#the fact that he looks SO GOOD (like tbh tbh tbh imo better than the dance line hsjahfdjslks)
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Izzy Hands Is Manipulative, But Not That Way
...or I finally finish that long ass meta post about why I love the fucking Navy Plot lol
The Izzy manipulation debate has been really interesting to me pretty much since it started, because I'd see a post arguing he's manipulating Edward and go "No, and he couldn't if he tried" and then the next post would say he sucks at manipulation because he's a blunt fucking instrument and I'd go "Yea- wait. Hmm. No, he can be targeted and tricky as fuck." Which does, on its surface, seem like a contradictory stance, but I swear it works.
Because the thing with Izzy - and this is such a fun thing imo - is there are two core types of manipulation that characters engage in, and Izzy fucking sucks at the one you expect his style of antagonist to focus on. But he's scarily good at the other.
Long meta under the cut, so get comfy.
...
From his role under Edward to the protagonist vs antagonist dynamic setup to his introduction scenes, Izzy is very much invoking the conniving second in command. We know this character from other media. He doesn't have the full power he wants so he's constantly scheming to get it. He can't or won't challenge his boss for some reason, so he settles for being the devil on their shoulder or working behind their back. He's the voice constantly ready to inflame insecurities and turn relationship cracks into chasms, and usually he's lying constantly to do so. His fingerprints are all over his boss's problems up to the moment they show some weakness, and then their loyal second goes right for the backstab. He is THE ambitious manipulator. The shady advisor. The snake.
And then you actually look at Izzy and he is not that guy. In fact, it's a testament to the strength of Edward's character arc how much his evil little henchman is not causing his problems.
So - Izzy and manipulation:
Izzy Can't Convince People To Do Things
Like. He really can't.
This interpersonal struggle is fairly fundamental to his character. And moreover, it's a skill that Izzy is intensely aware that he lacks, so usually he doesn't even try.
In his first episode he walks right up to Buttons and just straight up asks him for the information on his party. He doesn't even resolve to steal the hostages until he realizes that Stede has lost them in the bush already, and Izzy obtains them by buying them. When Stede confronts him they end up splitting the pair in a very above-board negotiation and he pretty much just goes with what Stede suggests.
Then in 1x03, people make a big deal of Izzy "manipulating" Edward by not clarifying that Stede didn't know who he was when he turned down the invite, but kind of importantly he repeats the damning line of the conversation faithfully. If he was going to lie, then why not lie? Why even go see Stede at all? And, if he didn't want Stede dead until after the conversation (understandable, tbh, since "Iggy" was stab-worthy), surely he could invent a better insult to rile Edward up. It makes his omission hit more like being bitchy about Stede not recognizing the obvious - namely that Izzy Hands works for Blackbeard and literally everyone knows this - than a slander campaign to get him killed. And once we properly meet Izzy and Edward in 1x04, Izzy's inability to manipulate becomes his main struggle.
Izzy's a blunt and direct person. He leans on authority bestowed by Blackbeard to take control of situations, playing the role he's supposed to play, and without it he lacks a Plan B. In 1x04 he doesn't have any authority over Edward, so his efforts to get him to take the danger of the Spanish seriously amount to "Well as bored as you might be, if you don't make a decision soon we're gonna fucking die." And this is true! There might be a very subconscious attempt at manipulation in his resignation speech before the "That's Blackbeard. I'm Stede, remember?" line - of the piss him off to get him to get his shit together variety - but Edward literally makes a joke out of it so not exactly effective.
And once Edward stops giving Izzy authority in general, his plan to make Lucius do stuff is still just... brute force. Which works at first when Lucius doesn't realize that Izzy's on his own now, and stops working as soon as Fang breaks ranks. His last ditch blackmail attempt isn't manipulative either - he just plans to tell the truth to Pete and assumes he'll be pissed about it. My guy loses a fight over the pirate equivalent of making an uppity employee clean the coffee maker while the boss is out. Not only does he fail to manipulate the crew in a conniving antagonist way... he doesn't even try.
I mean, the only time he (somewhat) succeeds in talking someone into things is 1x06. Getting Edward to agree to killing Stede isn't really manipulation - Izzy gets Fang and Ivan to back him in a very straightforward way because they all actually do have a stake in this - but he's passably able to push Stede to go through with the fuckery via fake compliments. It's not exactly high level work, though. Stede being vulnerable to ego-stroking / dares is pretty obvious.
So what is Izzy good at?
Well, if you can't make people do anything other than what they were going to do in the first place, you might as well lean into that.
...
Izzy Manipulates Situations, Not People
Situational manipulation is one of those fictional tropes that rarely can happen in real life, but there's not much resemblance because real life rarely gives you all the building blocks for a proper gambit and lets you loose. Too many factors. In narratives, though? It becomes one of my favorite ways of having a character be clever.
And before I get into this too much, a really fun sidenote - I think Izzy does situational manipulation more like the way protagonists do it. See, antagonists are usually emotionally and situationally manipulative (ex: provoking the hero to lash out and using it to frame them for a bigger crime), but it's not a good look when your hero drives the target to do something bad and then punishes them for it. So heroes lean on stuff like Batman Gambits - where the lynchpin of the scheme is the target fucking themselves over by behaving completely in character. They've written Izzy so ineffective at emotional manipulation that he pretty much has to rely on other characters' flaws or histories to cause problems, which has a very similar result. And it's wild.
...
Going back to the 1x03 confrontation in Jackie's bar, Izzy doesn't really do anything abnormal in how he conducts himself, but people are picking up on an agenda for a reason. Namely, the whole damn conversation quickly turns into a trap, and Izzy fully sits back and watches Stede spring it from sheer idiocy.
There's no indication that when Izzy walked up he wasn't going to carry out his task with all the bitchy professionalism expected of him, while probably hoping that Stede would eventually stick his foot in his mouth without Izzy's help (assuming he's the kind of idiot Izzy thinks he is). His first section of this conversation is nearly polite:
Izzy (about the Nose Jar): "I have a few colleagues in there."
Stede: "Ugh. You again."
Geraldo: "Mr. Hands, welcome. It's been a while."
Izzy: "(To Geraldo) Yeah, because I hate this fucking place. (To Stede) But for some inexplicable reason, my boss would like a word with you. Bonnet."
It's not until Stede starts talking that I think Izzy clues in that Stede doesn't actually know who his boss is. He didn't introduce himself until the literal last second of their 1x02 interaction, so it wasn't obvious Stede wasn't literally bolting into the forest in horrified realization.
And Stede? He goes hard on being a bitch right out the gate. Brushes Izzy off, tells him to "get in line", calls him the wrong name, says he doesn't care who Izzy is...
Izzy so far has met Stede in a public place, in front of people who clearly treat Izzy with respect and fear. He doesn't bring up their previous interaction, Stede does. He doesn't even goad Stede beyond existing. He corrects him on his name, and watches it not register in the slightest. The next line is the clincher:
Izzy (slightly incredulous): "So I'll tell my Captain that you're declining then, yeah?"
As Izzy is speaking the conversation becomes a trap - he chooses a reasonable way to refer to Edward that isn't "Blackbeard" and waits to see if Stede will make this worse. The jump from "no I'm busy" to "tell him he has terrible taste in flunkies and he can go suck eggs in Hell" is all Stede, completely ignoring context clues as Geraldo stares on in horror. Hell, Jackie only refrains from later de-nosing Stede on the spot because Geraldo knows what's up, and Stede still doesn't pick up on the fact he should maybe be asking some questions (though I'll give him the knife was distracting).
Izzy returns to the ship, quotes Stede directly for his damning line, and waits to see what Edward will do with it. It's not good behavior on his part (and if he could have seen the future he might have tried worse), but switching mid-conversation to offering Stede an opportunity to fuck himself over is a very different mindset than simply lying to / provoking Stede or Edward to get what he wants. He's mostly being petty.
Stede did insult Edward of his own volition, after all, and just because Izzy fudges the truth to hide he didn't know he was insulting Blackbeard instead of just Izzy and a random stranger doesn't change that. All Izzy did to "escalate" that conversation was give Stede a second opening to do so himself.
But there is a far better example of Izzy masterfully manipulating a situation than this in-the-moment bit of pettiness, so let's move onto my favorite bit... explaining in extensive and slightly awestruck detail why the Navy plot. Fucking. Rules. Because it does. Ready?
...
How to Mastermind the Decisive Removal of One Stupid Fucking Stede Bonnet Over Drinks
Ahem. The Navy plot. Masterclass in intimate betrayal. Izzy's biggest escalation in the total collapse of Edward and Izzy's relationship, but also a completely fucking fascinating glimpse into whatever tangled web of codependency they've got going on, because Edward isn't even mad after 1x09. This wordcount is going to be insane enough without me getting into the Blackhands relationship connotations, so I will... attempt... to stick to breaking down the actual scheme.
And what a scheme it was.
Let's start at the beginning. Jack showing up to lure them into the trap at the start of 1x08? Nope, earlier. Izzy getting kicked off the ship and going to Jackie at the end of 1x06? Further back. Edward proposing the "kill Stede" plan at the end of 1x04, which is the domino that starts all this, right? Closer, but still no.
Izzy's first appearance on screen is in episode 1x02, and that episode is where the seeds of the Navy plot are first planted. See, during Stede's confrontation with Izzy, both of the hostages chime in:
Hostage 1 (Wellington): "Believe him, he's quite insane."
Hostage 2 (Hornberry): "He does have the eyes of a madman. Sorry, you do."
Wellington says his line in a tone of voice that clearly indicates a story to tell, and it should also be noted that he is the same one who earlier jumped at the chance to tell the tribe chief about Stede murdering their captain - Nigel. And he's the one that Izzy leaves with, in a sour mood and wanting information about this "Stede Bonnet" character.
When Izzy later reaches out to the Navy, it's no coincidence that he finds Chauncey. He's known since right after their first meeting that Stede was directly responsible for the murder of an Admiral's brother and that the English Navy would know soon enough, since he was literally about to ransom a hostage back to them who would tell the story. And he filed that information away until it was useful or relevant like a clever pirate should.
Moving on to Jackie's bar in 1x03, Izzy gets more potentially useful observations / inspiration. Jackie is actually the first person in the series to make a deal with a naval power. Izzy and crew track the Revenge to the Spanish warship, which means they must see Geraldo sold out Stede to them. Izzy isn't stupid. He knows Geraldo and Spanish Jackie, knows that she's the brains and brawn behind this deal, and has seen enough of Stede that he'd absolutely believe that he did something to get Jackie pissed enough to plot his murder. File away Jackie wants Stede dead and details of how she nearly succeeded in offing him for later.
Izzy spends 1x05 up to the fuckery demonstration observing Stede's crew while waiting for Edward to pull the trigger. I definitely want to note the scene where they interrogate the Frenchman at the beginning of 1x05, because Izzy is staring directly at Stede as he leans away from Edward threatening violence (we know this will later be in his love montage so not actually a turn off, lol, but like... it looked like one). His opinion of the crew is that they like to fuck around without structure (1x05 during the party), probably that they enjoy more standard pirate levels of violence (not shown directly since they are kept out of the 1x05 raid, but fairly obvious), and that they are really easily awestruck by the chance to hear "real pirates" tell charismatic stories (1x06 ghost story).
Any of that sounding like someone we know?
And now to go back to Izzy in 1x06, when he gets sick of Edward being cagey about the plan to kill Stede and decides to "make" him stop stalling, he's straightforward again. Getting Ivan and Fang to back him isn't emotionally manipulative, but it does give him weight in the conversation. They are the ones who bring up the whole "love of a pet makes a man weak" thing, and they do it in the context of calling out hypocrisy. Izzy knows the standards Edward holds his crew to. He lets them convince Edward it's time.
Taking the chance to suggest Stede try a fuckery is a strong blend of situational and emotional manipulation, and later challenging him to a formal duel knowing he'd be overconfident enough to accept is more situational again. Even the terms of the duel are designed to take advantage of the situation. And then Izzy loses in the most comedy way possible, Edward lets him get banished, and Izzy decides that if he was ok with just sending Stede Bonnet on his way to fuck-off before... he's fucking gonna kill him now.
My guy is not a creative thinker, but he's definitely a logistical one. And as he rows away from that ship, all the pieces fall into place.
First, Spanish Jackie. Who listens to him bemoan his relationship woes because she likes him (Izzy gets Jackie in the divorce). Who wants Stede dead and has the clout to summon and deal with a distasteful ally - Chauncey. Together, they concoct an arrangement where a trap will be set and Chauncey gets Stede and only Stede. This isn't a tip-off or a free-for-all. Stede comes from Chauncey's world and they are sending him back. Permanently.
Then it's time for the trap itself, which needs to do two things: get the Revenge somewhere that Chauncey can corner it, and get Edward out of there. And Izzy? Izzy knows Edward. Knows there's one particular person in his past that will have no trouble integrating with the crew, getting Edward to act more like a pirate than a gentleman, and who happens to have a great ambush location on hand.
I've said this before but I'm gonna say it again - I don't think outside characters realize how hard and fast Edward is falling for Stede. The BlackBonnet bonding moments happen almost exclusively when they are alone. The place Izzy dramatically fails to manipulate the situation is not having the evidence he would need to predict Edward going back for Stede. He (and Jack) both think that a precise wedge between BlackBonnet - one that Jack delivers near flawlessly by playing into real issues - will be enough to remind Edward that Stede isn't his people. This isn't a plan to murder the love of Edward's life while his back is turned. It's a plan to get rid of Stede, and remind Edward why he was on board with doing that in the first place. "That's fair," Izzy says about a punch to the face.
Instead, Izzy's plot accidentally backs Edward into a corner and forces him to publicly pull a grand-gesture relationship level-up that he was not emotionally ready for, and the fallout from that explosion is way worse than any of our conspirators were counting on.
Still... you gotta admit. It was a really good plan.
#our flag means death#i still really want to know when fang and ivan showed up to all this#like it's fascinatingly crazy that they looked at allllllll this insanity and were like. this seems like it's between izzy and the boss#did they go with him to find calico jack? did they sit at the table while izzy laid out the whole crew's potential weak points???#the navy plot#izzy hands ofmd#izzy hands#ofmd meta#my meta#ofmd 1x09#ofmd 1x02#ofmd 1x03#ofmd 1x04#ofmd 1x06#ofmd 1x08#spanish jackie ofmd#chauncey badminton ofmd#calico jack ofmd#stede bonnet ofmd#ladyluscinia
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some Thoughts on the halo tv show🧐
idk whether or not ppl are still avoiding s1 spoilers but either way this will be Long so, below the cut✌
(@helix-studios117 you'll enjoy this probably)
INITIAL REACTION. like 5/10.
- it is funny to me the amount of latin and classical shit in this show, as a classics student "new carthage" and the big slogan on the wall (i could only see "per mare, per (?), per (?)" and all that other shit is SO funny. and cool
- i saw a lot of bad things abt this so my opinion is a bit pre-jaded BUT i see know i think a lot of those bad reactions are well-founded. the writing is decent, tbh, not awful, but too fast. exposition is sloppy, which is expected bc they are trying to aim for both audiences who have been exposed to halo and audiences who have not. but STILL. better to over expose a bit than to leave me with questions (though i also recognize i have barely scratched the surface of halo myself)
- that said, QUESTIONABLE decisions made: no reason for pablo schreiber to be totally naked in that scene. sorry but no. for me it not only felt unnecessary but weird for them to want to get master chief naked - the camera doesn't sexualize him i don't think, but still it was strange. also why did that other doctor dude go in to kiss halsey's double? also in general some dialogue felt kinda forced and boring.
- cinematographically, it looks good. it's pretty normal but looks nice, and there were a few shots or scenes that seemed particularly well framed or shot. the mjolnir armor looks good imo! not AS production value porn as rings of power, which is fun. i especially enjoyed the aesthetic of the scene of john walking around his old house and the shot of him kneeling behind his younger self.
- i don't really mind maskless chief, but i think they're overdoing it with him keeping the helmet off 90% of the time. i think it was inevitable we'd see his face at some point but it's being done very lazily and in a way that destroys part of chief as a character. i think taking it off in ep1 was ridiculous (i also think chief defecting 25 mins into ep1 was ridiculous) and i believe a much more powerful moment to remove the helmet was ep4 after you get all the close up internal shots in the helmet as he's viewing cortana's remaking of his old home. would've been way more powerful to have perhaps snippets of john's face, too close or distant to make anything really connect, before a big reveal.
- i also dislike that the reasoning to keep his mask off so much is that pablo schreiber said you can't form an emotional connection to a masked character if you dont see their face. like it's okay to think that.....but you're just insanely wrong. do you know what show you're in???? do you know the character you have been hired to portray? have you ever seen star wars or played video games? have you ever read a book? when we watched the mandalorian we were all so insanely hyped about what mando looked like DESPITE THE FACT WE ALL KNOW WHAT PEDRO PASCAL LOOKS LIKE. LIKE PLEASE ((also i've written 500k words of fic based around an elder scrolls DLC character whose entire persona is wearing a mask, has no actual canon face, and whom you kill at the end of his DLC. sorry pablo you are just wrong))
- i've seen some ppl complain abt chief having a "real boy" plotline and how stupid that is, which i partially disagree with. i think it's REALLY interesting to suggest and explore the possibility of him and other spartans being able to lift themselves out of being killing machines and glimpse how estranged they are from their humanity, and what exactly has been done to them to estrange them, but i do think the show is laying it on WAY TOO MUCH, WAY TOO FAST. again w strange writing, lacking exposition, and poor pacing. we never really know or see chief to establish him as a Character before he goes rogue.
overall, interesting, but has SO much potential to be way better in a thousand different ways. i have no idea how this was marketed, if they said it would be a good adaptation, but ANY adaptation of a game or book nowadays seems to fall into the trap of "we made a thing! oh no one who likes the source material likes our thing and also we changed the plotlines irrevocably so now we have to say that we're using an "alternate timeline" or our own made up version. but somehow we still get funding" (((cough fucking cough the shitass wheel of time amazon show))) not godawful so i'll probs finish s1 and see how it ends, at the very least it's kinda interesting and i don't know enough about halo to hate it completely. however i know chief smashes a covenant leader which is just 😭 like COME ON PEOPLE. rly?
- that being said i don't HATE the idea of the pellet but there is also something to be said for the immense strength of a lifetime of augmentation, being spoonfed propaganda, institutional lies, and being manipulated both physically and mentally - all of that seems to carry a heavy weight compared to the pellet, which seems almost trivial and a lazy explanation as to "why Spartans are as they are". if they had tried to actually dive into the literal ways the UNSC alters and controls the minds of these people rather than here's a thing that's mostly responsible for keeping you in check, now dig it out with a knife, it could have been SO much more interesting.
- some positives: i like that they are getting the weirdness of halsey and john's relationship. it's meant to feel uncomfortable to us viewers i think, since they have a strange relationship based on manipulation and lies and secrets and etc etc. i also love silver team ofc
also pablo schreiber while i have never seen him in anything else is trying too hard for the chief voice and sounds bad. except at one point in ep1 he raised his voice and it actually sounded so much better lmfao🤪 in general he does an okay job as chief, but again, this chief is pretty un-chieflike. i'm open to other people's thoughts and opinions, good or bad! this is just my take so far on the first 4 eps and my very limited knowledge of halo :3
#halo#halo 2 anniversary#master chief#master chief face#pablo schreiber#halo season 1#paramount+#just rambling#aurelius and halo#fuck the wheel of time tv show
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Hopefully, this ask won’t get you in trouble. If you feel it does, then feel free to disregard this. Or if you don’t feel comfortable or confident talking about it, cause it does involve talking about ships.
But it somewhat feels like Horikoshi for the later chapters seems to be catering for same sex pairings, like Midoriya always being around Bakugou, or Ochako’s most significant moments now being around Toga. At least to me.
And the fact he seems to be focusing on same sex pairings certainly isn’t the problem.
The problem is the fact is the pairings he’s focusing on are f****** shit!
BakuDeku is an angry asshole bossing around and being a d*****bag to a boy that has been conditioned to think so highly of his abuser. This is a hop, skip and a jump away from Stockholm Syndrome.
Togachako, imo, is slightly worse than BakuDeku (but not by much) simply because it’s a very one sided relationship where one partner always has to cater to the problems of the other with no sign of returned love or reciprocated love. I wouldn’t trust Toga to know when she’s had enough of my blood. Why should I believe she would know where to stop drinking Ochako’s blood? And despite the images throughout their fight, like Toga GROPING Ochako, Horikoshi, for some disturbing reason, tries SO hard to paint this as a CUTE couple. (Hell, the dude could be showing Toga literally EATING Ochako and somehow paint it as an endearing thing…)
Why is Horikoshi banking on these toxic forms of love for the LGBTQ when he’s had more HEALTHIER couples?!?
TodoDeku? Tsuchako? IidaDeku? Minachako?
Hell, there are other pairings that were literally already there!
MomoJirou!
Mirio and Amajiki!
It’s just…it’s baffling why BakuDeku and Togachako are paraded as these fantastic M/M and W/W ships when they are anything BUT.
I have a sapphic couple in their wedding dresses as my pfp and my user is sapphic-agent... I'd honestly be impressed if someone could accuse me of homophobia😆Feel free to submit any LGBTQIA asks :)
In the case of TogaChako, I just think Toga herself is queer-bait. Among BakuDeku and other queer ships becoming popular, good old Hori probably thought to himself, "What's the best way to capitalize on this?" without actually putting any thought or care into it (like with Bakugou's redemption once he started to become popular). So he made Toga canonically bisexual (I'm like 90% sure she wasn't originally intended to be bi as she was way more infatuated with Izuku than Uraraka initially). And she's bad rep to boot. Horikoshi is making his only canonically queer character a predator... that's not a good look.
I even like Toga. Or, I liked how much potential she had at the beginning of the series. She was original and I liked her quirk. He could have given her a lot of depth, but nah let's just make her creepy and a predator mfers will eat it right up... And he was right unfortunately.
What makes it worse is that Uraraka has to be at the center of Toga's advances (again, WHY THE GROPING PANEL). Idk if it's because she's the main girl or what, but she deserved better than this.
(Tbh, I know she's Izuku's LI, but her and Tsu are way cuter and a lot healthier than her and Toga)
BakuDeku I feel like is part of that queer-baiting. Look, the fact is that it will never be canon. We know it, the shippers know it (even if they feign delusion), and Horikoshi knows it. But that doesn't mean Hori isn't milking it for all its worth. Do you see how the shippers go nuts when Izuku and Bakugou are in the same panel together? The entire MHA feed will be filled with it here on Tumblr for weeks. They eat that shit up and Horikoshi knows that. That's part of the reason why he forced reconciliation between them, so that he'd have more content for them to froth at the mouth over.
#mha critical#bnha critical#anti bakudeku#anti togachako#queer baiting#anti bakugou katsuki#toga critical
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i love this terrible character, he's so well written and im glad that someone finally for once didn't give a villain a good reason for being villainous — coryo's messed up and there's not really a reason (or a good reason) for him being the way he is, villains like this arent very common — not everyone needs a reason for being terrible, not everything's sunshine and rainbows, not everyone needs an excuse
Tbh I disagree a little, I think there are a lot of reasons to why he’s villainous in a sense but I also think it’s not that black and white with him. He’s not just a simple villain. Nor are any of the reasons an excuse, but it’s just a set of events/choices due to his own nature and the people around him’s actions that lead him to become President Snow. That’s what makes him such an interesting character because you can understand him despite him not even being mentally well from the first time we see him. Even though he’s a lot more likable at first, he’s still got certain ways of thinking and certain actions that tell us something is wrong with him/he’s not “morally” good. But there are a lot of shifts with him in tbosas so that’s telling us there is plausible reasonings for why he becomes who he becomes even if he starts out not that good already.
He’s a very complex character and I think his trauma/growing up is technically the “reason” for how he turns out but his circumstances in tbosas obviously plays a hand in who he becomes, even if that person is a more “villainous,” person. I think it’s also the fact a lot of his “reasons,” are things he doesn’t even see the truth in, but we the audience see the truth, which aids to your point about him being a villain for no real reason. To us it might be to no real reason cause he’s not even seeing the truth in a situation (like dealing with stuff with Sej’s death).
I don’t think these things are excuses though, I think they’re just the points we can look at to see how they shaped him into who he becomes. I think the point is also that who he becomes can be anyone. That coriolanus had the chance to make the right decisions, it was laid out on a platter for him to steer into a better direction but at every turn he makes the other choices and that’s what’s so compelling. It’s so human and so realistic, that’s why I don’t see him as just a simple villain or completely “villainous,” in a way cause he’s got so much more complexity than that. Obviously he’s much worse by the time the og hunger games trilogy takes place but I think im making sense lol.
It’s a lot of nature/nurture arguments as well as the idea of legacy haunting him. Those themes surround his arc imo.
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So, My Hero Academia Chapter 387 (MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD)...
That was a really, really good chapter, but hoo boy that fucked me up real bad and I need to get some thoughts off my chest before I go to sleep. Tumblr is the best place to post this; I’m not spending $8 on Twitter Blue to type this out.
First off, more eugenic stuff yay... This time with Rei’s family, the Himuras. So, turns out that Geten (the ice villain following Re-Destro) is a part of that family which means that he’s the Todoroki’s cousin at best. I think Rei would’ve said something if he was her brother.
And that the Himura’s have been inbreeding to keep their bloodline “pure” and their ice Quirk in tact... And forced marriages were also desperate attempts to keep this in check. UM WHAT THE FUCK, HORIKOSHI??? I’m not saying this is a bad thing story-wise, but it makes the Todoroki Family situation so, so much worse if that was even possible. And sadly they’re not the only family to do this...
So, if Rei was a product of inbreeding, then (and correct me if I’m wrong) the Todoroki children are technically inbred too on top of being born out of a quirk marriage to begin with INCLUDING SHOUTO WHO’S BEEN THROUGH ENOUGH (I need to clarify that I’m not criticizing Rei or her kids, it’s not their faults. I’m criticizing the practice of inbreeding itself). I feel ill just thinking about that. This is some royal family shit that should never be a thing to begin with. I don’t care if marrying your 2nd cousin shouldn’t fuck up the kids too badly, it’s still extremely fucked up period! This is honestly worse than the quirk marriage imo and that was bad enough as it was. I kind of wish Horikoshi didn’t include this because it’s sadly kind of warpping my perception of them, but I’m not going to fly over to Japan and throw hands with him over it.
And this puts more context into why Rei chose to marry Enji because agreeing to be bought into a marriage with Endeavor to create the perfect offspring with Fire and Ice is somehow better than MARRYING YOUR FUCKING COUSIN AND HAVING A CHILD WITH THEM! She never had a good choice to begin with; she just chose the best one that was given to her. God, I feel bad for this woman.
I honestly need a few days to process this because it was dropped so casually and now I need to sit down and think of the implications of it while working on my finals 🥲
Onto Dabi who is fighting his dad with like half of his body remaining. How the hell this man is alive is a goddamn mystery because he looks like a burning skeleton. And this whole thing has caused his Quirk to evolve to the point where he’s now producing ICE ❄️! HE HAS AN ICE QUIRK NOW TOO! IT’S EXACTLY THE THING ENDEAVOR WANTED THIS WHOLE TIME AND NOW HE HAS IT IN THE WORST WAY POSSIBLE! I WANT TO SCREAM! SHOUTO AND DABI ARE REALLY 2 SIDES OF THE SAME COIN!
There really is no way of knowing if Touya would’ve unlocked this part of his Quirk if he trained more with Endeavor, but the fact that he actually had the potential to become exactly what he was born for is devastating. He could’ve been what his father wanted him to become, but his Quirk was too dangerous to himself to try. If this happened, Natsuo and Shouto might not have been born (I’m glad they were born tbh), but at least the family would’ve been spared a shit ton of trauma.
Oh, and it looks like that massive fire punch he threw at Endeavor completely burned off his right arm and now he’s right armless like Endeavor. That one panel of them “dancing” with right fire arms is haunting. You could write a whole short essay on that panel. Horikoshi loves parallels and I do too.
Honestly, I really expected Horikoshi to just kill off Endeavor and Dabi at the same time this chapter. It looked like that’s where it was going. There are a lot of ways their fates could be going and I can see it happening all those ways. Personally, I want them to live at least until Shouto finally gets there. I think Horikoshi is setting up that “Todoroki Family Reunion” he’s been planning since Chapter 300 or something especially with Rei entering the battle field. What happens next is something we’ll have to wait for. I want Endeavor to live honestly. But, I can definitely see Dabi dying at the end because I really don’t think he’s going to survive at this rate. Horikoshi cooked him too well 😂😭.
And finally REI TODOROKI!!! The block or whatever her and her family were being transported in was stopped right below Gunga Mountain last chapter and they were forced to go up to the surface to make sure they avoid Dabi’s fiery explosion. That’s why she’s up on the surface to begin with. I do want to know how the hell she got to the battlefield so quickly though. I don’t see her as a fighter, but maybe she trained her Ice Quirk to glide on it like Shouto does. I’m really curious to see what she does because she does hold some responsibility for how Dabi turned out and I think she’s trying to atone in a way too. This better not mean she’s dying though. I don’t need the Todorokis to deal with more trauma, especially Shouto.
Anyways, there’s a lot to unpack in this chapter and there’s probably more to dive into. Um, I’m glad to see Mr. Compress again like Horikoshi promised. He’s probably still assless though. Where are the 2nd year UA students you promised, sir??? But, yeah, the Todoroki drama continues to be more and more fucked up by the weeks. Please let this family have peace one day I’m begging 🙏.
#boku no hero academia spoilers#bnha spoilers#my hero academia spoilers#mha spoilers#mha 387#bnha 387#Todoroki#Todoroki Family#Rei Todoroki#Enji Todoroki#Endeavor#Shoto Todoroki#Shouto Todoroki#Natsuo Todoroki#Fuyumi Todoroki#Dabi#Touya Todoroki#fuck#this was not on my bingo card#Geten#Kohei Horikoshi#are you ok my dude#honestly are you#i'm going to fucking scream#who let him in the kitchen#who let him cook#he cooked#he cooked too well though
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No better way to end a Friday than with a review. We are in the home stretch of s1 still crazy to me. Excited each time get to write up my reviews. So thank you all for your interest and support as always. Lets dive in to the third to last ep shall we?
1x18
Homefront.
After having a non Chenford ep always happy to have them back together. Loved dissecting Lucy and having insight into her family life but I missed them. They don't have a ton of content in this one. Pretty Talia driven one but what they do have is really good. Underrated moments in this ep for them IMO.
Our first shot of our fav duo is at the hospital. They’re visiting a released convict they were assigned to check up on. Tim makes a comment about filling his hours when not studying. To him it makes the most sense to fill his dead time with work. Lucy is immediately all over that comment. Because Lucy don't play around at all when it comes to Tim. She knows that isn't healthy for him. She starts probing as to why he doesn't have a hobby. She's genuinely surprised he doesn't have a way to decompress/recharge.
His first answer cracks me up it’s so Tim. Also how he adds in for her not to give him shit cause it has 'work' in the title LOL He knows her so well. He tries to combat her answer before she even says it. Lucy doesn’t deny she thinks that anyway. Goes on to say he needs something for himself. A way to decompress. Maybe even have a little fun. Gotta love her for trying to get him out of his comfort zone. He’s a creature of habit and doesn’t like that to be upended. Lucy is very aware of this and can't help herself but to challenge him on it.
The eye roll she gives him is primo. She knows this is going to be an uphill battle per usual. Tim fights her on it because its his natural first instinct. He always fights her on it and she always ends up seeping in. Jolting his system and POV on things. I do love him opening and holding the door for her. Ever the gentleman even when they’re arguing hehe
This shot is just because they're so pretty just standing together haha. That's it really. I mean look at them. Their Tall/Small thing never ceases to make me happy. Also Tim's stance pretty damn appealing tbh. I mean look at dem biceps. It's a wonder Lucy gets any work done haha
They respond to a call at a paintball place. A guy named Jimmy has lost it and impaled another player with a piece of wood over the game. Go on to tell them he plays there every day. He'll be hard to find. They head off to find Jimmy. Lucy does not waste a second before she is giving him more crap. So damn sassy with him. Using this guy's obsession to prove her point about why its bad to be focusing on one thing too much. They were married long before they ever dated people haha Lucy is so smug in this moment. Makes me happy haha
Tim defaults to what he usually does when’s she got him dead to rights. Clams up. Tells her to shut it cause that’s the best come back he has at the moment. LOL The smile on her face when she says ‘Yes sir’ Lucy knows that ‘shut it’ is just him annoyed he has no witty comeback. Lucy is reveling in the fact he can’t fight her on this one. No leg to stand on and he knows it.
They start searching the paintball area for their suspect. Lucy makes a comment about it would be easier if everyone wasn’t wearing camo. Tim gives her his company line about this job isn’t meant to be easy. She instantly disregards it and asks him if he’s ever played paintball? Trying to peak his interest. His reply cracks me up. Not a doubt in his mind he would crush these people at this. Her face is what kills me the most. That’s the wifey face. Placating him like ok babe....
I also love her blowing past his TO line earlier haha Very early on Lucy would’ve said yes sir or nodded. We’re long past those days even in s1. Especially at this point in time. That rapport and comfortability has come to stay. She’s on a mission to find him a hobby to help him relax. Bypasses Teacher Tim without blinking.
Tim starts to explain why he would straight destroy these people at paintball. Using one of the players as an example. Also Timothy there is no need to lean so close when explaining strategy to her sir heh But he does it anyway and she’s grinning like a fool. I’ve always loved the magnetic pull these two have between them. Whether they’re aware of it or not. Personal space is word not found in their vocabulary. Clearly passionate about what he's telling her so he gets closer. I love it.
Look at the way she is looking at him. Goodness girl you are working. That look on her face. You know she’s indulging him right now. Letting him ramble about how everyone is amateurs. How he would go about it. Tim has no idea he’s giving her fuel to get him to play. Always looking out for him even when he doesn’t have a damn clue she is. Taking care of him and putting his needs first. I can not with them. I love it so much.
They end up going to higher ground where Jimmy would be. They find him and Tim is sexy af stopping his escape. Grabs a players gun and easily decimates him with paint. Don’t tell me she wasn’t the slightest bit impressed with him nailing that guy with the paint gun. But it’s also reinforcing her idea about paintball for him.
That little smirk of hers before she hooks Jimmy up. Just like in 1x15 Lucy is all smiles and heart eyes for him in this ep. She is also a little bit wifey like in her reactions. Like yeah he’s an idiot but he’s my idiot. That second gif above says it all for that for that.
Ahhh the hanging out, outside work begins ❤️ Look at her dragging him outside his comfort zone like only she can. I bet you she pitched it one last time to Tim as a hobby. Something he could do to destress/relax. That it would be fun. He probably didn’t have to twist her arm too much to join him. That he would only do it if she came with. I could see Tim doing this so he could show and or prove to Lucy he could smoke everyone at this like he said. A little flex on his part. Coming in armed with a plan ready to execute it with her.
He looks so happy. She did that. It's written all over Lucy's face how happy she is that he's enjoying himself. That little smile on his face as they’re gearing up to go in. My heart. He’s so excited to do this. It’s why Lucy is beaming. She got Tim outside his routine and into something she knew he would love. He’s smiling and ready to have some fun. Not that he will say as such but everything in his body language does. Once again that beautiful silent communication of theirs is a sight to see.
His half hearted 'No' has Lucy smiling and laughing. She is beyond pleased with herself for this. Anyone looking at them without context would be able to see how she feels about him. I saw this great post by relentlessescapsim had a collection of Lucy unabashedly looking at Tim. Being as transparent as she could be. It said ‘She’s a ten but she’s terrible at hiding her feelings. ‘ I died laughing cause it so friggin true. You just watch her entire body language around Tim and you know. You just know he’s far more than her T.O. to her. I mean its clearly her day day off and Lucy is spending it with him. She's doing his new 'hobby' with him. I love it sfm.
Lucy challenges and pushes Tim same way he does for her. Been saying this all season his growth is incredible. Look at this puppy of a man playing paintball with her. Once again doing something he wouldn’t have for any other rookie. Incredible. He's continually allowing her to influence him which is huge in itself. Its constantly seen through out the entire season. This was her challenging that bubble of his that rigid routine. Lucy pushed because in the end she knew he would benefit from it. What good it would do him. She was right.
Tim says 'No' when really he's so glad she got him to do this. He can't say it just yet but his actions scream it. They balance one another out so well I could not adore their dynamic more. Damn I just love them so much haha. How good they are for each other. The fact that it dates back to s1 for multiple reasons is amazing.
It's why they’re so good in s5 once they get together. That beautiful base is already there and solid as hell. I love the idea of them playing paintball and having fun. Its lovely to see such beautiful depth and development for them. Such a good episode for them top to bottom. *chef kiss*
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Side Notes Non Chenford
Cute Wes/Angela stuff I always enjoy them so much.
Stuff with Jackson's dad was also very good. Watching him stand up to his dad was awesome.
Percy asking why Grey didn't stick Jackson with Tim. My god that boy wouldn't have made it without Angela. He has no idea. Tim would've washed his ass out so quickly. Hell Tim might not even be around cause of his bullet issues in the beginning. So very good he was not. Everything happens for a reason and all that.
Thank you all again for you likes/comments/reblogs. Every time I get a notification for them makes my heart smile for real. See you all in 1x19 :)
#Caitlin rewatches The Rookie#chenford#chenford hiatus#waiting on s6#summer rewatch#s1#1x18 Homefront#the rookie#tim x lucy#tim bradford#lucy chen#lucy x tim#eric winter#melissa o'neil#otp: doing my job#tim bradford x lucy chen
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On the topic of Sebastian being completely enthralled about everything Ciel is, I personally love it so much more knowing manga context, because O!Ciel was the 'spare'. He was not supposed to carry the family nane and, frankly, people didn't think he'd be capable of it due to his poor health anyway (Remember Frances and Vincent's conversation in the flashback chapters? It's obvious O!Ciel was quite saddened by what he heard).
By all means, in a twisted way, Sebastian might just be the first person to regard O!Ciel as someone deeply capable, a shiny singularity that doesn't live in anyone's shadow. The adults around him were - tho not unrightfully - seeing his fragility first and foremost while his brother, despite seeing him as worthy, didn't wish for him to leave and forge his own path. R!Ciel's reaction came from childishness sure, but that isn't to say that it didn't feed into the idea that O!Ciel was 'his backup'.
Going off from this, Sebastian is also the one thing in his life and is irrevocably his. Again, twisted, but all O!Ciel built has been under another's name. The manor, the company, the engagement etc. None of them truly his, but his brother's. And the other servants? They are loyal, however ultimately their own people. Sebastian? In an entirely different spot. He'll be there until the end after all.
This is an aspect of their relationship that tugs at my heartstrings so much. It's so toxic and depressing yet strangely soft and tender somewhat at least to me.
Sorry, I just really wanted to pour my thoughts and I appreciate your posts. So here I am!
anon, i’m in love with you
i literally think about this all the time like. that conversation frances and vincent had? imo vincent just flippantly saying "i guess ill just have to give the estate back to the queen lmao" could be taken 2 ways which is: at face value OR (what i think is more likely) vincent just saying what he knows will piss frances off to get her to stop talking. tbh vincent seems like a good dad imo and like he doesnt super underestimate o!ciel (he seemed absolutely fine with the idea of o!ciel going off to london by himself and opening a toy store in the future), but he DOES know that o!ciel is frail and sickly, and it makes me wonder how seriously he considered the idea that o!ciel might inherent the title of the queen's watchdog.
honestly, i feel in some respects, r!ciel treats o!ciel more carefully than their parents. he very much has an attitude of "my baby brother NEEDS me, he cannot survive without me!!" (gasps and shock, to learn it is actually the other way around /s)
all this to say, whether you lean more towards my interpretation or yours, or a fun mix, or whatever, it is undeniable that all of o!ciel's relationships were 'tainted' (for lack of a better term) by his illness and the way it made others view him and treat him.
AND THEN COMES SEBASTIAN
sebastian, who takes one look at o!ciel, and goes "lmao what a fucked up lil dude. time for little a snacky". sebastian, who then sits down to forge a contract with said little dude only to realize Oh Okay So This Child Is Clever. And o!ciel being sickly does kind of come up when they're making the contract, but sebastian focuses more on the actual logistics of that and o!ciel says 'nvm we'll deal w it when it comes up' (which is hilarious imo. he really said a sudden chill can put me on my deathbed but thats a problem for future me).
and then it turns out o!ciel is hella sheltered. but also a huge bitch.
and at this point, all i can assume is sebastian is so bewildered by this experience that the fact that o!ciel is frail and sickly and fragile is like. just another thing about this kid. o!ciel has never made sebastian's life easy and it would be stupid to think he would start now, sebastian thinks as his young master suffers from yet another cold just bc it rained yesterday. "i never knew you had asthma" says sebastian, who has read every medical journal to date on chest colds. "you never asked," says the bane of sebastian's existence.
and the thing is you can say "sebastian is only worried about o!ciel bc if o!ciel dies, he loses his meal" which is true and accurate and tbh if i was sebastian and i had put up w that much, i wouldn't want to lose my meal to a mere cough.
BUT ALSO
then you see the way sebastian is so fascinated and intrigued and bewitched by o!ciel. i think to sebastian the fact that o!ciel is frail and sickly is just another contradiction in the sea of contradictions that makes o!ciel so fascinating. and i think sebastian is the only one who really sees all those contradictions, he's the only one who sees everything that makes up o!ciel. and he loves what he finds.
(not to mention the fact that sebastian is the only person o!ciel allows to see his every aspect. or, well, some he tries to hide, but only because he thinks sebastian will try to use something against him. either way, sebastian is still the only person who he lets see the most of him. because sebastian is the only person who knows who he really is, who he doesnt have to put up a front for. he doesn't have to pretend to be his brother, he doesn't have to worry about being the spare.)
#kuroshitsuji#black butler#sebastian michaelis#our ciel#sebaciel#sky posting#sky talks#sorry if this doesnt make sense i started thinking about them and blacked out
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Homestuck^2 sucked because none of the trolls actually aged like they were supposed to. Like the humans aged (even though they're MEANT to be immortal and dont give me they're mentally 40+ JOHN NO LONGER FITS IN HIS GOD TIER SUIT HE HAS AGED) but we don't ever see the natural development of the trolls.
Vriska, Aradia and Sollux I can kinda give leeway since they've went through timelines and dreambubbles and double death and half death and yada yada those 3 are kinda fucked up timeline wise so I kinda see why they never aged.
But Terezi, Karkat and Gamzee? No fucking excuse.
Kanaya is a grey area however cause you know she's "Kanaya The Vampire Fashion Queen" but like no credible sources I can find SAY anything about age when it comes to rainbow drinkers and I can't find out if The Dolorosa was actually a rainbow drinker so we don't have a naturally lived rainbow drinker example so I'm just gonna have to assume Kanaya ages like a regular troll.
However, the other 3 have no right to not be ageing. For example, I'm gonna pull up a image of Commander Vantas here:
It's hard to tell with Cmdr. Vantas because THE ONLY TIME WE SEE HIS FACE IS IN HERO MODE OR IN A LIGHTING AND SITTING DOWN anyways. But with what we are given with Cmdr. Vantas he DOES in fact give signs he has aged, not as much as he should of, by this point he should have gotten a good bit taller than the humans and have completely red eyes, but it's better than THIS
what the fuck. Meat Karkat SHOWS NO SIGNS OF AGING AT ALL HE LOOKS THE EXACT SAME AS HE DID WHEN HE WAS 13 WHEN HE IS 20 AT BARE MINIMUM and you may think im overreacting, cause obviously its just his symbolic sprite he doesn't ACTUALLY look like that
You buffoon, you oaf take at look at this. HE ISN'T AGING IN THE SLIGHTEST IN MEAT.
Other than artstyle and change of clothes he looks the fucking same, at this point in HS^2 he should be looking like The Signless but he doesn't even look older than Kankri. But maybe Karkat is a bad example maybe the poor guy has a case of eternal babyface and he's just cursed to look 13 forever.
Let's take a look at Gamzee instead.
There's so little images I could find off sight of Gamzee in hs^2 and I did NOT want to be on that buggy ass website for long so this is the best you're getting. As expected, Gamzee ALSO has a case of chronic babyface and it's especially egregious as he's the descendant of THE GRAND HIGHBLOOD.
Tbh this is actually kinda a good image since we can semi eye measure Vrissy and Gamzee. Of which Gamzee seems imo taller than Vrissy, not in massive hulking beast like GHB but like and adult man to a 15 year old, which would be normal and expected IF HE WASN'T AGAIN THE DESCENDANT OF THE GRAND HIGHBLOOD.
That guy is literally known in fandom for 2 things, being pissed off and being huge, again Gamzee follows the trend of not having the adult troll characteristics of dark grey skin and whilst his horns are red due to being hero mode and we can't see his eyes i think we can assume he probably doesn't have some nice lavender lookers on him.
And there is a reason why I've spent the last 1 or 2 hour complaining about obtuse homestuck lore and it's simple it shows a lack of care.
It shows that Homestuck^2 on the surface is a mediocre at best adaptation of Homestuck but as soon as the thin surface layer is scrapped away, it shows a hollow project, it shows a project that generally proves itself to be a homestuck thing but it doesn't show passion, I could probably right now find you any HS fan and ask them what makes adult trolls different to young trolls and they could probably easily tell me how and why. So why couldn't a whole team of people attempt at the very least, a version like that?
Its little things like the trolls not aging/aging like humans to the damn table to the lack of acknowledgement for already accepted and semi canonised reps of queer culture in favour for rep that punches down to the outright ridiculous swivels in personality that's prove to me at least that HSE and HS^2 were dead on arrival.
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some thoughts on the first couple hours of ff13, after picking it up for the first time in a decade
it's fun how much the party 1) doesn't know each other and 2) doesn't like each other! it's very different for a JRPG for the party to just NOT get along to this degree. the only people out of the initial 5 who even know each other are lightning and snow, and lightning has VERY good reason to dislike snow on the outset. the rest are just complete strangers! it's such a fun dynamic.
the dialogue does a perfectly fine job of explaining what l'cie are. like, they explicitly tell you multiple times. fal'cie is a little more murky, but even then, it's not hard to figure out.
that said, the opening is pretty slow in both story and gameplay. not having any magic makes sense for the world, but it makes the game very dull to play for a good 90 minutes. i think if it was remade today they'd streamline it a lot more, because while it's a fine tutorial, there are genuinely too many encounters before you actually get your magic powers.
hope's motivation is pretty thin from the beginning, tbh. watching your mom get killed and being understandably upset about it is perfectly serviceable as a motivation, but then hope runs into snow and doesn't confront him right away. i actually think hope is written quite well, better than i remembered — he comes across as an emotional teenager rather than someone making logical, rational decisions. but if you don't give the character that grace i can understand finding him frustrating.
snow is almost intolerable. i'm really leaning hard on the memory that i liked him a lot more in lightning returns, because he is so fucking annoying in the opening here. calling yourself a hero when there's absolutely no evidence of you being one (and in fact clear evidence that you're NOT a hero) is just obnoxious. also, snow's friend group just comes across as a bunch of weirdos than characters i want to know more about.
vanille is also a weirdo, but at least i know that's wholly intended. i really like the subtle touch of her already having 3 ATB bars when you get to play her initially.
the overall choice to start the game where it does makes sense from a gameplay perspective — it's where the fighting actually starts — but weakens the overall narrative, IMO. FF13 begins in medias res and leans hard on the fact that there were 13 days of prior events that culminated in the Purge... but since the player has no knowledge of all this and a lot of the background isn't immediately clear, it makes for a harder sell. i personally very much enjoy the storytelling in this game, but i can understand why others don't. it requires you to put the narrative together as you go.
once you actually get your magic powers, the game takes off like a rocket. the gameplay remains SO much fucking fun. it's a fascinating evolution of turn-based combat and it works SO well. i do remember how long it'll be until i have 3 party members again, and that part of it is a drag, but the actual combat is so enjoyable i hardly mind.
the game still looks gorgeous. i'm playing on steamdeck and am frequently amazed at how good it looks. obviously the FMVs are still incredible, but the ingame models look SO far ahead of their time, to say nothing of the environments. (also, the fact that i can play a PS3/360 game on handheld and have it Just Work is like magic to me.)
there are so many save points! this is hardly important, but it's making me laugh because i really didn't remember there being a save point around every corner. it's certainly convenient, though!
i don't know how much of it i'm going to play — i'm really supposed to be playing new games right now, not replays — but at the same time i've had SUCH a good time revisiting it that i may carry on for a while yet. we'll see!
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I hate how 13's beautiful last words & regen are essentially ruined by Tennant returning. it would have been wonderful to either have Gatwa be 14 or just not show who she regens into and the new series jumps right in to Gatwa on his adventures. instead Whittaker's goodbye is totally kneecapped by the show immediately being like 'don't worry the silly woman is gone and the real Doctor is back!! (& sticking around in case the fans are as racist as they are misogynist)'. Guts me.
I have mixed feelings on it tbh. I think my main issue with 13 regenerating into DT is that the explanation we got wasn't really worth it? idk
13's last words had vibes of her being excited for the future and who shes about to become and I think that excitement could defo extend to being happy about the return of a prev face so I guess her becoming DT doesn't fully undermine those words imo but I do think the explanation for why the face came back needed to be good in order to make up for the fact that yeah the first female doctor, who gets a lot of hate, regenerating into the fan fave from a decade ago is a bit of a crazy image
I think the 60th and xmas special mentioning stuff from 13's era kinda made me worry a lot less about how 13 regenerating into DT looks bc its like okay, I have some issues for sure but rtd isn't erasing 13's era and the ppl who are using that regen to say whatever weird shit they can think of can just cry harder at every 13 era reference idrc
anyways. while I think the words could extend to being happy about a face returning, I do think the first thing that comes to mind when I hear her last words is looking to something NEW rather than an old face. so for her to end up getting an old face, it does feel like something has gone wrong with the regen. so the explanation being 'well the doctor was tired so this old face came back' is like.. what? it's just SO poor
no matter how cute I think 14 having his own little house and setting down the noble family is, I still also think that explanation for why his face came back is just weak. like, it shoulda been so much more grand than that idk.
the toymaker coulda had something to do with it or, idk how i woulda felt about it, but they even coulda not explained it at all tbh, just say, 'well this happens every now and then', bc we all know that the reason DT came back is bc of the 60th, so if RTD couldn't think of a good in-universe reason to justify it (which imo he couldn't), then maybe just not explaining it woulda been better?? idk, bc maybe we don't need some big reason. and maybe I would take no reason over a reason that feels like it was thought about for five seconds
I'm past caring that dt is 14 like it's whatever and I did really like him but I think the explanation should have been way better (or even not have been dwelled on at all) and I feel the same about things like Donna getting her memories back and bigeneration. a lot of stuff in the 60th just wasn't explained well AT ALL and it's kinda embarrassing. like rtd has literally said bigeneration is something he has thought of for years and I'm like that's crazy bc it feels so half baked
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ok thanks! 💕 the whole “iverson is kendall’s biological son” confuses me because it’s right there in the text that he actually isn’t. even accounting for roman’s provocation and w/e theory of reproduction logan might have postulated, the filing-cabinet guy bit and the randos comment are pretty straightforward. i don’t see the ambiguity at all tbh. now moving on to more personal interpretations, yessssss! Good Person doing a Good Thing and Feeling Good, i agree that kendall’s love for sophie is uncomplicated, but imho the same is true with iverson. not much self-reflection other than kendall asking himself if he’s Good or Bad and not wanting to be the father his father was. and if iverson is “half rava” but not kendall’s, can you imagine the implications? this child is rava’s, she carried him for 40 weeks, she’s known him for longer than kendall has. but sophie!!! “bianca won’t let me feed megathump a piece of my bagel” because sophie Knows she’ll get what she wants / “soph! open up!” when kendall demands that sophie open the car door in church and state, because she’s his daughter! he’s manipulative, he’s insane, he thinks his girl has his back. i think that logan, paradoxically, interacts with iverson because he’s the one that needs fixing, the one that needs to be consoled after kendall almost drowns. kendall is so out of touch with his authority as a father, his mere physicality as a man, that he doesn’t even realize that, together with logan, he’s the one forcing his son to partecipate in the food-tasting mindfuck. i think that he simply doesn’t know what to do with a boy lol, it doesn’t come naturally to him, just like every other single thing he’s supposed to do and be
[referencing this post 🙂]
the OP isn't saying he thinks that's what the text is intending, he's just talking about how he enjoys the narrative situation it would create and the character implications that come from that haha
it's more like, Well, what if xyz? What happens then? which is fun!! its fun to think about all the little possible variations of character and how they would impact the narrative in different ways!
all that to say: I do also think Iverson not being Kendall's is interesting too! like. Logan is very obsessed with the idea of modern dynasty and legacy and Kendall spending his whole life the heir apparent is Very Aware of that fact and how much it would hurt his position to not be a father. so for Kendall, the struggle to have kids and seeking out alternate methods of parenthood feels like an enormous personal failure and is obviously a great source of shame for him -- Like. it is so upsetting to him that he physically assaults Roman for bringing it up as a mark against him lol
imo Kendall's relationship to fatherhood is very. emblematic of the way he views his relationship to Logan: Kendall wants to Be Logan, wants to be what's expected of him and follow in his footsteps, and when he's unable to do so he seeks out alternate paths and convinces himself that it's not the result of a failure of expectations but because he's actually Better Than Logan.
So-- he wants to have kids and create a hereditary dynasty because that is what his dad wants. He is unable to do so. He seeks out adoption and IVF and convinces himself that this is what Modern Parenting looks like and he is doing a Good Thing by parenting this way and Logan just doesn't get it because he is the past and Kendall is the future. But in his heart, he knows. He's ashamed.
I think that disconnect creates a mental barrier for Kendall and keeps him distant from his kids, so there's no real emotional connection between them beyond a superficial level: they are his kids so he loves them. You're supposed to love family, so he loves them.
and i think you're right that Kendall is closer to Sophie, but i feel that has more to do with Iverson's autism than anything else really. i think Sophie's the more "accessible" kid for Kendall to talk to bc of that, so she's easier to connect with in kendall's mind, which could be why he reaches out to her after being rejected by rava in church and state
With Iverson I think Kendall sees him as like. a Kid With a Disability and so is focused on ensuring his material needs are met, that he's ok, that he's not under duress, etc, that he never really thinks to like. connect with him as an individual. which I think is true with Sophie too to some extent. like I think he genuinely believes that because he gets the kids whatever they want (ex. a rabbit) he is being a Good Dad
and yes with Logan I pretty much agree. like I think he just ignores them for the most part because he doesn't really view them as "his" but occasionally Iverson will stick out to him in a way where he's like, "I know how to fix this situation and Kendall and Rava are just unable/unwilling to do it the way I see is the Right Way." i have more thoughts on logan but they're all a bit incoherent so I will leave it at that I think
ty anon!!
#hi anon. did not mean to take like a week to respond LOL hope you see this...!#also i lied i will share one thought re: logan#the moment between him and Sophie+Iverson in all the bells say is sooo interesting but also really puzzling to me#like narratively I understand the underlying motivation of the scene and why it's there#but character-wise#what it says about him and his relationship with his grandchildren? I'm not really sure! would love to hear anyone else's thoughts#Logan is hard to parse! he's a complicated guy!#succession#kendall roy#iverson roy#sophie roy
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Do you know if Ghost gave himself the callsign or is it was someone else. I've been thinking and idk if he particularly cares for the name. Or perhaps its a weird relationship with it, but its better than to use his real name?? I was thinking back to the scene where Ghost and Soap meet Alejandro and Soap goes to almost correct Alejandro when he calls Ghost, Ghost, because thats what Laswell said. I think Soap was going to say that Ghost perhaps prefers to be called Simon. Price and Soap are the only ones to call him Simon to his face and Riley is never really said. Even the scene from the 2019 reboot game where Laswell and Price are going over the folders for the 141 candidates, everyone else has their callsign along with their names, except for Simon. His folder has no picture and it just says Simon Riley. Very intriguing.
Anyways sorry for the long paragraph, I just had many thoughts and had no idea where to put them. Feel free to let me shout into the void lol, I don't mind :).
The lore we know behind Ghost's callsign is that, via the comics - he fakes his death after taking out Roba and after the death of his mother, brother, and his brother's family (wife and child, his sister-in-law & his nephew). He's found by Shepherd (2009)/Price (2022), and joins back the military, under the callsign Ghost, considering the government believes that Simon Riley is dead.
That considered, I think he definitely has a weird relationship with it?? Because he took up the name Ghost to hide his identity since the government thinks he's fucking dead. He's living as a ghost by all means, so it makes sense for him to enjoy the freedom it gives him, but resent what it stands for (everything he's lost and the fact he'll never have a "normal" life after this).
As someone who's trans, changing the name everyone knows you by is a very.... strange experience. After a while, as you grow and change under the most recent name, the names you went by in the past begin to feel like completely separate people, as if they are not you, and you are not them. Considering the extent of his trauma, I believe Ghost struggles with feeling like he (Ghost) is separated from Simon to a degree that isn't quite accurate. Especially because of the inherent mystery and dehumanization that comes with so few people knowing what his face looks like.
Honestly I haven't thought about that scene a whole lot? Between Soap switching around and calling Ghost different names and titles (sir/Lt/Ghost/etc) and Ghost being very consistent (using almost exclusively Soap or Johnny to refer to him), I always thought that was us almost getting a silly nickname for Ghost from Soap, but y'know what? I think you're right. Price and Soap knowing him by Simon, since he's clearly worked with them both in close proximity before, whereas Laswell has a more professional relationship with him, would make Soap almost saying Ghost likes being called Simon pretty sensible.
But. Yeah, about Ghost's file not having a picture - that's because he faked his death and the gov. thinks he's fucking dead LMAO. His very existence is probably pretty confidential tbh, which imo just goes to show how much Price trusts Laswell. (they're besties, ur honor!)
You're all good, anon! I'm always down to talk about the CoD boys<3 thanks for the ask :)
#sources:#call of duty#call of duty modern warfare 2 2022#characters:#simon ghost riley#post type:#answered asks ☁️#anons#character discussion#character study#posted by:#znmjr 🦈
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hey!i saw your analysis of yeonjun and soobin's outfit swap and i thought it was really good! i did want to point something out though--yeonjun looks good in black when fansites aren't editing his skin to be paper white. in general i think what was kind of off about him in soobin's outfit even after he took the jacket off was the simplicity of it. yeonjun's bone structure seems to thrives when things are a little bit extra. but speaking of colors, what did you think about him wearing kai's sweater? i thought the colors were totally weird on him. also i thought you could really see how broad and soft kai's bone structure is because of the way yeonjun's clothes fit him. what did you think??
Hi! Thank you so much for reading through the Yeonbin soundcheck outfit swap post!!
Good point on the lighting/editing! It is pretty tricky to do seasonal color analysis based on photos/videos since camera quality and lighting would impact the way colors come across to the viewer!
Now I only have a rather basic understanding of seasonal color analysis and haven’t really done a deep dive on the boys so this will just be based on looks they’ve done that stood out to me + the yeonkai weverse outfit swap!
With your comment in mind, I tried to look up less whitewashed photos of Yeonjun to see how his natural skin color is. His actual skintone is naturally warmer than the snow white tone that some sites edit it to be. That said, even with more realistic lighting and coloring, I think softer, more muted colors suit him better than black, which takes away focus on his features. Compare the two red carpet images below.
(source) | (source)
In the first image, my focus would be on his face, while the second image draws my eye more to his outfit first then his face. Granted, the heavier styling of the second outfit with the zebra print and large chunky necklace also skews one’s attention so let’s try a simpler styling for comparison.
In the all-black outfit, my eyes quickly scan to his outfit, whereas the neutral outfit allows for my eye to scan the photo from top to bottom. His black hair, black bag, and black shoes in the right photo also helps to guide the eye. As a suspected Summer color type, softer colors and a more muted palette allows the focus to be on Yeonjun first, and his outfit second.
(source) | (source)
Now, black isn’t a bad color on him by any means. In fact, it can be used strategically to highlight his long silhouette or to give him an edgier look (which he does seem to favor). A darker palette helps draw attention to his body, which can be very beneficial when he’s performing as we follow his dance lines more. (can we talk about how the difference in lighting though??? i really should find better pics but this is what my brain thought of rn)
In some ways, a deep/dark color palette on Yeonjun can be a double-edged sword, as I find it can overwhelm his facial features and so we are focused on where the color is more prominent (i.e. his outfit).
(source) | (source)
Going to the Yeonkai outfit swap, the jacket might skew a little too warm for his coloring, imo. Notice how his cheeks seem rosier and radiant when he’s in his original outfit versus when he’s wearing Kai’s hoodie.
(source)
Hueningkai in the brown and mint hoodie looks a little more harmonious. He seems to look a little more alive in the hoodie than when he’s wearing Yeonjun’s outfit. Although it might also be attributable to lighting, as even Yeonjun’s cheeks are looking a little rosier in their own outfits than during the livestream.
Like I’ve said, I still haven’t figured out Kai’s coloring (or any of the boys tbh) but I’m leaning towards a cooler, perhaps lighter palette for him atm. Black makes him appear more mature whereas brown or blonde hair makes him look more his age. Both colors still work for him though as they lean cool! Again, it depends on what image they want to achieve in their styling.
Blonde Kai (source) | Black Kai (source)
He does seem a bit washed out in Yeonjun’s outfit though – probably because his hair and eyebrows are very light and the beanie is so dark. I think Kai could pull off deeper colors but in this particular instance, due to the high contrast, the clothes are wearing him versus the other way around.
The sweater also looks too delicate on his broad build. The sheer detail and the lightweight fabric does not flatter his build, the way a thicker sweater would. Though he’s a little too young to type,I suspect Kai is a Flamboyant Natural, with his height and blunt, broad frame.
(source)
In my previous post, I mentioned that Yeonjun could be a very slim FN. I may have to revisit that typing after a proper breakdown of the members but similar to Kai, the sweater is also quite delicate on Yeonjun. He could pull off thicker fabrics imo but given his sharper facial features, he’s able to wear the lightweight sweater combo as it highlights his sharp yang (Kai has more blunt yang facial features imo).
I’m not too familiar with styling essences (whether of Kibbe, Kitchener, etc) so I can’t comment too much about it but what I can say is that details like hairstyling, makeup, and accessories can help to make or break an outfit as they serve to highlight the essences of a person. Yeonjun’s piercings help to complete the look – making it look like an entire outfit rather than just wearing clothes!
(source) | (source)
Overall I think it’s interesting to see how a piece of clothing can look completely different on another person and how the boys seem to intuitively lean towards pieces that flatter them. Maybe I should explore their personal style properly next time 🤔 There’s a lot of fashion-related content that’s been coming from them recently after all!
Anyway, if you’ve made it this far, I hope this all made sense!! I’ll likely revisit some of my typings when I get to sit down and be really systematic about them but would love to hear your thoughts about these too! Honestly, seasonal color analysis seems really subjective and there are a lot of external factors to consider so another perspective would be welcome! 😅
And justice for Kai’s hoodies!! He can wear the casual look with ease and it’s very much aligned with his Kibbe type!!
#this was kinda all over the place sorry !!😣#but i wanted to get it out first then just revisit after i let it 'marinate' for a while haha#tomorrow x together#txt fashion#kibbe#kpop kibbe#style analysis#kpop fashion#seasonal color analysis#yeonjun#hueningkai#yeonkai#flamboyant natural#kibbe analysis#fashion thoughts#rambles#asks#asks ❓
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okay top 3 scythe characters GO
ohh this is hard. i reread the first book over the weekend and omg...
faraday has become a new favourite. i understand him much better now than i did before. alot of people mistake faraday keeping himself alive as bad writing that contradicted his personality, but i really think this revealed something. faraday acted out of a sort of selfishness that we hadnt seen in him yet. he was shown to us in the beginning as the humble, infallible mentor, and especially someone who morally stood above the majority of the scythedom as an EXAMPLE. a model faraday action would be to actually glean himself. but instead he chose to allow himself a life of comfort, which is, in all the ways you look at it, selfish! AND AND I JUST FEEL LIKE HE FELT A WEIGHT DROP OFF HIS SHOULDERS!! then (if i remember it right lmao) neal just follows that up with him isolating himself and being a pussy throughout an entire book, LIKE HES SO IMPERFECT. faradays the type of guy who holds onto his beliefs, but when he gets the chance to act on them he'll dip 😭😭 thats why i love him. also he'd have a big white beard like santa
hard pick between curie and greyson here. i cant put why i love greyson into even 1000 pages so ill talk about curie. she is an angel (neal saw an angel in his dreams and she asked him "can i be in your ya trilogy?"). gosh i just love how he describes her. she is slender, but shockingly so, like an uncomfortably long skeleton. and the way she looks only tells us how she is both out of place in the scythedom and humanity. i loved her befoe, but reading gleanings is when she finally clicked for me. curie literally can not be between the lines!!! every part of her is shocking: the way she gleans, the way she makes no compromise, the POWER she holds over the scythedom. and when susan really shines is when you compare her to faraday. shes someone who reaps the rewards of being a scythe, not because she thinks she deserves it, but because she doesnt lie to herself that she doesnt want it. one of our first impressions of curie being her having luxury meals BECAUSE THEYRE THERE. her honesty makes susan the most terrifying, yet the most understandable scythe in the series imo. she is so complete. i never even mourned her death because it was such a fitting end. I was just satisfied tbh. honestly, if she didn't die on the endura, she'd have gleaned herself by the end of the toll. (faraday needs to get a grip LMAO (this post was made by the mortality gang))
so my fav of all time HAS to be the thunderhead. everything about it is just so UGHHH SO GOOD. neal completely defied all my expectations coming into it. i genuinely thought the thunderhead would just be a convenient plot tool, like an even more invasive google, BUT THE FACT THAT IT CAN BE PASSIVE AGGRESSIVE? FEEL PRIDE, FEEL THAT IN ORDER TO KEEP UP ITS INABILITY TO FAIL IT MUST DENY ITSELF PLEASURE(its infallibility is a complete lie btw and i want to post about that). if you told me when i was 13 that i would want to make a glorified spanner feel bad for its actions then id laugh. its such a good parallel to the scythedom. both hold responsibility for humanity and how they wield it, both have to fight pleasure, one human and one not. yet the thunderheads responsibility is what turns it human until i could not tell the difference between the two. CAN YOU TELL I LOVE IT?? (ugghh also i believe that neals own opinion on the thunderhead changed throughout the series but I NEED TO POST I PROMISE)
sorry if this was too long! these are my favs :)))
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Do you have a favourite sam hair era? Mine was in season 1 and 2 when it wasn't that long yet but still had the cute curls at the ends
don't even get me started! (sorry for how long this is. there's a tl;dr if you don't wanna read.)
just the fact that sam has longer hair is a gigantic plus with me. i love his hair so much, it looks so soft and gorgeous. i'm really enamored with that anime-esque style, so when a physical man (and a real one, bc jared) manages to pull it off, my heart is instantly stolen.
as for specific standouts: season 1, as you said. it's just so cute! and the bangs never reappear so i'm particularly fond of them. season 1a especially, when his hair curled up so much at the ends, with the gorgeous lighting which made him look so good - *chefs kiss*. i love it when they let his hair go curly, which is why i think his pilot hair is cute but i prefer the overall s1 hairstyle.
i adore the s3/s4 hair, too. i view it as an improvement on the s2 hair, but idk, maybe that will change when i rewatch. the side part is probably better suited to him than the bangs as he gets older, and the little curls stay (esp. in s3), so it's a win.
i love the longer hair. s7 was dragged down by the sideburns and was too straight imo, as far as i can remember, but season 6 had its moments! maybe that's just because soulless!sam was hot, though, lol. as for the king of long hair: i. love. the season 8 hair. both 8a and 8b had their moments. i haven't watched it in a while, though. all i remember is that he glowed. i would have loved it if they let his hair go full wavy, even for just half a season, but it had the flicks so it passes with flying colours.
s9 hair was cute, too, because it was allowed to curl! a little, anyway. let this man's hair curl! tbh, though, by this stage everything becomes kinda fuzzy. i need to rewatch these seasons to get a grasp on the hair (i wish). s12 was kind of a return to form (?) with more structure than the preceding seasons so that was cute; all i really remember is the time he dressed as a priest and it was hot but i feel bad admitting that. also he looked really cute in a sweater in the same episode. you look good in anything, but please wear something other than flannel, sam. s14 hair was kinda similar (i think) and he had a beard!!! for a few episodes. so that was fun. i like the beard tbh, just not too long. dean deserved to burn for 40 more years for telling sam to shave it.
tl;dr: i love the longer hairstyles, but s1 is probably my favourite atm bc i love the bangs and i love s1. my fav varies, though.
thank you for giving me an excuse to ramble about sam's hair 💕
#sam winchester hair#sam's hair#sam winchester love#sam winchester#supernatural#spn#mine#askbox#mostlybbucky
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What are your thoughts on the new episode on helluva boss? The one with Mammon.
Hiya, thanks for the ask lovely anon. Love any excuse to talk about things I love. Also, sorry it took so long to get to this, its been a long week.
I'll put what I thought under the cut, cause I always get really wordy. What can I say, I got opinions.
Overall, I think it was a fantastic episode. Definitely more evidence, imo, that most of the better episodes in the show are usually ones with Vivzie as the main writer.
There is more to say about it. It's not perfect and while I do think its one of the best episodes of season 2, I think my favorite is still Oops. But episode seven is full of bops, and def trumps Oops in that regard. Don't get me wrong, "Look at This" is a great song.
My main critiques (or more like nitpicks) of the episode though lie mostly with Blitz's involvement and, this is more of something I have a show long issue with rather than just this episode, but the swiftness with which things are resolved. Also I have some issue Fizz continuing to do the clown contest was because he was scared of losing Ozzie.
I don't have much umbrage with Blitz being there. I mean I enjoy him and I like seeing his interactions with both Ozzie and Fizz. But, he didn't serve much more purpose other than as a sounding board for Fizz. Which ok, it works for the narrative, but its not super necessary to the episode. The flashback is great though and I adore seeing teen Blitz and Fizz.
I think if they really wanted Blitz there, there coulda been a bit more screen time attributed to them talking about the stalker. Maybe mentioning how bad that was in the past before the accident. And mention what it was like after. Cause aside from Ozzie, Fizz doesn't appear to have any other friends. But, we don't have the whole story yet. Of the in between of becoming Mammon's brand figure and meeting Ozzie. Or if that happened at the same time. Then again the Mammon episode is the longest episode thus far, and idk how much more runtime they could have spent to make any of that happen. Moreover, usually these things get revealed later on. I chalk things like that up to the understandable release schedule and the mostly episodic nature of the show.
I will mention another way to make Blitz a little more relevant, cause I did think this on my first watch, and I brought up it to a friend of mine, is have a small scene where he calls Ozzie. Like in the scene where Fizz runs to his dressing room and leaves Blitz, just linger on Blitz long enough to pull out his phone and make a call. Though, idk if that'd break the flow. Tbh in the end the Blitz thing is a nitpick and not a horrible thing. I like him there. I enjoy him supporting Fizz. I just think he wasn't super necessary. Especially since we don't see any growing pains of him and Fizz rebuilding their friendship.
As for why I take issue with the FizzOzzie thing. Let me clarify and say, I don't hate FizzOzzie. I love them in fact. Secondly, I don't think the reason is bad or needs to be cut. What I am saying is that on re-watches, I thought that that can't be the only reason for why Fizz stayed with Mammon. His feelings of inadequacy, of needing to be good enough began way before he met Ozzie. Yes I can see that feeding into him not feeling good enough for Ozzie as a result. But him admitting it because he would lose Ozzie feels idk I wish there was more build up to that aside from from sad faces in Oops.
Again Helluva Boss is great at hinting at things and setting things up via what we think are thrown away jokes. But it also is sometimes bad at giving certain ideas time to build up. (Like Unhappy Campers. The one hint we got for that was in Seeing Stars with Millie getting annoyed with Moxxie. ) Usually they are introduced in one episode and resolved in the same episode. Like Oops, and Blitz and Fizz made up so fast. At the time I argued it'd take time for them to get back to friendship, that it wasn't just resolved, there was more time to see that nuaced build back up to friendship, but the Mammon special happened and that didn't seem to happen. Again, I can chock that up to release schedule and episodic nature. And I admit Blitz and Fizz's friendship wasn't the focus of that episode. Opps was. But, that shouldn't be one episode. Ultimately I wish we had more insight or time or build up to why Fizz felt so inadequate. Cause it was clearly an issue since he was a teen. Either way, maybe my point might be moot later. But, I reserve the right to feel that way.
In the end, I loved the episode. Thought it was the funniest episode to date. Thought it had some of the best music to date. And had a lot of fun, cute, and thoughtful moments. It had great character development for Fizz. And I am now a huge Fizz fan. I liked him before. I love him now thanks to Oops and Mammon's special.
#helluva boss#helluva boss critical kinda?#mostly opinionated nitpicks#still loved the ep though#anon#nixie answers#asks
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