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clueless-fan-critic · 3 months

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Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur: Now That’s Moon Girl Magic!!!

One

In my opinion, Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur is one of the best new Disney shows in the 2020s and I’ll calmly make an argument for anyone who thinks otherwise. It has popping color, even poppier music, excellent characters, and strong storytelling all wrapped up in this fun, groundbreaking Disney show. With Season 2 coming out, I thought it was time to share what I got to say about its revolutionary ways and how it may even set the bar for future Marvel projects and even MCU ideas.

The Characters

Lunella Lafayette, played by former X-Factor contestant Diamond White, is one of the most bombastic but relatable super-genius black girls at the time I write this. I love how her intelligence isn’t just her sole personality trait as she’s confident, sassy, and optimistic. Lunella is still a young teen who worries about fitting in, cares about her family, and tries to be the best person she can be.

I liked that they don’t make her into a bullied nerd like Peter Parker, which would contradict the whole message about protecting her community. She’s still pretty social around her fellow students but doesn’t have that social finesse which makes her have a lot of friends.

She’s a flawed character: she’s over-competitive and obsessed to the point of disregarding her work and other people. She does overcome and learn from those issues in order to become a better person in the end.

Devil Dinosaur is more than a pet sidekick meant to be cute or the comic-relief. He does get his time to shine from his insecurities of being too big to a fear of jellyfish. With basically growls and snarls made by Fred Tatasciore, Devil conveys a huge range of emotion from joy to sadness to anger.

Casey Calderon is the best friend and manager of Lunella whose savvy with fashion and social media. She’s pretty much what you expect from the girl who’s into social media as exuberant and charismatic, but never shallow or vain. She genuinely wants to use her skills to help Lunella’s message spread. She’s the support to the superheroics of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur in making the heroes more human in the eyes of the LES.

Many other characters have not only impacted the story but also the main cast itself with the Lafayette family and various members of the LES.

The Lafayettes have their times to shine in their own ways whether as shoulders for Lunella to get support from or voices of reason that plays into the lesson that she must face. Adria Lafayette acts as a strong moral compass for Lunella to follow like protecting the LES from gentrification. Both James Jr. and Pops aren’t as big as the Lafayette women, but they do get there times to shine throughout the show.

In the finales “O.M.G. Issue 1 and 2”, we get the reveal of Lunella’s grandmother Mimi, played by MCU alum Alfre Woodard, is the Original Moon Girl or O.M.G. who helped build the portal generator that Lunella rebuilt years later. It gives us a deep look into how the super-genius doesn’t fall far from the tree.

The Beyonder, voiced by the famous Laurence Fishburne, is a fun and interesting character that acts more of a reality warping nuisance to Lunella than an actual villain. Combined with Fishburne’s comedic delivery and stylish animation, the Beyonder is a hilarious trickster learning about humanity the best way he knows: messing with superheroes.

The Villains do create a dynamic with Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur by creating various conflicts both externally, internally, even symbolically. The first villain of the show Aftershock was an electrical villain who literally stole power from the LES, putting businesses at risk of closing, which can be interpreted as someone taking away others’ autonomy from their homes. Another set of villains were the Muzzlers, basically high-powered tech giants wanting to gentrify the LES and take away anything unique from the people. They even “silenced” the people with their tech and rendered them voiceless, but the people prevailed together.

The show not only showcases obscure Marvel characters in new, refreshing ways, but also creates their own stellar ones that put together what it can showcase.

The Animation Style

The most eye-popping way it stands out is the animation. The colors and style beautifully blends with the music. Every time a fight scene happens, the colors become much more vibrant with heart-pumping music from various artists. You can really tell that the animators put a lot of love and passion into making something both familiar but also standout with its fight scenes.

One of my favorite scenes is in Episode 3 “Run the Rink” with Moon Girl fighting Gravitas to a Childish Gambino song. A Childish Gambino Song! You know that you got a hit when you get a hit song from a famous rapper.

All the musical scenes play into the story in an entertaining way while fueling the animation on a higher level.

The Stories

Almost every story plays into Lunella’s development throughout the first season from self-love and self-acceptance to fighting for one’s community. One of my favorite episodes is “Hair Today Gone Tomorrow” that perfectly addresses various issues about one’s hair. I think a lot of people, especially black women, can understand how we can get insecure about themselves. “O.M.G. Issue 1 and 2″ highlights how people of color, especially those in STEM fields, were essentially erased from the work they did and all credit was taken from them by the higher-ups. The main villain of the finales Maris Morlak is both a terrifying and relatable person whose motivations are sympathetic in how his work was taken from him and was erased.

What’s Next For Moon Girl?

With Season 2 coming out of woodworks, I’m hoping to see more adventures, heart, and fly music that elevates Moon Girl to a different level and even set more bars in terms of storytelling and animation for both Marvel projects and even the MCU itself.

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elena-fishr · 2 years

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for gaming asks: 6, 18, 42, 54, 75 :)

Thank you:D

6. An underrated game from the last few years?

I'm only going to answer with games I've personally played (and I mostly play popular franchises so there's not going to be anything groundbreaking here lol) A plague Tale: Innocence and Super Lucky's Tale are tied for my pick! Lucky's Tale is really fun and I don't see a lot of ppl talk about it, I'm thinking it's because it looks so cartoony but it is really great, trust.

18. Worst game you've played?

Gotta go deep in the archives for this.... hmmumm DMC2 sadly... it feels genuinely unfinished and inferior in every way to everything else in the franchise which was a huge let down because the Devil May Cry series is peak gaming aside from this one

42. A game you will never forget (in a bad OR a good way)

Uncharted 4 A Thief's freaking End I can quote this game from beginning to end and this was the first Uncharted game I had to wait for so the hype leadup was momentous. I can even remember my thoughts and feelings on my first playthrough and relive them on current playthroughs. Everything in the gameplay was such a perfected upgrade from the ps3 era. The game played so fluid, and it really got me appreciating how simple but addictive it all was. The climbing also felt incredible and I loved how Nate looked, I remember being nervous for his 'PS4 version' cuz I was so used to PS3 nate lol

Shoutout to DMC5 I can also quote that game from start to finish and that action style of gameplay opened a whole new world to me, especially with Dante's styles

54. A sequel you really want?

Capcom gonna own me for this one.... Devil May Cry 6..... DMC is my crack I don't even know what more they could do, I just know I need more lol

Resident Evil 9 too, but that is a sequel I know will come out so I'm just waiting lol I just want it and to know the direction they're going to take it now the crusty Winters are done

Past me would say Uncharted too but in the current state of things... I just want them to leave Uncharted as is, they gave it a great ending and I'd like them to commit to it. It was already hard enough to live through a movie being released lol (the ONLY exception would be if Amy Hennig wanted to something more of course because like Uncharted is her's idc what anyone says)

75. Do you focus on main storyline/quest or do sidequests first?

It REALLY depends.... if I'm into the story I'm going after the main story obv BUT I tend to dislike open world games so 9 times out of 10 I could give a damn about the story and just do whatever is close to me and move on lol

ty anon I appreciate you for asking :)

#ask meme #inbox #long post #text #im sorry im just rambling a lot but im feeling chatty this sunday #im so bad at answering with just one game holy im so sry

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bentforkent · 4 years

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earth-shattering, red roses

penelope garcia x gender neutral!reader

a/n: here is my very hesitant, very obscure, and very late submission for @veraiconcos fic challenge. is there a market for penelope x reader fics? dunno, but there should be. penelope rights.

tagging sweet @gaystevie

content warnings: none - this is half fluff, half angst :)

word count: 1842

in which you’re penelope’s online friend and she develops a crush on you.

“and then i just,” penelope pauses to hold up a pair of campy earrings to the camera, “pick out some earrings, and i’m good to go!” after putting the jewelry on, she turns her face to model. her hair is pulled back into a bun, adorned with some fluffy hot pink hair accessory.

“looks cute, pen,” you muse, watching her pose on your tiny phone screen. penelope looks at you with a wide smile. there’s a piece of your hair sticking up and out of place, and she desperately wants to reach out and smooth it out. her thumb twitches.

“alright my sweet soulmate,” she starts with a smile. you know what’s coming. “it’s time for me to head to work.”

you pout at her pixelated face. “already?”

“unfortunately, dear,” she says, but despite feeling reluctant to hang up, her words come out as cheery as ever.

“alright, penny. have fun at work,” you say, and as soon as she acknowledges your farewell and offers her own, the screen goes black with nothing but a tri-tone to signal the end of the call.

you and penelope met seven months ago on some new, groundbreaking virtual world game. penelope’s character was a fairy, with wings that glowed so much she had to have paid extra to have them. (she hadn’t. she just hacked into the fairly new and easy-to-bypass code and given her character the virtual wardrobe of her dreams.) she made a point to keep true to herself, even through her tiny computer alter-ego.

the two of you often floated in the same circles as you played the game. you were funny, always typing something witty into the chat, and she quickly found herself very fond of you. she let her fingers hover over her keyboard before typing out her first message to you. after the whole “fisher king” fiasco, she respectfully refrained from contacting people on the internet, resigning herself to admiring from afar. but you were different. you had interacted with penelope already, exchanging compliments and working together to solve quests in the game. you knew her, and she knew you, but direct message felt like a new realm. it felt...intimate.

when you replied to her first message, a simple “hi penelope!” with a butterfly emoji attached for good measure, penelope nearly flew out of her desk chair; she was so excited. she quickly typed back to you, punctuating with approximately two million exclamation points and a link to her own personal social media. you smiled widely to yourself watching penelope’s chat appear on your computer screen.

over the next months, you and penelope had become practically inseparable. well...virtually, at least. you lived much too far from penelope, and penelope much too far from you. your distance spanned one timezone and a handful of states, but with how often you two talked, you always felt close. you learned her favorite color, her favorite movie, her favorite tv shows. she learned your guilty pleasure snack, your nighttime routine, and your favorite song to drive to. after 12am, you’d whisper into the phone receiver about your day, telling her about everything that bothered you or brought you joy. penelope revelled in these chats. listening to you was the best part of her day. this was your friendship, and it was good.

but recently things had been ever-so-slightly different. penelope lingers on a phone call even though she is exhausted, just to hear your voice. she proof-reads her text messages multiple times before sending them out--who does that? the red heart emoji is fast becoming her most used, taking the place of the pink one. the pink one is platonic, it’s always been platonic, and the red one is romantic. how is this happening? often, penelope lies in bed, imagining you’re laying against each other with your hands entangled. she reaches and rests her hand on the other side of the bed, where you would lie if you were there. sometimes, when she’s really tired, she believes she can feel you.

when thinking about this, penelope’s chest feels tight in the most exhilarating way. she’s confused, naturally. the last time she felt this way was when she thought she had real feelings for derek. (she’d buried whatever feeling that was way deep down in the depths of her brain.)

could it be love if you had never touched? no. no, penelope is a romantic, but she’s also a realist. this can’t be love, not yet. but...a crush. the realization of the word seeps into her bloodstream, setting each cell in her body on fire. it’s a nice fire, a warm fire, a fire that flickers in pink flames. penelope spins around a few times in her work desk chair.

gee, how lucky is she that she’s got her own little cave here? no one to interrupt her private moment of reckoning...although, now that she thinks of it, it’s not much of a “moment” from the outside. it’s not like her cheeks are stained red and there’s a sign on her forehead that reads “i have a crush!” any one of her coworkers could walk in right now and have no clue anything is any different. (penelope forgets that she’s terrible at hiding things and that she works with trained behavioral profilers.) she pauses a minute, staring at the door, half-expecting hotch to walk in and chew her out for not looking up white males in nebraska, or something.

penelope smoothly rolls her chair over to where her cell phone rests. she really shouldn’t be making a personal call at work, she thinks, but she also really shouldn’t have hacked into reid’s work computer and changed everything in english into tagalog last week. penelope can’t remember the last time she genuinely cared about the FBI’s rules. (in her defense, it took spencer like--half of a second to figure out what the unfamiliar language was, and a whole work day to understand it. she was teaching him!)

she picks up the phone, grinning as she swipes through recent text notifications of you updating penelope on your day. she finds the “call” button quickly, and waits as it begins to ring.

“penelope?” you question upon answering. “i’m at work, i can’t really talk right now.” you sound happy, despite the intrusion penelope knows she’s providing.

“no, i know,” penelope replies, twirling a pen in her free hand. she taps her foot quickly. “which is why i’ll make this super quick.” she drags out the word ‘super’ like it tastes like candy. “i have a crush on you. an earth-shattering, red roses, big crush on you.”

“oh,” you gasp, surprised. “oh! yeah!” you shake your head quickly, as if trying to wake yourself from a dream. all penelope can hear on the other line is the swooshing of air. “yeah, penny, me too. definitely me too. by that i mean, i have a crush on you too.” you’re stumbling, tripping over the words in your haste to get them out, but neither one of you seem to notice. all you can tell is the grin on your face is starting to hurt your cheeks, and all penelope can tell is that if she pulls her knees any closer to her chest she might squish herself.

“okay, cool,” penelope says through a smile.

you give a breathy laugh. “i really do have to go, though. i’ll definitely talk to you later, though. bye, penny,” you say, and hang up before giving penelope the chance to quip a witty goodbye.

you like her back, penelope thinks, the harps playing in her head making her feel like a juvenile pining after someone on the playground. her stomach flutters. the angelic voices in her head are singing, something that sounds like a warbled, choral version of “i wanna dance with somebody” by whitney houston. she closes her eyes, and relishes in it.

after a second, the stark silence in penelope’s office startles her into reality.

what is this?

what is she doing?

oh, fuck, she thinks. tears well in her eyes. what is she doing? this is so unrealistic, penelope thinks, berating herself. you’re far away, only connected to her through a phone screen. it’s a great sentiment to have this sweet crush, yeah, but it’s not practical. not real. it’s not like penelope would ever be in a position to pack up and fly to you, and after hearing you gush about your job just the night prior, she knows you certainly feel the same.

and then she feels like shit for even calling, for even telling you that she felt this way. it would cause nothing but problems. penelope pauses, in her brain. no, it wouldn’t even cause problems! being with you is so incredibly far-fetched that there isn’t even a “will they, won’t they” debate. any problem is solved with a simple “won’t they.” no, this wouldn’t cause problems, but it would cause heartache, and she should’ve known better. penelope thinks she’s feeling a bit of that heartache now. she sniffles, toying with a tiny plush pig she keeps perched on her desk. sometimes penelope just gets blinded by the butterflies. it’s her best trait and most fatal flaw.

there’s a knock at her door. derek.

“hey babygirl,” he says, pushing open the door and leaning into the doorframe. “what are you doing for lunch?”

with her back turned to him, she rubs at her eyes delicately, trying very hard not to mess up her makeup. “uh, i brought my thermos. soup,” she says, clawing desperately at the bubbly personality she can feel slipping away from her for today. she’s just down in the dumps.

“hey, what’s wrong?” derek asks, instantly picking up on her sour mood. he steps into her office and closes the door behind him.

penelope turns to him, eyes rimmed in red, and gives him a half smile. derek, sweet derek, always so in tune with penelope, is looking at her intently, worry written in every crease of his face. penelope always feels lucky to have him, but especially in this moment. in a rush of emotion, she stands, flings her arms around his neck and pulls him in to a tight hug.

derek chuckles. “i love you too.”

penelope pulls away with a half-hearted chuckle, swatting the air as if to get rid of the negative emotions plaguing her office. “you come in here with your big muscles and your pretty face and somehow you’ve got me crying in your arms.” she laughs again, slightly more enthusiastic this time.

derek pulls her to his chest again, holding her there without words. penelope lets out a deep sigh, releasing every single emotion she just ran through.

she could deal with those later. she could deal with her royal mess with you later. right now, it didn’t matter. what mattered now was her office, her lunch, and derek morgan.

“derek?” she asks, voice small. he turns to her, prompting her to speak again. “if i asked you to stay, would you?”

#vicficwriterchallenge #penelope garcia x reader #penelope garcia #penelope garcia fanfiction #criminal minds fanfiction #criminal minds #my writing

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gaylonelydyke · 3 years

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if it’s not too late, 12 for episodes and ships, and 17!

its never too late! thankyou for the ask 🥰 oo damn this is gonna be a hefty one, just to prepare you this is gonna be long 😅😅😅

spoiler alert for my friends who are finishing up season 2 rn, be careful if you look at my top five episodes, pay attention the the episode numbers, i will put [ ] in bold at the beginning and end of spoilers!

12. Top 5 ships

5. faith x myself because have you seen faith? shes such a babe! spare consensual kiss maam?

4. willow x oz, i dont know if this is an unpopular or not but i feel like if the 90s had been more accepting of term then willow wouldve been bisexual, but like even now tv shows will rarely let characters say that word :( but anyway i love them! theyre both quirky and kinda awkward but its such a sweet relationship and you really see how they go from awkward crushes to an actual deep relationship, oz is one of my favourite characters too what a dude!

3. giles x jenny, mlmxwlw solidarity in this bisexual couple! there is no an ounce of straight between them and i love it, i love their dynamic, i love that giles *respects women* (im staring daggers at xander rn), also the original girlboss x malewife couple askdjaksjhd

2. drusilla x spike, these two!!!!!! once again a bisexual couple with zero straight between them, the vibes are off the charts. sexy vampires, goth x punk love, i just love them man, and their relationship is so interesting to delve into. like theyre vampires, theyre soulless and yet they have a capacity for love, they care deeply for eachother, theyre so tender towards eachother in season 2 in the way they take turns to care for one another, also drusilla picking spike up with one hand made me gay and thats on that

1. willow x tara!!!!! lesbians man lesbians! they have a beautiful relationship, until a certain point wink wink, they feel like a perfect match, willows become more outgoing due to buffy and xander snd having a proper group of friends, so its cool to see her as the more outgoing independant one in the relationship, and tara is such a honey 🥺 the biggest sweetheart in the world what a babe!!!! also like how groundbreaking was their relationship? as a queer couple, they had p much the dame amount of screentime as a aueer relationship today! and willow says the word lesbian so many times and is always making gay jokes which is something shows today are too scared to do, its honestly refreshing which is weird for a show in the 90/00s

12. Top 5 episodes

this is so hard because its such a damn good show so i had to rlly be picky about this but here we go

5. 6x22 ‘grave’- i watched buffy for the first time last year at work coz i worked with one other person just packing shit, and THIS was the episode that made us cry infront of eachother. the scene with willow and xander at the end is one of my all time favourite scenes and like legit we were watching and we starting going like ha.. this is so sad Q_Q and we looked at eachother and we were both crying akdjdjsjdhs its SO GOOD, like this is a friendship ive been so invested in and [seeing xander be able to pull her back from that dark place was so heart wrenching and amazing god its so good]

4. 3x12 ‘helpless’ - im finishing up s2 in my rewatch rn so i havent rewatched this one to double check but i remember loving it man. buffys father daughter relationship with giles is my favourite of the whole show they make my heart ache, so i love that this is an episode that really shows you how dedicated giles is to her, [its the breaking point where he finally disregards the fact that hes a watcher and acts as her father once and for all, its a turning point for their relationship where he is finally embracing the fact that shes like a daughter to him and i just love to see it Q_Q get you a dad who will leave his lifes calling for you]

3. 4x22 ‘restless’ - season 4 is interesting coz it has really good episodes and them some gd awful ones 😂😂 but this one just blew me away, i love a good character study episode and this is THE SHIT! its so weird and creepy but in the most perfect way, its not on the nose its so subtle, it feels like an uncanny valley version of buffy almost, i like that they finished the season first and then took this episode to do something out of the box and different i feel like it lets them fully explore this idea without the pressure of needing plot included. [also the cheese man is iconic. dont however like xander being all nasty with willow and tara but whats new there man]

2. 1x12 ‘The Prophecy Girl’ - for my first watch of buffy i wasnt that into the first season, like i enjoyed it but i didnt think it was anything super special? but this episode changed EVERYTHING for me. up until now buffy had been fun, witty, charming, but not anything new atleast for me, maybe in the 90s it was but right now its your average teen supernatural show. but this episode!!!! the emotion! buffy facing her death, her speech about how shes just 16 and shes scared and she doesnt want to die, that is what i wanna see!! its heartbreaking and it made me cry, and then it gives us the wonderful moment of giles trying to take her place and buffy realising that she has to be the one to do it, man its so good! basically anything with buffy and giles being a duo is gonna make it an automatic yes from me and this is indeed the case for this episode, i just love that the show remembers that shes a child! shes not brave all the time, shes not strong all the time, shes just doing her best and sometimes its overwhelming, 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼 i bow to this episode

1. 2x17 ‘passion’ - i know i just sang praises about prophecy girl but THIS EPISODE IS THE SHIT, the best episode full stop. i wont accept any argument. angel is probably my favourite big bad, its so funny to see plain bread, mopey brooding angel become this charismatic, funny, poetic, blood thirsty angelus, hes everything i want in a villain and in this episode he delivers! rip jenny tho love her. i think the tension built around angel is so good, because of his drawings and notes left around, every scene youre worrying like is he here now? are they safe or what? its so tense! and also it is me and im a slag for buffy x giles father daughter moments and this episode fucking delivers! giles discovering jennys dead body is probably one of the best scenes on the show, the dramatic irony is heAVY, we know jenny is dead, we know that these flowers arent from her, but giles is so so happy, and i want to see him happy but you just know somehing horrific is about to happen and damn does it. its a masterpiece! i love jenny and giles so much it is so sad, but also the fact that it gave us that scene makes me almmmoost ok with it? i also love the moment where giles breaks down in buffys arms, hes been there for her and now shes returning the favour and hes accepting it i just 😭😭😭 also on a different note, angels narration of this episode is amazing! it gives us great insight to who he is as “evil angel” and like even though hes awful i was also kind of rooting for him coz hes just such a great villain

sorry this is so long lmao, last question!

17. Which characer do you wish had less of a focus on them in the show?

i dont wanna get yelled at butttttt i dont like the amount of focus on dawn. i think it makes sense for the her first season considering the story arc but that season really does double down its focus onto dawn and buffy and it barely leaves room for anyone else to have a storyline, it keeps the episodes super depressing too its like a constant level of just sadness the whole time because we’re so stuck in THEIR arc, theres no room to balance it out and have a breather, some people might like that its more serious but i really really didnt like, i love episodes like prophecy girl where it is campy and brings the more emotional notes in when the time comes, but dawns whole arc is just constantly depressing the whole time i just hate it, and also just shes not a character i felt i could connect to because of how suddenly shes introduced, so its weird to have her SO focused on in the first half of that season coz we dont know her yet so i feel like the emotional moments dont land the way that they should? basically they shouldve eased us into dawn or introduced her differently and maybe i would like her enough to want the focus on her but i really just dont

adksjakjshd apologies for the essay this is, thanks for the ask!

#btvs #buffy the vampire slayer #why did i write a paragraph for everything im so sorry #i wish i knew how to add a read more link but i dont on mobile #my post #dawn fans please dont murder me #i dont hate her i just dont like her yanno #i am scared people are gonna hate me for not liking her but we all have our tastes

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dropintomanga · 3 years

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On Kodansha US’s New Tagline

One of the North American manga publishers recently got a new revamp as Kodansha Comics became consolidated into a more centralized Kodansha with a new logo and also a new tagline.

That new tagline is “Inspire Impossible Stories.” I know for most fans, taglines are taglines. But I’m somehow emotionally drawn to it due to my own relationship with Kodansha-published manga series for more than a decade.

Where do I start with this? I think the 1st Kodansha series I ever truly read was Chobits when Tokyopop released it back in the day. But the first actual Kodansha-published series that really drew my interest was Great Teacher Onizuka. After watching all of the anime in the early 2000s’, I jumped in on the Tokyopop volumes. I still consider GTO to be one of the best “high school teacher” anime/manga series of all-time. Now that I think about it, GTO did something very notable and maybe impossible compared to a typical Shonen Jump story. It was a story about a former young adult gangster who decided to be a teacher in a high school class full of troublemakers. GTO went deep into real-life issues plaguing youth in high school. It made caring about the mental health of youth a thing before it really became a thing this past decade.

Also, I just remembered that Initial D (which is another Kodansha title) was a series I loved when I was a young adult. This is starting to sound like a Tokyopop appreciation post, but I know who the real MVP is here.

I remember a famous line in Gintama about Kodansha’s Weekly Shonen Magazine. There’s a code in the Shinsengumi that states all members should read Magazine instead of Jump.

“Shinsengumi Regulation #17: No manga other than (Weekly Shonen) Magazine are allowed to be read within the confines of the station.'”

While it’s a joke poking fun at Magazine for publishing stories about delinquents and appealing more to older youth/young adults, it felt like Jump was for babies.

I browsed issues of Shonen Magazine in the past at a Japanese comfort food restaurant many years ago and it was full of series that I didn’t recognize or couldn’t get into. I did recognize a few titles like Fairy Tail and Air Gear, but the fact that it also had pin-up girls on their covers from time-to-time made me realize that Magazine was different from Jump. I remember one issue had a large fan poll on which AKB48 girl was the best.

A few years ago, Kodansha interviewed Hiroya Oku of GANTZ fame, who drew Inuyashiki for Kodansha’s Evening (a seinen manga magazine). When asked about how he came up with the idea of having a robotic alien superhero in the form of an old man, Oku mentions his former publisher, Shueisha, while describing his initial thought process. He says,

“When I was working on GANTZ on Shueisha’s Young Jump Magazine, I was more concerned about the popularity and sales figures of my manga. In that magazine’s culture, there’s an unspoken rule to make the main characters visually attractive. When I started work for Kodansha’s Evening (the magazine Inuyashiki is published in), there was more freedom. So I suggested going with the not-so-good-looking teenager as a main character. They green-lit the idea, so I started drawing the character in the manga.”

Let me put this out before we go a bit further - I love Shueisha manga series. I grew up on Shonen Jump. Their material always seems to captivate me somehow. They kept me interested in shonen for a long time. But because the fact shonen is the mainstream genre, I might get sick of it when the time comes. It’s why I also started following Young Jump series since they sounded more appealing. However, I do notice that with series like Tokyo Ghoul, Kingdom and Golden Kamuy, to name a few, the magazine is filled with stylish-looking characters that have greater appeal to a younger audience despite whatever mature tones they have.

But when it comes to Kodansha, their manga series are mature from the start and I don’t mean in a fanservice kind of way. Can you see series like A Silent Voice or Your Lie in April published in Shonen Jump or one of Shueisha’s other notable magazines? I'm not sure I can. It’s also noted that Hajime Isayama, creator of Attack on Titan, tried to get his series into Shonen Jump. Shueisha thought the series was a bit too dark for their tastes, and Isayama decided to try out for Kodansha instead and that’s where he’s been ever since as the series is published in Bessatsu Shonen Magazine.

So why appeal to that older shonen demographic? Probably because life isn’t some battle manga with friends that are there for you every step of the way. Hard work doesn’t always get rewarded. The idea of victory can also get very gray. You see more delinquents than overpowered ninjas/pirates in life. While Fairy Tail and The Seven Deadly Sins are two of Kodansha’s popular “battle manga” series ever, both series seem to subvert some of shonen’s popular tropes and/or have a certain edge to them. What’s funny is that both series involve a bar/pub/restaurant location where all the heroes meet up. Many older teens start to hang out in places like restaurants as their after-school hangouts.

There’s a lot of Kodansha series that I feel seemed impossible to tell for other publishers. I can think of titles like Tokyo Revengers, Blue Period, Land of the Lustrous, Witch Hat Atelier, Cells at Work!, Knights of Sidonia, etc. The lineup of shojo and josei titles is also incredible as well (Princess Jellyfish, Wotakoi and Chihayafuru are the best examples I can give here) Hell, Akira is a Kodansha title that’s still groundbreaking and evergreen as ever. Their tagline, “Inspire Impossible Stories,” makes sense as while it applies to their U.S. operations, a lot of job hunting students in Japan really want to work for Kodansha Japan.

While Shueisha does have a good share of its own “impossible” stories (Chainsaw Man was a title that impressed me), Shonen Jump is mainstream-friendly and safe to a certain degree. The stories I discovered through Kodansha made me realize how big the world of manga really was and what kind of stories were possible. While they may not have the biggest fandoms compared to Shonen Jump series, I can feel a certain vibe when I read Kodansha-published manga in that any mangaka working under them has their vision unleashed in a way that pleases both readers and the mangaka themselves. There might be a certain bias though as I’ve gotten to see editors from Kodansha Japan in person when they showed up for manga-related events in my area.

Kodansha showed me that there’s more to the manga world than just Jump. That’s why I love their new tag line of inspiring impossible stories. I think we need more exposure to new kinds of stories that speak to all kinds of people. I know people don’t like different stuff outside of what they usually like, but I believe those differences are beneficial in learning how to appreciate nuances in life when one gets older. Being challenged isn’t as frightening as it sounds. Those differences are trying to tell us something about ourselves. For me, it was “I really want something that isn’t about fighting super-powered villains and rivalries all the time.”

I have ambivalent feelings about my life during my 20s’, but Kodansha-published stories helped me appreciate possibility at the time when I didn’t feel there was anything to keep me going. So go on, Kodansha. Keep putting out impossible stories that are thoughtful and inspiring future generations of manga readers. Tell the world that impossible is nothing.

#Kodansha #manga #psychology #stories #youth #mental health

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zombiequincy · 4 years

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THE MEGA RP PLOTTING SHEET / MEME.

First and foremost, recall that no one is perfect, we all had witnessed some plotting once which did not went too well, be it because of us or our partner. So here have this, which may help for future plotting. It’s a lot! Yes, but perhaps give your partners some insight? Anyway BOLD what fully applies, italicize if only somewhat.

MUN NAME: Hela AGE: 21 CONTACT: IM

CHARACTER(S): Giselle Gewelle, Yumichika Ayasegawa (inactive)

CURRENT FANDOM(S): Bleach

BLEACH FANDOM(S) YOU HAVE AN AU FOR: I have gory Bloodborne au but that one just exists in my head on my lonesome.

MY LANGUAGE(S): English and one very specific Middle Eastern dialect.

THEMES I’M INTERESTED IN FOR RP: FANTASY / Science fiction / Horror / WESTERN / ROMANCE / Thriller / MYSTERY / DYSTOPIA / ADVENTURE / MODERN / Erotic / Crime / MYTHOLOGY / Classic / HISTORY / RENAISSANCE / MEDIEVAL / Ancient / WAR / FAMILY / POLITICS / RELIGION / SCHOOL / ADULTHOOD / CHILDHOOD / APOCALYPTIC / GODS / Sport / MUSIC / Science / FIGHTS / ANGST / Smut / DRAMA / etc.

PREFERRED THREAD LENGTH: one-liner / 1 para / 2 PARA / 3+ / NOVELLA.

ASKS CAN BE SEND BY: MUTUALS / NON-MUTUALS / PERSONALS / ANONS.

CAN ASKS BE CONTINUED?: YES / NO only by Mutuals?: YES / NO.

PREFERRED THREAD TYPE: CRACK / casual nothing too deep / SERIOUS / DEEP AS HECK. (i love it all sorry I am quite the mixed bag lmao)

IS REALISM / RESEARCH IMPORTANT FOR YOU IN CERTAIN THEMES?: YES / NO. i gotta know what certain human body parts taste like u know

ARE YOU ATM OPEN FOR NEW PLOTS?: YES / NO / DEPENDS.

DO YOU HANDLE YOUR DRAFT / ASK - COUNT WELL?: YES / NO / SOMEWHAT. it’s SO BAD FOR ME RN ASGLDKJDJKA i’m very inconsistent i’m so sorry.

HOW LONG DO YOU USUALLY TAKE TO REPLY?: 24H / 1 WEEK / 2 WEEKS / 3+ / months / years. / a lot of it has more to do w my general writing mood and if the thread im writing catches my interest, and rn im writing a TON of really wonderful and fascinating threads so they’re all super captivating for me and i try to reply asap

I’M OKAY WITH INTERACTING: ORIGINAL CHARACTERS / a relative of my character (an oc) / duplicates / MY FANDOM / CROSSOVERS / MULTI-MUSES / self-inserts / people with no AU verse for my fandom / CANON-DIVERGENT PORTRAYALS / AU-VERSIONS.

DO YOU POST MORE IC OR OOC?: IC / OOC. (i have a lot of stupid shit sorry)

ARE YOU SELECTIVE WITH FOLLOWING OTHERS?: YES / NO / DEPENDS.

BEST WAYS TO APPROACH YOU FOR RP/PLOTTING: just send me a tumblr instant message, i know it sucks shit but im not comfy releasing my discord w everyone just yet cause i use it for personal use as well. i check tumblr on the daily so if you send me a message chances are i’ll see it and respond!

WHAT EXPECTATIONS DO YOU HOLD TOWARDS YOUR PLOTTING PARTNER: i guess just be able to put up with my rambling and stopping and starting, a lot of characterisation choices i do go through various stages and its pretty messy so when i communicate that with others it usually ends up equally messy. just be patient with me please.

WHEN YOU NOTICE THE PLOTTING IS RATHER ONE-SIDED, WHAT DO YOU DO?: i don’t mind! sometimes ppl have more ideas that they want to share first and i’m always super happy to listen to those ideas !! sometimes its nice to have someone with a clear guide or structure and be able to work around that rather than trying to fumble through a plot together.

HOW DO YOU USUALLY PLOT WITH OTHERS, DO YOU GIVE INPUT OR LEAVE MOST WORK TOWARDS YOUR PARTNER?: i try to map out some basic info abt their characters that i otherwise don’t know from their bio or verses and try to pick out points of confrontation or similarities to expand on with giselle that can be used as points for like a starter to happen. its either that or sometimes i have really stupid ideas i just toss out there like ‘LMAO THEYRE BREAKING SHIT AT DISNEYLAND’ and go buck wild from there if the other person is down. i also always try to warn people or get a gauge for what subjects to avoid and steer clear of considering that giselle is a bit of a Freak(tm) and will say and do bad things.

WHEN A PARTNER DROPS THE THREAD, DO YOU WISH TO KNOW?: YES / NO / DEPENDS. - And why?: if there’s something giselle did or said that upset you, i would love to know not to repeat it again (since i do still feel pretty new to the rp game, theres still plenty of time for me to make stupid mistakes). if its just a general lack of interest or uncertainty of where the plot should go, then you dont have to tell me i wont take it personally i promise !

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY LEAD YOU TO DROP A THREAD?: sometimes i can be made uncomfortable by certain things mentioned... it happens but its rare

- WILL YOU TELL YOUR PARTNER?: YES / NO / DEPENDS. i don’t want to upset anyone personally and sometimes explaining the ins and outs of my discomfort make things ten times worse so i just. would rather not.

IS COMMUNICATION IN THE RPC IMPORTANT TO YOU? YES / NO.

- AND WHY?: i am the most nervous person you can meet and my brain is always giving me misinfo abt paranoia and random shit so i having clear concrete communication between two parties abt if something is going wrong or is being received poorly means the world to me.

ARE YOU OKAY WITH ABSOLUTE HONESTY, EVEN IF IT MAY MEANS HEARING SOMETHING NEGA1TIVE ABOUT YOU AND/OR PORTRAYAL?: i need it !! i still feel relatively new to all this and i need to know whats going wrong to improve !!

DO YOU THINK YOU CAN HANDLE SUCH SITUATION IN A MATURE WAY? YES / NO.

WHY DO YOU RP AGAIN, IS THERE A GOAL?: to help with my confidence in writing! i have v bad anxiety when it comes to sharing my works and i write a lot of other pieces alongside this blog on ao3 and i want to develop my writing skills just in general. when it comes to like the nuts and bolts of why i rp giselle specifically, its mainly to just have fun and have a laugh w my friends who are really awesome quincy writers

WISHLIST, BE IT PLOTS OR SCENARIOS: OH SO MANY! ive managed to fulfil a lot of my wishlist threads with like, giselle talking to characters she’s already zombified and i love all that angst but i want to do more stupid shit. i want to make it my personal goal to bully every quincy man and woman on sight. although a REAL dream would be if i got to write a thread zombifying a character who managed to escape giselle’s clutches. and more fighting! i want to get better at describing action and fights and i love to write giselle getting beat up and beating people up! more more more!!

THEMES I WON’T EVER RP / EXPLORE: hohoho theres a LOT... uh r*pe/dubcon threads for one, even if yeah i know writing it doesnt condone it, it makes me intensely uncomfortable to put my muse in that scenario, i feel like i have an obligation to like, protect her from that shit you know? racism is one i don’t want to transgress, even though i’m a poc, its not really cathartic or groundbreaking to write abt racism in threads its just... really fucking upsetting. also i know the quincy’s have this very close parallel to the whole n*zi imagery and ideology thing going on and i am not about to start even daring to thread that into my writing or bring those allusions and references of real life tragedies into giselle’s threads. i’ve already talked at length abt exploring giselles trans identity in rp and why im not comfortable doing so, so.... yeah! all those i guess.

WHAT TYPE OF STARTERS DO YOU PREFER / DISLIKE, CAN’T WORK WITH?: i like starters where giselle can just immediately get right into being a piece of shit. mise en scene and all that! cut out the build up and just get to the intense horror !! i don’t like starters where its not immediately clear where the characters are standing and what they’re doing and what’s happening around them. those really disorientate me and leave me kinda floundering because i always need some allusion or mention of a setting to ground giselle in a time and place other wise i cant tell what her response should be

WHAT TYPE OF CHARACTERS CATCH YOUR INTEREST THE MOST?: EVIL WOMEN EVIL WOMEN EVIL WOMEN. also just characters i can wholeheartedly clown on, or also characters who have hidden depths to them and have a single panel of screentime. honestly it’s just all over the place!

WHAT TYPE OF CHARACTERS CATCH YOUR INTEREST THE LEAST?: angry old men GSADJDKSJA i could never rp yhwach for example or yamamoto because idk. theyre just so crummy and boring to me. i also couldnt rp characters who always have an upper hand in battle like aizen. i like my dumbasses and i like them stupid and adaptive not just, ‘yes i know this because i Know this.’

WHAT ARE YOUR STRONG ASPECTS AS RP PARTNER?: i think im nice...? FKSJDKDJSA idk i hate trying to toot my own horn. sometimes i also think i make funny jokes and im pretty chill and laid back

WHAT ARE YOUR WEAK ASPECTS AS RP PARTNER?: my writing style is inconsistent and adapts to whatever i’m reading so sometimes it’ll be really good and i love it and other times it reads like really bad fanfic and i get carried away far too easily and write novella lengths for threads which should be much shorter. i also get shy a lot and dont think i communicate very effectively but HEYO we’re working on it!

DO YOU RP SMUT?: YES / NO/ DEPENDS. haven’t had anybody brave enough to try yet lol

DO YOU PREFER TO GO INTO DETAIL?: YES / NO / DEPENDS.

ARE YOU OKAY WITH BLACK CURTAIN?: YES / NO.

- WHEN DO YOU RP SMUT? MORE OUT OF FUN OR CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT?: more for fun i’d imagine because that’s just giselles own attitude to sex and relationships where she doesnt want anything deep. it might show character development in one way of just showing how she regards others in a romantic sense to be used rather than actually appreciated as their own person and show how selfish she is but yeah, more out of fun

- ANYTHING YOU WOULD NOT WANT TO RP THERE?: theres a few kinks and such but i dont think they’d ever really come up. again, just mainly no r*pe/dubcon.

ARE SHIPS IMPORTANT TO YOU?: YES / NO lets hope this doesn’t make me sound like an asshole, but its more like a fun little side thing than anything important to giselle’s actual development and characterisation.

WOULD YOU SAY YOUR BLOG IS SHIP-FOCUSED?: YES / NO. again, hardly anyone is brave enough to try to romance this evil cannibal.

DO YOU USE READ MORE?: YES / NO / SOMETIMES WHEN I WRITE LONG STUFF.

ARE YOU: MULTI-SHIP / Single-Ship / Dual-Ship — MULTIVERSE / Singleverse.

- WHAT DO YOU LOVE TO EXPLORE THE MOST IN YOUR SHIPS?: more how giselle likes to give over her power or dominate in different circumstances depending on who she’s with and what’s being done. BUT AGAIN, not a whole lot to explore yet.

ARE YOU OKAY WITH PRE-ESTABLISHED RELATIONSHIPS?: YES / NO. - i mean im down for p much anything if it vibes w giselle.

► SECTION ABOUT YOUR MUSE.

- WHAT COULD POSSIBLY MAKE YOUR MUSE INTERESTING TOWARDS OTHERS, WHY SHOULD THEY RP WITH THIS PARTICULAR CHARACTER OF YOURS NOW, WHAT POSSIBLE PLOTS DO THEY OFFER?: if you want an evil woman to taunt and mock and hurt your muse, she’s your gal. you want her to zombify and ruin your muse, shes also your gal. you want her to insult and maim and injure, she’s also YOUR GAL. basically, if you want to do anything fucked up or sad or scary, she can help with that.

- WITH WHAT TYPE OF MUSES DO YOU USUALLY STRUGGLE TO RP WITH?: uh muses who get really angry quickly or don’t rise or respond to her jabs and are just kinda like a flatline. theres only so much pestering and annoying she can do until realises its not working and just wanders off

- WHAT DO THEY DESIRE, IS THEIR GOAL?: to find a goal worth living for.

- WHAT CATCHES THEIR INTEREST FIRST WHEN MEETING SOMEONE NEW?: appearance she always takes an interest in girls almost right away. age as well because she judges old people.

- WHAT DO THEY VALUE IN A PERSON?: a good set of guts to ruin and strong muscles.

- WHAT THEMES DO THEY LIKE TALKING ABOUT?: women, gore, murder, herself, music, stupid memes, gossip.

- WHICH THEMES BORE THEM?: politics, history, quincy ideology, soul reaper ideology, hollow physiology.

- DID THEY EVER WENT THROUGH SOMETHING TRAUMATIC?: her family tried to force the burden of upholding the quincy lineage onto her shoulders, she was thrown into the wrong prison and held in isolation, then pressured to become an undying monster in service of a god and then was nearly killed by that same man and left wandering without guidance or purpose. so, yeah?

- WHAT COULD LEAD TO AN INSTANT KILL?: transphobia. even a whiff of it in her direction and she’ll gut you like a fish.

- IS THERE SOMEONE /-THING THEY HATE?: the twink soul reaper who outted her.

IS YOUR MUSE EASY TO APPROACH?: YES / NO. - Best ways to approach them?: if you’re smart, you’ll bring a big bone for her to chew on and distract her while you ask whatever you want.

SOMETHING YOU MAY STILL WANT TO POINT OUT ABOUT YOUR MUSE?: i love my evil queen!

CONGRATS!!! You managed it, now tag your mutuals! ♥

Tagged by: @bazzardburner cheers chicken boy !!

Tagging: @hyouketsu @blooming5th @viciousvizard @glacies-tempestatem and whoever else wishes to do this!!

#dash games #// this took ages....

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amphtaminedreams · 4 years

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Tommy Hilfiger x Zendaya Inspired Outfits: Lookbook no.6

Hi to anyone reading,

This post is part a Zendaya Maree Stoermer Coleman appreaciation post (yes, we getting back into that 2013 stan twitter lingo of always unnecessarily stating full names) and part me trying my hand at her interpretation of probably my all time favourite decade for fashion inspiration, the 70s.

As much as I’m in love with her portrayal of Rue Bennett on Euphoria and her and Labrinth’s All for Love and could also probably write a whole post about that alone *deep breath*, I’m here to talk about what originally drew me to Zendaya (aside from her Oscar-worthy performance as Rocky Blue on Shake it Up where she had to act like she and Bella Thorne liked each other) : HER STYLE. Her looks a collaborative effort between her and stylist, Law Roach, I have never once seen any photo of Zendaya where she’s anything less than exquisitely put together, thus it should’ve come as no surprise when she teamed up with Tommy Hilfiger to put on one of the coolest shows of Paris Fashion Week in February this year.

-ZENDAYA’S BEST STREET STYLE/RED CARPET MOMENTS-

Whilst the collaborations with Tommy Hilfiger haven’t necessarily been the most visually groundbreaking or daring, for me personally they really hit the sweet spot between the bohemian aesthetic and a rock and roll edge, especially in the latest collection. For a celebrity collaboration, the line feels unusually authentic and the clear direction and overall cohesiveness showcases Zendaya’s ability to convey a distinctive mood. Also, it’s WEARABLE. So many of the outfits you see go down the runway only appear to cater to that tall, washed out, willowy type, who are gorgeous too, don’t get me wrong, but...well, they’ve had their time, haven’t they? These are the kinds of clothes everyone can feel beautiful in and that’s so, so important.

-ZENDAYA WEARING THE COLLECTION-

The first collection, debuting in February of this year at Paris Fashion Week, went the disco route and was the best thing Tommy Hilfiger has done in a while. Everything from the set to the models to the music was so fucking FUN and you could tell how much love and passion went into planning the show. I had so many favourite looks:

And I honestly think I might have liked the recent collection even more. With a slightly biker chic element to it, the leather look pieces and the jewell tones, I think this one has a grungier feel to it that the previous collection lacked, in terms of catering to my personal preference, that is; yes, catering to me, random girl on the internet they’ve never met before was definitely Zendaya and Tommy’s intention. Why wouldn’t it be?

Again, it’s not something that’s never been done before but the collection is fresh in a different way, almost like the individual makes the clothes what they are and not vice versa. I doubt any fashion show is so laxly organised as to let the models style themselves backstage but that’s the feeling you get when you’re watching the runway.

Like I said, this collection is definitely slightly darker and grungier than the first but in a way that it gives me Stevie Nicks joins a biker gang but then decides to leave that behind to become the editor of a fashion magazine vibes (that was a TRIP) and what’s not to like about that? I want all of it, from the waistcoats, to the wide brim hats, to the houndstooth, to the snake print, to the shearling.

There’s just one problem in that at the time of first seeing the collection I was still in the middle of a self-enforced shopping dry spell, and also, more pressingly, broke af. To be fair, Tommy Hilfiger is one of the more affordable designer brands but still not affordable enough that I can afford to spend over £100 on a bodysuit, ya feel? So instead, I looked through what I already had and used the runway looks from the collection to try and put my own spin on things, incorporating the key shapes, colours, patterns and accessories that make the line, imo, so distinctive.

-KEY FEATURES OF THE TOMMY X ZENDAYA LINES-

1. Flares: If you really want your outfit to give off a 70s vibe, flares are probably the easiest way to do it. Even if you’re not feeling particularly adventurous with prints, plain ones are still super flattering, imo!

2. Wide Brim Hats: Not exactly a hard one for me to incorporate as they're probably my favourite way to tie together an outfit anyway, but the ultra wide brim, witchy-looking ones seen in the second collection are perfect for autumn and winter AND cost-efficient because they can double as part of a low-effort slutty witch Halloween costume. We love a multi-purpose accessory.

3. Psychedelic Prints: More of a staple of the first collaboration but bold, trippy prints are so easy to make into a look. It’s definitely easier to incorporate these kind of prints into your wardrobe in the summer (there’s nothing cuter than a wacky two piece with some subtle jewellery), but if you go for a piece with a richer, deeper colour palette you’ve got yourself a fab Christmas party outfit.

4. Turtlenecks: Showing why the turtleneck has so much style potential, Zendaya’s collections were a masterclass in how to layer. I can’t believe there was a time in my life when I thought turtle necks were the ugliest thing ever. I am ashamed. Though I blame this cursed face-swap image of Monica and Chandler from friends for putting me off:

I also found this haunting image in the process of searching for the one above:

Is this what they mean when they talk about the dark web? Truly scarring.

5. Snake Print: Not gonna lie, the animal print thing has kinda been done to death and I wasn’t super excited about seeing it on the runway but when it’s reworked through a more maximalist lens (ie. the matching snake print coat and trousers) it still works for me. I think they key in keeping it fresh is more luxurious, textured animal print paired with clothing you wouldn’t necessarily expect to see it with. Basically, animal print mini dress? Boring. Animal print flares? I’m down.

6. Faux Leather: I say faux leather even though unfortunately it’s usually real leather that gets used on the runway (because nothing shows luxury like wearing a dead animal’s skin purely for vanity, right?), but regardless, some of my favourite pieces in both collections were the leather-look coats and blazers. The waistcoat-trouser combination in particular (far left on the bottom row) was probably my favourite look of both collections and though I relentlessly scoured my dad’s wardrobe to see if there was something I could work with to imitate the waistcoat, I came away empty handed:( sad times:(

7. Jewell Tones: The deep maroons of the second Zendaya x Tommy collaboration and the cobalt, emerald green and amethyst splashes in the dresses at the end of the first are, again, perfect Christmas party colours. I know, I know, I keep going on about Christmas parties but any excuse to drink, lol.

8. Scarfs: Skinny scarves with a load of gold jewellery are my favourite things at the moment. But we can’t forget the original style icon who did it first:

I love Emma Roberts and Wild Child is a great movie with a load of amazing style inspo, fuck you Rotten Tomatoes.

9. Heeled Boots: Kind of a basic winter staple anyway but it seems the more cowboy-y, the better. We’re talking about those leather look, mid-calf length boots that seem to be everywhere at the moment. Personally, I’m not quite sure if my legs are anywhere long enough to pull them off, but I do think they’re really cute, and very yeehaw.

10. Bonus features that I forgot to include in my outfits: High Waisted Things! Waistcoats! Pussy-bow shirts! Spots! Velvet! Suits!

-PSA: Don’t ask me about the peace sign. I was trying to do a 70s thing. I failed. Let me flop at my attempts to be cute in peace.-

So, that’s it! Thank you to anybody that read this far! And if you enjoyed this post and you haven’t done already: GO AND WATCH EUPHORIA. It is honestly the best new show I’ve watched in ages and almost makes up for the overwhelming TV-related disappointment of season 8 of Game of Thrones. I mean, not really. I’m still mildly furious. But then again, D&D got cut from their Star Wars deal AND the Stark prequel was cancelled in favour of a Targaryen one so it seems the balance of nature is finally being restored. Clink clink bitch (es).

Lauren x

#zendaya #tommyhilfiger #fashionweek #ss20 #pfw #rtw2020 #spring 2020 rtw #lookbook #styling #fashion #euphoria

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elinaline · 4 years

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The prime-numbered ones

Ffs

1. Did I have a good year

Uh mixed I'd say ? I am an engineer now, and I've seen my friends a lot and I feel like I've grown a lot and I know where I'm going and that's pretty fucking cool. Also I haven't felt too lonely this year and that was nice. But I also had to live for 4 months with a roommate that honestly scared me and made me feel not at home in my own apartment, I've had the worst flares of my chronic pain and it's been confirmed I'll have to deal with this shit my whole life, both of my parents are now orphans and this year has all in all felt like an end is coming and not a satisfying one, what with the harmful politics and the 45°C weather this summer.

2. How old did I turn this year ?

3. Do I feel my age ?

Uh. I've had to think for a minute about what age I am so I think that's all you need to know (I've stopped counting at 19, truth is I feel like a child most of the time and it's getting very frustrating)

5. My favorite selfie of this year

It's probably not the best one but listen, I was feeling really good, the sun was rising, my hair was purple (ugghhh I miss it.... I think I'm gonna buy some pink so that the few highlights I still have become pink) and I was heading to a convention to meet with my friend, in a cosplay I'm proud of, of a character I love. Let's not talk about the day after that though.

Ok now that's when we see if I'm good at math lol

7. Which fashion trend did I love ?

I am VERY MUCH out of the loop concerning fashion so I'll say vampire just to be safe

11. What album came out and has been on heavy rotation ?

I've listened a lot to Anna Akana's album ? It's not like, groundbreaking, but it's full of pretty songs and emotions and that's enough for me

13. Did an actor or actress catch my attention for the first time this year ?

Uh no I don't... Really pay attention to actors anymore ? Uh the kid from the detective Pikachu movie is fun on twitter tho

OH WAIT uh Ruth Wilson that I'd never seen before I think ? Is absolutely phenomenal as Marisa Coulter in His Dark Materials, she truly blew me away

17. Did I make any big permanent change this year ?

Uh I got my engineering diploma ? That fourth year I'm doing is like a double diploma in another uni so it's quite a big page that I'm turning.

19. What was one nice thing I did for myself ?

I got a purple ombré !! I'd been dreaming about this shit for years. Doing weird stuff to your hair really is cathartic, turns out it's not just like, a funky internet thing

23. Did I get a job ?

No, not yet

29. Did anyone anything make me so mad it stayed with me for days ?

Uhhh not ... Sure

31. Did I fall out of love ?

I uh. Hm.

Well I kinda wish I had ? I wish I could fall for someone who would just leave me in this fucking emotional limbo ? But it wouldn't be fun if things were easy right

Also I don't really wish I had because fuck, those feelings are super new as in I'd never felt like that before, and goddamn do I care for this imbecile. I hope he's healing.

37. If I could have a do over for one thing I did, would I take it ?

Yeah if I could choose another roommate for last summer, I'd do it gladly. I mean she would have been in deep trouble but I truly felt like absolute shit and it took me so long to get back up from this pit she dragged me in. As much as I'm willing to help, I'm not therapist, and no social service either.

41. Did anything happen to me that I was sure wouldn't change me as a person but actually did ?

Uh wow. That's something I'd probably need more than just a year of sitting back on to actually see I think.

43. What have I learned about myself this year that I didn't know before ?

My limit for emotional exhaustion, and for how long can I go while constantly being in pain without turning fucking crazy (that one's like three weeks and then I can't pay attention and I want to cry all the time and I'm constantly this close to a panic attack. I had a fun month of November)

47. If I make resolutions what are my resolutions for 2020 ?

Lmao how fitting that this is the last question for this one

Now that I know what's wrong with my body, I want to take up sports again. I'm going to see a back specialist and talk about what is and is not possible, and I'd love to dance again. I miss dancing and having control over my body and having fun with how flexible I am instead of it just being a source of problems.

#ask game #long post #welp i ended up checking i didnt forget any number because its midnight #ok hope it does post #ive seen the other ones but its late ill a'swer tmr #keep em coming though #also jeremie sérieusement ? sérieusement ?#queen of the worms #breadstyx

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thcmpscn · 5 years

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‘’NIGHT CONVO’’ – Meston.

LOC: preston’s apartment. @fckmonax

MONA

knocks on the door, super nervous but also excited

PRESTON

takes a deep breath before opening the door “You made it in time, dinners almost ready. Come in”

MONA

grins “Yeah, of course. This has been all I could think about literally since we planned it.” steps inside and kisses his cheek

PRESTON

pulls her in for a quick hug after she kisses him “You’re hype for a chicken salad?”

MONA

“I’m so hype for chicken salad.” lingers in the hug for a bit before heading towards the kitchen “It’s kinda weird but I always wonder how the flavor of food transitions into breast milk. Like what will Venecia taste when I get back home? So many questions.”

PRESTON

“I read somewhere that food makes your milk taste saltier or sweeter, depending on what you eat.” says as they both walk into the kitchen “you’re the only person I know that would get hype for a chicken salad” laughs

MONA

“Huh. Honestly, poor kid. Unable to enjoy actual good food. Has to settle for breastmilk.” leans back against the counter, arms crossed over her chest “What can I say? I find pleasure in the little things.”

PRESTON

''I'm pretty sure milk is her favorite thing in the whole wide world right now.'' chuckles before looking at her for a sec. ''You look nice tonight.''

MONA

“Wow, she’s not nearly as complex as I thought she was.” chuckles, glances down at her outfit despite knowing exactly what she chose “Oh this? I just kinda threw something on. My only qualification was that it didn’t have spit up on it. Thanks though.”

PRESTON

''She really isn't. It'll be a minute before she's just as complex as her mama, though.'' chuckles ''You're welcome. Next time we're having burgers, no salad.''

MONA

“I’m both excited and terrified for that when that day comes.” rolls eyes “It’s gotta be a really, really special occasion. But sure, we’ll have burgers at some point.”

PRESTON

''You'll experience what its like to handle Ramona Mason. It's a lot, I'll tell you that.'' smirks and squints his eyes ''Every single time you see me is a special occasion, keep that in mind.''

MONA

“Yikes, it’ll be like karma coming for me.” grins and shakes her head “So. When are we eating? Not gonna lie, I definitely came over here primarily for the food.”

PRESTON

''It really will be like that.'' shakes head and sighs before letting out another chuckle in serving her plate. ''There you go, hopefully you enjoy the only reason you came here for''

MONA

“I really wanted to bring her her tonight by the way. Like why not? She’s a baby, it’s not like she’s distracting or anything. Fabian literally made me pump and leave her though.” smiles widely as he fixes her plate, takes a seat at the table “Fix yours too. It’d be rude of me to eat alone in someone else’s home.”

PRESTON

''It's alright, makes sense he wouldn't want her here. We'll take it slow, I guess.'' reassures her before shaking his head. ''No, it's alright. I already ate two burgers on my way here, I'm good. – and, someone else's home? really?''

MONA

“Still, it’s annoying. He’s annoying. nods and proceeds to take a bite of her chicken salad “P, stop. You know what I mean. Not that I don’t feel at home here, but you literally cooked for me and it’d be super rude of me to proceed to eat without checking if you were as well. That’s all I meant.”

PRESTON

''He's being a dad and an ex, It can't be easy.'' sighs before nodding ''I get that but you'll have to get used to me cooking for you without worrying if I ate or not''

MONA

rolls her eyes “I guess.” continues eating “Ooor you could just wait to eat until you’re with me next time. Could be like a lil family dinner.”

PRESTON

“Good idea, I’ll wait for you next time if I manage to not go crazy with hunger. - is your food good?”

MONA

“The food’s amazing.” makes a show of taking another bite and moaning “Love having my own personal chef.”

PRESTON

laughs and shakes head “Yeah, nothing’s free in life, you’re gonna have to pay for that food.”

MONA

raises brows “Is paying you with my presence not enough?”

PRESTON

“Give me a kiss and we’re good” smirks

MONA

is taken aback for a sec, chuckles before shaking her head “Nah, my breath smells like chicken salad.”

PRESTON

hums “I guess this boutta be the last time I cook for you, then.”

MONA

groans and stands “Fine. It’s just a little weird that chicken salad breath is what you’re into.” leans in and firmly kisses his lips

PRESTON

cups her face and kisses her harder, lingering for a sec

MONA

smiles contentedly as he moves away “This is really fun, but I think we’re supposed to be talking, right?” lightly strokes his cheek “We should talk before anything else.”

PRESTON

“You’re right” nods, taking a deep breath “Finish your food and we’ll talk”

MONA

sighs, is kinda nervous “Ok. But in the meantime, tell me how your day was?” slips back into her seat, eats

PRESTON

“It was good. There was a big group of people ordering a lot of food and they kept me on my toes for the entirety of my shift but it was alright, I enjoyed it. - My neck is killing me, though.” runs a hand through his neck. “How was yours?”

MONA

pouts as she listens to his story, finishes up the last of her food “And then you really came home and cooked again? It’s almost as if you love overworking yourself.” stands to put her plate in the sink, takes his hand and leads him over to the couch “My day was good. Pretty much the exact same as all of my days lately. Ven woke up at around 6 and I fed her. We went back to sleep until like 8 and repeated the process. Then I chatted a bit over text with an old family friend of mine who is apparently seeing Kayla. Watched some tv. Did mom shit. Not a very exciting day.” positions herself behind him in the couch and begins firmly massaging his neck

PRESTON

“I don’t mind cooking for you. I enjoy it, actually. - I’ll watch it later, leave it there.” takes her hand and follows. Moaning softly when he felt her hands on his neck. “Is Ven doing alright? Like, in general? Does she have doctors appointments and such?” moans quietly again. “How did I not know you were so good at this?”

MONA

“Yeah, she’s doing amazing. Hitting all her milestones. She actually had an appointment Thursday of last week and didn’t even cry when she got her shots. I found that both admirable and terrifying.” continues massaging him, overall feeling really calm and comfortable in the situation

PRESTON

“She’s already a champ, I love that.” pauses “So, let’s just talk about what happened and all that. — Are you ready to star a new relationship?”

MONA

“Ugh. I love her.” freezes for a second before continuing the massage “I’ve honestly kinda learned my lesson with answering that question. Truth is, I don’t know. But I think so.”

PRESTON

“I’m not tryna’ make you go from a relationship to another. We can be together, take things slowly.” shrugs “Like, we don’t gotta move in together right away or do anything too drastic. Just enjoy ourselves, be there for each other and the rest will happen organically.”

MONA

manages to be caught off guard by the conversation despite knowing it was planned “I think I would really appreciate that. That’s what I was mostly scared of, I think. The whole jumping into things. I have a tendency to do that and I feel like it always ends poorly.” hesitates “I guess I’m also kind of afraid of the judgment.”

PRESTON

“It would be best if we just took it like a couple of kids, just enjoying ourselves until we both feel we’re ready to aim higher.” sighs “People won’t judge what they don’t know and they don’t gotta know about us until you want to.”

MONA

“I think I’d like that. Just opening ourselves up to something happening, but also not forcing anything.” smiles “I don’t want you to be a secret though.” sighs “As much as I hate the idea of us being judged, I hate the idea of us only being behind closed doors even more.”

PRESTON

“It’s up to you, bbygirl.” shrugs “I’m fine with whatever you decide”

MONA

“P, I am not keeping you a secret.”

PRESTON

“Alright, that’s good.” nods “How do we go about this?”

MONA

“Uh, I don’t actually. know. I literally always just dive right into the deep end of these things.” chuckles “Let’s just maybe start by making every night like tonight? Maybe some days? Like when’s the next time you’re off?”

PRESTON

shakes head and turns to face her. “First thing first.” pauses “Do you wanna be my girl? Like, officially. No messin’ around with other people, no nothing. Just the two of us.”

MONA

“Wait... so an open relationship isn’t an option?” laughs

PRESTON

“An open relationship between you, me, myself, yourself, all of us.” smirks

MONA

“Ohh, ok. Well in that case, I’m totally on board.” smirks before leaning in to kiss him

PRESTON

kisses her back, breaking the kiss to pull her into a hug “I never thought I’d see the day” chuckles, pulling away

MONA

“I never thought I’d see the day.” laughs “Seriously, I remember the day we first met and you seemed so unimpressed.”

PRESTON

“I was unimpressed, believe me.” chuckles “I was like, another rich, entitled, white girl. Groundbreaking.”

MONA

rolls eyes “Well I’m glad you gave me the opportunity to prove you wrong.”

PRESTON

“The minute you started talking about weird shit, I knew you were different.” laughs

MONA

laughs, checks phone for any updates on ven, sighs “So now what?”

PRESTON

“Now we say goodbye and you go home to that cute little baby of yours and we see each other tomorrow.” smiles

MONA

pouts “But I don’t want to say goodbye.” frowns “But I also want to know what Ven’s up to.”

PRESTON

“She’s probably missing her mama.” pulls her in for another kiss “It’ll ve tomorrow before you know it.” kisses her again

MONA

“Probably. Imagine having me smothering you every second of every day and suddenly I’m just not there?” frowns “She’s probably freaking out right now and Fabian just doesn’t want to say anything and make it seem like he doesn’t know what he’s doing.” sighs and stands

PRESTON

“it’s okay, you said she was always calm and collected, Im sure she’s not freaking out. Just missing you.” walks her to the door. “Text me, alright?”

MONA

“Yeah, but maybe that’s because I’m always around?” stops once she gets to the door, turns to face him “Yeah, of course. I’ll text you once I’m there and settled.”

PRESTON

“Please do, let me know how she’s been in your absence.” leans forward and presses his lips against hers. “Go, we’ll talk in a minute.”

MONA

kisses him back, smiles and waves before walking out of the door

[THE END]

#thread – chat 01

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curly-q-reviews · 5 years

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ROAD TO THE OSCAR MAYER WIENER AWARDS 2K19

Black Panther, 2018 (dir. Ryan Coogler)

Nominated for: Best Original Score, Best Original Song, Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Costume Design, Best Production Design, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing

ok y’all lets get this party started with a movie i didnt get to catch in theaters (i think i ended up renting it) but people were absolutely raving about it all of last year, and for good reason i gotta say! it was one of the better marvel films that came out last year (though in my humble opinion Infinity War takes the gold)

speaking of marvel lets talk about it for a spell! lets have a lil sit-down chit-chat shall we!! cause its kind of insane how much of an american media phenomenon marvel has become, they are arguably single-handedly responsible for reviving the superhero movie subgenre and now these types of movies bring hollywood more dineros than they probably know what to do with (besides make more superhero movies). what used to be a niche market where only your most hardcore of nerdy types dared to dwell has been embraced into the mainstream wholeheartedly, and now its hard to imagine the american film industry without them.

from a film critique standpoint, marvel movies seem to be a hit-or-miss as far as quality, however i cant really think of a particular marvel movie that i thought was a total piece of hot garbage (the first two Thor movies come close but they were more boring than anything else). however last year was a real success for the studio, they just kept pumping out quality movies left and right and once disney managed to get its grubby lil mouse paws on Spider-man it was a done deal baby. DC and other companies have tried again and again to recreate the success that Marvel has managed and so far they’ve failed to various degrees. Marvel’s just got that special something with their cinematic universe, some magical combo of great actors and creative directors and an ever-expanding budget that keeps them staying at the top every time.

so whats my stance on superhero movies??? well theyre not my usual cup of tea but i gotta say they’re real damn entertaining. i kinda view them like a high-speed ride at an amusement park, super fun and thrilling and exhilarating and just a real good time! but thats about as far as it goes for me, and im sure thats the same for a lot of people. to be honest its kinda refreshing to have movies that quality-wise are up to my standards that i dont have to think too hard about. so for me the movies i typically go for are like museums, whereas superhero movies (and action movies in general) are like a carnival. both entertaining and fun, but the latter is just all about letting loose and not wondering about the why’s and how’s. when i think about it, this kinda mindset is for sure a factor in how these movies got so popular, because with the shitshow that is our current government and the potential imminent death of our planet people are once again looking for movies as a form of escapism, rather than a way to get deep and philosophical and ask the tough questions and see something profound.

with that being said, despite some exceptions that have proven me wrong to my utter joy and delight (im looking at u Logan), i expect movies that are nominated for wiener awards to be more like museums than like carnivals y’know what i mean? u catchin my drift??? u takin what im dishin out???? the academy awards have a long history of prestige, of nominating the best of the best of any given year. quite a few movies that won oscars are now considered to be timeless classics. which is why superhero movies, at least the typical marvel types that are chocked to the brim with CGI and epic massive fight scenes and explosions, dont really strike me as anything that could eventually become a timeless classic. the amount of computer-generated effects alone will make these movies feel really dated as soon as like five years from now with how fast technology is progressing. i just dont see it happening.

and that brings us to the first wiener award nominee ill be talking about, Black Panther. this isnt director Ryan Coogler’s first time at the rodeo; his first feature film Fruitvale Station received critical acclaim in 2013, and the spiritual Rocky sequel Creed actually got nominated for some oscars a few years ago. so we’ve got a promising and talented director at the helm which is a great start! we’ve also got a stellar cast with the likes of michael b. jordan (who has been in all of Coogler’s films so far), lupita nyong’o, angela bassett, and forest whitaker in the bunch. it also has the astronomical financial backing of Supreme Overlord Disney so u know this is gonna be some high-quality shit.

so i’m gonna tell y’all why i think this movie got nominated for so many oscars, because in a way i do think this movie is deserving of noms from the academy. theres no denying that it is very groundbreaking for a movie of this scale and magnitude to have a black director and a nearly all-black cast. in fact, i think a lot of the crew members (including set and costume design) were black as well. thats fuckin huge my guy. and this movie was by no means a flop either; it ended up being one of the highest-grossing films of 2018 and stayed in theaters for a loooong-ass time. and not only were the people on this project mostly black, the movie itself is a story praising and showing off the beauty of african culture without exotifying or demeaning it in any way. like i can say 100% without a doubt that this movie deserves its best costume design nom cause holy shit the outfits in this movie are stunning, just the perfect blend of ancient/current tribal african aesthetics and a more futuristic sleek style that any fashion enthusiast can drool over.

i cant say much about best musical score or best sound mixing or anything like that cause it all seemed like typical marvel stuff to me and wasnt all that memorable. however i can say that the production design on this movie, while it didnt impress me as much as costuming, did still impress me. the one thing i gotta knock it on is all the fucken CGI, like whole entire towns and landscapes were digitally rendered. i wouldve been a lot more impressed and would agree more to the production design nom if they used more practical effects and real sets/locations.

so. best picture. this is where i feel the most conflicted. cause this is where i now have to look past all the pretty fancy visuals and music and look at the actual meat of this movie, its story and characters. usually best picture noms also get noms for things like best actress, best script, and best director, cause those are all really important elements of a good film. ur movie can look and sound as pretty as it wants but if the storys shit and the characters are shit and the actings shit then u dont have much going for u.

and by no means am i saying that Black Panther was shitty in these aspects, it was just well. passable. it was ok. but nothing to write home about

we got some good performances from newcomers letitia wright and chadwick boseman, lupita kills it as always, but then everyone else was like. okay. michael b. jordan didnt really do his best in this and idk if its the script’s fault or something but it was weird. and speaking of the script it was uuuuhhhhh well. not great. every time i think about that “what are those” reference i die a little inside. and the story overall wasnt really anything new when u break it down, just another “son of king struggles to take his place” narrative. and that aspect of the story couldve actually been more developed into something interesting, i found myself really intrigued with the political scenes. but there just wasnt enough of that cause they needed to make more room for the PEW PEW POW EXPLOSIONS

granted, movies with lots of shimmer but little substance have been nominated for best picture before (just look at James Cameron’s Avatar which is apparently getting a sequel now????????). and its not even that this movie is completely devoid of substance cause theres some interesting things going on plot-wise, and some stand-out characters too (shuri is the boss and no one can tell me otherwise). its just, u know, a good superhero movie. nothing really profound about the story itself except for the cultural, historical, and social context behind it.

so lemme get back to why i think this movie got a best picture nom. i think the academy wants to keep up their appearance of being #woke now by continuing to nominate more than one poc-heavy project each year, but they seem to be caring less and less about the actual overall quality of these movies. and theres even some movies on the noms list that i think actually have what it takes to be a strong oscars contender, like If Beale Street Could Talk and BlacKkKlansmen. but i think in Black Panther’s case, they were under a lot of pressure to give it top noms (or any noms at all) because of the intensely positive response this movie got, as well as the accusations of racism to people who didnt think it was as great as fans were saying.

also i have no doubt that Supreme Overlord Disney like threw piles and piles of money at the academy like they tend to do (cause i’d bet good money thats the only fucken way Incredibles 2 got nominated for anything)

well anyway ive gone on long enough about this, lemme know what y’all think. really the only nom im iffy about when it comes to this movie is Best Picture, but the others i think are well enough deserved, especially costume design. so i guess the one thing i struggle with is this: does a movie becoming a pop culture phenomenon and being groundbreaking in its cast and crew count as enough for it to be nominated for the top prize of the wiener awards, despite any fallbacks in script, direction, and acting? idk man im just hoping it doesnt get the award by default or something but then again maybe after watching all the other nominees it may turn out that the rest of them were worse than Black Panther i guess i’ll have to find out

stay tuned for my A Star Is Born review y’all stay fresh and funky eat ur vegetables stay in school u dont need drugs when ur high on life

#road to the oscar mayer weiner awards 2k19 #curly q reviews #black panther #oscars #academy awards #oscars 2019 #chadwick boseman #letitia wright #lupita nyong'o #forest whitaker #angela bassett #marvel #superhero movies #best picture #fruitvale station #creed #ryan coogler #thor #avengers infinity war

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socialdegenerate · 5 years

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Hello hello! I've noticed you posting a lot of stuff recently from HypMic - did a quick google and it seems awesome, how would you recommend getting into the series?

Heyyy!! I am painfully and embarrassingly deep in this silly project already, it’s fun and the fandom isn’t too much of a dumpster fire yet?? (at least on tumblr, I’ve heard Some Shit about the western twitter fandom lmao). I mean, what’s not to love about rap battles to the death (well, theoretically they can die but no one has…yet…)

The only issue is that it’s a liiiittle bit inaccessible because so far everything in the series has taken place on CDs/youtube vids (although eng-hypnosismic has been doing an amazingly thorough translation job and it’s getting three manga projects that begin at the end of the year and a smartphone rhythm game next year, so it’s probably going to keep expanding).

I actually really love it though, they’re all so dumb and I’ve adopted so many new children (yes the 35yo doctor is my child). There are no women main characters for Narrative Reasons, as the women took control of Japan and locked all the men out of their peaceful walled paradise, but I mean, can’t fuck up something that’s not there so that might be a plus lololol.

I’d reccommend it if you like japanese pop-rap and idiot anime pretty boys, the music is actually super catchy????? And the storyline (…as much as there is one) isn’t anything groundbreaking but it’s fun. For the intro to all the characters:

youtube

I’m gonna toss a quick guide to getting started under the cut with all the shit you can read/listen to legally and for free ->

The above video and this one are the ones with every character, and you’ll probably know if the music is something you’ll like by listening to those (they were trained by actual rappers but it’s still a bunch of voice actors, so don’t expect S-rank rapping lololol- although my boy Dice/Daisu has some fucking flow).

From there, your best bet is to read up on the character profiles (which are all pretty short bc we don’t really have much info yet) or the wiki, and then go onto the drama CD translations (a few are on the official youtube, but not all of them) and then everything else plus the rest of the music on youtube

tbh it’s one of those projects that is carefully crafted to have something for everyone? As no one should be surprised, I’m love old man rap crew Matenrou (…they’re 35, 29, and 29 years old lololol) because you can’t put three disaster gays in front of me (a 6′5 long-haired doctor who non-ironically goes by ill-DOC and heals people with his raps, a flashy host who’s terrified of women when he’s not in his work suit, and his depressed gur0-bait salaryman bestie) and expect me not to love them.

But there’s also Fling Posse (made up of tiny pink satan who is a young-looking 24, a lying novelist straight out of ye olde dayes, and my BOY the terminally stupid gambler Dice), MTC (a yakuza, a crooked cop, and a half-american ex-soldier who now lives in the woods as a survivalist and who lives off cooking random wildlife), and Buster Bros (three teenage brothers of varying stupidity, and the only characters under 20).

Also this was the post that got me to finally look into this series lmao

#HypMic #long post #this whole thing exists bc subaru kimura wanted to hang out and rap with his friends and get paid for it

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ghostcrows · 6 years

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Skee Possum Ghostcrows’s analysis of the film Lady Bird which i watched in my english class and want to talk about to someone starts Now. nobody asked and i delivered ;)

it’s not like i think it was super groundbreaking or anything but it just made me think. films that make you go hmm

will tag as long post but i am not putting it under a cut sorry

first i’ll talk about things i didn’t like because i like to end on positive notes

cons:

- very straight. very heterosexual. there’s a gay guy in it and he’s actually treated fairly well, though we don’t delve deep into his story, but watching lady bird go to town on guys was an unpleasant experience that luckily the screen being too dark saved me from the worst of

i understand WHY they did it, it’s a coming of age sort of story, she’s learning and leaning into her sexuality, that’s fine, but i’m hopelessly heterophobic so i can’t help but detract points for this

- the ending was way too abrupt....i didn’t expect to see lady bird’s entire life story unfold but i feel like we needed at least a scene or two more to end on a note that didn’t feel so lacking...i kind of get it though like not everything is perfect loose-ends tied and we don’t get to see everything all the time but...it felt lacking.

- i don’t like that she went back to using the name christine. maybe it’s just the transed in me but i thought her asserting this name, this identity that she carved for herself, was really cool, and i can see how it might be considered her being “ashamed” of her name or her trying to be someone she isn’t, but....it was clearly special to her. it just. it would have been more powerful, i think, to me at least, for her to keep the name lady bird. it’s an interesting name

- speaking of her name, we never really get to know why she goes by lady bird. maybe i missed something, but i don’t think we do. i would have liked to know what significance that name had to her. maybe it was like, the dream of flying far away like a bird, that sort of thing, how birds symbolize freedom and all that. maybe that’s part of why she went back, when she realized her town wasn’t all bad. but still. just personally i think she shouldn’t have gone back to christine

neutral things:

- it was kind of weird how she was talking to that guy at a party about not believing in god. i kind of got the impression that the catholic church had made her disillusioned. it’s not necessarily bad that she still had faith (or seemed to based on that conversation), it’s just strange. maybe that was to show how she was thinking back on and regretting being so cold to her surroundings? still.

- not so 2000′s it’s sickeningly in your face but it was just 2000′s enough lmao. like, the bell bottom jeans and the flip phones and just the all around vibe...yeah

- i felt kind of bad watching lady bird leave julie to try and get in with jenna and kyle and their crowd. she didn’t seem like the type to do something like that. i can kind of understand though, peer pressure and all. and she went back in the end, so she did learn her lesson, which is good

- sometimes she would start to make a point to her mom or the church like she was stickin it to em, like the abortion assembly, but then she swerved and ended it weird. like she had us in the first half i’m not gonna lie lmfao

good things/noteworthy things:

- i thought the shots were pretty good. i mean, i don’t know a lot about the technical aspects of film (despite spending two years of high school in AVTF) but it just looked good, the colors looked good, they made sacramento look really gorgeous. which really made you ask, why does she hate it here of all places? “wrong side of the tracks” my ass...

but see, i can still understand that. i think that, when you find yourself in a bad position in life, when you’re going through a rough time, you tend to lash out on your surroundings. i did that myself with my own hometown. sometimes i still do. i think it’s a boring, stagnant place and on my worst days i think it’s a literal hellhole. but it’s not, really. i’m the hellhole. the hellhole is me. and that’s why it was a shock for her when she went to new york and kind of just did the same reckless things she was doing before. it doesn’t matter where you go, you can’t escape your problems just by moving to a different place. you can’t leave your brain in your hometown and fly a hundred miles away and be happy. you have to work on you first. a change of scenery might help but ultimately, you gotta fix you

- i found it contradictory to me in that it was really relatable while also being pretty unrelatable. when i look at lady bird as a character, i see myself. but not all of myself. not even myself as i am now. more like a piece of myself. a piece thats still in me but that largely got left behind in high school. which makes sense bc thats where she is during the course of the film

i found it relatable in just, the ways they showed the audience the experience of being an adolescent afab person. not completely, but in a lot of ways. i saw my ninth and tenth grade cis girl self a lot.

what was unrelatable was mostly the way that while i sat around and daydreamed about being this rebellious teenager sticking it to the world, she actually went out and did it. it’s like seeing an image of who i might have been, had i acted out on my desires. and i’m not saying i wish i had done that or that i’m glad i didn’t. it’s just an observation more than anything. it’s like, my wild girl self if she had “flourished” (if you can call it that, and yeah she wasnt TOTALLY wild but like. the amount of wild, the amount of fun and rebellious that i’d wanted to be then)

- the way they talk about sex is very real, which i like. it’s funny and not too prudish or too vulgar (though i dont really have standards for too vulgar lmao). that was just cool

- i’m glad that danny was a character. yeah he was just a side dude and they didn’t touch on him being gay in depth but they didn’t really need to? like. i’m just glad it was the way it was. he didn’t die or get punished or have everyone turn against him, he just upset lady bird because he was pretty much cheating and her feelings for him had been more real than his for her. she tried to use it as an insult briefly but i don’t think it was out of real animosity, just being hurt because she’d felt betrayed. and when he broke down and cried and she stood there and held him that almost made me tear up in class oops

- this is a big huge one. the way lady bird and her mother’s relationship operated was so. SO fucking resonant with me. and i wish it wasn’t. it’s like looking in a mirror and hating what you see. i’m glad i saw it, but i hate that it’s true to me too. y’know?

the way her mother is constantly overly criticizing and making comments towards her and lady bird tries to defend herself or come back at her, the way she subtly (or overtly) suggests that lady bird will never amount to anything great and she should just settle for mediocrity

the way her mom refuses to speak to her when she’s begging her to just say something, anything to her

the way her mom acts when she takes her to the airport

the way she shames her for being financially dependent on her and assumes that she’s ungrateful when she’s just. frustrated with the situation (i understand why her mom feels that way, i understand why MY mom feels that way. but you still can’t make your kid feel like shit for costing so much to raise when they didn’t ask to be born lmao...) the scene where she says “give me a number. give me a number so when i get rich i’ll pay you back and more and never have to speak to you again” and her mom’s reply that she’ll probably never get that far? that was so real it KILLED me. that was EXACTLY something that would happen between me and my mom

and oh . ohhhhhh my god. when she’s in the changing rooms and her mom can’t come up with a nice thing to say about her dresses...and lady bird says “do you like me”

“lady bird, i love you”

“yeah....but...do you like me.”

and her mom had nothing to say

that was PAINFUL. PAINFUL...because that’s...the way i feel with my mom too

- the way that financial stress can bring emotional turmoil to an entire family was really resonant as well, which ties into that last part. i could understand her parents’ struggles and sympathize with them, but i still leaned towards siding with lady bird because while yeah she was kind of extra sometimes, and she tried to act like she was one of the rich kids bc she was ashamed, and i get how that would hurt her parents....overall she was just. frustrated with the situation. frustrated with her relationship with her mother, frustrated with her school, afraid she might not get where she wants to be, CONSTANTLY discouraged by her family and told to aim lower....whatsa girl ta do yknow?

- i loved that lady bird went to prom with julie. it was really sweet. and it’s a reach and a half but bisexual lady bird confirmed

- i think ultimately its good that she kind of realized, oh...yknow...maybe its not the town i hated. i think i actually quite like my hometown. it was just my situation. and there’s a lot about sacramento that i can appreciate. i think that was good. BUT i don’t think it should end with her going back and settling just because she made that realization. you can come to that conclusion that maybe things weren’t so bad with the place you lived, without giving up completely and moving back home. i don’t like the implication that she was wrong to want more, wrong to change her name, wrong to try and carve a place and a name for herself in the world. i don’t like the idea that her family was right all along. and it doesn’t end outright saying that, it ends super abruptly and is up to interpretation, but i really like to think she made it in new york. or at least that she made it somewhere. and that maybe her relationship with her mom got better with time. it’s what i hope for me and my mom too

and i think that’s it. thanks for listening if you liked this video smash that like button smash that subscribe button and hit the little bell so you never miss a notification. until next time!

#skee txt #long post #very long post #lady bird

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Xbox Game Pass: New Games for April 2021 Revealed

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Xbox Game Pass is Microsoft’s subscription service for Xbox One owners. It’s designed to be like a “Netflix for games,” where you pay a simple monthly rate and get access to loads of games for download. It’s not to be confused with the Xbox Live Gold membership, which gives users a selection of free games each month.

There has been a huge surge in popularity and profile for Xbox Game Pass since its launch, mainly due to the diverse list of games and first-party exlusives on the service. In fact, Microsoft drops new releases from its own internal studios onto the service on day one! Sea of Thieves was the first example of this, followed by State of Decay 2 and Crackdown 3. Since then, the service has seen the day one launch of several other high-profile Xbox exclusives, including Gears 5, The Outer Worlds, and Halo: Reach on the Halo: The Master Chief Collection.

Membership to Xbox Game Pass will set you back $9.99 per month. You can now also get an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription for $1 for the first month and $14.99 every month after that. The subscription includes an Xbox Live Gold membership as well as all of the games offered on Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass for PC. Plus, with cloud support, you can play a selection of Xbox Game Pass titles on your Android phone. And now you even get access to titles on EA Play, the third-party publisher’s own on-demand service.

New games are added each month to Xbox Game Pass. Here are the games coming in March and April, plus all of the new Bethesda games available on the service starting on March 12 (with descriptions courtesy of the Xbox team) :

Xbox Game Pass: Games for April 2021

Outriders (Cloud and Console) – April 1

Outriders brings intense action and deep role-playing to Xbox Game Pass! Developed by People Can Fly, veterans of the shooter genre, Outriders presents a journey of survival across a savage planet, which can be tackled in both single player and 1-3 player co-op.

MLB The Show 21 (Cloud and Console) – April 20

MLB The Show 21 rockets the franchise onto the next generation of video game consoles with a huge range of improvements, enhancements, and optimizations that make The Show the ultimate Major League Baseball experience. Thousands of new animations, revolutionary innovation on gameplay, and an all-new Stadium Creator let you own The Show like never before.

NHL 21 (Console) EA Play – Coming in April

Carve your path to superstardom in an expanded Be A Pro mode and go down as one of the league’s greatest. On the ice, change up your attack with all new moves, dekes, dangles, and evasive maneuvers, inspired by the league’s most groundbreaking innovators.

Xbox Game Pass: Bethesda Games

Dishonored Definitive Edition (Console, PC, Cloud)

This complete compilation includes Dishonored, winner of over 100 Game of Year awards, as well as all of its additional content – Dunwall City Trials, The Knife of Dunwall, The Brigmore Witches and Void Walker’s Arsenal.

Dishonored 2 (Console, PC, Cloud)

Reprise your role as a supernatural assassin in Dishonored 2 – the next chapter in the award-winning saga by Arkane Studios. Play your way in a world where mysticism and industry collide. How will you combine your character’s unique set of powers, weapons and gadgets to eliminate your enemies?

DOOM (1993) (Console, PC, Cloud)

Doom introduced millions of gamers to the fast-paced, white-knuckle, demon-slaying action the franchise is known for. Relive the birth of the first-person shooter and experience the demon-blasting fun that popularized the genre. Doom includes Episode IV: Thy Flesh Consumed, with 9 additional action-packed levels and split-screen 4-player deathmatch and co-op.

DOOM II (Console, PC, Cloud)

Bring your trusty Super Shotgun and an arsenal of classic Doom weapons to bear against deadlier demons and the infamous boss, the Icon of Sin. Doom II includes The Master Levels for Doom II with 20 additional levels, as well as split-screen 4 player co-op and multiplayer.

DOOM 3 (Console, PC, Cloud)

Battle your way through a demon-infested facility before entering the abyss to battle Hell’s mightiest warrior – and put an end to the invasion. Doom 3 includes both campaign expansions – Resurrection of Evil and The Lost Mission.

DOOM 64 (Console, PC, Cloud)

Battle armies of demons in your crusade to hunt down the Mother Demon and stop Hell’s invasion. As you fight through more than 30 action-packed levels, be on the lookout for enhanced weapons and secrets to help you put an end to the demonic threat.

DOOM Eternal (Console, PC, Cloud)

Hell’s armies have invaded Earth. Become the Slayer in an epic single-player campaign to conquer demons across dimensions and stop the final destruction of humanity. Experience the ultimate combination of speed and power in Doom Eternal – the next leap in push-forward, first-person combat. The only thing they fear… is you.

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (Console, PC)

An epic, open-ended single-player RPG, Morrowind allows you to play any kind of character imaginable. You can choose to follow the main storyline and find the source of the evil blight that plagues the land, or set off on your own to explore strange locations and develop your character.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Console, PC)

Step inside the most richly detailed and vibrant game-world ever created. With a powerful combination of freeform gameplay and unprecedented graphics, you can unravel the main quest at your own pace or explore the vast world and find your own challenges.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition (Console, PC, Cloud)

Winner of more than 200 Game of the Year Awards, the Skyrim Special Edition includes the game and add-ons with all-new features like remastered art and effects, volumetric god rays, dynamic depth of field, and more. Also bring the power of mods to consoles. New quests, environments, characters, dialogue, armor, weapons and more – with Mods, there are no limits to what you can experience.

The Elder Scrolls Online (Cloud, Console)

Experience the award-winning story in a persistent Elder Scrolls world. Embark on an adventure that lets you play your way, go anywhere at any level. Battle, craft, steal, siege, explore and more.

The Evil Within (Console, PC, Cloud)

Experience a disturbing reality as you try to break free from warped machinations. With limited resources at your disposal, you’ll fight for survival and experience profound fear in this perfect blend of horror and action. Defeat insurmountable terror and experience the ultimate thrill by discovering The Evil Within.

Fallout 4 (Console, PC, Cloud)

As the sole survivor of Vault 111, you enter a world destroyed by nuclear war. Every second is a fight for survival, and every choice is yours. Only you can rebuild and determine the fate of the Wasteland. Welcome home.

Fallout 76 (Console, PC, Cloud)

Steel Dawn is the first chapter in the new Brotherhood of Steel questline, free for Fallout 76 players. Visit settlements populated with new NPCs and unlock powerful weapons and armor from the Brotherhood arsenal. Join in their mission to rebuild society and aid in securing valuable technology.

Fallout: New Vegas (Console)

Welcome to New Vegas. It’s the kind of town where you dig your own grave prior to being shot in the head… and that’s before things really get ugly. It’s a town of dreamers and desperados being torn apart by warring factions vying for complete control of this desert oasis.

Prey (Console, PC, Cloud)

Good morning, Morgan. Prey joins the Xbox Game Pass library, taking you from the comfort of your home to the treacherous depths of space. As Morgan Yu, you’ll have to use your wits, weapons and strange powers to fight the alien threat that has overtaken the Talos I space station. Explore the station, upgrade your skills and abilities, and uncover the secrets of Talos I and the dangers within.

RAGE 2 (Console, PC, Cloud)

Dive headfirst into a dystopian world devoid of society, law, and order. Rage 2 brings together two studio powerhouses – Avalanche Studios, masters of open world insanity, and id Software, creators of the first-person shooter – to deliver a carnival of carnage where you can go anywhere, shoot anything, and explode everything.

Wolfenstein: The New Order (Console, PC, Cloud)

Wolfenstein sends players across Europe on a personal mission to bring down the fascist war machine. With the help of a small group of resistance fighters, infiltrate their most heavily guarded facilities, battle high-tech legions, and take control of super-weapons that have conquered the earth – and beyond.

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood (Console, PC, Cloud)

The year is 1946 and the Nazis are on the brink of winning World War II. In an effort to turn the tide in the allies’ favor, B.J. Blazkowicz must embark on an epic, two-part mission deep within Bavaria…

Wolfenstein: Youngblood (Console, PC, Cloud)

Set 19 years after the events of Wolfenstein II, BJ Blazkowicz’s twin daughters, Jess and Soph Blazkowicz — after years of training from their battle-hardened father — are forced into action. Team up with a friend to level up, explore, and complete missions to unlock abilities that compliment your playstyle.

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gwydionae · 6 years

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11 Questions Meme

Rules:

Post the rules

Answer the questions given to you by the tagger

Write 11 questions of your own

And tag 11 people

Tagged by @sealandangel! ^_^

I am actually procrastinating right now and don’t really have time to make up 11 new questions so I’m gonna be a putz and not tag anyone sorry

What is your favorite way to spend a rainy day?

Just hanging out at home with my computer, kitty, and whatever random project I want to work on that day. ^_^

If you’re in the CLAMP fandom whats your favorite manga and favorite character and why?

Hahaha, I don’t know that’d I’d say I was in the CLAMP fandom per se, but I do like my fair share of CLAMP stuff. Perhaps surprisingly I think I’d have to say that Magic Knight Rayearth is my favorite of their manga - a bit cliche by today’s standards, sure, but it was one of the first manga series I read, so it introduced me to a lot of those cliches, haha. I just really like the characters and think it’s a solid story with a nice twist at the end.

As for favorite CLAMP character, I’d probably have to go with both Sakura and Shaoran from Cardcaptor Sakura. My heart says that Shaoran is #1, but I know that without Sakura I wouldn’t like him nearly so much. So for me they come as a package deal. They are just both so sweet and innocently adorable, even if Shaoran starts out a bit grumpy, lol. Sakura is a little ray of sunshine that still gets some nice depth, and Shaoran’s journey through self discovery always makes me happy.

Favorite Anime?

My nostalgic favorite is Digimon (specifically Adventure), so I don’t know that anything will ever be able to topple it from that spot as nostalgia is a powerful thing. I love the characters and the fact that it has some surprising depth for a show based on a toy line. Also the backgrounds are GORGEOUS.

But as far as a series where my nostalgia does not taint my opinion, there are a lot I could chose from, but the one that really does just stick out the most is Tsuritama. I love that series so much. <3 Yuki honestly means so much to me, and I truly love the entire cast. That and the story is so unique and fun and interesting! Everyone should watch the show about aliens, fishing, dancing, and social anxiety! XD

Favorite Cartoon?

Oh, this one’s a lot easier: Batman the Animated Series! I mean, sure, there are a ton of cartoons I love, but none will ever top that one. The writing, the atmosphere, the characters, the voice acting, the music... it is truly a masterpiece. BtAS Batman is MY Batman (and none of this later season junk where suddenly all of his personality was zapped away and Babs was, like, dating him or something weird and gross like that and Dick was turned emo and Tim was beyond annoying... ok I’ll stop now...).

Favorite Video game?

I don’t care if it’s the cliche answer: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. While other Zelda games may do individual aspects better (Midna = best companion, BotW’s climbing and paragliding, etc), OoT has the best full package and, in my opinion, the most compelling story. It’s not a groundbreaking story, but as you might have been able to tell by MKR being my fav CLAMP manga, I’m not super concerned about a story having to be unique to be good, lol. That and I love Zelda being Shiek and running around like a ninja for half the game! XD

What do you like to collect if anything?

Hmm, don’t know that I really collect anything. I have in recent years made a point to buy more prints from artists at anime conventions despite not really having the wall space to hang them, so I suppose that might count? lol I want to get, like, a large book I can put them all in or something!

Windows or Mac?

GIVE ME WINDOWS OR GIVE ME DEATH

...I had a rough time in the computer labs back in college. I did so many art projects in a super old version of Paint Shop Pro on my Windows computer simply to avoid having to use the schools Macs because I hated them THAT much. ^_^;;

What languages can you speak in?

Only English... I can understand some Spanish and Japanese, but it’s very minimal.

Do you like the nightmare before christmas?

OF COURSE

Whats your OTP to end all OTPs?

I actually already touched on it: Sakura and Shaoran from Cardcaptor Sakura. <3 It’s just so freaking cute... I won’t start gushing again, though, since, ya know, I already did. XD Just know that I think of it as a super innocent ship - I don’t ship things for the “sexy make out timez” or whatever. I just think they are adorable together.

If you could change ONE outcome in any anime/manga what would it be?

Oooooooooooh that’s rough... See, I’m one of those people who is ok with good characters dying and super bad things happening IF it has significance. So I wouldn’t, like, bring Hughes back or keep Nina from being turned into a chimera, because those are big, impactful moments. So it has to be something that really changed the way I felt about that particular anime/manga...

(I’m... I’m just gonna put this last one under a cut. XD I get pretty heated. LOL It is something that will forever bother me, and if you EVER want to get me going, just bring up Naruto’s Itachi.)

I’ll be honest, the first thing that came to mind is actually from Naruto. I’m not so sure this would be “the ONE” if I actually had time to give this a ton of thought because I stopped enjoying the series even before this happened. But this. THIS was the breaking point. THIS was the one thing that made me turn my back on it completely and despise it with the passion of a thousand burning suns.

Itachi being a “good guy”.

No. NO. NO NO NO NO NO!

This ruined everything. It ruined Itachi who was once this terrifying villain with no remorse toward the killing of his family and made him into a guy who made some really dumb and pointless decisions that ultimately went against what his supposed main goal was all for a cheap shock twist. It ruined Sasuke who should have finally come to the end of his avenging days and had to deal with the fact that it was just as empty and hollow as everyone told him it would be, leading him an ACTUAL path to redemption, but instead was given a lobotomy by the author and only made incomprehensibly dumb choices that went against literally any amount of sense, all so he could stay “bad” until the very end (or whenever exactly that happened - I’m pretty fuzzy on the whole final... war... thing). It ruined Sakura who continued to pine for a guy 100% not worth pining for because he was literally a scumbag when she could have been trying to help a post-avenging Sasuke come to terms with everything instead.

It ruined Naruto himself - say what you want about Sasuke as a character (I loved him pre-time jump, but I know many hated him and I totally get why lol), but one thing you have to give him is that the rivalry between him and Naruto was almost always interesting and fun. They learned from each other, grew together, and yet still wanted nothing more than to one up the other - good, typical shounen rivalry. Sasuke leaving made sense in the story so I was ok with it, but it DID make me care a lot less about Naruto because suddenly I didn’t find the characters he was surrounded with compelling (I’m looking at you, Sai...). If Itachi had not been revealed as a secret “good guy”, this would have left Sasuke with more chances to interact with Naruto in ways other than “I hate the Leaf and want to kill everyone and that includes you”. We could have gotten so much more from the two of them! Maybe they still would have fought sometimes. Maybe Sasuke would help him out before taking off again. It wouldn’t have necessarily meant that Sasuke would have been around all the time, but it still could have given us bits here and there of the two of them interacting with each other which is what made me like the series so much in the first place.

*DEEP BREATH*

Ok. I’m ok. I’m better now. I just... have a lot of feelings about this... XD sorry not sorry

#gwydo's musings #._.#i give long answers XD #sorry...#but this was fun so i don't care XD

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itsakyo · 7 years

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ayo AK, you know what you need to do.. rate the songs! ;P

As per request, I’m rating the songs by how much I like them rather than how /good/ they are because production wise, every song is clearly expensive, meaning well produced with the generous budget it takes to produce songs of this quality of sound.

Holiday 7.5/10♡The first thing that catches my attention is the bass and the accompanying decorative sounds. The decorative sounds are ‘pixelated’ like the electronic sounds in older games like Mario back when they were pixelated. It’s all very cute and retro-ish which I like. The bass is thick and has a depth that I appreciate especially when I listen to the song on my in-ears.Composition wise, it is a pretty standard song. The chord progression is safe and predictable and the song follows a pretty standard sequence. No surprises. It has just enough to keep it interesting with the break into rap and a later part that slows it down a bit before resuming the power-driving bass chorus, so that keeps it afloat.Having said that, it’s a pretty fun feel-good song that I would listen to in the morning when I’m feeling dead. Like an aural red bull energizer.

All Night 9.5/10 ♡ The opening is ear-catching to begin with. And the opening verse has a really nice melody, teasing to the ear. The song can be broken down into this form: intro-ABCDDEBCDDFC*DD-outroThe multi-segmented parts differentiate this song from others. It has something like 6 different features where the music style/pace changes and I like it a lot. The good thing is despite the many changes, the overall concept of the song is kept together well by the bass.The bass is really rich and thick here too. Also retro-ish like the 80s or 90s. But in the D-chorus parts, the bass is really synthesized like the kind you hear in the club in 2010s and that’s a cool contrast. And in the final D-chorus cycle, they added another layer of beats, doubling the time to boost the mood which is cool.The pitch bending is also really fun for my ears.The vocals are also pretty strong in this one. All the members have stepped up their game and it’s great to hear them pull off a song like that.Song wise, this is a lot more interesting. I would listen to this at night, and if it’s played at the club, I’d have a lot of fun dancing to it.

Girls Are Back 8/10 ♡ This song is so cool. From the get go, the music is chic and chill kind of chords. Really Western sounding like Holiday and All Night. Especially the chorus. It’s exactly the same kind of song an American artist like Bruno Mars would sing. A little jazzy, with the chic moves. The cool bass guitar lines. The vocal runs that Soshi members do. The injection of rap parts is also enjoyable to me. It hypes the song a little more because the music at that point gets an awesome dramatic drum boost.I would listen to this while cruising along, or walking somewhere.

Fan 9/10 ♡ So Japanese anime. HAHAHAHA. I can totally see BoA doing this song back when she was promoting a lot in Japan XDI love the opening and the intense running bass in the background. The sound is full and there’s interesting detail in the electric guitar on the side. The warping is also interesting, it contrasts against the deep bass beat that consistently goes on throughout the song.IMO, the highlight of the song is really the chorus. It’s classic dramatic and stacked up chords in full colour with blocks and running notes and Taeyeon does some seriously cool vocal adlibs and high notes in here.

Only One 7/10 ♡ This song also gives me lots of Japan album vibes XD It’s an uptempo cheery song, feel good in general.As expected, the chorus is pleasant and the little bridge part is a nice touch especially with the key changes in there. Pretty cool.I also like the bass with everything else. So far, you can literally hear how expensive the songs are in terms of production value. Good money went into the arrangement, recording and post-production. A well polished song. But not the kind of song I would listen a lot to.

One Last Time 9.5/10 ♡ I LOVE THE PIANO THROUGHOUT THE SONG. This is a personal preference. I always find piano accompaniment really classic and it gives me feels. Perhaps cos I learnt the piano as a kid, so this sound is really familiar to me.I also love this particular set of chord progression. It’s not super new or unique or anything, there are plenty of Western songs written like that, but I personally love songs with this kind of groove and feel.Taeyeon’s high note and run down in the middle of the song really hits it good and the other high notes after that are really OH YEAH. Seohyun is impressive as usual and she’s really coming out more and more as albums/songs go by and it shows a lot in here. She’s doing a lot more vocally, and it’s GREAT.I would listen to this song anywhere, anytime for any occasion.

Sweet Talk 8.0/10 ♡ This song makes me think of expensive cars, expensive champagne and a really cool group of girls striding down the hall of an expensive building they own, with dancers dancing at the side, lots of wind blowing their hair in slow-mo and YES THEY HAVE TO BE WEARING POWER SUITS AND SHADES.I really love this sort of melody and chord progression set. Very chic, very cool, swag much.

Love Is Bitter 6.5/10 ♡ Broadway jazz complete with tap dancing, canes and sleek top hats and female tuxedos. Instrumentation is on point with the nice brass bringing out the jazz and broadway feel and the smooth jazz piano that comes out later which I appreciate.But it doesn’t really hit me where it hurts good. Just not my cuppa tae.

It’s You 6.5/10 ♡ It has the same kind of vibes as Only You. Similarities here and there. The verse is really quite ordinary. Fortunately, the chorus is better with the chords driving the melody forwards and upwards. The little bridge before the final chorus cycle is kinda cute but this song is overall kinda flat for me.

Light Up The Sky 8.5/10 ♡ This is also pretty Japanese to me. Like an OST for a romantic Japanese drama HAHA. I like the intro. It has the piano solo before big beats come in later and I love this sort of openings. There’s quite a lot of piano in the accompaniment overall too which I like.The chord progression is better in this song. It has more direction and the song changes pace just enough to keep it fresh. The chorus’ hook is really good too. Strong and sticks in your mind easily. It’s a good melody. There’s also a neat little slow down/pull back effect with the drum near the end which adds more impact to the song. Nice.I would listen to this song while looking at a starry sky - which is apt considering the title, Light Up The Sky.

Overall, this entire album has nice songs to listen to, but other than All Night which is musically more varied and interesting, there isn’t really anything groundbreaking (like IGAB groundbreaking). But it’s totally okay. Because this is SNSD’s current sound. I can see how the songs in this album will appeal more to people who have spent more than two decades on earth which is where the bulk of their fans are right now as well.

It’s interesting to see the kind of sound they want to define their 10th year and 6th album with. This is grown up SNSD. It’s driven, motivated, sophisticated, classy and mature. This is how SNSD is different from the young groups. This is a SNSD that knows who they are and are proud of it.

Just like fine wine, SNSD too gets better with age. 10/10 ♡

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