#yeah there was going to be like a part 2-ish thing with this whole analysis of a character

[stitchwraith-stingers]

8, 13, 20 🔥fop🔥

common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about - ppl who havent watched the og show on its own / enterity talking abt how coswans marriage fell apart BECAUSE of timmy's secret wish

now again i have no problem w people talking about this if its their own interpretation or au, ive said many times that on its own i think if you do it well you can make a good angst fic, however what i want people to understand is that that take came from someones analysis, and while i do have small problems w it (the 'apartnership shows them being bad for eachother' section in perticular) its just generally not a bad thing however w alot of these analysis' ppl listen to it and it goes through a game of telephone, its what happened to chloe like even before i remember if ppl mentioned her name some guy in his 40s would run to the comments to make 4 posts about how much she sucks and half the time the ppl didnt watch the show itself

i also think its making people blur the line between their own interpretation and what the actual writing intent is "omg coswan got marriage counseling in anw after slowly falling out thats cute" a fun headcanon but people speak of it like it was fully intentional, from the pitchbible coswan were always ment to love eachother wholey, its just the fact that they brought in more writers who made more "i hate my wife" jokes and it went downhill from here, but also because the og fop didnt have its own connected storyline and character arcs, and i highly doubt they planned the 50 years wish in 2002, along with the fact that the ANW writers picking up the pieces and just going off their old writing if that makes sense

as a note on the last part i will admit that coswans relationship got slightlyyy better after season 5-7 ish, keyword being slightly, they dont make explicit "i hate my wife jokes' every 2 minutes and had some cute moments but its still there just much less unbearable

worst blorboficiation - poof WHATTTT WHO SAID THAT

the twink jokes were funny for the first week now its making me want to bash my head into the wall, im also not a fan of ppl molding him into a father for dev (i.e specifically calling him dad) because A) to me it just seems like ur reducing him to one character trait alone B) hes more of a "older brother who returned from collage" type of dude who just got his first job and it isnt going well

also perirep fans, the moment i peep in and i see fanart to me its basically that one yaoi base, close enough welcome back 2018

i want more ppl to take in account the amount of shit poof has been in the og show... YEAH hes a baby and wont remember anything and hes so lenient on da rules, HOWEVER have you considered that hes just trying not to loose his first job ever and when hes not doing godparenting hes being a mischevious little fuck (the cupcake gag, "I NEVER GAVE 2 WEEKS NOTICE!!!!!!!") and foop is also slightly soppy wet, make them daffy and bugs bunny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i could probably list 2 more

part of canon you found tedious or boring - TIMMYS DAD BEING EVERYWHEREEEEE, like i get it the writers found him funny and wanted to use him more but by the time season 10 rolled around he was in basically every single episode and theyve dumbed him down to the point where he was so stupid it got annoying

crocker while i didnt like him also being shoved in every episode atleast had more going on for him because of the whole fairy hunter thing (and i liked kevin... rip kevin) and i get that realistically they couldnt do anything w the other characters cuz the voice actors left iirc but i feel like with this guy the people went "um . what do we do" and threw everything at the wall, holy shit i want to smash this guys head in with a metal poll, timmy moms can stay though

(on a unrelated note cuz i didnt wanna make a seperate post: hot take but iirc i think timmys mom was actually a good mother on her own when dad wasnt around, she just got so into him she forgor ....... if that makes sense)

[keets-writing-corner]

Flaws VS Struggles

Includes minor mentions of

Toy Story

Happy Feet

If you remember, I mentioned in Intro to Character that Flaws and Struggles were frequently confused, and yet both essential for characters. This took a while to get out, but here we go, Flaws VS Struggle and what’s the difference.

Flaws

Ah yes yes. All characters need flaws, but again, Flaws are often confused with Struggle. Unlike Struggle, Flaws are completely static and do not change. They work directly with Strengths. Let’s look at two real life examples.

Extroversion. Known to be outgoing, high level of energy, social, friendly, aka what society usually favors over Introversion. Strengths include again, social, friendly, talkative, which means they’re probably great at working in groups, don’t generally keep information about themselves bottled up and are able to share, and even leaving better first impressions. Now let’s look on the flip side. If people with high extroversion are highly sociable, then they likely don’t like being alone or working alone. If they’re talkative, it could very well be that they don’t know when to stop talking, talk at the wrong times, or even talk over quieter voices in a conversation.

Now let’s look at introversion. This is the opposite of extroversion. Highly extroverted people seek company because that’s where they get their energy. Highly introverted people seek solitude because they get their energy from being alone. Introverts are known for being quiet and alone. Introversion strengths include being creative, being able to work well alone, introspective, being more analytical about the world around them, and oftentimes empathetic. Flaws of introversion include being unable to speak up to contribute an idea in company of louder people, being overly stimulated in large crowds which leads to energy drainage and need to recharge.

You can’t “fix” a person’s introversion or extroversion, it’s just how they are, and how they function. This is how flaws work. Everything in life has a cost, a flip end to it, and the Flaw is just the cost of the Strength. This also applies to physical strengths and weaknesses.

Let me offer a more personal example, on the extreme end of flaw (as in, I’ll be providing an example of something that has a lot more flaws than strengths to it). I have a blood disorder known as Thalassemia Beta Minor. What does this mean for me? At the very basicness of it, it means I’m chronically anemic, aka I get tired faster, and for longer than the average person. This means I have a hard time keeping up with people when it comes to physical activities. I can’t run for as long as most people, an entire day of work will wear me out faster than everyone else, and I’ll be sleepier a lot more often, bordering on mild narcoleptic symptoms. You know what else this means? I have low blood pressure. Sounds great in a world where high blood pressure is a frequent concern, but low blood pressure also has its cost. For one, I get cold a lot faster than everyone else, and it’s hard to warm back up (aka I’m completely intolerant to cold). Also, I’ve passed out before because I stood up too quickly, I always need to watch how slowly I stand up. It’s not the worse disorder a person can have, but definitely annoying. However, it does come with one GIANT perk. I can’t get malaria.

That’s right. You heard me. I can’t get malaria. My blood cells don’t live long enough for the malaria eggs to incubate and hatch, and so they die with my cells.

Similar to “internal” Strengths/Flaws, there’s no really fixing physical Strengths/Flaws either. They’re just kind of there, and it’s up to the character to figure out how to use it.

Now because there’s the whole “CHARACTERS MUST BE FLAWED” thing going around, this will sometimes lead to characters being randomly assigned flaws with no good reason behind them, and will at best be completely unnatural and forced. I will say this once, and probably many times again, but here we go: FORCING THINGS ONTO CHARACTERS IS UNNATURAL AND LEADS TO POOR CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. Characters should NEVER have flaws forced upon them for the sake of having flaws. Aka, forcing a character to “be bad at math” for no other reason other than “they need a flaw” is an empty excuse. Why is a character bad at math? Is their brain just on the more creative side of things? It’s more natural and easier to observe a character’s strengths (which seems to be the first thing they get upon creation) and then look at the flip side of that strength.

Struggle

Now let’s look at my favorite (and arguably most important) part of characters, their struggle, and why it’s different from flaws. For starters, struggles are overcome-able unlike flaws which are static. Many stories deal with characters growing and overcoming their struggle. Tragedies are when characters cannot overcome them, and instead succumb to them. Aka, NOT A CHARACTER’S “FATAL FLAW”. A Flaw is a character’s feature, tangent with their strength, a Struggle causes them trouble. The other really important aspect of Struggle? It’s emotionally charged, Struggles make characters experience emotions, often painful ones.

Everyone loves seeing characters struggle because that’s what life is about, struggling, and overcoming them. Struggling is what makes the story real, no matter how many unicorns, and space monsters are in there. Struggles are the fastest ways for audiences to connect with characters, especially if they’ve struggled with what the character has too. There’s a reason that many heroes are orphaned, because loss, or fear of loss, is a universal experience, and immediately endears the heroes to the audience.

And the best part about Struggle? It can be anything. Now, again, *grabs megaphone* DO NOT FORCE A STRUGGLE ONTO A CHARACTER JUST BECAUSE THEY NEED TO STRUGGLE. Look at a character’s story, what makes sense for them to struggle with? For example, say a character experienced a death, now they’re struggling with grief and loss, and everything that comes with it. And here’s the thing about struggling, sometimes, it can’t be overcome, you have to learn to live with it, but it’ll still cause you trouble, like grief. Of course, when I say Struggle can be anything, I mean, it can literally be anything, and consequently has many different categories (and fret not friends! While I’m only glossing over this stuff here, I do have many posts planned for exploring Struggles!)

There are Struggles like Anxieties, Being Different, Grief, Mental Disorders, or even Medical Conditions, these are more about overcoming feelings and emotions pertaining to these struggles, rather than making sure these struggles are solved. (Note 1: Anxiety is a fickle line here, on the one hand, with proper therapy and or character development, it can be overcome, on the other hand it’s still overcome through dealing with the emotions pertaining to it that it still ties in with these guys) (Note 2: Notice that my blood disorder could fall in here, if it’s existence caused me anguish, or negative emotions, which would make it a physical flaw and a struggle. AKA, a flaw can contribute to a struggle. However, I couldn’t care less about my blood disorder and just kinda deal with it at face value, which means I do not Struggle with it).

There are Struggles like having goals, facing obstacles, being bullied. These Struggles are the ones that the source must be overcome in order to overcome the feelings that come with it.

And then, there’s Struggle’s little sister

Immaturity

Immaturity is an off-branch of Struggle. It happens often enough in stories, and is different enough from Struggles and Flaws that I feel like it qualifies as its own thing, while still belonging to both groups (closer to Struggle than Flaw in my opinion, but a case can be made for it belonging more to Flaw). Immaturity is like Struggle in that it’s one of the best and easiest ways characters show growth through overcoming it, but it’s like Flaw because usually it’s not something that actively bothers the character, or a problem they might even realize they have.

When I say Immaturity, I’m not talking about day-dreaming about castles in clouds, laughing at anything related to butts and armpits, and just overall cliché, childish things, because those are usually unique to children (*coughs* usually). When I say Immaturity, I’m talking about traits that show a person’s maturity (“No duh keet”). Aka, a child can be mature and still have childish traits, while an adult can be immature with no childish traits. Confused?

Immaturity in this sense is: Pride, Arrogance, Greed, Self-Righteousness, feeling of Entitlement, Selfishness, Prone to Tantrum/Anger, and Lack of Understanding of Emotions (for self and/or others) to name a few. Easier to understand now how an adult can be immature but not childish, while a child can be mature but childish?

Immaturity is usually where a character experiences growth. Struggle is akin to overcoming, while Immaturity is akin to growth and development. All people (and to an extent all characters) are immature to different degrees. Some people might be more mature than others, but everyone’s got room to grow no matter how mature one is.

Let’s go back to my quick mention of Woody from Toy Story in my Intro to Character post. In the first movie, Woody is selfish and jealous of Buzz. By Toy Story 2, they’re good friends, and the jealousy is gone. Woody matured throughout the movie, and out-grew these traits. Most of Woody’s actual struggles were just obstacles in the way of getting home, and of getting what he wanted. Pixar movies tend to focus a lot more on maturity and immaturity than they do on internal struggles. Which is neither good nor bad (honestly, quite important in this day and age), it’s just how they feel is the best way to tell their stories.

Let’s look at a different movie in which it’s not the main character’s job to mature, but everyone else’s. Happy Feet. Mumble is a remarkably mature character. He is selfless, polite, humble, not vengeful, and overall just a delight to be around. He struggles with being very different from his society who keeps demanding he conform. It’s his society that learns to mature throughout the course of the movie and be more open-minded.

There are multiple ways to use both Immaturity and Struggle in differently, and no single way is the right way. They are also so closely related, that it can be confusing to work with them, and oftentimes is easier to just pick one and stick with it. However, working with both together can lead to a truly powerful character.

[lottiecrabie]

okay so I'll try to keep this short: yes, I did date a satanist back in 2021 right after I was released back into the wild after a suicide attempt in November of 2020 (it's okay, I'm fine, I regretted it the moment I did it which is good lmao). at the time I decided to embrace my hoe tendencies that I've always suppressed because I have this good girl vibe going on and to be fair, at first I thought he was just a bit edgy and punk-ish. I didn't know he was a satanist. the thought didn't even cross my mind. but yeah, I became a bit obsessed with the idea of actually getting him to like me and I shouldn't have done this but I spent like a month researching him and studying his online presence and I sort of tried to manipulate him into thinking that I was someone he wanted to date. it became a challenge to me. again I didn't know he was a satanist but I now know that he thought I was one as well because I said that one of my biggest dreams is to adopt a goat (it's true, baby goats are the cutest) and one time he said he wanted to live in an abandoned church and I was like "omg me too, crazy right" (not true) plus some jokes about rituals (again: I thought we were just being edgy and I really wanted him) but I didn't think much of it, I just wanted him to like me. then, one night, he told me he was a member of the satanic temple (and autistic) and I thought about breaking up with him (not because of the autism of course) but he had a really cute nose and mothers should make sacrifices for their (future) daughters so I stayed with him. but I had to break up w him because he was extremely into astrology and he wanted me to quit my job as biophysicist because "science is not real". (this is really long sorry)

ANYWAY

so first of all I had to show him who matty is 😭 because my psychiatrist thought he was like a character (he's in his 60s, something like that). then I showed him your masterlist while I was explaining the concept of fanfictions and then I was like "for instance, this is a series, it's not just a one shot" and I clicked on part 1 and let him scroll freely. he didn't read the whole thing for sure because he stared at it for like 2-3 minutes tops until I interrupted him to say that if he wanted the really juicy part he should check part 2. so he gave me my phone and told me to go to part 2. I summarised the dream and took him straight to the confessional but before that I showed him one of my favourite videos of Matty touching himself on the couch just to give him a mental image and then I gave him my phone again. I can't tell you how much he read but he was reading it. he asked if notes & likes were the same thing and for the sake of keeping it simple I said yes and his response was "so this is a community" due to the amount of "likes" it got 😭😭 and I said that it was in fact a community and we all come together to fantasize about this man doing unspeakable things.

this is ridiculously long, I'm so so so sorry. he didn't make any comments regarding the quality of the work. he just asked me questions about how I interpreted certain things and how I felt and blah blah blah (it's not very interesting) and then he proceeded to analyse everything 💀 needless to say that I regretted introducing him to pfms the moment he started the analysis lmao

I'll see him again next friday, if you want I can ask him if he liked it 😇 (he's kind of used to it because whenever my friends have a dilemma or something, they ask me to get his opinion even if it has nothing to do with me 💅 & I appreciate it bc I have to see him every week and I don't always have things to say. basically he's one of the girls now, he just doesn't know it lol)

omg. omg. OMG. anon what the absolute fuck this is so funny😭😭😭 this guy fully thinking you're also a satanist because you want a goat is prime comedic material!! i can't believe this. lying to get him to like you but you're just cosplaying satanism💀 THE RITUAL PART! THE FACT THAT HE TOLD YOU BUT YOU STILL STAYED FOR THE NOSE THIS IS HILARIOUS !!! science is not real part though🧍‍♀️🧍‍♀️ good for you for breaking up with him

I AM GIGGLING. I CAN'T STOP PICTURING THIS 60 YEARS OLD MAN READING PRAY FOR MY SOUL. THE FACT THAT YOU SHOWED HIM VIDEOS OF MATTY SO HE COULD BEST IMAGINE WHAT HE LOOKS LIKE FHDHDSKHJSKHFS

ur psychiatrist giving you back your phone like well first analysis ur a freak🤨

omg one of the girls🫶🫶🫶 ask him what he thought 🥰

[traincat]

I’ve been trying to piece together a few things from your Twitter and Tumblr posts alike and still can’t make heads or tales of things, so would you mind helping out a FF & spideytorch noob? 1) what is currently happening with Johnny in the comics? (I’ve fallen head over heels for this guy, largely all your doing) 2) when’s the last time he and Peter have interacted, canon wise? (And do you think upcoming interactions are likely?) 3) your thoughts on if they’ll have him come out in the near future? (has that ‘biggest change to the fantastic four’ teaser come to pass yet?) Love all your content, thank you!

I'd say no problem but then I started thinking about this current run again and got a headache. But yes, I can do that to save you from reading it, because it is very largely not good.

So I don't think it's unfair to just flat out say the current Fantastic Four run is not very good, largely due to writer Dan Slott's efforts. Slott was previously on Amazing Spider-Man for 10 years, to mixed opinions, but a large portion of Spider-Man fandom, myself included, blames him near singlehandedly for the decline in quality of Spider-Man books over those ten years. I will say, in the interest of fairness, that Slott as a writer has an incredible fondness for the Spider-Man/Human Torch relationship, and that a lot of the recent teamups and interactions between them have been written or co-written by him. So it's all not all negative here. But in general, I personally find Slott's more recent comics (the last seven-ish years especially) to be badly plotted out, messily characterized disasters that feature characters written with all the emotion of a cardboard cutout. That's me putting it nicely.

To explain this fully, you have to understand the position Fantastic Four comics were in from the years 2015 through 2018, both in the fictional 616 universe and in the real publishing world. Following the 2015 Secret Wars event (great if you want some Johnny angst in the background of your plot), the Fantastic Four were disbanded -- Reed, Sue, and their many biological and found family children were presumed dead but in reality were remaking the multiverse, unable, for a reason that was never clearly defined, to reach home. Ben and Johnny were left on Earth. They had an unspecified falling out, likely due to Reed and Sue's absence, and went their separate ways -- Ben joined the Guardians of the Galaxy and went to space. Johnny was featured on both Inhumans and Avengers books. What's notable about this period is that it's the first time since 1961 that there was no Fantastic Four book being published by Marvel. Now the real world reason behind this is both complicated and extremely petty: Marvel really wanted the Fantastic Four film rights. Marvel denied this explanation at the time, stating that the reason was sales motivated, but it was a thoroughly flimsy excuse and Jonathan Hickman, writer of 2015's Secret Wars and overseer of the current X-Men plot, gave an interview saying the decision was film rights motivated. This decision kept the Fantastic Four books off the shelves for three years, up until the Disney-Fox merger, which secured the X-Men and Fantastic Four rights for Disney's Marvel Studios. Marvel then announced that the Fantastic Four book would be returning. So that's a little bit of background as to the precarious place the Fantastic Four currently occupy in the Marvel universe -- it's worth noting that this year is their 60th anniversary, and Marvel has done very little for it. Compare this to the X-Men, whose film rights Marvel also obtained during the Disney-Fox merger, and whose books are currently dominating the publishing lineup. The Fantastic Four definitely occupy an unpopular position, one Marvel themselves is at least partially responsible for forcing them into.

But to move back into the actual content of the book -- the readjustment period Slott wrote reintroducing the Fantastic Four into the Marvel universe can be described as clumsy, at best. It's never fully explained why Reed, Sue, and the kids couldn't return to Earth, something that was explored in Chip Zdarsky's 2017 Marvel Two-in-One, which featured Ben, Johnny, and Doom on a multiversal roadtrip to try and find their family and which I on the whole recommend, despite it having an awkward ending due to being cut short by Slott's announced Fantastic Four main title.

(Marvel Two-in-One 2017 #4)

Instead, the Fantastic Four return to a Marvel universe a little different than how they left it, with the Baxter Building -- formerly the offices of Parker Industries, the company Doc Ock started in Peter's body during Superior Spider-Man that Peter inherited after his defeat and then lost spectacularly when he trashed his own company to fight nazis (good for him) -- occupied by a different fantastic foursome in a plot that goes nowhere and does nothing. This is somewhat emblematic of the early days of Slott's run -- he introduces ideas that fail to go anywhere, including Johnny's rekindled relationship with his other best friend and former college roommate, Wyatt Wingfoot, who he was seen being very cuddly with in the early issues.

(FF 2018 #1) A small group of Fantastic Four fans have argued for a while that if Marvel was to have Johnny come out, a relationship with Wyatt would feel very natural -- they're already close, with Wyatt being an important Fantastic Four supporting character since the '60s. I have some further analysis here on the conspiracy theory that Johnny and Wyatt were supposed to be in relationship at the beginning of this run but that that plot was, for whatever reason, nixed. I don't know that I entirely believe this theory, for the record -- but I do think the pieces line up remarkably well.

Anyway, that didn't/hasn't yet happened, obviously. Slott instead for the most part put Johnny on the back burner for the beginning of his run, up until the Spyre arc, which I have reason to believe is the main story he pitched that he credits with securing him the Fantastic Four title. The Spyre arc suggests that the Fantastic Four's failed space exploration during which they got their powers wasn't just to beat the commies to the moon, as Lee and Kirby envisioned (simpler days), but to reach a specific planet outside of our galaxy. When the team sets out to conquer this mission, they arrive at the planet, but are quickly captured. The planet, they find out, operates like a soulmate AU -- everyone has a fated person that they are matched to via a gold armband. Reed and Sue are soulmates (and Ben is confined to an underground subterranean with the other monsters, because this is a Fantastic Four comic) while it's discovered! Shocker! That Johnny is actually the soulmate of the one the planet's inhabitants, a winged woman named Sky, with the suggestion that this is both why Johnny's previous relationships have never worked and why he loves space exploration -- he was just trying to get to his Soulmate TM.

(FF 2018 #15) "What's going on here? Where are my clothes?" As you can see, this didn't start off super great, with Johnny being separated from his family, stripped naked, and put in Sky's bed with a soulmate armband slapped on him. Did I mention they're only removable if your soulmate takes it off for you? And that Sky has consistently refused despite Johnny asking her to? Yeah. It's bad. (I think it's important to note Johnny's long history as a victim of assault plays into this narrative, whether or not Slott is personally holding that in mind while writing, which I don't believe he is. cw in the linked post for discussions of sexual assault.) There's an additional issue here in that Slott has a history of problematic writing regarding women of color, featuring characters he's created to act as love interests being oversexualized, infantilized, villainized, or some mix of all three, with two examples of this phenomena being Cindy Moon and Lian Tang, both of whom he introduced in quick succession in Amazing Spider-Man. Slott certainly didn't have to write Sky as manipulative or controlling towards Johnny, but that's what he chose to do, and that factors into the bigger picture of unfortunate themes in his writing.

Sky returns to Earth with the Fantastic Four despite Johnny appearing unenthused about the idea and initially generally reluctant to interact with her. Apparently they went on a few dates after this and kind of made up. I don't know because I stopped reading for about ten issues in there but I feel confident I missed very little. It's hard to talk about the Sky plot without referencing Johnny's previous interactions with a character named Lyja, a Skrull whose relationship to Johnny I have a long breakdown of here. It's doubly hard, because Lyja actually showed back up in Fantastic Four during this plot. Lyja's modus operandi has remained consistent throughout almost all of her appearances, which I guess makes sense, because she literally has no storylines that do not involve her being obsessed with Johnny, and this recent story isn't any different: Lyja shows up, Lyja disguises herself as another woman in Johnny's life to get close to Johnny, Lyja gets caught and claims it was all fine because she did it for love. This time she disguised herself as Sky.

(FF 2018 #32) Not gonna lie, kind of proud of him for this one. That's one of my problems with Slott -- very occasionally, he busts out good moments, only to undermine them with the rest of his narrative.

In the same issue, Alicia Masters, the first woman Lyja impersonated in order to get close to Johnny, uses her supervillain stepfather's radioactive clay to control Lyja's mind and send her back to space, and I do think she utilized girl power when she did this. Johnny, left reeling after Lyja's latest attempts to trick him into a relationship, ends this issue by sleeping with Victorious, Dr. Doom's right hand woman.

I know she pegged him. I know it. This scene was a little controversial in Johnny fandom, because a lot of people viewed it as Johnny cheating on Sky and thought that that action was out of character for Johnny. I'm personally of a little different opinion, which is that regardless of whether or not you view Johnny and Sky in a committed enough relationship that Johnny's tryst would count as infidelity when all Johnny and Sky are bound by are magic plot soulmate bracelets, I think Lyja's involvement changes things significantly when it comes to Johnny's characterization. All of Johnny's "playboy" periods, if we can call them that, coincide directly with Lyja having been in and then left his life again, which I think makes a certain amount of sense -- it's Johnny trying to wrest control back after a situation where he had none. None of this is explicitly canon, I have to note, but sometimes in comics you have to do the work yourself. So I think this is a case of something being accidentally extremely in character that Slott accidentally stumbled into because he had these love triangles in mind, not because he put a lot of thought into it.

Speaking of love triangles! Johnny sleeping with Victorious gets more complicated when Dr. Doom announces his intent to marry Victorious -- not because he has any romantic interest in her (this engagement caused a lot of uproar in Fantastic Four because Victorious had been previously referred to as being like Doom's adopted daughter) but in order to install her as Latverian regent in his absence. I'm not going to lie, I love a political wedding. Victorious, for some reason, thinks Doom will be deeply upset that she slept with some closeted blond twink and the member of the Fantastic Four he views least as an enemy and more as an annoyance. Johnny, who Sky is currently not talking to because she "felt" him sleeping with Victorious through their magic plot soulmate bracelets, also feels nervous about Doom finding out about this, which I guess is slightly more valid. Anyway, for some completely ridiculous reason, Victorious decides the best time to tell Doom about this little indiscretion is when they're standing at the altar, which coincidentally the Fantastic Four are also standing at, because Doom asked Reed to be his best man in a not at all homoerotic little setup involving midnight swordfighting and Reed slipping Doom's emerald ring onto his own finger. Sorry to sidetrack into DoomReed territory here but it's just like. It's just a lot.

(FF 2018 #33) Also, Ben walked the bride down the aisle. :,) Look at his gigantic hand.

Anyway then Doom decides he's going to kill everyone in a completely reasonable and not at all overblown reaction to Johnny and Zora having what was most likely both disappointing for Zora and weepy for Johnny sex. And that brings us up to where Fantastic Four comics left us yesterday -- in answer to your "big change" question, that's most likely coming up in the next issue, so it hasn't come to pass yet.

Having gotten all that out of the way -- the last time Johnny and Peter interacted canon-wise was in the recent Empyre Fallout Fantastic Four, at the end of the Empyre event:

It was cute! Slott does right good interactions between them. This is possibly the Stockholm Syndrome talking. I don't know if more interactions are likely imminent -- the Empyre event was fairly recent. On the other hand, Slott does like writing interactions between them. So I'd give it about a 50/50 shot. I was skimming the letter page in the latest issue and someone wrote in asking if Peter was likely to appear in the pages of Fantastic Four again any time soon, so there is definitely a demand.

As for Johnny coming out -- I don't know. It's not a call I feel comfortable making at this moment, which I guess means I wouldn't bet money on it. I'd like to say yes, especially because I think Slott set up, whether that was his intention or more likely not, several good places in his run where Johnny could have come out. The beginning, when he's implied to be living with Wyatt again and where he and Wyatt are paralleled against Ben and Alicia. Ben's bachelor party, where Johnny laments not finding the right person -- specifically person and not woman -- and where Ben tells him to "be brave, Johnny Storm." And the soulmate planet plot, where I think could have had a very different and much better ending if Johnny had told Sky that she couldn't be his romantic soulmate, because he knows he wants to be with a man. But those are just places that I think would have made good opportunities for a coming out story. Instead, Johnny's been involved (dubiously) with three different women over the space of the last 10 issues, which is more heterosexuality at one time than he's been confronted with in the last 60 years. So my thoughts are still that it's going to happen eventually, but quite possibly not anytime soon.

Hope that helps! And that my incredibly long answer about what's currently going on with Johnny in comics sheds some light on things!

[creepyimagines]

Me Rating the Creepypasta's and Marble Hornets Characters based on Fan Interpretation and content of character

《《 Because im original like that. Long-ish post warning.

Lemme know if you want a part 2 bc I can't do all the popular creepypasta's in one post》》

Jeff the Killer~ 6/10

Buff asshole who you wished you hated. Got some style to him, longer hair you dont see often. Interpreted as punk rock and I love that. -4 points for being emo

BEN Drowned~ 8/10

Love this boy. I love Legend of Zelda, especially Majora's mask, but that has nothing to do with this rating scale. He's always drawn and written as a punk-y gamer and lemme tell you when I said "mood" I meant "kin". But yeah glitchy aesthetic, cool ass tunic, and a short king. -2 points for age discourse :/

Eyeless Jack~ 9/10

Demon man go brrrr

but in all honesty, I can't find much wrong with him. Loner wolf style but medical genius, has some humor, but the tongue headcanons get weird. Love his mask though. Blue is his color. Also, "bUfF deMon mAn tAke mE by tHe hANd leAd ME to The lAnd-"

Laughing Jack~ 2/10

Bastard clown. Do not like. Not a fan. Im sorry all the clown simps for follow me. Keeps 2 points for being a weird and pretty original character all around. His goth clown aesthetic is pretty killer but I Do Not Like.

Jane the Killer~ 11/10

Crispy, iconic lesbian out for revenge. I cannot and will not go into more detail because she's perfect the way she is. Next.

Nina the Killer~ 4/10

We do be loving simps, but she's just a bit.... Eh. I love how the fandom reclaimed her and I absolutely adore her scene aesthetic, I just cannot get over the whole Jeff Simp thing. so -6 points for bad taste

Slender~ 8/10

Tired eldritch father trying to keep his homicidal kids alive. He tries his best and he hates his job. -2 points for not having a "Best Boss D A D" Mug.

Im not bothering with the other slender brothers sorry

⚠️MARBLE HORNETS SPOILERS⚠️

The Operator~ 5/10

Not exactly slendy in the sense you'd think but the more Marble Hornets centered fandoms interpretation of him. I personally like him as he's a force of nature that has no care of human emotions or lives. He is manipulative and power hungry. A good villian. -5 points choosing Alex to corrupt.

Alex~ 8/10

Craft bastard. I like his character for a few reasons. None of which I'll get into now but might later some other time. Fandom portrays him as some kind of mastermind and I love that no matter what. -2 points for incel vibes

[Lolol THE funniest thing to me is Joseph canonically saying, "Ah yeah, Alex fucks." on a stream]

Tim~ 10/10

College dude with PTSD just trying to have a normal life. He never got the ending he DESERVED but the fandom is merciful and so many fix-it fics exist. Tim is absolutely 100% a wonderful character.

Masky~ -100/10

WHAT HAPPENED DURING THAT TIME WHEN EVERYONE COLLECTIVELY WENT "OH YEAH HED A TWINK" AND NO ONE SAID ANYTHING???

Brian~ 3/10

Hes baby but everyone likes to forget that he's also bastard who can and has taken Alex down. He might not have been in co-con but he buff boy.

Hoodie~ 5/10

[siezure mention TW]

Bastard man who everyone loves. But the more cp part of the fandom is like "UwU he's quiet shy boy" forgetting that yeah he almost shot Alex and yeah he broke into Tim's home to steal his pills and watch him seize, knowing it would happen. But I digress. Still a complicated character that I do like.

Jay~ 8/10

My analysis on him is too extensive, excuse me while I go die. -2 for being dead but also Skully?

[thewhizzyhead]

i've been thinking a lot about my opinion towards boleyn's characterization in six which then caused my brain to go on full analysis mode on how the solos in six set up the whole story and all like we have aragon's no way, the first solo song in the show, and that tells us what to expect from the queens and the rest of the show: a fun funky pop concert musical with lots and lots of queens doing a cardio workout in heels. This sets the atmosphere and tone of the show as "very fun you will enjoy this".

Then next up is boleyn's don't lose your head: at first the boleyn introduction sets her up as some conniving cunning infamous queen...which then pans to boleyn taking a selfie so at that point what the show is doing to the audience is made clear: building up their expectations based on prior and popular knowledge about the queens and subverting them and that is exactly what happens to DLYH. Right from the get go we think that "oooohhh this is gonna be a bop" and then at the last minute (this is more evident in the audios and bootlegs) we see boleyn panicking, yelling "What was I meant to do????" three times. How we see Boleyn throughout the course of that 4 minutes changes so suddenly and the fact that this sudden change was put so early in the show makes the audience think that "oHHHHHHHHH so there's more than meets the eye here okay".

At that point the audience will subconsciously be expecting more subversions and whiplashes because that's the standard that has been set by DLYH ... which is why i fucking love the whiplash from Heart of Stone to Haus of Fucking Holbein SERIOUSLY IT'S GENIUS WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT WHAHAHAHAHA HOW THIS SHOW KEEPS THE AUDIENCE ON ITS TOES WITH ITS SUBVERSIONS AND WHIPLASHES. But besides the point, placing Heart Of Stone right after the boppity bop with a master's degree at nuance and subversion that is Don't Lose Ur Head is kinda smart because like I said, due to the subtle but still noticeable tonal shifts present in Boleyn's song, the standard of "there is so much more than meets the eye" has been set and seeing the show go from dancing queens to emotional ballads within the first 30 minutes of the show solidifies that.

Then after the glorious acid trip that is Haus of Holbein, which btw also keeps up the subversion pattern of the show by a. Providing an acid trip out of fucking nowhere, b. Providing social commentary about ridiculous beauty standards within said acid trip and c. Providing a 16th century parody about fucking tinder, we are back to step 1: making the audience expect that this is a funky fun musical with queens doing cardio workouts, this time through Cleves. Aside from providing good subversions of the standards set through showing that cleves, unlike the rest of the queens, actually had a pretty damn good life i mean sitting here all alone on a throne in a palace that i happen to own heck the entirety of Get Down is just Cleves flexing on everyone really, this also sets up the feel good all is fun atmosphere which is incredibly essential for Katherine Howard's 7 minute solo.

so yes all you wanna do is a masterpiece and how the show sets up the atmosphere right before and during the song is amazing. You still got happy vibes all around because yay cleves flexing, then u get even more happy vibes because oh look the youngest one in the group gives damn good clapbacks, then u get even MORE happy vibes when the lights turn all pink and K Howard goes "I'm the ten amongst these threes" cause YAY THIS GIVES BOLEYN-SONG-ISH-VIBES, and then all those happy vibes get snatched away, ripped to pieces and burned in the fiery pits of hell when K Howard says "I was 13 going on 30". anD THEN ALL OF THE REMAINING HAPPY VIBES GET FORCEFULLY RIPPED OUT YOUR HEART WHEN K HOWARD HAS A FUCKING MENTAL BREAKDOWN BY THE LAST MINUTE OF THE SONG.

Yayyyyyyyyy.

One thing I've noticed is that contrast is incredibly helpful in fully realizing the intensity of a color, sound, or story and this is especially shown here. The contrast between Aragon and Boleyn's song style, the contrast of happy dlyh to WHAT WAS I MEANT TO DO???, the contrast between dlyh and hos, the contrast between hos and haus of holbein, and especially the contrast between get down and all you wanna do AND especially the contrast between the initial atmosphere of all you wanna do and k howard's mental breakdown. Six just pulls off the contrasting elements and the thematic subversions so fucking well that the point of "There's more than meets the eye" is especially evident at this point of the show and it is especially driven home when K Howard ends her song to the point that there are a few seconds of uncomfortable silence before people decide to clap. Plus the uncomfortable atmosphere is incredibly impactful when by that point of the show you see the queens rEALLY being petty with each other which is why I can see why Parr reacted the way she did when she was called on for her performance and why she only just spoke up now about how wrong the whole competition really is (aside from well you know chronological order) which leads to emotional mellow ballad part 2, thus following Seymour's pattern while subverting the expectations when Parr's song becomes a rallying song for the queens to end the competition and not pit each other against one another; Parr's song also subverts the established Seymour Pattern by ending it on a literal and figuratively speaking high note.

So all in all i am personally so impressed by how the musical plays with the audience by building up their expectations and keeping them on their toes til the very end by subverting each and every one of the established patterns and standards, especially those based on popular (and mostly wrong) assumptions about the queens. Like it's really really good and I'm a bit mad at myself for just realizing this now after a year and a half of stanning SIX. Soooo yeah the S in SIX stands for subversion thanks for coming to my ted talk.

[casebasket]

The Mystrade Treatise

I am long, long out of the Sherlock fandom, but I still have a soft spot for mystrade after ~ 7 odd years (the only thing I really cared about in the show), so when a friend asked about mystrade I hit them with a spontaneous 2000 word block of text. I thought I’d share it as an homage to the still quietly existing community of mystrade shippers out there. Basically, in this essay I will argue for my interpretation of how the BBC TV show Sherlock (2012) establishes an implied relationship between Mycroft, (The Government) and Lestrade (The Force) in the subtext. This analysis will be broken down to two parts: 1) show chronology / their history and 2) their compatibility, which can be further split into 2a) personalities and 2b) external circumstances. 

(The beginning is the only formal(ish) part of - I’m calling it a treatise -, the rest of the piece is written in “I typed it all in messenger app” style. This all came out off the top of my head, so if you think I’m missing something I’m open to the callout)

TL;DR: I’m still mystrade trash and I’m pulling the receipts on mystrade canon

1) Their history - it's clear they know each other and are in communication with each other since the very beginning - and very likely even before - the events of the show. Just a show tidbit, the ending of the pilot episode has Lestrade watch John and Sherlock walk away happily staring into each other's eyes and tell Donovan about their potential as partners, whereas the actual first episode replaces him with Mycroft talking to his assistant Anthea, which shows their character parallels. In one aspect, their role as "aggravated older guardian" is a shared one and one that - rationally, but in fanon - allows them to commiserate with other another. Also, Mycroft kidnaps John in his very first day of him meeting Sherlock, so reasonable to conclude he did the same to Lestrade, so they've clearly met. And, I believe it's canon that Lestrade helped Sherlock with his drug problem, so he's clearly run into Mycroft, whether it's because his brother's OD'd or found with possession or whatever whatever. The possibilities are endless.

We have hints of them knowing each other throughout the show - in season 2 episode 2 the Hound of Baskerville (I am surprised and appalled I know this off by heart instead of more important things), the duo meets Lestrade in a tavern where he's clearly back from holiday and when Sherlock eggs him by basically calling him Mycroft's lackey, he, aggrieved, says "I don't just do what your brother tells me", which is a line I still unfortunately remember over 5 years later, and that is the first precedent set in canon that they clearly communicate. We can interpret this line, given the circumstances, that Mycroft asked him to cut his vacation short to go check up on his brother, and Lestrade, being whipped, was like fine.

This is mere speculation, but in that mini episode, Many Happy Returns, Lestrade is listening to Anderson go on about his conspiracy theories on how Sherlock is still alive, and at the end of it he passes a newspaper article about Sherlock, and he smiles at it like he KNOWS he's still alive somewhere even though he just walked out calling Anderson on his bullshit and dismissing his theories, and I like to interpret that as Mycroft told him Sherlock's still alive. Plus, when Sherlock greets him after his two year absence, the way Lestrade reacts is less “am I seeing a ghost because you’re supposed to be dead” and more “you’re finally back I already know you were alive because my boyfriend Mycroft told me”. 

The first time we see them in frame together (in the mystrade community this is famously known as the 29 frames moment because they only showed up for - 29 frames, like 2 seconds) was in season 3 episode 3, where Sherlock goes missing and everyone looks for him in the hidey holes they know of. Lestrade is seen in Mycroft's office while Mycroft tells him about potential hiding spots. Honestly he did look hella dismissive and rude but you know what? Everyone was stressed. But this shows not only is Lestrade trusted in his secret government offices - and likely this was the secret one because it looked like a cellar - but he trusts Lestrade implicitly. When Sherlock is about to leave on a plane, Lestrade's in a pub watching the TV screen when Moriarty's face is all over it and the very next scene we see Mycroft on the phone with someone getting the news that this was happening. Coincidence? I think NOT - Lestrade called up Mycroft and told him, CANON.

And then there's the Christmas special or whatever it was, about the abominable bride, and yes, this one is set in Sherlock's drug fevered mind, but that only means that, in Sherlock's mind, he sees the two of them as a set (Sherlock ships it confirmed lol). During the whole episode when we see the canon versions of Mycroft and Lestrade they are together as a unit. When John leaves him, Sherlock's mind goes to the most reliable thing in his life to help him, which is his brother (and his brother's boyfriend) and his friend Lestrade to help him, together. Sherlock asks the two of them to help him dig up a body and they share a Look, which is clearly Mycroft's way of asking Lestrade to do the dirty work of actually digging and Lestrade resignedly concedes because there is no other way to analyse the Look, and in the next scene we see Sherlock and Lestrade digging in a grave while Mycroft holds up a lantern because Mycroft doesn't like legwork and Lestrade, clearly his boyfriend in Sherlock's mind, understands this and is willing to accommodate.

And then we have the whole of S4, or as I like to call it, Johnlock hell but mystrade victories!, because in s4e1 when Mary is shot in the aquarium, the first person they look at is each other, indicating they take some level of comfort or seek it out from one another in a room full of other people, also the two of them arrived together so they clearly coordinated, also when the gun was lifted Mycroft looks shocked and steps back a bit while Lestrade moves forward in a “ready to step in” protective gesture, and this all happened in the same frame, and there are gifsets of this happening, and everyone was quietly screaming (Johnlockers in pain, mystrade shippers in "look at them sharing a frame together look at these scraps we're getting"). In the second ep we don't see them together but we do see Mycroft getting hit on by Lady Smallwood and he looks hella uncomfortable about it, while Lestrade is talking with another detective and Sherlock shoots him down telling him she's not the one (because clearly we all know who is the one and Sherlock knows it's his brother).

Oh yeah also jumping back to S3, Mycroft is saying no one can match him and he sees everyone as goldfish but Sherlock is like oh really and was lowkey concerned about him and that's how the mystrade fandom got this whole goldfish thing and it's adorable (special shout out to duchessclovery ‘s masterful fanvid romcom series A Fish Called Greg), and in the wedding ep Sherlock calls Mycroft to attend the wedding but he refuses, and Sherlock says "specter in the feast" to entice him and I like to interpret that as him lowkey jabbing him with a *in*spector in the feast because Lestrade was there looking tired and lonely throughout the whole ep lmaaaaaaaaaaaaao.

Anyway back to S4E2, Mycroft is getting hit on, Lestrade is the most tired we've ever seen him, Sherlock is trying to waive off Lestrade's suitors to save him for his brother. Why is Lestrade so tired? Yes, he's questioning a suspect or something, but also! maybe it's related to his love interest getting hit on, who knows???? And lastly, the last ep of S4, the golden era of mystrade, at the very end of the episode after we've seen Mycroft at his most vulnerable, Sherlock asks Lestrade to "take care of him (Mycroft). he's not as strong as he seems". This was an explicit request by Sherlock, addressing Lestrade correctly for the first time, to take care of his brother, and Lestrade says yes. Of course I will. S4 ended with the promise of the him taking care of Mycroft and honestly I don't care about the entire episode except that part

 2)    A: their personalities: so, Mycroft, as his colleagues know him, is ~ the ice man ~. He's hard to know, even harder and more stubborn and isolated than his brother, and on top of that he's like, contractually obligated under his top secret government job to not be known. That makes him, and this is canon as Sherlock discussed his loneliness with him in S3, even more lonely than his brother, and probably, as much as he likes to think himself more accommodating than his brother and he can definitely pretend for the sake of appearances, more difficult to deal with than Sherlock if he really sets his mind to it. But he's not a complete block of ice - after all, ice can melt - and he has soft spots for his family, esp. his unruly little brother, and by extension (maybe more necessity than real care, but still) the people his brother affiliates with. Because Sherlock is so tricky to deal with, I believe he has a soft spot for people who share that softness for his spiky sibling, and no one cares for Sherlock as he does except for Mrs Hudson, John, and Lestrade. Lestrade's done it for even longer than John, and in the show plays a somewhat paternal figure to Sherlock despite him causing him even more stress sometimes than solving cases for him would relieve. Lestrade is shown to drop everything to help Sherlock when he needs it, and is considered one of his best friends when Moriarty put a sniper on each of Sherlock's closest acquaintances (Lestrade was a target). Lestrade always saw the good in Sherlock despite everything, and believed he could be great. Very few sees the same potential, or shows that level of kindness for - lets be honest here - someone we would want to kick in real life. Lestrade's kindness and patience, enough to deal with Sherlock, surely can be extended to involve Mycroft, as Mycroft's protectiveness extends somewhat to Sherlock's friends.

And this is not a one way street of just Lestrade being kind and accepting. The people Sherlock surrounds himself with appear dull, and have "normal" lives, but secretly either have a florid past (Mrs Hudson) (and her present with the race car and her quick thinking when the flat gets ransacked) and/or crave adventure and danger and intrigue (John) (Molly). Lestrade is the probably the same. He seems aggravated by Sherlock but still like him a whole lot and truly care for him, and you don't go into policing if not for some kind of excitement. He has a failed marriage with his wife who boringly cheated on him with a PE teacher, like how predictable and cliche, and they broke up. Lestrade is loyal, and he wants to fix things, but in the end it doesn't work out. The show doesn't really tell us why, but given what we know of his work and his habits, he probably spends way too much time on the job and in part, neglected his home life. That isn't to say the cheating his wife did can be condoned, nor was it justified, but it does tell us that Lestrade is a workaholic who craves excitement and adventure which explains his attachment to Sherlock. Who else can match that with him in a relationship? Another workaholic who surrounds himself in government intrigue and MI6 bullshit cloak and daggers who also share a soft spot for the most annoying detective consultant, of course!!! For all we know from the show, Mycroft is Lestrade's one constant relationship outside of work. Their common interest is keeping their shared loved ones safe. Beyond that, even though Mycroft feels bored by everyone because "no one is as smart as i, hohoho", Sherlock used to be the same but he found John. We see Lestrade able to hold his own against Sherlock sometimes too, and he is a detective inspector, so as much as Sherlock likes to call him dumb we know that Lestrade's actually pretty smart. If he can hold up his own against Sherlock, he can hold up his own against Mycroft. Mycroft needs someone with the patience to go through all his bullshit, and Lestrade needs someone smart and interesting and protective, because as a protector himself sometimes you forget you need someone to protect you in turn. And that is basically their whole thing - two fierce guardians, trying to protect the world, finding they also need protection, and finding it in each other (end of season 4). Also there's this scene where Lestrade is sitting by his desk with his feet propped up while he eats a donut and says "not my division" which looks exactly like this scene where Mycroft is sitting by his desk with his feet propped up looking smug, or as the mystrade shippers like to call it, "boyfriends picking up each other's behaviours". Essentially, the johnlock relationship sort of parallels the mystrade relationship in that we have a smartass, spiky, secretly vulnerable one paired with a badass, patient, relatively more sunny one. But more mature. And also preferable. The two of them share some kind of relationship that has reached the point of nonverbal understanding, as we can see in their quiet glances towards each other during the few times we see them on screen together, that requires a level of trust and time. 

2)     B: compatibility in external circumstances - this is a short one, it's mostly that they're both workaholics who needs someone to understand their unpredictable work schedules, and also how minimal their social life can get being a) married to work and b) work can be classified and you can't tell anyone about your case files / government coverups. No one could understand the need for secrecy and getting up in the middle of the night for a case/subterfuge than Mycroft and Lestrade, as their career roles work in tangent with each other. And they share (1) chaotic child between the two of them, so they just. get it when one receives a call telling them to fish this loud annoying bitey man child out of the Thames. Their jobs get in the way of establishing close relationships, so who better to relate to than another who live the same kind of life and can understand?

[chemicalpink]

Bonding(M)♡ Park Jimin

Pairing: Stripper!Jimin x Dom!Reader

Genre: Smutttt , Steamy(ish), Stripper!AU, College!AU

Summary: in which Jimin is known (and fawned over) for being a stripper, whereas the reader is secretly working as a dominatrix for both money and research on her psych major, until Jimin discovers her and asks her for a favour in return to not spreading her secret.

Word Count: almost 3k

Warnings: honestly… some dom on dom action and a bit of plot if you look closely

A/N: It started with a kinda ehhh plot, got lost in the middle, ended up being smut af, and the end… i just idk I kinda want to make a fluffy part 2 if you like this mess. Also, please bear with me, I just recently got into a fandom again after 5 years on hiatus. K love u. Oh! and requests are always open!

You can read Part II here!

“I heard that just by looking at you once, she has you all hardened” some guy gushed over to his friend in a quiet voice

“But nobody has really seen her face” another voice joined as you rushed by to get to your Behavioural Analysis class. 214...214….This was the third time you were late to class, work has just been too much lately, not that you were complaining, money-wise it was great, the word was getting around pretty fast, and research was just as good but sometimes you wondered if it was really worth the sweat dripping down your back as you ran from the bus station to get to class. 

The door made a creaking noise and you flinched a little as you took a seat at the back of the room, next to a platinum-haired boy you, unfortunately, knew too well. 

“Miss (Y/N)” the whole room seemed to turn to look at you as the professor acknowledge your presence and you felt your heart skip a beat, anticipating the worst “Its the third time this week that you try to sneak into my lecture” you wouldn’t normally care about some man’s piercing eyes towards you, it was actually a part of your job to step over that type of confidence, but this was just… not your stage, you turned to look down, his gaze somehow becoming overpowering 

“I overslept. My apologies” a stifled giggle made its way from your left side and you felt the sudden urge to roll your eyes at who it belonged to… Park Jimin. It’s not that you hated him. You just hated the fact that of all places, you had to coexist with him in the same class, same campus, the same era in time. 

You really weren’t sure what evil you had done that the universe just seemed to get you back ten times stronger. Having to share a classroom with Jimin was bad enough already, he seemed to make your inside bubble every time he talked, but when the professor asked for you and him to be involved in a differential, it just had to be a payback for always arriving late. You were 99% sure at any time you would implode. The case was pretty simple tho, Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Which seemed to fit perfectly to your classmate, so you thought about playing your cards in front of everyone, maybe if you were that someone that just shook their little brains, they would finally comprehend they were praising an egocentric little bitch. 

You could feel Jimin’s eyes waiting for you expectantly as soon as the teacher called out your name “Well NPD would pretty much sum it all up” and there it was, the same stifled giggle from before 

“Childhood trauma would also do it, Y/N” his tone was teasing you, and you knew better than to get involved but it was just not your day, your whole body turned towards him and a teasing smiled crept its way to your face 

“I thought you would know better, Jimin” his eyes squinted at you “Exaggerated feelings of self-importance, an excessive need for admiration, and a lack of empathy toward other people… sounds a lot like you” the whole class seemed to quiet down as you said it. No one had ever dared to talk to THE Park Jimin that way… not with his status on campus.

“Should I keep going?” you felt your heart beating faster as you tried to keep up with his eyes-that were glued on you as he clicked his tongue and bowed his head as if asking you to proceed “Self-perception of being unique, superior, and associated with high-status people, Sense of entitlement to special treatment and to obedience from others-” 

“And that would be it for today, you are dismissed” your eyes were still locked with Jimin’s as everyone gathered their things, you heart not slowing down and a boiling feeling within you, much to your surprise, Jimin was the first one to break eye contact, getting ready to stand up and leave the classroom, his right hand was already pushing the door open when he turned around to face you, still packing up your things.

“You know, Y/N, it's so brave of you to talk that way taking into account what you do for a living” you felt your heart rate quicken and you began to breathe rapidly. He-no. he couldn’t. Could he? No. 

“I don’t know what you are talking about” “Sure you don’t” stop the overthinking Y/N. He doesn’t know. No one knows. 

“So tell me… where should I pick you up if ...you know, I want your services” you could swear your heart stopped beating for a second just before the boiling sensation of rage took over and venomously spatted “I’m not like you” he chuckled 

“Of course not, kitten. I dance for a living. You make people cum” something took over you as the last word left his mouth.

 That side you didn’t use except for work, just happened to overdrive your body and within seconds you had THE Park Jimin pined against a wall. Yes, the same guy that was way too famous for making all the girls swoon over him during Friday nights after class, in a small strip club just outside campus. The Park Jimin was an overly famed dom and took pride in it. 

And you- well you had your fair share of fame, but in a legend, almost mystic type of way. No one was supposed to know you were the famous dominatrix that attended every. single. need from the people visiting her small studio-like office, a few blocks away from where the boy danced his life away. 

“So I guess its true then” he smiled that teasing smile of his, and you would be lying if you said it didn’t make your knees just a little bit weak “you do make any guy harden at your touch” you let your hand fall from his chest and quickly turned away as you tried to steady your breath 

“Listen… no one can know about this” he smirked as his eyes somewhat darkened. You knew this look. You would have to pay the price of his silence

“Just tell me already how much its gonna cost, you perv” your tone was kind of desperate as you stole a glimpse of the classroom’s clock and realised that you were already late for work. “a hundred? I’ll get them by the end of the week” 

“Actually” he paused as he looked at you as if something seemed funny to him about this whole situation “Social service will do this time. I’ll stop by your dorm tonight” you slowly felt whatever it was that possessed you a while ago. Rage? Indignation? Both? Whatever it meant that he would stop by your dorm, you weren’t having it. 

“I have work tonight” 

“So do I” so… there really was no way around it 

“Listen, money is no problem Jimin” 

“I know. But unless you’d like the whole campus to know who our beloved and mysterious dominatrix is… I’ll see you… let’s say, 2 am?” he bit his lip as he exited the room. Not giving you a chance to even consider manipulating him into getting your way, which was indeed, your speciality. 

The thing was, between attending evening classes, late-night work, homework and maintaining a somewhat normal social life, Jimin stopping by to whatever he meant by ‘social service’ meant you’d have to cram your studying time.

Work went by pretty quickly. And you couldn’t help but keep on wondering what was waiting for you with Jimin. It wasn’t that you were ashamed of what you did for a living… but it would lose its spark if people knew who you were.

Your head started to ache as you started getting ready to leave. It was already 1:30 am, which meant that it would take you around 20 minutes to get to your dorm and hopefully have enough time to change out of the red kinky thigh-high leather boots your work required that day. 

But boy were you one to get the times wrong. 

As you entered the hall of the unit, your eyes fell on a very glittery Jimin sitting on the floor outside your studio, unbuttoned black shirt and phone in hand. 

You walked up to him, exhaling loudly as an attempt to calm yourself down. You nudged his side with the tip of your boots. He looked up. 

“I was about to call you, but then I realised that I didn’t have your number” great. so he was an asshole and also had lame pick up lines. You really wondered how exactly did he have so many girls falling for him 

“And you’re not getting it” you opened the door and motioned for him to enter “Come on in, and may I ask, how exactly you got into the girl’s unit?” 

“Ah… little Y/N. I can get any girl to do whatever it is that I please” you closed your eyes as another wave of pain hit you 

“Yeah… you stay here. I’ll just go grab an aspirin” the dorm wasn’t big, as a matter of fact, your bed was just a few steps from the ‘living room’ where you left Jimin, but it did what it promised, let you crash. 

You could have sworn you were gone less than a minute before encountering a semi-naked Jimin propped up on your bed, striking what he might have thought of as a sexy pose, patting the bed by his front side for you to sit “Okay. I’m done. Get out”

He sat up “No, wait. I really need this. And you too, Y/N” he smiled at you, but not that smirk you had been used to seeing, the smile that radiated confidence and ego but one that almost seemed friendly, one that made him look innocent, cute, dare you say it. 

“A favour for a favour. As classmates that do kind of the same for a living” You grabbed the chair from your desk and sat in it, crossing your arms. Willing to put on a fight for as long as it benefited you 

“Fine. Be quick” 

“I’m just asking for a few minutes of your night, once a week. I need help with my show. And who knows? you might end up liking it” and there it was, every ounce of liking towards him that he built with the friendly smile and appealing to the sentiment of belonging to the same team. Gone 

“No way”

“Fine. Then just be ready for your little secret to come out” Was it really worth it? He did say, just a few minutes every week. But the thought of having Jimin over, dancing and doing who know what in your dorm, was unbearable. Then again, he did say he needed it. 

“Just a few minutes every week?” 

“Yeah” 

“Fine then stop by tomorrow. Same time” he smiled brightly at you “Now get lost. I need sleep”

What happened the next night though, nothing could have prepared you for it. Your assistant told you you had a new client coming, so as per usual, you were ready to test him out from simple to more complex things. You heard the door closing as some footsteps approached the bed behind you 

“Just stay there. I’ll be with you in a second” 

“God. those bunny ears really do suit you, Y/N” you could have sworn that your heart skipped a beat as you felt heat building up inside you, from rage. But this was somewhat to your advantage, he had just stepped in the lion’s den and had no idea 

“I thought we agreed on meeting in my dorm” you said as you walked up to the bed, taking a seat behind him, with his back between your thighs 

“I thought this might be more fun” of course he was more than excited to play this game, but you weren’t going to let him win. 

Something flashed in his eyes. Something you have become very familiar with. Lust. And then Jimin pushes you against the wall, his fingers laced with yours, your back against the cold wall that held all of your work tools. And you saw what he was going for. Tying you up. But you were having none of it. In a matter of seconds, it was him pressed against the wall, his eyes reflecting the pink led lights from the room. You held tightly on his crotch as he tried to gain dominance over you, keeping him in his place. He just smirks.

You stay there for a moment, him locked under you, and the two of you stare at each other like you’re waiting for someone to make a move. A stalemate. And then you can’t tell who breaks it first, but somehow your lips collide in a hungry, urgent kiss. He kisses you deep, hungrily, desperately, like he wants to consume you whole. As you let your firm grip go, his touch is rough, his fingers grip so tight against your hip that it hurts, and the pain just spurs on the arousal beginning to pool in your belly. 

Jimin bites your lower lip as he pulls away, his eyes scanning over your face. The room felt silent, steamy like the bright lights were invited you two to step it up, taunting you to take it forward. Your breath hisses in involuntarily as you look down at the bulge in his pants, your eyes flitting back up to Jimin’s face. He has a cocky calm look on his face, and it occurs to you that you had never expected Park Jimin the stripper to be like this. 

For a moment you consider stopping, standing up and strolling out. This is a bad idea, the rational side of your brain chides. He’s… himself, the single-cell brained asshole that always sits beside you in class, the self-centred stripper Park Jimin, this is so wrong. But when you look into Jimin’s dark eyes and see the way he licks his lip while staring you up and down, the confidence that emanates from him. And all reason flies out of your head. You want him.

“C’mon spread those legs for me” he whispers to your ear and you can feel his hot breath tickling your neck. He knows what he’s doing. He knows what to say. Saying it without cockiness or nastiness but stating it firmly and calmly… sweet God. 

But this is a game you are not allowing yourself to lose. The hand you have been keeping on his crotch rapidly makes its way into his pants, stroking him over his underwear. He lets out a suppressed grunt and the sound makes you smile. 

Your smile widens when you stop stroking and grab him full in your hand and feel his thighs stiffen. Somehow his lips find their way to your neck, placing you in his previous stand, bot of your bottoms soon discarded, as he held both of your hands behind you, you felt a warmness near your pussy, followed by his voice.

“Tell me how much you want it”

“I don’t beg” everything that had gone thorough between you two in the past few minutes was better than anything you could have imagined. But the way he seemed so bothered by you not sticking to his dominant side’s orders just made you even wetter and weak in the knees. 

And then Jimin slides inside of you.

The last thing you see before closing your eyes and succumbing into pure please was Jimin’s jaw clenching, his platinum hair all messed up. He takes it slow, likely on purpose, and you let out a cry at the feeling. His cock is thicker than what you’re used to, and it stretches you out. It’s been such a long time since you’ve had sex, and when you did have time in the past, it was always rushed. You, dominantly riding a guy until you had a quick, mildly satisfying orgasm. But it was never this – dominated, teased, sprawled under a man with plump lips and a silky smooth voice. 

When he’s finally all the way inside of you, you release a long breath that you didn’t even know you’d been holding in. You hear Jimin let out a stuttering breath, the two of you are still for a moment, just feeling one another, you exchange silent glances to which you weren’t quite sure the meaning of and then Jimin starts to thrust.

He is fucking into you hard, his pace steady and at just the right speed to have you crying out his name while shutting your eyes and drawing your nails into his back for balance, or maybe just to somehow be able to feel him closer. The blood is rushing to your face and you’re slightly dizzy from the mask you have on but all you can feel is him, the loud slap of skin resonating between the four walls of the small room as he slams into you. 

You can hear the vocalizations he makes with every thrust, grunts, growls, and then small soft mewls as he arches upwards and hits you at different angles. Each push of his cock leaves you a writhing mess beneath him. Just as you feel an unavoidable heat forming in the lower part of your belly, he stops. He completely stops. Steals one last glance at you, adding his signature smirk after pulling his pants on and leaves you there. All worked up against the wall, your mouth hanging open as he walks out. If you didn’t hate Park Jimin before, you were sure as hell you did now. 

[the-breloominati]

Oh boy guess who had a weird dream again

This time it was based more on Animal Crossing, and then Unus Annus...? ....kinda?

So first I was at home and there were 2 of there really big, blue-ish black-ish spiders in there, and I think I and some other people might've been trying to collect them? But they kept fleeing or something, even though I think they were supposed to be like the tarantulas..? I was sitting on my couch first (I think), but after being scared shirtless I went to the dinner table (probably to get some snacks or something)

Then there was this bit where I think a good couple hundred (at least) people were gathered in this area, and we got sorted into color-coded teams. I forget what team 1 was (red, maybe?), but team 2 was blew and team 3 (the one I and one of my friends were in) was green. I think it was supposed to be some kinda survival field trip thing...?

We were going somewhere, and team 1 was leading. Team 2 was supposed to remind them of where they were going (I think, something along those lines) and team 3 was just supposed to follow them.

I was toward the front of team 3 at the start, and I ended up runnung forward to catch up with team 2, and mixed in with them a bit, but didn't really talk to anyone. I ended up waiting out to the side for a bit so my friend could catch up and we could walk together and talk, so I ended up between teams 2 and 3. At some point we climbed a pyramid kind-of thing (like the ones in central and south america), and when I got to the top, teams 1 and 2 were already really far ahead. (Also the area (at least what I remember seeing) was a desert, but there may or may not have been snow in the distance (don't know if the snow but was actually in the dream or not)) Off the path there was a small area with a fire in it, probably left by teams 1 and 2 so we could light torches as well since it was getting dark (I only remember them having one really big one, though)

Then at some point I might've just gotten off the trail or something because I ended up in a kind of void area. I don't remember if there was a floor, but there were some glass walls with a thick, rounded metal frame/trim, except on the side with the hinge, I think. The hinges weren't visible, but the doors still rotated like normal.

Quick death mention warning

Past the doors there was a kind-of room? The only thing I can definitely say was there was this woman lying on the ground. She had pale skin, and was wearing makeup (I remember her having red lipstick). I think she had blonde hair..? Might've fluctuated between a slightly darker blonde and a platinum blonde. I think her hair was at least shoulder length, but I can't be sure, and she had a small braid on her left side of her face (like using the hair in front of and a bit above her ear for the braid).

It's a bit fuzzy now (since i've been typing this out for a bit), but I remember being placed at the start of the area (before the doors) one or two times. One of the last times (and it's kinda weird because I think I kept walking back and forth through the doors), I was singing something (to/for her, it think), but I can't remember the words. I can't really even remember the tune, but I do remember it was slow, and kinda soft. Almost sad, maybe, but more peaceful (almost like a lullaby, but not quite).

At some point she woke up, which was kinda weird. I feel like we talked, but I don't remember if we actually did.

Then, for some reason, I had to analyze her dress/clothing? Like in the literary kinda way with symbolism and stuff. I think the dress itself might've been red, but I do remember there were patterns on it in small, mostly black and white beads, with a few gold ones. I got to this one pattern (it was a black and white rectangle, and there was a bit of gold off of one of the corners, so I think at first I thought it was a flag), and it took me a bit to recognize what was happening. At first I was like "oh, well, it's black amd white because y'know.. unus annus" or something, and think that might've been the first mention of it? So I think there was also a disembodied voice (thinking about it now, maybe it was the woman, but idk), but I'm not sure, but regardless something was kinda guiding my analysis. So it basically went "go on" and I was sitting there for a minute and then I was like "ooooh it used to be a spiral but the black is dripping into the white to represent this woman's death" or something like that (I think that was the first thing suggesting she was dead...?). Also I think she was wearing black heels (maybe idk)

I think the last thing I remember from that part was singing to the woman, but I'm not sure

So at some point that part ended and then we (me and the other teams) were walking uphill (I think) through a jungle/forest area. For some reason I was watching unus annus on my ipad, I think? And the video kept buffering because apparently in the dream (and this is what I remember being the case there) every time they uploaded there was too much traffic, so it would take the videos a long time to load when you watched them, so they turned to NPR for distribution. (I'm not joking; I remember seeing that on a news bulletin or something in the dream.) So turns out they were making the last vidrop of unus annus or something? (The teams might've been a part of it but I'm not sure) Except it was the 100th video or something..? The number 100 was really significant for some reason

So yeah. I don't remember whether or not Mark and Ethan (I'm like 99% sure that's his name but I'm doubting myself now for some reason)(who I think might've been on the news, everything's kinda fuzzy at this point) mentioned the dead woman or not, but I feel like they did..? And I think she might've been relevant to the whole final video of unus annus thing..? (The news at least mentioned them, and think they were actually filming them, and I think they were off to the side, standing in front of the teams walking past in the background, but I'm not sure)

So yeah. It was... certainly an experience. I think they might've been separate-ish dreams since I don't really remember any transitions between them, but idk

Sorry if there are any typos, I tried to get this out as quickly as possible before I started forgetting most of what happened

[twdmusicboxmystery]

TWD 10x04: Silence the Whisperers - Analysis

How did everyone like the episode? As always, I thought it was really good. The first thing I’ll say is that there isn’t nearly as much symbolism in it as there has been in the past few episodes. Not that there isn’t any, but you know how the past few have just been ridiculously overflowing with it? This one just has less. It’s one of those episodes that’s more action-oriented and setting up for what comes next.

***As always, spoilers abound below for episode 10x04. Don’t read until you’ve watched!!!***

Opening Sequence:

So the song playing in this sequence whispers “1, 2, 3” over and over again, which I think it significant. I already talked in an Ask about the wheel decoration behind Daryl, and how I think it represents the death fake out arc, and may show that Beth’s arc is about to come back around. Beyond that, Ezekiel is sad, Magna is having some issues, and a tree comes through Hilltop’s wall.

Hilltop:

We learn that 9 people got trapped in a building when the tree hit the roof and it caved in. They got all the people out, but this could be part of the Hole in the Roof theory. As the episode proceeds, the noise from the tree brings walkers and they’re afraid the whole wall will collapse. It’s already been weakened by the tree and now all the walkers are pushing in on it.

This hearkens back to two things for me. The first is the fallen trees in Them, which I always saw as significant. The second is, of course, when the church fell in S6, bringing down Alexandria’s walls and letting walkers in in 6x08/09.

Why would that be significant? Well, I think it’s obvious why Them would be significant, yeah? I mean, it’s after the storm and the fallen trees that the music box woke up. So if you want to draw a direct parallel, you might argue Beth will arrive after the tree falls. Honestly, I don’t see this as a big enough event to herald that, but it might be one of many small events that lead to her. More on that in a minute.

And how about paralleling it to S6? The biggest thing for me there is that that was smack in the middle of Glenn’s death fake out. After the church fell and let the walkers in, Glenn showed up, miraculously alive, and reunited with Maggie. Just saying.

In terms of the plot, I’m wondering (and this is pure conjecture) if Hilltop will eventually fall too. The Kingdom has already gone down, and I wonder if HT will too, forcing the entire group together at Alexandria. I’m not at all positive that’s where they’re going, but it crossed my mind.

Because the wall actually does collapse, but Michonne’s group shows up to help fight the walkers, and they do talk about fixing it. So we’ll see.

Ezekiel:

Given all the messages and Asks I’ve gotten about this, I doubt I need to explain it in great detail. Zeke has always had heavy parallels with Beth. Just as Daryl and Carol are very similar, so Beth and Ezekiel are too. Here, we have him contemplating suicide, much as Beth did in S2. Much like her, he realized he wants to live. 

As I mentioned in an Ask, this happened on one side of the now-broken bridge Rick was blown off of. So that connects him to Rick. And he wore a green shirt (Beth). So I think that connects him to the death fake outs and this functions as a foreshadow of Zeke’s own coming death fake out.

He also rode a black horse. It ran by Michonne after he let it go. That made me realize something. It’s not anything groundbreaking, but just a detail I hadn’t really thought of before. We’ve always seen as white horse = Beth and black horse = Daryl. The white horse also = life or being alive. But I realized the black horse also = death, despair, lack of hope. That’s how Zeke felt here, and how Daryl felt around the time Buttons died. Again, nothing we didn’t already know, but I just hadn’t thought of it that way before.

When Michonne and Ezekiel talk, she says, “it never would have worked between us anyway. We’re both too stubborn.” He says, “maybe in another universe.” I laughed at that. As in, the comic book universe? It’s obviously the writers’ way of acknowledging that this is a nod to their comic book romance, but it’s not going to happen in the show. (Add that to the list of things TD has been correct about.)

Daryl/Lydia/Alexandria:

This was obviously the biggest story thread in the episode. And I gotta say, I loved it! Gauge and his friends are mean to Lydia and bully her. She talks to Negan about it more and more, which Daryl isn’t happy about.

I was laughing hysterically when Lydia butchered the squirrel in front of them. How much like Daryl is that? Like father, like daughter, I guess. She’s rebellious just like he is. Which isn’t surprising since they come from similar, abusive backgrounds.

Daryl is older and wiser now and advises her not to provoke them, but he himself would have done much the same only a few years ago.

The three bullies attack Lydia and Negan saves her. I gotta say, while I was one who thought it would have been more just for them to execute Negan at the end of AOW, it’s really hard to hate him when he’s being sweet to Lydia. While rescuing her, he accidentally kills the woman who used to be with the highwaymen.

So, remember in episode 1 when I talked about how Negan told FG he didn’t want people’s fear of the Whisperers to blow up in his face so that they blamed him and wanted to string him up? I said that was setting something up and this would happen eventually. So this episode is the fulfillment of that. It truly was an accident and he didn’t mean to kill her, but no way people are going to let it go, now. So Negan takes off.

In truth, I’ve been waiting for him to take off. I’m actually really excited about this story line. Remember last season when Negan escaped and left Alexandria for a while? Judith tried to stop him, and he took her compass? Well, he was only gone a short time, but during that time we saw tons of callbacks to Still, saw him run from dogs, and saw tons of other Beth-ish symbolism. We weren’t exactly sure what it meant at the time, but now I think we do.

That small excursion from Alexandria was a foreshadow of this one. He’ll probably be gone much longer this time and the arc will be much bigger. It’s important to note that we saw not only Beth symbolism, but also saw Negan drink bad water and throw it up. That hints at the radiation/helicopter group stuff.

So I’m not saying Negan will meet Beth in the woods next episode—obviously I’d be great with that, but I’m sure it will be much more complicated and protracted—but just that something about him leaving will lead to Beth. I’m excited to see how it all plays out.

When Daryl talks to Carol, she says all the drama in the communities—both the stuff with Negan and Lydia, as well as the tree situation at Hilltop—are distractions from the true enemy: Alpha. I know there are lots of theories floating around about Carol being the one to have let Negan out. 

While I don’t think we have much evidence of that either way, I certainly wouldn’t dismiss it. It would mirror her killing Karen and David at the prison in 4a. Not that the action is the same, but this wouldn’t be the first time Carol took it on herself to solve a problem in a less than ethical way, because she thinks it’s for the greater good. But no one knows for sure what happened yet. They didn’t tell us in this episode. So we’ll just have to wait and see.

Meanwhile, when Michonne and Daryl talk on the radio, she tells him to protect Lydia. She’s afraid that if anything happens to Lydia, or if she leaves Alexandria, Alpha will attack them. Yeah, once again, that’s a setup. Something along these lines will happen eventually and bring Alpha’s wrath.

Near the end, Michonne, Judith and Luke head back to Oceanside because Rachel radioed to say they thought they saw some Whisperers near where the mask washed up in 10x01. So Michonne is going to investigate. She takes Judith and Luke with her. Where Luke is concerned, I kinda feel like he might die. I hope not, but they sure focused a lot on him saying heartfelt goodbyes to his group (Magna, Connie, Kelly, and Yumiko). That struck me as suspicious. Like that group might not all be together again.

Details:

I won’t do a full details post because there were only a handful I saw worth mentioning.

When Lydia said Gauge and his pals deserved what she did (with the squirrel), Daryl said, “I get it.” Obvious Beth line.

When Siddiq had another freak out, he put his face in ice water. Not a huge deal, but another example of water helping to (temporarily at least) heal him.

When Lydia was in medical, talking to Daryl, we see a bunch of IV bags behind her. Just reminded me of Grady.

Oh, and Lydia played around with a worm when she was talking to Negan. (Worm Theory.)

When Michonne talked to Daryl on the radio, she told him to be her proxy for the vote. This really isn’t anything official, but that word caught my ear. It had nothing to do with Beth in the plot, but how often does TD, in our theories, talk about Beth proxies? And I don’t think I’ve ever heard them use that actual word on the show before. So it just got my attention. ;D

When Negan disappeared, FG said the guards reported that the keys were missing. Key Theory. And reminds me a lot of all the keys we saw at Grady.

When Daryl and Carol talked on the steps, Carol had an interesting line. She said, “it’s like time never moves.” I wondered if that might be a reference to the clocks without hands. She also mentions New Mexico yet again.

We see Michonne and Judith fighting walkers side by side. Just look at this. I think it might be a callback to when Rick and Carl fought walkers together (with guns in that case) at the prison in 4a.

Finally, this isn’t really a TD detail, but they’re definitely setting something up with Magna and Yumiko. Their relationship is in a rocky place, but I feel like it’s mostly because Magna is kind of spiraling. She seems angry and like she just wants to kill everything. I don’t know what they’re setting up there, but something.

When Lydia butchered the squirrel, which I already said was very Daryl-like, it specifically showed that Father Gabriel (embodiment of the Sirius symbolism/Beth) was watching her. I’m not entirely sure what to make of that, but I found it interesting.

I loved seeing Daddy Daryl taking care of Lydia. It’s really sweet and compelling. I’m enjoying his interactions with Lydia. I always feel like he’s on the verge of telling her about Beth. But alas, he doesn’t. At least, not in this episode.

Lydia said she let Negan out, though when Daryl confronted her, she admitted she didn’t. But she ultimately wanted to stay in Negan’s cell because she felt safer in there. It just occurred to me that she currently has a Morgan mindset (from 6x06) where she actually feels more comfortable in a cage. Just kind of interesting.

Ending:

At the end, they repeat the “1, 2, 3” song again. We see Luke saying goodbye to everyone, which I already talked about. Then we see Carol on the roof, looking at a map. (Maybe evidence that she’s systematically looking for Alpha?) Then we see Daryl scrubbing the graffiti off his front door.

Guess what? The vest is back! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

That’s super important, guys. We really haven’t seen his vest in a LONG time. It’s return now, with the missing wing on obvious display, feels really important. Like Beth’s return (the return of his missing wing, perhaps?) is just around the corner.

The camera pans around, showing all the graffiti (there was more than just the stuff on Daryl’s door). It stops on one particular instance of it. And, this might be hard to hear, but if you put on the subtitles, the song ends, followed by the sounds of walkers. Then the subtitles say that a Whisperer is saying, “Shhhhh.”

Yeah, that feels like a very significant setup. I feel like these first three episodes were really intros or setups for the season. Now we’re going to get into the meat and potatoes of things. You know, either really get into the Whisper War, or else something else huge is going to happen. And whatever it is, I think it will lead to Beth. I saw the last sequence of this episode as evidence that the arc where Beth returns is about to ensue. That makes me happy.

Okay. Gonna stop there for today. As I said, I won’t do a details post for this episode. Either tomorrow or Wednesday, I’ll do a post talking about where I’m thinking the events of this episode (such as Negan leaving, Michonne going to Oceanside, seeing Daryl smoke last episode, etc) might be heading. So it will mostly be a predictions post. Sort of. Stay tuned. ;D

[cruddyborderlandstheories]

“i had a dream about the Borderlands are Yours trailer last night for like the 7th time so i guess i ought to do the analysis before i have a breakdown”

find the trailer here

~discussion of the cloth map spoilers occurs in here, but nothing else. if you’re worried about those spoilers do not read~

non-spoiler tl;dr: we discuss why rhys’s head implant is yellow instead of blue in this one particular scene and also go thru a bunch of theories as to what tf is up with Zer0. and some other stuff about giant space lasers

so the intro is pretty much the same as the we are mayhem trailer so we’re gonna ignore that since we figured out where sanc-iii was

pretty sure this scene has been shown already too, in the official announce trailer, i remember taking note of the pink shots

another cov camp on pandora (see elpis in the back). ive said it before and ill say it again i adore amara’s as animations

seen this a bajillion times as well

from we are mayhem near the end. also im still lowkey convinced that robot directly to the right of moze is jakobs. i know i’m probably wrong but... i want to believe. it reminds me of a cowboy

The Are. this is directly below Sanc-III (u can see the wall in the background)

eden-6!!! im interested in the signs in the back there

Prison, Reliance, Jakobs Estate, and... amoe kyuri??? wtf does this say?? idek.

This A Way (glad to know Claptrap will haunt us from beyond Sanc-III)

im interested in the Prison. i wonder if that’s any of those concrete structures/buildings we’ve been seeing across eden-6. i was under the assumption those were like testing facilities, but a prison would also make a whole hell of a lot of sense.

actually

given this sign here over the bridge to the left of the above shot

and the fact we see this concrete structure on the far left in this coming shot

that might actually make some lick of sense...

also can i just say i love the aesthetic of this supply line

so there’s a lot of shots here we’ve already seen and gone over multiple times, im not going to do that again. sorry but... eh.

maliwan = cultists confirmed

i mean if the cult-themed t-shirts being maliwan colored didn’t already cue us in on that, this definitely should lol

and speaking of this shot, i wonder if this has anything to do with Rhys’s building? the one his office would be in. it looks like there are multiple levels to the right of this robo

ah maliwan working with the cult why am i not surprised

rhys gets fucking annihilated (TM)

in all honesty... given this quest name

“Space-Laser Tag” and the subsequent quest “Atlas, At Last” makes me honestly think rhys is about to seriously get fucked up

which sucks. i like rhys. we’ll talk more about this in a second, but i don’t think its coincidence the VHs have come up to the asteroid belt to stop the giant space laser and thus are not on Promethea where the laser is going to hit

better look at this shot, that definitely looks like a rampager to me. i get it, i think. gearbox is hyping up this rampager fight to be super awesome, show it in all the promotional material, have a kickass fight with it, then the twins come in and steal the kill from you. they steal the satisfaction from getting to kill this super hyped-up vault monster.

im picking up what you’re putting down, GB. 

did not realize fl4k actually snaps. how the heck do they do that?? gotta be hard with metal caps as their fingers tbh

404 space station not found

we’re back on the asteroid

... why this gun shoot tentacles :|

this is art

wheres his head going

i was so distracted by the razor blade status effect (??? zeroes??) i didn’t notice the giant-ass A on this banner

OwO what’s this for

~A~

also this which... looks like it could be an amara skill. maybe the one that releases elemental projectiles after an enemy is damaged? feel like we would’ve seen that one already tho.

thinking of this one, im pretty sure we should’ve seen this in one of the many, many gameplay videos (im so jealous) already available.

so if it is, baller, if it’s not, im not too surprised.

it does also seem to be targeting the double cause its shield becomes visible after being hit

i thiiink this is eden-6? in which case it may be that facility tina, brick, and mordy are in (the windows). which may, in retrospect, be that prison we’ve been hearing about

cool angle of the HBC. im pretty sure we’ve seen this shot before, too.

before we get to the actual best part of this scene

this looks very Athenas-like. possibly eridian? although the lights are throwing me off. i suppose the order or someone from the order could’ve built these structures... but what for??

heheheh

also this fucker has those rocks growing out of his head, too

the ones from the alien guns

somewhere outside the RC

back at it again in the space station

also this maliwan thing looks so fucking cool

duuuude looks like the cult got their hands on more than just maliwan hoverwheels, check out that dropship on the left!!! looking cool asf

the cars are STUNNING

holy shit this skin is amazing

very siren-esque

we’ve gone over this clip already but given now that we know the maliwan base thing is on the asteroid, it’s fitting to re-address it i think

a look at one of the metal bois (that im still convinced are jakobs lol)

i love the way this thing looks

the portal seems to be giving off the same blue sparkles we’ve seen on pandora

these

[edit] we also see them in the newest new trailer as Sanc-III zooms off into space. which is interesting.

dunno wtf that means, but yeah. they exist

probably some weird eridian/other dimension shit.

more eden-6

goliath looking amazing. not red and is wearing a helmet, so that’s interesting

looks like a part of the space station

biggggg hallway. im honestly loving how huge these maps seem to be

geniviv! i love her boss fight sooo fucking much.

honestly looks like so much fun

more c a r s

this fucker

probably eridian

i mean it seems to be absorbing the pink-ish energy from the moving stones so i assume its got some sort of link going on

also comparing the mask and arm bit to what we’ve seen rhys hand us on promethea

this thing???

but yellow instead of pink

u kno all this

ye

then again it does sorta ruin the eridian tech so maybe... it’s not lol

honestly my other guess is this is part of that ‘experimental forest’ we’ve seen signs for during the eden-6 demo. dunno why it’s destroying the eridian ruins tho. maybe those pink b e a m s are hurting it? entirely possible. some sorta... life succ ability like Tyreen.

but i don’t think it’s coincidence this thing has shown up right on top of some Eridian ruins/buildings/whatever. the leftmost part though looks like it could be human technology, which is weird. maybe some weird sort of mish mash. human tech that trees/plants grew onto and eridian ruins accidentally powered up. iunno man. im tiored.

rhys’s implant is glowing orange/yellow-ish which is very new

this is from the dev trailer (not glowing at all in the darkness)

from the promethea twitter trailer

and honestly that’s pretty wild to me because in tftbl rhys’s implant glows blue 

shown when he’s in the vault next to fiona

in bl3 during the We Are Mayhem trailer while using his ECHO eye

oh also since i just noticed

from the promethea demo

this scene

also from the promethea demo

they’re missing their monomolecular edge!

we’ll get back to zer0 in a secco

anyway you know who else’s head implant glows?

im not saying katagawa is replacing rhys because their implants are on opposite sides of their heads, but i am saying Katagawa WANTS Rhys in Maliwan and... well, Rhys’s forehead implant isn’t glowing yellow in any other shot we see of him

idk gamers i just think its sus

also rhys is holding onto that thing we see him handing to us in the Promethea trailer

this thing?? you know?

the eridian thingie majig

tho these look like two different areas... unless there’s like a very drastic wall change between angles (which there may be- these fans look identical)

which makes sense that Maliwan would want it (for the big laser thing maybe?? since we know they’re going for activating said laser)

... but honestly i get the feeling this is in some way related to... after the laser. especially since we know that that eridian thingie matches up with this one on pandora

in which case... wtf is the laser for? it definitely looks like its destroying stuff on the surface...

rhys also seems to have knowledge about the eden-6 vault key since he projects it during the dev trailer

me thinks someone got h a c k e r o n i e d

alright galaxy brain theory time:

rhys gets hacked by maliwan not only bc they want a merger, but also because he has info on the vaults/giant space laser, forces zer0 to be maliwan branded now since atlas is joining maliwan, zer0 finds out rhys is not willingly joining maliwan and is instead under maliwan control and tries to forcibly take the key away from him, we stop zer0 and save rhys from both the assassin and maliwan control

🤷‍♂️

Alright but in all seriousness there’s only 2 ways this can go

1. that’s actually our zer0

2. that’s actually not our zer0

and there’s a lot of theories running around about that and i guess we ought to address them

so for 1 there’s a few possibilities:

1. zer0 is a robo/cyborg and got hacked by maliwan (i personally don’t like this one bc i don’t want to know what zer0 actually is. it is a ~m y s t e r y~)

2. zer0 got paid more money to eliminate rhys and is doing so

3. zer0 decided killing their boss would be the ultimate challenge and thus decided to try it out... by joining maliwan

4. they’re faking rhys’s death and/or zer0 is infiltrating maliwan

5. zer0 got the brainwashed/their bodysuit got hacked (i would be interested to see if the monomolecular edge tech caused them to get captured or smth. i mean if there’s a tracker on it, then zer0′s decepti0n wouldn’t exactly work cuz they turn invisible... but they’d still be seen)

6. rhys got the brainwashed/hacked and zer0 is attacking him to get the eridian thingie/key/relic/whatever back

personally i’m curious how they’d play off 1-3 given Zer0 and Rhys are both shown on sanc-iii and zer0 even has crew challenges

im saying idk if the crimson raiders would appreciate zer0 attacking/trying to kill an ally without very good reason.

which is why i’d imagine 4-6 are the more reasonable answers?

also given the explosion of Promethea (what we’re assuming is Promethea) is green and also the laser we see maliwan controlling is purple, i wonder if that’s some brainwashing juice instead of... other stuff. cuz like.

this is elpis’s giant space laser. very radiant and like... ribbon-y? and has all that blue stuff and orbs and mm.

THIS is Promethea’s very solid and has circles and just. looks straight up like a death laser.

and yeah again it could be modified by that human-looking (?) tech around it to be like a brainwashing b e a m or something

or just more precise. that too.

and honestly idk if this could destroy a planet like how we see the planet (that we are assuming is promethea bc of the asteroid belt) in the sanc-iii article

it’s a solid ‘yeah that’s more likely than my theory’. might take a lot of time tho. or maybe those energy rings power it up or deal more damage when they hit the planet...

oh also given Tina literally says “WE blowing up this whole mother humpa”

and the reason im questioning the human-looking tech around it is because

typhon and leda 100% noticed something here. i guess if it was altered by humans after typhon and leda found it then that would make sense?

we’ve also got this from the tree guy, so i don’t know for certain.

anyway number 2

(2. that’s actually not our zer0)

i love these ones

1. that’s 0ne (zer0′s assassin’s assassin from the son of crawmerax dlc)

2. maliwan made a/hired a copy of zer0 and it’s easy to copy their voice/way of speech bc of the modulator (that’s just a fake implanted into atlas to steal all their secrets)

and all of these have the idea that the real zer0 shows up to save rhys at the end of this scene (explaining the blue light)

this

i personally disagree on that being zer0′s sword. tbh it looks more like a maliwan weapon or a laser or smth to me. that said it could be a weird effect because they’re in decepti0n or smth.

most of these theories have the idea that the real zer0 is either off with Fiona or Lorelei or just off on their own and only show up later. i wouldn’t even be surprised, given their line at the end of Tales. you know the one where they diss rhys like “i was talking to her” lol

so i don’t really have much to add to these. personally i believe that’s our zer0 up there, but i wouldn’t be shocked if something happened with the monomolecular edge that allowed maliwan to create a copy of zer0. or brainwash/control them. whichever. 

i do like the reintegration of 0ne into the story, that’d be a hilarious call-back, but i worry it’d be too obscure (a side quest in a headhunter dlc) for the majority of players. we’ll see

it’s weird if brainwashing or mind controlling thru the maliwan tech is the case bc the monomolecular edge isn’t present on their maliwan sword. or their future sanc-iii sword (but that part DOES make sense bc why would they keep that).

(alright also so i just took a bunch of nyquil cuz im sick as a dog so if this devolves into incoherent rambling im so sorry)

ah aurelia

i love her to bits but i don’t trust her because i mean... she worked alongside Nisha and Wilhelm and Alistair dislikes her. there’s like a 50-50 shot she’ll become evil

i would not be surprised if this is a boss fight (door looks frozen over on the left there) but also i would not be surprised if she’s helping us fight off waves of enemies given it looks like we’re in the jakobs manor

like i said 50-50

her attack does make the camera wiggle a bit, usually that happens if the attack injures the player viewing it (with the hud off) cuz it will give a stagger effect

so take that with a grain of salt. also we don’t see aurelia on sanc-iii when hammerlock and wainwright are both there in the group shot in the launch trailer

this fucker i already talked about a bunch in my reddit post on the eridium subject so im going to link that here. i might have already spoken about it on here tbh... i can’t remember lol

anyway here’s the copy and paste from there to here

you can see a huge Tink with Eridium growing out of his head and what look to be Eridium horns. And he's being elementally charged from an Eridian floor tile (in one of those temples, probably the Pandoran one but it could be Athenas, I guess). Kind of like how Bloodwing (also bigger) becomes elementally charged by Jack using element-throwers to change her element. i know it's a cultist tink because on his right shoulder (our left) he has those glow-y pink/purple tubes that are on the CoV guns and other cultists (like goliaths). and while i'm not sure if this is solely Eridian stuff (since they're in a temple) or because of the twins, it's definitely something that should be talked about. 

wait no yeah i did talk about this because of the athenas post. i just remembered lol

uhhh whoops. double dipping i guess lol sorry

still not sure if this is Pandora or Athenas. kind leaning towards Pandora atm

i like how this guy is able to make a cryo wall thing

he goes to smash it but we don’t get to see what happens cuz it cuts to another rampager

dishing out corrosive/radiation (??) attacks while someone shoots it with a fire weapon

this bamf which i KNOW i discussed in that athenas post

also something i haven’t noted is that his roar seems to be activating something here, like a spiral light of dooooom. also more blue sparkles. maybe summoning an assist? or a debuff/attack aoe. 

there is also this weird light near its legs that moves with the camera and sorta reminds me of the weird real-life face talky siren thing. you know the one

very curious as to what this is cause i haven’t seen it in any other scene with a rampager in it. maybe some sort of connection to the spiral/whirlwind thing it’s making?

oh wow im tired now lol

well bl3 is fully downloaded on my computer gamers, so we can officially say it’s happening!!!

[wondr18360]

Hints at who the traitor was in Persona 5

To be honest, I always had a gut feeling that this person would be the traitor partly because I had seen the teaser images for PQ2 with them included as part of the Phantom Thieves and given their background before they “joined” the group, they certainly seemed suspicious, but still that’s not really proof that this person was the traitor, so here’s a list of things that really helped prove that they were the culprit behind the mental shutdowns and the one who sold out the Phantom Thieves!

(I haven’t revealed their name or gender yet cuz I don’t wanna spoil anyone by accident, so select ‘keep reading’ at your own risk!)

1. Lurking at Okumura Foods

The first time the Phantom Thieves enter Okumura’s palace, Akechi is spotted nearby, and we can see him actually notice the Thieves gathered in front of the company building before the scene cuts to the Metaverse. At this point in the game it could be just a way to make us nervous since it’s already been established that he’s suspicious of the Shujin kids + Yusuke and Futaba, and him seeing them go into the Metaverse in front of a potential target’s property could make him even more suspicious and maybe even give him solid proof that they are the Phantom Thieves, but really, why is Akechi by the Okumura company building in the first place? Maybe it’s a coincidence, or maybe he’s just doing his job investigating Okumura as a suspect? In any case, it is quite convenient, especially that he happens to be there at the same time that the Thieves are, and more importantly, that this just happens to be the one palace that they infiltrate whose owner dies of a mental shutdown because the true culprit appears after the boss battle and kills his shadow. I’m probably grasping at straws, but in hindsight this does seem a bit fishy...

2. Interest in the Shujin Kids + Yusuke & Futaba (and Haru)

During the Shujin Academy panel, when Akechi reveals that he knows their identity as the Phantom Thieves, he tells the group that he was curious about them ever since the Madarame case. This could have been because Yusuke started hanging out with Ryuji, Ann, and Akira (and Morgana) around the time of the Madarame case, and not only would that have been odd because he didn’t go to the same school as them, but after a bit of digging it would have been known that a former pupil/victim of Madarame was hanging out with three Shujin students who had been victims of Kamoshida, who was the first target of the Phantom Thieves; logically that would have made for a pretty interesting group and it would have been a strange coincidence that Yusuke just happens to join those three when his tormentor gets a change of heart. But remember, Madarame’s shadow was the first one to mention the true culprit behind the shutdowns, and talked about a Persona-user with a black mask. Kaneshiro, the next criminal to get a change of heart, also mentioned the culprit. It’s a bit odd that the time around which Akechi grew interested in the group coincides with the time that we first heard about the true culprit, who most likely could have even been in the palaces at the same time as the Thieves and maybe even saw them as they were exploring, particularly since in the Okumura palace, the culprit kills Shadow Okumura right after the Thieves defeat him and leave him behind, indicating that whoever they were, they must have been waiting inside the palace itself for the Thieves to weaken him and then leave so that they could finish the job. Again, probably grasping at straws, but it’s kinda suspicious.

3. Sudden Thieves fan??

Okay he doesn’t really become a fan of the Phantom Thieves, but Akechi’s stance towards them does soften somewhat after Okumura’s death when he adamantly says that they aren’t responsible for the incident or for any of the other mental shutdowns. This is a bit suspicious since before he seemed very convinced that the Phantom Thieves were connected to the mental shutdowns, and when his stance suddenly changes to the opposite, even Sae Nijima calls him out on it and points out the same thing. Not only that, but on his television appearance, he even comments that there may be more going on than originally thought, which is similarly suspicious and even indicates that he may actually know more than he’s letting on. In addition, when he later runs into Akira at Leblanc again, he says something about how is goals are probably not so different from theirs, which a) hints at a possible collaboration between him and the Thieves, and b) indicates that he may also have his own agenda to get rid of scummy adults. The latter is actually confirmed later when he’s talking with the Thieves in Leblanc, when he mentions wanting revenge against sickening human beings and having a grudge against someone, which puts more emphasis on the fact that there is some darker force behind Akechi’s actions and motivation. 

4. Genius, or experienced?

During the Shujin Academy panel when Akechi confronts the Thieves and reveals how he found out their true identities, he says that he has the same power as them and that he gained that power around the time of the Okumura case, about a month before the panel. However, when he’s talking to the Thieves, he seems to know quite a bit about the Metaverse, even mentioning it by name, which is odd because even members like Makoto and Futaba, who either pick up knowledge quite quickly or may have already had some knowledge of the cognitive world, needed time and guidance from Morgana and the veteran members of the Thieves in order to figure things out. And yet here’s Akechi, who was on his own the whole time, talking as though he’s already an expert on the Metaverse- and how exactly did he know that that’s what the other world was called? It’s a bit strange, and even when he’s exploring Sae’s palace with the Thieves, he seems to know quite a lot already, or picks up on things abnormally quickly for someone who’s supposed to be an “amateur” as Morgana would say. Speaking of Sae’s palace, it’s also a bit fishy how he was able to find out so quickly how to use the Meta-nav to find it, since he is the one who reveals to the group that she has a palace, and evidently already has a plan to change her heart. Basically, his intelligence aside, the only other viable reason I can think of for Akechi’s extensive knowledge of the Metaverse is that he has more experience with it than he made it seem to the Phantom Thieves. 

5. Bad storyteller

I don’t know about you guys, but when Akechi was telling the Thieves about how he saw the real culprit behind the shutdowns and somehow survived their encounter by awakening his Persona, I wasn’t buying it. First, there's no proof that what he’s saying is actually true, and also, if he's really going to be a bona fide monafide member of the Phantom Thieves, wouldn’t we actually get to witness his awakening the way we did with all the other members? Even Haru, who was in her Persona clothes already when we first saw her, got a real awakening scene for us to see, but there’s none of that for Akechi. That’s not all though- it’s already established that the true culprit is quite strong, in fact, back when Shadow Kaneshiro mentioned the culprit, he said that the Thieves would be no match for them in terms of strength. If that’s the case, how would Akechi have survived? Maybe the trauma of a life-or-death situation triggered his awakening and his Persona momentarily saved his life, but still the culprit could have taken another shot or two and killed him because he’s still supposed to be relatively unfamiliar with his powers, and logically it would also be in the culprit’s best interests to make sure to get rid of Akechi because he actually saw them and this could come back to bite them later. In any case, Akechi’s story is only slightly believable at best in my opinion, and for me at least it definitely was a big hint.

6. Sae’s calling card

Am I the only one who thought it was kind of weird that Akechi was so specific about the date that they should send out the calling card for Sae? I mean, yeah he gave that whole analysis of her character and why based on that it would be good to send the calling card closer to the deadline, but still, why did it have to be on the 18th? Why not the 17th or the 19th? After all, those dates are pretty close to the deadline as well. This just makes it more likely that Akechi’s monologue about Sae is a clever ruse to hide the fact that he is planning his own “mission” to mobilize the police to capture the Phantom Thieves in her palace on that date. 

7. The deal

One of the biggest indicators (in my opinion) that Akechi wouldn’t be a true member of the Phantom Thieves was his condition for cooperating with them: they disband after dealing with Sae’s palace. If he genuinely was interested in joining them or working together towards justice, he wouldn’t be giving them such an ultimatum. He does say that he wants to work with them because the mission would not be able to succeed without their cooperation, but even that comment is a bit sketchy because his referring to a “mission” could even mean that he has an ulterior motive, some other “mission” that he’s trying to carry out besides taking away Sae’s distorted desires. Anyway, because he generally did not approve of the Thieves and his motivation for working with them was questionable at best, it makes sense that he would have been the one to betray them.

8. Delicious Pancakes:

Finally, the most meme-ish canon hint that Goro Akechi is the traitor! This is basically the incident that tips off Akira and the Phantom Thieves that they should be suspicious of Akechi when he wants to make a deal and work with them later in the game. It’s one of those hints that you can catch when it happens (which is far earlier than the deal and whole traitor business), but it’s subtle enough that you do need to be paying some attention to what’s going on at the time, especially since it’s covered up well by Ryuji’s convincing response to Akechi that nope, no one was talking about pancakes, and the fact that no one actually addresses it afterwards until months later when the story is close to its climax. But even if you did forget that Morgana was the only one talking about pancakes and how delicious they were, you would have to wonder why Akechi was so specific about having heard someone say “delicious pancakes” when it sounds nothing like what Ryuji and Ann were talking about before he arrived on the scene. From the early-game standpoint, it’s an indicator that given the fact that he heard Morgana, Akechi probably isn’t the normal high-school detective that he appears to be, but after progressing to the later part of the game, it’s proof that Akechi could hear and understand Morgana from the very beginning, and therefore was another Metaverse user; he was the true culprit behind the mental shutdowns. 

Welp, that was long, but if you got this far, thanks so much and I hope you enjoyed reading! :D

Bonus hint: Akechi literally is a long-haired alternate dimension version of Light Yagami, I mean of COURSE he’s the crazy criminal masquerading as a detective/ordinary student! XD 

(Also no one asked but Futaba sits a lot like L so it really is like Light vs. L again except this time L WINS!!)

[amateuranxiety]

Ken Rants About “Vanishing World” for Probably Way Too Long

Good evening. My name is Ken, I am a dumb, overanalyzing nerd, and I have completely fallen for the narrative Vocaloid producer Grey (a.k.a. Monstrosity) has set up in the first two songs of her series, Vanishing World. I know only two out of the ten-ish-maybe? songs have been released so far, but I’ve been stewing on my thoughts for a while now and I felt that I absolutely needed to get them down somewhere. in this essay i will- I hope that people are able to see this and possibly be interested in checking the series out? I just feel like it deserves a lot more attention. I highly recommend listening to all the work on her channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrq2qxXTl7u-YKeSqIJ5xZA Now, without further ado, I give you my analysis. i feel like im giving myself too much credit for my hyperfocused ramblings lol

WARNING!

This writing discusses themes of mass death and other death related subject matter. If you are disturbed by these things, then please proceed with caution. Stay safe.

Basic Plot Summary

Vanishing World is the story of the end of the world, and the beasts who cause it. One beast for every element or force of nature or whatever. So far, they seem to choose a human to “cooperate” with in order the wreak their havoc on Earth. Human resistances rise up around the world, although not much information has been provided about them yet. Our story begins in the twenty-fifth day of the month of June, they year 2000.......

Part 1: Aberrant Garden 

Kaylee Tagetes was a young girl with a remarkable, and almost scary, gift for gardening. However, as she grew, she spiraled out of control. She began fusing plants with other forms of existence, creating a deadly army for the first destruction god, Carnation. where are your parents??? Also she had this weird flower with a face growing out of her head, but I don’t think it’s that relevant also it just scares me so I’m just gonna ignore it unless I think something up about it, ok? Ok.

An investigator dispatched to “the site of the anomaly (I’m assuming this is Kaylee’s house)” finds this information and more inside of a conveniently placed exposition note that was probably just lying on the ground I guess. 

Some important things I want to highlight in the note:

“However, as she grew older, she became... curious about something. Almost like a mysterious force was feeding her thoughts. What was this thing she was curious about, you ask? Simple!

...”By what means? That part... shall remain a mystery.”

“...and it was at that moment when she was poisoned by a spider monster. Acid flowed through her veins. She fell, passed out from blood loss. Probably dead.”

“‘My name is Carnation, the Monster of Flora. You shall hear more about me in the afterlife- your time is up.’“

“Into a giant maw she was dropped... no one ever saw her again as Kaylee Tagetes.”

What these things mean (probably):

Every beast is able to get into the mind of its host and pretty much possess them and lead them to do what they want.

Whoever wrote the note wants the process of monster creation to remain a mystery.

Probably dead. Probably.

use your real name, nerd the one you made up sounds stupid

She was eaten. Trapped within the monster’s stomach.

Our investigator pal jumps on the bandwagon with his own exposition!

“In the year 2100, the apocalypses rises, fear the chrome god monsters and their trapped traitor humans.” 

He goes on about how weird it is that Carnation woke up 100 years before the rest. Also that note was pretty strange too I guess. But the question is, who wrote it? Well, my friend, it seems obvious that it was written by a human being, so I propose the theory that Kaylee herself wrote the note. I’ll explain my reasoning soon enough, but for it to make any sense at all (even though it still probably won’t), I need to move on to.......

quick note: the more i think about this the more stupid it sounds for reasons ill get into in a moment, but im just gonna keep the Kaylee Note Theory here in case it somehow leads to me having some grand revelation about the true author.

 edit:upon further reflection it may be possible, but i still think there is plenty of room for error within my theory.

Part 2: Ulterior Spectacle

Our Earth was at peace. Finally. But they didn’t let it last.

Stephan Alexander, nineteen year old photographer and the second traitor human in our story. Using a device gifted to him by the Monster of Ice, Morzogo, he is able to freeze any landscape and turn any human being into stone with the click of a button. This device is the grand Tundra Lens. One of the worst birthdays I’ve ever heard of ngl. He goes around killing millions over a period of five months because of what Morzogo had told him.

“They don’t deserve to see the world as you do. They deserve to be a part of a picture, do they not? Make them go still so you may have the perfect picture. Travel the world and make them allll stiiiill, so they’ll be with you forever.”

To summarize the end of the story:

 girl’s voice snaps him out of trance was that a pun?

instant regret for literal mass murder

suicide via medusa method (mirror, click, bye bye)

Also, if you watch the lovely PV, you’ll notice that that girl that brought him back to reality is literally Kaylee Tagetes. A twelve year old killed a chaos god of mass destruction that ate her after she was poisoned and lost a lot of blood. This takes place maybe around the year 2032 and she still looks 12. h o w ? guess she’s dead now idk all the humans are gonna be ghosts and talk about their poor life decisions in the afterlife i guess

So yeah that’s basically my explanation for my whole Kaylee wrote the note thing.

Explaining my Kaylee Note Theory:

I think I figured out how she killed Carnation. The poison in her blood. Ingesting that could have killed him. I don’t know what it takes to kill an old one or whatever those things are, but maybe??????

The prophesy just states that the human traitor are trapped. Not dead, right? dont know about poor stephan tho oof. unless the possession automatically gives you op protagonist powers. they’re probably still dead tho

I don’t know what motivation she would have for leaving the note behind though.

Maybe she wrote it as a ghost-type-person-thing????? idk i feel like im reaching at this point ive been typing for over an hour now.

also im not sure where to fit this in but some characters talk about The Crisis which is where humans randomly turn into monsters????? idk its just been brought up once so far so i dont know what to think of it.

Alright. The last thing I want to talk about today is.......

Zone-B and Codename:NULL

We first meet Codename:NULL in the description of Battle: Xelzerin (that’s Carnation’s real name btw. i guess he’s a dork who doesn’t think his full name sounds cool like me). She’s receiving an email from another Zone-B member, Codename:GANYMEDE, who basically gives us some information about Xelzerin we didn’t already know. Including the fact that Xelzerin isn’t dead??? i should have re-read everything before i started typing this has just turned into one big semi-organized mess im so sorry 

anyway!! foreshadowing about the Earth and Electric beasts, NULL’s name is revealed to be Madeline in the description of Ulterior Spectacle, and apparently Stephan froze over 70% of the world in only five months. Probably a rich kid.

if i weren’t so tired and had more information about a story that’s barely half-way done, i feel like i would be much more thorough with my analysis and theories. i may type out a part 2 once song three drops. until then, ill wait patiently. maybe ill choke out a little theory if i have a sudden revelation but nothing on this scale. maybe ill be able to choke out a timeline as well. i can barely spell i should probably stop hope you enjoyed sorry it go so messy towards the end especially right here ily goodbye.

proofreading: barely im sorry

[ask-shakespearehigh]

Q&A post with the Mods!!!!

This is going to be a long one oh boy

How strict is the delineation of creative control vis-a-vis characters/plays between the mods? (@pedanticlecturer)

We generally have the plays split up along lines of “what we know”— we have a list at the very beginning of the blog. Sometimes we’ll draw the others’ characters (mostly me drawing some of Star’s…) but even then the final say on characterization is up to the “main” mod for that play — mod aster

what aster said -- mod star

What is your favorite play? What is your favorite character in terms of how they were written in the source material? (@pedanticlecturer)

I think my favorite play overall is Macbeth, just because I like the vibes (and the fact that I too could kill Macbeth), the fact that you don’t say it’s name in theatres, and the fact that it’s a play I did a full read through and analysis of in class. Favorite character? Puck from Midsummer. — mod aster

uhhhh,, hmm. ive always had a soft spot for midsummer since i saw it with aster esp bc of how fun the costumes were. of the comedies it has the largest potential to be the most visually pleasing bc of the concept of fairies,,,and im gay and dramatic so i love that. id die if i got to costume design for midsummer,,,or be in it,,,yeah. fav character. hmm. probably mercutio?? i recently saw a version of romeo and juliet where mercutio was played by a woman and oh my god it was amazing!!! not to mention mercutio’s portrayal in baz luhrmann's INCREDIBLE version of r n j!!! (I based my mercutio design on him) he just spends the entire time making dick jokes. love that. -- mod star

How do you answer asks so fast? I mean it's great but I'm impressed 😂 (Anon)

Personally, it’s a mix of: notifications on, quick drawing speed, and using the blog to avoid my class work — mod aster

aster is fast and (as you can see from all of my answers) im lazey -- mod star

Are there any elements/characters of the plays you're covering that you would have liked to work into this blog's plot, but couldn't due to the constraints of the setting or the synthetic nature of the blog? (@pedanticlecturer)

I wanted to make everyone gay but unfortunately due to plot constraints we have to have some hets but that wont stop me from making it lgbt as possible. -- mod star

I did want to make The Tempest more of a central play, but it just didn’t translate well. Similarly, other supernatural elements like the witches in Macbeth. This isn’t so much a constraint mentioned, but my own time/energy means that I want to show the Macbeth backstory, in a specific format, but I can’t right now— mod aster

Is there a hierarchy of import when it comes to each play's individualized impact on shakespeare high's general arc? If so, what plays are crucial to the foundation of the story? Which ones did you do mostly for shits and giggles? (@pedanticlecturer)

This is phrased like an ACT question and i might not answer it right so sorry in advance but: mod aster and i only selected a few plays for each of us to do given we dont know all of shakespeare’s works, but we tend to put more emphasis on the the more well known. But it also comes down to 1. How much we have plotted out for each play and 2. What the followers ask about most. Our two most popular are hamlet and macbeth bc people are familiar w those but around march caesar always becomes relevant again. I didnt even have designs for some of the characters until someone asked about them. -- mod star

I would say the same as star— it generally comes down to what people ask about. I will say that the overall plot is sort of separated into “has happened” and “is happening”. Like, the human potion of Midsummer, Julius Caesar, and Macbeth are all in the “aftermath” portion, while Twelfth Night, Hamlet, and Romeo and Juliet, among others, are happening. We’re trying to incorporate as much as we can, and I don’t think any of them were really put in without some thought.— mod aster

What personal significance does shakespeare hold in ur guys' lives? (@pedanticlecturer)

I go to a theater school rn and so ive dealt w shakespeare (although not all of them) it also helps that i was in loves labours lost last year as moth and that i read hamlet and r n j. Theres also a theater in my state that always does One Big Shakespeare per season and they always do them super well!!! My love for shakespeare probably started w seeing midsummer at that theater w mod aster!!! So. Theater kid rights!! -- mod star

To be honest, I got back into Shakespeare Because of the blog. I’ve been friends with some people that got really Pretentious about Shakespeare, and it kinda put me off of it. I did have a book of abridged plays (the plays’ plots written out in prose, basically) that I read as a kid, which is what got me into not only the plots of a lot of the plays, but also the idea of having them illustrated. And, same as star, the theater in state does the One Big Shakespeare— and they tend to do some really cool things with the costumes, setting them in diff time periods. I haven’t been able to see any lately since I’ve moved, but they still slap. — mod aster

🥰😘💙🥰🥰💜💟🥰I 😍💗💚😍😍LOVE🖤🖤 YALL ♥️♥️🧡💛💚💝❣️💕💘💖💗💓💞💝❤️💛💜 okay now i have a question i swear— how long have the two of you been doing art??? and what were your first shakespeare plays??? (@hellaghosts)

Uhh i started drawing when i was like idk 12 and i have the giant boxes of sketchbooks to prove it!!! I moved to digital art at abt 14-15 but mostly stayed traditional until this yr when i got a Neat New Tablet so some of my sketchbooks are sitting abandoned rip. My first shakespeare was either romeo and juliet or midsummer nights dream and i love both of them v much!!! I have a very old piece of art that i did for r n j for my freshman class assignment on it and it hasnt aged well alsdjfjafd circa 2016 i think??? -- mod star

Oh man. I started drawing when I was about 10, but it was Bad. I don’t think I got much into drawing again until I was about 14? Sometime around the end of middle school/beginning of high school. I would say I started getting into drawing as more than doodling/coloring edits sometime around 2015-16? I would draw on my iPad with my finger, then I got a tablet for my computer, and now I pretty much stick to my iPad with an Apple Pencil. My first Shakespeare play was….. uh…… probably Midsummer???? I have No idea. We would go to plays when I was little, so I honestly don’t remember if I saw others before. It may have been Romeo and Juliet— I had that book where it was the original and the “modernized” with the little dog that explained things— which, if you know it makes sense, but if you don’t is probably a bonkers answer. — mod aster

Do you think this blog has like? An overarching thesis (be it b/c intentionally or simply b/c ur own take on the world has bled thru to the point where u believe it’s central to the piece at this point)? (@pedanticlecturer)

Not gonna lie, I had to read that like three times AND dm you to figure out what you were asking from us and all I have is “be gay, respect women, write your own happy endings”. — mod aster

This blog started with an ides of march shitpost and you think we have enough brain energy to write a whole thesis? I projected feelings of found family onto my half of the blog but idk if that counts. Be gay do crime 420 69 -- mod star

What’s the nature/rough dynamic of ur relationship? How do y’all know each other? (@pedanticlecturer)

Met mod aster when i was like 4 and even tho we didnt live close we became like, best friends although the Best part didnt start until we were like 13-ish and eventually we talked like non stop (about anime and homestuck. Yknow. 13 year old kid things) and we didnt see each other a lot bc of Distance and now its even worse bc aster is in colleg.,e but we consider each other siblings regardless of family bc we’re adopted into our own respective families so that bled over into our friendship and it would feel weird calling him anything other than my brother now. We’ve seen each other at our best and worst and if you really want a good insight on what we’re like as siblings watch griffin and justin mcelroy’s overview video of catlateral damage wherein i am griffin and he is the long suffering justin. -- mod star

Star is basically my long distance sibling and functionally the only cousin I recognize bc like their parents are basically an aunt and uncle and like our dads look enough alike that we’ve both accidentally gotten the wrong dad for a hug or similar so like. Anyways yeah Star is the Griffin to my Justin, complete with our absent middle brother who we love dearly— mod aster

Dubiously relevant q but what kind of music do y’all listen to when u do art (if that is indeed a habit either of u partake in) (@pedanticlecturer)

It can depend on the piece? I was working on some (unrelated) oc prints that were song-focused, and for those I just listened to said song on loop. Sometimes I have playlists. Sometimes I’ll just be in a Mood and throw a song on loop. But a lot of time for the blog, I’ll listen to The Adventure Zone for the billionth time, because I have Too Much Attention. I’ve also, on request from Star, linked the most recent “loop song”.— mod aster

I tend to obsess over the same like 3 songs every few weeks so those get listened to on repeat but it also depends on the tone of what im drawing or who im drawing i might genre switch bc of that. If im drawing ophelia i stick to lana del rey and if im drawing hamlet its the neighborhood, horatio is sufjan stevens etc. i have categorized,. Most of the characters i draw into different songs/genres/energies of music but not like i ever follow that. Sometimes i just pull up a really long nonsense video and forget to draw. Essentially: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ -- mod star

How’d y’all come up with ur pseudonyms? (@pedanticlecturer)

I love space so much and my main blog is starryeydsailor space gay rights!! Im also tiny and full of energy and bright so basically i;m star -- mod star

Uhhhh i was like “hey i want to do uhhhhhh flower?” And then I google searched flower names until I found one I liked —- mod aster

How did you end up deciding the rough timeline of events in canon? (@pedanticlecturer)

It’s mostly determined by like. How we choose per story? If that makes sense. Like, we just take story by story, and decide “is it happening, has it happened, and when?” And then we fit them together in relation to each other just by dint of. All existing at once. Like, I knew I wanted Macbeth to be in aftermath, because like, even though there’s no murder, the way I’ve translated it to the AU is still kinda heavy, and it’s something that I don’t know that I could do properly if it were happening right now. Also, it’s more interesting IMO to have them at different times. Tl;dr we wing it per story and slot them together— mod aster (mod star agrees I just can word better, in theory)

If you could tell the story of shakespeare high in a different format than an ask blog, would you? Obviously y'all are making very good use of the format, but would you want to write this as a animated series or like? a comic book? or is the form inseparable from the story? (@pedanticlecturer)

I kinda wanted to do a webcomic or maybe to plot develop through like, animatics but the element of surprise comes from the asks we get and really makes us think so the blog is a good start. We didnt think we’d get this far -- mod star

Pretty much what Star said— there are certain elements where it’d be neat to do as a comic or as an animatic. Like, the fantasy dream is like, an anthology webcomic of each story, where you can like, see other characters in the background and stuff. But to be honest, we develop a lot by what we’re asked— there was a post about developing worldbuilding by being asked questions and then pretending you’ve thought about the answer, and it’s not far off. Personally, it’s hard to just lay out a story, because I have a whole WORLD and what’s relevant? What are people interested in? It’s by getting questions that I can then focus in on an area to develop. And yeah, we Super didn’t think we’d get this far lmao — mod aster

Any headcanons about your characters that you don't think will ever come up on the blog through asks or plot posts? (@pedanticlecturer)

I could make a whole separate post for this!!!!! Mostly its voice headcanons (and by mostly i mean like 1 or 2) or relationship hcs!!!! -- mod star

Honestly same. I don’t think I have voice headcanons for mine, though I bet I could find some. I’ve got a bunch of miscellaneous headcanons that just kinda float around, but like they’re scattered, too numerous for this post, and also not always things I’m sure are canon yet.— mod aster

[gaycey-sketchit]

(Gary anon) I understand the complaints about Ash how much should contributes to Goh's missions and JN's power-scaling; but this clearly isn't to meant to be an Ash-centered fight. (Plus, this Articuno had a OHKO move on it. Which would have caused more problems for Charizard) It felt like Goh rejected Gary as soon as he saw him; which yeah expected, but no insults were thrown period. (This is arguably the least he's "teased" Goh) Plus, Gary gave him a choice to work with him or not.

.

(Part 2) (It's fair that a number felt Gary hold some responsibility; but if you're thinking his character regressed completely or thought he was just a flat-out bully, you're missing the point of what he was trying to do. Goh showed aversion to this mission throughout the episode, even with Ash and Tokio's encouragement. Something that happened before he when Project Mew was presented to him) Gary very easily could've gotten into a verbal fight with Goh, but chose to focus

(Part 3) on the task at hand and even sent his Pokemon to take the fall for each drawback. He earned that leadership token. (This failure was very needed for Goh to wake up)It's ironic cause if you're acting like this with Gary; concerning Goh, why would you want Paul doing something that's similar or potentially worse to him too? (Which again,would make no sense at this point. We get why Gary [while retaining his development] is being this way with Goh, but what would Goh get)

(Part 4) (out of Paul calling him "pathetic" or curb-stomping him in a battle? What would PAUL get out of this?) I'm glad his battling skills were still on display, despite what happened. (Still open to becoming a Gym Leader; while keeping researching side) For analysis on a certain character, I think it's often better to primarily focus on just their episodes [or any place they show up] than doing a whole series rewatch. You'll catch things you didn't noticed before. (This episode does)

(Part 5) (have me wonder with Gary having somewhat of his own loner-ish tendencies; he's trying open Goh's eyes to the bad points of it) Similar to how he kept reminding Ash to not get a swelled head like he did and keeping your mind open. (In turn, Goh might loosen him and Tsurugi up a bit) Heh, for as much as a fan favorite [and being a starter] it is, it's sad. But it wouldn't be the first that's happened to other favorites in the anime. *gestures to Scizor being a punching bag*

(Part 6, p. 2) And there we go: Yamper episode for the 22th, Greninja return [with Lucario development] for the 29th. (Looks like the speculation on Greninja was correct on Greninja possibly being a mentor to Lucario cause of "Battle Bond".) Not counting those who either already had physical or speaking appearances, that leaves just Paul as the only one left. (Definitely certain now he's a May release, wonder what that means for the character montage in the OP afterwards)

Yeah.

It sure seemed that way, yeah. On sight. Gary barely said anything. And what antagonism there was was extremely light, like pointing out something completely true (”it takes nothing to rile you up”) and the “you’re not scared, are you?” that was clearly just a nudge to action like it is whenever anyone says that.

Yeah, it’s fair to say he was at least a little bit at fault, but his character definitely hasn’t regressed and it’s been outright said multiple times now that he acts the way he does toward Goh for a reason and it’s not just petty antagonism. Even Goh himself has started to understand what Gary’s deal is now. Hopefully the fandom will follow suit.

I honestly like this struggle of Goh’s, from a writing standpoint and because I really sympathize with it. He’s never had many friends (which already shows a struggle to connect with people), so of course he has a hard time working with a group. I get it, and I’ll be very happy to see him overcome it.

Absolutely. Gary could’ve engaged in argument and it would’ve been understandable, but he didn’t. He had his priorities in order and focused on dealing with Articuno, and he handled his part (in both leadership and commanding his own Pokemon) skillfully despite everything.

Yeah, it was definitely necessary. Goh had something to learn and now he can grow as a person from that.

Yeah. At this point I’ve probably made it extremely clear how I feel about Paul so I can’t say I get it. I don’t see what the point would be from like, any standpoint?

Yeah, it’s good to see he’s still a strong and skillful battler. And how far he’s come since he faced Mewtwo in EP063, a fight in which he pretty much immediately gave in to panic (understandably so because at that point he was much less experienced, and also facing a Mewtwo commanded by a very bad person all alone so he was completely screwed from the start).

I still think that’d be neat for him too! Reclamation!

Yeah, I’ve done similar before (for fanfic purposes, mostly). It’s definitely good for that, you can notice a lot of subtler aspects of a character that way!

That’s a good point! Love that he’s trying to make sure other people don’t make the mistakes he has. Such a wise ten year old. (I love Pokeani’s “time passes and characters experience personal growth but nobody gets any older” writing so much, by the way.)

That’d be good, yeah. Would love to see that for them.

Oh man, poor Scizor. I still remember that clip that went around from the Sun and Moon anime of Guzma’s Golisopod switching itself out for his Scizor, which immediately took a fire blast. I’m laughing again just thinking about it, I feel so bad for that Scizor but it just wraps back around to being funny.

Yamper getting some spotlight again! Greninja return is cool too I guess(/j, I know people who have seen XY love that frog).

Yeah, him turning up in May sounds right! And I guess after that’d probably be when the character montage in the OP would change--it’ll be interesting to see who turns up in it then. I guess we’ll see what happens in the coming months! It’s an exciting time! (Personally out of the confirmed upcoming returns, I’m most excited for Wallace and Lisia. Love me some coordinators, and I found Lisia really cute in ORAS. Even if her saying “there’s no rivals in contests” made me laugh because I have seen the AG and DP anime and there are so many rivals in contests.)

[zoeology31]

A:TLA Book 1 Reactions

I started watching Avatar: The Last Airbender at the beginning of the summer and I’ve just finished Book 1! It’s really, really good, and I love all the characters but mostly Zuko. For those of you who went through this experience 10+ years ago, maybe you’ll enjoy my first-time reactions with only fuzzy memories of the movie, a little Wikipedia knowledge, and a handful of Tumblr analysis posts for spoilers.

The Boy in the Iceberg: Oh, so that’s how you pronounce Sokka’s name. They really hit the ground running with “Yeah, there’s a war and people are dying.” That’s impressive for a kid’s show.

The Avatar Returns: I can see with this opening scene why people compare Zuko to Kylo Ren, but the main difference is Zuko doesn’t, y’know, kill anyone. This show has some quality fight scenes, wow. And Zuko is really persistent, I mean, Aang knocks him down like five times and he just keeps coming back.

The Southern Air Temple: This is one of the scenes I remember from the movie. Katara is going to be Aang’s emotional support this whole time, isn’t she? And Zuko is now honor dueling a guy, that escalated quickly. I didn’t realize they would be showing so much of Zuko so early.

The Warriors of Kyoshi: Why... is Aang like this. It’s pretty cool that Sokka apologized and asked Suki to train him, that shows a lot of respect. And wait, Suki likes him? What?

The King of Omashu: This episode gives off an indescribable aura of preteen boy insanity.

Imprisoned: Yeah, you go Katara! She’s so sincere and she tries so hard, I love her. This felt like the most realistic/serious episode so far; the village is stuck under Fire Nation occupation and the earthbenders have given up hope of escaping. This is the episode that made me decide to watch the show all the way through.

Winter Solstice, Part 1: So the spirit is called “Black White”, real creative there. It’s interesting seeing the Earth Kingdom soldiers acting as antagonists in Zuko’s subplot. Also, Roku’s dragon is awesome.

Winter Solstice, Part 2: A Zuko vs. Zhao rivalry, this’ll certainly make things interesting! I loved Aang’s conversation with Roku and the explanation of why the sages switched sides. So the entire rest of the show takes place in eight months?

The Waterbending Scroll: I am consistently finding Katara more relatable than Aang. This one has a lot more humor than the last few, and I feel like the entire fight sequence is just Zuko regretting his decisions.

Jet: This feels like an episode that split the fandom, but I like the discussion of extremism and how being justified doesn’t make you right. Sokka is really good in this one, I wish we could’ve seen the part where he convinces the village to evacuate.

The Great Divide: I know this show doesn't really have filler, but this feels like filler. I like the different art styles for each version of the story.

The Storm: ZUKO BACKSTORY ZUKO BACKSTORY ZUKO BACKSTORY and Aang backstory too I guess. I knew “Zuko’s dad the Fire Lord burned him in an Agni Kai for speaking out of turn,” but it’s even worse? He was trying to save the soldiers from being killed? And when he had to face Ozai, he was on his knees begging for mercy? No wonder he’s like this? And then in the storm he saves the helmsman and chooses the safety of the crew over capturing Aang, I love this ep.

The Blue Spirit: I already knew Zuko was the Blue Spirit, but no way would I have guessed it, because he moves and acts so differently. He’s a really skilled fighter even without his firebending. Even if it was an Enemy Mine situation, it’s really cool to see Aang and Zuko working together, and the ending scene when Aang tells Zuko about his old Fire Nation friend is really good. This episode and the last one cemented Zuko as my absolute favorite character on the show.

The Fortuneteller: Another filler-ish episode, and I’m not a huge fan of the ship teasing, but the bending they do to protect the village from the lava is pretty cool.

Bato of the Water Tribe: It’s cool to see Katara and Sokka reconnect with someone familiar with their culture and their dad. The ice dodging sequence is really good, it shows how competent Sokka really is. The bounty hunter lady’s okay, but the herbalist’s cat is the real scene stealer.

The Deserter: So the Earth Kingdom is mostly China, but the Fire Nation seems like a mix of China and Japan. This is a good episode philosophy-wise, and I loved Aang’s fight against Zhao.

The Northern Air Temple: I like the moral complexity in this one: using abandoned resources to help your people vs. destroying places of cultural significance. Also this is the show’s first large-scale battle, and it’s really cool to watch.

The Waterbending Master: That master dude’s a jerk, I’m surprised he changes his mind at all, but good for Katara for standing up for herself. I can’t believe they let 2005 audiences think Zuko might be dead for a full six minutes. Also, why do they pronounce Yue’s name like that?

Siege of the North, Part 1: Katara has so many good fight scenes in this, I’m so proud of her! I know Zuko’s still the bad guy, but I’m totally rooting for him as he’s sneaking into the city. Also, “I think of you as my own,” are the writers trying to kill me? And poor Sokka, he’s in a forbidden romance and the other guy’s an idiot.

Siege of the North, Part 2: Zuko tries so hard, but he’s really bad at capturing the Avatar. Iroh’s very insistent on not harming the moon spirit, I wonder what’s up with that? The sequence where Aang wrecks the entire Fire Nation force with the ocean spirit is really well done, I loved how it passed over the Water Tribe fighters when they bowed down to it. And Yue sacrificing herself to restore the moon is the other part I remember from the movie, but with good acting this time. Again, poor Sokka. It’s interesting that Zuko’s willing to save Zhao from the ocean spirit, even though he just attacked Zhao for trying to have him killed. And the ending... Azula’s coming!