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5-pp-man · 3 months

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another tierlist because ppl actually liked that first one;

the crème de la crop;

the first 2 eps i thought it was fine, but it didnt really captivate me as much as id hoped. but then ep 3 changed everything for me. i started to think "how could living armour work logically? everything so far has been edible, so this must be too, right?" i actually managed to think of the exact thing that this series did. that really made me realise the worldbuilding in this was something unique, and it only got better and better with each episode. its really managed to captivate me and i look forward to "delicious donderdag" every week :)

ANIME ORIGINAL LETS GOOOO absolutely bonkers show that almost slipped by me because it initially tried to fool its audience into thinking it was a regular dramatic military show. it still is but theres also a giant robot who plays by saturday morning cartoon giant robot rules. if that sounds like tonal whiplash to you, trust me, it is. and its amazing. have i mentioned how homoerotic this one is as well? yeah. originally a tier below this one, but immediately after finishing this post i watched the newest ep. i had to make an exception and edit the list because ep 9 changes everything. i havent been gobsmacked by a show this hard in a while.

(return of the) show(s) that execute their own premise very well;

i havent read the manga for yubisaki to renren so i cant compare, but the quality of this adaptation has been very consistent. you need a little sweet romance every once in a while :) this is one of those series where the characters really grew on me the longer it went on. im always a fan of mixing realistic struggles with romance and this one has been doing it well so far

adaptations that are ok (i read the manga for both of these);

i've been a mashle fan since before s1 aired. and the anime has some good changes and additions here and there! but its not very consistent in terms of quality, it does that shonen thing where the animation quality suddenly spikes for certain action sequences, but it also frequently had a lot of scenes where they recycle shots a lot and nothing interesting happens on the screen for a considerable amount of time. still! its a fine adaptation. and yeah the op for this. blew tf up lmao? very strange to see happen in real time

i actually rlly like the manga for this one. i read the whole thing up until vol.6 before the season started (all that was available back then) and it made me cry multiple times throughout. i was sort of missing that connection with the show, though some of the later episodes still hit. its mostly to do with the animation quality, which isnt that great unfortunately. the voice actors are knocking it out of the park though

wghere am i;

is this show good? i. uh. will you hate me if i say yes...? objectively, i know its not that good. especially in the animation department. but if you like other Umatani shows, you'll like this one. it's got the same brand of goofy reactionary humour mixed with gimmicky tacky characters and crazy stupid plot twists. ive been faithfully watching this one each week and I'm afraid i've become very invested. overscientific indeed

bro you fell off...;

i was so beyond excited for this one. i replayed the op a million times, watched each preview, rewatched multiple episodes. and then. ep 5 happened. and i started to realise. oh this show kind of sucks doesnt it? the pacing of the first ep was great, but the rest? way too fast. it became clear with ep 6 that theyre trying to do a double cour show with half the length, which is why they started hauling ass plot-wise. now. i was an arajin apologist for the longest time. but at that point i honestly started to loathe him. even when he stepped up, his praise still felt sort of unearned. and to top it all off, shindou's motivation sucked so he felt like a lousy antagonist. ep6 was better than 5, but it really made me lose my enthusiasm and hope for the series. and right as we were talking about them probably not having time for a filler ep, ep7 happened. feels like a waste of time to do an ep like that when you've still got a whole 2nd arc to go through. but who am i

it started off pretty good honestly. but then chris went to the hospital and it kind of just dwindled from there. this season does so much with characters that have not even been properly introduced like how am i supposed to care about these people if i barely know who they are. the stuff with finn and leo respectively was good though. but the lore dump? lord help me. also vijay just kind of. exists to be there in the background huh? i would not call him a main character they never give him any attention. wendy had another ep again and he didnt get shit. again. also i think finn was stupid as fuck for not listening to lala but again. who am i. i know we cant destroy high card because we need a show but. cmon man.

i am severely behind on these;

reason why im behind is because most of the eps are a bit heavy so i kept. not watching them. its starting to get rlly interesting though so i'm def gonna catch up this is one of those robo-racism shows so i have to really watch out to see where its going. dont want another marginal service situation...

sorry this is just. a little too boring for me. its charming, sure. but i think this wouldve worked better as something with an 11 min timeslot instead of 23 min. theres just a bit too mu- or well, too little for me to rlly get into this. i think reading it would be more fun for me personally

#dungeon meshi #yubisaki to renren #yuuki bakuhatsu bang bravern #30 sai made doutei dato mahoutsukai ni nareru rashii #gekkan mousou kagaku #bucchigiri?!#high card #metallic rouge #kyuujitsu no warumono san #delicious in dungeon #a sign of affection #brave bang bravern!#bang brave bang bravern #cherry magic!#delusional monthly magazine #bucchigiri #mr villain's day off #i did the review a bit later into the season this time around. so my thoughts are more in order and ive already dropped a few things #theres also 1 more category this time #also if youre curious; i ended up finishing everything from last season except for the 2 series in the couldve been better category #i finished a bunch of them way later though but shhh. im also planning on finishing the last 2 at some point. esp since ke is getting a s2 #like wtf. who couldve seen that coming.#tedpost #tedtalks #tedlists

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pierogiinspace · 2 months

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Dungeons and daddies s2 [spoilers]

Long post thoughts after some time I took to think about it

So… It wasn’t bad but I feel like they really lost their footing midway

The ending felt rushed, we didn’t get any closure or big climax fight or anything. It just… stopped in the middle.

The beginning was cool. Monster of the week. Getting to know all of them. Interesting concepts, new characters. Worldbuilding

And then it… stopped? We circled back to just teens and old characters. Completely forgetting about everything that was new - like daddies hq

Not to mention that they did the same thing twice including backtracking (anchors and daddy juice)

S1 had a clear structure of

1. Gather kids

2. Gather anchors so you can leave

With additional shenanigans and growth in between

S2 was so messy you cant even explain it

1. Monster of the week (which was cool. We got to feel the vibe of teens and school and meet new characters)

2. Break anchors and destroy them with love or hate (still cool. But we lost the footing and started relaying only on old characters. Basically the end of them being actually kids and everything that had to do with that. Kiddads apprar but they are utterly useless with no explanation why)

3. Gather daddy juice to send dood home (basically the same thing, some even in the same locations, same characters, some literally 5feet away from eachother)

4. Get dood back and get rid of Willy

The next point is that Willy was both too powerful (somehow escaped them the first like 3 times) and too weak to matter (he didnt cause any threat really. He had to start failing because of “reasons” just not to spoil the plot).

And the ending

Literally nothing got resolved (except maybe Taylor getting fine with him not having dad). It just sopped. And I understand how people dont change immediately (like Normal suddenly made his dad(s) proud of him??) but its a fun story not real life. And our characters didnt really feel… completed. I feel like we could use some time to breathe between plot points to really feel the situation. I think a great example is the trial/prison arc in s1. It stops the main plot of going back but really expands on the characters (not only Glenn. As the dads have to also show their point of view)

Choosing teens instead of adults also felt short. They both felt too old and too young for actually being 14. And it was very compeling and unique in s1 to have coming of age story for adults.

I kinda wish the second half of the season would be teens vs Willy vs their parents. But their parents should be like “oh no you are not risking your life you are too young” and the teens avoiding them or spoiling their plans. And trying to prove they are grown up and still save the world the “right way”

I really enjoyed the first half of this season (I guess somewhere up to the church of Doodler episode)

And later it was ok. It had great moments because it is still made by the same people. Jokes were funny. The crew has the chemistry. But the overall thing was kinda… I will not be relistening for sure (except maybe first half. Especially the episode with FBI chase. Top tier episode and also the first episode I got to listen “live”)

I am open to discussions if anyone read it at this point. I am not writing that in hate. I am a patreon subscriber and I love the show and the people who create it. Its also why I hid it under read more. I dont want easy hate on the crew. But I am a little underwhelmed.

#dungeons and daddies #dndaddies #dndads #original post

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tea-earl-grey · 3 months

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just finished Disco s4 and thought i'd do a little review thing:

overall i really enjoyed it, especially the concept/running plot which felt genuinely new and exciting. normally i resent when an entire season of a franchise show like Star Trek is about Saving the Galaxy or whatever because it's horribly overdone at this point but i really didn't mind this season because the plot was so rooted in communication and character rather than pew pew space battles (which i'm resigned to the fact that modern scifi is always going to have far too many space battles for my liking. sigh.)

i loved the general theme of connection and communication (and solving problems through talking/therapy!!) but there were definitely a few moments that were a bit heavyhanded for my tastes.

i do really love the general Burn era worldbuilding. i have some things i would probably do differently if i was the writer but rebuilding a broken Federation is just such a good setting for a show like Discovery. i like it

minor and maybe controversial opinion but i vastly prefer the s4 uniforms to the s1-3 uniforms. i get that the blue jumpsuits are more similar to what actual astronauts/military wear but alas i love colorcoding characters by department and the bright colors add a pop to a lot of the shots that was missing before.

seeing Michael as Captain gave me so much joy and she! has! earned! it! i love seeing her emotional growth from s1 to here and her being able to lead and express herself and..... gah i love her!

Zora!!!!!!!! i love her. i can't believe it took Star Trek this long to give us sentient spaceships.

i'm glad Tilly was out finding herself and discovering her own path but :( i miss her. the scenes she got with Michael this season were a delight though.

i literally don't care how cliched the queer found family is with Stamets & Culber & Adira & Gray, i love them dearly and specifically mentioning their queerness just. makes me really happy.

the Saru/T'Rina relationship was an absolute highlight. i'm not huge into shipping but all of disco's relationships are so nice and casual and laidback that it feels like such a breath of fresh air and all of the Saru/T'Rina scenes had me uwuing.

and all of the Michael & Saru scenes also had me uwuing... i just adore how their friendship has evolved since s1 and they're such a good team. even if it doesn't really make sense with ranks, i dearly hope Saru keeps being Michael's XO in s5 because they just make so much sense together

on the subject of relationships – i really like how conflict was introduced in Michael and Book's relationship and how that conflict was the driving force of the season without it ever feeling petty or like either one of them are toxic. Book is clearly making Bad Decisions but those decisions are entirely informed by trauma and experience and he never has a moment where he's entirely a villain, he's just trying to protect people in a misguided way after being manipulated by Tarka (who. also

.... i will admit even though i adore Michael and Book together, there a few moments where Michael and Rillak were talking that made me think 'huh what if?'. sorry not sorry. i just have a thing for political enemies becoming temporary allies becoming friends. lol maybe i'm more of a shipper than i thought. either way, i definitely loved the political aspects of Michael's role this season and i thought President Rillak was a good addition to the season.

as for some of the negatives....

i do like all of the main and recurring characters and i also like Discovery's experiments with having the main characters not be the bridge crew but also i'm just not convinced it works and i think for a hyper-serialized show, Discovery just has too many characters. i would love for the recurring characters like Detmer and Owo and Bryce, etc, etc, to get more of a character and the writers are obviously trying but because of the format it just feels like character traits are randomly peppered in rather than organically built into the story which a) led to some weird moments and dialogue and b) resulted in some of the main characters (like Stamets and Adira) being a bit underused this season.

very related to ^ that. because of the amount of characters on the bridge, there ended up being a ton of really awkward reaction shots where something dramatic happens and we slow down to get a close up of like. ten different characters. like i am glad these actors are getting fair coverage and all of that but at some point the way it was shot just felt a little ridiculous and overdramatic.

this is also very much out of the show's control but i feel like you could really feel the ways covid limited the show (so much greenscreen, limited background performers, characters conveniently standing 6 feet apart for whole scenes). i think they recovered decently and it doesn't affect my enjoyment that much but it definitely stands out.

and finally, i won't go on about this too much because people have unfairly criticized Disco to hell and back for this, but there was just a bit too much Therapy Talk for my liking. and to be clear, i don't mean too much Actual Therapy. i really respect the show for portraying therapy and trauma recovery in depth and just having cool main characters go to therapy because it's good and healthy is Very Cool. but i do think there are definitely scenes (particularly in the beginning of the show) that has dialogue fall into Therapy Talk where all the characters go around in a circle and coherently state their thoughts and emotions and then resolve their conflict. it just gave the impression that the scripts were rushed and the writers didn't have time to add nuance into the dialogue (very possibly related to pandemic stresses and the bad writing room practices that are hopefully being faded out after the WGA strike). it would have been fine in a scene or two but nearly every episode had one scene or line that made me want to rewrite it. it wasn't enough that it ruined the season for me at all (it's probably my second favorite Disco season after s3) but imo it made the season just good and not great.

i rated all the episodes (because i love nothing if not spreadsheets to track my fandom thoughts) and overall the season had an average rating of 8.17 out of 10. in comparison – s1 was 8.06, s2 was 7.92, and s3 was an 8.26. my favorite episode was Kobayashi Maru (9.4) and my least favorite was All is Possible (6.9).

anyways, i'm very excited for s5!!!

#the more i watch of discovery the more i do really like it #it'll never be My Trek but everyone's emotional journeys are just very good and satisfying #and the characters are all wonderful despite some of my problems with the plotting and dialogue #discovery #star trek discovery #my posts #speaking of discovery #i just remembered i have a have typed up meta about (mirror)Georgiou and (mirror)Michael from s3 that i really need to finish #i simply love her (Michael Burnham)#long post

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shrinkthisviolet · 9 months

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for my new ask game!

3, 8, 16, 18, 21, 33, 40, and 50

3. Have you ever written a soulmate AU? If you haven't, why would/wouldn't you write one?

I have this series! I wanted to take the soulmate AU and make it something more choice-based, more in line with “If soulmates do exist, they’re not found. They’re made. People meet, they get a good feeling, and then they get to work building a relationship.” It’s the best take on soulmates I’ve ever seen, and it’s the kind I tried to replicate in that series! Idk if it’ll ever get updated, but I do wanna use that worldbuilding for something else one day.

8. Have you ever written any friendships that could've easily become romantic relationships? How did you navigate it?

I have! Honestly, there are plenty of those. I just navigate it by writing what feels true to me—do I want to pursue a ship with them? What would it add to this fic, if anything? What does it add if I keep them as friends? What tropes does it subvert, one way or the other (obviously this in itself is not a reason, it’s just an additional consideration)

For example: there’s a ship in an upcoming fic that I definitely didn’t plan initially, but which I think adds a lot of weight overall. It drives both characters in interesting ways but never detracts from their character arcs—neither of them have to give up anything for the other, and neither would ever ask that of the other.

(…actually there’s two ships like that 😅 in different fics, but still)

16. Are there any relationship dynamics/tropes you enjoy reading about, but wouldn't want to write yourself? Vice versa?

I’ve read a few “love triangles” but I’d never write one. But that’s also a trope I try to avoid whenever possible anyway, because they’re usually love corners/angles, not true triangles. And it’s usually sexist af, because in this trope, the “triangle” is never really about the girl at the center, it’s always about the guys fighting for her.

18. Pick a few characters you've written for (or, for a fun twist, asker chooses). Tell me about their relationship in three sentences or less.

Hmm…Mai, Aang, and Katara.

Mai and Aang: absolutely the opposites attract besties. No one expects them to get along as well as they do, but Mai finds Aang endearing in an odd way (he reminds her of Ty Lee), and Aang thinks she’s really cool, especially her sharp aim.

Mai and Katara: they aren’t sure what to make of each other at first, especially since their first meeting was them fighting each other. Really, it’s Aang who gets them to have a conversation after all of that—he just wants the two coolest people he knows to be friends. And it works! Mai and Katara hit it off splendidly once they get past the awkwardness.

Kataang: self-explanatory: they’re a badass power couple and I love them 🥰

21. Not all relationships are romantic. What's your favorite non-romantic relationship that you've written about?

Currently, Barry & Morgan 💞 I didn’t actually intend them to be as prominent to the AU as they are now — I loved them in s2, but writing the s1 arc just kicked that love into overdrive. They’re so, so special to me and I love them so much 🥹

33. Are there any canon romantic couples, in any media, that you just can't stand?

Reylo for sure, Spallen (do they count if they were only briefly canon?), Hawkmoon, Yasmetri, Quickwest (again, briefly canon), Toriguel, Samrobby

(Obviously this is not a judgment on the shippers, but…yeah, I’m not a fan of these ships 😅 there are others that I tolerate sometimes, but those aren’t on this list. Tbh I might even be forgetting some, but that’s most of them at least)

40. Pick a relationship (not necessarily romantic). What tropes apply to this relationship? What tropes does this relationship subvert?

Morgan and James! They’re Lovers to Exes (subverting the common Exes to Lovers trope)…and they’re also Exes to Friends. And ofc James is her Guy in the Chair—even after she joins Team Flash, he’s still there when she needs him (and vice versa ofc…granted he doesn’t have powers, but she’s still going to be there for him as much as he lets her)

50. Free space! Brag on yourself! Advertise your writing! What are you most proud of recently?

Currently, I’m super proud of the first Childhood Friends AU fic I posted! And my first Izumi & Zuko fic 💞

fanfic relationships ask game!

#fanfic ask game #anti reylo #anti spallen #anti hawkmoon #anti yasmetri #anti quickwest #anti toriguel #anti samrobby #brotp: i know my hero #morgan & james #mai & aang #mai & katara #kataang #izumi & zuko #childhood friends au #sorry if i answered 18 wrong 😅 tbh i’m not entirely sure what it was asking i just guessed

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an-inspired-eternity · 2 years

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hey since ur doing funney block people: scott empires s1.

first impression: yk whats funny is i actually wasnt a scott main yet when s1 started, i’ve been watching lizzie since 2015 and having watched crazy craft i knew who he was, but not much of anything of what he’d been up to besides knowing mcc was a thing. i think my first proper introduction that i can think of was lizzie’s episode with deal with destiny.

current impression: THAT BEING SAID. SCOTT IS MY FAV EMPIRES S1 CHARACTER I LOVE HIM SO MUCH HE IS MY MENTALLY ILL TRAGIC LITTLE MEOW MEOW BLORBO! HE IS SO CARES ABOUT HIS FRIENDS AND WOULD DO ANYTHING FOR THEM EVEN AT COST TO HIMSELF AND I LOVE HIM SM!!!!

favorite moment: okay genuinely maybe its the almost midnight but i cannot think of specific instances off the top of my head that easily but i also just really like scott’s content now so harder to narrow down maybe ... perhaps the confrontation with xornoth in the finale ??? tragic blorbo and all .....

but also deal with destiny lol ez dubs

idea for a story: as to not repeat myself with the uncorrupted stag brothers content from the xornoth ask i will instead say i am very into the concept of dsmp au type crossovers (be it dsmp characters pre-existing in empires or them getting like. smuggled over GDHGFG) and i do not know if i will write something for it. but the concept does exist in my brain

unpopular opinion: ...wra fans please don’t beat me up for this but i think scott’s response after what happened to gem was atleast a little warranted </3 like obviously gem getting hurt was bad but also she pushed him into the act of trying to use his powers. and i know with this next part it’s a fault on all of them not just the wra specifically but the fact that no one communicated about the fact that it was an accident and acted like it was an act of malice on scott’s end ???? gamer rage

favorite relationship: (vibrates) i am soooo normal abt flower husbands and the concept in empires of them being reincarnations from third life (and i definitely didnt put that concept in the worldbuilding of my dsmp au nooo sir!) and i definitely did not cry like a baby watching the flower husbands date episode on scott’s pov

favorite headcanon: more or less inspired by and based on the one two birds animatic with him and xornoth, but i love the idea of scott when he was younger growing out his hair to match xornoth because he idolized his brother and thought he was so cool... only for xornoth’s betrayal to happen and scott being quickly crowned ruler of rivendell instead and racing to chop his hair off to avoid the association. but in addition to that i also like the idea that leading into/during his snowy exile he starts growing out his hair again, not caring about what people think of him in that regard anymore.

#answers #send me a character ask game #empires smp #empires smp s1 #scott smajor #dangthatsalongname

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can-of-pringles · 1 year

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Oh no, I'm giving you homework on a Sunday! Please answer the following from the questions for fic writers: 2, 5 for any of the X-Men fics, 7, 13, 16, 21 again for XM, 30, 39.

It's ok it's good homework lol.

2. Go to your AO3 “Works” page, to the sidebar with all the filters, and click the drop-down arrow for “Additional Tags.” What are your top 3-5 most used tags? Do you think they accurately represent your writing habits?

Fluff

Not Beta Read

Pietro Maximoff Goes By Peter

Domestic Fluff

Parenthood

Yes, all of these are very accurate lol.

5. What do you wish someone would ask you about [insert fic]? Answer it now!

I honestly have no idea what to say for this one.. Sorry.

7. Any worldbuilding you’re particularly proud of?

Well, I'm happy with how much I've thought I've put into Similarities. I'm glad I figured out how S1 goes.

13. Are there any tropes you used to like but don’t anymore?

I'm going to get a lot of hate and/or be called a hypocrite for this, but enemies to lovers. It's not that I don't like it, but it has to be done in a really specific way for me to enjoy it.

16. What’s an AU you would love to read (or have read and loved)?

Why is my mind drawing a blank? I feel like I can't name any one in particular, at least not one of my own. Well, I like Star Wars AUs?

21. If you wrote a “missing scene” in [insert fic], what would it be?

In Missing Man: Peter Maximoff, we don't see what happens when Peter and Marigold return to their world, how others react, etc. So I guess that.

30. Have you ever written something that was out of your comfort zone? If so, what was it, and how did it affect your approach to writing fic thereafter?

Probably the Honeymoon fic, because I obviously have no experience with that lol, also just writing about travel. I don't know, I guess just doing more research in general?

39. Is any aspect of your writing process inspired by other writers or people? If so, who?

Probably my friends. Maybe @practically-an-x-man since we do talk to each other about writing.

Ask me fic writer questions

#pringle answers #answered asks #fuesch #ask meme #xmen oc au #001 and 011 au #about pringles

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markantonys · 2 years

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As a show watcher who's now read EotW, were there any bits of lore in the book that shocked you to learn? That were either different in the show or just not mentioned at all

HMMMM i think what actually surprised me most is how much lore was NOT in eotw! i've seen a couple of the determined-to-hate-everything-about-the-show book purists complaining that there wasn't enough lore in s1 (though the vast majority recognize that s1 did an IMPRESSIVE amount of loredumping given the constraints of the tv medium and wanting to be digestible for casual viewers) and idk what that handful of people is on about because i felt there was much more lore in s1 than in book 1. i would say that book 1 had more *worldbuilding* since they visit a lot more places than in the show (and for every place, rand would meet a random guy who infodumped the relevant worldbuilding on him for 10 paragraphs straight and it cracked me up every time), but less *lore* since it's mostly anchored in rand's pov and he doesn't know shit yet bless him whereas moiraine's pov in the show allows us to learn a lot more about magic stuff.

the biggest thing is that no one ever mentioned much about the dragon reborn for that whole book, which totally surprised me! the green man even says "oh hello dragon" to rand in front of all his friends and no one reacts because the idea of the dragon reborn is not at all on their radar at that point. even when rand finds out he can channel he's just like "oh no i'm a male channeler" rather than "oh no i'm the dragon reborn." i'm on tgh now and it's interesting seeing the dragon stuff be introduced as a later, additional identity crisis for rand, but given the tv time constraints i definitely think they were wise to bring it up right off the bat in the show.

ta'veren was explained in the show, and i was familiar with the idea of the pattern from seeing people talk about it, but i liked getting more in-depth explanations in the book for all of that. i did NOT like that only the boys are ta'veren in the books though, i knew ahead of time that egwene and nynaeve were never dragon candidates in the books but i thought they were still ta'veren and was bummed to discover they aren't. of Course they'll be central to the plot and no less important than the boys regardless, but i don't see why they don't get to be called ta'veren as well. it's just the principle of the thing! so i'm definitely glad the show changed it to 5 ta'veren instead of "look at these 3 special boys!!! oh and there are some girls who are important too i guess"

oh and i was also happy to find out what the flame and the void is because i see people reference that ALL THE TIME and never had any idea what they were talking about haha i specifically remember i made a gifset of the dragon reveal when rand's hitting the bullseye on the target and in the tags people kept going "flame and the void!" and i was like "what does it mean what does it all mean?!?!" and now i Understand (though maybe moreso from tgh when he's shooting those evil frogs in the eye rather than anything from eotw)

i'm also intrigued by the differences with mat's dagger. after moiraine partially heals him, in the book he'll die if he's separated from the dagger whereas in the show he'll die if he touches it again. so i'm v interested to see where that goes in season 2, if mat's dagger issues will continue or if they'll make him healed all the way and tie off that whole plotline early.

edit: not lore but it’s so funny to me how much more naive the kiddos are in the book than the show like show rand canonically fucks meanwhile poor book rand has a heart attack from seeing a girl’s legs hjksdfh

#i'm sure there's probably so much more i could think of but this is what came to me off the top of my head #and i wasn't like a PURE tv viewer u know i had gotten spoiled about or heard of a lot of different things before starting to read #so i may not have had as many surprises in store as i would've if i had stayed off the whole internet after watching s1 lmao #answered #anonymous #wot book spoilers

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macgyvertape · 3 years

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Castlevania kinda had a pacing problem

spoilers for all of Netflix’s Castlevania. I haven’t seen much analysis for the show on tumblr, im honestly curious if discussions I had with irl friends mirror what fandom talks about

tldr: Castlevania seems inconsistently paced from season to season, and within season as well, leads to a lot of characters motivations feeling unclear so characters repeatedly explain why they are doing something while they’re doing it

overview of the seasons:

S1 I know somewhat of a test for Netflix but it has good main trio character establishment and sets the scale of the conflict

s2: pretty complete emotional arc for most characters and resolves the plot of killing Dracula while setting up additional characters to continue the story. Isaac, Hector, Carmilla all established with the audience as characters whose story would continue

honestly I would bet this is the most popular season

S3: s2 did a bit of worldbuilding, but this season really fleshed out the world with both a wide range of locations and exploring the question of “what now, Dracula is dead but vampires and night creatures remain”.

There were basically 4 plot threads: 1) Sypha/Trevor investigating the cult & Saint Germain; 2) Hector & Carmilla (also introducing Lenore, Striga, Morana); 3) Isaac’s journey of revenge & self discovery; 4) Alucard sits around the castle and is betrayed.

overall characters roughly feel like they are in the same place if not worse. A big criticism I saw at the time, which hold up after rewatching this before s4 is nothing felt resolved for the main characters

I would say this season is where the pacing issues start to become apparent, juggling 4 plot threads that lack a central theme or even mutual character connection. If there was a central theme it would be “humans are awful to each other”. The Judge doing Hot Fuzz style murders, The Wizard in the tower, Sumi & Taka

S4: it starts with the same 4 plot threads, though upfront it is made clear that the plot theme is “people are trying to resurrect Dracula”, and the progression of the plot works to resolve unrelated plot threads until the main trio reunites for the boss fights. To me and my friends watching it was obvious that the show would reunite the main trio, the question was how and how far into the run time.

Season 4 is why I’m writing this essay, for the past 2 days I’ve been like, yeah that character sure explained their motives repeatedly maybe with some philosophical discussion, but it’s just such a weird place considering where they were in s3

Alucard’s arc:

Where he was left in season 3, it was after killing people he had trusted in self defense and impaling their corpses. It was clearly meant to parallel Dracula’s dislike of humanity. However overall his character lacked a proactive motivating force.

Honestly the most interesting thing I found in s3 was Alucard clearly misses Sypha and Trevor, however they don’t miss him or refer to him

One reason Sumi & Taka betray Alucard is for the secrets and power of Castlevania. After inviting the village including St Germain who Alucard was warned of into the Castle, Alucard makes 0 effort to secure anything, not even his personal childhood room. Guess he really learned nothing

Discussing St Germain, I think it’s funny that they had a several minute flashback sequence for his lost girlfriend (who doesn’t have a name or a voice actor), to remind the viewer of who he is, and to justify how he’s suddenly back and down for murder.

In s4 there is the call to help the village, and the walk back to the castle is a montage of Alucard opening up to Greta and becoming friendly literally overnight. He laughs off the impaling, and basically all of the darker things he went through in season 3, which has me asking what was the point of his season 3 arc then?

Honestly writing this I realize the biggest parallel he has with Dracula is the call to action from a bold woman with a dramatic entrance speech which then leads to a romance

Isaac’s arc:

in s3, with all the other themes of “humanity sucks” I was always unsure if the townspeople were meant to appear irrational while attacking a larger force instead of letting him pass through an leave, or him not caring about how he’s provoking them is meant to show his insanity

ive seen the discussion elsewhere, curious about the Discourse here

is s4 Isaac has the whole monologue about how he now has agency but him gaining that agency was his s3 arc. In s4 he’s already at the point of accepting it. By the end of s4 he’s one of those who comes the furthest from his first character appearance to his last.

s4e5 where of Isaac attacking Carmilla in Isaac’s 2nd appearance had him resolving like 4 plot threads at once (Carmilla, Striga& Morana, Hector, and Isaac himself).

but i do wonder if Trevor, Sypha, or Alucard even know any of these people exist. I think not

I was honestly confused if I missed a scene from his dialogue about building something and what is inherent nature, to “My plan has evolved, my plan is now conquest” because he only conquests the one castle and the rest is left unclear

Upon rewatch the connection there is “killing [the wizard] felt just ... I liked that feeling”, so the show says that Isaac in the end attacked Carmilla for the sake of justice and not revenge.

Isaac in his last conversation expresses the theme of s4 “build something new on these old bones, where people can live for the future”

however, his arc honestly feel scenes were cut, and then dialogue was written around it. He’s the only living character who doesn’t show up in the epilogue and the sentient night creature “what if I could empty hell” dialogue was some of the most interesting worldbuilding. Night creatures with sentience and possibility of regaining memories!!!!

The Council of Sisters & Hector’s arc:

oh I’ve already seen s4 discourse about Lenore/Hector while searching for character analysis, a chunk of it seems to be rationalizing the absolute difference between how s3 ended with these characters and s4. It was extremely confusing for me and my friends; wondering if 1) was Hector showing more emotional intelligence than before and putting on a facade to cover up hatred? Nope 2) did more time pass than 6 weeks for there to be some kind stockholm syndrome? No, Hector seems fine to let Lenore kill herself

The slave control ring: played up in the climax of s3 and easily solved s4. s3 Lenore says if he tries to harm them, flee, or take it off it would cause crippling pain, in s4 Hector just easily cuts off his own finger.

for a control ring that they take time to show a version being on the Rebus, it doesn’t do much controlling of Hector

also guess the definition of “do harm” just refers to direct action

Lenore in s4: has no purpose in conquest, has that useless remarked on by multiple characters, is imprisoned, then kills herself after a genre aware philosophical discussion. This essay is long enough, but what the fuck happened to this character who ended s3 clearly physically and sexually abusive? Seriously this was one of the biggest writing changes to the point where she was treating Hector as an equal. Compare her last words in s3 “shh the real people [vampires] are talking”. The change in the relationship is actually something I would have taken being shown, or atleast told of what exactly caused this change other than the vague “you adopted him”

Striga&Morana get the best arc of the Council. 3 scenes: the tent argument, Daybreak armor fight & argument resolution, declaration of feelings and turning away. You could argue Castlevania is plot to be connective tissue between fight scenes, but for all the dialogue about human resistance in different seasons it was nice to see it. Overall the scenes were short but had a lot of showing what their relationship is not just telling,

unlike Carmilla. For as much hyping up as they did with her, and as much power as she had, she only appeared in 2 episodes and no other group except Isaac knew about her military conquest.

the map scene where she states her motive for conquest of wanting to take things from old men is the key example of how characterization became tell not show. How interesting was that monologue compared to the past seasons flashback to her murmuring the old vampire lord, or all her repeated insults of men/man-children that shows how she judges people??

That monologue had to carry the weight of justifying the Sisterhood bonds falling apart as well as why her motivation changed from building a human pen from Styria to Braila to world conquest. I think it did so poorly

Sypha & Trevor

really Sypha & Trevor have the main plot in the show. I checked and post season 1 the only episode they don’t appear in is s4e6, which is entirely devoted to the Isaac, Hector, and Council of Sisterhood arc. Their partnership and adventures are the main plot of the show.

Its easy to see what Trevor’s arc was over the show: coming to peace with the deaths of his family, taking up the mantle of being a Belmont, and starting a new family with Sypha.

With Sypha I actually had to scroll through tv tropes for what is her character arc, and I guess hers is disillusionment from adventure and life outside the speakers? My friends joke that Sypha’s magic is what the plot demands to look cool in a fight, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Tangent: the ending of their arc was easy to guess: as soon as Trevor went to fight the final boss alone I literally said “oh i bet Sypha’s pregnant, Trevor’s doing a heroic sacrifice, theyll use the unexplained magical dagger mcguffin, and 60/40 odds that he goes through an infinite corridor to outright come back vs just the implication he might come back”

I guess my final thought of the show, was overall the SUPER Final Boss got my by surprise. It was a good twist I enjoyed. Not that Death appeared, I had guessed that from the heavy foreshadowing, but I was surprised by who it was, because I had thought I thought the characters involved feeling shoehorned into the plot was just more bad writing. The Alchemist who put St Germain on the path or murder for no discernible motive for helping? Sure gotta move the plot along. New Dracula court member Varney who has a whole introduction with almost every character he meets and banter about his smell? Sure thats basically how all characters talk with a snarky and acerbic voice.

#Castlevania #castlevania spoilers #castlevania meta #castlevania season four #overall i enjoyed the show #id love to find some discussion of the show #this wound up being more of a recap than a persuasive essay #but i think my tldr thesis statement stands

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sun-spice · 3 years

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@themagnuswriters is apparently doing a fic appreciation thing? Have I got that right? I've been busy as fuck lately so I haven't had the energy to properly appreciate the stuff I've been reading, but I do happen to have an old rec list in my drafts that I'd forgotten about. If I have the time I might do another one with some more recent stuff and maybe an additional nsfw reclist :)

List under the cut, word counts and completion statuses are probably out of date.

the sword of damocles by penhaligon | post-160 apocalypse averted, hurt/comfort | 89k, ongoing, T | minor JonMartin

Summary: Martin interrupts Jonah's ritual. That doesn't mean their problems are solved.

Jon, Martin and Basira set off to deal with Jonah once and for all after the ritual is interrupted. To make matters worse for them, however, the Fears now know of said ritual and are each determined to pull it off themselves. Stunning prose in this one, I love how penhaligon builds up small moments of suspense.

where there's a will, we will make a way by bubonickitten | S4 time travel fix-it | 107k, ongoing, T | minor JonMartin

Summary: Jon goes back to before the world ended and tries to forge a different path.

Late series time travel fix-it with communication between the characters. Some development on minor characters as well, which I love, and lots of relatable hard conversations <3

An Cailleach agus an Fear Sidhe by Drowsy_Salamander | urban fantasy, fae au, witchcraft | 30k, ongoing, T | JonMartin, Martin & Sasha & Tim

Martin moves to join a witch coven consisting of Tim and Sasha. The three of them have to pick up the slack protecting their town, previously lacking witch presence, from the fair folk. Meanwhile there are people in the town who know more than they're letting on.

Loving the dynamic between Martin, Sasha and Tim so far. The exposition and worldbuilding is well delivered and the beginnings of a mystery start to drag you in. What do Jon, Daisy and Basira have to do with everything? What is Jane Prentiss hoping to achieve?

A Home For What Loves You by TheWrongShop | canon divergence, hurt/comfort, slow burn romance | 66k, ongoing, T | JonMartin

Summary: Jon and Martin end up investigating Carlos Vittery's basement and finding the entity formerly known as Jane Prentiss together.

Jon and Martin are trapped together in Martin's apartment band later have to live together in the archives. Communication? Among archive staff? More likely than you think.

What Once Was Mine by dieanywhereelse | reverse time travel fix-it, dramatic comedy, safehouse fic | 29k, ongoing, T | S1 Polychives, JonMartin, found family

Summary: The Scottish Safe house gets a few visitors from the past. Jon and Martin get a chance to set things right.

In which future Jon and Martin are actually somewhat well adjusted after averting the apocalypse and dealing with Jonah. They get an opportunity to help past versions of themselves and their dead friends to get where they are with (hopefully) less pain. Love this au a whole bunch, it's one of my all-time faves! Really well thought-out with some great character dynamics and some adjusted monster!Jon.

Moth Song by Siarven | time travel fix-it, dimension hopping, hurt/comfort, found family | 76k, ongoing, M | minor JonMartin

Jon accidentally travels into the S1 of an alternate universe and tries to set things right. He's a mess, and has a breakdown, but he talks with his friends and together they start to work it out.

I'd Be Under the Sea but You Hold Me Above by Write_as_Rain | mer au, hurt/comfort, fast burn romance | 14k, completed, T | JonMartin

Summary: As a fisherman working under Captain Lukas, Martin has learned to keep his head down and fade into the mist. He does his work, walks further down the path Peter has laid before him, and if members of the crew occasionally disappear, Martin has learned not to ask about them. Has learned to stop caring at all.

At least until the crew pull up something strange and wonderful and impossible, tangled in one of the fishing nets. Something that Peter means ill.

No, Martin doesn't... care. But maybe he can save it. Maybe they can save each other.

A Few Small Repairs by Mad_Maudlin, shipwreckblue | canon divergence | 138k, completed, M | minor JonMartin

Gertrude shot first, killing Elias and all of the staff of the Magnus Institute who where in the building that day. Jon somehow survives and is taken in by Gertrude, Gerry and Mary at Pinhole Books.

Meanwhile, Martin, Sasha and Tim are some of the surviving staff trying to pick up the pieces after the strange 'fire'. But wasn't Gertrude supposed to be dead? What is up with this new Institute director?

the garden of forking paths by bibliocratic | post post-apocalypse, time travel, dimension hopping, angst with a happy ending | 50k, completed, T | JonMartin, minor found family

Summary: Whatever he had predicted might happen, Jon wasn't expecting to survive upon demolishing the Panopticon. He certainly wasn't expecting to be rescued.

Instead, he wakes up in an alternative universe where he's never been the Archivist, and Martin Blackwood doesn't exist.

Martin Blackwood wakes up somewhere else entirely.

Poignant and bittersweet but with a happy ending. Really well written!

youth dipped in folly by evanescent_jasmine | pre-canon divergence(?), bittersweet | 27k, completed, M | GerryOliver

Summary: In 2012, Oliver meets Gerard Keay and thinks that maybe, just maybe, he can finally save somebody.

He’s wrong.

A Reel for the Watcher by RedCytosine | period drama (early 1900s), fae au | 50k, ongoing, M | JonMartin, minor found family

Summary: Martin Blackwood, in need of employment and out of options, takes a clerical position in Scotland at Castle Magnus, working for the enigmatic Lord Elias Bouchard. He expects it to be glorified paper-shuffling, but what he finds instead is much more sinister. What secrets lurk in the castle library? Who plays the wild music that haunts his dreams? And why does a strange horse wander the lakeshore each morning at dawn?

TFW you wake up from a long nap and have no idea where you are by forgetfulmachine | time travel fix-it, fluff, found family | 33k, ongoing, G

Summary: Jon gets sent back to mid season one in the middle of his coma. Tim, Sasha, and Martin help him through his emotions and stopping the Unknowing. There's a lot of fluff along the way.

Thistle and Weeds by ajkal2 | time travel hurt/comfort, disability | 6k, ongoing, M

Excerpt: “Jon,” Martin says. “Are you alright?”

Jon’s head lifts, turns toward the sound. He’s shaking. His teeth are bared, a flash of white against his dark skin, but it’s not a smile. There’s something- His eyes, they don’t look right-

His mouth opens, jaw trembling, and he says “Martin?” The bright overhead lights gleam off the blood pouring down his face. His eyes are black, empty sockets.

for a firmament by supaslim | two works | canon divergence, transformation horror, recovery | 31k, completed, T

Series summary: There is beauty in destruction. There is art in becoming.

In which Jon becomes the Archive, and the Archive becomes Jon.

Wonderful monster!Jon with some amazing body horror and mental illness recovery themes. Moved me to tears!

A Break in the Clouds by Ash_Rabbit | time-travel, fluff and angst, pre-canon | 22k, ongoing, T | Jon & Original Elias

Excerpt: “I’m eight.” the kid sniffs as if eight was any different from four, maybe not an unspeakable horror then, just a regular horror. “And I heard that the Magnus Institute deals with-” his little nose scrunches, cute. “-spooky things.”

“Do you have a-” he cracks a grin, and then rethinks it as small hands tighten against their burden.”-spooky thing to deliver?” gods he hopes not, it’s bad enough when adults walk in and lay out all of their baggage, but for a child-

“There’s a spider in this book.” the kid says solemnly, raising his textbook sized parcel. “It ate Evan Pritchard.” a bloody fucking Leitner. Of course an eight year old would find a murder spider book. “This seemed like the best place to bring it.”

Seen, Unseen, Unsung by bluejayblueskies | character undeath, canon divergence, memory loss, End!Tim | 50k, ongoing, M | JonMarTim, Tim & Danny & Sasha

Summary: Tim wakes up from the Unknowing with a blank slate where the Institute had been, Danny sitting at his bedside, and a man with too many eyes haunting his dreams.

#tma #the magnus archives #tma fics

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protectspock · 3 years

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Picard In Review

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR PICARD SEASON ONE

Okay, so having seen S1 of Picard twice now and with several additional months of reflection, I’m fairly certain of what worked, what didn’t work, and what I want to see in S2.

Things That I Immediately Knew Were Great

The characters working closely with Picard! Raffi, Rios, and Elnor are all so good, and each bring something special to the table

Giving Seven such amazing character growth that is both a dramatic departure from Voyager while also still making sense. Big hallelujah chorus moment here.

Addressing the Prime universe aftermath of the Romulan disaster set up in AOS. This has always felt unresolved to me, so I loved to see it.

Bringing back HUGH and talking about ex-Bs. Such good worldbuilding :’)

Soji and Dahj being androids without realizing and and slowly (in the case of Soji) finding out the truth was great. The mom AI that puts them to sleep? Stupendous. That scene where Soji is carbon dating all her stuff and panicking? Super good.

The holograms. Look. I love holograms already, but whoever decided that there should be one for every task on the ship and that they should all be played by Santiago Cabrera with a different personality and accent is a genius. I want to kiss every single Rios hologram on the cheek. And the fact that each hologram also holds a fragments of his trauma? A H H !

The Qowat Milat: VERY cool. Good for the ST Universe, good for making romulans 3-dimensional, good for ME because I got to see ROMULAN WARRIOR NUNS.

Riker and Troi. A beautiful, if sad landscape that I could escape into during the plot and action of S1. Many lovely moments with their little family.

The humor! People really fixate on the gloominess of Picard, but it has so many funny moments.

The hugs: IDK why there were SO MANY HUGS in Picard but I was so greatful for every single one.

Things I knew immediately that I hated

Narek and Narissa. Annoying, gross, and the writing made me feel like I was supposed to sympathize with them or something? No. Just gross and annoying.

The Costumes. With a few notable exceptions, everyone just had on the most boring basic-ass clothes imaginable. It’s the FUTURE Babey. Let me see a sequin. Did they just blow their costume budget on “Stardust City Rag” or something?

Killing off Dahj. :/ I get why they did it, but I would have liked to see some fun twin sister android moments on screen and we were robbed of that.

Killing of Hugh. Why? Just why? Why bring back one of the most beloved guest stars, have Jonothan del Arco kick ass all over again, and then just let him die? We live in a post Joss Whedon and GOT universe. Society has progressed past the need to kill off a fan favorite for shock value.

Things I grew to enjoy:

The “old man coming to terms with his trials and triumphs and fighting against defeatism” was good. Sir Patrick Stewart, I love you.

Having a small ship working outside of starfleet is a cool change and a good set-up.

The locations, Freecloud in particular.

Things I grew to dislike:

Jurati. This is the fault of the writers, not Alison Pill, who’s super talented. Such a shame. They really just gave her a plot arc that makes me not want to look at her face anymore, yikes.

Kind of related to the last one, but the relationship between Rios and Jurati? Not feeling it.

The entire AI/Zhat Vash plot in general. (whoops). Like, it was so interesting to start with, but by the last two episodes I wasn’t really emotionally invested anymore.

I would have thought that a planet of soong androids would have been cooler?

What I want in Season 2

The end of Season 1 was a great jumping off place. We have a great little ensemble of rebels on a tiny little ship and they could go and do anything! So I hope to god they go and do things that are fun and interesting to watch!

No more Narek <3

Gently write out Jurati, or make her a guest instead of a regular. I feel bad for saying it, but I honestly just don’t want her taking away screentime from characters I actually like and am invested in.

Don’t just make Seven/Raffi happen, make it happen in a way that feels real and interesting.

Just more character development for our core group. Like I said, they’re my favorite part, so I don’t want to have to beg for scraps all season. Just give us a Raffi episode. Give us a Rios episode. Give us an Elnor episode.

I want to know more about the holograms. Both the specific ones in the ship as well as hologram rights in the 25th century. Yes, this is a niche trekkie interest of mine, don’t @ me.

Unbury Hugh (I can dream, okay?)

#long post #It's taken me almost a year but my thoughts have finally settled #txt #pic

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ja-khajay · 3 years

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2020-2021 Animation Watch(ed)list

I haven’t posted about animation in a while that I remember, and I know a lot of my followers are into it as much as me so I decided to make a list of the animated movies and series I watched on the past year or so, coupled with my short, spoilerless take on them. Enjoy!

Organized by

Things I saw for the first time

Things I rewatched

Under a cut for the sake of your dashboards! PS: I have not added any images yet. If you are interested in knowing more about the visuals of these movies, I might make an old fashion ask-prompted imageset list.

Part One: Things I saw for the first time

The Bear’s Famous Invasion of Sicily

Movie, 2019, Italian/French

9/10, a delightful little movie with amazing visuals. It feels like an animated picture book.

One of those “plot is in the title” media! I had never heard of this before but was heavily recommended it by my family members, who all loved it! It’s a sweet story, nothing groundbreaking but the unique colorful visual style alone makes it worth it.

The Castle of Cagliostro

Movie, 1979, Japanese

10/10. Reminded me of all the books i loved reading as a child

I assume its because it’s so old and the art style and themes are so different that it gets little to no love compared to other Ghibli movies, which is a shame! It’s fun with an endearing cast and as always, great animation and music

Mushishi

Series, 2006, Japanese

10/10 three episodes in I knew it was going to be my favorite series ever

One of the few things I’ve seen I’ll describe as life-changing. It’s absolutely lovely but never toots its own horn about it. Humble, calming, emotional and surprisingly mature. It’s pretty impossible to binge due to how intense the experience is. I just want to walk in the forest now...

FMA: Brotherhood

Series, 2009, Japanese

6/10 Dissapointing adaptation of a classic story

I read the manga for this when I was in middle school and remembered loving it. The animated version does an ok job of presenting the characters and worldbuilding and has some nice action scenes but overall looks really damn cheap and just. Not very good. Seeing I already knew most of the plot I did not have the element of discovery that made me marvel so much reading the original. It’s still a nice series but I really recommend reading it instead.

Code Lyoko (s1+2)

Series, 2003, french

3/10. 1.5 being for the opening song alone

This show sucks ass if I hadn’t been watching this with my bestie I would have dropped it two episodes in. The art style is ugly the stories are always the same and the first season has a (later removed thank fucking god) LITERAL “erase any consequences” button as a plot device in every episode. If you watch it for one thing let it be the nostalgia factor of early 00s Vidya Game Plot

The Legend of Hei

Movie, 2019, Chinese

7/10. Impressive visuals and a poor story

I finally watched this, peer pressured by the load of gifsets on my dashboard! It’s a sweet movie with really impressive animation, sometimes a bit too flashy for my taste (the action sequences go so ham they become not very readable...) but the story was just ok? The setting is barely explained and you are instead bombarded with vague epicspeech about powers and stuff that made me fondly remember Kingdom Hearts lol but that asides it’s a really good time! I need to watch more Chinese movies the few I know are just delightfully off the shits in how they approach action and I love that

Hunter x Hunter

Series, 1999, Japanese

9/10. Superior to the recent one!

I first got introduced to the series via the 2011 one. Comparatively, the 99 series focuses way less on action and way more on the characters, which I love because that fits my personal preferences! Despite mediocre filler episodes and some weird slight pointless plot changes, what it changes from the original manga doesn’t have much of an impact on the characters. The animation quality isn’t always consistent including a huge art style change for an arc (???) but it’s overall pretty nice. The series really shines in the last arc it adapts.

Oban Star-racers

Series, 2006, Japanese/french

9/10 a lovely surprise

This series is completly obscure despite having been created by people famous for their other series (Cowboy Bebop, Code Lyoko that i can name) and it’s a crime! It’s a kids show but without being stupid about it who tells the story of an inter-planetary race. If you liked that one scene in the star wars prequels you know what I mean. It’s got surprisingly nice animation for a TV series, and some truly great character design. The art style is a bit unique in a not for everyone sense, but I didn’t mind it much. It’s also THE most offensively 2000s series i’ve seen in terms of visuals. y2k kids assemble

The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon

Movie, 1963, japanese

8/10. Classic fairytale format with incredible visuals

Watched this for the art style because I know it inspired Samurai Jack, and it delievered! I dont’ have much to say about this one, it’s a very simply film but it’s sweet. For my pirates out there if you want to find it in good quality with english subtitles it’s VERY hard to find. If you just want to see the looks of it, it’s on Youtube with portugese subs.

We now enter the Gobelins Shorts Zone....!

My Friend Who Glows In The Dark

10/10 makes me cry each time

Pure delight...great animation writing everything. A little short about death and friendship but not in the way you imagine!

Colza

9/10

Visual treat...homely and nice :) not far from a 10 but a 9 because nothing about it is that groundbreaking

Sundown

9/10

If you’ve ever been ten minutes from failing a group project because of a single dude you will REALLY enjoy this. Loved the colors and personality

T’as vendu mes rollers?

10/10

It’s SUCH a sweet little short I loved that one so much

Dix-huit kilomètres trois

10/10

Surprisingly well written dialog. Visuals are great but the humanity of the characters carries this to another level

Un diable dans la poche

9/10

Amazing visuals and the most tense/creepy of Gobelin shorts i’ve ever seen. Chilling

La bestia

8/10

I had some issues with the pacing. Interesting story and visuals choices but I was not fond of the art style

Goodbye Robin

5/10

Confusing but predictable. Both at once??? Yes!

Le retour des vagues

6/10

Cool animation stuff but felt pretty pointless

***

Part Two: Things I rewatched

Ruben Brandt: Collector

Movie, 2018, Hungarian

10/10. Underrated as hell

Watched this fully blind for the first time in an animated festival and rewatched it with friends. It’s a crime I never see anyone talking about it given the amount of whining I see about the lack of both adult animation and 2D movies? This film is a unique love letter to art in the form of a weird mix of charming crime story and psychological horror with amazing visuals. I recommend watching it blind and also buying it to show appreciation for how nice it is!!! WATCH THIS MOVIE...

Mononoke

Series, 2007, Japanese

10/10 Visual/storytelling masterpiece in the weird shit departement

If you can stomach intense stuff watch this. The visuals are incredibly unique and beautiful and under the jewel tones and art direction high takes it’s a really cool horror series. My only obstacle to enjoying it the first time I saw it was how dense it is - simply put, it’s so...culturally Japanese it’s not very accessible to me who doesn’t know anything about the culture? Watching it for the second time helped understanding the stories more!

Corto Maltese in Siberia

Movie, 2002, french

9/10 but really close to ten. A great adaptation!

I’m a huge fan of the original comic so I entered this a biiiittttt suspicious it would suck but it was a really pleasant surprise! It has all the wonder and charm of the original and the animation was surprisingly good for the little budget. If you’re not familiar with the series, it’s a sort of geopolitical action/adventure movie but with it’s own really poetic vibe to it. It’s almost impossible to find online but happens to be fully on YouTube so go ham I guess?

Redline

Movie, 2009, Japanese

10/10 cinema was invented for this, actually

Every review of this movie i’ve seen gives it five stars and starts by talking about how immensly stupid it is. I’m no different. It’s a masterpiece of escalating energy with the depth of a puddle and it fucking rules. It’s free on YouTube too so there really is no excuse to not watch it. Watched it for the first time on a huge cinema screen and despite this my second rewatch on my small laptop was as/even more enjoyable. If you watch this stoned with friends you might travel to another dimension

Spirited Away

Movie, 2001, Japan

10/10 deserves the love it gets

I watched this a single time as a kid and had little memory of it! I mean it’s Ghibli you know it’s going to be good as hell but this one rly shines in how colorful and detailed it is and in it’s world! It made me remember I had a huge crush on the dragonboy as a kid. I’m gay now

Kung-fu Panda (1&2)

Movie, Usa

10/10. KFP fucking rules

Honestly my favorite franchise of the whole disney/dreamworks/pixar hydra. It’s fun as hell, doesn’t skip a single beat and has amazing animation and character designs. If something is a good time I will not care if it’s deep or not and boy I fucking love these movies

Sinbad, Legend of the Seven Seas

Movie, 2003, Usa

5/10 Some great some really bad and overall generic

I tend to hate american cinema and this includes that era of animation I have no nostalgia for. Sinbad is in a weird place because I love adventure stories and the visuals of the movie absolutely deliver but it’s very predictable and TANKED by the addition of the female character, pushed in your face as “look we have woman!!!” despite her writing being misogynistic as hell lol. The evil goddess rules tho. This movie would have been a solid 9 if instead of the girl the two dudes had kissed

#j #animation #if you want links to these ill provide but not for the indie ones that arent free #i have no remorse p*rating disney or a movie thats over 50 but if its recent and underrated just legally get it!!!

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blue-mint-winter · 4 years

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The Dragon Prince season 3 was really good. After awkward and stumbling s1 and meandering s2, the show finally hit its stride. The writing became just so much tighter and focused. Even the humour seemed more balanced and with better timing and it consistently hit the mark for me. I don’t know if it’s because I knew what to expect so it wasn’t jarring to me, but in this season it really felt just right and didn’t ruin the serious moments like it did before. The worldbuilding was really on point as we finally got to explore the fantastic world of Xadia and learn more backstory of the key characters. I loved the character development in this season (Soren the mastermind! Ezran the king!) and I enjoyed the new additions to the cast a lot. For example, I wasn’t a big fan of Amaya before, but her storyline with Janai was definitely one of the high points of this season for me. In conclusion, The Dragon Prince is just getting better and I’m looking forward to continuation of the story.

#my review #the dragon prince #tdp s3

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syncogon · 4 years

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[RS3] to all the complaints i’ve seen before

so many people whining about the rs movie like damn, it’s like the whole ftg fiasco all over again.

although, i think this is a little better than that mess was. i think most people did still look favorably on this movie (8.5 iqiyi rating, vs 8.2 of rs2 i think?), there’s just a very vocal subset of the population i’m seeing on tieba and weibo.

and i’m annoyed, and i like talking, so here are some of my rebuttal thoughts. from what i can tell the main complaints include:

- the 2.5D animation. yeah, i agree it definitely doesn’t look nearly as good as pure 2D. but personally i was able to get used to it (having watched rwby for so long), and i think it helped for some parts, like all of luge’s particle effects (not hugely necessary, but they were pretty cool). i just hope this wasn’t the reason for the 3 year delay. if it helped them speed things up, save a bit of money, fight animations... it’s not ideal, but i can accept it. and i think the fight scenes overall were pretty solid, and possibly better than before.

- over-focus on auroras and almost no maidang&co. i think this is more apparent with the web movie format, but honestly? you can’t criticize this without criticizing s1. consider that s1 milong got a solid 30+ minutes (1.5 full episodes, plus additional snippets) of uninterrupted backstory in the finale arc of s1, and maidang did almost nothing for the last like 5 episodes of s1. tv episode serialized format might lead to better feeling of pacing, but that isn’t an option anymore. i think auroras’s backstory was solid, i found it really interesting, his dad’s end monologue was really good, as was the setup to heavenly blue cross. and i personally think that the backstories were always the strongest parts of rainbow sea. fleshing out the character, character development, good stuff. now i can care about him.

- plot jumping around, no focus. honestly, this is one of the more ridiculous complaints to me. some of the scene cuts felt abrupt, sure (this would probably have been alleviated in tv episode format), but i really, really liked the complexity of this movie, and how there were so many pieces on the board with their own subplots tying together, with different goals, motivations, and allegiances playing off each other. that’s how you tell an epic story on a grand scale, and honestly i think the plot did a good job with that. a linear story would just be so boring, and not worthy of how long we’ve waited and the scope of the worldbuilding RS deserves. and i would be insulted at something so simple. there were a few things i’m a little unclear on, but that’s partly due to me being not great at chinese, and also i think they haven’t fully revealed everything yet. i am a little concerned that i haven’t quite tied together everything in my mind, or that some things they intended to be clear weren’t clearly explained. but it didn’t impede my enjoyment of the movie, and i will hold off on judgement of that until i rewatch and can analyze/speculate a little more. i’m very much looking forward to see how things come together further in the next installment.

- (a lot of) whining for screenwriter liu bei to come back. it’s actually kind of ironic bc a whole theme of the auroras backstory was him growing up and scorning his dad for being old and out of date - puppet shows when no one was interested in them anymore - and doesn’t that nicely parallel how a lot of the audience seems to have outgrown rs? criticizing it for being awkward and 中二? saw a good comment that pointed this out too. liu bei coming back, imo, wouldn’t make that big of a difference. who here is the one who’s really changed? a lot of the criticisms i would make about this movie - for example requiring some suspension of disbelief in exchange for emotional impact - are criticisms that still apply to s1 as well. (i am a little annoyed at the treatment of shu, and of the females in general, but tbh i’ve just chalked that up to general sexism. par for the course unfortunately.)

... anyway, i was apprehensive bc of all this talk when i went in to watch it, but hell i had a great time. some answers, and more questions. overall, there were a lot of things to like about this movie, which have seemingly been drowned out by the whining - i’ll probably at some point make a post with stuff i liked and appreciated. honestly, i think this was better than the first one, which just had a lot of setup fluff; rs3 has a lot more rewatch value than rs2 imo (i thought about rewatching rs2 in preparation for this release, but found i couldn’t really because there was just a lot of things i Didn’t Care about)

and im really looking forward to the next movie! man, that cliffhanger... but like legit we got so much content in this movie that im not even as mad about this cliffhanger as i was the first movie’s. there’s just so much to dig into, and i’m here for this!

#rainbow sea #synco talks

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julystorms · 7 years

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SnK Season Two Commentary

Episode 26: “Beast Titan”

I will cover everything in order; if I miss anything you’d like my opinion on, please feel free to shoot me a message and I’ll be happy to write more. These are my generalized thoughts on Ep26 (including my theory about why dinosaurs are in the new opener); they are under a cut due to length and to help prevent people from seeing spoilers.

I really wasn’t sure what to expect with this season. I didn’t even watch the previously released bit with Hange and Pastor Nick (though I’m pretty sure I reblogged a video of it a long time ago), so I felt like I was going in blind.

Scene One: The Wall Titan

The series picks up right where it left off: with the Survey Corps staring up at the titan in the wall (referred to from hereon out as the Wall Titan). Overall, this intro scene was really well-done; I enjoyed seeing Nick’s panic, but Hange was by far the star. The general tonal atmosphere of the scene was amazing, IMO. The soldiers were scared and Hange was no exception. I don’t really have much to say about this scene except that...I was a little perturbed to notice that the only soldiers present were with the Survey Corps. While this bothers me (how...convenient...considering we know the entire district is crawling with both the MP and the Garrison), it wasn’t enough to draw me out of the story entirely.

Opening Song

It wasn’t amazing but it was pretty good. The artwork and animation is, of course, as lovely as it was in S1, perhaps moreso. Some of the angles they used for the opening were pretty nifty.

As far as the animals and dinosaurs go, my theory is that we’re meant to see them as secrets of the world that the Beast Titan has access to that the Walled People do not. Remember in S1 how excited Armin was talking about the ocean? About how Eren countered his excitement with a line about how “if the ocean is full of salt, there wouldn’t be an ocean because the merchants would have snapped it all up already!”...? The concept of the vastness of the ocean is difficult for the walled people to wrap their heads around--just the concept. They don’t know much of anything; they barely understand their own humanity. My opinion on this aspect of the worldbuilding aside, I think the point they are making with that opening bit (which you can see in tiny badly done gifs here) is about humanity’s history--that the Beast Titan (and others, as we now know) have access to information like this; they know about elephants, that dinosaurs once roamed the earth, about whales in the ocean and hippos: creatures you can’t even really begin to describe to people who have never seen one. The vastness of their size, their shape, their mannerisms and behaviors...seem overwhelming and impossible. But they’re not. They exist. And I think in showing this stuff we are meant to think about the fact that there is more to the world than what the walled people know of it...and that the Beast Titan is a part of that world--one not their own.

Scene Two: Erwin’s Discussion with His Underlings

I thought this was a pretty interesting scene; rather bland but it’s clear the Annie debacle is “Taken Care Of” by this point, and that what we are meant to notice is that the Survey Corps is...questioning things. Erwin’s underlings ask how they should feel about this new information, and the implication seems to be a little iffy here but I think these people are just shocked that titans could be in the walls and none of them had any inkling of it even being a possibility.

Erwin’s reply, of course, is odd: “There were only people who knew, and people who didn’t.”

But it isn’t as ominous as it sounds. He means that nobody had any reason to suspect it, so either you knew it was a thing or you didn’t know; there is no middle ground.

Scene Three: Cleanup of Stohess

I...did not expect to get a scene with Hitch and Marlowe in it, at least...not this early in the season. I suspected they might give us something because they added an extra bit into S1, knowing Marlowe will be important later, but I think showing us what the cleanup effort looks like now will save them some effort in the future:

Marlowe: Why are they keeping us in the dark? Hitch: Business as usual. But what’s scummiest of all...is that there’s no ‘official’ reason why all these people died.

We know that in 59 this cleanup scene is the primary reason for Hitch’s upset with the Survey Corps but here we get to see more of it, enough to really believe in Hitch’s side of things later. Her anger feels more justified when we get to see what she’s had to see. And now we know, too, that it’s been hours since the incident happened and still people are uninformed. Nobody’s releasing anything. That means there is something to hide. Yikes. This was a nice addition that I’m sure will be worth the screentime it took up.

Scene Four: Hange and Nick on the Wall Ft. Moblit

I didn’t watch this in advance so I was excited to see it, and...it didn’t entirely let me down, but... I don’t know. I really loved Hange: she didn’t sound crazy at all. Her anger was rooted in fear and in loss. So many people have given their lives for humanity and all the time there were people like Nick...keeping secrets like this. Big secrets. She’s already made assumptions, too: “Are there titans in all the walls?” I mean, goodness. Nick, too, is awesome in this. He’s scared out of his mind but his determination is 11/10 “Deliver me, O Lord!” I loved that. But Hange is equally as determined in her own way, saying she’ll just kill him and find other people to ask until someone fesses up. But of course Nick’s gumption gets to her and she respects it enough to let him go. And then laughs. Says she was kidding. I thought they did a good job of showing her as a fairly reasonable person...angry and frustrated as hell, but not WHOA KUH-RAZY MONEY like they did in S1, carefree and silly. Fuck that portrayal: this is the real Hange my dudes, and it was good to see it.

That said, Moblit just sort of stood there and yelled “SQUAD LEADER!” and “HANGE-SAN!” and didn’t do jack shit. I wish he’d have gotten into the fray a bit, grabbed her sleeve, pleaded in the background even if she ignored the hell out of him. The way all those people just stand around like dopes is annoying. Like yeah she’s in charge but...I wanted a little more protest to her dangling a guy who knows the secrets of the world over the edge of the wall. :|

Scene Five: TITANS ARE INSIDE WALL ROSE!!!! Ft. Tomas

Or Thomas, I guess. How many guys named Tom exist in this world? Apparently three...of them are soldiers. Anyway...

He got hot.

He made weird slobbery faces in the manga but he’s one good-looking dude in S2. But more seriously I dig the rewind bit for the “12 hours earlier” part. But that just goes to say this determined bro rode hard for 12 hours to deliver this news. Like...these kids were a 12 hour hard gallop from Wall Sina? O...okay...? (I’ll get back to this, I promise.)

Scene Six: 12 Hours Earlier...

This scene isn’t spectacular and it seems...smaller, somehow, than the manga, though I can’t quite put my finger on why. I think I felt like the manga had more 104th kids there, but as we can see, there are a handful of 104th recruits from the north/east/west(?)south who are being held here also...I always liked that about the manga and I’m glad they kept it in.

The biggest criticism I’ve seen so far of the series is anger toward Reiner and Bertholt for “being so fake” in this scene, but I think their reactions here are perfectly genuine.

I don’t really have anything to say about Connie and Sasha’s conversation but when Reiner offers to help Connie sneak out to his village I think he has a legit reason for saying it; I’m pretty sure his commentary on their situation (no gear, no information, et cetera) right after fighting Annie (the Female Titan) isn’t accidental or meant to be misleading. Pretty sure he’s afraid the Survey Corps is onto them and he’s thinking of getting the hell outta Dodge why he still can. More on this in a bit, though.

It seems they tried to downplay the accuracy of Mike’s nose, so it’s possible that we could be considering Mike’s sense of smell a retconned or dropped plot thread. In the manga he couldn’t even see the titans and knew how many there were, but in the anime they’re making it kind of obvious that he can’t just smell them but can see them, too.

(By the way, Thomas/Tomas takes 3 couriers with him, which probably means he rode straight for Stohess while the other three went to other locations to spread the word. He could push one horse that hard. The distance between Rose and Sina is ~81 miles. A racehorse could cover 113 miles in a day (and in a famous race from the late 1800s this did happen) if they were trained for it, but it would probably destroy their longterm health...and carry immense risk of leaving the rider stranded if the horse, you know, dropped dead from exhaustion or tripped or stumbled. Anyway, my issue with this is that we don’t know how far south of Wall Sina these kids are and it feels odd that it took this guy 12 whole hours to get to Stohess from this location at a gallop when somehow all the 104th were packed up and brought there without galloping but like, fast enough that it was less than a day... Anyway...consistency lmao.)

My favorite bit is where Reiner turns to Bertholt and says: “Has the wall been breached?!” because this implies a hell of a lot, knowing what we now know about them. This makes me think their fear is 100% real. Think about it: if they didn’t break the wall down, there is...really only one other immediate option. It’s possible there are more, too: I mean, we know of Jaws and Cartman as two other shifters, so in Reiner and Bert’s minds, it’s possible the cavalry has arrived and they have no idea what’s going on but it’s putting them in one very awkward and terrible situation, especially without any gear.

Scene Seven: Humanity Will Only Lose When We Stop Fighting

I take some issue with this scene, but my biggest issue with it is that to save time they shortened it and didn’t really let it be...meaningful. I always felt that scene was one of only a few scenes we ever get of veteran characters feeling doubtful or scared, and it’s also the only one we get where one vet inspires and bolsters another’s spirit.

It was a hugely important scene in the manga, IMO, but was not treated that way in the anime. Probably to save time considering how the episode ends, but...meh. I’m happy to talk about this more in another post if anyone actually wants my thoughts on this scene.

Scene Eight: Splitting Up

I noticed that when Reiner asks Bert to come with him and Connie, Bert agrees much more quickly than he does in the manga. I feel like this might be a smart change but I also liked Bert’s hesitation from the manga... It made him come across as more afraid...of the titans, of course, but we now know it was probably the situation in general that was freaking him out. (We’re not doing our jobs well/fast enough now someone else is interfering. This is our fault because we didn’t do our job properly.)

Also... my son:

And I wonder if this is supposed to be Henning and Lynne...? (Squad Hook Nose + Nanaba lmao.)

Looking at the manga it was kind of hard to tell who said the lines this woman said, but she had a ponytail like Lynne does. This character seems to have pigtails...? (Though the eye shape does match Lynne’s in the manga; Henning is confusing because he hardly shows up in the manga but I can’t imagine they’d draw these characters just to have randos...since we know all the teams converge together again at Utgard later.)

Scene Nine: Eren’s Dream

I didn’t expect to see Carla so soon but waH it got me a little bit in the feelings. That said, Mikasa kind of dozing off and dropping her scarf was sweet. I liked how this scene was soft and quiet and then Armin busted in to ruin their day.

Scene Ten: Erwin’s Office

The guy who says putting Mike in charge was a good idea is...well, I liked Erwin’s hesitation with that, and the kind of stalemate with Levi in this scene. There was a distinct “we’re doomed” vibe to this scene, but I like how we know that none of these characters are sitting around on their hands just waiting for happy funtimes.

Scene Eleven: The Beast Titan

Now we know why the trailer had so much of Mike’s death in it! Because it happens in the first episode of the second season!

I didn’t like this scene and it wasn’t because Mike died. I admit to being unhappy that he died so quickly; I think I was hoping for a little more emotional push and pull, a little more humanity. And we didn’t really get it.

The Beast Titan was appropriately terrifying. How did he get Mike’s gear free so easily? A question for the ages.

One thing I was impressed with in this scene was Mike’s fear. He had it together until the BT threw his horse at him. Watching his courage crumble was something else. It makes sense. He was probably hurt badly just from the fall, tearing off all those shingles, not to mention that his legs were broken after that titan got hold of him. Palpable fear was in that scene. And the part that got me was Mike ducking to cover his head like he thought it could protect him--or like he was afraid to watch his death coming for him.

There were a lot of things that could have been inserted into this scene to really drive home Mike’s humanity. What I wouldn’t have given to see a flashback of him younger giving his heart for humanity, or him with his squad.

But all we got was the flashback to him telling Nanaba that they can’t stop fighting. And I admit...I was looking forward to this. I wanted some sad music, some slower motion, maybe a close-up, I wanted this to feel impactful and important, to feel like a declaration. But it felt soulless and weak.

Half of this can be blamed on the rooftop scene, IMO. The other half, though...

I blame on Mike’s actual death. It was unnecessarily brutal. I understand the name of the game in this series is that people die horribly but they went out of their way to kill him as horribly as possible just to make a point, I think. “LOOK WE HAVEN’T KILLED ANYONE LATELY WE HAVEN’T LOST OUR TOUCH HAHA SEE??? LOOK!!! WE STILL GOT IT!!”

My problem with this is that I think it really took away from Mike’s character. He dies with more dignity in the manga, and if they wanted to kill him brutally in the anime...at least let him fight back for a couple of seconds? Let him hit a titan with his sword? I don’t know. It just seemed over-the-top to me. Brutality for no real reason except that they had to prove they could still do it. He doesn’t even get half a second to fight.

To be fair, I think this is my Mike bias speaking. I always liked Mike and I was hoping his death would be a little altered from the manga--just enough that he could fight back, or that he’d die fighting for his life.

And they did alter his death scene, but mostly so that he’d cry the entire time and scream aloud like 37 times to smash the audience over the head with how afraid he was. No thanks. Bye.

Ending Song

Meh, I didn’t care for it. The art is creepy. But I did check the cast list to see if Gelgar or Nanaba had last names, and they do not. :P (Neither do Hitch and Marlowe, though, so...perhaps later?)

Overall Thoughts!

Some stuff about this episode I really liked and...there was some I really didn’t like. I feel slightly blindsided by how fast everything is happening already, but I guess it drives home the fact that after Levi’s Special Ops squad dies this whole debacle is taking place like 36 hours later I MEAN REALLY. A lot happens very quickly.

That said, my hope that we’ll get some more of Mike’s Squad is...lower now than it was. I’m still hoping they don’t take away from Gelgar and Lynne in Connie’s village, but that should be the third episode. I’m looking forward to seeing Sasha kick some ass in the next one, though, that’s for sure!

#snk s2 #snk #snk meta #shoot me a message or comment if u want more thoughts idk #snk spoilers

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