#yeah no I actually felt like dogshit

[shortcakelils]

felt a bit sad so I made them miserable

[laikahh]

[pixiescoffeeshop]

♡ ⑅˚₊ going soft on me, hargreeves ? PART ONE.

a five hargreeves multi-fic . . 🌻🕰️ — intro.

warnings : minor cursing .ᐟ mentions of blood.

author’s note : MOSTLY BASED THIS OFF RAPUNZEL READER because tangled is my favorite movie and she’s literally me 🙈 (atp this is a self-insert) AHH but also almost like harley quinn-ish? BUT WHATEVERR happy reading cuties <3

five wiped the blood off his face with his navy blue jacket’s sleeve. his siblings all feeling and looking defeated against the sparrows.

“i’ve never had my ass handed to me like that before.” luther spoke faintly, five squinted under the sun in attempts to relax his body off from that spur of the moment fight. “it’s like,” luther spoke again. “here you go.” he motioned his hands at a confused allison. “it’s your ass.”

despite the pain, five couldn’t get his mind off one of the sparrows. the younger one, with the upbeat personality. he was too busy fighting jayme, but he was incredibly intrigued by her. he could watch her fight diego and allison for a bit, with her own powers. — which was light manipulation.

during the fight, five watched her play with her hands and the light that poured in the hargreeves’ mansion as a distraction for her siblings.

viktor sat by five, “someone’s crushing.”

“yeah, me.” diego replied, stretching his back.

allison rolled her eyes, “i don’t think that’s what viktor meant.” she moved her eyes towards five, who stared at all of them like they were crazy. “a real delight that number eight was, wasn’t she?” klaus commented with a light-hearted laugh. “let’s just find a place to stay, yeah?” five rolled his eyes.

— 𐙚₊˚⊹ ⭐️

five needed a break from his siblings. the hotel klaus had found for them wasn’t half bad, but the coffee they served was complete, and in his words : ‘dogshit.’ which was the only downside of it all really. a very big downside.

five walked into griddy’s donuts in attempts to get a decent cup of coffee. he sat down and waited for her order to be taken when, “umbrella asshole?” one of the waiter’s asked him. it was number eight, just in a diner uniform, and holding a pitcher of coffee.

she looked at him confused. “what are you doing here?” five furrowed his brows, “i should be asking you that.” he retorted. she gave out a big smile at that. “okay ‘ya grump, i work here, actually!” she gave a charming wink as she poured him a cup of coffee.

“i take it you’re a black coffee kinda guy?” her voice overlaping the sound of the coffee pouring in. he took the cup and sipped, “am i suppose to be flattered by that observation?” he asked upon putting the cup down. “i’m just very curious is all.” he fought the urge to mirror her infectious smile.

“also, it’s not just number eight, it’s (name). or — (nickname) if you want.” if it was possible, she smiled brighter. how can anyone be so cheery? five thought to himself. also, why isn’t she kicking my ass right now? “anything to eat for you?” she pulled her pretty and sticker-covered notepad out.

he shook his head, “not hungry. far too much things on my mind.” he tapped his foot on the ground. (name) watched him, his anxious stance and his constant worried eyes. “wait here, yeah?” she spoke before running off to the back of the diner. five watched her rush away, only to come out a few moments later with a plate of waffles, eggs, and a few slices of strawberries.

she placed the plate before him, the maple syrup on top with a smiley face. “what’s this?” he asked with a dead-panned expression planted. (name) shrugged as she sat across him, “my treat, silly.” she beamed another smile at him.

five was hesitant, but took the fork from beside the plate and started digging in. his eyes grew wide at the taste, it was delicious. it felt like being home again. “it’s mom’s recipe. nobody really calls her mom besides me, they make fun of me for it.” she giggled lightly.

five looked at her, “it’s really good.” after five finished he put the fork on the plate and put it away. “thank you! also, i’m very sorry for this five.” she cackled a little more, a confused five realized his mistake and stood up, the girl began fighting him.

she attempted to punch him on the side of his face, but he dodged it with his forearm. he returned the attacked with a kick to her face, blood oozing out of her might-be broken nose. she laughed, impressed, wiping the blood off with her fingers. they began fighting more, to which people inside had run off and evacuated.

(name)’s boss continued to yell at her to stop, but (name) knew damn well she wasn’t going to stop. she hit five in the stomach with her knee, five hunching over, and (name) continued with a back-kick on the side of his face. five coughed before pushing her into the table.

“you fight real good, for a seventeen year old.” she spat the blood out of her mouth on the floor. “and you fight really weak for a girl who can manipulate light.” five time-jumped on the table she’d collided her back with, and tried to kick her once again on the face, but to his surprise only met a blinding light.

and once five was distracted trying to find his vision again, (name) pulled his feet out to get him on his back. five landed with a thud! the pain rising from the bottom of his ass to his back. “lunch is served!” her laugh echoed across the diner. five time-jumped again, under the counter.

(name) looked for him, her platforms clanking on the ground. “where are you five? we’re not done here yet, grump.” she sang, another laugh escaping her lips. she spat another puddle of blood out of her mouth. five panted heavily, trying to catch his breath.

this girl was crazy. how could she be laughing at a time like this? and how was it that she was killer fighter? “come on five, you going soft on me hargreeves?” she walked the place around a little bit more. is that why diego and allison looked that bad after the fight back at the mansion? because of her?

“there you are handsome.”

[restinslices]

How do you think earth realm boys would be like around their crush?

Haven’t made moodboards for them so this is all I got rn

Johnny Cage

He would be incredibly shy 

^ That's something I would say if I lost it 

Am I suffering from lack of sleep? Yes. Have I lost the plot? No. 

Johnny is a huge flirt. He was flirting with Kitana and he hardly knew her 

And I'm pretty sure a lot of his MK1 intros is just him flirting or being a little shit 

So with that being said it’s obvious to everyone 

It’s obvious at least that he finds you attractive. The problem would be trying to figure out whether he’s just being Johnny or if he actually likes you 

Which would be difficult 

He flirts, he makes sly jokes, he says how much you should be with him and that he could totally handle you, how great you’d be together and a whole bunch of other shit

Like I said though, the main problem would be knowing if he’s joking or not 

But I think if you simply asked “dude, are you joking?” He’d say “no” immediately 

But Johnny’s eyes tend to wander so you wouldn’t be wrong for being hesitant 

It’d be dogshit if you were just his distraction for the month 

You’d know he’s serious though because he keeps going for months 

Obviously you’ve encountered other attractive people but he doesn’t seem to care about them and his eyes are always on you 

A model could walk by and he’d be too busy pulling your chair to notice 

That’s how you’d know he’s serious. It’s been months and he’s still focused on you? 

Whether or not you share those same feelings is a different story 

Kenshi Takahashi 

Probably one of the hardest to tell 

Idk if this is a headcanon I made up or if it’s canon but I feel like Kenshi is good at hiding certain emotions 

If it’s an emotional moment then yeah, it could slip but this is something more casual 

He wouldn’t say anything but he’d do things for you 

You’d mention you haven’t had time to cook because you’ve been busy and he’d offer to help with whatever 

He’d ask your opinion on stuff first as well 

As friends he makes sure you’re included but it’s even more so if he has a crush (this is not correct English but I cannot think of how else to put this)

One of the other guys would make some joke about him being in love and he’d look at them in a way that would let them know they were right 

Kenshi is not 10 so trying to blackmail him won’t work 

His eyes are always on you and even though he knows he shouldn’t be jealous of other people that are close to you, he can’t help it 

There’s two voices in his head. One says “just tell them”, the other says “you’re gonna mess up your friendship”

So he’d continue to be a little butler lowkey until he actually felt like he had to get a move on 

If someone showed genuine romantic interest in you, then he’d start moving 

He’s either gonna be stereotypically sweet and get flowers and shit or he’s just gonna ask you out at a random time 

Like I said, whether or not you accept his invitation is up to you 

Dude is probably tense as fuck the entire time he’s asking 

Kung Lao

Similar to Johnny 

Kung Lao has such an inflated sense of self, you not liking him makes no sense to him 

Does that mean he just tells you right away though? No

There’s lots of things that make no sense and happen anyway so he plays it safe 

And by safe I mean he is incredibly obvious but doesn’t just straight up tell you 

Lots of flirting and lingering looks 

He does a lot of extra shit then looks to see if you saw it 

It’s like when a kid does a cartwheel then looks to make sure their parents saw them 

He also straight up asks for compliments 

“That was a really good kick, right?”

Sure Kung Lao

He likes compliments way better from you now

He kinda acts the same because everyone knows he has a big head but the flirting makes it obvious 

And Raiden definitely knows. Kung Lao told him because why wouldn’t he?

Anyone joking about stealing you away bothers him a lot more than he’d like to admit 

He’s both “I’m Kung Lao. You have no chance” and “but what if they do have a chance?”

Admits his feelings way sooner than Kenshi 

Probably does it extremely casual too just to rip the bandaid off 

You’re standing next to each other and he’s like “we should go on a date on Friday”

Well since you asked so nicely-

Who’s turning down Kung Lao? Let’s be fr for a second 

Raiden

Doesn’t he like Kitana and it was incredibly subtle? I only found out because of intros 

So with that being said, I think it would be difficult to tell 

He’d act the same way he does as your friend 

I think his fear of messing up your friendship would be higher than everyone else 

So he doesn’t say anything 

In a different post I said he’d give you produce as a gift and I think that’s still the same here 

He’s gonna still have the hookup so food is a frequent gift he gives you to show his affection 

He also offers to do tasks for you 

When it comes to training, he’s probably noticeably softer towards you 

His excuse is “oh, I didn’t notice I was doing that”

It’s a terrible lie 

Everyone at some point finds out because he’s constantly staring at you and is soft towards you 

Raiden is a pretty calm person but he’d actually strangle Kung Lao if he said anything. He’d get a toddler’s grip 

You’d probably find out about it from the other guys instead of him 

And you’d think they’re just fucking around like they always do 

Raiden still refuses to confess. He doesn’t wanna confess then lose you completely 

And tbh he’d probably take so long, you’d get into other relationships and he’d just watch 

Finally though after 279373 years he’d confess which would free him from his emotions and Kung Lao harassing him 

Liu Kang

I think there’d be two stages to this 

The first stage is “I’ll just ignore it”

During this stage he’ll try to ignore his feelings for you because bullshit comes after Liu Kang constantly and dragging you into that is something he definitely doesn’t wanna do 

There’s a good chance you were in the previous timeline and you died horribly so he wants to stay away so he doesn’t fuck up this new life for you 

During this time he’d compliment you on your skills and be a lot more patient with you when it comes to you screwing up (which is something everyone does)

He either involves you in a lot of missions of sidelines you so you won’t be hurt 

Which is kinda shitty because that means he’s sending other people into dangerous situations 

Soon after this stage, he enters the second stage 

This stage is the “fuck it” stage 

Liu Kang does not have a good history when it comes to romance 

He was way too slow and lost Kitana (multiple times I think. I don’t remember what happened in the dlc in MK11) and now in this timeline, Kitana has no memory of them and has no feelings for him. Then he saw his Kitana but they can’t be together. 

Because of this he realizes that he has to start moving quicker and prioritizing his happiness 

So he just asks 

It’s better to hear “no” than to always wonder what could’ve been 

But bitch who is turning down Liu Kang? Don’t be stupid 

He’d probably take you to a secluded spot and say how he feels and ask you to go on a date with him 

It seems like it came out of nowhere but if you review what’s happened between you two, it’ll start to make sense 

[sometipsygnostalgic]

i'm losing my mind how are there STILL ACTIVE CATRA HATE BLOGS it's been FOUR YEARS how are you still this mad about a female abuse victim!!!!!! how do you STILL not get it!!!!!!!!!!

I have been in enough fandoms to understand that some of the people who stick around the longest are those who act the most scarred after watching the media. It's like stockholme syndrome. Or it's like hating the thing is what gives them drive in the world.

I have also been on the other side of this. I remained a Homestuck blog for a whole four years after the ending made me depressed about Terezi Pyrope, even lasting an additional year and a half after the dogshit epilogues released, through to the demise of Hiveswap and Homestuck^2, before I realised enough was enough and let Adventure Time give me sanctuary again.

But Homestuck had its Gamzee fans who hated the comic and fandom, Adventure Time had its Lemongrab fans who hated the show and fandom, and it seems She-ra has its fair share of antis.

The She-ra antis consist of the following groups, from my observation:

Former fans who got obsessed with some other show and have to bash She-ra because it ain't cool anymore. Usually Owl House fans but can be from anywhere. Their hate is universally connected to propping something else up, and is never done in isolation.

Hordak fans who hate Catra and maybe every other character and crew member and the show. There are a lot of the reverse, Catra fans who hate Hordak, which is part of why this group is so persistent, as a "counter" to this Hordak hate. However, the Catra fans who are Hordak antis MOSTLY do not hate the show (they are just... out of touch with it and generally have bad takes). I've seen one or two extreme cases of Catra apologists accusing Adora, Scorpia, and even Entrapta of abuse, but they were completely alone in their feelings. The Hordak fans who hate Catra tend to also hate Glimmer, Mermista, Adora, Bow, and say that the show is ableist or whatever, but they do not actually harbor much love for Entrapta. Her victimisation is an excuse for their behaviour and they have no understanding of her chaotic character. Do not interact.

Glimmadora fans (the ones who purely seem to exist to make 'Spop Is Abusive' posts). Why the fuck Glimmadora fans hate the show so much, I do not understand. But these are probably the most In-Your-Face of these three groups. While the Hordak fans mentioned above have a lot of similarity to Homestuck Gamzee fans or Adventure Time Lemongrab fans in the weird way they'll hate on the show for doing their blorbo wrong, Glimmadora fans don't have that evidence because they don't really care about Glimmer or Adora. They have absolutely nothing to say about the show, other than that it is Bad. My theory on these Glimmadora fans is that they really liked the Glimmer and Adora ship on a superficial level, and then the show decided to have its Deeper Themes and give Catra and Adora a messy, complicated relationship. There was a lot happening after season 3 where people went "CATRADORA IS REALLY ABUSIVE AND CATRA IS HORRIBLE AND YOU SHOULDNT SHIP HER WITH ANYONE". This period was SO fucking harmful to the fandom that it never recovered, so much work was lost and deleted from AO3. People would say "Glimmadora is a much better ship anyway". But then when season 4 rolled around and, uhh, Glimmer was acting like a little shit all season (for good reason but she really fucked things up with Adora), and Glimmadora crumbled into ash? Well the Glimmadora truthists felt like the show was working against them and that Season 5 was a grand conspiracy to make the Abusive ship Catradora canon!!! The funniest part of this is I sympathise a lot with these feelings. I used to be a Glimmadora truther myself when I watched the show in fall 2021. I was like, "wow, look how nice this ship is. And they go with catradora in the end?? Fucking HOW???". But then seasons 4 and 5 happened and.... yeah, I was disappointed with how Glimmer and Adora's friendship ended up, but I was ENAMORED by the messiness of Catra's character and how raw her and Adora felt about each other even in spite of all the bullshit. I never made excuses about the show being abuse apologising. I analysed it purely in how believable the relationships were and what the intentions of the characters are.

Of these groups, the ones responsible for the most actual SPOP Anti blogs are undoubtedly the Glimmadoras. The only time I've seen something similar, so many antis appearing, was because of Steven Universe ship wars. You have NO IDEA how petty people feel about Lapidot, Amedot, all the dots, all the amethysts. A crew member was chased off the internet over it, or left the internet over the show's own decisions, depending on whether you believe the """screenshots""" that were taken of Zuke's ""private blog""".

[yuurivoice]

since you love to write, does your job ever feel like actual work? Kinda like that saying “if you love your job, you’ll never work a day of your life.” Kinda question.

also, how much free time do you normally have?

It felt like actual work from pretty early on. The moment I crossed over from doing it for funsies to sometimes taking commissions I didn't really feel strongly about for money, it was work.

I've had to drag my ass into the booth and record on days when I couldn't even take care of my basic needs because of ADHD struggles, and that sure felt like work.

I've had to write like absolute dogshit and just accept it because I had deadlines and people waiting on me. That felt like work.

I've had to spend hours breaking down different shots needed for visual projects, like a caveman painting on a wall for a renaissance artist to reference. That definitely felt like work.

I've had to deal with community moderation, personal betrayals of trust, harassment, goddamn pr crises, tax nightmares, and shipping hundreds of orders by hand. That was work.

That old cliche of if you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life is a crock of shit. But all of that being said, even though it is work, and even though it can be really difficult sometimes?

Wouldn't trade it for the world. There is no other calling for me, my heart is not satisfied if I am not telling stories, and for some reason the universe decided that this was the path forward. I didn't plan on it. I never loved voice acting, but I learned to. I wish there was less bullshit over the years that robbed me of my joy. I wish I wasn't fighting my brain for so much of the time I've been doing this.

But the good will always outweigh the bad.

It's a dream fulfilled. I never needed or wanted to be some sort of massive sensation, or have broad renown or appeal. I didn't need to become a best selling author, or create a hit video game, or do anything like that. I am happy that I've found even a small group of people who love to get lost in my worlds, or spend time with my characters, or hear them get railed in pumpkin patches.

I get to experience the magic of creating something I didn't know was within me. Again and again. Projects like BitterSweet, Shattered, and Echoes of Evalas are precious to me because of the wondrous feeling creating those stories gives me. They could all flop, and I'd do it anyway.

I was creating art when no one was ever there to listen or watch. In that regard, it's never been work. It is a function of my existence. I was made, raised, and shaped to tell stories. It's the one thing I can do. At a table of friends, an audience of hundreds, or on long drives by myself. It's like breathing. It just happens.

Being able to call it work is a privilege. I'm thrilled that I've got the chance to work. I'm happy that I even have the opportunity to have days where I have to push myself. Because it has given me more than I've ever thought it could. I was on food stamps living with family under constant threat of getting kicked out. I was lonely, isolated, and scared of the world. I was considered lazy.

Finding my lane, getting traction, and thriving was something I considered out of reach. I was ready to tap out and accept that I just wasn't quite right for life. Like maybe I just didn't have all the right parts. I was okay with it, even. I was tired.

So yeah. It's work. But I spent a long time desperate to find work I was suited for, and with a lot of recent life changes I've removed many of those points of friction that would make it tough to work. So I'm thrilled.

And that, my friends, is what happens when you ask a professional yapper if they love yapping. 😂

As for free time, it's hard to say. So much of what I do being my own boss and shit, plus creative stuff just constantly churning in my brain, I struggle to clearly define what is and is not "free time". I basically have to be on call. At any given moment something might need my attention, or creativity comes knocking. It's hard to completely disconnect.

I've done a good job of getting into the office about four times a week. That has helped me find some sort of balance, but even recent writing I've done was on my laptop at my little breakfast nook having coffee.

I think the big thing is, I can create my free time whenever I need or want to.

Anywho, this is why you don't open Tumblr when you wake up to pee in the middle of the night because then you spent 30 minutes staring at your phone writing a whole ass essay. I'm gonna go get out of bed and make something awesome now. 💖

[dead-salmon]

well guess fucking what?

even while they're getting backlash by jp fans, why change shit when they still get #1 in the playstore revenue?

at this point i feel like they actually have an eos planned and want to rack in as much revenue as possible before they will ngl

rant under the cut, my last piece on this because i have definitely been annoying everyone around me on both twitter&tumblr in replies&the tags with this

it's honestly so ridiculous that instead of listening to the playerbase to fix the issues they've had with getting new players, revenue (in regards to content releases), etc. they just decided to do this shit with the gacha. im not too surprised in the sense that it's a gacha, of course its predatory, however it's still a new fgo low.

and it's really just stupid, they put out surveys that they don't give a fuck about. remember when nasu&takeuchi were surprised in an interview that the interviewer asked them about summer medusa? a summer character that people have begged for for years? and they didn't even bother to consider it? literally, their business model is fucking dogshit.

they introduced the coin system and stopped doing reruns, and ever since then it just kept getting worse. and instead of, idfk, implementing qol updates that'd fix these issues, they just double down. again and again

i'm not all too surprised, but i sure as hell am annoyed by it. i love fgo, i love fate. i enjoy the story even if it's awful sonetimes. i love many of the events (the skadi summer was enjoyable enough, i loved the bakin dog event, gudaguda, etc). it's given me jiang ziya, one of my biggest comfort characters. it's given me so many characters i love. it's another piece of media that i get to enjoy with my big sister, it's a big talking and bonding topic for us! some of my favoirite mutuals (who i never talk to but still love to see in my notes sometimes) i found through fgo. and it's frustrating to see them just fuck it all up like this continually

yeah i'm not surprised, but still disappointed. will i stick around? idk, maybe. there's still things i like about the game, i want to finish the main story arc at least. maybe i'll stick around until the 10th anniversary, see how abysmally they fuck that one up. it's getting kind of laughable tbh, i definitely won't stick as many resources/time into this game anymore, but yeah

WOO IT FELT GOOD TO GET THIS OUT

[prettyboykatsuki]

extended authors note for another name for homesick

hey...lmao

first of all. i want to give a shoutout again to @ficsforgaza for hosting this event and giving me and my followers a nice way to fundraiser through our community. i just wanted a place to promote them and encourage people to donate and participate in the event. thank you for your hard work!

second, i'm writing this preemptively. i.e. before the fic is even finished. the way things are going right now, i have no doubt that i'm going to need some kind of authors note

this fic got more serious than i thought it would. which yeah, makes sense. i initially just planned on making this a horny fic with a little hint of bi4bi undertones but somewhere along the lines it started being about queerness and growing up on the whole.

there is definitely some sexism and homphobia relevant to omegaverse lore in here. there is also a lot of references to puberty.

specifically, though - there's a scene where reading experiences sexual harassment while very underage. and i felt that needed more context.

the scene itself is reader being on the train home while experiencing their first heat and their feelings of disgust in relation to their body's instinctual response to touch / sexual harassment by an older alpha.

i wondered if i should include this scene a lot before writing it but ultimately, it felt like betrayal to this readers struggles and characterization to not as it shapes their life and worldview.

the scene itself is not strictly necessary for you to read. it's intended to be more true to life in a way i know might be triggering so i will include an indicator for the scenes stop and start. but i wanted to give some explanation before that.

in general, i hope this fic doesn't upset anyone. i write a lot of incredibly dark content but it's very different imo to be writing something that handles such serious real life subject matter and i wanted to at least try to handle it with some level of delicacy.

it's really not my strong suit, nor is world building. im actually so dogshit at both its hilarious so imagine my horror and dismay when this fic won the poll. fdkjfskjd.

either way, i wanted to at least try to handle these themes with some care and i hope at the very least you can give me benefit of the doubt when it comes to how i've written.

this fic isn't meant to dismiss labels, but rather to emphasize that labels come secondary to acceptance and that love takes a lot of different forms. and i hope to any young queer people who don't full know which way they land that you're not obligated to put yourself in a box.

anyways. thank you for letting me yap and i hope you enjoy the fic. if nothing else, i hope the porn is hot.

love,

fang.

[neko-loogi]

Hey y'all, sorry I'm late but I'm back with another one of these Helluva Boss opinion thingies-

Alright so the new episode, to be honest I enjoyed it more than the previous ones but I have to admit it still has its flaws. So let's discuss that.

So there's the whole Ozzie and Fizz being together, being all lovey-dovey. And honestly? It's the cutest shit I've ever seen. Stolas and Blitzo wish they could have that lmao

I also wanted to point out that I absolutely love the aesthetic of the Lust Ring (well mostly because it's purple and blue with neon pinks, which is different from the usual red that Viv is so obsessed with-). My only complaint however?

Is that the background should be slightly darker because characters like Ozzie blend a little too well with them. I mean, I can understand why the background is bright and all that, but Viv just loves to make her characters be barely noticeable in the shot-

Now, there's a few things I don't like about this episode, for starters, the pacing was absolute dogshit. Like, everything went by so fucking fast, I had to often pause the episode several times just to look at shit in the background or just the scene in general. It was a hard episode to digest, really.

Another thing I found stupid and unnecessary was the whole Ozzie signing contracts with Stolas- it was very out of place and like, it honestly felt like they just added that to pat the run time. Not only that but, why couldn't Ozzie just go to the Greed Ring and beat the crap out of Crimson and his goons for kidnapping Fizz? Like, I was legit expecting Ozzie to go in and do some crazy shit but he didn't- he just stood there, signing a bunch of papers and for what?? Fr that shit was anticlimactic.

Then there's the "accident" that caused Fizz to lose his limbs and horns. Honestly the scene was somewhat impactful for me but at the same time it went by too fast. And not only that, I hate that Blitzo admits that it was his fault, yet he makes everything about himself like- COULD YOU NOT DO THAT, YOU FUCKING DIPSHIT??? And you know what makes me even more mad about this scene? Is the fact that Blitzo had feelings for Fizz and was going to confess to him- WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK? Istg can Viv stop making Blitzo being this uwu pathetic sad baby of an OC who fucks everything that breathes? (no wonder she made him canonically pansexual, it just shows-).

I also think it was stupid to make Fizz apologize to Blitzo- like, I don't care if what he did was an accident, that shit was fucked up. And it just seems so off that Fizz was all like "yeah you fucked me up and ruined my life but y'know what? I forgive you because plot reasons". I dunno man, it just doesn't sit well with me.

*Edit: I personally would've much preferred if Fizz didn't apologize to Blitzo, kinda like how his sister Barbie did. Where she just told him to fuck off and that she never wanted to see him again.

There's also the song that Fizz randomly sings at the end- it's terrible. I legit cringed the whole time while watching the entire scene. And finally uhh, Striker and Crimson working together was really stupid, it felt like a desperate attempt to make something look cool but it failed miserably.

Anyway, that's all. Thanks for reading, uh bye-

[toothedmammal]

Just got done watching Pluto (2023) and I got thoughts about them

For context, Pluto is an retelling of the Astro Boy arc "The Greatest Robot in the World" redone as a murder mystery/political intrigue type story, I feel like it did a really cool job trying imagine the sort of social and emotional things that would happen if humans really did share a world with sentient robots. Like it's very clear from the get go that robots in this world are capable of feeling emotions, even if the many of the humans they live with don't know or acknowledge that fact. I really like the way that Asmov's first law of robotics was implemented and interrogated, I really like how there were so many characters with unmoving faces yet still their emotions were conveyed by the dialogue and framing of the scene, theres a lot I like about Pluto and id highly recommend checking it out if you're into animation or sci-fi or robot stories!

...that being said, im not sure how familiar you need to be with the OG Astro Boy lore and worldbuilding for this story to make sense despite Astro/Atom not being super central to this version, there are places where things just aren't explained because of assumed familiarity with the source material, Uran's abilities and Atom's like...whole deal being big ones imo.

Overall I really liked Pluto (2023), there were parts that really fucking moved me, the fuckin arc with North No.2 made me close to tears ngl. I would recommend watching it, but I also have a few thoughts on the ending, which I've written below to try and sort them out. Spoilers below:

"Hate doesn't make anything [good]" is a good moral and all but are we just going to ignore the fact that all this bullshit started cause of the in universe version of the Iraq war? Cause the stand in for the US just fuckin invaded a sovereign nation under the guise of weapons of mass destruction and humanitarian/robotitarian rights violations and then just indiscriminately laid waste to everyone living there?

Maybe I shouldn't have expected a full on anti-imperialst/anti-colonial screed from what is at the end of the day an officially endorsed Astro Boy remake but the buildup really felt like it was going somewhere more profound and critical of the status quo than just "hate and revenge is bad"

Idk, I feel like the President of Thracia should have gotten more comupance than just a light strangling and a brief moment of existential dread, like that wouldn't fix anything realistically and would totally go against the moral of the story but at the same time like...if you want the cycle of hate and revenge to stop you do have to actually take measures to ensure that the people who set the war in motion can't just do that again later. At least show the president of Thracia being brought in front of the international court or something and imply that systemic change might happen. Which yeah would be unrealistic but idk if the end note is supposed to be one of hope for a better future where there is no more hatred, then showing some concrete steps to prevent the biggest superpower from just starting another war cause they feel like it would make that feel a bit more achievable.

I am overthinking an officially endorsed Astro Boy fanfiction, it made me mad. Maybe I just want to see at least a fictional version of my stupid bloodthirsty dogshit country face consequences for its genocidal actions.

I also still have no fucking idea what that teddy bear/Bitcoin mining rig was or how it effected any of the events in the plot. It was framed like a mastermind at the last minute but then no explanation was given, maybe it's a reference I'm missing to the OG Astro Boy story, or it was explained more in the Manga. Idk. I'll read the manga and see I guess.

[quietsamurai98]

So, thoughts on Doctor Who Season 1/14/40 now that it's over... MAJOR SPOILERS WITHIN!

It was... fine? I guess?

I've been doing a Doctor Who rewatch between the releases of the new episodes. Holding up the other seasons next to the new one throws some issues into sharp relief.

First and foremost, probably the root of most of the other issues... The episode count. The season was just way, way too short. Eight episodes (nine, including Church on Ruby Road) is just not enough time to fully flesh out the main characters and their relationship and dynamic, not enough time to build a cohesive storyline, and not enough time to pace the story correctly.

Second... I feel like the characters of the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby Sunday just weren't explored as thoroughly as they should've been, and definitely not the relationship/dynamic between the two, especially when one episode (Dot and Bubble) has the Doctor and Ruby practically off screen almost all episode, and another (73 Yards) has the Doctor off screen all episode and Ruby basically stripped of all agency. A few more episodes could've done wonders for letting the audience get to know the characters better.

Third... The lack of a cohesive storyline. Yes, there are some recurring things (Susan Twist cameos, the TARDIS growling, the snowing, the pantheon), but it really felt like you could basically take episodes 1 though 6 and shuffle them, with minimal changes made, and it wouldn't make much of a difference. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that something like that happened in production, and that Devil's Chord was originally meant to air significantly later in the season before being moved up for Reasons™.

IMO, the best single season of NuWho was season 10, with Twelve and Bill Potts. God, I loved that season. Bill is probably one of my favorite companions, Twelve was firing on all cylinders,The ongoing mystery of What's in The Vault?, the exploration of Missy's character, and the finale... Actually, let me talk about the finale a bit.

I feel like Empire of Death fell a bit flat for me because it had stakes so comically high that they wrapped right back around to being completely meaningless. If all life in practically the entire universe is ended, there are no stakes left, because you know it'll be undone by the end of the episode. The ending is a forgone conclusion right from the beginning. And I'm sorry, but the twist being "there was no twist! this mythical, extremely important, deeply mysterious character is just some woman!" is just a shitty twist. It's deeply unsatisfying. It's only a twist because people didn't expect the story to be bad. And yes, yes, I get it, "everyone is important, in nine hundred years of time and space and I've never met anybody who wasn't important before, etc", but we've already done that! Twice! Donna Noble and Clara Oswald!

Compare that with the finale of season 10. It had reasonable stakes, stakes that the show could afford to lose without having to retcon everything. It had a satisfying twist with Missy deciding to kill The Master, and then a double twist with The Master killing Missy right back. And then, most importantly, the Doctor loses. He's up against impossible odds, and for once, he actually fails. That's how you do a damn twist in a show that constantly has the Doctor pulling impossible wins out of his back pocket! Of course, that's not the kind of twist you can pull all the time, but still. It's engaging. You're not just sitting there wondering "Oh, how are they going to retcon the apocalypse this time?" So yeah... I'd prefer to see losable stakes in the future. Or at least, stakes that aren't so catastrophically high that the only resolution is "they're gonna have to retcon it within the episode somehow".

For as much complaining as I've done, overall, I have to say that 1/14/40 was fine. It was solid television. A good 7/10. Not an internet 7/10, where anything below an 8 is dogshit, but an actual 7/10. It was better than average, but still pretty middling.

[atticsandwich]

lesson 27 (non-spoilers)

man i know i said i was gonna save all my thoughts for this season until the end but like. i'm so disappointed at how they tackled satan's arc. i was so looking forward to it after mammon and asmo had decent exposition of their past + internal conflict. satan had such a solid premise going for him and it just kinda... fell off :/ too lazy to dive into spoiler territory but yeah don't expect too much if you haven't read through it yet.

the brothers were just kinda.... there and i wouldn't have minded them if they actually did anything of value but aside from the occassional semi-meaningful interjection (that mc could've more or less done on their own) their presence felt empty. if anything i think it should've only been mc + lucifer if they really wanted to go the "accompany mc" route since most of satan's internal conflict stems from his insecurities with lucifer

anyways. i hope the next arc is better. between this and the dogshit satan isekai event (that i'm still bitter about) i feel like they have no idea where to take his character, again, despite having such a solid foundation to work on

[nomouthedscream]

PREFACE: I AM A JAIDEN ANIMATIONS FAN, THIS IS NOT MEANT TO BE A HATE POST OR ANYTHING OF THE SORT, ITS JUST MY SUBJECTIVE FEELINGS AND SORT OF MUSINGS

Watched jaidenanimation's new video earlier today, and Im torn. Cause on one hand I feel really happy for her for having made it to 10 years, and I understand the desire to do something else after having done a job for a while, to just relax and be yourself and possibly even rediscover yourself. But also the life she described after youtube is just not a realistic one, even for normal people. Part of the reason the job market is so utterly dogshit is because they work really hard to try and pidgeonhole you into certain positions and actively punish you for going against it. An increasing number of companies are requiring 2-3 years work experience for entry level positions (I wish I was kidding). They don't like it when your most recent job was in a different industry, even if it was for college. And any sort of gap in employment is blamed upon your laziness and lack of work ethic.

And colleges get increasingly pickier about your qualifications and if you should get money the older you are because they want that space youre taking up for some 18 year olds who don't know how to bargain or finacially plan well. My college has a secondary college specifically for "adults" (people over 22). Ive only met about 10 people over 22 in classes, and all of them were seeking masters, doctorates, or work certifications. I have only ever met 2 people over 30 who I took classes with, one seeking a masters while the other was working towards getting a work certification. There are people out there who get bachelors late or second ones after their first set, but they are a rare breed, and often times they either have to have a lot of money on hand or have to be willing to go into debt.

And if you go the self owned buisness route, you have the exact same problem that jaiden complained about with youtube, which is that it never actually leaves your mind, it is always there, a shadow at the edge of your vision.

I just, I dunno, I love Jaiden's content and I'm really happy for her, and I think its kinda sweet she idolizes the simple life. But I also think this video sort of epitomizes the fact that the people who got to make youtube a full time job sort of believe they live in a different world totally separate from ours, and they don't really know what normal is, at least not at the point jaiden's at. It felt like when cottagecore was really popular and people talked about the ideal of "the simple life" or when people were obsessed with van life and a bunch of people then had to come out and say "NO, ITS NOT ALL SUNSHINE AND ROSES". Youtube is a job that changes your lifestyle, but so is... any job. My friend whos gonna start student teaching next semester feels like they can't swear anymore or else theyre gonna slip up. My friend who works as an auctioneer basically has no time for his social life anymore. I constantly have work and college looming in my mind, and I've been repeatedly told to be prepared to dedicate all my time to my work since Im going into a stem field. Its all just sort of a part of growing up and taking on adult life. It's just all work in one form or another. It's incredibly difficult to genuinely retire at a young age now adays so if you want to no longer do a job you're going to have to switch instead. And there is no shame in wanting a job change, but it is always important to recognize what such a change will entail and if you're willing to undergo the hardship you will have to endure to get any sort of reward from it. So... yeah.

Tldr: Jaiden's new 10 year anniversary video reminded me that people really do think the grass is greener on the other side.

[hazyla]

Woah woah, okay. So I just finished spirit of justic except for the special episode. Current thoughts from a foggy memory:

realizing this post is super long so it’s under the break, also soj spoilers

Implied that Phoenix and gumshoe correspond on their own when Phoenix mentions something to Edgeworth. When he’s questioned about it he just says something like “I have my sources…” and Edgeworth tells him to inform his source of a paycheck cut.

Even though Athena got a case of her own to do I feel like she didn’t have as strong of a presence and idk man balancing three lawyers kind of a crazy move

I found rayfa oddly charming because of her silly insults

Not utter dogshit but I see why people generally dont like dual Destinies and spirit of justice as much

My mom misses gumshoe

I did not call the queen being powerless like at all

if there’s another ace attorney game I want a dedicated scene about Apollo and Trucy getting told the truth

Hard to pick a favorite case but I think I liked case 2 and turnabout storyteller just bc it was pretty fun. Also can not believe Athena’s case was the super short filler one!

would’ve appreciated more Maya

cannot believe they just added on characters that were never previously mentioned. Oh yeah, there’s a secret fourth group gramarye member. Apollo? He actually has a brother and was left behind by his foster father at about fifteen or so.

Did the archaeologist guy just… steal a bunch of shit from Adrian’s exhibit? He had literally everything. Good god I wonder how he felt about that scroll having gravy on it

on the plane ride back why did Trucy sit (and fall asleep on) Edgeworth instead of idk her father. What did Athena really want to sit there or something. It’s very cute but also why

Actually Maya and Edgeworth should’ve sat next to eachother on the plane so they can debate about plumed punisher. “You gave away your one of a kind steal samurai themed watch FOR A RIPOFF KEYCHAIN” and then he throws her off the plane (personally, of the belief he would throttle ms inmee [not actually])

about that, it’s so funny to me that he ranted about the show to Datz, a guy he just met and is a revolutionary

Need to mention that Edgeworth’s cravat gets attacked by a dog, I don’t even have a comment I just need to iterate that fact

The breakdown scenes were fun and dynamic but idk I didn’t care for them that much

kind of thought they were gonna channel Apollo’s dad Jove fucking justice

It was funnier when I, for a split second, assumed that since nobody knew the name of his father that Apollo chose his last name to be Justice.

just now realizing that Apollo who shares a namesake with the god of music has two musician parents now

I am so happy that the 3d sprites look better than in dual destinies I don’t know if I could take it if they looked like that again

My mom’s favorite character design is Rayfa’s (but her favorite character is Susato who has nothing to do with soj)

Maya should get an “I survived TWO kidnapping” shirt because everyone wants leverage over Phoenix.

From what I saw online before playing the game I thought nahyuta would be super insanely awful, and then they introduce him as a level headed guy. Then I think oh he seems okay, and then he tells Apollo to go to the depths of hell and that he’ll be reincarnated as a piece of shit

When investigating phoenix tells Edgeworth that he think’s he’d like a gaudy house, to which Edgeworth is offended. And then Phoenix makes fun of him for his bright red sports car in his mind.

Would’ve loved a reference to some older characters, like Iris who is just like never brought up again. Anyways, what’s with spirit channeling families and being super fucked up

i am so sorry to say that Apollo looked like really good in that one cg with his hair antenna down (the one where he almost drowned) (not my best moment)

How in the world did Apollo survive as a teenager? If dhurke left him 10 or so years before this he’d be about fifteen? Did he just get dropped off at a boarding school, who the hell took care of him and how did he become a lawyer.

Why didn’t Amara just resume the throne herself? Idk if I totally missed something but isn’t she still a rightful heir

Khura’in spent EIGHT HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS ON A LIE. THEY WERE DONATIONS. AND FIVE YEARS OF LABOR (Amara’s tomb)

So funny to me that nahyuta drags Ema around everywhere like a little ragdoll back and forth country to country

The pun names in this one were wild 🤪 (suggested emoji)

oh god what if Edgeworth and rayfa were to talk about plumed punisher

Yeah we’re back to this, edgey’s sitting in a rebel hideout with lizards hanging from the ceiling and he watches the plumed punisher??? I kinda forgot the timeline but either Maya is currently kidnapped or dhurke’s in jail “oh okay I’ll stay behind” “let’s turn on the tv” “what the fucj is this”

One time phoenix’s phone went off and I jumped out of my seat because I also have the steal samurai theme as my damn ringtone

I get that it’s just fun sprite stuff but where does nahyuta get all his necklaces? How does his floating ribbon work?

In aa4 with my vague recollection, there’s a scene that kind of made me assume Ace attorney definitely took place in some weird fantasy land that coexisted with real world. (It was something that had to do with the founding fathers? And apollo “yes I know what America is” justice, like they currently don’t live there. It was some exchange during the case where klavier’s guitar blows up). Guess how surprised I was when oh golly now they’re full blown Americans!

since I mentioned aa4 and I already got off track everytime my mom hears that song (which Apollo made his ringtone) she complains about it and gets bad flashbacks. She told me everytime she hears a piano arrangement she thinks about the case. Maybe it wore off by now but it was her version of blue badger

Uendo was my favorite witness

Yeah I don’t think I have anything else to say, what a nice note to it on.

Nope I remembered something, queen ga’ran made me want to use the royal we.

[kira-moonrabbit]

many many years late... my big criticisms (not review!) of limbus company just from a gameplay standpoint. tl;dr... its kinda bad. this is both my opinion, and also how i explained said opinion, but i need it off my chest.

so preface: i dont play limbus anymore, but did for about one and a half cantos when it was brand-slappin' new. when i say brand new, i mean fresh out the box when there were still big server problems killing everyone's ability to play the game.

i went partially through the intro and then i had to sit through some more issues; then i had to replay the intro AGAIN when i came back. i figured skipping it would still allow me to view the in depth tutorial for how the actual game mechanics work in the same sequence; it did not give me this luxury and i had no idea how to re-find the tutorial. i had to scrape by with half-remembered fragments from watching someone else stream limbus and manage to view the whole danged thing. such is my preamble.

unfortunately i dont have the energy to find screenshots to use and i am not about to re-install limbus at 4 in the AM just to make an angry post about it. i'm opinionated, not petty.

i believe that a game should, even without a tutorial, be able to have its mechanics gauged just from looking at the UI and just generally observing. obviously tutorials are good, and not everything should be given to you this way, but as a rule of thumb you should be able to at least pick up a few rules about how things work just from watching un-commentated gameplay. lobotomy corporation has this. library of ruina has this. Limbus Company does not give you this.

the game is dogshit at explaining what the hell skills are. you are told there are coins, that are flipped, and dice are rolled. there are comparisons on the upper screen as to how two different skills will match up... and looking at these things, gave me no indication as to how the hell everything is CALCULATED! People who view with no commentary need a whole paragraph explaining the topmost UI! at least with ruina the dice math is simple. limbus needs a god damn calculator for every step.

disembodied micro-nitpick corner! the game doesnt tell you exactly where to go to uptie things, or when you unlock this ability. AND, it takes two whole cantos to unlock a way to earn major resources like, yknow... basically anything other than just more Lunacy for more gacha-ing.

defense skills are also not entirely perfectly explained. you think your "fuck shit everyone is targeting me" buttons would have a little more explanation behind them to help you use them better, but the descriptions for them completely sailed over my head and i had no idea which situations were and were not appropriate to use them. and each person has their own different defense skill so you better hope you have the right one for the situation when you need them! Else, S.O.L.

but yeah. i expected i'd have a handle on things by Canto 2. but by then, i just felt more confused, because in dungeons you just have a different combat system than in the main game for some reason??? one that i think is better executed because you actually have decent control over who's receiving what attacks. i had no idea what the hell i was doing the entire time still. i was just throwing out attacks and hoping the UI wasn't lying about matchups. my trial by fire wasnt even a trial, it was just... arson.

my other major criticism? sin. you know how one of the first things the game explains is sin resonance and absolute resonance? before the actual mechanics for how to calculate sin clashes? yeah, absolute resonance is literally just a damage boost that you can MAYBE hope is convenient. delibrately going for sin resonance was just getting my butt kicked. the game said to do this as much as possible but it just acts as a red herring for ACTUALLY learning skills that will get you further in the game.

sin in general feels like such a nothingburger of a mechanic. Cool, an elements system! to go with the last game's elements system! the two systems stack! i thought it was gonna be cool! But nnnope, its mostly just fuel for EGO. things DO have sin resistances, but they just feel like an afterthought.

what i liked about pierce, slash, and blunt is that they each had a slight archetype! Pierce was mainly status effects, Blunt was mainly damage, and Slash was something of a middle ground that focuses on power stacking (long live swordplay of the homeland with purple tear and slash power stacks).

with sin, its like... they're the colors attacks come in? and they have a status effect they're associated with. it doesnt feel like it adds an extra layer of much. i probably can't go as far as to say you can take away sin and lose nothing, because it does fuel EGO, but its... i dunno, it just feels like it's not needed.

i'll spend less time on the gacha because we all know gacha is gacha. but its like... ruina felt good, because you slowly accumulate more and better resources for the challenge ahead. you feel yourself slowly progress. In a gacha system, things have to generally remain at the same level of power as each other, give or take. And some things are just... better than others, yes. but there's very little in the way of like, teambuilding opportunities. you use the same really good units for pretty much everything. there's no progression aside from gacha, gacha, gacha over and over.

and this makes the reward for beating story missions just more gacha-ing, and lore. no feeling of getting stronger... no new toys to play with. the side resource modes, too, only serve to pump up your units. there's no customization of how you tackle things. i guess that ties in to the disconnected side bit a little, but still.

if you want my opinions on if the story is good, i cant give them to you though. i'm a gamer. i have practical opinions. to jump into the story would fall under the purviews of things like literary analysis.

but there is also a minor thing i will bring up that has to do with the story, in a way.

and there you have it, a casual gamer's opinion of limbus company as a game. a common person's opinion, in short. i'm not going to claim my opinion is the be all end all, far from it. I'm sure others have put the same ideas forth more eloquently. but sometimes you gotta hear what just a regular person who plays video games to have fun has to say about something.

Limbus Company all but demands you to have played Lobotomy Corporation and Library of Ruina before playing it. the loading screen explanations do shit to tell you the kind of world you're getting into. some concepts don't quite go fully explained. and the things in the prior games are essential to the understanding of limbus company, such as the reasoning behind why L-corp fell, just what the Smoke War even was, and just what caused the Distortion and EGOism phenomenon. Anyone jumping in because "ooo, nice gacha!" is going to write off the prior games as useless, when they're actually incredibly important for understanding the story and why certain things are the way they are, and for understanding the whole game's themes!!! as to WHY they're important, I'll leave that to the more wordsy folk. [EDIT: it was brought to my attention by a kindhearted anon that i was wrong about how much story you need to be able to understand limbus. this is why i wanted to keep my story-related opinions to a minimum, as i havent played much past canto 1 myself. i admit this paragraph is a little bit brought on by me being grumpy that many players who play limbus just because its a gacha completely disregard the previous two games. all in all this paragraph isnt very fair.]

and before anyone says anything... i will not be arguing over this post. if i said something wrong, i said something wrong, such is life, pobody's nerfect. i am also not asking for tutorials about how to play the game, either. i feel like the game itself should be able to give me a satisfactory one for me to want to play it.

and lastly? i will ESPECIALLY not be arguing with people who have spent money on a gacha, any gacha. i feel like this should explain itself.

[james-stark-the-writer]

finally getting around to watching Wrong Turn 2 since i enjoyed the first Wrong Turn so much (go read all about it here: My ★★★★½ review of Wrong Turn on Letterboxd) and like, if you haven't seen the original, it is legitimately a really good low budget horror movie that, while it uses well-worn tropes and characters and settings, it really does them incredibly effectively like it is really fun and well made. but i am less than 8 minutes into the second movie and this franchise is already crashing and burning, how was every lesson they learned from the first movie so wrong, it's like the entire opposite of the appeal of the original, how is this already so bad, like the direction isn't horrible, it's actually kinda fun, but it's like leaning into the gore unlike the original and the first kill was like needlessly drawn out and for some reason they're doing a fucking Reality TV Survival Show thing to follow for the main cast like it's fucking Halloween: Resurrection and like that comparison i don't think is going to bode well for this movie.

so i'm not hoping that this is going to be any kind of good but let's see if it's the least going to be entertaining bc jesus fucking christ it's already fucking awful absolutely dogshit like comical levels of gore, like a character gets split in half in the first 7 minutes with an ax and this is not horizontal, it's vertical, from skull to pelvis. so yeah, like we are already doing some comical fucking shit so what the fuck is this movie going to be because the first movie was really lean, it was really scary, and it was very effective, and it took itself and it's premise seriously. it felt like a movie someone loved and wanted to make and genuinely cared about. and in the first 8 minutes this movie is comically over the top, not terribly directed, absurdly gory and just fucking schlocky. so if it's going to be schlocky, it better be some really good shlock.