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pair-annoyed · 4 years

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Anime I Watched This Summer

Summer 2020 has officially come to a close. It’s fall in Animal Crossing and the trees are beginning to turn. Much like quarantine, I spent a lot of my free time watching anime when I wasn’t stressing over starting college. Now that the school year has begun, I thought it would be nice to reflect on everything I’ve watched!

These Anime were seen between 6/14 - 8/31 (my Birthday!) and are listed in chronological order.

They will be rated on a 1-10 scale; 1 meaning complete garbage, 10 meaning masterpiece. I will offer my thoughts on what I did/didn't like about each show!

1. Bakemono no Ko - 8/10

This was such a great way to start out the summer! I love the dynamic between Kumatetsu and Ren. Overall its a little cliche, but it’s also very wholesome. It’s by the same studio that made Wolf Children (which I loved!). so I knew it was going to be good. My favorite aspect of this movie was its backgrounds and world building!

2. Wan Sheng Jie - 9/10

Oh my gosh! I know that this is technically a donghua, but its on MAL, so it counts. This show quickly became my favorite slice of life of all time. I adore the art style and all of the characters. The comedy, plot, and design blends so well together. Everything in Wan Sheng Jie feels warm and comfy. It’s also confirmed for a second season! After seeing its cliff hanger ending, I’m so anxious for what comes next!

3. Dororo - 7/10

I’ll be honest, I’m a sucker for studio MAPPA. I really liked the historical aspects of Dororo. From the outfits to the ways characters behave, its grounded in the constraints of feudal Japan. I would have given this show a higher score if it was a little more grounded in science. I feel like more time should’ve been given to the demons and antagonists of the show. Our MC was so over powered, which made the final fights of the series more lack-luster. I think its less of the anime’s fault and more because the original source material is from the 60s. That being said, I loved this show! It was cute and action packed. Though it isn’t perfect, it holds its own.

4. Bungou Stray Dogs - 5/10

The concepts and action are misconstrued in Bungou Stary Dogs. This is one of those shows that I chose to watch because it was all over Tumblr. The powers themselves are cool, but I can’t understand why this series is so praised. At it’s core its predictable and basic. The fights seemed low stakes and low energy. None of the humor really felt like it belonged. It tried too hard to be something it isn’t. I don’t think I’ll watch beyond this first season.

5. Kami no Tou - 4.5/10

First off, fuck Rachel, me and my homies hate Rachel. I really really had high hopes for Tower of God. It paves the way for Webtoon adaptations in the future. Its such a shame that this adaptation SUCKED. I have not read the source material, I’m going solely based on the anime. It wasn’t good? It was horrible. I hate Bam, I hate Rachel. I think all the characters expect Rak were awful. Please don’t make a season 2. Please. If you’re interesting in Tower of God, just read the webtoon.

6. Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun - 7/10

Shoujo anime is my guilty pleasure. I especially liked the way Gekkan Shoujo tackled Sakura and Nozaki’s relationship. Besides just the main characters, even the side characters were enjoyable! It was a fun and creative show. My only complaint is how dense Nozaki is, but I also absolutely love that part of him.

7. Jojo no Kimyou no Bouken (Parts 1-2) - 6.5/10

Jojo is not the saving grace of shounen anime. It isn’t something super revolutionary and it certainly will never be a 10/10. Part 1 was so slow and boring. Jonathan was just mediocre at best. I definitely liked Joseph a LOT more than Jonathan. Part 2 overall was much easier to watch than part 1. The fights are good, but there’s just something about Jojo that I can’t get behind. Although I’m completely bashing this series, I’m going to keep watching it. At this point, I wanna know what a stand is.

8. Clannad - 5.5/10

I was expecting Clannad to be sad, but instead I got a cute, slice of life, romance. It wasn’t unenjoyable, but it was also a pretty slow-burning show. I loved watching Nagisa and Okazaki slowly fall in love with each other. It was funny at times and sad at other points. I am currently watching Clannad: After Story (which I’ve heard is heartbreaking), so I’m hoping to get some catharsis out of that.

9. Otome Game no Hametsu Flag shika Nai... - 6/10

This show is only 12 episodes, and yet it still has filler episodes for some reason? I’m a person who doesn’t typically watch isekai because the genre is so over done. However, when it’s done in a very specific way it’s really fun to watch! This show was definitely a lot of fun, it’s also cute and has so many interesting character-character interactions. The ending is painfully cliche, but I think it adds to this shows charm.

10. Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen - 8/10

I loved Love is War so much! I love their weird romantic dynamic. I love the characters, and I love the animation. It’s over the top and executes it humor masterfully. The entire show fills you with anticipation for the two main characters. Kaguya is my favorite character. Although I haven’t seen season two yet, I most certainly will! I’m so upset I hadn’t seen this show sooner.

11. Great Pretender - 8.5/10

This show is so colorful and bubbly. The animation is so smooth and they are able to tackle so many different kinds of things given its plot. The whole show itself just feels like summertime. It came out not to long ago, so some people may not be familiar with it. On top of the show itself, the music is great, with a Jazzy OP and and ED that features Freddie Mercury

12. Steins;Gate 0 - 8/10

I loved the original Stein;Gate so much! So it’s no surprise how much I liked the second season. It builds significantly off the first season in a sort of “off shot” OVA kind of way. The events of Steins;Gate 0 don’t actually happen, but that doesn’t stop it from being meaningful. The big “twist” was predictable and a bit of a let down, but I still enjoyed this. Granted, I’m bias.

13. Seishun Buta Yarou wa Yumemiru Shoujo no Yume wo Minai - 9.5/10

I sobbed. So much. This movie was phenomenal, it was such a trip. Having watched the original series, this tore my heart apart. It gets a high score for being able to take the characters I love and creating a wonderfully emotional experience. If you haven’t seen Bunny Girl Senpai, please watch it, and then watch this movie. You won’t regret it!

14. Hotaru no Haka - 6/10

Grave of the Fireflies made me stop watching anime for a while. Studio Ghibli created something grim, something that leaves the viewers feeling hollow. Its a movie about WWII from Japan’s perspective. As an American, all I could feel while watching this was immense guilt. I will say though, that some of the movies main plot could have easily been prevented if the main character had swallowed his pride. His younger sister was also my least favorite character. I get that she’s a kid and that kids are fussy, but you would think that during wartime, she’d be more understanding and at least try to eat the things she dislikes.

15. Yagate Kimi ni Naru - 9/10

This was a great way to end the summer. This is more that just GL romance, its a love story. Its about growing up and learning to understand your feelings. I related to Yuu so much, which made this more emotional than I expected. It’s really unlike another romance anime I’ve seen. I hope it gets confirmed for a second season. If not, I’ll be reading the manga.

Seasonal Shows: (Things that are still airing as of 9/5/2020)

1. The God of High School 7.5/10

Another thing done by studio MAPPA. Are you surprised? I absolutely love the action in GoH. The plot however, is all over the place. The story seems fragmented and hard to follow. Like Tower of God, it was poorly adapted. I’m giving it such a high score, because it’s SO much more enjoyable then Tower of God.

2. Enen no Shouboutai: Ni no Shou - 4/10

My thoughts on season 2 are about the same as my thoughts on season 1. The only difference is that this season has more Jojo references. I’ve rated it lower because its so repetitive. I’m so sick of watching it, but I’ve got to see it through the bitter end.

3. Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu 2nd Season - 8.5/10

All I’m going to say about Re:Zero is that I love it. I can’t give an accurate review of it because I’ve been hyping this season since it was announced. If you’re into non-typical isekai, watch Re:Zero, its so enjoyable!

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sparklespectres · 3 years

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Anyways, this episode was OVERWHELMING IN THE BEST WAY!

I figured I would like Raine a considerable amount just based on the owl house in general having like top tier characters, but now that we’ve actually seen them in action I love them SOOOO MUCH!! They’re definitely the type of person that’s shy until they get to know someone well (it was very relatable for me lol) and they show that really well with their interactions with Eda. I am Very concerned for them now, and I guess we finally know the like more secretive reason for the coven brand thingies, and I’m sad that it seems like we won’t get more of them any time soon due to Belos being horrible (as usual). You can really tell that Raine and Eda both care about each other a LOT; they were able to pick their relationship up (friendship? Relationship? Idk but that was absolutely not platonic lol) right where they left off, and I really appreciated that they were like, supportive and encouraging of Eda not trying to distance herself from Luz and King. (The “do you have kids???” joke was so funny I was laughing for a good 5 minutes straight ksjsksh). It genuinely broke my heart when they got separated and those two getting reunited is going right up there with lumity canon on my list of Things That Need to Happen by the End of the Show

Obviously this was a very big episode for Eda, and I appreciate that we got to see like a big range of emotions from her! She’s often either in her confident cool mode or acting more maternal, and really the only things she’s gotten more emotional about in the past have been related to Luz or parent/sibling things, so to see her get genuinely sad not only about Luz/King but also about Raine getting caught was kind of refreshing, in addition to seeing her a bit more flustered in some moments as well. Overall Eda’s characterization in this episode was just Very Dynamic and I appreciated it a lot! I also really just like that she is going out of her way to go against the emperor when she can, even if it’s just hitting some guards in the street. What Belos is doing is getting more and more concerning, and I want to make another post kind of listing all the weird details about EC stuff we’ve gotten this season, but that’s for later.

It’s also interesting that Eda’s magic might be coming back? It’s definitely strange how corrupted it seems, and she might want to stay away from bard for a bit until they can figure it out, but it was really creepy and effective for how they were using it

Bard magic is also so cool!? Like all of the scenes where Raine and Eda were playing together were sooooo pretty, which is definitely a plus, but also the uses for bard magic are so versatile and like, playing one specific note can do such a range of different things and it’s just so cool. Anyways yeah, Eda looked absolutely stunning in all of her close up shots this episode and it’s really not surprising at all that she has so many admirers/exes lol.

We also kind of got to see king’s dad? But he ended up getting officially adopted by Eda which makes me very happy because it just fits much better with the found family aspect of the show. It’s just so sweet how much the owl house crew cares about each other, and although we know that, it’s nice for them to show it more every once and a while.

We also got a surprising amount of development to the capabilities of abomination magic? I was not expecting that, but I’m not complaining bc abomination magic is one of my favorite types, and this episode definitely moved it up. The coven leader (I believe their name was Darius?) was very well portrayed with a really interesting character design, and oh boy were they powerful! I don’t think I realized abominations could do all of what was happening there, but it was very creative and well executed, especially when they combined themselves with the abomination as sort of a power-up thing? And also when they sent the other three BATS to the conformatorium? Idk I can’t tell if they’re like, one with the abomination (other than their hair) or if that’s just a thing abomination witches can do. Honestly it was so cool to watch even though they were working for the emperor and I was rooting against them, like just seeing the capabilities of the magic is just so interesting. It’s wild to compare to Amity’s skill set too, like I just feel like with a bit more development of her skills she’ll be an absolute beast in combat and I love that for her. Also we got to see the abomitons again, and I love the continuity of them being used by Kikimora (and Belos in hunting palismen). I also thought it was very funny when Darius (?) called Alador a hack because like, at the end of the day they’re all antagonists, but I do dislike some of them slightly less when they insult each other lol

Anyways, overall this episode, much like all the episodes of season 2 so far, was FANTASTIC! I really enjoyed it and I think this’ll definitely be one of my favorites because of how different it feels? The ending is obviously VERY scary and I’ll probably make a separate post later about that, but I’m just in all the different types of shock rn lol

#the owl house #toh spoilers #the owl house spoilers #edas requiem #can y’all tell I like abomination magic #it’s not even bc of amity being one of my favorite characters abominations are just really cool #but bard is definitely up there too after this episode bc they really showed how powerful it can be

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picturejasper20 · 3 years

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Things i noticed while rewatching Generator Rex

1) Rex is such a great protagonist. He’s is this mix between reckless teenager and very caring person. One thing that i have been noticing while doing my rewatch is how he would try solving conflics without resorting to violence and is able to connect easily with other people. He’s kinda a bit of the desconstruction of the impulsive hero ¨punch first ask questions later¨. In fact is empathy is key for solving conflicts in some episodes. You would expect him to be very selfish, arrogant and insufferable but he has this moments in which you can clearly see he isn’t just an stereotype.

2) I really like how the female characters are written. Each one has their own personality and are able to defend themselves when they are attacked. What’s more is that they never are just ¨strong woman¨. They all have their own arcs and personal issues. For example: Doctor Holiday can take care of herself when a EVO tries to hunt her, but she’s also a extremely smart woman that wants to find a cure for the nanites. She is a very caring mother figure for Rex, sometimes she is the first that notices when he’s not doing well and she’s super protective of him.

The series subverts expectations quite often, which its quite surprising for a series which most of its main cast are male and it’s aimed at boys.

3) Is it me or this series looks way better animated than some Western modern animations? Seriously, there are many scenes that look great for today standards. The EVO monsters designs are pretty creative. They actually look like mutated monsters. There are moments that are worth of taking screenshots because the look beautiful.

The action scenes are good too. They are actually entertaining to watch and catch your attention.

It’s not perfect, of course, but it looks pretty good.

4) The soundtrack! I forgot how good the soundtrack was. Most of the time i don’t care about the soundtrack of animated shows. However, in this case it was so good at times that it made search it on youtube.

It really gives off this adolescent vibe that when you were a teenager and you thought knew everything. That you would get into trouble for not listening to your parents. That’s what the soundtrack feels like.

5) I really like how the series shows that not all EVO are evil. That some want just to left alone. There are many episodes that focus on the relatioship between EVO and humans. There are humans who hate any EVO no matter if they are good or bad and those who want to help EVO.

The fact that Rex is an EVO/human hybrid himself makes the show a lot more interesting as he usually disobeys his superior’s orders and he is able relate to other EVO/humans as he knows what’s like being treated different.

The are tons of characters that sometimes make Rex questions what he is really fighting for.. which is quite rare to find in series from this medium.

I know the series doesn’t take itself too seriously but to be honest i’m starting to like more how the series handles its themes than Kipo and the age of the wonderbeasts. .. And i really like Kipo.

6) The more ¨filler¨ episodes are the funniest thing ever. I couldn’t stop laughing when i watched episodes like the one when Rex goes to a prom with his friend Noah or the one that Bobo goes missing. I think i haven’t laughed that much watching a series since i watched Wander Over Yonder.

When the series wants to get ridiculous, it gets really ridiculous.

7) Van Kleiss is a great antagonist. He’s intimidating, manipulative, clever, loves playing mind games with the characters,he is connected to Rex’s past.. when he appears the series gets way better and a lot more interesting.

I regret he doesn’t appear in more episodes because he is a cool character.

8) I really like the episodes when Rex goes to South America. It’s heartwarming to see him trying to reconnect with his family roots (Rex’s parents are from Mexico and Argentina). The characters rarely feel like stereotypes, in my opinion.

I like some details of his character like him speaking in spanish many times in the series (though not very good) or watching telenovelas (TV soaps). His older brother,Caesar, speaks in Spanish as well and refers to their parents as ¨Papi¨ and ¨Mami¨ which is really cool.

I could go on over this aspect but to sum it up: They are well fleshed out characters.

9) I like the adopted family dynamic the main characters have: Agent six is like a father figure to Rex and Doc Holiday acts like a protective mom. Bobo is the uncle/ older brother and Rex is the yound child of the family.

I got to love how Agent Six found Rex with zero memory of who he was and he was like: ¨Yeah, this is my son now¨. He absolutely knows nothing about Rex yet he decided to take care of him. The episodes that focus on Rex and Six’s relationship are some of the best of the series.

10) I think some episodes could have worked better had they been double length episodes instead of one. Some subplots felt like they were solved too quickly for my taste. I think this is because the series used to be more episodic back then, i can’t blame the creators of the show too much for that.

Don’t get me wrong, those arcs and subplots are good. The issues is that too many things can happen in a episode which confuse me a bit at times.

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While there are other things in noticed from Generator Rex i didn’t want to make the list very long and summarize it in ten points or less.

Although i think the series is far from perfect and it has some pacing and writing issues, it is overall a good show. I wonder if it aired today it would be a popular show.

#Generator Rex #rex salazar #agent six generator rex #doctor holiday #Animation #Western animation #Caesar Salazar

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tuiyla · 4 years

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So I finally watched The Owl House

I wish I’d do this with every show I watch but it seems like only a lucky few get the She-Ra style rant of love treatment. Well, I finally watched The Owl House after my dash having been flooded for the past couple of weeks and I have some thoughts. Slight spoilers below.

First off, I love the whole vibe. I had a faint idea that this show would be about magic but I didn’t know much before watching - except for one thing, we’ll get back to that. The way it builds its world and deals with magic, though, is so refreshing. And I just have to mention here that I laughed out loud at all the Harry Potter jabs, they were hilarious. I expect we’ll learn much more about magic and its users as the show goes on but as far as the first season goes the introduction was really solid. It strikes the right balance between leaving things to the imagination but being more than “wave wand and magic happens”. It’s colourful, it’s creative, and I even like the ovens and school tracks, despite knowing that the story is about not conforming to those. It makes the Boiling Isles unique and make me want to learn more about the world even beyond the characters and the main plot.

TOH also presents a world that’s much more macabre than I was expecting from the Disney Channel, not that that’s a bad thing. I found myself thinking of Adventure Time at certain points and pondering, at scary moments, how kids would react. I think kids love this, though, and besides, nothing can be more scarring than Courage the Cowardly Dog was. It’s not that terrifying, of course, just daring enough to stand out. Overall the show has what I would classify as more of a Cartoon Network vibe than a Disney Channel one, but I admittedly haven’t really been following many Disney shows. In any case, I dig it. I dig the weird creatures and the beautiful backgrounds and I appreciate how alive the Boiling Isles feel. It doesn’t take long for TOH to immerse you in its world so I’m for one am hooked.

I make a big deal of loving the world itself because rarely does it happen that world-building stands out to me so soon in a series. I do love carefully constructed fantasy worlds but for the most part I’m more interested in the characters themselves. Here, I’d say it’s close to being a 50-50, which is something that even Avatar can’t say with its elemental masterclass in world-building (which is mostly because the character depth there is unrivaled but still). So yeah, kudos to The Owl House for achieving this. From Luz’s glyph magic to the covens and the titans, I’m excited to explore this world more.

Now, the characters. The real meat of any story. Starting with Luz, I have seen some criticism that she’s a generic hero so far, the “I’m a weirdo”, heart of gold, upbeat variety. I don’t think this makes her bland, though I do admit that being told over and over again that she’s weird makes me less engaged, even she’s also shown to be weird. I like the message of her arc and that the chosen one trope was deconstructed almost right away. I like that she’s relentlessly enthusiastic and kind to people and I like that she doesn’t have to get more bitter in order to get development. Instead, she learns from her mistakes but keeps being herself and brings her unique spirit to the Boiling Isles. We need protagonists like Luz, not just because she’s latina and bisexual but because her learning process doesn’t involve cynicism. Sure, there is a lot she needs to learn but her heart is presented as an asset and a sort of source of magic. I’m excited to see where her story goes, for sure.

I’m gonna write briefly about the other characters before I get to my favourite one. Eda is super cool and I quickly got over the fact that she’s not Beatrice Horseman, lol. She embodies such a youthful energy but the show also allows her to be a middle-aged woman comfortable in her own body - well, owl curse notwithstanding. Also, her relationship with Lilith is one of my favourite parts of the whole show. Eda subverts so many of the mentor’s traditional tropes and I’m here for it. I kinda thought she was the villain based on her design and when I didn’t know anything about the show but hey, happy she’s not.

I don’t think I’d even seen a picture of King before starting to watch the series and at first I thought I’d get tired of him real quick. He’s the type of character who can get really annoying instead of endearing really fast if he’s not given any depth or charm, both by way of writing and voice acting. Luckily, I ended up liking King and his antics. His design is indeed adorable and Alex Hirsch is a genius. The only time I felt like he went too far was, perhaps surprisingly, in the book writing episode, “Sense and Insensitivity”, but even there going too far was the point. So yeah, King’s also great, there’s much potential in his backstory and general character.

Alright so really quickly, other characters: Willow and Gus are generic best friend characters and though they already have other things going on, I expect more development as the series progresses. I like that Willow is actually super powerful, just not in the way people expected her to and Gus is clearly also talented despite being younger. I’d be happy to see more of the other kids, get more familiar with Hexside. Edric and Emira are fun characters but they were really shitty in their first episode so I was kind of surprised they weren’t more of a nuisance to Amity later on. I’m all for supportive siblings so I wouldn’t mind a good relationship between the three but I feel like it’s more complicated than that with the Blights.

Finally, I also have to mention that Hooty is... well, quite something, isn’t he. Much like with King, I thought he’d be much more annoying but somehow the show is self-aware enough that it makes Hooty tolerable. I’m almost always torn between feeling sorry for him and being thoroughly weirded out, and I think that’s the intention? It’s fitting that he’s the titular character as he embodies the tone of The Owl House well in my eyes. He’s there for the comedy but there’s just enough there to hint at something more. Very bizarre, strong CN vibes, here for it.

Now that I’ve written a paragraph more about Hooty than I expected to, let’s talk about Amity. Listen, no other character stood a chance to be my favourite as soon as I learned Mae Whitman voiced Amity. That woman gave me Katara so now I have a quasi Pavlovian response to her voice. I’d also say that I knew more about Amity going into the show than I did about any other aspect of TOH. I heard somewhere that she started out as an antagonist, I knew her parents were abusive, and the reason the show blew up on my dash and my general online bubble is the Grom episode. Lucikly I only saw stills of Lumity beneath the crescent moon but the pure Sapphic energy of that was enough to gay migrate me to this show. I’d like to note it here though that The Owl House is a good show in and of itself, the queer rep is just a nice extra. I’m gonna spend the next couple hundred words going on about Amity and her crush on Luz but I don’t value only that. The Gay Migration is great and rep is great but I’m also grateful to have a solid show behind it. That being said.

I’m a total dyke for Amity Blight. I was very biased before even being introduced to her character but I genuinely find her to be fascinating and she has great potential. She’s developing quite quickly, like much of The Owl House, but an arc not being stretched out for several seasons before getting a rushed conclusion is refreshing. The progress hits all the beats and the only note I have is that I want more. She starts out as a generic bully but the opportunity to be more is there from the beginning. We find out early on that she used to be friends with Willow, we see that she works hard and values honest work. When she becomes Luz’s rival, it doesn’t last long before Amity shows that she’s open to new perspectives. That’s not to defend or even justify her earlier and nastier moments, Amity was rude to both Luz and Willow. But through all that, she becomes a complex character who does bad things but isn’t a bad person and grows when she gets the space to. I think that’s neat.

Luz’s decision to befriend her might be cartoon logic but as someone who subscribes to the “kill them with kindness” ideology, I can totally relate. Amity’s softer side doesn’t take long to show and “Lost in Language” is such a great episode to show how complex people can be. Again, I was already biased when it came to Amity but she’s consistently shown to be capable of self-reflection and growth when others give her the chance. I think her past and potential future friendship with Willow is a great way to explore many different topics and I’m trusting the show to do it justice. I also can’t wait to meet the rest of the Blights, if only to get me some angst and further develop Amity. I half expected Grom to take the form of her parents. Too dark for Disney? Well, we don’t know Amity’s dynamic with her parents, exactly, but there’s so much subtext and potential. I love what we’ve already seen from her but I’d also say that she has one of the greatest potentials in the show.

Another way in which this potential manifests is Lumity, of course. Again, they’re developing quite quickly but that doesn’t mean it’s rushed. I’d love to explore Amity’s crush more and what Luz means to her. The Grom episode surpassed all expectations, still and gifs don’t do the stunning dance sequence justice. The animation is so smooth, the colours are amazing, the music is on point and the Sapphic vibes complete the picture. Poetic cinema, truly. Molly Ostertag and Noelle Stevenson are really out there giving wlw animation fans everything we ever wanted, huh. It also warms my heart that the crush is made very clear, not just by Luz’s name being on the note but by the delightful gay disaster that is Amity in “Wing It Like Witches”. I never thought I’d ever see such a relatable useless lesbian in animation so kudos to Dana Terrace and the whole crew. Wow, how far we’ve come.

So yeah, Amity is a funky little lesbian and I’m a 100% here for her gay disaster moments, but I also love where Lumity is going thematically. They’re great as foils and I’m hoping that they won’t get together at the very end. Look, I love me some Bubbline, Korrasami and Catradora, but it’s time a wlw relationship had the chance to exist onscreen and not only in the last episode. The Owl House has a great chance to do that. I know the creators don’t want romance to be the main focus and I respect that, I think the world they created deserves to showcased and explored to its full potential. Lumity could be a great subplot though, as representation on the one hand and as a thematically interesting dynamic on the other. Plus, Luz and Amity are just cute and sometimes, it’s as simple as that. Oh, and also the whole Little Miss Perfect thing? One of the best fandom discoveries I’ve made in a long while. Not only is the song truly perfect for Amity, I love that Joriah Kwamé went on to write Ordinary as well. This right here is why fandom is beautiful.

I think that’s about it for season 1 initial thoughts. The moral can be a bit on the nose at times, especially in the early episodes but the show is ultimately for kids and I appreciate its message. Interesting world and magic system, good characters, great potential for later seasons, just a well put together show that I’m really glad I started watching. I’m kind of sorry I didn’t keep up with season 1 as it was coming out but I would not have been able to wait between episodes. The pacing is good overall, deffo moves fast but I wouldn’t call it rushed, and the “filler” episodes still add something to the story. I’m not sure if I would still feel like the show moves at a fast pace if I hadn’t binged it but in any case it isn’t rushed, the necessary beats are all there and have time to sit. I’m going to watch as it comes out from now on so hopefully season 2 will arrive early next year.

Oh, and: I’m very new to the fandom, barely just found out about Little Miss Perfect, so any and all tidbits, fun facts, and fic recommendations are welcome. Also if you just want to chat my inbox is always open!

#the owl house #toh #amity blight #lumity #luz noceda #my thoughts #down another rabbit hole i go

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gothmedia · 3 years

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Movie Review: My Summer as a Goth

”If you don’t care what people think, why did you just ask me what I thought?” Overview and Plot My Summer as a Goth is a crowd funded movie directed by Tara Johnson-Medinger. It stars Joey, a morose teen who constantly talks about her dead dad and gets angry when other people talk about her dead dad. Since her mother is a prolific author set to do a book tour, Joey is shipped about 45 minutes out of town to her grandparents' house for the summer. There she becomes interested in the neighbor boy, an even more sullen teen called Victor. Victor notices Joey's interest and whisks her away into the world of goth summer romance. In terms of production, very nice looking film. Professional. I liked that the beginning of the movie looked very washed-out and reflected the mood well, getting warmer as the summer went on. I also loved the texting graphics. The movie was well-paced and a good length, however the passage of time in the movie was a bit odd. VERY soon after the movie says summer starts it’s the Fourth of July, then again only a short time later everyone’s talking about how the summer is almost over. Joey even gets mad at her mother in one instance for not being available in time, but it seems like the mother responded back in about a day while Joey makes it out that it took weeks. The in-movie passage of time was very confusing for me. Most of the characters were well-written with some hiccups mostly on the grandparent’s and Antonio’s end. Costume design was on-point. Sound was fine and the music choices throughout were wonderful. Overall, the film had really good production value.

Moving into spoiler territory, Joey’s grandparents are a ride as they swing from giving Joey hundreds of dollars and baking her pot brownies to telling at her she can’t stay out late and that she needs an exorcism. Antonio, a punk, starts the movie off by getting into a fist fight with Victor, but later becomes a loveable member of the cast. We meet Cob and Pen, the “goth swan couple”. They’re Victor’s friends and a breath of fresh air; despite having morose interests they’re very bubbly and outgoing. I wish more of the movie had them in it. They along with Victor decide to give Joey a makeover and invite her to a few different events over the summer including a silent disco in a graveyard, a party at Pandora’s house, and a concert. They also go on a camping trip with Joey, her grandparents, and one of Joey’s high school friends. Eventually, Joey gets annoyed with Victor’s constant toxic attitude and finds out he’s cheating on her. Everything’s fine in the end as the summer comes to a close and she goes back to school with Antonio as her new boyfriend and her new, darker look.

Joey the babybat has daddy issues. In the beginning Joey feels acts catty and defensive about everything. Don’t worry, she never really grows out of that. Pretty much everything about her revolves around either the fact that her father is dead or her relationship with Victor. She does have an art hobby that’s shown throughout the movie but she seems almost embarrassed by it? It’s never actually brought up by any characters and no one ever looks through her sketchbook or shows interest in it. Which I found really odd because a lot of the goths I know in real life tend to be pretty creative and would love it? Anyway, she falls head-first into goth because of a boy. I know that’s how some people get into the subculture, but it kind-of sours the movie because it seems like she also only stays in the subculture because of the boy. In the beginning she mentions liking the music and how it helps her express how she feels inside, but other than Victor, we really don’t get to see how she thinks about the subculture. She’s friends with Cob and Pen because they’re Victor’s friends. She goes to events because Victor goes. She dresses up because Victor wants her to. But once Victor is out of the picture, why does she stay? Other than the passing mention of music at the beginning, she really has no interest in the goth scene. She’s never shown engaging with the scene on her own terms, and I find that a little disappointing. When I was a babybat I was reading goth blogs like Stripy Tights and Dark Delights, I was trying to get my hands on back issues of Gothic Beauty, I was watching a ton of different youtubers talk about the scene and I just wanted more. There’s none of that with Joey save for a short scene where she watches tutorials on how to do her hair and make-up. (Which, admittedly was really cute.) I didn’t understand WHY Joey stays a goth at the end of the movie and I think it’s because the movie really didn’t portray the positive aspects of the subculture as much. Also, Joey needs to work on her attitude problem. She mentions her dead dad quite a bit at the beginning and gets upset when other people mention it back to her. At the end of the film she calls her mom over heartbreak and when her mom tries to talk about it with her, she acts sarcastic and shuts her mother out, getting mad that she reached out at the wrong time. I’m unsure if it was just Joey going back to her old coping strategies or if she was in the right because I have no idea how much time had passed since the phone call. I’ll never know. Either way, she does dump Victor which is nice and she reconciles with her mother as well. I do like that she feels more comfortable with herself at the end of the movie and begins doing things on her own terms, even if others don’t “get it”. Victor is a VERY well-written, manipulative dick. Storytime! So, there weren’t many goths at my college and we never really had any classes together, but I remember seeing this one kid walking across the street to the art buildings with a flowing black velvet cape over their backpack, an unlaced black poet shirt, platinum white hair in a side-hawk, knee-high black leather boots and a TON of silver jewelry. Honestly, they would have looked so cool if their harem pants weren’t made of chiffon and completely see-through. (Batman boxers!) Seeing Victor for the first time immediately reminded me of that. Over the top, charming, charismatic and a bit silly. I liked him at first. His wit is dry and in the beginning he didn’t take himself of the subculture TOO seriously, making jokes about vampires. I liked that he seemed to be having fun chatting about music and dressing up Joey. And then there came the lipstick. Honestly, the lipstick was used absolutely perfectly to show how the relationship is souring and how manipulative Victor really is. It really is a gradual showing of how things are going south in their relationship and how Victor isn’t as much as a downcast victim as he puts on. Later on in the movie he starts reminding me of that Bruiser sketch where there’s two goths and one of them is just badgering the other one that he can’t take his sweater off in the summer or join in on seasports because it’s “not goth”. He begins chastising Joey for not looking perfect at all times or not knowing things about the subculture despite the fact that he just dresses her up and brings her to parties instead of actually trying to integrate her to the local scene or teaching her about music or history. Eventually he goes back to hooking up with Pandora, something he apparently does frequently because Joey is not the first person he’s cheated on and literally everyone in town warns Joey about it. Victor clearly has a massively inflated ego and you love to hate him in the end. There are definitely his type in goth scenes around the world and I can see how he stays in good graces with the other asshole friends he has. Some people just really like being elitists. The one thing I can’t figure out, though, is why Pen and Cob are friends with him. They’re so nice compared. A punk by jacket only and why casual homophobia makes me salty. Antonio is... hoo boy, is he a thing. First introduced starting a fight with Victor you think, "Ah, this is the antagonist of the movie. I wonder why they made the punk an asshole? Usually punks are okay with goths." Luckily for us, he apologizes for the outburst and becomes a friend of the main cast. We learn he likes canasta and plays guitar. Oddly, he doesn't seem to have any punk patches or pins on his jacket and never actually mentions punk music. He does, however, mention goth music and he seems familiar with the other goths in town going to their events, so it seems he's on good standing with them despite bullying the goths at the beginning of the film. Seeing as goths would rather pretend to be haughty vampires than get their tail coats in a twist, Antonio makes for a heroic figure in the movie when Joey is in trouble. In my notes I wrote, "Ten bucks says punk kid is gonna save her,” and lo and behold, Antonio comes out of nowhere to save Joey from some bullies. I do like that he uses his rough appearance to his advantage to help people and do the right thing. That pretty accurately describes every punk I’ve ever met. They look tough as nails, but you’ll only see that side of them if you absolutely deserve to.

It's also revealed that Antonio is not straight as he's seen making out with some guy at a concert, mentions having had a previous relationship with Victor, and is being made fun of for being gay in the end. He also ends the film by being Joey's boyfriend. Pardon, what? I'm kind-of tired of this heteronormative nonsense where movies have to end with all main characters (Sans the villain, of course.) end up in a happy straight relationship. Joey's non-goth friend who's in the movie for a very short amount of time also ends up with a goth boyfriend because happily-ever-after and all that. It probably wouldn't have sat as poorly with me if they didn't make fun of Antonio for "looking gay" which in context makes no sense since he's pretty gender conforming compared to the goth men in the film. It also didn’t help that there were comments about lesbians at the beginning of the movie. At one point Joey's grandparents suggest she might like girls and Joey rebukes it with vitriol saying her grandparents are "too cool". The same kind of vitriol you hear when a straight person tells you they could never imagine being gay, that's disgusting. Oh, but they support your "choices", hm? I just wish Antonio’s character was a bit more fleshed out and he didn’t end up being back-up male love interest that’s only there to save female lead from bad guys and heartbreak. First rule of Goth Music is you don’t talk about Goth Music? The movie introduces goth along with music. The music in the film is honestly really good and a good portrayal of what goths actually listen to. Joey mentions she likes the music near the beginning and she goes to events such as a silent disco, a party, and a concert. Despite music obviously being a major source of community in the movie, no one actually talks about it other than that one instance of Joey mentioning she likes it. No one suggests bands to her or actually goes to the parties or concerts to do anything other than make out. The silent disco is the only real instance of them listening and dancing to the music and it feels like it's over in a flash. Though, the corny goth dance moves in that scene kind-of make up for it. At one point Antonio pulls out a guitar and asks if Joey wants him to play “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”. She mentions she’s never heard of it which leads Antonio to ask if she’s new to the scene. At another point in the party, Joey asks someone if they like Marylin Manson. While this is an obvious faux pas to anyone actually in the goth scene, no one actually engages with her in conversation about it. How was Joey supposed to know his music isn’t goth? Wasn’t she listening to goth music earlier at the silent disco? Or the music she said sounded pretty from Victor’s room when they met? How did she get this far liking these bands but not noticing that they sound nothing like Marylin Manson and did she never look them up on her own to listen to them later? She obviously likes them, so it really surprises me that she only got in the goth scene for a guy.

Robert Smith NEVER has smeared lipstick. /s The emphasis on appearance is a little annoying throughout the movie, but I guess it had to be. It fits Victor's personality to change Joey's personal style to match his, and the makeover scene was fun, but I wish there would have been more diversity in the cast of townie goths who attend the parties, concerts, and discos. I counted one person with blonde hair and a small handful of older goths. I didn't notice any non-white goths and unfortunately the movie placed quite the emphasis on pale skin and trying to avoid tanning. I know people like the white face along with dark make-up and looking vamp-ish, but when all your characters are in white greasepaint and there's no PoC to be seen in goth garb it sends a message that only white people can be goth and that's really something we need to kill in the subculture. I did, however, like the wardrobe choices. I liked that Joey got her wardrobe from a thrift store and that she dyed a top she already owned. She looked up tutorials on how to do her hair and make-up and it never looked perfect. That's a good thing. Baby Bats won't know how to do a bats nest hairstyle, they won't know to blend foundation to the neck, and they won't have a perfect eyeliner wing. No one mentioned alt-brand name clothing and no one had a perfectly couture outfit that media likes to sell as a stereotypical goth teenager. The goths actually looked like goths. Their wardrobes were things you'd actually see in a club and we get to see that they wear a plain black tank top and shorts when milling about the house, only breaking out the corsets and top hats for big events. The older goths were more well put together and that makes sense because they've been in the subculture longer and have had time to figure out what they like and what looks good on them. The costuming department did a really great job with this. Ah, but as a side note about wardrobe, who donates brand new, tall Docs to a thrift store??? You can’t sit with us. And sadly, the worst part of Goth in the movie- community. What was that, film? Other than the three main goths, we only get to see other goths at large events and they all seem a bit catty? You have the silent disco, which was cute but no one really spoke to or interacted with each other. Pen and Cob are kind-of doing their own thing throughout no matter who they’re with. We also have the house party and the concert. The other goths there are.... pretty much just there to be judgy because Joey’s new? The first time I went to a club in a new city and didn’t know anyone some random person grabbed my hands and dragged me to the dancefloor. It was fun! People would ask the DJ what he was spinning and they weren’t shamed for not knowing. If someone’s jacket ripped, five people would come out of the woodwork with a safety pin and afterwards we’d all pile into Denny’s and laugh and joke and talk about nothing. I’m not saying there’s no “Gothier-than-Thou” types, believe me I’ve met more than a few, but in a movie that’s trying to portray someone WANTING to become a goth, why not portray the subculture as more inviting? Also, with the comments from Victor and a few other remarks, it seems like alcohol is needed to blend into the goth scene, and that definitely isn’t the case. Sure, a lot of us love absinth or a snakebite in black, but it’s not needed to fit in with the cool kids at the club. The community really is my favorite thing about this subculture and I feel it was a disservice that most goths were showcased as uninviting. I can understand Joey not being wanted at the party initially as she wasn’t invited in the first place and perhaps the eldergoths in the room didn’t want to have to have an impromptu etiquette and history lesson with a babybat when they’re supposed to be relaxing, but the point of the movie was to showcase why Joey wants to be a goth. She never makes friends outside of Victor’s immediate group and never tries to find community or information about the scene online or anything. I guess that is how babybats do act a lot of the time, but again, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, the point of the movie is showing why someone would WANT to be a goth. Final Thoughts. The goth scene in the movie looked like a regular goth scene. I liked the emphasis on thrifting and DIY and that newcomers don’t come out of the womb knowing the lyrics to the entirety of Floodland. The music was phenomenal. I liked that the music featured was goth music, but not the main five bands that everyone already knows. I liked that the events attended were focused mainly around music. I liked seeing actual goth dance moves on screen. I liked that people in the movie did use terminology found in the subculture and made jokes about the subculture that insiders would actually make. I liked that Pen and Cob were wonderfully peppy despite their dark interests, I liked that we got punk-goth solidarity. I liked that it did remind me a bit of my babybat years and got me missing clubs and events. I miss all my friends... I really do...

I was put off by the passage of time in the movie, Joey’s cattiness with anyone who tries to help her, the light and casual homophobia sprinkled in, and the negative-leaning portrayal of the goth community. Other than that, though, I did think it was a good movie with a satisfying ending and I would really suggest people check it out. It’s probably the most accurate portrayal of goths in any media, really, and it’s worth a watch. At the very least, go listen to the soundtrack on BandCamp.

#gothgoth #goth #my summer as a goth #movie review #long post

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gross-gal · 4 years

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yo!! i dont know jackshit about Darkstalkers!! What's it about?? What do you like about it?? What do you NOT like about it?? Tell me alll!!!! (@gamer-gremlin-gf-ships)

AAAAAA THANK YOU @gamer-gremlin-gf-ships

SO. I’LL PUT THIS UNDER READ MORE BECAUSE THERE’S A LOT.

Darkstalkers is a fighting game developed by Capcom. The main gimmick is that, most of, the fighters are based off of horror archetypes. So ya got vampires, zombies, frankensteins, fishmen, ghosts, all that shit.

There isn’t really much story wise I can elaborate on since, fighting games don’t usually have that much of a story to begin with. BUT, in Darkstalkers 1 and 2, main story is that this big bad dude named Pyron kinda wants to determine if the Earth is worthy to be ruled under him or if he’ll destroy it. Pyron is a shape shifting alien dude from the planet, Hellstorm and he’s really looking for a good brawl so he goes and fights the most powerful Darkstalker, which is whoever you choose to play as.

Now then, to avoid confusion, Darkstalkers 1 and 2 (or Vampire Hunter/Night Warriors: Darkstalkers’ Revenge) are basically the same game. 2 is more of an updated version of 1, has two new characters, better gameplay, and it also changes some part of the story because Demitri (the vampire dude) actually was the one who originally started the whole tournment thing in determining who was the most powerful and I think? Pyron kinda ends up in the way. In 2, it basically is changed to Pyron is the one that starts the tournament, and that’s the canonical version.

So 2 isn’t really that much of a sequel, while Darkstalkers 3 (or Vampire Savior) is an actual sequel to the series. This introduces the antagonist, Jedah Dohma, whose plot is that he wants to collect all the powerful darkstalker souls and put them into this big demon baby, which then be used as a vessel for him. Jedah’s whole thing is that he’s basically disappointed in what has become of the demon world (makai world) and decides that he’s going to annihilate both the demons and humans. He sees himself as a savior, and while there really isn’t a protag, Jedah kind of is considered to be one in 3.

NOW. WHAT IS A DARKSTALKER? It’s literally just...fucking monster? I guess? There really isn’t a specific definition but just know, everyone, besides B.B. Hood because she’s the only true human in the series, is a Darkstalker.

Just gonna get my problems out of the way. Obviously, the series has some sexual stuff, which is fine but it can get uncomfortable. Demitri is a pretty big example since he literally has an ability that just involves transforming the opponent into a younger, more desirable person so that he can drain their blood? I won’t go to into it since it’s gross but yeah. Then of course there’s Lilith and yeah...REALLY WISH THEY DIDN’T MAKE HER LOOK LIKE THAT BECAUSE SHE’S A PRETTY COOL CHARACTER.

Darkstalkers also doesn’t offer much as far as a story, this is sort of good because it offers a lot of freedom as far as writing, but to be honest? A lot of stuff which tries to elaborate on the Darkstalkers lore or whatever, KIND OF SUCKS. I myself, am not into the Udon comics or the mangas, the OVA also doesn’t offer much of a great story. Which is a shame because Darkstalkers has a lot of potential but so many attempts, just kinda fail because they miss the point in the series. Udon and the Vampire Savior manga in particular because they take the series way too seriously or just characterize really strangely? The OVA probably offers the best in terms of story but it’s not even much because the only actual good and satisfying one, is Donovan’s story. His is the only one that actually has a conclusion. Otherwise, the OVA suffers from poor pacing, lots of exposition, or just OOC moments. LIKE??? REALLY DOESN’T MAKE SENSE AS TO WHY FELICIA GETS ALONG WITH ZABEL OR MORRIGAN ENDING UP WITH DEMITRI?

And then I guess a more minor complaint. Darkstalkers has a very specific style, I really think the series look best in the first two games and in the OVA. I personally am not a big fan of the character art in 3 jdskal

NOW FOR THE POSITIVES.

I CANNOT EMPHASIZE ENOUGH HOW MUCH I ADORE THE ART AND ANIMATION IN THE SERIES????

The main artists for the series are Bengus (Gouda Cheese) and Daigo Ikeno. Bengus really fucking nailed how the series should look. It’s got that perfect balance of the gothic, sensual aesthetic with exaggeration and fuckin weirdness of the series. Darkstalkers is a series that completely embraces it’s wacky side and just how campy it’s influences are. I mostly love Bengus’ earlier works from 1 and 2. Daigo’s stuff is much more casual and less elaborate compared to Bengus’ works but I kinda love that, he’s really great at showing off the characters in more casual situations and showing off their goofier sides. I’ll share some of my favorite pieces at the end.

OH GOD. AND HOW CAN I NOT BRING UP THE ANIMATION???

While I wouldn’t say it’s as fluent as Street Fighter Alpha 3′s sprites, because Darkstalkers is able to be more creative with it’s moves, the results are some super wacky and fun animation. Darkstalkers animators heavily referenced old Looney Tunes and Hanna Barbera cartoons when it came to animating. I really don’t know a whole lot of fighting games, especially from Capcom, that look the way Darkstalkers looks. And a lot of that comes from the fact that Darkstalkers isn’t very limited. Characters can launch missles, fireballs, fucking blood?. Characters can extend or manipulate their body. Or just do weird shit like transform characters into basketballs, make characters perform in a rhythm game?, A CHARACTER STRAIGHT UP USES HIS ASS CHEEKS TO GRAB YOU AND SUMMON LIGHTNING?? Everything is super fucking wild and that’s what makes the series.

A lot of people say Darkstalkers needs to be gorey and sexual but that’s really not what the series is about. Yes, Darkstalkers is def sensual but it also really doesn’t take itself seriously. That’s what so many people miss. And honestly? Even though it was terrible, the American cartoon ends up being the most accurate to the source material because it gives no fucks and so much weird shit just happens.

Another thing I love about Darkstalkers is how much it subverts it’s characters and just how creative they got. You have an Australian zombie rockstar, a catlady that’s also an idol and a nun??, a demon possessed samurai ghost armor guy. The character design is genuinely fucking brillant and not at all what you’d expect to get when given the idea for monster characters. I would talk about the characters but you see how long this post is starting to get.

And I haven’t talked that much about gameplay but Darkstalkers feels fucking great. If you’re curious about which game to get into, absolutely go with 3/Vampire Savior. It feels great, combo inputs are relatively simple, you can straight up beat the game just by button mashing, and no character really feels too similar. It’s also a very fast game too, if you ever watch tournaments, they go by so fast and when you play it, you’re very much engaged. It’s a game that requires a lot of attention and I enjoy that. I also have to mention this but, pretty much every character has their own unfair, bullshit tactic that, if you plan on getting good, will require you to figure out how to avoid depending on what character you use. There’s a sorta popular joke with the game that, it’s balanced if all the characters are broken. I’ll admit, probably not the best game for someone like me that sucks as far as remembering stuff and being able to plan ahead, but I still have lots of fun with the game!

I really didn’t expect to become as engaged in the series as I did but there is a lot to appreciate about Darkstalkers. It’s unfortunate to because, sadly, Darkstalkers likely will never get another game.

While the series is technically popular, it’s still way too niche compared to most fighting games. It just never had the same impact as other fighting games, and ultimately, no matter how good those games feel to play, there’s always shit like Marvel vs Capcom that just is more well known and features more stuff that just is what people prefer going to. I think Capcom will pretty much stick with having Darkstalkers characters appear in crossover games vs actually giving the franchise another game

They tries reviving it with Resurrection, which was a re-release of the games on Xbox and Playstation, but it hardly even sold that many copies. Which is where the phrase “Darkstalkers are not Dead” originated from, a phrase that has become a joke now in the fighting game community. Even if they were to revive the series, it’d be difficult recapturing that same vibe since most of the original crew are working on completely separate projects. There’s also a part of me that does fear the idea of another game because of how it’ll be handled. I’ve heard people mention possibly having the Skullgirls team develop or maybe Arc Systems, I just don’t want a lot of the charm to be lost in a sequel.

Since a fighting game isn’t really possible, I do hope for maybe a show or comic series that explores the characters and story more.

My brain is kinda blanking rn but yeah. I just fucking love this series a lot. I hope maybe someday I can contribute something great to this franchise and I hope you listened to me ramble about it.

#i am so fucking sorry #but thank you djsakljdskalda #Anonymous

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rayless-reblogs · 4 years

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the effect of The Caligula Effect

I just beat The Caligula Effect, a game I heard about years ago, but always understood to be a semi-bad Persona clone full of angsty-looking high school kids with superpowers. But I was eventually convinced to play The Caligula Effect: Overdose, an expanded rerelease that allows the gamer not only the opportunity to play alongside the Go-Home Club – a group of students who are searching for a way to escape the virtual utopia that entraps them – but also the chance to simultaneously join the Ostinato Musicians, another group of students who are determined to preserve the utopia and their idealized lives within it at all costs.

I'm a big fan of Persona, and this isn't the first clone I've played. Last year I tried out Falcom's Tokyo Xanadu. As far as I'm concerned, neither game approaches the quality of the latter three Personas, but in terms of visuals, gameplay, and story, Xanadu has Caligula pretty well beat.

I like Xanadu. But between the two, Caligula is the one I like more and care much more about.

Justifications below the cut. Also some extremely vague spoilers.

The Bad: The Caligula Effect has major shortcomings in many, many areas. For me, the battle system is clunky and bland (though if I raised the difficulty, I might find it more interesting). The character models are awkward. The environments are repetitive and the levels are too long. And as far as battles go, you are literally just fighting other students – no interesting monster designs anywhere. Those are a few points, but there are definitely more flaws that could be gone into.

But if you've followed me for a while, you know that the games that end up grabbing my attention aren't necessarily the most deserving. So here's what I like:

The 2D art is lovely. The characters have changeable portraits based on their emotions, as per Persona, but the menu features two full-length portraits for each character, Go-Home and Musicians alike. The elegant, silvery art style is gorgeous, and it's a shame it wasn't used more prominently and creatively, rather than the awkward 3D models. The main visual motif is flowers, and to that end each Go-Home member has unique (and highly symbolic) flowers associated with them. When they access their superpowers, each of them is shown with a stake driven through their heart, surrounded by their flowers – a striking and unusual effect. The desaturated colors in the characters' designs make their flowers stand out all the brighter.

And definitely check out each character's status screen because their portraits hint towards their true personalities.

Speaking of which –

Caligula mimics Persona's Social Link system (it doesn't use the term Social Link, but that's what I'll use here), allowing you to grow closer to your teammates on both sides of the ideological conflict. Not all of the Social Links are written equally well – some are more interesting than others – but a number of them are intertwined (even across both teams in the Overdose release) and become very engrossing as you try to figure out how events fit together. And who these people you're working alongside really are.

Like Persona, several of your teammates are motivated by personal trauma. As great as Persona 3 is, it can start to feel ludicrous how many of its characters have dead parents. (In fairness, their traumas aren't just that they have dead parents – but most of them have at least one dead parent and it gets old.) In Caligula, the traumas feel varied and more unexpected, touching on subjects I haven't often seen in JRPGs. For example, I guessed Mifue's trauma fairly early on, but was surprised at how seriously it was eventually depicted. I thought I figured out Ayana's quite quickly, only to have my theory pulled out from under me. Izuru's Social Link ended up shocking me at one point, then made me more thoughtful as I listened to him analyze himself. I've heard Kotono's arc wasn't universally liked in Japan, but I was really happy to see her specific backstory handled, even if it made her more complicated than a typical pretty girl in a high school game. And when it came to Shogo's, I immediately started to downplay the seriousness of his past – only to be proven quite wrong.

And it's not just the heavy stuff. Going through characters' Social Links (and talking to them on the game's texting feature) often changed how I felt about them. When I first met Suzuna, I was instantly fed up with her timid personality and thought I was going to hate her. She ended up being one of my favorites, the change not so much due to big story events but because of small details about her personality. I disliked Ayana and Naruko early on, but softened as I got to know them. This is especially noticeable with the Musicians. If you only encounter them as the Go-Home Club, they'll be rather flat, easily dismissed antagonists. Getting to know them on their own turf reveals characters who are often as fleshed out and interesting as the main cast. And again I was surprised at who I ended up really liking, like Sweet-P and Shonen-Doll.

Another, more subtle, thing I enjoyed – in different Persona games, a number of your teammates are very cool people. Eriko's mysterious and interested in the occult, Mitsuru's this unattainable school celebrity, Akihiko's a star boxer, Ann's a professional model, Yusuke's an artistic prodigy, Rise's a literal teen idol. There are certainly talented people among your teammates in The Caligula Effect, but for the most part, you're all nerds and losers. And that goes for the villains as well. Most of the characters aren't that socially impressive, either because of their personalities or they have very powerful reasons for turning away from the mainstream. And while many of them grow and change, they're not really wish-fulfillment characters.

One last thing I want to touch on – this virtual utopia our characters are struggling in is rather deceptive. Everyone within it takes on the role of a high schooler, but this doesn't always reflect who they are in reality, adding another layer of interest for me. Without going into specifics (because one of the most fun things for me was trying to figure out who people really were), a (vague) number of these characters are adults, not teenagers. And many of them are motivated by very adult concerns, such as dissatisfaction with their professions and questioning their positions in their adult lives. One of the main tensions of the game is whether it's better to direct yourself as an adult in the often-disappointing real world or whether it's better to remain a child free from responsibility in the virtual world. Despite all the game's high school trappings and tropes, I found myself wondering who the intended audience really was.

Caligula's main story is pretty flat and basic, much less sophisticated than the plots of the Personas or Tokyo Xanadu. But because of the characters and the multitude of B-Plots you go through with them, the game still has a compelling, and even adult, quality.

It's not a great game. I can't stress that enough. The first handful of hours are terrible. I think one reason I'm so into it is that I entered the game with very low expectations. But its characters have a lot to offer, and for me that ended up being the heart of the game. So I liked it.

#the caligula effect #lucid #suzuna kagura #(being the pictured characters)#meta #rayless reviews #i'm not going to do game reviews as a regular thing #but i had a lot of thoughts after beating this game #and may post a few more thoughts in the future #persona #tokyo xanadu #mine

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beneaththetangles · 3 years

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Otaku Reader’s Corner: One Piece, Cutie Shikimori, and a Detestable Demon Falls in Love

Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie, Vol. 1

Shikimori seems like the perfect girlfriend—cute, sweet, bashful. But Izumi knows that’s only half her personality. Like some moe Jekyll and Hyde, in moments where her boyfriend needs her most, she becomes a super cool and dashing young woman, and it’s especially that part of her personality that Izumi loves so much. Volume one of this fun series doesn’t just play around with this unique personality switching, it also introduces a really fun dynamic. Izumi is lovable but clumsy accident prone, and the sudden transformation of Shikimori into a suave, athletic girlfriend who comes to his rescue time and time and time again swaps traditional gender roles, with Izumi playing the “girl role” and Shikimori the “boy one.” While it’s a source of laughs, there’s a lot of sweetness there, making for a compelling and cute read. Just as importantly, the art style of mangaka Keigo Maki really stand outs, especially in how he places his characters within their surroundings. I found it far more artistic than the usual manga romance. All told, I’m excited to continue with the read, as it hits all the pleasantness of Komi Can’t Communicate, to which Kodansha is comparing it, while featuring a little more depth and greater creativity than that super popular like-minded series. ~ Twwk

Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie, Vol. 1 is available through Kodansha.

Why Shouldn’t a Detestable Demon Lord Fall in Love?! Vol. 1

Anima is the most powerful entity in the world, feared by commoners and demons alike—all flee before his mighty power, which presents a little problem since all he really wants is a wife and family! So how does one solve such a conundrum? How about a kind-hearted and beautiful maiden summoning him by her side to her own world! Sol Press’ release oozes lovey-doveyness even beyond what you’d expect from the above summary. When Anima arrives in a new land, he immediately falls head over heals for the lovely Luina and takes on the mantle of caregiver and “daddy” for his newfound family. It’s a bit heavy-handed, and I don’t mean the saccharine sweet tone, which is just fine—the conversations, however, are often inane and repetitive. Worse, Anima loses his personality after the first handful of pages and becomes quite a boring character. However, there is hope for the series. Despite how OP Anima is, there are hints of dread on the horizon, and though this sweet series may never go totally dark, there’s opportunity here for the author to earn the love he’s created between his leads through the deeds of the story’s villain and the mechanics of summoning and magic. The best parts of volume one involve foreshadowing and world-building, so here’s hoping those strong elements continue to develop in future volumes. ~ Twwk

Why Shouldn’t a Destestable Demon Lord Fall in Love?! Vol. 1 is available through Sol Press.

Unnamed Memory, Volume 1

Billing itself as “an epic fairy tale,” this new light novel from Yen Press surprised me. It felt unexpectedly reminiscent of western fantasy (as opposed to the sorts of fantasy stories more common to anime and light novels). I can’t quite put my finger on why I get this vibe, but it’s there, and I enjoyed it. Perhaps the capriciousness and danger of the story’s fantastical elements evoke western fairy tales. As the story opens, Prince Oscar, cursed by a witch to be unable to continue the royal line, seeks a boon from the world’s strongest witch, Tinasha. When she can’t break the curse, Oscar sets his sights on marrying her, which would effectively circumvent the curse. I’m tempted to call this a fantasy-romance-mystery story, since secrets and intrigue abound. There seem to be multiple, separate antagonists or factions at work, and there are also indications that time travel is involved. Besides hinting at various mysteries, this volume serves to introduce the the romantic leads, Oscar and Tinasha. The two are quite stubborn and have some good rapport…but they also might totally kill each other. I look forward to the next volume. ~ Jeskai Angel

Unnamed Memory is available through Yen Press.

One Piece, Vol. 1

So, recently I decided to do something ridiculous. I told my Twitter followers that if I was able to get my follower count back above 3,000 I would start reading the One Piece manga. It’s a huge fandom and one of the biggest manga series in the world. It took my followers less than 3 hours to get me back above that threshold. So, true to my word – I started reading it. So, at the time I wrote this I am finishing up the first volume’s worth of chapters. My thoughts so far? I’m really enjoying it. The story kicks off with kid Luffy and introduces you very quickly into the entire world setting Oda has created. From the widespread piracy to the corrupt government to the magic fruit that gives Luffy his stretchy powers, it’s all explained in those first few chapters. I’ve read a lot of short lived manga series that gave us an oversized first chapter that tried aggressively to shove the reader into the plot and world setting too quickly. One Piece brings us into the world masterfully without any of it feeling forced. Instead, I felt immersed in the new characters as they were introduced and enamored by Luffy. I think I’m going to like this series, so feel free to follow me on my journey. ~ MDMRN

One Piece can be read at Shonen Jump or purchased through Viz.

Harem Royale ~When the game ends~, Volume 1

From the creator of Higurashi and Umineko comes a manga with quite the twisted concept. Asunaro is a high school boy who fantasizes about having a harem but has no desire to try to get a girlfriend in reality. When he releases a demon from a sealed bottle, though, said demon decides to “grant his wish for a harem life”… by dragging the girls he fantasizes about into a deadly game of seduction. A number of girls must compete in various tasks to appeal to Asunaro, with the goal to be the one girl he chooses at the end, and any girl that fails will be subjected to being repeatedly killed in Hell. It’s an absolutely vile setup designed specifically for grief and suffering, which is why I’m glad the story at least focuses more on the efforts of four girls not to try to destroy each other or indulge in the whole “harem” romancing thing, but instead how they can try to work around the rules of the game so all of them can survive, while watching out for outside forces trying to sabotage them. As such, it reads less like a sleazy harem story and more like a thriller with mind games and strategizing. With Asunaro himself out of the loop that this death game is happening, though, it does mean that he has no real characterization worth speaking of, and the girls also don’t have much characterization beyond how they are trying to survive the game. Overall, it’s not my type of story so I probably won’t read any more of it, but if “harem death game” with a focus on mutual survival sounds good to you, this should serve fine. (Content warning: there’s a few depictions of detailed upper-body nudity.) ~ stardf29

Harem Royale, Vol. 1 is available from Sol Press.

Fushi no Kami: Rebuilding Civilization Starts with a Village, Volume 1

The latest reincarnation isekai light novel centered around using modern knowledge to improve lives, Fushi no Kami is a solid entry for those who like that kind of story. The premise might be very familiar, but the execution works well on many fronts. For example, the protagonist Ash not only has to learn how to read the language of the world he’s now in, but also gets to put some linguistic knowledge to use in order to try to decipher ancient languages. Likewise, the story goes fairly in-depth with what sorts of developments are needed to improve life and how to actually execute said developments. However, it is with the characters themselves where the story particularly shines; the narration not only gets into Ash’s head and his thoughts about everything but also switches viewpoints frequently to those of other characters, which helps with understanding and developing all of them as they start to grow to accommodate Ash’s newfound passions. The only downside is that, for as bright as Ash can be with improving the quality of life, he’s rather dense when it comes to romance. Overall, this is a nice, more down-to-earth isekai story that I certainly would like to read more of. ~ stardf29

Fushi no Kami, Vol. 1 is available from J-Novel Club.

Shirahime-Syo

Shirahime-Syo is a single volume series from CLAMP filled with tales of romance and loss in the winter. Interconnected through each of the stories is that the winter itself is living component of the story as the Snow Goddess. Each of the 5 chapters of this single volume set is in ancient Japan during blistering wintery conditions and tell about different tales of love. Some of the stories are tragic, while others are more bittersweet. CLAMP’s art style in this set of folktale style stories were completed with a brush and ink. This gave the art a more traditional flair than more modern pen inking. This was, apparently, done as a cost and time cutting measure; however, the choice to complete the art with a brush and ink helped fit into the setting very well. It entirely felt like you were being told some traditional folktales and I really enjoyed it. ~ MDMRN

Shirahime-Syo is available through Viz.

Keito Koume Illustrations Spice & Wolf: The Tenth Year Calvados

One of the attractions of both manga and light novels is the illustrations—even in the age of video, still images can remain compelling, especially when masterfully drawn. Keito Koume is certainly a master, and has been the mangaka for the Spice & Wolf manga adaptation for the last 10+ years. To celebrate the decade of his work, a lovely artbook featuring many of the manga’s illustrations, as well original pieces and those from other materials, has been released. The work also has a lovely monochrome illustrations section, a new short comic, and a thumbnail gallery of all the illustrations, including references and Koume’s own commentary. The Tenth Year Calvados is a must-have collector’s item for fans of this classic franchise, and worth checking out even for those who aren’t. Though a bit of warning: Just as with the other platforms, this artbook features heavy doses of a mostly and occasionally fully nude wise wolf. ~ Twwk

Keito Koume Illustrations Spice & Wolf: The Tenth Year Calvados is available through Yen Press. Watch our video review of this artbook on YouTube.

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Thank you to Kodansha, Sol Press, and Yen Press for providing review copies for some of the materials reviewed above.

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silverscale12 · 4 years

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Top 10 Favourite inspiring Artists.

ok so i spent a lot of my time drawing these icons to express my thoughts across the most creative artists, friends and famous people that inspired me and many others in the last year, the type of artists who their ideas, drawings and creations turns you into your own artist as good as them, so i it’s time to read out the names of those magnificant artists

@ninjahaku21art

Ninja, aka negan girl (Cause of her cool version dressing up as negan from the walking dead) is a great creativity artist, the reason she is so likable to me is not because of her style, but because she put astonishing effort for every single drawing and concept she posts on tumblr, her stories and ideas always are quite enjoyable and her characters are very extrodanary, both their stories and pasts. not only that but due to last year’s announcement of where she decided to make her own series known as the Tales of Moonlight City which is a toon like action web comic that features quite intriguing and good stories. in an honest note i wasn’t really into violence before ever since i knew about her blog on 2018, but when i realized how it was important for her concepts to contain a little blood and drama i started to love it (even if my heartaches of panic attacks XD), because if you ever tried making an action drama story, the people who makes it always know it’s important to add action and violence in it, and that’s what makes ninja an awesome and impressive artist in my book

@mast3r-rainb0w

now you all maybe wondering, what is so special about a magical demon with fancy rainbow clothes? well let me tell you, he’s not JUST a magical demon with fancy rainbow clothes. he’s a magical demon with fancy rainbow clothes with the most unique styles. the type of styles from different shows and favorite franchises i knew over the last couple of years, from famous DS video games starring childhood plumber hero mario from nintendo, to popular kids cartoon the loud house and sailor moon, and what makes this guy cooler, is that he always surprises people with new styles he is able to do. I mean seriously, the way he catches these style perfectly makes me want to buy new minds after my previous ones are blown just looking at it, and that’s what makes him so special, such a gifted artist like him makes you wonder if he ever met one of those famous artists that were known in those franchises 030

@infamouslydorky

now here’s the thing that is so enjoyable of this artist, it’s not just because of the way she draws realistic airbrushed characters, but the fact that her concepts leaves fans on stitches, like her au for an example, she made a 90s don’t starve au of famous don’t starve antagonist maxwell turning him to his name mullet max, and that’s hillarious to see a very flirty version of him being in her gallery, and not mention the jokes, refrences and concepts that she puts in every single don’t starve and tf2 characters, like if you ever seen the old comics where she made tf2 characters in funny jokes and expressions is something brilliant, i never knew someone as funny like her even after i spent 17 years in a computer looking up at all type of funny art

@fish-and-ice-arts

this zombie girl is a character making genius, in other words a “Sea creature enthusiast” why? because if you look at her tumblr blog you can see how many artwork of very beautiful sea animals whether harmless or predatory, not to mention putting them in business suits which makes them in a crime family, i mean seriously a lot of people like gangsters, so do i, even famous mob bosses who inspire people to make thier own mafia characters, but not in the human kind of way, but more likely in the non-human kind of way, and that means she makes good looking shark gangsters that you never seen a lot on google, i mean seriously i just like to see animal mobsters from the 1930s, therefore i became such a fan of her works and character designs

@absolutedream-casper

now here’s the thing about this magnificent owl boi, his concepts are one thing, his animations are another, the moment i laid eyes on his first few works i started watching him, i saw quite a lot of greats animations he made over the last few years, animations that makes fills people's minds with inspiration, and it’s really amazing how someone as creative as him put up with such an amazing style and animation, therefore this guy has incredible skills. the way he animates is almost like looking at a bunch of works for cartoons that never released before but you wish if they did X

@mabelcococups

my friend mabel is special with her style, like it’s so pretty beautiful the way she draws, and her characters are also adorable and amazing, it never cease to amaze me, but what makes her even more special is her matchmaking concept with her friends, that type of artist that makes people “like me” think they would be good for each other, and she’s really a nice person. and a lot of you who are new on tumblr who saw her works you’ll find out of what i meant by saying “her matchmaking” cause i really love every character of her and her friends being in a romantic relationship

@nikki-keo/ @red-is-red

nikki is absolutly fantastic, due to the fact she can do both art and animation. so for starters her style is very adorable, like this type of style that resemble anime is quite fantastic, as for her animation, she maybe in the phase of apprentice if you ever seen those animations, but she knows how how to put creativity in her animations, like the ones with her characters, it’s really funny and adorable, and the ones she makes on videos where she puts suitable music tracks, are also good, and that makes her so special, whether she’s good or not in animation it doesn’t matter, the only two things that matter in her animations that she knows how to animate and she knows how to make what she animated into an absolute admiration

@elementalgod-aj

now if any of you wondered why i picked him from my second part of list of artists (friends) is because he draws what he sees in his own mind, not all artists like him needs to have a good style, cause whether your style is good or not, it’s sort of trivial if the way he draws is different, and i’m no one to judge because i understand his intentions, trust me he told me, what is really important from him to keep up with is his imagination, like he has a lot of ocs with a lot of different designs, a lot of them got your attention so much it inspires you, not to mention his stories of his characters is what makes you think that these type of stories is what the character is really living up right now (he knows that these stories is what his characters have actually been through in their history) so likely these type stories caught so many people, even famous artist like pumpkin, magma and twila started following him, because they know that what he makes his ideas leave them impressed and admired

@Rogelis (Deviantart)

one of my closest friends, and also a fantastic artist, to both his characters and dominating style, now he is amazing because of his villain characters, not a lot of people saw toony comic inspired supervillain ocs like his, one of those ocs of my favorites is Flan.Bo, an insane robotic scientific genius with a lot of other dangerous followers, making deals and partnering up with other famous supervillain ocs that other people likes as well, as for his style, it’s a killer, like i seen some people do few styles and and few that they can’t do, this guy however is killing his gallery with the most intense cartoon based styles, dragon ball, loud house, disney, not to mention ok k.o and many others, i saw his main character in all those sort of many styles, and i was like “how is he doing that” i mean seriously he must’ve had a big family who are actually the most famous celebrity animators the people have ever seen, can you imagine? i sure do because that would be mind blowing

@Drmatthew178 (Deviantart)

the last of my friends from the other half of the artist pile, the reason why he is so amazing because he’s “a genius” and the reason why he’s a genius because of all the type of characters he ever made, like if you look into all of his submissions in his gallery you will see several of those contains the most intense designs of villains, minions, robots and mutants that no body ever seen before, i mean i think that’s a reason why his first name is “doctor” because he’s a character doctor, making such amazing characters with fitting name and impressive designs really hits fans where it hurts the most (the eyes) and i really think he is doing a very well job on making such good characters

now to all those people, followers and newbies who are seeing this, don't think for a moment that you are not special too. different people have different ways of drawing and coming up with ideas. whether your drawings are traditional or digital you definetly would make fine artists like them and a favorite one in my case too

as for you guys, i really hope you enjoy your gifts from me to you. and to finish this post, stay sharp, stay cool, and most important, your art and ideas always rule

#My Art #Gifts #Personas #Ninjahaku21art #MAST3R-RAINB0W #infamouslydorky #fish-and-ice-arts #absolutedream #mabelcococups #nikki-keo #elementalgod-aj #Rogelis #Drmatthew178

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fivie · 4 years

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Rating Tacky Christmas Movies

Halloween is over and so it is officially, irrefutably The Festive Season now and the TV is already showing deliciously low-budget Christmas movies and my plan is to watch as many as possible and also rate them, so that you can better choose which ones to inflict upon yourself!!

Today’s maiden outing was A Gingerbread Romance. See my scorching review below.

(There are spoilers.)

This one really dragged me in with its honestly amazing premise, which is that main character Taylor, a successful architect, is selected by her firm to represent them in an apparently high-stakes competition to design and build a life-sized gingerbread house, for which task she is required to team up with a baker. And like first off, that’s hilarious, and secondly the film really duped me for a hot minute into thinking it was going to be way more interesting than expected, because obviously Taylor is the uptight career-driven character who needs to learn the true meaning of Christmas and the baker is going to be her obligatory love interest who is going to teach her - and the baker is revealed to be a hot French lady. Logically I knew this was not going to pan out the way I wanted it to, this is a Hallmark movie, but for a second there- But no, Hot French Lady turns out to be a Bitch, naturally, and teams up instead with Taylor’s rival, so, whatever, saw it coming, I’ll just write the superior fanfic where Taylor and hot French lady baker get together and teach each other the true meaning of Christmas through their beautiful unfolding love, IT’S FINE.

So enter back-up baker Adam, our hetero love interest who works in a bakery where he is creatively stifled and who is a single father to his daughter, Brooke. Christmas movies love single dads, don’t they? I guess it’s to code the male characters as Sensitive and Wholesome, and also the kid/s always take a liking to Main Character which helps hurry the romance along. Anyway the guy playing Adam is like, a hunk but kind of a bad actor, but honestly everyone in this movie is a bad actor so he’s in good company. He and Taylor argue about her design for the gingerbread house because she wants it to be “cutting-edge” and he just has weirdly strong opinions about Christmas and stuff being traditional and the sanctity of gingerbread and blah blah a lot of this stuff should have been cut from the movie but we have to see them arguing so that we get that this is going to be One Of Those romance stories. You know this movie had three writers? And YET.

Anyway Taylor insta-bonds with Brooke and continues to have what I think is intended to be flirty-antagonistic banter with Adam but it’s all so flat that it’s not entirely clear. And like, I’m just saying, but Taylor and Hot French Lady had a way more immediately antagonistic vibe and would’ve had a way more interesting relationship arc BUT WHATEVER, IT’S FINE. Also the movie does that THING where the first time you see Adam at home, he’s with his kid and also a woman, which is clearly meant to make you go ‘wait, he’s MARRIED?’ but then later the woman is revealed to be his sister. Only, when movies do this, it usually involves at least one other character getting caught up in this misunderstanding - but not here!! Taylor only meets the sister once and is immediately introduced to her as Adam’s sister and honestly she doesn’t do anything except mildly puzzle the audience at the start and should not have been in the movie at all, that’s my hot take. ANYWAY, as the movie progresses Adam and Brooke start dragging Taylor to every Christmas-related Thing around town because they’re so horrified that, because she travels around a lot with her job, she’s never home for Christmas and so doesn’t really celebrate it much. That is the extent of Taylor’s Christmas Sin, by the way - she doesn’t hate it or anything, she’s just a woman who lives alone and is usually in another country at Christmas time, but in a Christmas movie this is unacceptable!!! Also they decorate her entire house and get her a huge Christmas tree without asking her if any of that is cool first and she’s like ‘WOW!! (:’ and I was like ‘what the fuck!!’

An important thing to note about this movie is that it takes place over 10 days. They have 10 days to design and build this life-sized gingerbread house, and in between they find time to go ice skating and browse the Christmas market and have painfully stilted conversations. Neither of them seem to have to go to work, not even Adam, who works in the retail industry, and it’s Christmas. They also have 10 days to fall in love, as a Christmas movie demands. And it’s...it’s real bad, folks. There’s no chemistry between Taylor and Adam, every stop on their journey to romance feels totally unnatural, neither of them know how to emote properly, and the whole situation is probably summed up by the fact that my flatmate and I burst out laughing at their extremely sterile kiss at the end of the movie. But wait, I’m getting ahead of myself.

There are no real stakes in this movie - Hot French Lady and Taylor’s architect rival are set up as antagonists at the start, but they ultimately do...nothing. There’s even this whole weird part where a security guard at the gingerbread house competition (yeah) makes some remark about how he’d be in big trouble ‘if anything were to happen to one of these houses’, and I then spent the whole rest of the movie waiting for Taylor and Adam’s house to get sabotaged, or for the baddies to fix the competition, or something, but no, I was a fool, there is no plot. The only stakes-adjacent thing is that, should Taylor win the competition, she will most likely get a big promotion that will see her sent to work in another country, because designing a big gingerbread house is how you get a promotion in the world of architecture. This is firmly established as being Taylor’s Lifelong Dream. And wouldn’t you know it, she and Adam win the competition, the supposed antagonists are weirdly good sports about it, and Taylor is informed that she is being promoted and she’s going to Paris. (Once again I pause to reflect that this would not have been an issue at all if Hot French Lady had been the love interest. They could have gone to Paris together. GOD.) Adam is devastated that this woman he has known and bickered with for 10 days is leaving to pursue her dream instead of spending Christmas with him and his daughter. In between all this Adam also finds out that his own Lifelong Dream of owning his own bakery is coming true, but he seems pretty unmoved by it so, whatever I guess.

Ultimately Taylor decides not to be a selfish monster and gives up on Paris to come back and spend Christmas with Adam and Brooke. Apparently there are other awesome architecture projects coming up in their own city, and I assume her saying that is supposed to make me as a viewer feel better about her decision, but it did not work. You’ve known this man for 10 DAYS, TAYLOR. And then they share the most comically soulless kiss in history, THE END.

Top lines from the movie:

Taylor: (with madly waggling eyebrows) Desperate times...call for desperate measuring cups.

Taylor: (Complaining about being made to design a gingerbread house, which feels like something of a step down from her previous architecture projects.)

Adam: (Deadly serious and deadpan) There’s nothing shameful about designing a gingerbread house.

Overall rating: A promising premise, but bad acting, a poor script and the tantalising possibility of much more interesting lesbians let it down. Kind of funny but for all the wrong reasons. 4/10

#rating tacky christmas movies #bad movies are my lifeblood #christmas

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snkpolls · 5 years

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SnK Chapter 115 Poll Results

The chapter poll closed with 1,585 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated!

RATE THE CHAPTER 1,471 responses

Isayama’s winning streak continues. Overall chapter satisfaction was up almost 10% over last month with the majority of fans (57.2%) giving it a 5 rating. Less than 5% viewed the chapter unfavorably.

Isayama is ruthless, my god.

We got an amazing chapter this month which came out of the blue, in my opinion. So many answers were given as well as many more shocking questions. Definitely one of the best

It was definitely more eye opening and you could just feel the tension through the different scenes.

I loved this chapter, it was definitely one of the most compelling

This is a candidate for the greatest chapter of the manga, the last candidate was chapter 112 followed by 104 and there are a lot of them. Isayama-sensei is killing it. Every single chapter is either great, or a candidate for the greatest chapter.

Honestly, just incredible. Everything I could've possibly wanted. These kinds of chapters are why attack on titan will be my favorite for a long time.

It was an interesting chapter. We got to learn more about the PATHS and some parallels to older chapters were cool.

A bit of a rollercoster of emotions but, I’m putting my faith in Isayama he’ll do what’s best

Loved it, everything's insane and pulling at nerves. Eren is the best, hands down. He's got to have the best poker face. Neither side even knows what he's up to!

Masterpiece. Wanna know more about the girl who seems to be ymir, and Pieck’s intentions as well. Cuz idt she can even stand a chance against eren, imo.

THIS CHAPTER WAS LOADED WITH FLASHBACKS. WHICH WERE YOU MOST EXCITED TO SEE?

1,457 responses

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Yeagerbro conversation was the most desired flashback and nearly 60% of the fandom were excited to see it. In second comes Zeke’s reaction to learning his father survived and continued on. The third place spot goes to Reiner and Bertolt as fans of the warriors were happy to see them again, even if for only a couple panels.

I'm a simple stan, I see Reiner and Bert, and I cry. 10/10 scene its about time we got more uprising arc warriors scenes but Isayama pls give us Reiner outside of a flashback again thanks

Finally, Jaeger Bros talk.

While flashbacks are nice, I feel like a lot of it was filler-esque and had hopped for more progress on what happened to Levi and Zeke.

WHAT WAS THE MOST DISTURBING IMAGERY OF THE CHAPTER? 1,492 responses

Attack on Titan is known for its plethora of disturbing imagery, and this chapter was no exception. The majority of readers, at 32.3%, thought that a titan shoving Zeke into its stomach was rather unsettling. 16.5% were especially grossed out by Levi’s fingers being several yards from the rest of him. Coming in third, 15.4% were disturbed by Levi’s face.

It might be the most disturbing chapter of the manga to date.

Floch, his presence and face is rather disturbing.

Yelena rape face

Ymir's soulless voids for eyes

The titan that vored Zeke was made of Flex Tape

I dont think you know what mpreg means...

The behaviour of the yeagerists towards levi which was once considered the hero of humanity

As a big Levi fan, everything that just happened to him in general.

Is everything an option? Because I am going with All Of The Above.

All of the above, tbh

all of them

Yes

OF THE FOLLOWING, WHICH WAS THE MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT OF THE CHAPTER? 1,495 responses

Zeke’s rebirth wins by a small margin with the mystery girl coming at a very close second. At an equally close third, people were happy to see Hange find Levi and protect him from the Yeagerists. Following these was Pieck’s sudden reappearance, and Hange taking Levi and diving into the water to escape.

i honestly can't choose one. everything in this chapter was A++, one of my favorite ones in a while.

that path thing that ymir seemed to be experiencing too

Eren looking at pieck blankly 0.1 seconds after being shocked by her pointing a gun at him

Zeke's grief when considering the pain his younger brother must have suffered.

Levi’s wrecked face

Titan putting zeke into its belly

For myself personally, I found most memorable two events. Firstly, was the revelation of paths as being a physical plane on which one can percieve and exist, as opposed to a merely transcendental metaphysical force. Secondly, most memorable alongside that for me was the whole scene of Hange protecting Levi from Floch's band of Jägerists, in no small part due to my lowkey shipping of Levi and Hange.

Zeke's flashbacks + Zeke's rebirth + Pieck appearance

P A T H S

WHO WAS THE LITTLE GIRL THAT … TURNED ZEKE INTO A SANDCASTLE? 1,456 responses

While most people (almost 90%) agree that the mysterious little girl Zeke encountered is somehow Ymir Fritz, there’s no shortage of other creative possibilities regarding her identity:

I wonder if this girl could be Maria Fritz, the hair and hairband are similar.

It’s P A T H S, whose power is even more immense than that of the Devil of All Earth and Ymir Fritz. Paths can take the form of anything. Paths just happened to take the form of a little girl during that moment.

A new important character

The titan that resurrected Zeke was originally that girl. Because the titan was closest to Zeke, Paths compelled that titan to save Zeke, whether it wanted to or not.

Original inheritor of the beast titan

An asspull

I'm not sure maybe but it can be the girl "Christa" from Frieda's & Historia's storybook too

It seems clear enough to me that this is at least outwardly Ymir Fritz. As for it being I wonder perhaps if this girl being Ymir Fritz and the Devil of the Earth isn't mutually exclusive. I have no evidence to substantiate such a claim, but recently acknowledged the possibility on part of the historical misinformation in regards to her origins.

HOW SATISFIED WERE YOU WITH THE NEWLY SCULPTED ZEKE BOD, FROM “THE SAND WAS MORE APPEALING”, TO “GET THAT CENSORSHIP STEAM OUT OF THE WAY” 1,455 responses

We got a pretty full view of Zeke’s new bod this chapter, and it garnered love, hate, and apathy; as only Zeke’s body could. Most of you wanted to get a full view of that Eldian ass at 34.7%. On the opposite end, 22.3% would rather get freaky with the sand that turned into the bod in question; and 25.1% don’t have a strong preference either way. 6.4% aren’t in love with either the sand or Zeke, and 11.5% enjoyed the view but would like that titan smoke to stay right where it’s at.

A complete chapter, with brand new information coming to us... and lots of monkey nudes. Zeke is the fanservice character of snk.

Thicc thighs won't make me forgive his sins

Everyone is seeing zeke’s dick but me

@ isayama: release zeke's n00ds.

No more naked Zeke plz.

I feel for him and but he's a seriously underwhelming antagonist. He's really nice to look at though.

I love him as a character; his motives, his history, his personality and his character design (not just because he is a sexy hunk of Edlian ass).

I know only three things

1. Levi is not dead. 2. Eren does not agree with Zeke. 3. Zeke is hot as hell.

I suddenly feel very sorry for the SC uniform - it’s being worn by absolute pricks. Please don’t let them cover Zeke’s ass with the cape.

my heart goes to THAT DUDE WHO CAN'T STOP STARING at Zeke's nekkid crotch. i feel ya man. that shit is weird.

Zeke has the big PP. Pieck has the biggest PP.

I don't like him because of sexualization and shipps.

Zeke's abs tho

So much Zeke nudes, we need more chad Eren (don't even need to be Eren nudes, just him shirtless is ok).

I wanted to see Zeke's beastly c-ck.

Zeke is pure. Pure SLUT

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS REGARDING ZEKE’S “REBIRTH” DO YOU THINK ARE TRUE? 1,441 responses

A slight majority of the fandom believes Zeke’s rebirth is evidence that Ymir Fritz needs Zeke alive. Close to 50% believe Zeke will see it as divine approval. While a quarter of the fandom thinks this experience has changed him, only 7% believe he’s changed for the better.

Zeke's reincarnation is bs but if Ymir does have more plans for him, I'd like to see how it all turns out for the best.

I hope Zeke learns that genocide is never the answer.

I just hope we get some specific answers soon regarding how Zeke was reincarnated like that. Felt pretty off seeing Zeke revived like that, but I can understand the theory that perhaps Ymir Fritz wants him to live to save the Eldians (and perhaps this is where the "To you, 2000 years in the future" comes into play).

WE’VE WAITED A LONG TIME FOR THE YEAGERBRO TALK. WAS IT WHAT YOU EXPECTED? 1,483 responses

The largest portion of replies indicate that the conversation between Eren and Zeke overall went as expected. But there were also many who didn’t care how it went and were simply glad to finally see their first talk together. Smaller portions were either more than happy with the conversation or found it a total disappointment. Certainly that couldn’t be all they talked about, right?

I knew they wouldn't be on the same side but didn't expect it to be so obvious Eren is lying to and manipulating Zeke. Zeke tearing up when Eren called him "brother" is the saddest shit, but also kinda hilarious considering how many people Zeke betrayed. Also, I wonder if we'll get more since Eren talked about how he learned a lot from Zeke.

Finally got confirmation that Eren played Zeke like a fiddle. Happy to see that lil bro backstab.

I expected something more grandiose tbh, when i saw the panel of zeke standing in front of eren, i thought that was a perfect tease to just end it there

It feels like Eren has Zeke eating out of the palm of his hand and it hurt more than expected

People who latch onto the belief that Eren's goal differs from Zeke are in for a disappointment

I am disappointed that zeke cares for eren and eren doesn't seem to reciprocate those feelings, and that he was trying to play the tough guy, it's annoying and i want wholesome jeagerbros!!!!

I didn't expect to be so short, and I assume we'll get more in the future, but this time from Eren's perspective.

I think it is too early to say one way or the other. We only truly got one side of the conversation.

It was good, but I hope it's not the only thing we see. I get the impression it was merely an appetizer. When I think about the brothers talking I always imagined it will be a full chapter. This was just their first conversation. Eren said Zeke told him many things, like the info about the Ackermans, so I am expecting a hell of a lot more dialogues between them.

it wasn't what I had expected. I also can't say yet if it is better or worse cause so much about Eren's true motives is still up in the air. Like originally I had expected Zeke to be the one to convince Eren of something, but clearly that is not what is happening here. Which, on the face of it, doesn't have to be a bad thing, I just need more info.

DO YOU BELIEVE THAT EREN TRULY AGREES WITH ZEKE’S PLAN? 1,490 responses

Over half of respondents agree that there’s no way in hell that Eren is on board with Zeke’s euthanasia plan. 23% believe that he is in partial agreement with Zeke’s plan, while 10% don’t want to say confidently either way whether Eren is on Zeke’s side. A small sliver of the fandom are certain that Eren is in favor of wiping out Eldia.

He just said what Zeke wanted to hear from 'his brother'. From the start of his speech Eren expressed clearly his purpose, bonus showing sympathy toward Zeke. The way that Eren said some of his points of view and plan fits to me in what he truly thinks about, but the way he said it was molded in orden to manipulate Zeke and get his confidence

Eren is getting influenced and this 'external influencer' is manipulating Zeke. Double manipulation.

He agreed with Zekes ideology at some point before Historia saved him

Zeke told him about his plan to euthanize eldians, Eren agreed that not being born into the world is salvation itself. We all know Eren thinks the EXACT opposite of that. he's manipulating zeke, only wanting his royal blood. Zeke might be the KEY to Eren's own secret plan.

I don't think eren is the kind of person to blatantly lie to someone, especially about the force that has driven him his entire life. There are some truth to his words, yes, but i think eren is going to use the fact that he thinks he shouldn't have been born to try and change the world into a safer place for his people, whereas zeke will use that same reason to eradicate his people, not giving them a chance to feel a sense of belonging in the world

He's using Zeke for some goal of his, but has gone way too far. Both of them are twisted, and perhaps share some points of their goals.

He understands and agrees with Zeke on a basic ideological level, insofar as the suffering that Eldia, and by extension Titans, bring to both the world and themselves by inherent virtue of being born. I believe, however, that this is where the agreement in actuality ends. What Eren disagrees with is the method to solve this problem. Whatever other solution Eren may have thought of, it entails the end of the titans and the elimination of paths, while sparing Eldian's lives and allowing them to continue on and have families. How this would be achieved, I do not know; this is merely my conjecture on where the story might go next.

I think he agrees with Zeke's goal of not having any Eldians born into the circumstances they are, but not his methodology of euthanasia. I think he has his own plan which will somehow stop/rewind/erase the Curse of Ymir/titanisation, possibly through altering Eldian DNA to make them unable to be turned into titans.

He's being brainwashed/manipulated by having so many memories that belong to other people, he's not being himself; not his true self

I don't believe he agrees, but I like to believe he isn't simply using his brother without any regard for him...though I can't really tell anymore with 'this' Eren :\

If Eren truly agreed with Zeke, all his development will be for nothing.

Maybe eren does actually agree that the best salvation is to never have been born, but when has eren ever wanted "salvation"?

WITH ALL THE RECENT FOCUS ON ZEKE, HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT HIM NOW? 1,487 responses

Zeke’s been getting a lot of focus lately, and this chapter was no exception. 45.7% of you enjoy his character but don’t support his schemes, and 21.9% don’t like the man but can sympathize with him at this point. Not all are as warm however, as 19% would like to see him burn. 8.9% love monkey boi and want to protect him with all you’ve got.

He's a perfect Grey character a villain and a hero depending on view point.

I’ve always loved him. Now I love him more

His plan is batshit and I don't really like him but I think he's an interesting character but he needs to burn

His plan is unethical & impractical, his methods consist of war crimes. I hope he's taken down *ideologically* & realizes he was wrong b4 he dies

I'm not for Zeke's plan but I want him to go out feeling like his life wasn't a complete waste.

I feel sorry for all kids who have shitty childhoods, but I don't then excuse them when they project their own hatred for life onto an entire race and try to take away their right to life. It doesn't matter how righteous or merciful he believes he's being, it's undeniable arrogance to decide you know whether another person's life is worth living or not.

I hate him as a character but his plan makes him more interesting/sympathetic

I like him but don't agree with him. I'm going to be depressed when he is inevitably stabbed in the back by his beloved little brother. I am also extremely hype for that to happen.

I like his recent character development, however I don’t really like him. Very interesting character though!

Interesting, complex character. I can understand his plan too. Overall a well crafted character.

I'm so so sad for Zeke, the way he genuinely cares for Eren and trusts him, how he tears up when he called him "brother"...It will be heartbreaking when he'll realize Eren's just using him (because there's no way Eren agree with his plan), this guy's been used and craved affection and understanding all his life.

I feel like I'm crazy one here but I'm actually on Zeke's side and not at all mad at what he did to Levi

He is cancelled to me since Erwin's death.

WAS GRISHA IN THE RIGHT TO SLAUGHTER THE REISS CHILDREN? 1,475 responses

Eren recalled back to a disturbing action is father took, and gave his thoughts on it, but does the fanbase agree? 44.7% feel Grisha made the right choice, as without it things would have gone as Eren laid out for Paradis. 37.8% were unsure, and only 14.4% agreed with Eren’s conclusion that it was wrong regardless.

I acknowledge it as a necessary evil. It goes against many of my moral principles, but it was a necessary evil in the face of the worst case scenario.

He could have found another way to keep the children alive. He was lazy and chose the most convenient option.

He was neither right nor wrong, as in he had little choice.

I don't think there's a right or wrong in this scenario. Grisha did what he thought was for the greater good. No matter what decision he made, though, people still would have died.

It was a necessary evil, both logically right and morally wrong at the same time

Immoral but beneficial in the long run

there are two sides to the moral scale! For the survival of his people, of course! Every threat needs to be eliminated, but it is quite painful to know that in reality, regardless of the bigger picture, he still killed children.

For me, this is a much too complex topic to be reduced to a categorical choice of right and wrong. I can't choose between this two options ("I'm not sure" neither because it's in the same line of though) because I can't think his action in that terms.

It was not nice

WAS HANGE BEING TRUTHFUL WHEN SHE INFORMED FLOCH OF LEVI’S DEATH? 1,497 responses

Nice try, Hange. 91% of us are pretty sure that Levi still lives, and that he was only pronounced dead in the hope that his life would be spared. Not even 2% of us think that he is actually dead.

Oh, please. It doesn't take a Levi fan to know that Hange would immediately let Floch feel Levi's pulse if he was indeed dead - it was only worth potentially upsetting her guards if she thought there was a chance of his survival. Hange is one of the smartest characters in this series - she wouldn't act that way for any other reason.

Well wouldn't be reasonable to jump on a river with a corpse so i guess is the second option

I think he's alive, but it feels like Levi is being milked for popularity at this point. If he truly did survive, then I hope Levi will somehow maybe fulfill his promise!

IF LEVI IS ALIVE, DO YOU THINK HIS INJURIES WILL PROVE TO BE FATAL? 1,491 responses

In contrast to the widely-held belief that Levi still lives for the time being, there is less agreement about whether that will continue to be true. Almost half of respondents think that he will survive his wounds. The remaining half is split between thinking Levi’s days are numbered (25.4%) and being completely unsure of his fate (25.9%).

Man, seeing Levi suffering really got me, but I hope hange manages to bring him to safety, cause I think his injuries aren't fatal and the only threat to his life now are the yeagerists

he's still barely alive, but he'll die in her hands once they're safe and have swam the river, the death was slightly delayed since this chapter was focused on other things, levi will give his last little speech to hange next chapter and die

I think Levi survived his injuries and Hange is lying about him being dead, but I don’t think he will survive. Part of me hopes (for his sake) that he doesn’t survive

probably but I'm in denial so i want to believe he's fine

Levi is on the edge of death, he will die next chapter after revealing Zeke's true intentions to Hange, which will ruin Eren's plan for the moment. At least, that's what I hope happens. Levi surviving and coming back to fight doesn't make sense and Levi surviving only to be out of commission for the next of the manga and to open a tea shop is disappointing, I would rather have him die now.

IF LEVI IS ALIVE, DO YOU THINK HE WILL BE ABLE TO PARTICIPATE IN FUTURE BATTLES? 1,490 responses

41% of respondents believe that Levi is permanently on the sidelines due to his condition while 37% are feeling optimistic that he will find a way to keep fighting. ⅕ of the fandom don’t want to say confidently either way. Will Levi surprise us in upcoming chapters?

Dead my ass! I can't wait for Levi to appear again out of nowhere with a badass face scar and kick Zeke's ass AGAIN

I hope we still see Levi in action, even if just once, cause removing him leaves everything in the hands of ‘god-like’ characters who can control people. Now it’s just like humanity’s doomed cause the ‘gods’ decided so and I don’t like it. There is still Mikasa, but with Levi humanity had a better chance in this ever so uneven battle.

I think Levi is out of the fight (thanks to those godawful fingers on the ground ugh) BUT I think he'll have one last move, one last action in the final battle that will somehow deeply affect the plot, before dying (think Erwin cutting off Eren from Bertholdt after his arm was eaten). I want to be wrong because Levi has always deserved better, but I also want to be right because he needs to rest and the ignominy of humanity's strongest taken out of the fight like that is just. Too much.

Levi has to live and fight bc he needs to show off his new badass battle scar duh

I really love Levi, but I don't want him to be disabled so I prefer him to be dead. If Isayama can make him okay as before, I hope the story wont become weak.

I want Levi' s scarred face to be the last thing that Zeke ever sees.

I'm wondering what's worse, Levi dead or Levi hobbled and injured so badly that he can't fight anymore. Robbing him of his identity is perhaps even crueler than death. How awful, to linger and watch the rest of the battle unfold, knowing he can't even help because of his own careless actions.

WHETHER IT’S PLOT ARMOR OR A MEDICAL MIRACLE, WHICH CHARACTER’S ESCAPE FROM DEATH HAVE YOU FOUND LEAST BELIEVABLE? 1,551 responses

We heard from several sources that this was the most difficult question on the poll. Maybe that’s why it had dozens more responses than any other question. It turns out that Zeke getting shoved into a titan tummy and having a sandcastle body sculpted by a mystery child isn’t the most unrealistic save in this manga. “Reiner surviving everything” followed by “Armin surviving his fall and burns” were the top choices.

Zeke's resurrection is the most bullshit ass pull of all.

Erwin and Armin were the two less believable survivors. I can turn a blind eye on plot-armors when it involve Shifters or even Ackermans, but Armin and Erwin were simple humans.

Erwin surviving all the way through serumbowl with a partly missing abdomen while bleeding out is just as worthy of being there, no one mentions it because he eventually died but it's almost if not on the same level as Armin living long enough through serumbowl.

I feel tired of the whole plot armor some characters have. Reiner, Armin (even if he is one of my favorites), Levi and now Zeke. I just feel tired of seeing them dying and then being magically saved. Yes, some dots are connecting together, but the whole armor plot makes the story boring and unnatural. A lot of great and interesting characters died, but there are some blessed ones who will not die even if a large bomb will fall straight at their heads.

maybe Zeke transferred his consciousness to other parts of his body like Reiner did in the Return to Shingashina arc? That's the only other idea I can think of how Zeke survived in the end.

I can't believe Levi narrowly escaped death because the monkey dingdong was too shiny and hypnotizing

I can't believe it, but Isyama finally topped the plot armor Reiner had back in RTS. Holy shit. The first thought was no one could have more plot armor than Eren did back in Shiganshina, then it was when Rod Riese became that hideous nightmare enduing faceless titan and didn't try and eat Eren, then it was Reiner's plot armor in RTS that stole it with notable mention from Armin, then it was Levi as a notable mention. This resurrected bullshit that saved Zeke can't be outdone. There is just no way in hell. Like, you just can't out do it. No one does plot armor better than Zeke!!!

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YELENA INSTITUTING ARMBANDS ON PARADIS? 1,484 responses

The irony of Yelena immediately instituting armbands as a classification system wasn’t lost on it. 44% thought is was horrible and a wrong choice, 28% recognized it as gross but understood the need to organize, while 22% had no opinion

As a sociologist, it’s interesting. The reality is that society/social classes often create symbols to communicate their social status so if it’s not armbands it’d be something else.

As expected of Yeagerists they are true organized shits! Congrats!!

Isayama is very big on the 'history repeating itself' thing and without a doubt this is one of those things.

I feel as if he is being kept out of the loop by the Volunteers, due to his befriending and fraternising with Eldian's (Hange especially), in much the same way as Niccolo was. This makes me inclined to think that Onyankonpon would side with the established Survey Corps if/when he learns the full plan, and that Yelena knows this.

it's ironic and though it's wrong, i think it's also clever how no matter how hard the yelena is trying to break free from marley traditions, those traditions still come naturally to her them whether she realizes it or not

I have a problem with how she's using people, not how she's doing it

People make a mountain out of a molehill, it's not something bad, it's just practical. They need to know who drank the wine and who didn't. Their actions are bad, but not their way of organizing.

Regardless of anything, I'd let Yelena tie me up any way she likes and I think deep down Pixis totally agrees

You boors know nothing of fashion.

IS ONYANKOPON ON PARADIS’ SIDE OR IS HE IN CAHOOTS WITH YELENA? 1,480 responses

Only 12.4% of the fandom believe Onyankopon is fully aligned with Yelena, A percentage more (13.9%) believe he’s on the Survey Corps side. The remainder of the fandom is either undecided or think that he is.

boi is lookin mad confused every time he appears now tbh

He might be on Yellena's side but I wouldn't be surprised if he decided to play a different game.

His arms are crossed and he's literally side-eyeing Yelena. He is not all-in with Yelena.

He said that he dedicated himself for "Eldia". I don't know why, but I have that weird feeling that he would help Eren and his group (Floch etc.) to make the new Eldia empire great again

I think he will help Hanji, he was always showed with them more than with any other person

Maybe he is working for someone else entirely. We still don't know if we have all the chess pieces on the damned board.

I really want an insight into Onyakopon's motives at this point. You can see he's not as enthusiastic about the situation, and I thought he genuinely bonded with Hanji.

WHY DO YOU THINK EREN WANTS TO LURE IN THE WARRIORS? 1,473 responses

Nearly half of the fandom believes that Eren’s goal is to eat the remaining warriors and gain their powers. About ⅓ of respondents think his goal is to negotiate with them, while smaller portions of the fandom think he may just want to get them out of the way or fully ally with them. Hopefully his chat with Pieck enlightens us! Meanwhile here are some write-in thoughts:

That boy is an enigma wrapped in a riddle, i have no idea what he is doing

Either to unlock a new ability with the Founding Titan that might require all the other Titan Shifters to be present or to kill them for the eventual rumbling.

I dunno but he clearly needs them for something. I'm leaning towards him needing to collect all their titans to do some sort of Curse Reset.

I am not sure whether he wants to eat every single warrior, especially regarding the convo he had with Reiner in the Marley arc. He wanted to chomp Porco tho, so I am not sure.

he can only do so much by himself, he has gained reiner's sympathy so having him as an ally seems like an option

I'd like to believe that Eren is luring the warriors so he can ally with them but realistically, he's probably going to eat 'em all. It started with the warhammer titan and he was about to do the same to Porco back in Marley for his jaws (which he would need to crack Annie's crystal open) but I digress. It'll probably happen in that order. He'll get annie after eating porco and pieck. Fuck. That part's gonna suck

I'm not sure, but he definitely doesn't want them trying to stop him doing whatever he's planning to do.

Like he said, he'll keep moving forward until his enemies are destroyed.

He wants them to connect and give the 9 elements to original Ymir. Maybe this way eldians will be free.

I laughed at the negotiation option, because if Eren ever was capable of comunicate with anyone in Paradise this mess wouldn't be happening. Actually if any character comunicated this wouldn't be happening.

Eren playing 4d chess

WHAT DO YOU THINK PIECK’S INTENTIONS WITH EREN ARE? 1,477 responses

The big chapter cliffhanger this month was Pieck pulling a sneaky on Eren, as expected of her. About two thirds of you, at 65.9% are guessing she’s there to talk with him; while 31.2% think she has more aggressive options in mind with that gun.

Pieck is smart. If she wanted to kill or capture Eren, she would've shot him without a warning. Clearly she wants something out of Eren, probably information, before neutralizing him

For the moment she's probably more interested in rescuing Gabi than doing anything with Eren.

Get information from him then kill him

Pieck most likely would want to talk about the jaegerbros sudden "alliance" She wants to know why Zeke used and betrayed her and their comrades.

Idk for sure, but I'm 120% sure she has a plan. Everyone is underestimating Pikku.

No clue. I don't hate her, but she's still complicit in war crimes, so whatever she's up to, it can't be good

To talk, Pieck is smart and if she wanted to kill Eren she should know that she had to do so earlier.

Probably a battle of wits, since Pieck is always exactly right and 19 yo Eren became very manipulative

Something tells me she's going to want Eren to direct her to Annie first. I mean, it's the final arc, and they still haven't resolved the Annie situation. I feel like this how Annie's supposed return will kick in: One of the reasons Pieck is in Paradis on reconnaissance is because she want to retrieve Annie from Paradis and bring her back to Marley. Maybe, she wants to do it with minimal bloodshed without making a scene.

Have a baby with him to cuck Zeke

EREN & PIECK - WHO HAS THE UPPER HAND? 1,480 responses

About ¾ of the fanbase at 76.3% lean towards Eren and his three titans having the upper hand here, and 23.7% think Pieck’s planning will pay off exactly as planned.

Pieck isn't stupid and it's quite obvious to anyone that she CANNOT kill eren. She isn't very strong as a titan compared to him, nor in human form. She doesn't stand a chance.

She knows he is powerful, I doubt she'd be stupid to try to have a fight with a man who holds three titans.

Pieck will fix everything

Pieck knows Zeke best of the current batch of warriors- I HOPE TO GOD THAT SHE IS NEVER WRONG WITH PLANS.

Pieck certainty cannot beat Eren in her titan form without her men and big guns, and doesn't seem to be in great form physically, as she was on crutches until a short while ago.

Kinda want Eren to absolutely demolish Pieck, whether it be Titan-form or not, just so Gabi can freak out even more.

I want Pieck to beat the shit out of Eren, but I know it won’t happen

I fear for Pieck's life :( Eren's gonna Warhammer her ass against the ceiling before she can say 'Wuh'

WHO’S WITH PIECK? 1,443 responses

Is Pieck alone, or does she have support? The majority seem to think Reiner and Porco are accompanying her, with 64.9% and 63.5% respectively. 34% think Colt tagged along to help find his brother, and 18.7% think General Magath is there as well. 2.1% of you are holding out hope that our Ymir is still alive, and with the warriors in fact. Pieck might be by her lonesome though, with 18.5% of you choosing that option.

It's been a while since we've seen any of the Warriors besides Pieck and it is the perfect time for Eren and Reiner to meet again.

I presume Reiner and the others are close by, but I still cannot see how all of them would be able to subdue or beat Eren, as he beat them all almost single- handily before he consumed the War hammer titan.

I have a strong feeling that Reiner's going to be the one to find the 104th and the Braus family in the cell. It will make for an interesting meeting, especially with Armin.

Freckled Ymir keeps getting indirectly referenced while highlighting her absence.

OwO best waifu Pieck returns all is well.

I JUST WANT TO SEE REINER ALREADY!!!

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE FOLLOWING CHARACTERS AFTER THIS CHAPTER?

Hange’s heroics netted them a giant surge in popularity (1004↑) while Yelena (755↓) and Floch (898↓) each took a hit. Pieck’s confrontation with Eren was appreciated (737↑). Despite being unconscious, Levi’s approval was likewise up (701↑). The debut of Ymir Fritz had the majority holding off on judgment, although 514 respondents where inclined to view her favorably.

Hange is the best human in this manga

Hange, a real champ. Zeke is a dumbass. The more I see douchebag Eren, the more I want to kick him in the balls. Floch, Yelena & Co (exclude Oyankapon, he is a good boi) can go shove fucking thunderspears up their arses...the deeper their devotion, the deeper the penetration.

hange's great - zeke's wack - eren's angsty - press f for levi

AT THIS POINT, AROUND WHICH CHAPTER DO EXPECT THE MANGA WILL CONCLUDE? 1,396 responses

We have a lot of differing opinions regarding how much of this story remains to be told! The most popular option for the final chapter of the manga is chapter 130 with 35% of respondents selecting that option. More striking perhaps, is that 86% of respondents think that the manga will continue to at least chapter 130. 50% believe that 134 is the earliest possible chapter for the story’s conclusion.

WHY is 118 an option for the conclusion of the manga? No fucking way we've only got three more chapters, surely? Don't fucking do this to me y'all

WHO DO YOU MOST HOPE TO SEE NEXT CHAPTER? 1,493 responses

The majority of the fandom seem to have had their fill of Zeke and the Yeagerists and are ready to focus on other characters. Topping our wishlist is a continuation of Eren, Pieck and Gabi’s confrontation (70%), followed by the seeing more of Levi and Hange (60%). Armin Mikasa and the 104th (45%) and Historia (40.4%) are also on many minds.

Can't wait to hear what Pieck and Eren have to say. I think this chapter has allowed for some development between them.

I have been waiting years to learn all that was in this chapter and the end has me dying cause I’ve been wanting to know what it’d be like if Eren and Pieck met. So awesome chapter! Can’t wait for next month!

I really fucking miss Historia.

after having so much mikasa since 102 i’ve realised that i miss her presence a lot in the last three chapters... so i hope she’s in 116

I hope mikasa and armin are ok and Levi I feel so bad for 😢

Annie day now

I miss Reiner ;___;

WHERE DO YOU NORMALLY DISCUSS THE SERIES? 1,427 responses

Thank you Reddit 😘

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE CHAPTER?

Loved the realisation that we’ve already been shown a paths “dimension” preciously in the manga and anime.

Fucking crazy, on one hand is like Yams, please, slow down and on the other hand is like, yes, keep it going, you crazy bastard.

It had a lot of emotional impact. I hated it and loved it at the same time.

Needed more Floch, I live for Floch.

I hate sand. It's coarse, rough, irritating and gets everywhere

Some interesting parallels that relate very well to the chapter's title "Support": Ymir Fritz puts Zeke back together, Eren "appears" to support Zeke's plan, Hanji grabs Levi and saves him from the "traitors" (how dare they use Eren's surname, they're not worthy!), and Pieck arrives to save Gabi and Falco!

I love Eren more with every chapter. He's so fucking cool. He was startled for two seconds, then went back to apathy and is just standing there with his hands in his pockets while Pieck holds a gun to him. What a chad.

With how many weird turns this manga is taking, you really don't know what to expect next. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if in the next chapter, Eren asks Pieck to marry him, Zeke shoots himself to see if he'll get revived again (and doesn't), and Hange injects Levi with titan serum, but rather than helping him in any way, it just makes him 3 inches shorter.

Holy crap the art was on point 👌👌👌 plus I've been lowkey itching for some more supernatural elements so I'm pretty happy with this development

It made me more excited to see the conclusion and what everyone's true motives are.

I love the suspense each panel gives, I feeling of worry and excitement

Can Floch die? I mean seriously, can he just fall off a cliff and get impaled? Or get hit by a stray bullet? Because his superior attitude is grating on my nerves. I’m glad Hange escaped 👍🏿

Great to see how the different characters draw motivation for their different goals and I am hyped that the reader is not told what Eren is really planning.

I just want Armin to play a major role. He’s been put on the backburner for far too long and he actually needs to be using his brain to fix the situation that Eldia is in. Even now, I still have faith that Armin is going to be the one to save the people in the walls. I predict that Armin does have some hidden agenda up his sleeve that he hasn’t revealed yet that will change the game entirely. He’s as intelligent if not more so than Erwin is after all. I still believe that Armin is the true savior of Eldia and that he is someone that Marley and the world should fear.

Zeke's resurrection was probably one of the most bizarre moments I've ever witnessed in this manga and I've got so many questions now. The chapter as a whole, however, was still enjoyable and very thought-provoking. Seeing how close we are to the end, though, I hope we get all the important questions answered before it's over because I hate when things are left unanswered.

To me it's clear that Eren is playing Zeke, but I wonder how he knew exactly how to play him so well? This is basically their first face-to-face interaction, I don't think he took the idea from Yelena, because actually I doubt Yelena understands Zeke except through her own filter, and Grisha definitively didn't understand him, so he can't even have been relying on his memories. Not to mention Zeke is a notoriously closed off individual in general, so what gives, Eren?

I absolutely love the direction of the story even though so much is happening against the interests of the party I want to win. Exactly how Return to Shiganshina felt like. And similar to RtS, I feel we will have a lukewarm conclusion that'll make us feel all the emotions in existence all at once.

Can't believe there wasn't a question about Zeke's junk. Did he get his wish or not? I swear, the quality of this poll has gone down dramatically this month.

I honestly don't understand Eren in the Jeagerbro talk. He seems to be making contradictory statements - ""We'll keep moving forward... But only until we practically erase our race's existence in this world."" Zeke's plan isn't a move forward, isn't a step towards freedom the way we know Eren / Attack Titan crave freedom. It is tying and blindfolding the people of Ymir to metaphorical train tracks. Which is far from freeing them, and which is why I think Eren has his own agenda and is only pretending to go along with Zeke. Now I'm not saying Eren has some noble plan that will properly save all the Eldians, for all we know he still wants to go ahead with the rumbling. I'm just saying Zeke's plan does not seem to align with Eren or the Attack Titan's ideologies (and yes, I'm talking about post Ch 90 Eren).

I really love where this is going and in just 2 chapters he made Zeke become one of my favourite characters, - if not the No1. Poor boi, needs to be protected at all costs. Also it is so horrible to see that he was used by everyone around him, his father especially and now it looks like Eren is about to do the same. Poor fella just wants a family member who actually cares about him as a person and he never really got that. Also, showing a more human side to him when he worries about Eren and then tearing up when Eren calls him brother? Give me more please.

Floch is still my favorite character. Fucking fight me about it, try it, I've got a hairstylists' nightmare on my side who isn't afraid to shoot (don't worry he can't aim very well).

Floch you fuckin piece of shit. Such a good character but such a fucking bastard. I really love to hate him. Fuck you Floch, you magnificient bastard

Can we safely assume that Annie is actually in the paths realm?

Could Pieck be Kruger's daughter?

if Levi gets oofed I'll get oofed with him.

Thank you to everyone who participated. We’ll see you again next month!

#snk spoilers #snk polls #snk poll #poll results

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