the buddy daddies ending for a kazurei truther was going so well until the sneaking out with ladies line. where am I

Rogue and Gambit in X-men 97’

This is neither One Piece nor Sanami but I’m obsessed with X-men 97’ currently and I need to talk about this somewhere

I keep seeing people say that Rogue is cheating on Gambit in X-men 97’ but that is absolutely not the truth. This is understandable because the general knowledge is that Rogue and Gambit are together because they are in the comics and I’m sure some people who watched the original X-men animated series as a child look back and remember them being together. While they were awfully flirting with one another they never got together officially

This is also probably because Rogue and Gambit were a pretty fresh couple in the early nineties so I’m sure the writers just went with the same flirty approach that they had before they got together in the comics

While it’s clear they have feelings for each other as they kiss 2 times and almost another (although one of those kisses was not consensual) and Rogue also calls herself “Mrs. Lebeau” when she needed a name (which I’m sure there was also confusion on Rogues name due to it also being fresh) they are definitely NOT together

Gambit is literally my favorite character so it’s hard bashing him so much like this but he has no right to get jealous of Rogue. Everyone on the internet keeps saying “poor Gambit” and such and I just wish they would watch the original

Gambit in the original is just not a great guy a lot of the time to Rogue. First, one time Morph flirted with Gambit as Rogue and told him that she had been lying about not being able to touch people (LIKE HOW DO YOU FALL FOR THAT HOW DOWN BAD ARE YOU) so his reaction to that is to go up to her while she’s sleeping and kissing her resulting in his passing out. Like I get you want this woman but leave her to her sleep

Second, he makes kinda creepy comments too. Like one time he tells her “you need to lay off the fried chicken” and one time she was just out of her usual fighting clothes and he said “you should dress up for me sometime” (but she did flirt back in that situation so I’ll give him that one)

Lastly, saying Rogue cheated on him is crazy because Gambit flirts and hits on so many people (even though they’re not serious he still can’t get jealous of someone else’s relationship if he’s doing that) then has the audacity to get all angsty when Rogue and Cody go on a date or when Rogue and Archangel touch and share a sentimental moment due to Rogue absorbing some of his memories one time

Okay okay and DESPITE all this I am still Rogue and Gambits biggest shipper and cheering for them in 97’ so what is going on with Magneto. People who did a single google search keep coming up with the “well Rogue and Magneto were canon in the comics”, yeah they got married in “Age of Apocalypse” but referencing couples outside of 616 is crazy. You know who else has been together when we are counting EVERY timeline? LITERALLY EVERYONE. This is Marvel comics, this is not new, everyone has hooked up and everyone will continue to hook up. Just look up a list of all the people Wolverine alone has been with

Sure they COULD go with Rogue and Magneto for X-men 97’ and I’m just a stupid dum dum for believing otherwise but I see no reason to with all the buildup of the original and that sad face Rogue made in episode 4 was a little hm….

I think this is all for a little drama, a little development, a little spice because if Marvel hates anything it’s happy couples with no problems. I am praying that this is just to improve their relationship and at the end of this stupid love triangle they will finally be together but who knows

There is also a little theory that Magneto and Rogue actually aren’t doing something too crazy. I just find it weird that they haven’t actually shown us anything (I know they can’t show us them doing something devious but maybe at least kissing) only heavily suggesting it with the training room and Gambits nightmare thing. It’s just because a lot of times shows and movies will heavily force something like someone cheating then they later find out that they were actually just spending so much time together because they were planning their birthday party or something

I sound as desperate and delusional as Gambit but I’m doing all I can. I probably should’ve just waited for tomorrow then posted this after watching the new episode but I couldn’t wait so maybe all of my thoughts and opinions will change in a few hours

Hey, is your cat one of those werewolf cats? If so, those cats suffer from really bad cystic acne. There has been a post floating around, warning about the breed.

Pickles is some sort of lykoi. no idea what the breeder called it specifically, but the breeder was a veterinarian and seemed to be pretty sure that we were getting a healthy cat - the only reason we ended up with Pickles is because someone else bailed on adopting him.

i have all of his health papers and lineage trees and shit, his mother and all of his siblings were all fully haired. pickles himself still has a pretty full coat - especially compared to the more hairless cats that tend to get acne problems. he’s mostly thin on his paws and his face. his main problem factors we were warned about are waxy buildup around his eyes and ears where his fur is thin, and oily buildup on his claws. we wipe him pretty regularly and he gets baths often as well.

with that being said the main source of that info does seem to just be that tumblr post - a post that came out a week or two AFTER we got the cat, so there’s nothing i can do about it even if i wanted to lol. my girlfriend wanted the goofy looking cat and i didn’t really have any reason to stop her. cat breeds typically don’t suffer the downfalls that breeding dogs do - the average doodle is a genetic abomination with more to worry about than any of these “novel” cats. there are no studies indicating that this is a consistent problem inherent to the breed - the breed literally hasn’t been around long enough to draw any conclusions like that, and what defines the boundaries of this breed isn’t clear either. it’s definitely something i’ll look out for, but i’m not overly concerned about it at the moment.

Okay, my thoughts at the end of book 4! I’m mostly saving these for my own posterity and there isn’t much interesting here in terms of theory or meta or whatever, so sorry to anyone who finds it in the tags.

- I *really* liked parts of this book. Rand’s experience in Ruihdean was very well done, as were most of the parts of the book in the Waste more generally IMO. Exploring Tel’aran’rhiod was very cool. And I liked learning about the cultural norms surrounding women in the other cultures who can channel. I also liked getting POV chapters for some of the antagonists. Basically, anything that was focused more on world building and less on specific characters had me so engaged I couldn’t stop listening. Not an original thought, but the world building in these books is so good.

- It really took me some time to adjust to the versions of the characters in this book, because it feels like some of them take a sharp turn from who they were books 1-3. Rand especially. I think I had been expecting a little more buildup of character growth where he grows into someone new informed by who he used to be and retaining those values, but instead he’s sort of just a different person this book. It didn’t help that I switched audiobook narrators I’m sure, but there is definitely a different tone to this book - for example, suddenly in this book there are “bosoms” everywhere and it’s weird bc like, where did that come from? Anyway, I’m learning quickly that character development isn’t the strong part of these books even though they’re all POV chapters. By the end of the book I was used to the new versions of each character, but I’m a bit sad we didn’t see more of emotional toll the characters are going through so their changes would be less abrupt. Moiraine also had a different vibe to me this book - I’m biased obviously, but I feel like we need a Moiraine POV chapter soon to understand her current arc. Not that I should ask for these books to be *longer* lol.

- I knew the coup was coming and that Siuan would be stilled but I’m still so DISTRESSED by it. In fact I was so distressed that I had to ask my partner if she eventually gets her power back like Moiraine did in the show 😂 I’m so curious if they’re essentially going to do the same storyline twice, or switch up Siuan’s somehow to avoid the stilling plot altogether? And also, I think I get why they used 2x07 to set up Moiraine and Siuan not being on the best of terms if in the books Siuan doesn’t know what’s going on with Rand when the coup occurs.

- Sadly I feel like everything I heard about the poor writing of women that had been the reason I hesitated to read the books in the first place really crop up in this book. Why is every single POV female character (and even some who aren’t POV, like Faile) in love with a male character? And don’t get me started on the weird way that the girls have their clothes change on them to expose them without consent when they think about men in Tel’aran’rhiod - that would NEVER be written to happen to a male character to show his interest in a woman. And yet at the same time they’re supposed to be all in love and weirdly horny now, they’re also somehow all soo childish - what in the world is with Elayne pulling in Thom’s mustaches?? At one point they literally say Aviendha is having a “tantrum.” It’s not just that the book is so straight, it’s also like, weird straight…

- Maybe tied to the above, but it seems like we’re not supposed to like the Aes Sedai (or maybe more accurately, the White Tower and those trained formally there) but I continue to think they’re one of the most interesting parts of these books. Even with the coup! I want so much more from their perspectives. And it seems like Jordan may be trying to make the point that “even if you have only women in power it will also be corrupt and bad because the problem is power not gender” (like reverse patriarchy!), and to the extent he is it isn’t really hitting for me - it just sort of lands for me as “women can’t be trusted with power,” which is one of the oldest tropes out there. Maybe this will improve! I’m enjoying Siuan as a key POV character, although I guess now she’s no longer Aes Sedai?

A rant about Reyna’s love life situation in ToA…

So I just read the Tyrant’s Tomb and uhhh…I see why people have such mixed feelings about what happened with Reyna. Here are my thoughts (w/ spoilers of course).

- First of all, that whole Lester/Reyna pseudo love story thing was so…weird? Like, I understood the point of getting Reyna to reflect on dating, but like, did she really need a bizarre romantic subplot with Lester to achieve that? The whole incident w/ Venus felt like it only existed solely for the sake of this moment with Reyna, seeing as it was first introduced in this same book, and will likely be forgotten about afterwards. As a result, the whole thing seems so random with no buildup whatsoever. I think there are better ways to introduce Reyna’s interest in taking on celibacy and joining the Hunters than this pile of weirdness with Lester/Apollo.

- Second of all, a lot of Reyna’s dialogue concerning her love life sounded like Rick Riordan just inserting himself into the story, and it was extremely cringey. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think it was OOC for Reyna to say these things, but the language choices made it clear that RR was just using the character to voice his own thoughts (I literally cringed when he used the word “ship” unironically in her speech to Lester/Apollo near the end of the book. Nobody talks like this.) We have never seen any of the kids at New Rome actually mention Reyna’s love life in any of the books as far as I remember (let me know if I’m wrong). So this problem she has with other people “shipping” her doesn’t seem real in-universe and feels like it’s being brought up to address the fandom specifically and sort of…scold(?) them for shipping Reyna with other characters.

In addition, I don’t like it when authors use their characters as a disguise for their own thoughts. It ruins the integrity of the character and the story. If you have something to say to the fandom, just say it instead of hiding behind your character.

- Third, I find the line where Reyna says “Why do healthy friendships have to progress into romance” (or something like that) in response to Lester/Apollo asking her if she’s dating Thalia to be really hypocritical. Romance is a very major theme in RR’s books and he has a knack for pairing up as many characters as possible, even characters who don’t really need to be a relationship/whose romances could have worked just as well as a friendship. This line Reyna says about not every friendship needing to be a romance could apply to almost every couple in this franchise.

I give Percabeth, Frazel, SilenaxBeckendorf, and EmmiexJo a pass, because romance genuinely complements their stories, but as far as other ships goes, I actually think their romances were unnecessary/poorly executed/could’ve worked just as well as a friendship. ChrisxClarisse definitely didn’t need to be a thing; Clarisse doesn’t even give off romance vibes anyway and Chris stops existing after TLO. Grover and Juniper are cute, but nothing would change if their relationship didn’t exist. Jasper/Jiper might have genuinely been better as friends. Caleo ABSOLUTELY didn’t need to happen; I personally believe romance was NOT the best resolution for Leo’s arc. I give props to Nico and Will for being the first gay ship, but again, RR should not be using romance as a bandaid for emotional conflicts. Nico should learn to maintain healthy friendships first before jumping into romance. TysonxElla did not need to happen for any reason at all. A lot of the hinted pairings in The Hidden Oracle (Miranda & Sherman, Chiara x Damien, Valentina x Paolo) didn’t need to exist either. These are all side characters whose romances have little to no impact, and who would lose nothing if they were all just friends. Same for Lavinia x Poison Oak.

As you can see, RR loves to pair people up together. And most of these pairings are straight/straight-passing. But Reyna maybe liking girls is where he finally draws the line, and decides that romance doesn’t need to happen all the time? Seriously? Like don’t get me wrong, it’s cool to finally have a character in this franchise who chooses to be happily single, and I know that Thalia has not expressed any interest in women (neither has Reyna, tbh), but like…still. RR has been gung-ho about romance everywhere else, even with characters where it literally didn’t matter. Why did he draw the line here?

All of this also makes me wonder if Piper/Shel became a thing just to placate disappointed fans who wanted to see a major character in a wlw relationship. I remember RR’s tweet where he was like “I didn’t want to make Reyna like girls because it would seem like girls only like girls if things don’t work out with boys”. This is a nice sentiment, but it becomes questionable when you realize that what he tried to avoid with Reyna is basically what he did with Piper? And to make matters worse, Shel is such a non-character. She exists for a few pages at the very end of the final series, has no canon personality or physical appearance (as far as I remember), and she’s so unimportant, she doesn’t even have a last name! Her only purpose in the story is to show us that Piper likes girls, which is so lame! Why not give a wlw between two fully fleshed out characters instead of this last-minute romance between a major character and a character who’s just a device?

- Lastly, I’m really tired of RR shoving the female characters that he doesn’t want to pair up into vows of celibacy (Rachel, Thalia, and now Reyna). In fact, this happens with the male characters too, where they are either dating (Percy, Grover, Tyson, Leo, Nico, Will, Frank, Jason) or they’re dead (Luke, Octavian, Jason).

Reyna was so close to being the first major character who didn’t fall into this pattern and then it was ruined. There are many options that people can have for their love lives beyond dating or mandatory celibacy, Richard Riordan, and these options are not that hard to write/explore even in a book aimed at preteens. The characters could easily say that they’re not interested in romance at the moment and may become interested at a later point, that they’re interested but are waiting for a person that they truly want to date, that they’re working on friendships right now, that they’re focused on other things right now, etc. Not everyone needs to be paired up, but not everyone needs to take on a vow of celibacy either. Characters are allowed to just be single, no explanations given. There are so many things Reyna could do besides being a Hunter. She could go to school, travel the world, do something similar to Emmie and Jo where she creates a safe haven for others, maybe even a safe haven for abused girls such as a herself. Becoming a Hunter is not the only option here.

Sorry for the length of this rant, and sorry if this post sounds hyper-critical of Rick. I’m just not impressed with the way Reyna’s love life was handled, and how she explained it using dialogue that was essentially just Rick Riordan talking. Very weird.

fic rec friday 9

welcome the the ninth fic rec friday! where, on friday, i rec five of my favourite fics. 

1. drive me to distraction by @freshia

“Don’t worry, I got all the necessities.” he says, reassuringly, as if that’s what Keith is worried about. And then: “And if you ever want to see your Fall Out Boy t-shirt again, you’ll get in the vehicle! This is a robbery.”

Where Keith is sort of kidnapped for a road-trip with Lance, and is sort of okay with it.

road trip? college au?? best friends to lovers?? pining?? endless tenderness but never saying it put loud?? sign me tf UP. the last lines will fucking kill me every time like i literally have to close my eyes and force myself to breathe deeply. theres something so endless about refusing to speak your feelings out loud but they know what you mean anyway. god.

2. The Courage of Stars by @derryhawkins

The Lions of Voltron can turn into actual lions. Who knew, right? When Allura tells them of this news, Lance is ecstatic. The only problem? Lance figures out that he somehow has one of the strongest bonds with Blue. To keep the others from feeling bad about their own progress, he keeps this information to himself.

It doesn’t take long for certain others to think he’s not taking everything seriously.

this one is more langst than team-as-family, but i still love it deeply. i like it bc it has some nuance for allura, some explanation as to why she struggles to badly to connect with the paladins in the beginning. im not sure the series was ever finished, but this work in particular was, and i loved it! the lance & blue megabond is a treat to read every time.

3. Solar Flare by @heavenlyfires

Accompanied by the scattered applause throughout the ballroom, Keith lifts a slim brown hand in his own and presses a lingering kiss to the palm.

"It’s good to see you, Lance,” he says.

His voice is raw; his face feels naked. Keith’s known for his poker face, but here, in front of Lance, he has no self control. His emotions are spilling over onto his face like tears, too strong to be constrained.

He looks into Lance’s eyes and that suddenly doesn’t seem like such a bad thing.

“Yeah,” Lance whispers, a gentle and devastating smile on his face. He reaches a hand up — soft, Keith notes — and tucks some hair behind Keith’s ear. His fingers trace a gentle path across Keith’s jaw; his eyes flick across his face but inevitably come back to meet Keith’s own, the blue in them impossibly seeming warm toned with the full fond force of Lance’s gaze.

“It’s good to see you, too,” Lance says.

Has Keith mentioned yet that he loves him?

"Solar flares occur when a buildup of magnetic energy... is suddenly released.” - Space.com

After almost two years of unbearable distance, Keith and Lance find themselves at a ball, together.

fuckin pining klance and binary star imagery, man. gets me every time. i love me some post canon green sock reality where everything is good and right and keith and lance are somehow still pining like dumbasses, but are whipped to the point of ridiculousness. absolutely love that for them. and the idea of klance as a binary star system will fuckin make me tear up every time fr bc they ARE they are a GOOD TEAM

4. Nine Blocks and To-Go Cups by @jackwillwrite

"Can I have...six things of expresso?" Lance asks.

"Shots?" Keith offers, although he dearly hopes that's not what Lance is asking.

(In which Keith isn't sure how he ended up as a barista working shifts in the god-awful hours of the morning, and Lance is a regular who somehow manages to make it bearable.)

im trying so desperately to hype this fic up and also not spoil it but let me tell u when u get the lil twist ending and the title finally makes sense u will be GAGGED. i know i was. i could not believe what i was reading i wanted to YELL. it was insane and my heart still gets all pumped when i think about it bc i was truly like NO FUCKIN WAY

5. a fissure in my vision by @ink-beneath-her-fingernails

"It appears... Well, the Ranithians were under the impression that we were all adults by Terran standards. When they realized that you four technically aren't, or at least not entirely, they decided to... test you."

"Test us."

Lance's voice is flinty; icier than any of them have ever heard him, and he wears a face to match.

It's not a question.

(Or: Sometimes, the Paladins can't account for everything that might happen. Sometimes, even allies with good intentions can lead to awful things. Sometimes, your own mind is your worst enemy.

And sometimes, being a Paladin really, really sucks.)

words cannot express how much this fic has haunted me. literally the worst possible reality without actually being the worst. yall think you’ve read a crossover before?? think again!! hunk and lance’s arcs especially knocked me fucking flat. like i was just aching for them so so badly. sometimes when i wonder what could be worse (in terms of how much it would suck for the paladins, not how it was written; this was written beautifully) than canon i remember the paladins could have suffered through this

that’s it for today!! i’ll see y’all back next friday for the next fic rec post!!!  

Ganna go back to answering the questions in my inbox soon, but for now I’d like to say my thoughts on the Lucifer design backlash. Like Lemon-critiques has said, this whole ordeal is just freaking hilarious and enjoyable to watch, I’m literally scarfing down popcorn while watching people tear this design apart while fans or others get pissy. Here are my personal thoughts. This is me being nitpciky, but while Lucifer’s design isn’t….BAD I would say, it’s just….boring. Like I said before, I don’t mind the ringleader motif, the idea of Lucifer seeing hell as a circus to him isn’t a pretty bad idea, however like most people have been saying, he’s just your generic Vivziepop male character, a skinny twig with a fancy suit, bow tie, beedy eyes, and a sharp toothy smile. Mainly for me, I can understand this backlash because yes, I am one of those critique blogs who thinks all of Viv’s characters look the same, and the features I listed above are exactly why. Characters like Alastor, Valentino, Vox, Seviathan, Sir Pen, even Angel Dust, they all have that sharp generic smile and eyes while of course wearing a suit and being the size of a pencil, and it’s a trend that really is a turnoff for me when it comes to Vivzie’s character designs. It’s so funny because as much as I tear into Helluva Boss, literally THOSE character designs are more distinct and have more variety compared to the character designs in Hazbin, and that’s a problem, especially since said designs in Helluva Boss are more detailed and crazy compared to its spin off counterpart.

So yeah, not only do all of Vivziepop’s male characters look exactly the same and have the EXACT same boring body type, but the design of Lucifer himself is just…..meh. It’s not really something I’d get pissed at or rip into unlike Alastor lol, but I think my biggest issue with Lucifer is that he’s literally the devil, the king of hell himself, and yet he does not in any way shape or form stand out from the rest of the cast. If you were to show me his design and told me this was Lucifer, I would have just said he just looks like some regular dude in this world of Hell, because that’s just it. He looks like your generic standard Vivziepop male character, just like everyone else.

I’m nitpicking again yes….but yeah this design is just….generic. I wouldn’t really be saying this had the rest of the Hazbin cast look different compared to this but….they don’t so lol. I do remember Vivzie once saying along the lines that she was going for a “pretty” look for him, since Lucifer was once a beautiful fallen Angel. THAT I can understand, but to me her version of Lucifer looks more goofy than angelically beautiful, and like I said, he just isn’t intimidating, and there are many ways to make Angel’s look scary, though it doesn’t help that the crew describes him as a goofball. Honestly all I can say is that Viv could have just branched him out more, made him more unique compared to the rest of the cast, instead of the same generic look all of her other male characters have. The concept of a ringleader-circus motif isn’t the issue for me, nor is it that he’s “not accurate” since this is Vivzie’s adaptation, it’s just….not creative and uninspiring. I agree with what Lemon said, I think the reason why this design is getting so much backlash is because they just…flat out revealed one of the most important characters in the show with no buildup or anything. Wether it be people who haven’t heard of Hazbin or have, Lucifer was revealed in the pilot in a background portrait, however I think they should have saved his design for the show, instead of just dropping him now. To be fair however, if they HAD build him up only to reveal this, it probably would have ended in huge disappointment lol. With that, that’s about all I can say. I definitely agree with the people saying how her characters look the same and that he doesn’t stand out….because he doesn’t. I’m honestly glad more people are recognizing the flaws and issues with Viv’s designs however, it’s nice to see people critique her stuff more openly, even if it causes a whole twitter fest of people arguing lol. Mostly people keep bringing up how this is a poor attempt at a “tumblr sexyman”, but for me, that ain’t the issue with his design. Also like…of course it seems tumblr sexyman-ish, it’s literally Vivziepop lol.

Ranking TWST Books from worst to best part 2!

Number 5: Book 5

While I do think the writing in Book 5 is leagues better than Book 2, it still very much had a lot of issues.

Once again the main character of the Book, Vil, is given very little focus. I’ve said this before, but it very much felt like Epel’s and Deuce’s story with those two having their own arcs reaching a beginning, middle, and an admittedly satisfying conclusion within the book. However, it leaves Vil’s whole story completely entirely unexplored with only getting small snippets into his psyche.

Here’s my hot take: Vil was not actually an asshole or some diva throughout the book. Yes he was strict, but as someone who did marching band with fellow annoying teenagers, it was a necessary strictness ahdsgs. Especially with so much money on the line. The exercise, the reasonable diets, it’s all a necessary and very common practice for a physical competition. To me, there was no actual buildup to his attempt at literally poisoning someone.

Mix that with the execution of his backstory being very shallow leaving a lot to have to be interpreted and you have a character who either is hard to sympathize with and/or one that can be easily villainized. I’ve met a lot of TWST fans who just outright strongly dislike him, and a part of it comes from the fact that Yana simply did not put in the effort at fleshing out his character in a way that can be sympathized, that should be sympathized as is the whole point of all the ‘villains’ of TWST. It’s not until the release of Book 6 does Vil become a more 3 dimensional character that he should have already been by the end of Book 5.

But because we spent too much time with a bunch of other characters, we don’t get that. Speaking of, another important part of the books is having the antagonists from the previous book come in and serve as protagonists in the next, which helps further develop their characters and be able to write them under a more heroic light.

Kalim and Jamil don’t really get that. There are hints of something bigger coming for not only the conclusion of their arcs but their “friendship” (and I use that term very lightly) as a whole. But we never actually reach the climax, just the conclusion. The supposed climax was during Vil’s overblot where they kinda work together along with the other SDC team members to stop Vil, but there is no actual connection to the previous buildup. Just a scene post boss battle where Jamil says Kalim basically doesn’t suck all that much and Kalim being overjoyed to hear that annnd that’s it.

Literally right after the book that touches their complex relationship, we don’t actually see the natural build up to them reaching mutual friendship status (which I’d argue shouldn’t happen until Jamil’s contract as a servant is terminated entirely. They literally can’t be equals unless that happens). In other words, Yana greatly fumbled the back of gold that she had from Book 4.

All of these problems would not have happened if they just stopped focusing on Epel as much as they did cause really Book 5 was Epel’s story. We focus a lot more on his struggle with his views on masculinity and the question of what it takes to be a man than we do with Vil’s struggle of idk playing the villain in movies all the time. Again there is something more interesting there with Vil’s whole thing, but the fact that you need to heavily read between the lines is just not good storytelling.

And then add Deuce’s struggles being thrown literally in the fucking middle and it’s ahhhh!

THE POINT IS! Book 5 suffers from a bloated cast and unfocused writing that leaves so much to be desired!

Part 1

okay this is way late but, as promised, my thoughts on the portwell breakup in episode 7: 

First, to all the people saying Portwell was only ever meant to be a distraction, that it was never meant to be an endgame relationship, why all the buildup, then? Why put all that work into a relationship that doesn’t mean anything? If they really wanted Portwell to be a mid-game ship, they could have given them a few cute moments, but they wouldn’t have gone to the level of buying a plane ticket for the other, stepping in to save the day on multiple occasions, giving Gina an entire rom-com episode experience to help her realise her feeligns for EJ, the fricking couch scene, so many little things between them. Consider the fact that Rina was originally written as a distraction. Yes, plans change, but don’t act like Portwell never had any standing, when it was planned before Rina was planned to go anywhere, and it seems like at the time they were planning for Rini endgame. Maybe the writers aren’t going with Portwell endgame now, who knows, but I’m tired of people saying it was stupid to ship Portwell because they were never going to be endgame when Rina wasn’t always in the picture.

Second, the couch scene. Go back and watch that scene. I know we’ve all been saying EJ and Gina have been out of character from season 2 but when you watch that scene it’s like, these aren’t even the same people. This scene has been talked about a lot for how good it is so I won’t dive into that, but I want to talk about the implications that scene would have for EJ and Gina with the college situation.

Look, I’ve known people who were a year or two ahead of their high school S/O and stayed together when one went off to college while the other was still in school. Some of those relationships have broken up. But I know some people who have stayed together. To be able to stay together when you’re both living very different lives, you have to be able to empathize with each other and connect despite the differences in your lives. Which is exactly what happened in the couch scene in season 2. When EJ talks about having his life planned out for him, Gina says she can’t really relate. But they still connect in that moment and are able to understand each other. They both work to understand the other, they both listen, they’re COMMUNICATING SO WELL, which is what this season is trying to tell us they can’t do when we know they can. The two of them work so well as a team because they know how to be in sync, even when they’re going through different experiences. They’re each other’s support systems. They’re a literal power couple. 

Additionally, EJ is planning on taking a gap year. So that would only be one year of him in college and her in high school, which is the same problem R*na will run into.

Now, onto the breakup. I still feel pretty suspicious because why would they have her say “two different summers” when that’s a camp rock 2 song about mitchie and shane, who got back together at the end of the movie. Also, we haven’t had them say I love you so I’m hoping for an “I love you” from EJ next episode. We’ll see what happens.

Anyways, Gina’s feelings are valid. Of course, after all the instability in her life she would want something stable. Of course, it would have been nice if these feelings were built up over the season, but still. The thing we can’t overlook, though, is that Gina’s mom never really fought for her future, but EJ is fighting. He’s fighting so hard for their future, for them to be more than a maybe. It’s so messed up to break them up over this, especially when R*na could be in the EXACT SAME POSITION in a year. Especially when things wouldn’t be a maybe in like one day if the show is a success.

If they had built-up Gina’s feelings about wanting stability in her future all-season, if they had naturally shown EJ’s life going down a different path and wanting to move away and do different things, if we had seen EJ not wanting to do all the camp things because he was starting to feel older and more separate from it (which would be kind of wack bc he’s only 18 not an adult-adult, but whatever) and not just because he has other responsibilities, if they had naturally led to a Portwell breakup in a way that still honoured the characters and their established relationship (that’s been building for three seasons), I could maybe get on board with it. It would be pretty heartbreaking to see two characters who value ambition and going after what you want realizing they both want to go two different directions and it’s time to separate. I still think they could work as a long-distance relationship, but I wouldn’t mind a breakup like that. But with how the show’s being written, it doesn’t make me want to root for R*na. Not when I know if EJ wasn’t being forced to deal with all these responsibilities, he would be the one with Gina in all these scenarios. He would be throwing his all into everything. Ghost hunting in the woods. Color Wars. Every little thing, he would try to make it the best ever. Ricky being there and being nice while EJ isn’t there because of something he didn’t want (the responsibility of directing a show)? That’s not something I’m going to root for. That’s just Ricky doing the bare minimum. Yeah he’s cute but he’s not exactly “better” for Gina, he’s just there. 

Saying Portwell was always going to break up because of their age difference is a slap in the face to all the people with the 1-2 year age gap where one of them is in high school and the other graduated. And saying the breakup is valid because Gina’s feelings are valid doesn’t work, because the breakup still doesn’t make sense.

TLDR; if they wanted to break up Portwell and make R*na a relationship to root for, this wasn’t the way to do it.

I just hope things end in a satisfying way during the finale.

Hey, hope you're doing well <3

Anyway, I feel like the story really needs to give Izuku a break tbh. When you said "sometimes it feels MHA is dark for the sake of being dark" I realised why it's been especially bland for me as well. Hori doesn't give Izuku a break because he wants to make an impact with this arc, make everyone feel how urgent, how important this is but because it's becoming the norm for this arc, people are getting used to it. "Oh another bad day? Yeah, happened yesterday too." It's not impactful if the same thing keeps happening. It's becoming normalized, at least for me lmaoo

The buildup was exciting but the result was anticlimactic, plus I haven't been attention much because I confess I only read MHA for Neito, so from what I've seen it's just power up after power up and missed opportunities.

Anyway, I'm guilty of finding your blog recently and coming here over and over lmaoo. Most of my friends love Bakugou, and the ones that don't don't know him at all pfft- so your blog is heaven

Thank you for the kind words and I hope you’re doing well too 😊.

Honestly I agree with you. I feel Izuku never gets a chance to rest. Closest he’s really gotten was the Culture Festival where he was fighting Gentle rather than a villain that was trying to go for his throat, but besides that, he’s never allowed to breathe.

Now, I love a good dark story. Marvel’s Moon Knight’s one of my favorite characters and his stories get insanely dark to the point where Batman’s darkest stories look like kids books. However, when writing a dark story, one has to know when it’s too dark. Moon Knight’s a story about a man who was killed, revived by a God, serves as the God’s idea of vengeance, and has his mind absolutely shattered as a result. This setup allows Moon Knight to get away with being extremely dark as it contributes to the themes of his story.

Invincible is another story that goes dark, but again, it serves an important purpose and that’s to set up the world, the central conflict, and characters.

Izuku is a hero in training wanting to follow the footsteps of his idol. Naturally there’s times where it’s going to get dark, but the problem is that Horizon doesn’t know how to balance the darker aspects of MHA with the hopeful aspects he’s constantly having the heroes preach about. Things like Twice’s and Himiko’s stories are dark aspects of the story that work because they set up a conflict and showcase what happens when heroes abandon their hopeful attitude, leaving two people with broken minds. However there’s some parts where we clearly see Hori just trying to be edgy. The heroes literally use him as bait, he’s working himself to exhaustion, and for what reason? Why not keep Izuku in a safe house? If this kid runs out of energy while fighting a villain, which almost happened btw, then AFO can scoop him up before the heroes get to him. The arc was meant to show Izuku that he can’t do things alone, but really all it does is torture him for no reason, and ends up being redundant because the reason he left, being that he didn’t want to involve his friends in a fight against OFA, ends up being validated (Katsuki “dies”, Kyouka’s jack gets ripped off, etc.). It just feels depressing, and not in a way which makes you think about the story and what’s going to happen next, but in a way which makes you think “when the hell is this madness going to end?”

It's okay to suck at writing (and enjoy it)

And I don't even mean that as in "give yourself permision to suck so you can get better", I mean literally it's okay to not be "good" at writing as long as you enjoy it.

I see this thing a lot where like more than 90% of the inspiration writing posts I come across are about how you can get better by doing certain things, and just writing advice in general. And hey, if that works for you, I'm so happy for you.

However, I think it's also good to support people in just vibing. Having a good time writing and making art, no matter how objectively good a story is. Though trying to define what objectively good writing is is itself a can of worms I won't be opening today.

I personally came to the conclusion that when choosing a book, what matters to me most in terms of enjoyment is just that - if the book sparks joy somehow.

A perfect example of this is an indie book i picked up on a whim one day in 2019 called The King's Dragon. That book has so many problems from too many POVs that serve little purpose (and are presumably there only to introduce characters important in the sequels), to a super anticlimactic ending, to a romance that I didn't really ship cause one of the guys kinda sucks, and another ship that just happens with no buildup, and so much else, but you know what? I read that book in a single day and I loved it. I still don't know what exactly it is, and I fully recognize the many problems that imo could have been pretty easily fixed. But you know what? I don't really care at all. The only important thing is that I had a good time.

And now that I gave up on selling my books (incredible decision, I'm so much less stressed now) I feel the same way about my writing. Because why should I care if my book has problems if they don't bother me? Why should I agonize over if my descriptions are enough show, not too much tell when it just drains and exhausts me? Why should I try to make my prose better when it's painful and boring to do? What, are the people reading my work online for free give out to me for being lazy, self-indulgent or cringe? Because criticizing free stuff where it wasn't asked for is the real cringe here.

Don't get me wrong, it's perfectly fine to want to improve, but I think if it doesn't bring you joy and in fact just tires you out, it should also be fine to just write and not worry about it. Just do whatever, you know? And have fun with it.

I've been struggling with BED for over a decade, since my teens. I want to recover but I just don't know how to at this point, my eating has been disordered longer than it hasn't at this point and I feel trapped.

I feel this so hard, anon. I was trapped in ED cycles for years. In my first year of college, when I had access to an unlimited-food dining hall, I used to binge every day, then beat myself up and tell myself I wouldn't the next day...rinse, lather, repeat.

It's hard because the neurological reassurance transmitters you get from eating are inherently soothing, so of course it becomes a craving when you're struggling. I've repeated this quote on this blog before, but I heard it said that drug addiction is learning to put the tiger in a cage. Food addiction is learning to take the tiger for a walk three times a day. It is so hard to break an addiction to something that you literally need to survive.

First, I recommend that you seek a licensed eating disorder therapist. If you've had this disorder for such a long time, you're really going to want professional help to keep you on track in your recovery. An ED therapist will help track your thoughts and emotions to see what triggers urges to binge, and will also help you unpack what you are trying to repress when you do binge. They will walk you through alternative coping mechanisms, and help you set up an eating plan that will help you get through mealtimes without bingeing.

Even in recovery, you probably will occasionally overeat or start to binge. Don't beat yourself up when this happens. Learn ways to break the cycle. You do not have to see a binge through to the end. Be gentle with yourself - it can be tempting to think that scolding yourself will fix the problem, but it tends to only deepen the cycle of negative feelings and yearning to self-soothe. Instead, examine what went wrong. Prepare yourself some peppermint tea to help you digest, sip slowly, take a moment to sit with yourself and understand where things went wrong. Tell yourself this is human and you are not alone.

Take time to engage in some self care prior to events revolving around food.

Do not compensate for a binge by restricting afterward, as the anticipation buildup around food will only lead to a binge-restrict cycle that is very hard to break. Instead, get back to eating normally, reminding yourself that you deserve and have always deserved a healthy relationship around food.

Develop a food safety plan if you feel you cannot eat without bingeing. Is there someone you trust to sit with you and check in with you regarding your portions? Do you trust them to cut you off when you're beginning to overdo it? Perhaps you could develop secret signals with this person when out in public. For example, you could signal when you feel yourself panicking and need to step out for some grounding, or they could give you a signal when they think they're seeing you start to slip and you need a check-in. Be careful with this - it has to be someone you deeply trust. This might be something to talk about with a therapist.

Set yourself small goals. Recovery will not happen all at once. It will be a long, slow, hard road full of lapses. But you can get to a better place, anon, and you deserve to be there. I wish you the best of luck. Feel free to check back in for more tips or a place to vent.

Renfield

My dumb little gay brain has hyper fixated on this upcoming vampire film so I wanted to talk about it. Really long post under the cut, so read on at your own risk 👍👍👍

So Renfield is this movie about Dracula’s minion, Renfield, and I got really excited about it when I saw the trailer. I’ll probably still go see the movie, the aesthetic is cool and I like the colors, but based on that trailer, I had an understanding of the plot that did not pan out. Maybe I’m wrong and the advertisement was misleading, but as I’m aware of it, the plot goes like this:

Renfield is your average guy, save for one thing: he works for the narcissistic Lord of Evil, Dracula, who I think serves as a literal representation of his low self-esteem and self-worth. To help alleviate this problem, he goes to a toxic relationship counseling group, who see his panicked rambling about his boss’s powers as hyperbole. His job is to bring Dracula people to eat, and, in exchange, (by eating spiders??? I think???) he gains superhuman strength and agility. But Dracula treats him terribly, and he’s looking to get out of their bargain. He, at some point, saves a bunch of people, and teams up with a police officer lady to an unknown degree. I assume the movie will end with him defeating Dracula, symbolizing him overcoming his mental struggles and finding peace.

Now, I thought this movie was gay. Perhaps that’s my gaggles (gay goggles) talking, but given that he goes to relationship counseling, the bizarre intimacy shown in the promotional material, as well as my inkling that it would have its romantic/sexual undertones addressed narratively if either Dracula or Renfield was a woman, I think it’s justified. So my first thought was, “Cool! Gay vampire action movie with Nick Cage!” And then I thought, “Oh, not gay vampire action movie with Awkwafina.” And some of my initial enthusiasm dipped. But I figured, “I can’t’ve been the only one who caught on to these subtleties, right?” So, to the Internet I went.

Come to find out, almost everyone saw the very homoerotic subtext between the dominating evil fancy man and his submissive good-hearted henchperson. 

Of course, some certain corners of the Internet, such as Pinterest, Tumblr, and Ao3 are perhaps a bit hardwired to see two men in close proximity and diagnose them with gay, but I think that says more about how writers write these characters, and less about how the fans see them. Since straight relationships are largely unappealing (read: unhealthy and possessive) as portrayed in modern media, and a majority of characters with speaking lines and interactions are male, gay pairings are an essential part of the shipping conversation. The top ten pairings in Ao3 fanfiction are all between two guys, for Pete’s sake. 

So why aren’t canonical gay relationships more common? The obvious answer is, obviously, the aggressive heterosexuality of Hollywood, action movies in particular. Sometimes it seems like hetero romance is a quota to fill, as if while making these movies, they thought, “We have to make these to opposite-gendered characters kiss,” with very little reasoning or logic behind it. And even if a straight romance is given buildup and payoff, it seems that many writers are uninterested in actually writing about two people in love, beyond the falling in. (The Thor movies are actually a great example of this, as the relationship between Jane Foster and Thor in the first movie is a pretty well-written one. But then they’ve broken up in the second film, Jane isn’t in the third one, and then she dies.) Indiana Jones has three different love interests for three straight movies, Maverick gets back with Penny in Top Gun 2 for literally no good reason, and Endgame ends with Captain America having gone back and inadvertently removed Peggy’s agency to get his romantic ending. In my opinion, straight romances are largely superficial, not impacting plot or characters in meaningful enough ways to be included. 

And that’s, I think, at the heart of why I can’t stand romantic subplots in action movies. Their superficially and toxic insanity. I can count on two hands the amount of movies with enjoyable and well-progressed romantic subplots. (Howl’s Moving Castle, Shrek, and Tangled come to mind, though that might be my animation bias showing.) It feels tacked on. Cheap. Unimportant. It’s hard to get invested into when the characters are so… not interesting. And when it’s not boring me to tears, it’s making me question the sanity of whoever signed off on it.

For an excellent comparison, look at the 1999 and 2017 Mummy movies. In the ‘99 film, Rick and Evie’s romance couldn’t be removed without substantial changes to the narrative. They positively drive each other’s development. Rick by feeding into Evie’s more outgoing and adventurous tendencies, and Evie by driving Rick to be more open and compassionate. They’re totally focused on each other, and time is given to developing their relationship naturally. It also provides a good foil against the villain, Imhotep, who was destroyed not once, but twice by his obsession with Anck-su-Namun. 

But the 2017 version has one of the most heterosexual stories I’ve ever seen in an action film. The protagonist, Nick, has two love interests, the paranoid researcher Jennifer, and the mummy herself, Ahmanet. He’s linked to Ahmanet through some psychic BS, and she wants to marry him. But he also has a past with Jennifer, and ends up sacrificing himself for her. But instead of these relationships serving as juxtaposition, one driven by genuine caring passion, and the other driven by desire and selfishness, one just keeps getting in the way of the other. At the end, neither are developed or compelling. Too much time is spent with Nick bemoaning his ties to Ahmanet to grow into his relationship with Jennifer, and too much time is spent with Nick angsting out with Jennifer to elaborate on his relationship with Ahmanet. And they’re all such boring characters that you can’t even really bring yourself to care.

So, along comes Renfield. A film with the perfect opportunity to structure most, if not all, of its story around a romantic relationship, albeit a failing one. It felt (and still feels) incredibly What We Do In The Shadows, given the poppy neon lighting, dry-humored dialogue, timeless atmosphere, and campy characters. And, above everything else, a lot of very gay subtext. (Of course, What We Do In The Shadows is a lot more overt with the character’s obviously not-straight sexualities.) Because while the common Internet users seem to look at this movie and say, “they’re gay,” the more official, widespread Internet journalists and film critics seem to look at this movie and talk only about how cool it is that not-so-subtle meme king Nicolas Cage is playing a classy-classic tuxedo vampire. (And, don’t get me wrong, I love that too.) Is it the gaggles rearing their homo heads again? Is this just something we’ve read into too deeply?

I don’t think so. Any millennial/ gen-Z consumer of vampire media, excluding maybe the die-hard Edward versus Jacob Twilight fans, is familiar with the homoeroticism that comes with the genre. Carmilla, widely considered the very first vampire novel, is literally about a lesbian romance! The sexual tension between Jonathan Harker and the Count in the first few chapter of Dracula is wild. So much vampire media is queercoded, if not outright gay, so I think assuming a 2023 “modern monster tale” would address or lean into these expectations is reasonable.

(As a side note, whatever Renfield and Dracula’s relationship is, it’s a toxic one. If my assumption is correct and Dracula represents Renfield’s internalized insecurities, that’s a pretty bad basis for a romance. The promo material has made it very clear that Renfield is unhappy with how he is treated by his boss. His journey in the movie is about getting away from that.

Online fandom culture has an unfortunate habit of romanticizing (fetishizing) gay men in toxic relationships. Look no further than the enthusiastic Killing Stalking fan base, who think a psychopathic, unfeeling murderer and an emotionally unstable, abandonment-issue-riddled nervous wreck should be together romantically. Oh, and the murderer kept the nervous wreck locked in his house for months, physically, emotionally, and sexually abusing him, while feeding into his Stockholm-Syndrome mentality. Such a relationship is similar to Dracula and Renfield’s. A lot of this culture stems from teen girls, which I am, and I don’t want to feed into that.)

If Renfield is gay, it has an interesting opportunity to write an extremely interesting queer romance about a gay dude breaking away from his abusive old boss, and perhaps finding new love and comfort in his sexuality. I would suggest the police officer, but, on top of the fact that she would bring it back to the realm of heteronormativity, she’s unfunny and annoying. (Although, her name is Rebecca Quincy, and Quincy P. Morris is the name of the bisexual Texas cowboy himbo from the original Dracula novel.) Oh, well. She’ll probably be his love interest anyway.

It’s possible that I’m just wrong and Renfield will have all this “good queer writing” that I didn’t expect, and this whole essay will be null and void. (I seriously doubt it.) Honestly, though, I’m really just using Renfield as thinly- veiled window dressing for other romantic- adjacent topics that I’ve wanted to organize my thoughts on for a while. 

Thanks if you read all this way. Lemme know what your thoughts on stuff like this is.

Ok Time To Rant…3.07 Has Given Me All The Willpower I Needed To Be Heartbroken Enough To Come Back Here. (Sorry About The Gaps)

Ok First Things First, Something I’ll Never Understand Is How Come The Only Person Who Cares About This Show Is Ej. Yeah I Know Carlos Did His Little Plan To Get Channing To Not Leave But I Hate How Everyone Is Telling Ej To Lighten Up As If This Documentary Isn’t Going To Be Showed All Around The World. Like Do Y’all Want To Fail & Be Humiliated For Everyone To See? Cause That’s The Vibe I’m Getting From Literally Everyone. All Ej Has Done Was Try To Create A Perfect Show For All Of His Friends So They Can Shine Like The Stars He Knows They Are & So Far He Seems To and Getting Nothing But Criticized For Caring So Much About Them. How Come Ricky Was Able To Put All His Focus Into Making A Good Show For The Sake Of Nini But When Ej Does It It’s Wrong? I Know There Are Some Things He Could Have Done Better, But The Intention Behind Most Of That Was So Others Wouldn’t Worry. And What Is Up With The Writers Pushing You Have To Know EVERYTHING YOU WANT IN LIFE BY THE TIME YOU ARE 18!?!?!?! That Is Such A Toxic Mindset & I Feel So Sorry For The Kids Of These Writers Cause Clearly They Have Been Pushed To These Horrible Standards. There Are So Many People In This World Who Are Still Figuring Themselves Out Late In Life. WHY DO PEOPLE PUT AN AGE LIMIT TO EVERYTHING. Have Kids By This Age, Have A House By This Age, Be Retired At This Age, Be Financially Ready By This Age IT NEVER ENDS!!! Literally All Ej Wanted Was To Have One Last Summer Of Feeling Like A Kid & It Was Literally Highjacked From Him & It Is So Heartbreaking. He Only Wanted To Have Fun With His Girlfriend But Instead Was Given A Task That Shouldn’t Have Been His Responsibility In The First Place.

Now I Know We Don’t Have The Exact Month This Summer Is Taking Place In But I Think I Can Say With Confidence It Has Been Over A Month Since Portwell Started Dating So For Gina To Say That Their Relationship Never Started Felt Like A Low Blow. What Happened To The Compassionate Gina From The Couch Scene? The Gina Who Saw Him Trying Hard To Do The Right Thing Even When He Failed? Is That Episode Deleted? Did Their Memories Get Erased Since Then Because That’s What They Are Acting Like. Like It Never Even Happened & The Understanding Side Of Them Was Completely Obliterated. I Cannot Believe All It Took Was Not Even A Full Two Weeks To Demolish Almost Two Months Worth Of Buildup. So What If He Has Already Done Everything? He Had Already Done Everything Before He Even Knew You! That Felt Highly Irrelevant To The Argument. He Didn’t Care About Already Doing It, He Just Wanted To Do It With You. Did She Forget Once Again He Never Wanted To Be Director, I Know He Has The Title But She Should Never Acted Like It Was Something He Wanted When They Came Here Together. This Breakup Felt Exactly Like Rini’s, The Girl Breaks Down Crying, A Good While Later We See The Girl Again & She Seems Fine, The Boys Break Down Later. It’s Not Like He Ignored Her On Purpose! Your Partner Being Busy Isn’t A Excuse To Make Them Feel Bad About Being A Busy. I Get How She Feels I Do, I’ve Only Been In One Relationship In My Life & I’m Still In It & In The Beginning I Was Worried Too. Wondering If I Was A Good Girlfriend, What Is He Doing, Why Isn’t He Texting Me, All That Stuff Going On In My Mind. Once I Learned What He Was Going Through I Eased Up On My Worrying & Didn’t Make Him Feel Bad For Being Busy Because When He Wasn’t Always Talking To Me, He Was Doing Stuff To Help Our Future & That’s Why We Are Four Years Strong. Ej Literally Put His Stress & Mental Health On The Line So This Show Would Be Perfect, Do I Wish He Communicated Of Course But At The Same Time, Why Should Gina Worry About His Problems When She Has A Show She Has To Focus On? Everything Goes Back To This Performance & Ej Wanting It To Be Great Because He Sees The Potential In Everyone. I’ve Seriously Come To The Conclusion That Someone Plays Favorites Annnnddd Matt Deserves Better & I Hope He Gets Better. Things That Weren’t Needed. Ricky Trying To Joke About Making Slapping A Tradition. That Slap Wasn’t Needed In The First Place, Especially After What Was Implied During The Scene. Carlos’ Body Dysmorphia Storyline Came Out Of Nowhere & Seemed To Be Solved In Two Episodes. This Could’ve Been Really Good If It Started In The Beginning Of The Season, Like Kourt’s Anxiety. You Already Know The Breakup Didn’t Need To Happen But Here Is The Biggest Thing That Didn’t Need To Happen…Portwell

I Know What You’re Thinking But Lemme Just Explain. Something I Am Always Hearing From Gicky’s Is How Much Tim Loves Gicky & How It Was Planned From The Start. Okay That’s Totally Fine, But One Thing That Irks Me Is That Tim Did Not Need To Create Portwell…But He Did. From What We Saw After The Rini Breakup Was That It Didn’t Take Ricky Too Long To Move Onto Lily Which Tells Me This. If Gina Had Pined For A Good While Longer & Stayed Away From Ej, Soon Rini Would Have Broken Up & Something I Am Constantly Hearing From Gicky’s Is How Well Ricky & Gina Know Each Other & It Is Because Of That They Would Find Their Way Back To Each Other. Okay Cool, So With That Being Said, Rini Breakup Happens & Since They Know Each Other So Well, Eventually Tim Could’ve Had Gicky Reconnecting In 2.10 After The Breakup Cause That Is When Lily Started Connecting With Ricky But The Difference Is Him & Gina Have More Chemistry Than He Does With Lily Which Would’ve Made The Moving On Even Quicker. Tim Could’ve Started Them In 2.10 Then Boom Gicky Endgame Season 2 But No He Decided To Create A Ship That So Many People Love For The Sake Of Another Ship Which Is Wrong On So Many Levels. Why Did You Have To Waste Our Time Like That? Why Did You Spend So Much Time Showing Us A Couple That Understood Each Other Just To Throw It Away The Following Season. You Would’ve Been Better Off Not Giving Us Portwell At All. I Heard Episode 8 Will Be Better For Us Portwell’s But That Doesn’t Change The Anger I Have In My Body Right Now.

Night Everyone…

If you could fix ONE or more plot point(s) from NSR/Psyconauts, what would it be?

Oh absolutely the ending of NSR. I'm sorry, but I fucking HATE that stupid hand they did at the end. It makes me so mad. All that buildup just to have a giant hand make a rock symbol and blow up the satellite. Like I am okay with some stupid things to happen, but that is way too much for me.

Especially by the fact that Tatiana specifically states she is going to clear out the tower in case the plan doesn't work, only for all the surrounding buildings to run up the tower and make a hand. What about all the people in THOSE buildings? Huh Tatiana!?

Also like, they make it VERY clear that the naval force of Vinyl City is a big one, with flying submarines/battle ships and regular battleships in the water. They could have easily done something with those!

Or even like some kind of powerup or something that allowed a beam to shoot from the tower to the satellite would have been fine! (though the implications of either beam or hand of the tower becomes dangerous considering that would mean NSR could literally just kill people in the city if they wanted to).

Like I GET they needed some super big bad to give power back to the charters and fix Mayday and Zuke's mistakes/actions, but they could have thought of something else that wasn't so ridiculous. Like do something with the main qwasa in the center of the city or something.

Also, a small thing, I would have liked to see 1010 and Mama in the end. I know it would have been a bitch to somehow add 5 more bodies to the already busy scene, but it would have been nice to see them. (though I do like the implications that 1010 get repaired later. I just wish they could have represented their own district instead of just Neon since Sayu is representing mer own district. But the devs/game is being ambiguous on how sentient 1010 are so I understand that, but at least let Mama be with her kid).

As for Pyschonauts, I think this is more gameplay than story, but I wish the first game made it easier to get down from the tower. Or at least tell us earlier there is no going back because I couldn't 100% the game afterwards and didn't want to go down the tower a 4th time. Otherwise with that first game I have no real complaints about plot or story. (other than not having Augustus screaming RAZPUTIN over and over every second in the last fight which got annoying quick).

For the second game though, I wish the interns were more prevalent in the story. Give them some side missions or something that INVOLVE them, not just us doing their work. Or make them do more in the scenes we see them in. Maybe each intern could help up with one of the Psychic 7 when we are recruiting them (I like the idea of Lizzie helping Compton). Just SOMETHING.

I've seen a lot of people say that you could take the interns out of the game entirely and not have to change much to get the same story. And honestly I see that as pretty true. I just wish they were more involved because you could completely ignore them if you wanted to once you get out of the mother lobe (pretty sure you can).

But yeah, other than that I don't have any real problems with the plot of the game. I only played them each like once compared to me playing NSR about 5-6 times, so I might not be as experienced in the game to give my take on the story. But from what I remember the story was fine. Fine enough I have no outstanding complaints in my head to change something other than gameplay/mechanic wise.

Hi I did read the first 4? I think that’s the number magisterium books as they were coming out I don’t remember a lot of them but I remember the general vibe as being Cassandra Clare and Holly Black co wrote Syfy’s the magicians fan fiction but for middle schoolers. Also I tried to figure out what happened in the last book from fan reactions and only sort of understood it, so I can ask you what are your feelings about the resolution of the romance plot? :D (also Hi I’m S I like just followed you but I love your blog from what I’ve seen)

I PROMISE IT'S BETTER THAN SYFY'S THE MAGICIANS. I PROMISE. i would highly recommend finishing reading the series, i also only read the first 4 as the came out and tbh i don't think when 5 came out i was in the right mental space to appreciate it but years later i think it can slay.... the mental and emotional buildup makes it better i think, which is good because at the end of the day the golden tower was um. not a good book. to me. it was insane of course, i still think you should read it, it's a crazy book... my problem with it is not just because of the romance subplot but iDO have a little beef with the romance subplot.... and we MUST get into it..... also. hi, i realize i did not open this with a greeting i just went straight into talking, but yeah hi hello it's lovely to have u here <3

ANYWAY. so as we all know from the Posting i have been doing, i am a big fan of call and tamara's weird little thing. but i don't entirely like the way it was resolved in book 5? like. there's nothing bad about it i guess. it's more that i feel like tamara as a charcater had to be put on the backburner for this book so that tamara as a love interest could come through. it felt like every time she was in a scene it was always about how call liked her and was worried she didn't like him back and etc etc and they can't kiss because aaron's in his head blah blah blah. it was like can we go back to talking about how cool tamara is. can we have her suggest making a bomb again. where was her slay in this book, where was her freakswag. again, it was never truly like, Bad, but it also wasn't great. and furthermore. they didn't give the same freak realness once they were actually romantic interests as they did during the buildup, which is always SO LAME. like. tamara saving call from alex at the end of the bronze key instead of aaron even though "aaron is the good one" will ALWAYS be more insane and crazy than them kissing or whatever. you know how it is.

on the other hand though, i LOVED jasper and gwenda. that was peak side character romance there.... wish gwenda had been a bigger character in the earlier books but oh well i guess i can't have everything. they kinda had a little lake and felix love victor swag..... but i can't get into that or i'll scream. also loved the way everyone got coupled off but aaron. literally his schrodinger's gay character realness..... cassie and holly were REFUSING to confirm or deny that boy's romantic inclinatons!! kind of a 2010s queerbait slay. although i would literally never accuse cassie or holly of queerbaiting, that would be like, so insane and would would so rudely diminish the actual insanely progressive work they've done for gay representation. you know. so. aaron was not queerbaiting he was like. well. veronica lodge voice it was saving the world... in a way. he's like a character that's obviously queer coded but needs to be censored for some reason. and that reason is literally just that this series is way too short to be getting into the complexities of aaron being gay and in love with call. he was relegated to subtext for time reasons, happens to the best of us <3