#truly the only reason why i tag this for spoilers is because the episode just ended | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

revvethasmythh · 9 months

Text

I think it's very interesting--and I mean that genuinely--that overwhelmingly in the past week or two, the responses I've seen about Relvin have centered around the idea that "he should have fought" for Imogen or that "he should FIGHT" for Imogen. I've seen this particular line pop up quite a few times in slightly different ways, and I think maybe we should unpack this a little.

Because in the physical sense, Relvin can't really fight. By that, I mean his stats probably look like Gilear Faeths and like, yeah, you can argue that Gilear tagged along during Sophomore Year and therefore, so could Relvin. But Gilear also *spoilers* died three separate times in a 20 episode span, and is only alive at the end because Emily loves him so fucking much and Brennan's resurrection rules in FHSY are more lax than Matt's. Particularly post-Solstice, where there is no resurrection to be had at all if Relvin were to die. If you want Relvin to join the Hells and Fight The Moon And Ludinus Too, it's really not feasible even on just a physical level. That's not even engaging with the question of "why would the Hells even want him there?" They wouldn't. He'd be a nuisance at best and a liability at worst.

If you want to him to Fight The Moon sans the Hells on his own, he's really not capable of that either! He's not a scholar, he's not a magic user, he's--he's a groom. A stablehand. He can't "pick up his pitchfork" (that he shovels manure with) and stand defiantly against the forces that face Imogen & Co. He's really, truly Just A Dude. Which is kind of the point I've been trying to make about him. He's lived his life around extraordinary people, and he is not extraordinary. He doesn't have the tools to fight something like this, which is part of his tragedy. Is there a world where he quits his job, leaves his horses and his home and his life and tries to become a warrior for the sake of his absentee wife and the daughter he loves but doesn't know how to love the right way? I suppose. But wouldn't that be a different story than this one? And isn't it worth finding the meaning in the one we're experiencing now?

If this argument is that he should have fought for Imogen on an emotional level i.e. having been there for her more or more outwardly shown her affection, we kind of run aground of the same problems. The ask here is that we fundamentally change Relvin's character to make him something that he is not. He is a man who struggles with emotions, and was probably desperately scared about what Imogen was experiencing when it happened and didn't want her to feel his fear. Or his thoughts about her mother. And so, yes, he pulls away (for a variety of reasons). And there is a conversation to be had about his choice to withhold information about Liliana--it's questionable. But, then, every option he was presented with was questionable. What do you tell Imogen, who was abandoned by her mother when she was two? That her mother is dead, or that her mother abandoned her? You pray Imogen never develops the same debilitating powers as her mother, but when she does? Do you give her the comfort of knowing someone else had the same powers, the same struggles, at the expense of prompting more questions about her mother? Do you take the chance to be peppered with questions about how these powers work only to helplessly look on and say "I don't know," and maybe send Imogen down the same road as her mother even sooner than she actually did?

There is no good option. There is no heroic version of Relvin that makes all the right choices and becomes Imogen's white knight father, endlessly supportive and wholly committed to her. The situation is too complicated, and Relvin, frankly, is far too much Just Some Guy to be able to really grasp what Imogen is going through or to fight it in an active way. But I do think it's interesting that this seems to be the version of Relvin that the fandom would have found acceptable.

#at this point I'm just collecting data from the things people are adding to my relvin post #and I am Learning Things #critical role #relvin temult #bells hells #also--don't be a dick on this post. there is no reason to be a dick. this is a chill measured discussion we're having about fandom #let's keep it that way

133 notes · View notes

fallingdown98 · 22 days

Text

Shout out to Fantasy High Junior Year to get me to post original thoughts on here for the first time on years - Thought after Episode 15, The Last Stand, spoilers ahead

Based on what happened with Buddy, Brennan's callout of "what was loaded into that crossbow?", and Brennan saying in AP that killing Buddy was always on the table this is what I think Kipperlilly Clerickiller's plan was (Also ty Fandom I will be using this forever now)

1. Snuck in with Buddy when the Last Stand was being set up. (Saw some people questioning how she managed to get in, I truly think it's as simple as this)

2. Steal both Buddy and Kristen's diamonds to ensure no reviving can occur

3. I think the plan was to shoot the proctor with rage crystals, causing him to hulk out and depending on timing, no one to stop more monsters from arriving.

4. Based on where she was standing, I think the goal was to blame the crossbow bolt on Buddy and then leave still undetected with Oisin's prepped plane shift

4a. I still think Buddy dying was always part of the plan but I think the goal was to get the Bad Kids to have to ruin their own situation (Having to kill the hulked out proctor, seeing Buddy as an enemy and targeting him, being stuck because if Kristen had used her 7th level slot then they would at minimum be stuck for 8 hours assuming they all managed to survive if the monsters were still coming)

5. Theory here and we'll see if it proves correct but my immediate thought when Buddy died was that KLCK is planeshifting to the Celestial plane and hoping to use Buddy to sneak into Sol's office like when Aguefort snuck in through Kristin's backpack

6. Once in Sol's office, she would be where YES! Was originally created and the reason Bakur supposedly failed his ritual is that he needed to be in a place where a god had been created in order to rez a God.

7. Chaos ensues when corrupted Ankarna is brought back

8. Profit??? I guess??? Tbh the exact reasoning of the Ratgrinders is still the most elusive thing to me. I think my current most likely thought is that Jace is serving as manipulator and that KLCK is the most "lost in the sauce" as it were what with her pre-established anger issues.

Since we only saw a hand I'm reserving judgement on Oisin as he may have only been aware of his part of the plan and not the rest of what Miss ClericKiller has been up to. Not attached so I'm also down for him to be full evil but I'm just not sure yet.

Another thought I had is that the Ratgrinders may yet mirror the Bad Kids not just in class, but also in personal problems.

Ruben and Fig both having identity crises but Ruben has isolated himself so much he's turned to being a lackey

MaryAnn just doing what she's doing because she's good at it, not because it's something she's passionate about

If Oisin's dragon relative is evil and he's going along with the plot because of that, that would mirror Adaine breaking away from her own evil parents

Don't know enough about Ivy to have thoughts on her really, buddy and Lucy could probably be their own post tbh, and as I can't get a lock on Kipperlilly.

Jawbone seemed convinced she was just misunderstood and jawbone usually has a pretty good read on people. But then she's smiling while murdering Buddy and teleporting away. Why does she hate Riz specifically? Is it something he did or is it more generic jealousy (or a crush but I don't care for that theory personally and doesn't feel super supported currently)?

What's the deal with the rage soil and how did they place a rune of Ankarna's name on Yolanda/Lucy if it was unknown at that point?

Anyway, feel free to reblog or tag with thoughts, I'm so excited to unravel more of this mystery.

#fhyj #fhjy spoilers #rat grinders #bad kids #d20 #riz gukgak #kipperlilly copperkettle #oisin hakinvar #ruben hopclap #mary ann skuttle #buddy dawn #fhjy theory #adaine abernant #kristin applebees #Ankarna #the last stand

43 notes · View notes

wispythreads · 4 months

Text

Me, taking a teeny tiny peak into Saccharina Frostwhip's tag out of curiosity: maybe I'll just see a teeny tiny spoiler, no harm, just a hint of the relationship between her, Ruby, and Amethar improving...

Literally the first post talking about Saccharina specifically: "Rewatching A Crown of Candy had reminded me how much I hate Saccharina."

Me: ( ･᷄ ︵･᷅ )

Granted they then went on to talk about how well-written/roleplayed this character was, how if we had followed along her storyline the whole time instead that 'of course we would be on her side' in this tension between the "reunited" family, so on and so forth (it is a good post, I am just not reblogging because the core of it of "I personally hate her but she is a good character" is pretty antithetical to how I feel, and I also disagree that she's SO focused on receiving the love of her father and half-sister that she's unable to recognize the love and acceptance she's received from her cousins and a loyal knight of the family)

I'm just over here pretty surprised that this is a supposedly large audience reception Saccharina had when A Crown of Candy was still the latest in the batch of Dimension 20 adventures? Enough so that her player got hate for it? And was a feeling so strong that it holds out even upon rewatching it?

As far as I could tell watching everything going on, EVERYONE had reasonable feelings about the situation.

The only reason she was able to survive in that orphanage, grow as strong and powerful as she was, is because even as the nuns tried to burn it out of her Saccharina held onto the fact that they were wrong, that she had a father out there who would love her and want her.

Of course she's disappointed when her attempts at being friendly and sharing camaraderie are rebuked. Of course she's hurt when, after all these years dreaming of finally having a home with the people she came from, the lineage that gave her the gifts that brought her so much joy and misery at the same time, they react coldly towards her, suspicious of her, either keeping their distance or, as is in Ruby's case, being openly hostile.

And of course they are. I truly believe that if they had met before the events of episode 9, Amethar would've swept Saccharina up into a bear hug, unabashedly giving her the love she'd always dreamed of. But he had just been stabbed in the back by his best friend of 20 years, who had also been revealed in the same moment to be the cause behind his sisters' murders. He had just lost the daughter that was most like him, that reminded him so much of his sister Rococoa. He's already made the choice that he needs to harden up, become cold, if he was going to keep Caramelinda, Ruby, and all the people who trusted them and helped them alive. He thought he knew who Calroy was, and trusted him, but he didn't. And it cost him too much. He definitely doesn't know who Saccharina is, and he can't afford to lose anyone else.

Ruby is a bit harder for me to judge, as I think there still might've been some rivalry/resentment(?) through their connections to magic and Lazuli, but I don't think she would've been anywhere near as aggressive over this revelation before losing Jet. Because she's not just dealing with the death of her sister, or even the death of her other half. She is dealing with being the reason why Jet died, at least in her own mind. Jet, for once in her life, showed hesitance in acting bold and brash, didn't want to follow up on the letter on their own. Ruby, who usually is the one following Jet's lead, took the reigns, and now one of them is dead. She only lived because she ran away and left her sister behind to die. And now the universe turns around, says, 'Surprise! You've got a new sister now, and she's bursting at the seams with magic,'?

Both of these characters wear their hearts on their sleeves, and as great as they are with their strengths, they've already shown they can be terribly immature as one of their faults. These things are not Saccharina's fault, but it is what they're dealing with and end up projecting onto her while literally everyone else in the party openly accepts Saccharina into the group, and she accepts them into her found family of marauders in turn.

Saccharina notes how the former king, queen, and bastard princess reacted towards her, and what is her immediate response? "Ok. They don't love me. They don't even like me. Maybe I can try to avoid them hating me by at least being useful. By at least not being an inconvenience."

And that is what she sticks by while talking to them for so long, occasionally throwing out a line to test if maybe they could still end up liking her, that she could still have that family she's always dreamed of, only to hit their walls and instantly reel back to at least being useful, without really knowing why the wall is even there. She tells them she's disappointed, of what she had hoped for, but not in a tone blaming them, angry at them, its almost as if she can't help letting it slip out through her diplomacy as she appends it again and again with her hopes she can at least be useful. She tries over and over to make it clear that she only sees the throne as a tool, one that she doesn't really want but one that she needs, and at the same time tries to offer herself to the Rocks family as the same thing. A tool that can be at least needed, if not wanted.

The rest of her hurt? She confides to her found family. And even then, as she voices to the marauders about her frustration that the Rocks don't want her, that she doesn't know why she keeps trying and that maybe it'd be best if she just stopped and accepted it, she can't stop, she keeps trying to appeal to them through her actions.

And, again, she doesn't know how deep their own hurt goes, how horrific the road their open hearts had led them down and why now, of all times, they've closed themselves off. She sees loss, and is confounded because loss is where she started as young as five years old. And yet she still doesn't treat them any differently. She's finally snapped and let the amount of hurt she's felt finally show to both Amethar and Ruby now, but she still shows them trust, and support, and is willing to lean on the people they brought with them just as much if not even more so than her own people. Her sharp-sounding formality is not how she wants to address them, because deep down she is as open hearted as the rest of the Rocks. It is a mirror she is reflecting as she tries to come to terms with the fact that her dream can't be reality, as much as the child within her still longs for and reaches towards it.

Knowing all that, watching how clear they make her feelings regarding everything and how carefully she's trying to maneuver through the world she's found herself in, how much she's trying to prove that she can at least be a good asset, I'm still just... really gobsmacked that a large number of people look to her and hate her.

#dimension 20 #a crown of candy #saccharina frostwhip #saccharina #a crown of candy spoilers #like I can understand not liking her #I feel like I would've liked having Lapin along the adventure more than Cumulous #even though I still also like Cumulous #but to hate her? to feel like you could only have ever been on her side/rooting for her if we'd been with her since the beginning?#to hate the rest of A Crown of Candy because of her presence in it?#to send hate towards her player???

34 notes · View notes

clara-maybe-ontheroad · 6 months

Text

Weird media guilt cycle : Why I stopped watching, reading and writing about OF

So I used to be pretty active on here about a certain show (ahem ahem) while it was airing, but I started falling behind on new episodes airing and I started feeling ... Guilty ?

Like, my reasons for taking a break were real but not that deep :

despite being really fun to watch, it brought back memories of a pretty chaotic time in my life and made it tricky for me to handle some of my emotions regarding basically all the characters

I was just visiting my partner in Canada and wasn't prioritising watching this show.

But nevertheless, I fell an episode behind, which was normal. Then two. And then three. And at this point there was so many meta posts to engage with, so many things I was tagged in, so much I wanted to read, I didn't know where to start, and I didn't want to get spoiled. And I felt weirdly guilty for not being able to engage, maybe because this was my first time being involved in any kind of Tumblr community.

I felt bad not to reply and contribute to the discourse around the show ; I wanted to avoid spoilers and was so behind so I couldn't read anything and could barely go on Tumblr for a bit, because it was also reminding me I was Behind™. See how other feelings about my life were starting to get into it.

I felt like by the time I would come around to watch, everything meaningful would have been said, and like I had to be the first to comment on something for it to be valuable, and like I was not as dedicated as everyone else. Like I wasn't being productive enough, original enough... About watching one damn show.

I loved watching it ! And watching it with a community, analysing it with everyone, reading all the great posts, was so fun ! But suddenly it caused me dread.

Because coincidentally, many other things in my life that I liked stopped being fun around the same time. Other life stuff made me sink. And this show kinda became emblematic of the pause it felt like my life was taking, of me not being able to follow through, of me feeling directionless. Of me feeling like I had to focus on productive things to be worth of existing, like I was existing in an in between where I wasn't accomplishing enough. And I couldn't watch shows at all for the most part, much less shows about characters feeling lost in their lives.

Ridiculous? Yes. Very real for anxiety-ridden me? Also yes.

I was talking with my therapist the other day though, and we noted that I'm lacking creative outlets since my little depression-y phase a month ago. And that in a way, reading and writing meta about that show was filling a need for creative stuff in my life, since I no longer do YouTube/Tiktok like I also used to.

So ! After a month of being harsh with myself, I'm trying to reintroduce little joys, little moments of creation. And it's silly that writing meta about a show might be part of that, but I guess it was a form of self expression, and in my current phase I need any alley of self expression I can get.

All of this to say... I'm going to start watching that show again !

I'm going to catch up on all the amazing posts people have written about it. I'm going to write silly or serious posts about it. I'm going to try and have fun with it.

Is there any big lesson ? Probably not, or only that we truly have interesting relationships with pieces of media and online communities way beyond what they're actually about.

Also please tell me, has anyone else done this ? I feel very weird.

Anyway if I suddenly start live shitposting you know why !

#only friends the series #this was a rant no one cares about #but i still feel guilty and it's so weird #so i wanted to share #wasn't initially planning on sharing which shows this was about but obviously it's #only friends #ofts meta #my love #also i guess i should tag this for #anxiety and depression

3 notes · View notes

kindredhearts13 · 2 years

Text

Let’s talk about Thony and Arman

Alright y’all, I’ll be back to go more in depth on the episodes later on (I know I’m already behind, I’ll catch up before Monday)- but I felt the need to throw in some perspective because I checked the tag today and it feels like a part of the fandom is on fire. So, here it is:

We are only THREE episodes into the second season.

Outside of a few promotional stills and very vague episode synopsis, we do not have enough information to make definitive statements about the trajectory of this season or its characters. Everything we’ve all been sharing, including myself, has been purely speculative and only the rest of the episodes will reveal if we were actually correct.

I’m going to break down how I’m feeling about Arman and Thony and their relationship, and where I feel like it is headed- so, that’s going below the cut:

(Also, spoiler warning: I discuss the synopsis for 2x05 towards the end w/ a labeled warning beforehand)

Okay, so let’s be honest- the in person reunion between Arman and Thony was not what most of us hoped for. It was frantic, rushed, and felt like they were both focused on, well, not each other. And the reality is: they weren’t. Whether or not most people liked Marco and Thony was already done with the marriage, her husband still died- the father of her child- and that is still going to weigh on her. It should; in fact if it didn’t, I would be really upset because that would be out of character for her. One of the biggest points of contention in the relationship before his death was her relationship with Arman- whether it was justified contention or not- it caused issues with Marco and it is currently causing issues with Fiona. Not to mention her father-in-law wanting to take Luca away and never officially agreeing to not try. Plus, her nephew accidentally killed her husband, his uncle. And to top all of that off, Luca is sick again and his body is rejecting his liver. Our girl has a lot up on her shoulders.

And yes, last season Arman literally tried to hold the weight of it all with her- but he hasn’t exactly been as emotionally available. Plus, he is still married and has given Thony no indication that his marital status is changing anytime soon. (If he had, we would know). Though it may seem like an unimportant detail to some, Thony isn’t going t just ignore all that has happened and be romantic and gaze longingly at this man in the midst of everything she’s dealing with when he isn’t even giving her a reason to do so.

Arman also has a lot going on- the difference is that we know and are continuing to learn how unravelled he becomes under pressure. His tone is sharp, his words are biting, and the emotionally aware part of him needs some poking before it wakes up. I’ve said it before and I will say it again: I love Arman, but he needs to get his shit together because right now- he doesn’t deserve Thony or Nadia. He keeps lashing out on people instead of actually dealing with his problems, and if the writers really take on that challenge- that should be a major character arc for him.

In my opinion, neither of these two are out of character. The issue is that the pacing is a bit askew at the top of its second season due to a not very well established timeline. We’re supposed to expect months worth of an emotional shift in Arman from last season’s finale to this season’s premiere that truly only happened in a few weeks time. This is part of the reason why I feel like it was a mistake to kill Hayak so early on because Arman needs the ending of his relationship with Hayak and his death to really help ground this emotional journey he is on. (I’ll get more into this in my episode dissection.)

Now to wrap: a note on 2x05

@delarosa-morales just dropped a GREAT post with a lot of excellent points, and I’m in the same line of thinking with most of them. Arman is a criminal. That hasn’t changed. Yes, he has a good heart. Yes, he has fallen for Thony and Luca. Yes, I’ve written fan-fiction focusing on his softer side because that’s the sexiest side of his character to me. But the reality is that he still did what he had to do to get ahead, and he’s desperate. So, yeah- he might do some stuff that he’s going to be ashamed of later. And I kind of think it’s brilliant to have Arman potentially betray Thony in the 5th episode of the second season because he discovered that she was working with the FBI in the 5th episode of the first. Just like that episode did, it’s going to force them to actually deal with their shit. I knew from 3 episodes into season 1 that we were going to have a huge rift between Thony and Arman, because the rift is needed to bring them back together and make them stronger- it is the basic format for these grittier shows. IF this is that rift, let’s do it and see the way that these characters and their relationships evolve because of it.

Finally, let me say (and zero offense or judgement to anyone that does): I do not watch this or any show purely for a romantic relationship, UNLESS that show is explicitly about that romantic relationship. And we’ve been told time and time again that this show is NOT about Thony and Arman’s romance. It is aspect of it, but Elodie herself made it clear that part of what drew her to this role is that Thony’s motivations and arc weren’t based in this romance- it was secondary to everything else, in a way.

Not to say that the relationship won’t and shouldn’t evolve, but I personally don’t need romantic fireworks every single episode; so I’m not as bummed because I trust that when these intimate moments do happen (and the whole Arman acting like a shy teenage boy around his crush in front of Thony when Bosco was talking to him was definitely one of those moments); there will be for a reason and have more meaning behind them. I don’t want these characters to do something for the shock or raciness of it- I want it to happen because it makes sense for them and the story and because of good writing. So, that’s where I am.

#the cleaning lady #tcl #armony #arman x thony #thony de la rosa #arman morales #Thony x arman #armany #spoiler warning

18 notes · View notes

baekuras · 1 year

Text

Have stopped my binge of The Walking Dead (during season 9 just like last time I dropped it 😭 I am trying but also...tired so breaktime from that) to actually go watch Fear (the walking dead also bc duh) because I started it when it began but then took a break when it was on break till the new season and just never came back to it Anyhow I do also quite enjoy it (altho rip to I think season 4 which made me irate for many reasons at the beginning but then calmed down some so I am back to enjoying things) and the characters etc but I also am definitely going in it looking for comedy Didn’t do that for the main show as much because that was a rewatch But by now any media I consume I WILL make fun of (lovingly) or try to imagine funny scenes because...duh

i actually wanted to put all my other ramblings in the tags but there is was too much coming to mind with every word i write even though my memory can be shit so...readmore it is Watched till season 6 episode 5 so basically spoilers up to that

anyhow rip nick your chaos will be missed

i do also think the moment i rly decided to go make fun of everything lovingly(I need you to understand I genuinely mean that because I also did cry a lot during appropriate moments) was when nick & troy had their joyride through the horde at the ranch like yep everyone is stuck in the pantry slowly dying and also how the FUCK did we get here but also fuck it I’m in WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO CARCRASH

also fuck troy for being high on the “actual assholes i enjoy watching list” because while everyone of those got murder there why did he have to just casually sprinkle in some soft racism? or casual racism? i was about to say “not shoot on sight-racism” because rhe does do that...or I believe he would but that’s more a “humans are alive” thing than a “oh god is that a native american human ALIVE” thing....that’s his dad-may he rest in fucking hell forever dear GOD did his kids deserve better than his shitty ass making problems present past and future FUCK THAT man he is NOT on my “assholes who i actually like on screen” list

like my mood basically went from “urgh oh god fuck he’s a racist shithole.” to “oh FUCK he’s a child abuser racist shithole WHY DON’T YOU KEEP ADDING ON LET’S GET A FLAMETHROWER A GUN ISN’T ENOUGH HERE” (i think that’s basically about where i’ll end my opinions on the whole ranch shebang because any details may be missed by yours truly not being american so i am not going to know most details on treatment of native americans in the current age or age when this was filmed beyond the “oh yeah it’s shit” bits although I will mention that Taqa’s whole “he stole my ancestors land” at the beginning bothered me until it was revealed that “oh this dickbag actually shot his family like in the current time not 500years ago okay yeah no go off baby have fun”....and also that i only now learned his name was spelled w/ a q dear god everyones accent had me confused on his name for the longest time and his last name is ACTUALLY Walker why does it have to sound so same i am so bad with names aaaaaaah qwq anyhow rip him i was confused until now if his name was Walker(actual last nime), Tucker(which does not fit), Taka(also doesnt fit because it seemed more japanese to me but between the 3 options my brain presented was the most fitting so.....but noppe....a fucking q....just right there.....I’ll take the L and also where the fuck did this man even fuck off to)

speaking of fucking off: Rip to Nick, you blew up a damn only to die w/out any further character development afterwards 2 episodes later and then just got to hang out in the background in the past parts of future episodes

WHICH BY THE WAY IRRITATED ME SO MUCH not the Nick died thing but yes just from a “we are starting a new storyline for this-oops he dead :D” point yes it’s urgh But the flip-flopping from Past to present to past no present pastpresentpastofpewwgvszujsiop aneurysm of storytelling Like Okay So we start with new characters i have yet to give a shit about (and morgan who i have yet to give a shit about...again) to then go back to our oldies and THEN they fight and it’s a mess but now they’re friends somewhere between the past being shown and everyone fighting and manipulating and Al filming Nick’s dead body and me yet having to give a shit about anyone except for John because he seemed sweet and that’s about it what the actual fuck so yeah i skipped most of that until it calmed the fuck down but by then I was mostly annoyed by Al(i like her now but at the beginning i was mostly like “yeah yeah you got a big fuck you truck and like being an asshole to people and just bother and annoy them for a video-did great on youtube huh didn’t you now how about you actually do something helpful and get your ass out WITHOUT being a dickhead?” kinda deal....we got so far in terms of me actually giving a shit about her lol)

speaking of new character or oldes ones returning, Dwight! my boy! continuing being shot in various limbs to then stumble around (how is that a trend i notice) also rip his hairline because I am pretty sure between the main show and fear the makeup artists added more scarring to that scar-which i dont mind but is also kinda funny to imagine (like sir negan didnt burn you THAT much where did you find the rest or is it just the way you part your hair?) regarding hair post haircut&shave&further haircut later: who is this man and what have you done with the burned rat from before? anyhow i still like him and i kiiiiinda wish Morgan was a character who would have been more involved about the past simply because I’d have liked to see them chat about it-not even anything heavy but just about what happened, how everyone was doing after Dwight went away because Morgan was still there for a bit at least, or idk just a bit more remembrances of where they came from sprinkled in there

I mean we do have Morgan and his staff stuff still which I do actually enjoy, and ofc lately Dwight showing off his fancy torture skills ala....music like the good old saviour days but i want more xp

which goes back to another moment i had to chuckle at in my head even if it wasnt funny because Sherry basically went “We will hunt Virigina down and kill her and end all of this” to which Dwight basically went “okay i got my torture gear ready, got a plan and am ready to do some murder lets go” //insert Sherry shocked pikachu face-meme here I keep forgetting she left before shit got really real and heavy but like....yeah honey here is your husband back he comes with some extra baggage but also....you were there when he was part of fucking Daryl up what are you surprised by? That he’d literally kill for you and abandon what he built with the others if need be? bitch he followed you across the country for god knows how long-it’s Dwight! of course he would sweety please although i would like him to just tear some ass because there were many a moment where i though it justified but yes yes we go keep being peaceful now-and that’s good! mostly because the main cast we actually like and care about isn’t dropping like flies but i did also have fun w/ the whole war between the saviour and everyone else soooooooo....yeah chaos reigns

also shoutout randomly to the not-yet-radioactive kids+others who just disappeared from the story long enough to make me wonder if the writers forgot about them and then they appeared in the next episode lol

also random shoutout to john&june because they are adorable and cool and work well together as a team and couple i really like them

backpaddling to earlier again because rip alicia because if we timeline was in order it wouldnt have gone down in that order but just watching it she went from losing her brother to her mother dipping out shortly after her favourite child died like “woops sorry but i’ll go sacrifice myself now go take care of yourself now w/out your family like before” although last time someone started a fire and was dead they didn’t stay that way so...eh who knows let Madison return and fuck more shit and people up in her desperate attempt to keep her family alive(oops) and make things better but also kill anyone if she has to but at least she has nightmares about it <3

did I already mention I also had to laugh at Chris AND Travis’ deaths? not because they died because yeah sad i guess but A I didn’t like Chris at all so I was happy and B dear god this teen really went with some dumb ragtag dudebros who just shot their friend to death for a hurt leg (what is he? a horse? grow up) and then wanted o be hip and cool driving their car and crashed it and THEN got shot for the same thing you FUCKING IDIOT I am very much on the side of “let the kids go out and do stuff they can survive and aren’t 12″ but also chris my guy are you perhaps stupid or an idiot? prime teenage behaviour 10/10 made me hate him not for anything i’d consider bad writing but just for being a shithead i’d have known in highschool

Travis’ death made me laugh simply because of how abrupt it was and also how he just yeeted himself out the plane like yes a walker in there while they’re busy crashing down is bad but also lol (also Taqa going to the leftovers with Alicia all proud they shot it out the sky...................i also had to laugh because DUDE YOU ARE NOT DOING THAT....bitch is proudly showing off his kill from the wanna-be military ranch and it’s basically her dads corpse in the context of things.....like........i am dying xDD you can not be serious what was the plan here other than showing off? and then immediately having to feel a bit bad about it because woops killed the wrong man)

also trav dying via neck bullet vs morgan surviving heart bullet for over a month and being just fine after it got out travis forgot his plot armor rip v-v

#txts #also shoutout to the asshole driving the swat car #because he could not just drive back a little bit to have the guns actually hit #and got it stolen back by one guy basically #like yeah i was routing for our guys #but also...god you are bad at your job arent you?#you have basically a tank on your hands #and cant use it properly #and in nitpicky details #you try to throw dwight off by swerving left and right but keep it in the same rythm after a turn or two #i get nitpicky when i wanna make fun of characters dont take this too serious #but its also in my most recent memories because i just saw that episode a couple hours ago so its fresh in my mind #this went on for too long #i think i have been thinking/typing for 20minute so i'll leave it at that or gods help me #i am sure i could think of more if i tried but i am just here vibing #none of this is constructive criticism #well except the 'fuck the start of season 4 for how it was shown/written' bit because fuck that #i hated it in the main show and they just went further and further with it here so fuck it #and the usual 'why is this 16 episodes long #or 'do we have to have a whole episode only/mostly about xcharacter'#bit but we def had worse for those from what i remember #love the action in season 7&8 of the main show but dear god if i had to wait week to week for a new episode of nothing i think i'd have died #the walking dead #fear the walking dead #hi i am just here throwing word soup out w/out coherency so don't mind me here

0 notes

beacon-lamp · 3 years

Text

with hermitcraft season 7 slowly coming to an end, i figured it was time to consolidate all of the Informative Posts about hermitcraft that i and some of the other members of hermitblr have made over the last several months.

if you enjoy:

minecraft youtube content, but want to see more traditional vanilla minecraft gameplay like building and redstone

fun, lighthearted interactions between genuine friends including Elaborate pranks, collaborating on massive projects, light roleplay, proximity voice chat mod

weekly 20 - 40 minute long youtube videos and consistent upload schedules

chill grind stream weekends where CCs interact with chat and each other

an entire youtube channel dedicated to weekly 20-minute recap videos on what all the hermits have been up to so you don’t have to piece it together from the posts on your dash/timeline

insanely talented people who have been doing mcyt for nearly, if not more than, a decade and essentially built minecraft youtube from the ground up

give hermitcraft a try!

you will find all of the information you will Ever Need below the cut. it’s Very Long so view it on desktop.

and if you ever have any more questions, just shoot me an ask :)

what is hermitcraft?

the Basics: what, who, where, how

more details on the Basics

bonus: the historical impact many hermitcraft members have had on mcyt

where do i even start watching?

start with grian.

good mix of Incredible builds and fun server shenanigans. instigator of many server-wide events. interacts with many other hermits. generally entertaining to watch. but zero redstone knowledge.

check out hermitcraft recap.

great way to be introduced to other hermits and learn what everyone’s up to. if you find what a hermit’s been working on interesting, go watch their video and maybe give them a like and subscribe.

official hermitcraft website with links to every member’s channel

more information on every hermit’s attributes and general vibes

do hermits every stream?

short answer: yes, most do! but these streams are mostly chill grinding or buildling streams. and you don’t have to watch the streams to be caught up on content. check the official hermitcraft website for each member’s twitch links.

long answer that covers most of the hermits

what do they do on hermitcraft?

let’s start with some examples of their incredible builds.

hermit cribs: some of the megabases in s7

goodtimeswithscar’s s7 magical village with shaders

stressmonster’s bakery and ren’s star wars world

Capitalism

they have a shopping district where hermits can set up shops and sell items and resources that other hermits can buy with diamonds. here’s season 7 shopping district set on a mooshroom island:

some of the most advanced redstone you’ve ever seen

if you’re more into the technical side of minecraft, you can be rest assured that hermitcraft has some of the Biggest Brains in redstone.

tangotek: a fucking madlad. Singled-handedly created the minigame Decked Out. im Begging you to watch his tutorial video on how to play. currently finishing up his Among Us but in minecraft minigame. all of this was built Entirely in survival vanilla minecraft. get this man to 1M subscribers.

mumbo jumbo: the man himself. built a 128 x 128 block industrial district in both season 6 and 7 packed to the Brim with mechanical farms. half the brain behind the masterpiece of engineering that was Sahara in season 6. currently working on Pacific, the sequel to Sahara, in season 7.

iskall85: the other half of the brain behind Sahara and working on Pacific with mumbo in season 7. also has an industrial district like mumbo’s in season 7.

xisuma: built an automatic potion brewer in the second half of season 7. this thing churns out potions by the Shulker Box. can also turn a shulker box full of potions into splash potions and extend duration all with a press of a button.

impulseSV: incredible example of form + function. farms are scattered throughout his base. he has a farm for nearly every farmable resource in vanilla minecraft.

etho: the pioneer of some of the most widely used redstone mechanisms to date. content isn’t super redstone-focused. mostly does compact modules that serve a specific function.

zedaph: makes strange contraptions. he’s basically if grian knew how to redstone. impeccable vibes and fairly underrated.

bdoubleo100: he occassionally does this segment called “redstone with bdubs” and it’s the only redstone i understand so that’s why he’s here.

what about roleplay? and lore?

yeah they have Plenty of that too.

it generally comes in the form of self-contained storylines that involve most members on the server and take place over the course of several weeks in multiple videos. it’s fairly light roleplay, if that’s not your thing. but the plotlines also have a Massive Potential to be angsty and whatnot if you really look into it, which a lot of people also do.

here’s a more in-depth look into the Major Plotlines over the last 2 seasons (season 6 and 7). huge spoiler warning though.

um also there’s this post that highlights how truly cursed hermitcraft can be if you dig deep enough hahaha.

so do the hermits only make hermitcraft content?

nope!! many of them are involved in other mcyt content as well and are friends with other prominent members of the mcyt community!!

MCC

mcc9 blue bats video essay: the time the hermit team won the whole damn competition. a wonderfully made video worth Every second of your time. especially if you don’t typically watch the hermit teams.

falsesymmetry: mcc10 ace and mcc’s First Back-to-Back Winner

lord grian dreamslayer: that time grian Popped Off, killing dream, tubbo, and fundy in mcc9 survival games

Vault Hunters

a modded minecraft server coded entirely by iskall85′s team. all the content is streamed live on twitch.

current members are: Iskall85, AntonioAsh, Stressmonster101, HBomb94, CaptainSparklez, Fundy, CaptainPuffy, 5UP and Tubbo

more info on the series

3rd Life SMP

hardcore minecraft server with a twist that started on 4/20/21. all content is posted to each member’s respective youtube channels.

every member has 3 lives, as indicated by the color of their name: green for 3 lives left, yellow for 2, red for 1. if they lose all three lives, they can only spectate the world (like in hardcore mode). the series ends when all members have lost all three lives.

the twist: once a member is on their 3rd and final life, as indicated by a red name, they are Hostile and their goal is to take the lives of the remaining players.

the members (hermits are italicized): BdoubleO100, bigbst4tz2, Etho, GoodTimesWithScar, Grian, impulseSV, InTheLittleWood, Renthedog, Skizzleman, Smajor1995, Smallishbeans, SolidarityGaming, Tango, ZombieCleo

the tumblr tag for 3rd Life is “#3rdLife”, “#3rdLifeSMP” and “#3LSMP” if you wanna see more content, as it’s Not supposed to be cross-tagged with “#hermitcraft”.

do you have any free serotonin to spare?

here’s a bunch of posts that’ll make you smile

scar’s friendship with a bunch of the hermits

grian, false, cleo, bdubs, iskall: why they deserve so much respect

same post as above but with an addition about ren

small hermit things that give you serotonin

why you should watch tfc

if you’ve made it this far you are Contractually Obligated* to watch one (1) hermitcraft episode and reblog this post.

*for legal reason, this is a joke. you’re not contractually obligated but consider this: Please. i spent way too much time on this.

shoutout to everyone who’s posts i’ve linked and anyone who has helped answer a question about hermitcraft. this all started because i was frustrated that people were writing the hermits off as cannon fodder in mcc and im genuinely so glad that many of you have given hermitcraft a shot.

2K notes · View notes

matan4il · 2 years

Note

I love your metas! When the ep first started, for some reason Buck appeared younger to me. He just looked younger for some reason. Anyway, once the episode ended I realized that I’m prepared for Eddie’s breakdown but I wasn’t prepared for Buck jumping further down the rabbit hole.

I got so uncomfortable watching it and I truly believe that was the intent. His face just looks so empty of any feeling to me. He is missing his anchors again and diving more into self destructive behavior. I have no crystal ball, but I truly believe Bobby will regret pairing them up. He hand pick Eddie for a reason and I keep feeling we will see why Eddie is the right partner. Love the montage we got of Eddie. I can’t wait until he gets back on the team, but I do love his interaction so far at dispatch.

Also loved the dinner scene. I’m buckling up for 5B for sure. 5x11 pressed the gas from the beginning. It will be interesting to see what and how so many things will be addressed in 7 eps.

Hi lovely! Awwwww, I'm so glad that you do, thank you so much! :D *hugs you real big*

I know what you mean, there was something so fresh-faced about him, as well as moments with his eyes going all big, that it made Buck look younger, I think. Which only serves to pull at our heartstrings even more when we see him hurting over Eddie not coming back to the 118, or feeling so awkward in his own r/s and his home, and of course, the whole consent issue (he looked so young during s1 too, when that whole theme started).

And I'm with you on so many of the points you made! I have to admit that ever since we started getting spoilers for 5b, I started asking myself how will they fit in so much into just 8 eps. Well, I think 511 def was a rollercoaster that showed just how much 911 can do with one ep. But I also suspect that quite a few things will spill over into s6.

Since you referred to Bobby regretting his choice, may I add in this ask:

do u think bobby will regret picking lucy in the end because he made that comment how picking the wrong person would destroy the 118 and people think that's foreshadowing what are your thoughts?

As always, I’d rather not speculate, but since this is a recurring subject... I think Bobby didn’t want to choose new members for the team, he had to. In so much as he’s keeping the 118 afloat, I don’t think he’ll regret choosing someone. Will he regret Lucy specifically? I think that will depend on how things unfold. Currently, the kiss is understood by Hen and Buck as being Buck’s responsibility. Assuming that’s how the show continues to portray things (and the interviews lead me to believe so), I think Bobby will mainly think that whatever friction on the team Lucy brings with her, it’s for Buck to man up and deal with the reasons behind it, rather than regret bringing her in. However, if she turns out to be reckless to the point of actually endangering the lives of others on call, then I think Bobby may come to regret it, yes. And I did have that thought about that line possibly foreshadowing that.

Thank you again for the kindness and I hope you like this reply! Have a great day, hon! xoxox

(HI! I've been juggling work overload and medical stuff, sorry I fell behind on answering asks despite trying to double my pace. I'll try to use the weekend to catch up, look out for my ask tag. xoxox)

32 notes · View notes

vyeoh · 3 years

Note

this is your chance: wax poetic about an Empires or DSMP character of your choice to a fan who is new to both. Explain why I should love them. I need guidance in this new and meme-populated land.

okok this is a lot of pressure haha. Spoilers for EmpiresSMP and DreamSMP below, obviously. I wrote a lot so prepare yourself, anon

I watch a lot of empires POVs but the ones I most anticipate every week are Scott and Sausage.

c!Scott (I'll call him Smajor for the sake of simplicity) starts off the series chilling, not really getting involved with the rest of the server, and staying aggressively neutral. After all, he's an elf. He has lived far longer than most of the other rulers already, and will most likely outlive them for many years. So, the best thing is to stick to his mountains and not get invested in the dealings of mortal affairs, maybe sometimes causing problems on purpose and dipping because what's life without a little spice right.

But then, this demon comes to the server, Xornoth. He's going around causing havoc and wants to send the world into an eternal winter, but he doesn't bother the kingdom of Rivendell much so Smajor stays tentatively cautious but ultimately unbothered. But then, the puzzle pieces start falling together. The first thing that the audience noticed was was Xornoth sounded like Smajor, but we mostly thought that this was just due to cc!Scott voicing both of them and there was nothing more to it. However, then, the people the demon starts possessing start chanting in elvish. The demon hates mortals, and the elves are conveniently one of the two confirmed not fully mortal races in Empires.

This culminates when Smajor stumbles across a cave that contains the backstory of the patron god of Rivendell, Aeor. Basically, there's two opposing forces, Aeor and Exor, and both have a champion. In a previous life, those champions were two brothers, where Aeor eventually prevailed and banished Exor. In this life though, the champions are - you guessed it - Smajor, and the demon Xornoth.

So now Smajor is like. Well fuck. It's my literal god-given destiny to be responsible for defeating this demon who is technically my brother, and if I fail the server gets plunged into an eternal winter. And I have no fucking clue what is happening because I've just been here on this mountain actively trying to stay out of the issues outside my kingdom. We watch him panic and teeter on the verge of spiraling for an entire episode, and when the followers of Xornoth go to the End to kill the dragon, releasing Xornoth's full powers, he fails to stop him. Smajor is a character who was used to being the smart one, the prepared one, the one who has the least deaths on the server. But he's also a character who runs away from his problems and ignores them. Before and during the dragon fight, we hear the desperation in his voice, as he's thrown into a situation he is wholly unprepared for, and it's bigger than him going to the Cod Empire to kill their king, or assisting in other people's plans to kill the codfather. He can't run from this. cc!Scott plays this scene so well as well, as I've said before, one of the best parts of Scott's acting is how he's never super dramatic, but he's so effective in the little things like inflection to make you feel, viscerally, the panic and dread.

So after the dragon fight, Smajor realizes, I can't do this on my own. I've tried and failed. So he gets allies. We watch him, someone who has so strongly been an isolationist, learn the benefits of allies and watch him learn to trust others and watch him learn how to get that trust in return.

My favorite thing about Smajor's characterization is that he's an incompetent protagonist, but not in the way of the "plucky young adventurer". He's capable skill-wise, and fairly jaded and very pessimistic. However, his issue is that up until recently, he did not care about the rest of the server at all, and by the time he learned to, it was way too late.

Also, in 3rd Life, cc!Scott and cc!Jimmy were canonically married and they reference it sometimes in Empires. Like, Scott goes over to the Cod Empire every so often both in and out of character to kill and/or flirt with Jimmy, the ruler of the Cod Empire, which may develop as a secondary plot into the future who knows. So ty Scott for giving the gays what they want o7

Now onto Sausage: his is a story of Icarus, his hubris and ambition being his downfall. He's one of the two followers of Xornoth, who promised him endless power in exchange for his servitude. He started the series being eccentric, but not outright unhinged, but slowly gets more and more extreme as the series progresses, as he gets brought more and more to Xornoth's side.

One of the best parts of Sausage's character, in my opinion, is how his gradual corruption affects the people around him. Initially, he got into a conflict with the Cod Empire and was allied with two other people in the Witherrose alliance. They were allies, but also close friends. The fandom liked to joke that the three had sibling energy, and I'm pretty sure the ccs played to that even more lol.

It was painful to watch the other two members, Gem and fWhip, watch Sausage get corrupted right in front of them, and see them desperately clinging on to this old idea of Sausage in their head because if they faced the truth, it would mean that their friend was gone. Eventually, they do finally cut him out of the alliance, leading him to fully commit to the side of the demon. Sausage felt very clearly betrayed by this, and declared the remaining two Witherrose alliance members to be enemies.

He gets more and more possessed, and we even see the other Empires, his enemies even, slowly realize that something is very wrong with the ruler of Mythland. He starts doing more and more evil things, like killing people more, making sacrifices to the demon, and eventually helping to kill the dragon to free Xornoth. So things are good for Sausage, for a bit. He won, and is more powerful than ever. Then he finds out: he's going to die. Xornoth's possession is slowly killing his soul, and eventually, his body going to be fully taken over and he himself is going to be trapped in the spirit realm. So how do you react to this? Over the next few episodes, we watch Sausage struggle between "the demon is literally killing me" and "the demon has given me so much, and I love it", all while Xornoth takes over more and more of him. We hear him exclaim that "don't worry!! I'm still about 15% there!" while trying to downplay every time Xornoth completely takes over his body. We watch him willingly oppose anyone who is trying to end the thing that is killing him.

My favorite thing about Sausage is that he is undoubtedly evil and proud of it, but he's also undoubtedly human. If you like to watch evil characters go absolutely feral, he's the guy for you. He makes the deal with Xornoth in the beginning, knowing and fully embracing the evilness of the demon, but at the same time he knows what he's doing is detrimental to both himself and everyone around him, but he's gotten in way too deep at this point, and to be fair the demon has held up its end fo the bargain, right?

Also, I would be damned if I don't talk about cc!Sausage's editing. Every one of his videos is like a movie. The way he does camera angles and uses music is so skillful- every lore scene feels like something out of a high fantasy action saga (think: LotR). Every big lore event I always wait in anticipation for Sausage's ep because his editing truly takes lore to another level.

I'm just generally very excited to see where this series goes. Empires is such a good mix of talented builders and good lore. Part of the reason why the series is so immersive for me, beyond any other lore smp, is that they have the settings to back it up. There is a certain charm to the DreamSMP's objectively terrible builds (with a few exceptions) but in Empires, the settings help sell the plot so much.

Another part of why I love EmpiresSMP is how much the ccs are involved with the fan community. I'm sure you've seen the memes about Scott being on tumblr, and Sausage regularly goes through the EmpiresSMP fanart tag on Twitter and likes art, even ones not related to Mythland. Most of the ccs, in fact, have brought up tumblr content on stream at some point or another. Like, several ccs have said that they read tumblr lore theories and hcs and stuff and sometimes take inspiration from them. Fun fact: Rivendell's church was inspired by my pinned drawing; confirmed by Scott Smajor himself. It's just such a good cycle of ccs and fans being excited about each other.

As for DreamSMP, I'm gonna be honest here, the only person I really am invested in in Technoblade. I started watching when he joined the server, and he's the only person whose lore I keep up to date with.

Techno's fun to watch because he's like the Deadpool of DreamSMP. Virtually unkillable, very skilled and scary, but consistently cracks jokes and breaks the 4th wall during plot. His POV is just fun. Like, he does wild plans and gives speeches and some of the stuff that happens to him should be called deus ex machine if it wasn't for the fact that Technoblade is the one who's doing it, and all the stuff is grounded in the fact that cc!Techno is just that good at the game.

However, the fact that he rarely takes anything seriously makes the few times Techno is 100% serious so much more impactful. His whole character has a basis in being perceived as inhuman and being treated as such, and therefore in return trying to hide his humanity. So, when he shows that humanity, whether that's fear, anger, or genuine love for his friends, it really makes you go "oh shit."

Techno's often said not to have character development, but I'd argue that while he remains steadfast in his moral code, he develops leaps and bounds as a person. Like, at the beginning, he's brought onto the server to help Wilbur and Tommy overthrow a government; them knowing he's 1) an anarchist and 2) very very powerful. His character was more of a plot device at that point and was treated as such in the canon. Wilbur and Tommy straight-up lie to him about their plans to establish another government after they overthrow the current one, while he was led on to believe that they were abolishing all governments in the area. But he isn't a plot device. He's a person, as much as he only shows the terrifying, blood god side of himself.

After the establishment of New Lmanburg (the new government its a long story), his friend Phil joins. And for the first time, we see him be fully human with someone and we see someone treat him like a human. Like, we saw glimpses before, with Wilbur and Tommy in Pogtopia, but Phil is the first person we noticeably see he trusts 100%. Then Doomsday happens, and Techno essentially retires to the tundra. During this time, we see Techno learn to be more human, first with Ranboo, then Niki when he establishes the Syndicate. In fact, the two of them, along with Phil, canonically throw him a birthday party, which is a far cry from his treatment in Pogtopia.

Techno's development is one of a god learning to be human, and I just think he <3

#vio.ask #empiressmp #empires smp #dreamsmp #scott smajor #smajor #smajor1995 #mythicalsausage #mythical sausage #technoblade #to be clear i am not an apologist for any character #i fully realize that they are doing wrong and I like to watch it happen #minecraft roleplay got be in full character analysis mode #long post

69 notes · View notes

trashlie · 2 years

Note

What are your thoughts on Episode 179? (Spoiler)

My heart ACHED reading Nol's monologue :( Though I honestly didn't expect that he pretended to be their friend at the beginning, I thought forming real friendships was part of what he wanted to do even if it wasn't meant to benefit him personally. Makes it all the more wholesome to see that those connections became real for him & that his act stopped being an act though.

Also! I'm giggling at the fact that Alyssa was not even once seen in his flashbacks, I think that indicates their relationship is one that started off fake and still remains fake - initially I believed he genuienely felt some sort of a spark before they got together but with that and him not even trying to keep her from Yui's claws? Seems like he only wanted to help her and entered this relationship because she wanted (like he mentioned at the formal), because if he thought he was doing something good pretending to be people's friend, why would it be any different with him pretending to be someone's boyfriend to bring them happiness? Now, the reason he doesn't do anything against Yui's claws on her I think is primarily because Alyssa isn't hurting from her influence - quite the opposite even: her career started off because of Yui. At the same time Alyssa also idolizes her - so unlike Shin-ae - Alyssa, despite being manipulated, isn't being hurt.

That aside! I absolutely LOVED to see the shift in Nol throughout his conversation with Shin-ae. At the beginning it was obvious he didn't want this interaction, he was so shocked to hear Shin-ae and immediately wanted to know if she heard what he said because he didn't want her to have heard all of that. It's sad really..to think he never planned on telling anyone this (Shin-ae did so well proving him wrong through pointing out the lack of logic in his thinking because it's true - Nol being out of the picture wouldn't protect her from Yui. She's right, he truly is an idiot! lol).

He didn't want to call her by first name too..To see the distance he put between himself and Shin-ae hurt so much :( Although he so wanted to close it. Touching the wall seperating them in such a longing way.."You're special to me too" "I didn't know you feel that way about me.." *touches the wall* he was so ready to close the distance after hearing everything she said😭 AND MAN THE LITTLE SCREAM I LET OUT WHEN I SAW HIS HAND ON THE RAILING! He's finally closing the distance and facing her! The jokes last week about them pulling a Romeo and Juliet were funny but seeing it actually play out? Damn, that suprised me😂 Probably because us Stalkyoo shippers know better than to get our hopes up after all this pain.

Next week's episode can't come soon enough

Sorry for taking so long to reply to this Nonny - I know I've been sitting on it for ages but I just haven't been in the headspace to give this the reply it deserves til now!

I hope everyone has their spoilers tags on because there's no way I can block the contents this ask if you don't lol Still I'll stick it under a read more because we all know I'm far too verbose!

I agree with you that it never crossed my mind that the relationships were all meant to be fake! I've been mulling over it a bit and I'd like to cobble together a post later about this that goes deeper into it, but it's definitely made me reconsider certain scenes. One such scene is the confrontation between Kousuke and Nol in episode 57 where Kousuke not-so-subtly implies that he thinks Nol is interested in Shinae/looks like he's cheating (lol?) and Nol closes his eyes when he delivers the line "What's it going to take for people to understand I'm only seeking something platonic?" This rides on the coattails of Shinae also accusing Nol of being a flirt and states that she doesn't want his girlfriend to have the wrong idea. We know that when characters close their eyes, they're masking in some manners. Sometimes that mask is a facade, sometimes that mask is a lie. This whole time, I believed something about his delivery was a lie - and again, following hotly on Shinae's accusations, it's easy to assume Nol was lying and that he was interested in Shinae. (There's a point I'd like to bring up in that aforementioned post about Shinae smiling and Nol's reaction, but that's an entirely other point lol.) I didn't think that was the case - though I guess it could have been that he was and didn't yet realize it - but now we know why. Nol wasn't even seeking anything platonic. He wasn't intentionally seeking anything!

That said, I do think the point in which Nol had begun to see his friendship with Shinae was real came earlier, though I'm not quite sure yet what point I think that was. Regardless, learning Nol's motives make it really interesting to look back on certain scenes and statements Nol made. Like you, I thought he was intentionally being the friend he wished he had to other people but believed he was undeserving of such friendships, and while clearly those feelings of undeserving still qualify here, there's something incredibly tragic to me, about Nol trying to repent for whatever sin he believes he carries, by helping people in the ways he can't be helped. That line about wanting to help someone and make their situation better, even if that can't be the same for him, was so sad. But yes, I agree that's what makes it so beautiful that those friendships blossomed and became real to him.

I've said this before but I think a major issue Nol deals with is obviously that he doesn't see himself the way others see him. He knows only the things about himself he hates and the things he thinks he can't change - whatever happened in the past that he believes himself at fault for overshadows everything else to such a degree that he certainly never expected he'd get attached to these people he was helping. But as we've seen with Shinae, the help he gives them comes back to him and I don't think he realized it would sway him so much and make turn them into such important people to him. That's the most beautiful thing to me, when he confesses how important they all are to him, how much they mean to him, that no he doesn't WANT to give them up he just feels like he must. Because even though the friendships were, to some degree, forged through a lie, it's the fact that they did ultimately mean anything to him that matters in the end. His motives weren't genuine but the relationships that came from them are.

That's why I don't even mind how long it took to get to this point. Almost thirty chapters of just absolute heartbreak and angst met with such a surprising reveal just gives so much more depth to it, I think. Nol struggled so hard and tried so hard but in the end, he can't resist these people, his friends, the few people he cares about. That's how important they all are to each other and GOD I'm eating it UP! I'd also like to point out how remarkable it is that even though Nol has known Dieter and Soushi longer (and presumably those relationships became long ago), Shinae only just entered the picture and Nol still was unable to resist forming that friendship with her, his charity help went so wildly out of control lol

And YES it did not miss me that Nol never mentioned Alyssa amongst the people he said are important to him and I don't think it's because she's separate to them - Alyssa used to part of his group with Dieter and Soushi! I think there's also a pointed divide drawn for us because it was while Nol was being a miserable grump with Alyssa that he found himself wishing he was elsewhere. I'm not going to say that I think being around her makes him miserable and given the chance he might even have invited her to the party but.... I do think there's a pointed message there. I think you are definitely right, too. I had always assumed that Nol just went along with it to try it or because he had hoped a friend turned girlfriend would be some kind of comfort for the loneliness he carries and how isolated he felt with his family and expected that maybe it meant there would be someone on his side, to whom he could open up. But, and I could be wrong, I get the feeling Nol has never opened up to Alyssa. At best, she seems aware of how his family treats him (he's told her that she knows he's invisible to his family) and yet she still speaks of Yui the way she does. While I feel that this might be a facade, and that Alyssa might have some feelings about Yui developing that are not favorable towards her, she still stays such nice things about her to Nol's face and thus I can't buy that Nol has opened up to her.

So longwinded lol yes I think Nol entered the "relationship" full well knowing that Alyssa wasn't interested in him and that feelings would never develop because it was his way of benefitting and helping her as he'd done with Soushi and Dieter before. That he'd seen her as a lonely girl who needed a friend like the others and it lead to the way she used him. I do still think he tried to make it real, maybe without realizing it the same way as the other relationships became real, because the hurt he demonstrates about Alyssa isn't nothing. He doesn't like being slighted by her, he seemed really bothered that she pays attention to other people and none to him, and yes this might be simply BECAUSE they were friends but I'm thinking it might be because formal put a lot of things in perspective for Nol. Whether or not he was aware of it before, I think it was the Kim formal that made him very aware that Shinae had become a real friend to him and not only was someone he'd grown to care about - but also cares about him. I think that's why he called her over to break up. Nol had realized that this relationship wasn't benefitting him the same way - that he was helping her career in hopes of alleviating his own guilt, but all it did was made him feel worse. Honestly I have to come back to this point in another post because I do have some Feelings about things and I'm already getting carried away lol but the bottom line is

Yes I think Nol has realized that his relationship with Alyssa isn't the same as his relationship with Shinae, Dieter, and Soushi.

But also yes to get to the rest of the point, Nol only shields Shinae from Yui because Shinae is aware of who Yui is and what she's capable of. Prior, he never tried to sway her opinion of Yui, or even tell her that Yui isn't HIS mom. It's only because Yui has tried to harm Shinae that Nol seems involved at all, so right, I don't think he would try to pull Alyssa away from her. Firstly, she seems to view Yui in a good light, secondly, Yui has basically propelled her career, so how would it look for him to go "hey by the way Yui is fuckin AWFUL" you know? That's the thing with abusers - to others, they don't look capable of what they do. Alyssa and Nol have so many issues that if he were to bring it up, I don't know how well it would even go. Would she even believe him?

Anyway! The other feelings and thoughts!!!!!! I'm over the moon with Nol literally closing the distance. All the time he was "chasing" Shinae with friendship, it was never authentic, and then she spent so much time chasing him so sincerely, so it's only right that after all the effort she's made, he's the one to make the effort. Earlier, when he started to go to her when she was Minhyuk, he told himself he'd regret it and we could tell he wasn't totally ready to go through with it, but the choice to freaking climb up to the rooftop was his conscious choice. Whether or not it means he's going to still pull away I'm not sure, but I think if he made that effort, it's because he's made up his mind.

At the beginning of the chapter, he talked like he was still ready to leave them, even though it was clear he didn't WANT to. Confessing their importance? HELLO! But yes, by having a conversation he never meant to have, by revealing things he meant to carry with him forever, he had to face a new decision. If these people are so important, you don't HAVE to leave. That whole exchange between him and Shinae at the end, throwing each other's words back at each other? "Did you really mean it?" "Every last word" Like, you know that's the moment he made up his mind. Why go to her otherwise, right? To say goodbye for real? No, I don't think so, and if that's his intention, I'll be so mad lol cos Shinae gave him the go ahead to leave with her closure. That exchange felt so much like making up and starting anew - admissions that yes you are an important friend to me, yes you mean so much to me, yes I care about you.

And YES it was so important to me!! That Shinae called him out on his dumb his way of thinking was. How is leaving going to protect her when she's already in Yui's clutches? Come on dude!

But yeah, I find it really sad that he never seemed to intend to say any of that to her. Nol has probably never opened up to anyone and just keeps everything locked inside, assuming people are better off distanced from him and unaware of what his situation is like. Between everything Shinae has learned from Kousuke and the truths Nol finally revealed, I think she definitely has a much better understanding even without Nol saying what he thinks he's atoning for. And I think that's also why she wasn't upset about the realization that their friendship DID start off fake - that he HADN'T meant they made a great team. It's not like she was actually eager to be his friend, either, and by the time she was comfortable with him, I think their friendship was real. In the same way that Nol won Shinae over, she won him over, and I think she's able to understand that. Even though he's hurt her, she cares about him enough that now that it's all cleared up, they can start fresh.

AND GOD IF THAT'S NOT SUCH A FACTOR IN THE STUPID WAY I SHIP THEM UGH. It's like... it would be so easy and valid for Shinae to be upset about Nol. For the lies, for starting friendships he didn't intend to follow through, for the fact that he really did intend to leave them, for the way she bared her heart to him and he just walked away, for the fact that she couldn't get him to tell HER these things and she had to overhear it when he broke. And YET! UGH I love them and I love them for finally being on the same level, for Nol taking a step to her. I hope in time he will open up to her more, or at least learn to lean on them and accept their love. But god what a beautiful start.

I HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS UGH.

Nol and Shinae both are people who have spent so much time being so lonely which is what makes it so BEAUTIFUL that they formed this friendship - when BOTH of them tried to resist it, when neither one of them truly wanted to be friends lol he literally was just trying to help her and she was trying to resist it and NOW LOOK AT THEM. LOOK AT HOW THEY ARE STILL DRAWN TO EACH OTHER UGGH I LOVE IT. Nol's inability to fight off how much he's grown to care about his friends and how much they've grown to meant to each other. He's known Shinae MERE MONTHS and yet he was in the alley confessing his truths to her cat COME ON!!!!!!!

If nothing else this reveal reinforces what I've always strongly believed: Nol and Shinae make each other into better people. Nol's inability to fight his friendship becoming genuine, to resist growing to care about her, the way he can't truly stay away just really proves how deep that bond has already become in such a short time. Though he set out with selfish reasons, he still wanted to help everyone and made a point to do so, to reach through Shinae's mask and break the hard shell she was isolating herself in. That still comes from concern. They really just bring something important out of each other and GOD I love it. The fact that he tried to fight it but in the end, he couldn't: the friendships were real. UGH MY HEART ;A;

#I Love Yoo #ILY FP #ILY Spoilers #ILY Brainrot #Shinae Yoo #Nolan Oliver T. Lochlainn #Alyssa Cho #Soushi #Dieter #I still can't quite articulate my feelings about that chapter but I AM WORKING ON IT LMAO i just clearly have a lot of feelings #esp about Nol and Shinae's friendship and how important it is!!!!!!#HOW MUCH IT MEANS!!!!!!!!!!#and god what a wonderful person Shinae is honestly she is too wonderful ;A;

7 notes · View notes

yellow-mapleleaves · 3 years

Text

Realistic Personalities in Characters: Alice in Borderland

⚠ Spoilers ⚠

Short Summary

Alice in Borderland 今際の国のアリス is a Netflix original series about a young boy called Alice (Arisu) and his two friends who happens to find themselves trapped in an abandoned version of Tokyo in which they must take part in many life threatening games to survive.

I wanted to do a review on this series because I noticed that there were some characters that possessed very accurate and realistic behaviours and others that didn’t convey any emotion the entire show. I found it interesting that the mix of very different levels of well-displayed people was able to add to the already amazing plot of the series.

Characters Present:

Alice, Karube, Chota, Usagi, Kuina, Chishiya, Niragi

Alice - Protagonist

The main protagonist of the series is not always the favourite in most tv shows, but from looking at different reviews and people’s comments about Yamazaki’s character Alice, I’ve noticed that he is actually rather popular in his own fictional world. He is honestly probably one of my favourite characters as well, and that’s based on how realistic his behaviours and emotions are conveyed.

Some aspects and scenes of Alice that makes him a more convincing and realistic personality:

Being a normal young boy with no incredibly amazing skills

Not having god-like survival abilities just from being able to play battle-royal videogames well

Having flaws

Having only two close friends rather than a huge friendship group

Not being incredibly attractive and well-groomed

Not having a close relationship with his brother (not all siblings get along)

Having a bad relationship with his father

Having the very human instinct of survival by becoming willing to kill his friends to save his own life out of panic

Reacting badly to watching someone being killed (vomiting, screaming, trauma etc)

Not being incredibly serious all the time; actually having a sense of humour

Showing respect towards Usagi’s privacy

Having a very average style of clothing

Being awkward around people he doesn’t know

Excelling in one area (puzzles) but being quite disadvantaged at the rest

Making mistakes E.g. during the distance game, he doesn’t realize the trick of the game until it ends

Not being able to defend himself physically due to lack of strength

Not moving on after his friends’ deaths immediately like as if it doesn’t happen (it takes him a few days to even develop the energy to get up off the floor)

I would say I personally believe that Alice’s character has a strong and realistic personality, as Yamazaki’s acting and Alice’s reactions to certain experiences creates a sympathetic response from the audience.

____

Karube - Deuteragonist

Let’s be honest, everyone loves a bad boy character. During the short time that Karube was present during the show, I think he conveys both strong and weak personality traits. At some points I think the producers were trying too hard to bring a “tough man” façade to him, when I think he could show more realistic emotions and reactions.

Some aspects and scenes of Karube that makes him a more convincing and realistic personality:

Having a fiery and defensive personality (although it can more than often come across as immature)

Having a sense of humour even in tough times

Having obvious advantage in strength related survival skills

Not being invincible to fear E.g. running from the tagger during the “Tag” game and not even trying to fight back at first

Dealing with work related issues

Actually having a realistic dream life rather than one that sounds almost impossible

Being flawed but not too flawed

Having a love interest that he is forbidden to love (she is with another man)

Conveying fear through anger when Alice tries to kill him to save himself

Not having the nicest of personalities (not everyone is friendly to everyone)

Not having a overly selfless personality

I think Karube should’ve been included in the series more than he is, because his character is very lovable and many fans of this show obviously show sympathy when he dies. His character has a big, extroverted and blunt personality, and I think it is conveyed very well during the time he is present.

____

Chota - Tertiary

Although Chota is one of the main three characters in the beginning of the series, I honestly never felt that sympathetic for him. His character comes across as rather more annoying than weak to me. I understand that the point of his character is to have a weak and smaller personality to match Karube and Alice’s loud energy, but I think this person is kind of just there. He doesn’t do much, considering he almost loses his leg in the first episode and having to use crutches for the rest of the time he is alive.

Some aspects and scenes of Chota that makes him less realistic:

Being friends with people who obviously have dodgy jobs or no jobs at all when he is a successful technician himself

Doesn’t seem to have much of a life outside work and his friends, what are his hobbies?

Not exactly having much of a purpose in the show

Constantly having his guard up and being anxious or worried

Having too many flaws

Following a very different religion to that of his mother

Generally being incredibly different to Alice and Karube (I believe if their personalities were actually friends in real life, they would have too many arguments).

During the short time on the show that Chota had, it was more the point that his personality felt incredibly unneeded. It didn’t exactly serve a huge purpose in the storyline. As well as, he was hard to sympathize for.

____

Usagi - Love Interest / Deuteragonist

Usagi definitely has my most favourite back story of the series. Although, when researching about her I noticed that she is actually one of the characters that get the least recognition by the viewers, despite being in basically every episode and always being beside Alice. I have mixed emotions about the realism in her character, so I made both a positive and negative list to state both sides.

Some aspects and scenes of Usagi that makes her a more convincing and realistic personality:

Having a tragic yet realistic backstory

Using her mountain climbing skills as a huge advantage during physically challenging games

Showing obvious signs of grief for her father, even during the time she was placed in the game

Being insecure of her body

Fighting back against Niragi even when it’s obvious she won’t win

Having good survival instincts from past experiences

Willing to help others out when they need it E.g. during the “Tag” game she went along with Alice’s plan for everyone to work together

Having a obvious more introverted personality

Being too trusting, which ends up getting her hurt

Some aspects and scenes of Usagi that makes her a more unrealistic and poorly convincing personality:

Having too serious of a personality, not seeming to lay back and laugh for even a second

Seeming to have an unrealistic bravery E.g. during the tagger game, she didn’t seemed frightened at all despite that the tagger had a machine gun

Doesn’t react to graphic violent sights that would be traumatizing to humans

Not knowing what “The Beach” was despite being in the game for god knows how long

Overall, I think she is the awesome strong female character that a lot of thriller genres have. Although, I would love if for once a strong yet bad ass character didn’t act so mysterious and quiet all the time. But regardless, she is a good character that shows very human qualities.

____

Kuina - Confidante

Kuina is one of the more popular characters in the show, which I honestly can understand. She has obvious very strong manipulation skills as well as physical strengths like martial arts. Although, I believe her backstory is what truly shapes her as a character and is the reason why the audience develops such an emotional connection with her.

Some aspects and scenes of Kuina that makes her a more convincing a realistic personality:

Having a trusting and good relationship with Chishiya

Having a personality that conveys carelessness

Both social butterfly and keeps to herself

Being a character part of the LGBTQ+ community

Having a realistic backstory

Although having a bad relationship with her Dad, she still respects what he taught her

Having a parent that accepts her rather than just being abandoned, which is what a lot of Transgender characters have been stereotyped as

Being able to defend herself incredibly well

Giving her a human flaw (smoking addiction)

Having a elaborate hairstyle

Showing that she is not mysterious, she just has a lot of walls up

Showing care for people she doesn’t know E.g. warning Alice and Usagi about the militants

I really like Kuina’s character for her strong personality and her ability to build good relationships with the members at the beach paradise. Although she is not featured a lot during season one, the times we have seen her have obviously been enough to make her character very loved by the audience.

____

Chishiya - Confidante

I honestly could not find a more loved character if I tried. This character is such a small part of the show and yet you’d think he was the protagonist. I honestly think anyone would love a sly fox character though, because that’s exactly what he is. Although his personality would probably become annoying if he was a real person, in a genre like this he fits perfectly. So personally, I have mixed emotions about him, because I honestly didn’t get that emotionally attached to him as other audiences may have.

Some aspects and scenes of Chishiya that makes him a more convincing and realistic personality:

Having a cocky attitude at times

Has a underdog appeal to him

Mimics that of a selfish manipulative personality

Showing obvious signs of high intelligence, yet doesn’t blab it around like it’s a trophy

Gives the audience some entertainment

Having a sassy remark, even when his life is on the line

Going out of his way to do things that only benefit him

Having a personality that everyone loves and hates at the same time

Having that personality in which you can’t tell if he’s a good guy or a bad guy

Having a trademark, his white hoodie

Having a caring relationship towards Kuina

Some aspects and scenes of Chishiya that makes him a more unrealistic and less convincing personality:

Attempting to kill Niragi with no hesitation after knowing him personally for so long (that would be difficult to do even if you hated the person)

Not showing human emotions such as fear, worry or anger

Sometimes his personality came across as too selfish to be realistic

Not showing any signs of fear E.g. when Niragi waved a machine gun in his face, he didn’t even flinch

Sometimes his fancy words became a bit annoying

Everyone trusts him, regardless of how manipulative they know he is

Overall, he is a very entertaining character. In my opinion he’s like the personality that throws a match into gasoline then walks away like he didn’t start it. Although his realism in character isn’t exactly good, he is definitely loved for his good looks and sly actions by the audience.

____

Niragi - Antagonist

As much as I dislike this guy as a person in general, when it comes to creating a interesting and great character, he hit the nail on the head. He has one of the most realistic evil character developments probably in the whole series. His personality is so complicated and psychotic, which is what makes him an amazing antagonist and probably the second most popular character among the audience.

Some aspects and scenes of Niragi that makes him a more convincing and realistic personality:

Has a tragic backstory, making the audience believe that’s why he’s so psychotic

Having the delusional mindset that human nature is violence

Makes the audience feel bad for him, despite being a horrible person

Being a hidden antagonist (didn’t expect him to cause all the trouble in the end)

Showing obvious signs of psychological trauma

Conveys positive (yet destructive) emotions and behaviour, which is always a good break when all the characters are serious 24/7

Hits a breaking point in his emotions and goes on a killing spree

Shows loyalty to Aguni

Being awful to everyone, probably due to the fact that everyone was awful to him when he was younger. It’s a way of revenge

Becoming embarrassed when someone challenges him

Scaring people into submission (tactic for some leaders)

Conveys no care for anyone, honestly just uses everyone for either his own entertainment or his own benefit

Has a trademark, his machine gun and checkered shirt

Being self-aware of how evil he is

As evil and bad as he is, he’s one of the most endearing antagonists I’ve seen in a while. He is a very psychotic and emotionally wrecked personality to him, as if you know something traumatizing must have occurred in his life for him to be able to murder anyone without batting an eye.

#characterreview #character #aliceinborderland #alice #aib #writing #netflixoriginals #netflix #tvshows #characterreviews #usagi #karube #chota #kuina #chishiya #niragi

195 notes · View notes

peachcitt · 3 years

Note

I've seen a lot of people saying that rot was BAD, what is your opinion?

OH IM SO GLAD YOU ASKED

like most people (im sure) after finishing rise of the titans, after wiping up my tears i went to the rot tag to see maybe some gifs or something. you know, make myself cry a little more. instead, i found a bunch of people saying how much they hated the ending, how it was as terrible as some of the worst big finale bombs (endgame, game of thrones, etc) and uh. im not saying the ending is perfect, but it is DEFINITELY not as disastrous as what people are making it out to be, in my opinion. i thoroughly enjoyed the movie, actually, and i thought it was an effective way to end the tales of arcadia.

warning: rise of the titans spoilers, as well as general tales of arcadia spoilers

were there some things i didn't like? yeah!

the major things i didn't like align with a lot of what i see other people saying:

the weird mpreg plotline with steve. it just felt so strange and out of place, and it was used as a tactic to remove eli and steve from the major action, which i don't like.

and the 'ninth configuration' thing that, once again, excluded eli and steve. i didn't see a reason why they shouldn't have been there, seeing as they have contributed to trollhunting since nearly the start of all of the tales of arcadia. multiples of three are clean and smooth, i get it, but at the expense of two characters that were so lovingly developed in trollhunters and 3below?? yikes

with that being said, though, i don't agree with what a lot of people are saying about the time travel at the end. obviously, they bring up some good points - by changing the timeline so drastically, there's no way for jim to ensure that they'll be able to succeed or if the arcane order will even act in the same way. it's a big 'if' and it is worth thinking about

but people have been saying that the ending is out of jim's character and negates his arc, and i have to say. that's not true.

if you've been following my blog since july 1st, you'll know that ive spent the past twenty one days rewatching the entire tales of arcadia series at a steady pace, and within that time, i've paid a whole lot of attention to jim's arc as a character and how the finale of trollhunters left me feeling as if something just wasn't clicking right. his arc wasn't finished.

because all throughout trollhunters, jim is constantly having to prove his worth - and most of the time, the way he's proving his worth is by sacrificing himself. he takes all the blame when anything goes wrong, and on some level, jim never truly learns the lesson from season one of trollhunters that he's enough as a hero because he has his friends to back him up. like, yeah, he relies on them a bit more after that, but in the end, he still stands in the bathroom alone, separated from all his allies, and shoulders the burden of turning into a troll alone. and he leaves arcadia, the city he was fighting so hard to protect, and he leaves his best friend, the one that has been with him since the beginning.

then we get wizards, where jim lets himself be corrupted to save his friends. and then, because of that sacrifice, he ends up hurting all of them. i believe this fact - that he willingly corrupted himself, separated himself from his allies, and ended up hurting the people he loved - shook jim's foundation as a hero, which is why he can't believe he's the trollhunter without the amulet. the amulet was the physical manifestation of what it meant to be a hero to him, but it was destroyed when he was corrupted - it was destroyed when he hurt his friends.

that's how we see him in rise of the titans; he's still struggling with his identity as a hero because he doesn't have the amulet or the unshakable foundation he previously had of his heroism. literally everyone is looking for him to be the leader and make the huge, world-saving-or-destroying decisions, but he can't shoulder that huge burden knowing he could hurt everyone. and then, just to add fuel to the fire, it's his plan that causes people to die or be permanently separated from the group. and he can't even get the sword out of the stone! why? because he himself doesn't see himself as worthy - how can you think of yourself as worthy when you just got two of your allies killed and two more gone, presumably for forever?

but this is the moment it finally clicks for jim. he looks around at his allies, and he sees them reflected in the amulet. he's not alone, he doesn't have to be worthy just by himself, he has an entire group of people who have fought by his side time and time again that, even despite all the mistakes and missteps he's made, are still by his side.

and what makes the amulet work, in the final fight, is his firm determination to see this fight through, no matter if he has the armor or not. he's terrified, he's probably going to die - but it's that bravery despite the fear that makes him a hero, a trollhunter, amulet or not. and he knows that now - he's had to face it before, in the unbecoming episode, but it's different now. in the unbecoming episode, he was truly alone when he decided to face the fight. and he's alone here in rise of the titans - but not for long! because almost immediately after jim comes to terms with his place as a hero again, toby comes along, and he doesn't finish this fight alone!! he finishes this fight with another trollhunter, who doesn't have an amulet!!

jim deciding to rewind time to back before the events of trollhunters is a bold choice, but it tracks with a theme in wizards - merlin told douxie that what set him apart as a master wizard was his belief that every life was valuable and worthy of being saved. this theme is repeated in the new amulet in rise of the guardians; it's for the glory of all, not just for one person.

and jim deciding to have toby become the trollhunter finally marks the completion of jim's arc. instead of shouldering the burden alone, which is inevitably what would've happened if jim had rewound time, kept all of his memories, and accepted the amulet again, jim is choosing to accept allies into his life sooner. instead of being the trollhunter, jim is letting himself be a trollhunter, alongside all the other trollhunters.

of course, there's some things in this alternate timeline i don't like; mainly that no one stepped in to stop steve from bullying eli. that, to me, was the most out of character, and i can only assume jim didn't step in because he's leaving room for that fight to be toby's; competing against steve was a large jumpstart to jim feeling like he could be strong enough to bear the mantle, and maybe jim was just trying leave it up to toby to establish that on his own. still, i didn't like it.

and, of course, there are people lamenting the fact that none of the heroes of arcadia know each other or that they might not have the same relationships, but i immediately thought of the time loop episode in 3below. in that episode, the trollhunters team and the gang from 3below meet and become friends and ultimately lose the memory of that friendship from that day. however, in that episode, blinky says that true friendship would last against the test of time; if they were meant to be together, then they would be. and guess what? even though none of them remember that happening, they all still became friends. it was meant to be.

i think a lot of anxieties about the changed timeline are because people loved the events of trollhunters so much that they a) don't want to see anything changed and/or b) are trying to project the events of trollhunters onto the new timeline and are upset when they don't fit. toby won't be the same kind of hero that jim is, though - he never has been. inevitably, the story will be different, and that's scary. that was the risk jim took, though, and jim has always trusted in toby, so why shouldn't we?

to me, tales of arcadia has never been about clean endings that make you feel entirely good. they've always left me with a tang of bitter along with the sweet, and i think that's the point. tales of arcadia has always battled with hard questions and difficult endings, and i don't see rise of the titans being any different from that.

like i said before, i don't think rise of the titans is perfect. but you can hate it as much as you want; i still really think it did a good job with the story it was trying to tell. i mean, ending with the idea that all lives are important and worth saving, no matter the risk? that heroism inherently means being part of a collective that you trust and believe in? that through time and space, you will always be able to find and connect with the people you love? that's powerful.

im climbing off my soapbox now, but basically tl;dr: rise of the titans was a good finale, despite it's imperfections, and i think that's all i can ask for.

also if you don't like toby as the trollhunter just because you don't like him breaking out of the 'funny sidekick' archetype you can die by my blade

#anon #ask #rise of the titans #rot #rot spoilers #jim lake jr #rott #rott spoilers #what im trying to say is media does not have to be perfect in order for you to enjoy it #and not only did i enjoy rot i also just. thought it was good? it didn't invalidate any of the rest of toa to me at all #the story we witnessed was still valuable; that was why we were shown this version #i won't get philosophical but like. i am.#all that being said it should've been jim telling the story in the beginning #WBKEBKEWKW I JUST REALIZED THERE WAS NO DOUXIE WITH HIS SICK ASS GUITAR. so that too

34 notes · View notes

onrainynights · 3 years

Text

why you can't compare buddie to destiel (from someone who ships both)

this is kind of addressing the recent negativity in the buddie tag, but it's also a collection of my thoughts and reasoning for being buddie-positive despite my experiences with destiel and spn in general. the text of 911 is not really discussed at all, and this is relatively spoiler-free, so if you're thinking of watching 911 I encourage you to read it. if you haven't seen both shows it probably won't make perfect sense, but I wrote this with spn fans who haven't seen 911 in mind, since that's most of my followers (and also seems to be where much of the negativity was coming from) pretty long post under the cut to save your dash

I just want to prepare y'all for the fact that buddie could be the slow burn will they/won't they mlm romance we've been waiting for practically forever.

at this point it's not fair to call it queerbait because where their relationship is now fits the characters and their development. this is not like destiel, where there were many moments over the years that could've ended with them getting together and it would've made sense with the story. buddie right now is in this sweet, wholesome pre-relationship kind of place, which on its own is a compelling dynamic and so fun and good to see. a resolution of it right now would feel out of character—they both still have some development to do before that would feel natural. and so, I don't think we can really call it queerbaiting unless the characters get to that point and there is still no resolution.

also I'd like to point out the overall positivity from the cast when it comes to buddie. both Eddie's and Buck's actors have said (I'm paraphrasing cast statements in this post unless they are in quotations) positive things about the pairing, and Buck's actor has said that he likes the interpretation of Buck as queer, and he would be happy if the writers took his character in that direction. also Eddie's actor with "that's what they all say" when buddie was referred to as a "bromance". Jennifer Love Hewitt, who plays Buck's sister (another main character), is very supportive of buddie, saying she's "rooting for it", that it would be "amazing", she doesn't "see how it couldn't happen one day". this was in response to hearing that a fan insists Buck and Eddie will be a couple. She flat-out said "I think so, too." She jokes about buddie with Buck's and Eddie's actors all the time. Also, my favorite bit from the video of her saying all this, "Let's manifest it together!"

It's safe to say this is a VERY different environment to spn. I don't think I've ever seen a cast this positive about a show's main non-canon queer ship before. NEVER. I think it's safe to say that if/when buddie is canonized, the cast will be just as excited as the fans—at least JLH will be! Add into the fact that the show's PR seems to be leaning into bi buck and buddie right now, it's a VERY different vibe than spn had, definitely. There's no gaslighting of the fans here, at least not that I've seen. also, although 911 has a large casual viewership, I think it's safe to say the GA would not be upset by buddie—there are only 3 serious, long-term romantic relationships involving main characters in this show, and one of them is a lesbian marriage with two children. And yes, the characters are shown being lesbians, it's not just a stated fact; the audience is privy to their relationship (and their interactions with their adorable kids). I think it's safe to say that buddie would go over well with the fans, even the casual viewers (of which there are many). buddie doesn't seem to be a huge divider in fandom like destiel is, either. reactions generally seem to be either "I ship it" or "I don't care either way."

Also I'd like to point out that while yes, it's possible that buddie is only bait (which would be disappointing), there's a reason queerbaiting works. people WANT to be queerbaited, because it's nearly indistinguishable from a slow burn will they/won't they queer romance. queerbaiting allows fans to make theories, create fan content (including fic), and keeps them engaged with the dynamic and the show. fans who are vulnerable to queerbaiting want a slow burn will they/won't they queer romance, which is currently an almost completely untapped market. spn could've tapped it, but despite the huge fandom they did not. there are SO MANY people outside of spn fandom who want a slow burn mlm romance, one that keeps the audience guessing, one that's will they/won't they, one that is not guaranteed, and that is why queerbaiting works so well. the audience doesn't just want the payoff, they also want the build-up. the longer the build-up, the higher the payoff, and the suspense of the build-up is gone if you know from the start that the payoff is definitely coming. that's part of why malec from shadowhunters didn't fully tap this market—there was no question of if, only the question of when (which wasn't really a question either, given there was an episode in season 1 literally titled "malec" when they got together.) the characters were always queer, the show being an adaptation of a book series where they were in a relationship and eventually had children together.

this was why November 5th was such a big deal—fans were so far past the will they/won't they aspect of destiel, firmly believing that destiel would always end as a "won't they" and not a "will they" that when cas confessed his romantic love for dean, destiel trended on Twitter over the US election. you all know that story, but maybe not everyone reading this knows that after Nov. 5 there was a case of hundreds if not thousands of spn fans experiencing love sickness because of the confession scene. the payoff of making destiel fully canon (and reciprocated, in English) would've been huge. fans would've been throwing their money at the c/w.

which leads me to the possibility (this is not at all me saying that I think this happened or even is likely, just that it's one possibility that /could/ have happened) that buddie started as bait, that the writers never intended for them to be a couple, but saw fan reactions to buddie during season 2 and started to lean into it in season 3 (and 4 so far, but it just started so I don't want to make any generalized statements about it) possibly still as bait or maybe not deciding yet if they'll go anywhere with it. and then maybe they saw destiel trending on November 5th, realized just how BIG the market for a slow burn will they/won't they mlm romance is, and said "hey, we already have the foundations for one of those. why not go for it and draw in all those viewers who clearly want one so badly?"

if buddie goes canon, because the cast and PR have been so positive about it, unlike spn, and because of the text of the show itself, the show's creatives could VERY EASILY claim that they were never baiting, that it was all an intentional slow burn will they/won't they romance from the beginning, and most people would believe them; there isn't really any evidence to the contrary, although I am sure there would be at least a few fans convinced it started as queerbaiting, and there might not be any evidence to refute that, either.

the point is that 911 is currently sitting on a gold mine. if they play their cards right, and execute buddie well, they will monopolize this market that old straight white men serving as network executives have failed so far to really tap into. they queerbait without the payoff, which gives the show a reputation among those in the market who haven't seen it, guaranteeing they will never watch it. shows in this vein: sherlock (huge reputation for queerbaiting and a finale fans didn't like) and spn (huge reputation for queerbaiting and a finale fans didn't like). spn got so, so close with cas's confession but then continued to gaslight its fans, and PR did not lean into destiel AT ALL. if 911 did buddie? the PR team would be all over it. it would be a moneymaker, big time, and Fox knows it. if buddie, or even just bi buck, went canon, tumblr would be all over it. viewership for the show, which is already impressive, would skyrocket. 911 would monopolize this market, because fans wary of queerbaiting would watch it with the knowledge that the payoff is there, and there really wouldn't be a competitor until other shows saw the success of buddie and followed suit with their own pairings, and given the fact that the market specifically wants /slow burn/ queer romances, that might take a couple years. that puts 911 in a really good position, where suddenly the fandom of the show, not just the GA, is very large and likely very dedicated to the show. the success of canon buddie might just change the landscape of TV in the coming years, showing execs that while queerbaiting does work, actually going through with it is really where the money is. 911 would not just monopolize the market for a while; it would pioneer it.

if buddie never goes canon, I would probably be a bit disappointed at the wasted potential, but unless the characters get to that point where canon buddie seems like the most logical outcome and they /don't/ go for it, I won't be truly upset because I don't think it's fair to claim its queerbaiting until then. I can't tell you how likely it is that buddie will be canon at some point, but it seems FAR more likely than destiel /ever/ did, and we ended up getting cas's confession in the end. I have hope, despite being hurt so badly by spn. 911 is a genuinely great show with some fantastic writing, and they don't leave chekov's gun unfired, unlike spn.

really, it comes down to this: if Jennifer Love Hewitt is allowed to clown for buddie, then so am I, and I'll enjoy this show—which is amazing even without canon buddie—while I apply my clown makeup.

#9-1-1 #spn #buddie #tagging as #destiel #so anyone with that tag blacklisted can avoid this post #unfortunately I have seen w/ncest shippers in the buddie tag so that's just a precaution so I don't get attacked #posts for puck #I might add more to this later who knows but I think this is a pretty good collection of my thoughts #buddie positivity #911natural

99 notes · View notes

chalkrevelations · 3 years

Text

Moving on to Episode 4 of Word of Honor, and y’all.

Wait, first: If you’re new or just visiting, this is a re-watch, so there are SPOILERS not just for this ep but for the ENTIRE SHOW. Maybe a lot of them. Scroll away and come back later if you haven’t seen all 36.5 eps and want to watch it unspoiled. (They’re all gonna be tagged “word of honor episode reax”)

A couple of big things, first:

So, right up front, I don’t know for sure that this is the first time we’ve heard the word, but it’s the first time I’ve twigged to it in this re-watch. As Zhou Zishu and Chengling are leaving the inn in the morning, at the very beginning of the ep, Wen Kexing asks why ZZS continues to call him gongzi and wants to know if he’s still too much of an outsider for a less formal form of address. He uses the word 外人 (wairen) (at 2:30) for “outsider,” which is how the subs translate it here. Anybody who’s been around for these flailing reactions since the first time I watched the show might remember that I made a deal about this somewhere around in the late 20s of the episodes, based on a post from someone that I scrolled quickly past while avoiding spoilers and that I have NEVER FOUND AGAIN and am STILL LOOKING FOR, that alerted me to the use of this word and its nuances in ep 25. There’s a conversation there about WKX possibly taking over some of Chengling’s training at Siji Manor, and WKX demurs, calling himself “外人.” Youku translated it there as “someone else,” as in having “someone else” train your disciple, and ZZS responds with “And you’re 外人?” again translated as “someone else.” This actually seems to mean “stranger,” or “outsider,” as they do actually translate it here in Ep 4 - presumably someone who’s from outside your sect, at least in the Ep 25 instance, in which WKX is labeling himself that while he’s in the midst of his upcoming crisis, trying to keep his emotional distance from ZZS and Siji Manor. It’s used again in Ep 26, when ZZS finds WKX giving training advice to Chengling, and it’s one of the ways they have WKX and A-Xiang reflect each other, when she uses it in Ep 29, and rejects it as a description of herself, in order to claim a place in Cao Weining’s sect/family (which, now, knowing … GOD. My HEART). Anyway, I found it super-interesting that WKX is using this word here in Ep 4 to push against ZZS’s boundaries, in contrast to the way he’ll use it later, to try to fortify his own walls against ZZS and Siji Manor. I begin to suspect that he doesn’t want to tell ZZS who he actually is because, maybe, just a little bit, he wants ZZS to figure it out, to recognize him, to truly know him (zhiji) without him having to spell it out. We kind of travel back around to this idea near the end of the ep, when WKX is questioning ZZS about the Baiyi sword, and ZZS tells him that their relationship is like the fish that ZZS unsuccessfully tried to cook and threw on the ground – raw (i.e., unacquainted) – to explain why he keeps shutting out and shutting down WKX. Only we know now that isn’t entirely true, and WKX certainly suspects it isn’t entirely true. (Also, just an observation, ZZS says in that later scene that he’s not interested in who WKX is. DON’T TELL HIM THAT, my dude, now it’s going to be 3,246 episodes before he’ll give you any personal info.)

Also, just a note – I think we make the switch from Zhou-xiong to A-Xu in this ep. (ETA: No! I have been reliably informed by @janedrewfinally that this switch happened back at the end of Ep 3 (at 41:18), and it seems to be part of what precipitates the Completely Reasonable, Not At All Flirtatious, Utterly Heterosexual No Really, Like Bros way that ZZS takes WKX's wine jar. You know the incident we mean.)

The second thing that I really started turning over in my head here is the developing relationship between WKX and Chengling, and this is one of the things that took me so long on this one, because I wanted to go back and look at those two, specifically, in the previous eps again, and revisit their interactions both with and without the mediating factor of ZZS. The first time WXK sees Chengling is in the marketplace at the end of Ep 1 when Chengling ends up giving his token to ZZS. But I think the first time WKX sees Chengling is maybe when WKX’s sitting in the cutout window with his drinkie during the massacre of Mirror Lake and ZZS draws the Baiyi sword to protect Boatman Li and Chengling, just before they make it to the boat and float away back to the mainland. I don’t know how much of the beginning of the fight in the abandoned temple WKX then sees before A-Xiang makes her entrance, but there’s a lot of Chengling flinging himself in front of Boatman Li and ZZS in a way that’s not entirely dissimilar to the way Zhen Yan will fling himself at his parents’ bodies in flashback in a later episode, and then WKX definitely sees dying Boatman Li charge ZZS with Chengling’s care, then make Chengling bow, in a parallel to the scene we’ll get later when Qin Huaizhang accepts Zhen Yan as a Siji Manor shidi. In Ep 3, there’s a lot of weird sympathetic looks from WKX as A-Xiang berates Chengling over dinner (she doesn’t quite have this jiejie thing down yet, and she’s probably never had someone younger than her to take care of) for not taking care of himself so he can be strong and get his revenge for his family’s deaths. This time out, Ep 4, we start with the beggar gangs coming after Chengling, which has some resonance with the former Ghost Valley Master and his Ten Devils standing around the bodies of Zhen Yan’s parents and debating what they’re going to do with this kid before they steal him away. You can see WKX’s eyes start to narrow as the lead beggar dude talks, and he eventually even asks them, “What are you going to do if he doesn’t want to go, take him away by force?” We get a LOT of cutting to WKX in this conversation, even though he ostensibly has nothing to do with this, it’s really a convo between Beggar Guy, ZZS and Chengling. WKX pulls focus, and he eventually provokes that fight, and sure, he wants to see ZZS fighting and hopefully get a look at the Baiyi sword, and he even may think that’s the extent of his ulterior motives, but I’m not sure that actually is the full extent of his motives, there. This episode is also when we really see WKX start to encourage Chengling to continue to press at ZZS about taking him as a disciple, including the first use of the infamous “Tough women can’t resist clingy men” saying. Chengling comments that he was just supposed to be Son #3 who stayed home and took care of the old people, and WKX comes back with the Extremely Significant Comment that “When the children want to fulfill their filial piety, the parents have died,” which is not only Extremely Significant, but also sounds like it may be a quote from a poem or other literature? Anyway, a lot of this is just to say, KINDLY AU ANON WHO WAS THINKING ABOUT WRITING THE STORY IN WHICH WKX GETS CUSTODY OF CHENGLING BECAUSE ZZS IS NOT AT MIRROR LAKE, ARE YOU STILL OUT THERE? Hopefully you are hard at work, writing, because I have been having thoughts about this relationship.

What else? Kind of chronologically:

First of all, it continues to physically pain me to have to look at that horrifying facial hair, ZZS. I cannot WAIT to hit Ep 6.

We open this ep on WKX rolling walnuts in his hand in a way that is reminiscent of SOMEONE who we’ve seen do that before – multiple times, given they put that shot of Ghost Valley Master in the opening credits. Nevertheless, I didn’t catch this right away on my first time through. It took me a few episodes, and then I FINALLY noticed the opening credits shot right in front of my face. Point to you, show. Once you know, this ep practically shoves it in your face, recreating not only the walnut rolling, but a dude getting held up in the air and choked out (which we’ve seen before, in Ep 1 (and will see again)) before being slammed down on the ground with WKX crouched over him (which we’ve seen before, in Ep 1). Later, WKX is concerned about his manicure (which we’ve seen before, in Ep 1). It’s actually a little bit funny that both he and ZZS - a master assassin and a guy who literally skinned another dude (and maybe ate him?) to take his throne – are both so prissy about actual, literal blood. Anyway, is it significant or a coincidence that WKX waits until ZZS and Chengling are out of sight before actually going wild-eyed? You know the look I mean.

OH MY GOD, it’s Lovelace. I had blocked this dude from my mind. Eurgh. Nevertheless, there are a number of things I love about his scene, and all of them are related to A-Xiang, my feral beloved - from the way she clomps into the room, completely unworried about stepping the least bit gracefully while making her presence known and stomping (lit. and fig.) all over his dramatic little bit, to the way she berates him, threatens him with “Aunt Luo,” bares her teeth at him, and makes the eye-gouging motion at him. She is the best, and I adore her. I also love how she literally laughs in WKX’s face at his comment that maybe he just wants to be friends with ZZS, OK, is that alright?

The fight with the beggar gangs in this ep may be the first time we see something similar to the cage of spears maneuver in Prince Jin’s throne room all the way up in Ep … what? 30? … although it won’t be the last time we see it, and each time we see ZZS is perfectly capable of avoiding it or escaping it, making me suspect that Tian Chuang only “trapped” him in it because he let them, just like he only got taken back to Prince Jin in chains, in the first place, because he let it happen. We see it at 5:30 with the beggar gang’s staffs, when ZZS breaks it up by literally flinging another dude into the middle of it. We see it at 5:41, when he kicks his way out of the formation. And we see it at 8:15, when the sheaths have come off the swords, and he feints under them to break his way out. Just noticing.

When WKX is talking about the Baiyi sword as they all sit around ZZS’ sad little raw fish in the dirt by the lakeside, he mentions that Rong Changqing created three master works – the White Cloth sword, the Dragonback, and the “Great Wild Land,” per Youku’s translation. ZZS has the Baiyi sword, I assume the Dragonback is Ye Baiyi’s sword. Is the Great Wild Land actually the Ghost Valley? Given what we learn from Ye Baiyi in the back nine about Rong Changqing and his plans for Ghost Valley? Anyway, then we get some magic pipa playing, and ZZS (trying to, apparently) play WKX’s xiao in musical self-defense, and even though he leaves his opponent bleeding, WKX takes the opportunity to make suggestive comments about teaching him how to blow properly, just in case WKX’s been slacking on his act as a cheesy pick-up artist and anyone’s beginning to see through him. ZZS yells at Chengling for his lack of martial skill, then yells at him for crying, because that always works, particularly with traumatized teenagers who have had their entire family and sect massacred like, two nights ago. As a shifu, I’m not sure how you manage to inspire such devotion, my dude. WKX plays the indulgent parent, but also reassures Chengling that ZZS has good reasons for yelling at a traumatized, newly orphaned kid. I suppose he is getting him ready for all the yelling that’s going to go down once they get to Five Lakes Alliance and Chengling has to deal with Gao Chong and Shenshen. Chengling’s response, with WKX’s encouragement, is to ask to be ZZS’s disciple again. Was Han Ying (who I guess we’ve yet to actually meet at this point (EDIT TO ADD: NO WAIT, he was in Ep 1)) this much of a little dumbass to 24-year-old ZZS when Han Ying was 14? (EDIT 2 TO ADD: And who is writing this story, omg.) Although, ugh, that makes me realize that part of ZZS’s bad mood is that Chengling asking to be a disciple must be bringing up a shit-ton of bad stuff for ZZS about how he got all the other Siji Manor disciples killed. (Wen Kexing sees himself in Chengling, making his bow to Qin Huaizhang, one of the few good things that ever happened in his life, while ZZS sees all those red flowers on the mural back in his rooms in Prince Jin’s palace.) A final lakeside observation – A-Xiang pokes at ZZS’s uselessness as a cook here, and WKX will later ask him why he’s so utilitarian about food and drink, when they’re the greatest pleasures of life. (Really, WKX? THE greatest pleasures? Although that’s certainly an interesting comment given where we end up, in the end.) And it makes me begin to wonder – is ZZS so bad at cooking, and does he continue to avoid it, at least partially because he’s already losing his senses enough so that it interferes with preparing a tasty meal?

Also, we meet the Four Scorpion Assassins, and Pretty Arhat and Evil Bodhisattva have some pretty bold names, but now I’m back on my thing about the women in this show, and wondering what kind of enlightenment or release these two feel like they’ve had, and how it may or may not resemble the mindset of the women of the Department of the Unfaithful in Ghost Valley. I’m not well-versed in Buddhism, though, and am maybe not the person to take on how that religious symbolism is or is not used as a metaphor for female freedom in this show.

This is getting kind of long, so one last observation for now, and I think I may have mentioned this before: WKX has color-coded ZZS and Chengling as a unit in the robes he bought for them when he also rented out the entire inn. He’s not in the same color, but he is in a complementary shade and tone, which I find interesting. Also, his sash is sort of salmon, not the red of his Ghost Valley getup, but not completely divorced from it, either.

#wen kexing #zhou zishu #zhang chengling #gu xiang #word of honor #word of honor episode reax

36 notes · View notes

sirtadcooper · 3 years

Note

🎨 🥺👉🏻👈🏻

Astrid, Astrid, Astrid, what am I going to do? Sort through your consistently perfect gifs? Pick favourites? You have truly set me a great challenge.

Usually I will go through a person’s whole edits tag but I have sorted these into Narcos and The Mandalorian because I was just looking to see how much you had made and accidentally saw a major spoiler for The Mentalist which I am only on season 2 of. I’m looking forward to [redacted] happening, though, because I was starting to ship them a few episodes in! Anyway, onwards with my impossible task.

Narcos

So before I start on this list I want to say that your colouring? It’s perfect every single time. Seriously. Fair warning: I’m going to be saying “perfect” a lot.

Javier Peña + that thing he does with his right hand - A great compilation! I never noticed this little detail so this gifset was a real (pleasant) surprise. I was checking the notes just to see what the general consensus was and I like the he-wants-a-cigarette theory. Just excellent acting from Pedro what a very keen eye you have! Or maybe you just spend a lot of time fixating on Javi’s hands...

Javi being snarky - Gosh, I love this one! Javi’s sense of humour got me though Narcos, although I think only one or possibly two of these gifs is from season 3? The way the life drains out of him over the course of the series just breaks my effing heart, baby. By the end of the three seasons I was pretty cross with the guys in episode one for calling him an asshole, but maybe I can see their point now, haha! But I still love him. I will protec.

1.05 There Will Be a Future | 3.01 The Kingpin Strategy - It was a great choice to jump from one scene to the other like this. Really adds to the heartbreak. It makes the contrast between his life now (sharing stories in the cool dark) and what it could have been (warmth and light and checked shirts) all the more vivid. The way he looks back at her in the last gif? Ouch.

Narcos, “The Palace in Flames” (2015) | We Can Be Heroes (2020) - A parallel I love and respect, thanks for making such good gifs of it. Shout-out to @keanurevees for being the single funniest person on this planet.

“Jungle Rescue Javi” in Convivir - Listen Jungle Rescue Javi can come and rescue me anytime. You’ve done a great job of colouring so many scenes with different lighting conditions and still have that green shirt look like a green shirt. Like it’s the same hue in each one. How did you do that? That’s pretty neat.

We’ve all gone off the rails down here, Javi. - This scene! I’m not okay! I love the colouring work you have done here. It’s just so perfect, so nice to look at. The whole set has this earthy colour palette and I mean, even Javi isn’t wearing a colourful shirt for once. This is serious.

Javi wearing a leather jacket - These gifs are so HQ I could practically reach out and touch his jacket, you can just feel the textures... with-with your eyes...? You’ve picked shots that all work together as a set, nothing stands out for the wrong reasons. No wide shots, no super close-ups, nothing to throw us off of our jacket appreciation rhythm.

Javi and his yellow aviator sunglasses - My biggest “YEAH BOY!!!” ever for this one. The amount of work that must have gone into this. 24 individual gifs coloured to your usual levels of absolute perfection and then laid out in this very pleasing and completely accurate, not-a-pixel-out-of-line way. Amazing.

Javi chasing Franklin Jurado through Curaçao in Best Laid Plans - Gosh this scene was so tense! You’ve done a great job colouring this despite the changing lighting conditions and the blazing sunshine. Well done! And I never noticed until I saw this gifset for the first time that he’s wearing a pink shirt and jumps from a pink building, haha!

Javier Peña leaning over tables - You see stuff like this? This is why I consider you to be the ultimate expert on Narcos. You make compilations like this and make it look effortless. I wouldn’t know where to start looking for scenes like these without having to rewatch the whole series and take notes. But, hey, maybe that’s what you did. But the fact that you did and made this set is still amazing.

NARCOS | 1.06 EXPLOSIVOS - Great job with such a dark and unforgiving scene! You have the Talent. He looks really pretty here.

Javier Peña + favorite look - Gosh, yes. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Pedro Pascal is a very talented actor. He takes clunky vintage tactical equipment and makes it look flipping incredible, like something he was born to wear. Also thank you for that delectable bonus gif. Arms.

The Mandalorian

Okay I have rambled for, like, 800 words already so I’ll try to say a bit less about these. I’ll try.

Din’s beskar spear heel kick in The Rescue - First of all, I saw this and now I’m pregnant. This is on the list because not only is it Din’s hottest moment for me, but because colouring-wise it is impressive. It’s bright, there’s no colour cast at all, and yet the blacks are really deep and rich. Gideon’s I’m-evil-I-must-wear-nothing-but-black cape looks especially good.

Din’s walk - You are the compilation queen! There’s nothing really that I can say here that I haven’t already said about your other compilation gifsets, it’s just perfect as usual, ya know? You make it look so easy. How does Din look so good when [New Yorker voice] he’s just walkin’ here?

Din just being a dad - Yeah. That’s the Good Stuff.

Din’s shoulder/waist ratio whenever he walks into a room - Everyone shut up I am Thinking.

Din engaging in a dogfight while his son has the time of his life on the backseat in The Siege - Like with your set of pink-shirted Javi chasing that guy in Narcos, you have a real talent for giffing action scenes. You’ve coloured this really well. You can still see details in the clouds and the shadows and your colour balance is impeccable.

Din lifting his helmet to sip soup in The Siege - I love the warmth of this little scene and the colouring you’ve done here. And the bonus gif... same, Grogu, same.

And I think I’ll stop there. I have sadly had to leave out some really excellent posts but I had to draw the line somewhere, haha! You, my friend, are just incredible. Time and time again you grace us with perfect gifs in crisp HD 4K 1080p HDR. And for what? Not for money or reward, but for love. Thank you for all that you do, because you may make your gifs look effortless but I know it is anything but. You’re amazing, you’re talented, you’re perfect.

creators send me 🎨 and i’ll tell you my favourite of your last ten creations and why

#javier-pena #ask #you're one of the best gifmakers on this site if not the best #i could go on but i already have #🎨 reviews

39 notes · View notes