a fashion designer before? Really????? She literally spent her summer after season 1 as an intern for a fashion magazine and has been designing clothes since about the same time. This is just too dumb for words.

- Love how adorably awkward Timmy is. And I love that Tecna doesn’t mind at all. They are just too cute together!

- Ooh, tension between the Trix. That is interesting. Or at least would have been if it were focused more on the power balance in their own dynamic rather than on hate vs love for Tritannus. Why does everything have to be about guys?

- At least Flora seems to like Crystal now which is cool. But I cannot express how annoyed I am by the fact that the whole thing with the pendant is preventing him from getting his memories back. And the stupid thing is that this actually has potential. Losing the pendant could be the peak of Sky’s guilt towards Bloom for all the pain he’s caused her (about Diaspro and not only) and that could be very interesting to explore but this show will never go that deep. It’ll just remain as wasted potential. Just like everything else is.

- Okay, why does no one ever start with amnesia patients by asking them how they would like to go about things, how they feel? Stuff like that.

- Tecna really turned into a robot. Again, no fucking magical system to explain how you can turn a human into a robot. Plus, this could be interesting as well and also really deep but, again, this is Winx. It is not going to be deep. Even though they could have done so much with that premise and given Tecna a really cool arc.

- Ah, yes, I forgot to mention this while I was on the previous episode. I am done with Neptune being so dismissive and even aggressive against his other son. Like, maybe if you had tried some parenting, none of this would have come to pass. Just a thought. I am not saying that parents can prevent any bad choices their kids make but I am saying that he doesn’t look like he tried too hard to be a good dad. Nereus only turned out okay because they are twins and one of them has to be good while the other is evil. I am glad at least someone is trying to reach Tritannus even if he is beyond saving.

- Oh, off, Tritanus is not messing around. You know what? I actually like that. It was about time they made the villains as ruthless as they are trying to make them out to be. Even if I feel bad for his family because they just wanted to help him.

- Why do the selkies talk in the third person? They just went from useless to majorly annoying.

- Why don’t they just go get Faragonda? She may at least know what they are dealing with and possibly clue them in on how to unspell Tecna. They don’t have to reinvent the wheel, just find someone who knows how it was made.

- Great, they just set fire to the archive and nobody bothered to put it out. And they also released the elements in there. The question remains - will the archive survive their search for the Sirenix book? (What the hell were those other books, though? I would like to know where they came from.)

- Okay, but wasn’t the book Tecna opened cursed? What happened to that? And why did the spell on her phone only activate after she opened the book? This doesn’t make sense.

5x05:

- I am very confused about the order of episodes. “The Lilo” should be before “The Power of Harmonix” because they are still using their Believix powers but it makes more sense for the Harmonix episode to be after “The Book of Sirenix”. Anyway, I am watching “The Lilo” because Wikipedia says it’s the fifth episode even though it looks more like filler that wasn’t even meant to be in the season.

- At least we get to see Flora do something this time. She is the most neglected and it’s good to see her use magic for something else other than growing ivy. Seriously, Flo, chill with the ivy.

- “When I think of you, Helia, I believe in myself.” Because she can’t believe in herself if she doesn’t have a boyfriend. The intro is so totally right! What a way to show girl power!

- Why is the animation overly flowy? Is it because it is closer to 3D in order to tie better with the actual 3D later on? It kinda pokes out your eyes sometimes. Or at least mine.

- Someone remembered that the Whisperian Crystals were a thing. I love how they just made them sort of like GPS for magical objects even though they were only supposed to track the Dragon Fire. Proof of that is the fact that they never used them to track the Ring of Solaria even though they wanted it as well. So this is just a cop out to give them a chance to find the Lilo.

- Of course, the Lilo is in the possession of Mitzi’s little sister. Why wouldn’t it be?

- Gotta love how even the writers realized that it was too convenient for everything to be in Gardenia so they started making up excuses for it.

- Wait, how does Mitzi know who the Trix are? Have they... They haven’t met, right? What the hell? Also, Icy was literally standing in front of Macy but she couldn’t just grab the plant herself and had to order Darcy and Stormy to do it? Lazy much?

- Darcy’s powers are going back to their peak this season and I am so here for it.

- Flora legit just hit Icy with her shield. That was a good move and a little more aggressive than I would have expected from Flora but I’m not complaining.

- Great way to almost hit Macy, Stella.

- There was zero point to this episode. I guess they just had to do something to get them to a total of 26 episodes. And putting it right before the episode in which they get Harmonix is just ridiculous because they just powered up their Believix... right before they’ll stop using it.

5x06:

- They can’t even open the Book of Sirenix? Huh, that’s... kinda interesting actually.

- Oh, come on! Just when Bloom was making progress, Crystal brings in Diaspro. You have to love how the writers are implying that Crystal is no good by having her being friends with Diaspro. I thought we were over the Crystal drama but it looks like there will be more. And why is Bloom not losing her mind? Diaspro literally mind controlled Sky! Goddammit, it’s in situations like this I wish I could trust Erendor to do the best for his son! If Bloom could trust he wouldn’t side with Diaspro, she could have called him to let him make sure Diaspro stays away from Sky.

- Oh, they can lose their powers if they fail the quest? I like that! Extra stakes besides the Tritannus situation. This feels more intense now and I am here for it.

- I like the implication that there are other great fairies in the Magic Dimension and it’s not just Winx. Less so fond of the fact that the other fairies seem to be underhanded but I’ll take what I can get.

- Awwwww! That scene with Stella, Tecna and Musa was so precious! I love Stella’s joking and the fact that Tecna is so upset about what happened but she still believes their reassurances! And Musa saying she might start talking about her mother... *sob* This is so precious! They are opening up to each other even more than they have already! And about the tough topics. Ah, my heart!

- Okay, I kinda like the solidarity between Bloom and Layla. Also, the fact that Flora finally figured out what they are doing. Though, that’s kinda weird to me. Flora has been more wary of the reckless plans but I don’t think she would put her powers above her friends and possibly Layla’s whole realm if not the whole universe.

- Really wish it would have been someone else that had saved the horse and not Bloom.

- “Shadow hand”? Man, I was right. Darcy’s powers are peaking! Also, whatever spell Icy used on Winx to make it harder for them to move was super cool as well. I like it.

- They have to complete the Quest in one lunar cycle? That’s 28 days... On Earth. Maybe they should have specified which moon. Since Solaria has 2 suns there are probably millions of moons out there. Okay, that isn’t working out and I wish they had been more specific with it. This episode had some cool stuff about the Magic Dimension already and they could have done more. Anyway, one lunar cycle sounds like a short time but since it’s Winx, it is probably a long time.

- Oh, they just all got Harmonix without doing anything in order to earn it. Greaaaaat. And I have to say that the Harmonix design is so impractical. Why so many veils? They’re just gonna boggle them down. Of course, nothing ever gets wet on shows but seriously? If you’re fighting with someone, they can grab you by the veils or the veils can tangle around you and become the reason for your demise. This is stupid.

- Okay, so Tecna was being really insecure but they left her behind in the search of the Gem of Self-confidence? Like, you just threw away a golden opportunity. I am into the idea that they are going in the Magical Reality Chamber to still be at the place of the action so to speak and be able to help the rest better, though.

- Love the idea of the boat that can go to any water body. I would like one. Less so enthused about the contradiction in this very episode. Stella was complaining about wearing heels when she could have just changed with magic. The proof is right there since she changed hers, Bloom’s and Layla’s whole outfits just about 10 minutes later. This is ridiculous.

- Not @ the way the writers already threw Roy in despite the fact that it has been just five episodes since the beginning of the season. Also not @ the way he seems to be the stereotypical “girls need my protection” guy. Wish Layla would just keep not liking him. But they are probably trying to emulate what happened with Nabu at first. Ugh, I hate this so much I can’t even tell you.

- Oh, come on! They’ll be bonding with the selkies now? Let me guess, that was only written so that the selkies can get their powers back through the bonds, So Tritannus will enter the Infinite Ocean with the stolen selkie powers and Winx will enter it with help from their bonded selkies. This is so transparent, I can’t even. Also, totally needed their selkies to be matching the color of their Harmonix. I mean, how else are you gonna tell that they’re their bonded selkies? Not like they have personalities or are relevant in any way. Also, can another fairy bond with a selkie that has been “taken”? Like, there is a pixie for every fairy but the selkies are much less so... what the hell? This doesn’t make any sense.

- I hate what they did with the challenge for self-confidence. They could have done so much better. But first, Bloom’s test is all about Sky (which is dumb as fuck because it literally tells you their relationship is the biggest source of insecurity in her life) and Stella’s is about her not having confidence in her fashion taste? Really? Layla’s was most cutting as always but they didn’t even try to make it hard. It was so obvious that Nabu was an illusion because he was being cruel to her and the real Nabu would never. They should have gone for something else that would have really made her struggle with figuring out it is not real. Plus, by figuring out it is not real, she didn’t exactly confront her issue with confidence. And Bloom and Stella couldn’t even break out of it on their own and needed her help. How is that successfully passing the test?!?!?!?! And I was just starting to think that this could be getting better. It was I who should have known better.

5x07:

- Aww, I love how dedicated Stella is to knowing stuff about Solaria. She is going to be a precious queen. Also, her guardian of Sirenix is so beautiful.

- Ugh, the Trix are pulled apart again. I hate it. Darcy and Stormy do have a point. I just wish Icy would keep her head in the game. Also, do they sleep out in the open? In a swamp or whatever the hell that is?

- Wow, Sky that has no memory treats Bloom better than Sky that has memory of her. Interesting. Like, if he can calm her worries about Diaspro so easily when he doesn’t even remember how much he loves her, why didn’t he do that in the previous seasons? Honestly.

- Roy is annoying me just by cheering for Winx. This is not going well.

- Oh, damn, Flora got turned into stone. What did Tritannus do to that jellyfish? Turn it into Medusa (lmao, fun fact - jellyfish is called medusa [more like meduza but still] in Bulgarian)? Seriously. And why is Flora the one saving the selkies when she is the only one that isn’t bonded to any?

- Since the Trix also didn’t put any work into earning their powers, it is only fair that Winx get a free upgrade as well. I am just glad that at least the Harmonix spells look differently even though they function in the same generic way.

- Hey, Sky is actually starting to remember? Good. I was prepared to suffer through this amnesia arc up until 5x13 at least but now I have timid hope that it will not last that long. I guess the writers haven’t heard of muscle memory, however.

- How did the Gem of Confidence turn Flora back into herself when the jellyfish that turned her into stone had nothing to do with it? It was Tritannus’ doing and not even intentional. It shouldn’t have had petrifying powers in the first place. None of this makes any sense. Not to mention that the Gem somehow multiplied to six gems. I mean, really? Would’ve been much better if they could only choose to complete one box aka everyone else would lose their powers but then through their shared goal (aka Faragonda telling them that they have to be of one mind and heart) they could have all gotten the Sirenix. Just no other powers. That would have been way more interesting (obviously Layla would be the one whose box they’d complete and I don’t believe the Dragon Fire can be extinguished anyway so Bloom could even have a loophole out of that). And besides, they don’t use the old transformations anyway.

5x08:

- Stella is rocking that outfit. But why streaks? Stella, no!

- Tecna and Timmy are absolutely adorable with their mega nerdiness. I love it.

- Jeez, really? Sky is a better dancer with amnesia than Brandon is? I mean, this could have been plausible if they hadn’t established already in the previous episode that his muscle memory has fucked off into oblivion as well. Otherwise, yes. As royalty, he is probably better at dancing. Even though battle requires a lot of coordination as well. But nice of Kiko to try to help.

- Come on, Stella, you’re being insensitive. You would be “moping” too if Brandon had died. Please, don’t try to set Layla up with guys. Just give her some time to grieve!

- I don’t know what Stella expected. Of course, Layla is going to get offended by that. She doesn’t want company, she wants Nabu back.

- Oh, come on! Musa really got mad at Riven just because he liked the music another girl was playing? What, is he supposed to only listen to her music now? She isn’t even the vocalist of their band.

- They only have 10 days left to complete the missions? When did they manage to waste so much time? Like, they legit got the first thing done in one day. Where did the other go?

- Tressa has had so much growth since season 3. I love her. Really wish they’d let her be queen. But wtf, why can the king know what all of his subjects are doing? That is so invasive. Also, Layla should not be in the range of his powers. Man, the writers are really pulling some bullshit here.

- You’d think the selkies will learn that they can’t stop Tritanus and will try to not get in his way so that he wouldn’t get to steal their powers. But nope, they are both useless and stupid.

- Okay, Stella did mess up and she should have known why what she did was a bad idea but Layla giving her the silent treatment is not going to help either. I hope that the fact that Musa is dealing with the loss of her mother can help the two of them patch things up as well. Maybe there will be a lesson in this for both of them.

- Now it makes sense why Musa turned into an ocean type of monster. And this is a good opportunity for Stella and Layla to find their balance again and help save Musa.

- Stella’s attacks are still hurting Musa. And wouldn’t it make more sense for Layla to use her powers to stop her? She could make a net with morphix that will be both more reliable and less harmful for Musa. Seriously, why do they always make the dumbest choices possible?

- You know what would have been more interesting? If the healing of the bond could only work one way and the selkie didn’t get her powers back. They could have brought in Galatea to also bond with her in order to restore her powers later on so that they could enter the Infinite Ocean. That would have been more creative. But nah.

- Stella’s sudden understanding of Layla really came out of nowhere. And it felt like Layla only forgave her because she didn’t want to fight with her anymore, not because she was truly okay with what Stella did. This could have been done so much better.

- These Sirenix quests are so convenient. They all have to do with places the girls know and clues they have history with. It would have been much harder if they had to go to planets they don’t know how to navigate and a better way to do more worldbuilding.

- Bloom really can’t take 10 days away from the Sky mess? They can literally lose their powers forever which could mean handing Tritannus victory but she is more concerned with Sky’s memory that can possibly only get better in the next ten days while she focuses on the mission? Oh, come on!

- They are really trying to push hard the idea that Bloom and Sky are destined to be together. Also, now that they found the shell, can Sky’s memory block disappear? It would make sense. Please, just end this already.

5x09:

- Really? Bloom is sensing that something is wrong with Daphne but Marion isn’t? This could have been a cool moment to bring in the fact that their parents are back. Especially since Bloom isn’t going to do shit about it. I mean, how dense is she that she didn’t recognize the clouds of pollution hanging around Daphne in her dream? Could have at least tried to contact Daphne to make sure she was okay. Especially since she knows that Daphne talks to her through her dreams and that has been A Thing since season 1. I just... cannot.

- I... don’t even know what to say about Stella here. On the one hand I understand her frustration as she feels like no one supports her passion for fashion but on the other hand... Stella, no! Brandon was right that she needs to consider other people’s feelings sometimes, though, I’d say none of Winx exhibited particularly high levels of empathy here except maybe Flora.

- Oh, Tecna. On the one hand I want to say that there shouldn’t be a reason to feel nervous face to face with Timmy when they get along so well, but on the other, we have all experienced what she’s talking about. Texting can be so much easier sometimes even if it can also be dangerous because it lacks the context of body language.

- Seriously? We’re gonna make it through all the girls’ planets. I said it before and I’ll say it again, but this Sirenix Quest sure is damn convenient. At least it is kinda ironic that the Gem of Empathy is on Zenith since they seem to rely on technology more.... Man, that could have been an awesome opportunity to make Zenith more three dimensional by explaining that they develop so much technology so that they could make the lives of everyone easier when they have digital assist aka their focus on technology is driven by empathy. But again, that is just too deep for this show.

- Oh, come on! Stella really turned into a three-year-old? Why the hell would there be an age-changer spell in the pin? This doesn’t make sense. And again, a fucking wasted opportunity. Stella was running low on empathy here so including her in the search for the Gem of Empathy would have provided way more character development than this shit right here. I would have sent Stella, Tecna and Musa to get the Gem and Bloom, Flora and Layla to go look for Daphne. Or better yet, Stella and Tecna for the Gem, Musa and Layla after Tritannus and Bloom and Flora to check on Daphne.

- Is Layla ever going to use her Harmonix powers? Seriously, she has transformed how many times now and I can’t remember her using any of her new magic.

- Why is Layla now smiling at Roy even though she never transitioned from “annoyed” to “friendly teasing”? I hate this so much.

- It must be weird for Brandon to see his girlfriend as a three-year-old while he is still twenty. Like, that will make for a fun conversation once the spell wears off.

- It is so goddamn obvious that Tritannus has been there! Like, did the clouds of pollution not tip you off?????? Honestly, why don’t any of them have normal rationalizing abilities? It is a simple deduction! You don’t need the selkies to tell you! Besides, didn’t they already say that he crossed over to Zenith? This is like looking between a needle and a single straw of hay and having to point out which is the needle and they are failing!

- Shoot, I thought “where the one looks over the many” was supposed to be something of a mathematical riddle or something that would have to make Tecna focus on the whole rather than the details. The throne thing? Just... meh.

- I would have preferred it if their test of empathy involved something that was already inside them and came from themselves rather than them being placed under a spell by the Gem. It could have brought out their most unempathetic thoughts but I still think there was a better way to do this, and a more emotional one.

- Seriously?????? I mean, FOR REAL?!?!?!?!?! THAT is what they had to do to get the gem???????????????????????????????????????????????????? They didn’t even resolve their issues!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How did they prove they were worthy of having it. God, I hate this.

- How did the age-changer spell had any bearing on the plot or the characters? It literally didn’t do anything for Stella or Flora, Musa and Brandon for that matter. They had so many amazing opportunities in this episode and they were all wasted. I just... *frustrated sigh*

5x10:

- Is it just me or is the idea to put the Christmas filler episode right a couple of days before the deadline for the Sirenix Quest the worst idea ever? Well, not the worst because this show is just full of bad ideas but still somewhere up there with the big guys.

- I was gonna get incredibly angry if they’d made Christmas be a thing in the Magic Dimension but they got at least that right. And that way it’s cute that Bloom gets to introduce her friends to a new holiday. They all got so excited about the presents! Adorable! The only thing that would have made this better was if she’d invited Marion and Oritel to Mike and Vanessa’s as well to celebrate together.

- I was ready to hate this episode but it has actually caught my attention. Love how the Trix decided the magic of Christmas is literal magic and they want to steal it from Bloom. This is actually exactly what a funny filler episode should be like.

- Aww, a surprise Musa and Riven moment. That was adorable.

- Am I the only one who is getting Yu Gi Oh vibes from this monster? Okay, four monsters (Why four? That is so random. Three would have made more sense.). They just remind me too much of Blue Eyes White Dragon.

- You know what would be really cool? If Stella made a cage with mirrors at key places to reflect the light beam she shoots at the creatures so that it would keep running through the cage to stop them from reforming.

- Oh, wow. Faragonda showed up. I never thought that would happen. Not that she’s been much use. Like, you fought the Ancestral Witches! Surely, there has to be something you can do! Not to mention that how the hell did the Trix get magic of the darkest order? That’s just bullshit.

- You know what? I would be more worried about the fact that they may not be able to break the spell before they run out of water and food and other essentials. Like, the Christmas thing is upsetting but not a priority right now,

- Okay, the Trix are inside the ice dome but the ice dragons aren’t? That seems like a hole in their plan.

- The others got the spirit but they a little confused. Bloom doesn’t just miss Christmas but spending it with her family and they can’t give her that. Though, none of them didn’t even try to teleport. Depending on the way you do it, maybe they could have gotten out.

- This episode is kinda all over the place but at least it has that cool vibe from season 1 when they got to actually just chill around the school and do some fun stuff. Actually put time in just being friends. Oh, and the friendship charm bracelets are really cute! I love them.

- You know they don’t have what to put in an episode when they give the full transformations twice. Nice job, there.

- Making a hole in the dome does not sound like the best course of action because Winx could have just gotten out of there and forced the Trix to chase them. But no one thought of that.

- I feel second hand embarrassment on Icy’s behalf. If she ever gets to learn that she misunderstood about the magic of Christmas, that is. The way things are going, Bloom is gonna blast them out of the dimension without ever revealing that this was all for nothing.

- Well, Bloom could have just used her Dragon Fire to destroy the ice dragons the moment they appeared and none of that would have happened but why the hell would she do that? I have to say that I would have preferred it if Winx and the Specialists had gone to Gardenia instead of having Gardenia go to Alfea. Like, I get it that they wanted to make Christmas touch the Magic Dimension as well but Alfea has never celebrated a Zenithian-specific holiday for example or a Solarian one. It just makes the whole Winx universe a little too focused on Bloom again.

5x11:

- Omg, I am feeling so bad for Daphne. Hasn’t she suffered enough? Though, I have to say that I am at least glad Icy came up with a decent plan for counteraction this time even if it is cruel. At least it makes sense!

- Why the hell is the wind-rider competition held in Alfea? It should have been in Red Fountain but I guess the animators couldn’t be bothered to pull out their old animation of it and remember how to draw it.

- Bloom giving Sky a pep talk was kinda cute. I get why he would be nervous and it was cool that she did her best to help him. And that moment with throwing some harmless magic his way to show him his own reflexes was actually smart and hella cute as well. I just wish they wouldn’t have gone for the “he is the best Specialist ever to live” thing again but I’ll take it as his friends telling a white lie to soothe his anxiety.

- So the Trix are just being bullies for no reason at all. Also, they already used that invisibility spell when they messed with Tecna’s phone. Or at least it looked the same.

- Poor Kiko. Getting accused for something he didn’t do and then also being attacked by clones. But was it that only he could see them? Because otherwise, it should have tipped Bloom off that something’s wrong.

- They don’t need to remind us every time that there is no time to waste for the Sirenix Quest. We get it. And even if I had the episodes spaced out by weeks, I doubt I would forget that they have a time limit considering that this is not plot heavy and they have mentioned it, like, a million times already.

- Oh, they’re going to Linphea next. Look, even Tecna noticed that all the parts of the Quest have been on their home planets.

- Wow, Flora, you think the flower might be on your planet? Damn, girl, you’re such a genius. No one would have ever guessed. They have an ocean of flowers and she is still not sure? W.O.W.

- Love how it took Faragonda and Saladin a solid minute to interfere. Not like they were in a war or anything and should be 100% prepped to deal with crises. Why would you think that? And Griselda (and the other Alfea teachers) didn’t even get to do anything. Not to mention that Mirta has been studying at Alfea for a forth year now and she didn’t even try to fire at the beasts... You know, what could be considered an instinctive reaction.

- “Only one more keeper...”? Yeah, because there are only six-seven planets in the whole universe! (Didn’t he already get the powers of the selkie of Earth as well as from everyone’s home planets except for Bloom’s? Who’s gonna restore the Earth selkie’s powers... Wait, is it going to be Roxy? And does that mean we’re finally going to Domino this season?)

- I was gonna ask whatever Roy was gonna do without Layla being there but he isn’t there either. So why was he there the other times if not to drive the boat? They gave him one job to justify his presence and then they took that away as well.

- Funny how it is always the selkies of the girls that have gone on the Quest that appear and not any of the others. One of them (I am not even gonna bother to learn their names) said she could sense the presence of her fairy but still. Though, with their powers restored, I guess they could do that.

- Do I remember wrong or are Flora and her selkie the only ones that actually hugged? Cause that was kinda cute.

- Okay, Sky’s plan was good but did Bloom really need him to pull her out of the way? I am pretty sure she could have done that on her own since it was obvious what the plan was.

- If I were Stella, I’d be worried that a plant might eat me too. Having courage doesn’t mean that you can’t be afraid. It means that you find it in yourself to go on despite the fear. So I’d say Stella is courageous enough.

- Okay, but this plant looks like it was touched by Tritannus’ pollution and so did all the rest of the places from the Quest (except for Melody). So that means that what is happening wouldn’t have happened if not for him aka they aren’t actually completing the Quest because they are fighting Tritannus’ influence on the environment, not performing the tasks from the Quest.

- Good! Tecna and Layla are actually being strategical about this even though all Bloom wants is to hang out with the boyfriend. I wouldn’t mind if she didn’t just get targeted. But why the hell would she care about her safety - or Sky’s for that matter - when they can go on a romantic walk instead?

- Really? They need a translator? Flora has communicated with plants numerous times before. She should be able to understand what the Flower of the Depths is saying to them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dear god, the writers are really trying to be as stupid as possible.

- Why didn’t Bloom try to transform before jumping against the Trix? Or at least shoot some magic at them? Once again, how are they still alive?

- Darcy’s powers are awesome and she’s using them well. I love how she pushed Musa in her own trap. But damn, it was harsh of Musa to try to cause the rocks to crush Darcy. I thought the Trix were supposed to be the cruel ones.

- Wow, I thought Icy would have at least a couple broken bones after Layla smashed her in the rock like that but nope. She’s fine.

- Okay, I actually think that Sky and Bloom are cute in this episode, what the hell? I like the fact that they decided to stop trying to get the past back to him. That may even actually help him remember when he’s not stressing and straining to do it. I thought that Bloom meant one of the memories she wants to keep was that of the shell they found, though. Wasn’t that soulmate special or something?

5x12:

- Icy is really not paying attention, huh? I mean, Tritannus saying that he would give her one more chance somehow didn’t sound too reassuring to me. He gave the Trix their powers so he could probably take them away any time he wants and then destroy them. Which sounded exactly like what he was planning to do before Icy convinced him to give her one more chance.

- Well, they noticed the pattern of the Quest running through all their home planets. They could have tried looking for the yellow reef on Domino before asking the guardian of the Sirenix box. Just to do something on their own, you know.

- Who let Bloom go in that dress? Didn’t Tecna say Stella was there as well? How could she let Bloom even put that thing on, let alone wear it to the Domino renewal celebration. Also, why the hell is that happening only now? It has been a season and a half since Domino was restored. I thought this would be the discussion of Tritannus.

- Love how they didn’t even redo the footage from SotLK and just slapped the different art style right in the middle of the one from season 5. Lazy as lazy gets.

- Um, wasn’t the plan to capture Bloom? And if they changed it to getting Marion and Oritel, why didn’t they try to do that when Bloom wasn’t there? They couldn’t get her but they will somehow get her parents who literally defeated the Ancestral Witches while Bloom and two or three of her friends plus Sky are also there? How does that make sense?

- Oh, come on! The dresses looked much better without the flowers. Also, you’re telling me that Stella made them fit the same theme as Bloom’s but she didn’t have anything to do with Bloom’s dress? This is just... ridiculous. Also, how do flowers relate to Domino? Sparks or even gems would have made better sense. A fire pattern even.

- Marion and Oritel are giving very different vibes from the ones in Magical Adventure and even SotLK (even though they had like five lines each in that one).

- Did Bloom suddenly forget that Sky does not remember how he saved the Sword? And she left him alone even though he doesn’t have his memories? Also, why do none of their parents know about that? And up until this point, there were always three of them going on the Quest. But now that Bloom is actually needed somewhere else she is going even though she could have left it to Stella, Layla and Flora? Come on!

- Didn’t the pendant sink in the ocean on Earth? Where are the selkies now? And how come Flora’s selkie decided that she will know who the pendant belongs to? You know, out of the infinite number of people in the whole universe. The fact that she just so happens to actually know is yet another too convenient convenience but still.

- The mimicry fish are adorable and I love them.

- Wait, can any selkie open any portal? I thought they could only open the portals that they were guarding. But then Winx shouldn’t have been able to pass from Domino back to wherever Tritannus attacked - Andros maybe?

- Love how Marion instantly jumped away when the Trix attacked despite how much her outfit must weigh. And you’re telling me that Oritel is the fighter between the two of them? Yeah, right. Just please, let her use her magic to stop the Trix. We know she has it! Don’t make her look helpless because she is far from it.

- Well, of course, even the oceans of Domino are the best and have the rarest fish even though it is the planet of the Dragon Fire and Andros is the center of all oceans. Makes perfect sense.

- Okay, Marion and Oritel are definitely giving waaaay different vibes from the ones in the movies but I have to say that I kinda like how fierce they are. Not @ Oritel’s “Still have it in you?” because duh, she obviously does and even more so than you do, Oritel, but other than that I love how smoothly they just switch from celebration to a fight that is potentially for their lives. Also, I like that Sky gets to fight with them... Or at least he was supposed to.

- Yes, the one time Bloom is there, the others are completely useless. Also, that thing is not a coral. Wasn’t the Gem supposed to be in the jaws of the coral, not whatever the hell this fish is. And how is it in its mouth? How does it not ingest it when it eats? This doesn’t make sense.

- Love whatever Marion did there with shooting magic out of her sword. However, I don’t like the fact that the writers have forgotten she has magic and is not defenseless without a sword. And how did that trick even work? She could have just turned around and seen that it wasn’t the real Oritel. Not to mention that if Oritel knows the Trix are descendants of the Ancestral Witches, Marion does too aka she should have known that one of them has illusion powers. Given the fact that they fought a whole war against Lysslis, I am pretty sure she has faced similar tricks before and should have known better.

- Please, tell me the creature was supposed to vanish and it wasn’t Bloom that vaporized it from inside. Also, I so totally knew the last gem would be green. It made perfect sense.

- At least they remembered that Oritel’s sword is supposed to be special because it has Dragon Fire in it.

- Bloom and Sky saving her parents “together” makes no sense because Sky doesn’t have magic. So it wasn’t him that helped her save them but the sword.

- Their declarations of love were kinda undermined by him remembering and in such stupid way. Like, all the progress he made in restoring their relationship and even remembering a little wouldn’t have mattered if he hadn’t gotten the pendant back. Aka his blockage wasn’t actually going away. It was still there which means that his emotions were not getting worked out.

- I know Marion and Oritel will not go help save Daphne even though that would be the only logical thing and I am so fucking mad about it, you don’t even know.

5x13:

- Oh, god! They changed even the intro and the 3D animation is as ugly as I remember it to be. Love how they also spoil the fact that the girls will get Sirenix in this episode. Not that the title of the episode doesn’t.

- I have beef with this recap. That fish that had the Gem of Courage was so totally not a shark. It just wasn’t. I’m no shark expert but that was definitely not a shark. It looks like some fish you can find in the depths (I don’t remember their name) but it sure as hell ain’t a fucking shark.

- What training? They need to go get Daphne! Also, they handled Believix just fine. If Alfea had given them proper education, they should be able to control any transformation. Like, those should operate according to some goddamn logic.

- If Daphne hadn’t already told him, then why did she do it now? Man, he should have just made her talk before he told the Trix to leave Domino. Now that they were no longer there, Daphne didn’t have any reason to talk. She must have known that Bloom would find their parents so Tritannus lost his leverage. This is so nonsensical.

- What the hell does it mean that they have to look inside themselves? How is that gonna lead them to lake Roccaluche? The only one connected to it is Bloom because Daphne is her sister. This is ridiculous.

- How big is that lake and why does it look exactly the same way that the sea does? There is a difference between sweet water bodies and salt water bodies and the life inside them, you know, writers.

- Why would there be a protection system to guard the source of a whole ass goddamn transformation? It makes much more sense that anyone could just walk in and destroy it in 0.3 seconds.

- They just had to say that they will keep exhibiting the three virtues the Gems represented in order to get the location of the source of Sirenix? Man, really? Ugh, that is just so... ridiculously frustrating.

- For people who can lose their magic the same day, they sure don’t seem to be worried. Lounging and all.

- They know Tritannus was there. Obviously that is the explanation as to why the selkies did not find them.

- Yes, they totally look like they’ve “got this”.

- I actually liked the fact that Bloom had to give up finding out where Daphne is in order to save the lake. Seeing all the panicked animals rush around really drives home what is going on because they will all die if the lake dries completely.

- Oh, I am totally going to cry over Daphne’s anguish here. This looks so brutal. But here’s a thought for you. The whole power of Sirenix was put under a curse, right? Then why didn’t the Trix get affected by it? And if the Sirenix power is removed from Daphne, shouldn’t the curse disappear as well?

- Love how they forgot about the part where Sirenix was cursed even before Tritannus messed with the source.

- I hate the Sirenix transformation. It is the ugliest one to me and why did they have to go and give them streaks? The 3D look was bad enough already. Only the Trix’ Sirenix design is worse than this. (No, actually whatever the hell is happening to the Trix in the end of season 7 is the worst design idea they have ever had but I haven’t watched that.)

- So they didn’t need the selkies to enter the Infinite Ocean? Then how come that is what Tritannus needed? What the hell is wrong with the logistics of this whole thing?

- Where did all these minions come from? Did whatever he did to the... stone? thingy poison the nearby water and turn all creatures into his minions? Didn’t that work only on merfolk? If so, the Infinite Ocean seems overpopulated.

- They totally could have had Marion and Oritel in this but once Tritannus took Daphne into the Infinite Ocean, they would have needed to let Winx handle the rescue mission because the two of them wouldn’t be able to enter the Infinite Ocean. And boom, problem solved. They don’t have to drag Oritel and Marion through every episode while they still could have shown that they cared. Idk what was so complicated about that.

Part 2 can be found here.

[thephantomporg84]

[REDACTED] be complaining reg. the reactions of having "placed the cultist island Fortuna off the coast of Florida" while having the gall of "It’s the story & the way it’s told that should fucking matter" & "Who cares? It’s fictional geography, you idiots." Feels a bit like failing World-Building 101. I mean, Red Grave based on London would also be a callback to Dante's early concept of being a Brit.

Someone already sent me the whole post of hers that I’m pretty sure you’re referring to lmao. I’m in a particularly cunty but pleasant mood rn, and analysis is kind of my thing, so lets’s break it down, shall we?

Maybe someone can send this her way and… learn that tiny little brain of hers a thing. 😉

It’s fictional geography called world building, you idiots Karen after the cut:

‘I love how a number of shitheels have screeched amongst themselves on this hellsite about how I had placed the cultist island Fortuna off the coast of Florida or somewhere around the Gulf US states (re: the fanfic & project link in my header), whining that it should’ve been in Europe, namely Italy.’

An admission to stalking profiles is not exactly the best way to start a self-righteous rant or advertise your… magnum opus, but go off, I guess.

‘Not only that, but they whined about “plotholes and inconsistencies” without elaborating on what the latter are. The asshole who made the rant was annoyed when I used a poem as a spell in the story (“if I heard that, I’d turn off my PS4.”), but I’m sure she didn’t bitch about the cutscene before the last Agnus boss fight in DMC4.’

Like the movie The Room (2003), it’s just easier to say “all of it” is bad because “all of it” contains plotholes and is inconsistent in tone, has terrible half-baked ideas and plot threads that remain unresolved and/or do nothing to further the plot, is rife with poor + inconsistent characterization, has a lack of any knowledge how the medium it exists in is made, and in general makes me wonder how much pottery enamel you’ve been huffing to think any of this was a good idea. Howeverrrr, in contrast to you, Tommy Wiseau is kind of odd and weirdly charming both in general and about his terrible movie — he’s found glory and success in its terribleness. You, in contrast, remain a miserable cunt with delusions of grandeur.

Dante and Agnus’ Shakespeare bit is actually a pretty well known trope called Ham-to-Ham Combat. Dante and Agnus are both ridiculous Large Hams in DMC4, and when two Large Hams meet, in general, they are likely gonna try to ‘out-over dramatic’ each other. This can lead to a scene becoming either really funny or really corny (or both) really fast. If things go too far — and they do, in this case — the scene can become a Hormel Event Horizon.

‘…but they LOVE the plotholes & inconsistencies if Capcom makes the latter, and writes a terrible story! And Crapcom’s canon for DMC is as straight as a paperclip or a dog’s hind leg. Hypocritical pricks.’

Subjective opinion is not, and never will be, objective fact. People are, as of when I checked again in the last ~5 minutes or so, absolutely able to enjoy whatever media they want regardless of what the general consensus on the quality of that media is.

As an example, I enjoy The Room (2003) despite its terribleness and it never fails to make me laugh, while your magnum opus makes me want to huff pottery enamel so the pain will stop despite you thinking it is the work of an idiot savant.

‘They were also mad that I wrote Dante as a wiseguy who is a little more low-key about it due to the circumstances— instead of being a pathetic manchild airhead that tries too hard.’

You didn’t write Dante.

You wrote Reboot!Donte — a fucking terribly out of character version of him, at that.

‘I was primarily concerned about moving the story along. I didn’t care about where a fictional island is supposed to go.’

You literally had one (1) job, Karen.

‘…Meanwhile, not a single character in DMC4 had an Italian accent, so uh, why should I give a flying fuck where I put it?’

Haven’t you been like… shitting on the DMC staff… for terrible writing… this enti— You know what? You’re obvs way too dumb to notice that contradiction, so I’ll let it slide.

Just… a word of advice, if I may? Don’t ever watch dub TV shows. That last brain cell would fuckin’ just burst all over your carpet.

(Actually, don’t watch subtitled shows either. An extremely popular anime that was set in Italy just wrapped and all the characters — le gasp! — spoke fucking Japanese. You would shit.)

‘I wasn’t paid to write any of what I wrote, but be my guest & send a PM if you want to throw money at me. By all means, do that.’

Oh, thank fuck, because they would have been ripped off, big time.

[ btw, you sound p. jealous of people that write/do creative work/commissions for ko-fi/payment tho. Not a good look tbbh. If it’s any consolation, though, I don’t get paid for making fun of you and/or analyzing your dumb bullshit, either. :( ]

‘The pricks at Capcom didn’t even bother giving us a proper DMC4 and it was a half-assed game, with the latter half being hasty filler material. The “special edition” they coughed up in 2015 was just glorified overpriced DLC.’

Ya know, you gotta be pretty far up your own ass to think this much of your opinion. And I’m saying this as a person that’s pretty far up her own ass like 85% of the time.

‘And another thing, Redgrave City in DMC5 seems to be in England, yet no survivors speak with English accents or slang/dialects.’

Pretty sure no survivors had speaking roles.

If you played the game you’d know this.

‘Meanwhile, Dante and Vergil had lived there when they were kids (until age 8), but they both have ordinary American or Canadian accents. Furthermore, how did the twins make it to the USA or Canada? According to the little booklet in the DMC1 game case, Dante’s office is in modern America.’

You know that invoking the imagery of a specific place without naming your location is normal and standard practice, right? Overwatch even does this (For Ex: Byōdō-in (平等院), Uji, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan is the inspiration for Hanamura, Château de Duingt, Duingt, France for Château Guillard, etc.)

Furthermore, you know the original DMC was a rejected first draft of Resident Evil 4, right? This is what retcon is for. You at least know what retcon is, right?

‘…That information isn’t very important, but I’m bringing it up to illustrate a point that being a fucking pedant about geography in a fantasy game is idiotic, even if the setting is akin to modern Earth.’

So is freaking the fuck out and sending death threats over a fantasy game but you didn’t let that stop you either lmfao.

It’s actually super important to establish your scenery and the way your world operates, especially in a written work in which readers are dependent on your vision and your descriptions, and if you were a decent writer, you’d know this.

‘It’s the story & the way it’s told that should fucking matter.’

YOU HAD ONE (1) JOB, KAREN.

‘What US states are the Arklay Mountains located in?’

General description puts them in the U.S. Midwest. Raccoon City itself is stated to have a population of ~100,000 at the time of outbreak, and the only city in the Midwest that matches that population in 1998 is Springfield, Missouri, with a pop. of ~110,000.

Springfield is on the Springfield Plateau of the Ozarks region of SW Missouri. So they’re part of the Ozark Mountains.

This all took less than ~3 minutes to google, btw.

‘Where is “Zanzibar Land?”’

I actually just wrote a comprehensive answer to an ask a few weeks ago about this. It’s actually stated to be in Tselinoyarsk (Целиноярск), the (fictional) area of the former USSR in which Big Boss carried out the Virtuous Mission/Operation Snake Eater in 1964. Tselinoyarsk itself is heavily implied to consist of parts of Kyrgyzstan and/or Tajikistan. If you played MGS3 you’d know how important the setting and the varied environments/climates are to the game mechan-

oh yeah wait you believe in segregation of story and gameplay mechanics. I forget you’re completely tone deaf sometimes lmao.

How far is ‘Salem’s Lot or Derry from Bangor? Who cares?’

Stephen King does, quite a bit. He even has a map on his website of ‘his’ fictional version of Maine:

My disappointment is immeasurable, Karen.

[gritsandbrits]

Ben 10 Venting

If there's ever something I always hated in Ben 10 UAF, it was when Gwen was retconned to be half alien.

The two Anodites that showed up (Verdona and Sunny) proved to be extremely unlikable and arrogant. Verdona especially never faced any consequences for basically abandoning her family, showing favoritism, and basically being an all around bitch, and not even an entertaining one at that. Fucking Hexadecimal from Reboot would have made a better grandma for Gwen and Ben

Also, the retcon was done to make everything solely about aliens (what happened to fighting evil from Earth or space?). Also, Ben and Ken (Gwen's brother) should have had some Anodite powers too, but for some reason they ain't gor the spark. They could have easily explained it as "male Anodites don't exist or don't have Mana powers period" but they don't explain why Ben and Ken didn't have any powers. Hell they could have given Ken powers so that he could at least be more developed. Maybe Male Anodites have healing powers instead of offensive power like female Anodites. What about Anodites made of different colors? So much potential wasted.

Tried to force a narrative that Gwen was stronger than Charmcaster, who was far more experienced and trained in magic. Basically trying to reduce Charmcaster's strength while augmenting Gwen's through godmodding her.

Ultimately served no purpose in her character. There was supposed to be some arc about Gwen trying not to let the power consume her but we don't see her actively struggle or working on controlling her new mana. Magic was her own thing, so making her an alien Hybrid took away a lot of her originality. Didn't help the Anodites also looked pretty generic, like they're just pink Pyronites. Heck they could have had the Anodites be a type of Pyronite or something.

Strangely enough it made Gwen more weaker, as now the only spells she can cast are forcefields, generic Pink Lantern beams. Rarely did she cast actual magic spells like the original, and even then it was weak. She still ended up being canon fodder to make Ben the Ultimate Lifeform

But you want to know why I really hate the power change? They changed it to pink.

Like I love the color pink but Gwen was fine being blue. That's what made her different from the other females in these types of actions shows because she wasn't the pink one and she had a personality that wasn't entirely defined by her gender. The pink swap was done to make her the Token Chick so she'd be marketed towards girls, even though a lot of us girls loved her for being blue.

Update: Okay so I'm not a huge fan of the Pink Magic Gwen (pink magic suited Charmcaster) but I don't mind it as long as it's not her default. I wished the show had her use different colors like that yellow her OS future self had. That could explain the difference between certain Mana I guess. But yeah, changing her to pink was very obvious ploy to sell Gwen toys to girls, like every single female character/toy has to be the pink, like there's no variety.

Oh yeah and fuck Verdona.

[maevelin]

I know you don't consider anything beyond tvd season 4 finale canon, neither do i. But we have to admit there was still a fuckton of oocness going on in the first 4, but especially the 4th season. Do you think it was realistic of klaus to be afraid of silas to the point of not even trying to defeat him, to gain back the title of most powerful immortal in existence? Is it realistic of klaus to admit defeat in any situation when faced with the... truly undefeatable foe? Like silas, makael, etc.

I mean, i believe you're the expert on klaus' character, you, out of the entire fandom, truly understand his personality, get where he's coming from, i say this sincerely. So is klaus the kind of person who would be willing to serve some higher power or being, if only out of self preservation and for the sake of those few he loves? Or would his ego (let us admit it is bigger than Alaska) not be able to handle even just the thought of servitude?

--- 

i believe you're the expert on klaus' character, you, out of the entire fandom, truly understand his personality, get where he's coming from, i say this sincerely.

So -fair warning dissertation ahead- it has been quite a while since I have written a TVD meta over a character but I still stand by TVD Klaus for the most part. He has been one of my most favorite characters in general (up to a point in canon). So I will always be bitter and salty for the treatment he got and by that I mean the treatment he got in TVD because I literally don’t care about TO Klaus in any kind of a way and I am actually one of those fans that when I heard that they killed him in TO I was actually “finally they took him out of his misery.”

All that been said I am remembering a time when by the time S4 of TVD finished when I was 100% certain without any shred of doubt that TO would demolish Klaus’ character and it would collectively be a mess. I still remember how adamant I was on that and how people acted as if I was crazy or something. Back then I had gotten quite a lot of hate even from the Klaroline fandom because I was irrationally negative. 

What people didn’t understand back then was that my negativity was based on two objective things. Because yes subjectively I can be a petty bitch and an asshole but I can take a step back and recognize reality for what it is. I was a Klaus fan first and foremost. An Original groupie after that and a Klaroline fan after that. I wanted a spin off about the Originals. The Originals had outlived TVD by leaps and bounds and in the hands of capable writers their spin off could have turned out to be probably my most favorite show to date. But in the end TVD and TO became a dead land of wasted potential. Because talented writers to carry the weight of TVD and of the Originals were nowhere to be found. And the two things that showed that to me was A. The backdoor pilot that established TO’s identity and premise (Kol was dead, Hayley was the lead, Rebekah had no place in that episode and was practically a guest, Klaus kept crying and mumbled nonsense and Elijah was incredibly OOC and the show was based on the concept of a pregnancy that many people believed it to be a hoax but nonetheless that was what set the Originals on course and let us face it....Julie Plec does not do subtle. The only twists she can think of is killing characters for shock value from which most of them she will bring back and plot wise she basically spells everything out so what you see is what you get. Julie Plec believes the viewers are not intelligent beings so she treats the plots she gives accordingly) AND B. The entirety of S4 when it came to Klaus Mikaelson.

Julie Plec had time to prepare the spin off. Months. To plan, to organize and the best she could do was what she showed in S4. Klaus was meant to have his own spin off and instead of the plot paying tribute to that they had to reduce him into a mess to make him fit in a parody of a show. S4 showed exactly how the spin off was going to be. I didn’t stop watching TVD because the Originals left or I didn’t have Klaroline anymore. I stopped watching because S4 was atrocious and ridiculous and it took one of my most favorite characters of all time and turned him OOC. 

Because YES there weremany OOC cases in season 4 of TVD which I consider to be one of the weakestfrom the seasons I have watched (S1-S2-S3-S4). It was a mess. JP took over buthad no creative vision and she didn’t care for the characterization. She onlycared to manipulate the story to the point where she could make the transitionto the spin-off. Which I would understand if this was a smooth transition orshe did it to avoid the plotholes but we all saw how she was like “ho ho nature’sloopholes”. She retconned everything. She didn’t care for the genre. For the established mythology. For the lore. For the characters. How can someone expect a writer to be able to write a decent show when she has no respect for the characters? None whatsoever? She was unable to even create a clear plot to drive the storyforward even in the expense of characterization. And this was not me reading between the lines. This was as clear as day.

Klaus wasOOC in many instances in S4 really. His intellect suddenly took a nosedive.Damon checks his phone records for example and Klaus doesn’t react. He didn’t even coverhis traces. Klaus the paranoid Hybrid that had always been steps ahead fromeveryone and was so overly suspicious that had lived for decades as a reclusewithdrawn from the world while having a cult worshiping and fearing him! Klaus just glared at Damon was fine with it. 

Elena andJeremy kill Kol and Klaus sheds a tear and barely blinks at their direction. All that with the spin off coming along and just a few episodes before the backdoor episode aired. Sure he threw a tantrum screaming some threats but then was like let bygones bebygones. The man that hunted Katherine for half a millennia and killed her family in retaliation for her not becoming the sacrificial lamb to his slaughter. But all of the sudden Klaus that was obsessed with his family let it go and even saved Elena and Damon in 4x23 without asking anything in return. Klaus Mikaelson did that while he was about to get his own show about the Originals sans Finn, Kol (that had such a devoted fanbase), Mikael, Esther buy hey at least we all had Phoebe Tonkin signing first before Joseph Morgan for the leading role while we have seen how much people adored Hayley right? Not to mention that she signed for the spin off before we saw Hayley on our screens. As the lead! Because you know a show much have a female lead and it is not as if they could get Rebekah being their female lead right? It is not as if this was a spin off about the Originals right? Right.

So Damonand Elena had the plot armor of the protagonists.Which is a cope out because stories don’t write themselves. Julie Plec is the head writer so she is responsible for what happens in the narrative. If she can’t give the pay off to the storylines SHE creates then why create them in the first place? Write something else.

But then it was not just Damon, Elena, Stefan, Jeremy and I don’t know who else was it? It was a constant theme.

 Hayley betrays Klaus and Klaus doesn’t kill her. Instead he gets to have sexwith her out of nowhere. And I would not mind half as much as I did if it was not so contradictory to Klaus’ character. Not the having sex part. But everything else that was disregarded to make this happen because Julie Plec had a baby fever mania. We are talking about a thousand years obsession that defined Klaus’ character. We cannot rationalize Klaus’ character as we would with a human. He had lived a thousand years and breaking his curse and creating his army was the very premise of his character in its core. The only goal he had for centuries was to break his curse and create hybrids. That was how he entered TVD and how his character was defined. Anyone getting in the way of that and he would kill them and everyone they have ever met more so if they would use his obsession against him manipulating him and tricking him into doing what they wanted and taking all control from him. More so if that created a chain of reaction that ended to his brother’s death. Those may not correlate completely but in Klaus’ mind certainly would. Then to top all that will more stupidity Klaus the insane manic control freak learns about Hayley expecting an impossible spawn and it is a situation that involves witches that are his enemy and…Lo and behold Katherine Pierce that is an arch nemesis of his is involved too and Klaus does not doubt the validity of the claim they are making with the chucky bun Hayley – the most trustworthy person he had ever met- is cooking in her oven. Sure that makes so much sense. But it didn’t matter. None of that mattered because in her mind Julie Plec had to get to the plot point she wanted and for that to happen nothing else mattered. Logic, consistency, any reason at all. How could people expect the spin off to make any sense when for making it happen in the first place all elements that made the Originals what they were had to be erased and deleted? You can’t get something illogical and expect to find logic in it or to make it logical when this is where everything had to be based to begin with. Like can we think about this for just a hot second here? We were about to get a show about the Originals that in order to happen the writers turned the Originals OOC and had to change them so to transition them to THEIR OWN SHOW. What was the point of making a spin off about the Originals (title and all) if you are going to alter them to something unrecognizable? That’ what the fans fought for? That’s what they wanted? No. But what the fans wanted didn’t matter in the end. 

And then let us get to the whole Silas’ mess. Doppelgangers here there everywhere. The big fuck you to the narrative that ruined both TVD and TO for me at once. It really made S2 of TVD pointless. It made the Originals seem like idiots. What was the point of Elena being the doppelganger and Klaus waiting for a millennia and chasing Katherine for centuries if there were available doppelgangers in every corner in every generation and year? What was the point of the curse and the moon curse, of all that intricate planning and of everyone working for Elijah and Klaus and being on the look out when it was practically raining doppelgangers every second day? How much of an IDIOT do you have to to be when everyone fears you and you have limitless resources, time and power and yet you miss THAT? Julie Plec took control not even a year after Kevin left and in one fell swoop she destroyed years of plot, mythology and narrative for no reason.

Klausfearing Silas would make sense. For many reasons. Being fearful does not mean being submissive. In Klaus’ case it means that he would get back on arms. One he does take pride at being the most powerful creature on earth. He would not allow anyone to take the mantle because that would mean he would be in danger. But also one defining trait of Klaus’ persona is that he is paranoid to a fault. Hissurvival goes above anything and everyone. This was why he was trying to createa Hybrid army in the first place. He didn’t want to be alone but he also wanted to be on the winning team. Creating his hybrids was intertwined with Mikael. It was defining him. Klaus wanted to create his own race. To get to the top of the food chain. To not be an abomination. To make all the pain he endured for a thousand years worth something. To take vengeance against Mikael. To not be the “boy” his father hunter and his family saw as the black sheep. To shame his father’s legacy. To be the bastard that became a King. The kind of King that creates his own supremacy world wide. To redefine nature. To become the patriarch of his own legacy and not be ashamed for his bloodline anymore. To be proud. To shield himself from his enemies. To makehimself untouchable. Unbreakable. To win the war without having to go to war.For his enemies to fear him so much that they would tremble only at the mentionof his name. Klaus has displayed fear in the past. Especially when it came toMikael. So what did Klaus do when he faced a weakness? He carted his siblingsinto coffins and withdrew himself from the world where no one would find himand plotted and bought time. He used his brain. He became unreasonably affectedby paranoia. Everyone else became collateral damage.

Klaus had asuperiority and inferiority complex all at once. He would not serve Silas buthe would try to find a way to not be backed in a corner. Back up plan for theback up plan. He would manipulate, he would lie, he would beguile, he wouldthreaten, he would use magic, violence, he would seduce witches to his bidding,he would ally himself with the devil if he had to, he would use Silas to getwhat he wanted making Silas believe he was using him, he would outsmart thevillain and be the better villain. Klaus in S2 was perceptive and a force ofnature that had survived for a thousand years by being several steps ahead. He was astrategist and a nightmare. Klaus in S4 was admittedly an idiot. The onlymoments that made a lick of sense was when Klaus massacred his hybrids andlater on after Kol’s death he admitted that he always planned to get the cureand kill everyone else when he would have his hands on it because he only usedthem as pawns so to get the cure himself and stop anyone from using it againsthim. After the way his hybrids plans had ended (which made no sense to end so abruptly but I digress) Klaus was ready to clear theboard and destroy anyone that destroyed his dreams. And that meant anyone thatstood in his way. Which was of course all words and no action or pay off.  

But whatmade no sense even with Klaus’ obvious brain damage in the end is that Silaswas planning to drop the veil and release the other side. Now Klaus in S2 wouldsee the coin from both sides. One side would be a chance to bring Kol back but theother? The other would have him running for the hills. He would find ways tothwart Silas’ plans. Because the other side breaking down meant that everyoneKlaus had ever killed, torture and mistreated would return with a vengeance.More importantly Esther and Mikael would return. That was motive enough forKlaus to arm himself and go against Silas. To become paranoid once more. Toburn the world if he had to so to stop his parents and especially Mikael from returning. Klaus was hunted by Mikael for a 1000 years. He was terrified ofhim. That terror and the daddy issues ran deep into a limitless void for Klaus Mikaelson. More so killing Mikael was a personal victory, the ultimate triumph, forKlaus and there would be no universe in existence where Klaus Mikaelson wouldallow anyone to take that away from him.

And whatdoes he do? He goes to New Orleans and forgets all about Silas and thepossibility of his father returning from the grave. In what world would KlausMikaelson ever do that? In what world would Klaus throw a tantrum about beingKing of a mere city and needing an heir (seriously....) when his worst nightmare was about tobe released again and the only thing that stood between his worst nightmarecoming to life was the Mystic Fall gang? It made no sense whatsoever. There wasnot even a shred of characterization that was left in Klaus by the time season4 came to an end. They literally gave him a lobotomy to create a spin off NOONE WANTED because the one EVERYONE WANTED was the one Julie Plec never wanted.

And mindyou they were preparing the spin off ever since the summer before S4 started.They had time to organize and give a plausible story. But the only thing theycame up with was a baby fever that demanded Klaus to be brain dead in order towork out and of course had to kill Kol after having him mention New Orleans (insult to injury!) because he was too dark for a mature adult diaper show about… the Originals. A so dark series where in Julie Plec’s book Klaus had to stop being the villain to get his own show. So he had to be contained and become domesticated. Because Julie Plec has certain archetypes of characters she works with. The logical thing to do with the Originals was to take Klaus as the villain he was and in the way he was loved by the fans and make him a more nuanced villain and the villainous protagonist. There was no need for any kind of redemption. If it ain’t broken why fix it? Just dig deeper into the layers and relish in the opportunities the genre provides. The Vampire lore gives countless examples of how this works. Dracula, Lestat, etc. This is still the horror genre. There was no point for baby redemption nonsense but that seems to be Julie Plec’s ultimate fantasy and truly she obviously doesn’t care or understands this genre.

And thenthere were people asking me why I was not giving TO a chance and was so sure itwas going to be a mess and I was like…really? Like REALLY? Where have you beenduring season 4?

[thelastraigeki]

Why I RP as Yautja and Turtles

I said that I was going to be writing up something which explains why I play certain races in roleplaying which don't fit into certain genres or criteria? Well, this is going to be that post. I'm not really having anything structured, so this is all done on the spot. I just feel like I have to seriously explain myself to myself and maybe others who want to understand my way of thinking and doing things.

For those of you who know me personally, I've been living a double life. One in the outside world, and one behind a keyboard and monitor. I am a free-form text roleplayer. I assume the name, face, and actions of a character and have them interact in a world of make-believe. Sort of like Dungeons and Dragons but without a set system. For my fellow roleplayers... you know who I am, what I do and everything. So, where do we begin?

I've always was different, always had to be different, especially growing up. When I recall my days in elementary to high school, I've never really made an effort to be part of a scene in particular. I was a drifter, a loner with a few friends. So, I think... this also plays in part to why I play certain races such as the Yautja, better known as the Predators of the film franchise of the same name, and the crossover franchise, Alien vs. Predator. And more recently, I have been playing a TMNT OC.

I began roleplaying sometime around 2001 and I started out in the AOL chatrooms. Back then the big thing was anime (still is by the way) and everything was Dragonball Z chats. Everyone was a Saiyan or some... Saiyan with mixed heritage. For me, it got pretty annoying and I decided to do something different... I also was seeing a lot of bishounen or bishoujo type characters. Flawless characters who were boinkable or modelsque who had powers which were planet busting. No flaws. So, I decided to RP as something which most would find ugly or not traditionally aesthetically appeasing. I also wanted to have some really nasty tech. So, I decided to RP as a Predator.

My way of thinking is why do what everyone else is doing? Be different. Break the mold. Yes... I know, it sounds like I want to be that special snowflake.

So I go to other rooms, and they were more or less the same as the AOL chats. SMC being one of them, and to my surprise it was like high school. Very much full of cliques, sometimes elitists. Yeah, that place didn't leave me with a good taste and I still did what I did-- play a Predator character in there while everyone was either this Saiyan-Angel, Saiyan-Demon, Saiyan-Unicorn-Vampire-Dragon... whatever. That's not to say I haven't made a few friends there but... they're far and few between.

Shortly thereafter when SMC died (Thank God...) I was introduced to the SRI. Now, I had a hard time getting my character in there because was a no-tech rule enforced by someone who hadn't been in the room for YEARS and it had to be reminded to me by it's players. I still brought my Predator character in. Why and how? In my mind, regardless if a world is more primitive and set in a certain time period, there is NOTHING stopping an extraterrestrial presence from dropping by and checking it out. I mean, if you believe in UFOs and Extraterrestrials, they stop by on our backwater planet ALL the time, so why not another, lesser developed world? The no-tech rule was still enforced, and I remember doing well without the more advanced gear for Rakai'Thwei-- and he took on some heavy hitters without his cloaking device or his plasma caster.

By now, more people started getting used to me... more friendships were started and some... eventually genuinely liked the character of Rakai'Thwei. Why? Hard to say but I'm glad to know that people loved and still love him. It makes me feel good that other player controlled characters off-handedly mention him in good memory... or bad, as Rakai has hunted A LOT of magic users who were also bishoujo or bishounens and SUCCEEDED.

Over the years more chatrooms were made, most of them pretty generic as they mostly revolved around a lake and a forest. And I still played Rakai'Thwei and his clan over there in those places. By then people knew me as "That Predator Guy". Or something... Hey, at least I wasn't a cookie cutter bishoujo or bishounen. Again, why do what everyone else is doing?

So, for a few years I was making my own chatrooms but they were meant to break the monotony of the fantasy medieval genre. My first room was AVP: Forever Hunt-- and it was set in a colony installation. It got very little traction. So sometime after that, I believe... four years after, I was approached to admin a room called Warzone and it was set in modern Earth... For a while it was doing good but there were falling outs with members and admins, and I was ousted of my position. But I was proud of it, there were little to no magical bishoujo or bishounens, or folks with unbeatable god-like power.

Now, I know what your asking... Phil, why didn't you make your own chatroom? Well, I did... It was called City of Shadows, and it drew inspirations from World of Darkness, Alien vs Predator, Marvel, DC, Street Fighter and other things. For a while, the room was pretty successful. All the way up to 2008 to 2012. But I think what contributed to it's fall was that... I let a certain crowd from the CBUB into the room, and one of them was making too many chatrooms and formed an exodus. Basically, all my players were stolen. But my world was different, my world was something meant to break away from the whole fantasy-medieval, sword and spell thing. And if you were a magic user in that world, which are allowed but you were a minority and the world and it's inhabitant would have a violent backlash. It was also set in Philadelphia, and if it was ever at all unwelcoming... well.. that's because it's A reflective part of the city itself, and the world we live in.

I deleted the chatroom in 2013 and then later on recreated as Philadelphia: City of Shadows. It has gotten little to no traction since. I think we all know why...

So years later on, the SRI is revived again... Why? I don't know. I bring Rakai back or rather... the current, main interpretation of him from Philadelphia: City of Shadows. The SRI Universe version of Rakai was later retconned into being a separate entity, who left the world of Spyradion. This one did what the SRI Universe version was unable to do... and his tech still worked (although the no tech rule MIGHT have been loosened up or no one was around to enforce it) to do enough damage to player characters. After he returned to his universe... I didn't know what to do.

So, I brought my TMNT OC in.... I love Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and this character has... had something of difficulty in being accepted in other rooms. Particular for the way he is played. I don't play the 1980s Toon TMNT in mind... No, I play with the 1984 Mirage comics in mind... where the TMNT were angry and violent because they were reflective of the world which Eastman and Laird created.

He was also a character of few words because in two chatrooms he existed in, he was in ninja mode 24/7. He had to be. One chatroom called Dice Masters was set in a weird... cosmic setting... I don't remember too much of it, and I quite damn well don't care. All I remember is that there was one player who bitched at me because of my formatting and I just decided to not return. Another room was called Operation Syndicate which was a room that drew inspirations from Mad Max, Hokuto No Ken and other series which... I don't know but I was welcomed with open arms. For a while, I could play Giger Van Gogh as the ninja he should be-- a silent vigilante who resorted to lethal and permanent methods to deal with his enemies. Unfortunately, there were some complaints from fellow players that the character was unrelatable, overly violent, and generally anti-social. Considering the world that room was set up with... He HAD to be. You wanted to approach him? Go ahead. You wanted to be friendly with him? Earn his trust...

Then I was banned from the room for simply playing the character the way I wanted him played because an admin was quite fearful that I was going to have him off her characters. That and I made a joke regarding the Starwatcher hunt which happened in the  SRI in 2001 - 2002.

Now in the SRI... he doesn't HAVE to be in ninja mode 24/7, because there are weirder things than a mutant Turtle who is a ninja. So he is much more approachable. He sort of fits in... but he doesn't considering his origins and period of time he's from. That, and there's the Symbiote. The reason why I brought the Symbiote in was to better deal with some player characters, and it was inspired by a game mechanic in Heroclix. Yes, in that game, I have played Symbiote bonded TMNT.

But in comparison to other characters, Rakai'Thwei included, Giger Van Gogh is an under-dog type character. Underpowered compared to many others, despite having the Symbiote which boost his speed, strength, stamina, durability and what not. His weaknesses are exploitable and I've noticed an increasing number of characters now wielding sound magic. Coincidence? But I like Giger Van Gogh, as he sort of makes me have to approach things in a different way... I have to sort of Batman my way in doing things.

Every now and then I get asked: "Well, why don't you make something that fits in? People will flock to you."

My answer to this is: Everyone else is doing it. Personally, I don't like to play humans because I see them as fairly weak in comparison to many races unless they are Street Fighter types-- and I play one in my own chatroom where she belongs. I don't like playing Elves because in my opinion, most of them play them as either hoity toighty tree hugging hippies and they are way too aesthetically pleasing. I've been asked to play one before from one player... did it, and I didn't like it. Angels? Too pious. Demons? Never saw the appeal... that and I just feel like most people play them wrong (they aren't handsome bishounen... See Zozo for an example) unless they're incubi or succubi. Werewolves? Who hasn't done that? Vampires? BOR-ING! Especially with how Bram Stoker, Anne Rice and Stephanie Meyer tailored them over the years. They should be mindless, raging, blood thirsty monstrosities... like seen in 30 Days of Night.

So... I chose to play a Yautja because I liked the physical differences they have from humans, the superhuman abilities which they had back before all this PREDATORS and Prometheus bullshit came out. And they had some really wicked tech to boot. I choose to play a TMNT because they are something which I happened to have grown up with, and they're still pretty powerful but not overly so as say a Yautja. Plus, neither side are aesthetically pleasing... and they don't use magic, which I feel is very over-rated and over used.

I like being different. Why do what everyone else is doing?