#very much so pulling my ass out of this depressive episode
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They did this for me specifically 😭
Jennifer & Jeremy ???
Pedro & Steven ???
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Do you have any SFW and NSFW headcanons for dating Tommy?
tommy miller x reader
warnings: pregnancy, nsfw under the cut, pre/post-outbreak mixed.
a/n: ah so real, my underrated baby
°°°
(sfw)
- first off, let me just tell y'all that tommy is 100% the the of man to try and woo you by overdoing 'manly things'.
- like carrying 4 boxes at the same time (he tripped and fell but got back up like a champ🫶), purposely answering his door shirtless and leaning on the doorframe to flex his bod.
- but of course what really made you fall for him was the way he has your coffee order engraved in his memory, how he worries over you and gives you a call when he notices you leaving an event or part early.
- he's just a giant softie at heart.
- he also took it to himself to teach you how to use a gun after seeing how shit ur aim is after the outbreak.
- "It's like a watergun right? you just point and shoot." of course, waterguns aren't as heavy as guns and rifles, which you soon learned.
- he absolutely adores it when he's sitting down, reading a book or using his computer and you'll be sitting on his lap, head buried on the crook of his neck, and he can feel your warm steady breath.
- He never tells you this but when he's holding you close while being tense and anxious, he likes to count the breaths you inhale and exhale to help calm himself down.
- is the WORST COOK !!! the best meal you've ever had by him was an air-fried chicken nuggets.
- Is however very generous in buying you snacks.
- they type of guy to buy you 20 boxes of Oreos after you tell him it's taste nice once.
- very overprotective after the outbreak, even after safely moving into Jackson.
- he tries not to be overbearing about it though, like he'll just talk to you through the walkie talkies while you're on patrol, keeps your shifts hours in a notepad to remember when you finish work, asking to be paired up with you for patrol, etc.
- when you both found out that you were pregnant however...
- no patrols at all, he's carrying you wherever you need to go, and god forbids he had to be away from you for more than 15 minutes.
- will talk to your belly, but instead of being all sweet and lovey about it, he'll just start cracking the worst dad jokes in existence and starts laughing at his own jokes, shoving his face onto your belly while cackling his ass off.
-----
(nsfw)
- the things I want to do to this man
- he loves it when you're pulling his hair, it's a big indicator that he's doing a good job tbh.
- like you could be pulling his roots out of his head and he'll just start pulling your legs wider apart, thrusting his cock harder.
- as much as he loves it when you're scratching and grabbing him, his favourite position is when you're face down and ass up with your hands tied at your back.
- it turns him on so much to see you a begging mess in front of him completely a his mercy while he's fucking you from behind.
- secretly wants to try anal but would never bring it up and says no even when you're the one bringing it up, mostly because he doesn't want to hurt you.
- lactation kink after having a baby bcs idk man, u see the guy? he's definitely a tittysucker. (I'd go into details in a fic or sumn if u want but I'm in a depressive episode rn LMA//OAOAO 😭)
#tommy miller x reader#tommy miller#joel miller x reader#tlou x reader#the last of us x reader#the last of us hbo#the last of us#ellie williams#tommy miller smut#tommy miller fanfiction#gabriel luna
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I’m way behind on posting about my rewatch - there’s plenty I do want to say about S2, and there’s a whole essay about gender and Phases that I’m probably never going to write - but I’m into Season 3 and I really want to note how much early S3 establishes the issues that are going to drive Buffy’s long breakdown in seasons 6 and 7.
Firstly, Buffy's tendency to pull away from her friends, feeling she has to take care of everything for herself and protect them from her problems and her feelings rather than sharing them. It’s a consistent pattern, and we see it in her running away at the end of Season 2, and continually refusing to talk about what happened with Angel with both the Scoobies and Faith. When she eventually does try to talk to her assigned school counsellor about Angel, she explicitly says she can’t talk to anyone else about what’s happening (only to find him dead, which I’m sure didn’t help).
Of course, this isn’t just a flaw of Buffy’s - her friends have a pretty big role to play, especially Xander. His sanctimonious, judgemental whining about Buffy leaving, as well as anything to do with Angel, does a lot to push Buffy away. (Not to mention the first thing he does when he finds out Angel is back is try to manipulate Faith into murdering him.) It’s also hard not to suspect that Xander’s lie back in Becoming did a lot of damage - because of that, Buffy thinks even Willow hates Angel and wouldn’t understand her continued feelings for him. ‘Kick his ass’ made Buffy feel like literally no-one is on her side.
Regardless of the reason, here we see the beginning of the split that will make Buffy feel increasingly isolated and unable to trust or rely on anyone as the series continues into the depression years, especially Season 6. But we also see the start of a pattern that will become a central flaw in Season 7 - her inability to express empathy or care for anyone who she sees as a reflection of herself.
I’m actually not talking about Faith here - that’s related, but it’s also a whole can of lesbian worms I don’t want to get into right now. But aside from Faith, in the first few episodes of Season 3 there are two girls who mirror Buffy, specifically in her relationship with Angel. In Anne, we have Lily/Anne, who’s wants to spend the rest of her life with her older boyfriend, who has a criminal past and seems a little crappy but also genuinely loves her and is trying to be good to her, and who ends up being sent to hell. Then in Beauty and the Beasts, we see Abby, who started dating a guy who seemed nice at first, but who turned out to be an abusive monster. Both are very obvious parallels to Buffy in her relationship with Angel (in soul-having and soulless forms), and serve as ways for her reflect on that relationship.
But what I want to focus on is the fact that, while Buffy does try to help both girls, she’s also unusually harsh and unempathetic towards them. Her attitude is ‘This is how things are, and you need to set aside your emotions and just deal with it immediately and without emotional support’; it reflects how she treats herself, but it’s also a pattern in how she treats people whose challenges reflect hers. Which will come to a head in how she treats the Potential slayers in season 7, and the way she alienates everyone around her in part through her treatment of them (and therefore also her treatment of herself).
It’s just interesting to see these issues that will dominate the last couple of seasons come across so strongly in this early part of Season 3.
#my apologies#i've been terribly lax in my posting duties#will try to post more (energy permitting)#and i'll try not to hate on Xander#but by early season 3 I'm really understanding where the Xander hate comes from#it's not him at his best#btvs#Buffy the Vampire Slayer#btvs rewatch#btvs s3#btvs s6#btvs s7#meta#Buffy Summers#Xander Harris#Anne#Beauty and the Beasts
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sorry but please... post your akio plastic covered couch tweet here... the world needs to know...
Warning: pics of gross shit happening on the couches
I'll do you one better and include the STORY! So, I, Vanna (note: Yasha mostly does the Tumblr and I mostly do the Twitter,) was smoking enough weed to knock out a large horse or put a very tiny dent in my constant back and shoulder pain, as one does when when they're a middle-aged Registered Nurse in the year 2023. (I'm 39 but it's an old 39, lmao.)
Scrolling through Twitter, I stumble on a fanart of Suletta from Witch of Mercury sitting goofily on a white couch. Now I haven't seen this show yet, but the white couch....looked familiar, and I know the show is very much a descendent of Utena in terms of creative teams. For those that don't know, the series is written by Ichirō Ōkouchi, who also wrote the two Revolutionary Girl Utena novelizations...which if you didn't know about before, you know about now, and can read translated on our site here! (Warning: Touga and Miki uh, in the novels...)
Anyways, so I hop onto my own website and start downloading the images that will constitute receipts, before realizing 1. these images are all on multiple computers feet away from me, 2. the couch isn't an identical match, 3. that'd have been weird anyway, and most importantly, 4:
AKIO'S COUCHES DON'T LOOK RIGHT. OBSERVE:
The edges of the armrests have sloppier upholstery than the blanket I have covering my computer desk. I took the time to tuck seams at least. What is this??
Now it could absolutely be leather, I thought. It would absolutely track. But leather upholstery doesn't look like this. It doesn't wrinkle quite this way. It would have cleaner seams.
No. No that's too shiny for leather. So here I am, presented with this strangeness I'd never really considered in how Akio's couch is drawn, and having spent the last few months learning about my Italian-American family history, my chemically altered ass came to the only reasonable conclusion:
Akio Ohtori has plastic coverings on his white couches, like he's a depression era American in poverty.
Fuck yeah, I though, A HIT TWEET, there, at the end of all Tweeting things. (Yeah I'm working on that, stay tuned, lmao. I of all people know when to bail on stupid men with stupid power.) Because I am me, I framed it as semi serious by pulling a context to explain it out of my ass:
I was joking.
But the replies? They were not. And then I thought about it some more. And I've kept thinking about it. Do I seriously think Ikuhara and Co literally are intentionally drawing a plastic covered couch? Doesn't that feel, Vanna, like a bit of a stretch, even for Utena meta?
Listen to that CRONCH when Akio sits down in episode 31, before Anthy is seen by Nanami. Look, the buttons on the back rest don't quite fit, but the rest? Yeah it kinda does. I was high, but not wrong!?
Akio *does* surround himself with a bizarre hodgepodge of Americana as an aesthetic. The arm garters. The piping and cut of his cowboy-ass shirt. His American car. His mullet. His miniature fucking golf. Why not the plastic covered couch? It's a trope of American poverty that would absolutely have fallen neatly into the diet of American pop culture that influenced Ikuhara. (He makes references to E.T. and The Godfather and Suspiria and all kinds of things in his other work, Utena itself is a little less obvious with individual references but inherits HUGE amounts of vibes from the same content--Ikuhara and Co watched Lost Highway in theaters during the production of the Akio Arc and I will not be convinced otherwise.)
So yeah. That's the story, and that's the theory. Do I seriously believe it was deliberate? Maybe. Probably. Possibly. But it fits so well it's headcanon for me, and in the Utena fandom, pretty much all canon is kind of headcanon so enjoy this one.
What an asshole.
#utena#revolutionary girl utena#utena meta#akio ohtori#akio's couches#do I really need to point out the functional utility of plastic covered couches for this particular character though
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Beetlebabes dni (seriously fuck off)
So, my current hyperfixation is Beetlejuice, movie, cartoon, and musical. But I have all the Beetlejuice cartoons on file so as I was watching, I decided to redesign Lydia and Beej in the show’s style for my own fic I’m working on. I added silhouettes of the show’s designs as a comparison. And I finalized my OC as a bonus. So here’s some info about Bj and Lydia. I’ll explain my OC some other time.
Beetlejuice:
I used all iterations of him as inspiration, but in terms of visual, it’s mostly the musical and cartoon. Gave him his green hair and also a mullet cause... Idk I think it looks good. But in terms of personality, it’s a nice combo of all three. He’s a lot more nastier and violent than his toon counterpart, but still retains some of the sensitivity showed in the show. For example, he’s still protective of Lydia, but instead of simply putting beetles in a bully’s hair, he’ll genuinely traumatize them with a scare or straight up try and kill them. He’s still a handsy and overtly sexual being like in the movie/musical. Instead of responding to emotional rejection (outside of flirtatious contexts) with a depressive episode like the show, he gets very angry and vengeful. He’s petty, selfish and a conniving ass like all three iterations. But he’s not as dumb as his toon counterpart. He’s irrational and acts before he thinks sure, but when it comes to being a trickster, he’s more thoughtful and malicious like the movie version.
His relationship with Lydia is a big brother/little sister type. She’s one of the very select few who’s ever gotten past his walls. He’s protective of her and always encourages her interests in the gross, rude, and dead. But he’s less affectionate than the show/musical. He’s not a big fan of pda and just barely tolerates her occasional hug. He and Lydia are the type of friends that exchange insults and petty barbs as a way of showing how they care.
A brief note on his most common alter ego, Bettyjuice. I modernized her into an egirl because the aesthetic is perfect with all the stripes. She’s pretty much the same as the show; gross, rude, and impulsive. But I made her too pretty unfortunately. I kept leaning towards cute with certain attributes like the added beanie and her adorable tummy, so that’ll probably be tweaked in the future, but we’ll see. I do like this design a lot even though it’s not gross enough.
Lydia:
Again, all iterations were an inspiration. Her Netherworld design is just a more aged up version of the original poncho, but I added a touch more purple at the forefront to reflect her personality. And her normal design is more muted just as a contrast to the Netherworld to make it seem mundane in comparison. In terms of personality, she’s got the character development of the musical. She’s still deadpanned and sarcastic like the movie/musical, but she’s much softer and more sweet like her toon counterpart. She’s a little more mature now that she’s 18, but not by much cause she’s still a young, developing girl. She only has a few friends her age since most of her peers at school are put off by her goth aesthetic and macabre interests. It also doesn’t help that she hangs around a weird egirl who likes to throw bugs at people (Bettyjuice of course). She does have two friends, Becca and Pamela (loosely based off Bertha and Prudence) and of course, her family. She still loves the Maitlands and hangs out with them a bunch. She has a better relationship with Charles Deetz now that she’s a little older. The one she has conflict the most is Deelia, but there’s still clear love there. She fully accepts Deelia as her mother now, while, of course, still keeping Emily Deetz in her heart as well. But they tend to bicker and argue the most because of their different worldviews, but much less so than before now that Lydia regularly spends time in the Nethworld.
But of course, Lydia’s best friend is Beetlejuice. They pull pranks, get into mischief, and regularly get revenge on Lydia’s main bully Claire Brewster.
But yeah, that’s it. I’ll explain my OC later, but I’m too tired rn. I’m working on some more art for Beetlejuice, but the main inspo is the cartoon since it has a lot more to work with in terms of story and world building.
#beetlejuice#lydia deetz#beetlejuice the animated series#beetlejuice the musical#toonjuice#toonlydia#oc
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Short Reflection: Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2
Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 is a masterpiece and I kind of hate it.
It's a weird position to be in, I admit. My opinions of the first season of JJK weren't very intense: I liked it a lot, despite my many criticisms, and that was that. Just another mega-popular shonen elevated by a top-tier smorgasboard of action scenes and some truly excellent ass-kicking action girls. It certainly didn't feel like a show that would ever be worth expending as much thought as I've been doing the past couple months over the course of the Shibuya Incident. But somewhere between the first season's release and Jujutsu Kaisen becoming the third-biggest anime on the planet behind Attack on Titan and Demon Slayer, my feelings started curdling, so subtly that I barely even noticed until the second season came out and dragged them up to the surface. I love Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2, I hate Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2, it's one of the most triumphant and one of the most existentially depressing anime I've ever watched. It is, for better and worse, the most important anime of the 2023. And it's gonna take a very long time for me to fully parse out why.
From the outside, you might be thinking, "Gee, what did this show do to shake your opinions up so violently? It must've really gone in a different direction that completely upended what it's even about." But no. Quite the opposite, in fact; the Shibuya Incident arc that dominates season 2 after a brief flashback story is about as straightforward an arc as you can imagine. It's a single, massive, sprawling brawl across the streets of Shibuya, sorcerers and curses duking it out all over the map with the fate of golden boy Satoru Gojo on the line. It's nothing but fight after fight after fight after fight with increasingly broken superpowers and collateral damage, escalating to absurd degrees and never letting off the gas. Yes, there's a lot of consequential stuff that happens in this arc, but on a moment to moment basis it's as pure an action experience as anime has ever accomplished. No complex political factions, no deep symbolism or themes, just the sheer chaos of watching a city come undone under the collective onslaught of this superhuman war.
And it fucking rules.
The first season of Jujutsu Kaisen was already a marvel in the action department, don't get me wrong. But under the new direction of Shouta Goshozono, who's been responsible for some of the absolute best-directed anime episodes in recent years, that experience has gone absolutely nuclear. Every episode is astonishing in a different way, every fight pulls out some new animation technique that completely changes the timbre of the action, every scene is directed so uniquely and specifically that it's impossible to forget. As good as season 1's action was, it favored consistency over creativity and didn't really get to flex the true insanity that these curses and cursed powers are capable of. But season 2 fully embraces every animator's individual quirks and lets them run absolutely buckwild with it. Yuji's bathroom brawl with Choso is a searing cyberpunk-tinged smackdown. Sukuna's long-awaited return is a kaleidoscopic nightmare that feels pulled straight from a particularly nihilistic episode of Mob Psycho 100. Megumi's big spoileriffic fight paint the streets in surreal chaos reminiscent of early Masaaki Yuasa. And almost every single episode has this level of hyper-specific visual panache put into it. It is, without hyperbole, one of the most jaw-dropping achievements in anime spectacle of all time
And that's just the action scenes! That's not even counting how goddamn amazing this show looks outside of combat now! If you go back and watch season 1, it tended to play things really safe visually when it wasn't kicking up a fight. Conversation scenes and down moments are mostly functional-but-boring collections of shots that get the job done without leaving much of an impression. But with Goshozono at the helm, every single moment, from the most explosive showdowns to the simplest character-building conversations, is infused with life. Off-kilter camera angles imbue every line of dialogue with infinitely more meaning. The editing constantly catches you off guard in the best ways with how it draws your focus through a scene. There's some of the loveliest loosey-goosey comedic chibi animation I've seen in a long time. Every scene is distinct, every scene pops, every scene feels like its own unique entity in this mesmerising arthouse collage of styles and talents crashing together in somehow perfect harmony. I can think of very few shows in recent years that have looked this incredible and this experimental on such a consistent basis.
Which is wild enough on its own, but there's an additional level to this: Jujutsu Kaisen is pulling out all these experimental, ecclectic techniques in a mainstream shonen anime. And that just never happens. Mainstream shonen shooting for broad appeal never play things this risky and outside-the-box with their visual presentation. Sure, most of them look good with all the money pouring into them, but they also look, well, like Jujutsu Kaisen season 1. They're polished and pretty with all the edges sanded off and nary a risk taken, content that being flashy and detailed can make up for a standard visual palette. But JJK season 2 has taken the kind of aesthetic you'd normally see in underground cult classics from offbeat animators too rebellious to fit into the industry machine and translated it to the widest audience imaginable. It's introduced genuine artistry to this playing field, marrying the mainstream and the hipster and making it look like child's play. It's pushed the visual boundaries of mainstream shonen far beyond what they used to be, expanding what the most popular genre of anime can look like on a level I don't think we're fully prepared for. Imagine how many future adaptations will take cues from the course this season has charted. Imagine how creative, how experimental, the future of shonen anime might be thanks to JJK. That's a cause for celebration no matter how you look at it.
And yet.
And yet, there's a question I've been unable to stop thinking about ever since the Shibuya Incident really got underway: if it weren't for the masterpiece production... would I even like this arc?
And unfortunately, I think I know the answer.
Let's be brutally honest for a moment: Jujutsu Kaisen's biggest problem is, has been, and always will be that this show does not know how to goddamn focus. It's constantly introducing and throwing out plot points at seemingly random intervals, changing tracks and abandoning story threads before they're fully realized, even outright contradicting itself on a whim on multiple occasions. Hey, remember those two normal friends Yuji had back in the very first episode who he seemed to have a good relationship with and liked hanging out with? Well, JJK hopes you don't, because they completely vanished after the first episode and Yuji never so much as mentions them again, as if they never existed in the first place. Then it feels like it's setting up a classic shonen power trio with Megumi and Nobara, except then Yuji dies and has to hide his resurrection for another eight episodes so they never really develop as a group dynamic. Plus there was building up Junpei as a new friend-turned-antagonist only for him to get axed right off the bat, though at least that one tried to make some kind of thematic sense so it's not as egregious. But when you take a bird's-eye view of the whole unfolding story, it really becomes apparent how many times Jujutsu Kaisen will stop dead in its tracks, say "actually nevermind," and completely change direction, leaving whatever it was in the middle of developing to wither and die.
And if that was a problem in season 1, then good fucking god does season 2 push it into absurdity. There's a genuinely excellent five-episode prequel arc that finally gives a sense of stakes and thematic weight to one of the show's most central relationships... only to reveal mere episodes later that one of those people is already dead, and all the potential story threads that could've sprung from the seeds planted by Hidden Inventory are stamped out before they've even got a chance to bloom. One of the dead characters from that flashback arc is brought back in absurdly convoluted way and set on a collision course with the character from the present they have the most connection to, setting up a confrontation with real emotional weight for both participants... except then he just dies again without it ever mattering. There's an out-of-nowhere romantic subplot that only starts mattering when one participant is already on the verge of death and only matters to the other when she's mourning his loss despite them never having shared a scene before. Not to mention a major fucking character death that comes so out of nowhere it's genuinely hard to emotionally wrap your head around it and is possibly undone literally minutes later because???
Look, being chaotic and messy doesn't have to be a death knell, especially for shonen. So much of what made Hunter x Hunter work so well is leaning into the sheer messiness of its world and characters, letting them push each other in bizarre, risky directions that a more traditional story structure might not have the guts to pull off. But this doesn't feel like intentional chaos, it feels like Gege Akutani just doesn't know what kind of story they're trying to tell, changing their mind every other episode and undoing whatever plot threads they were starting to set up because they realized they weren't interested in continuing them. And it absolutely murders the emotional throughline of this show. Every potentially interesting, meaningful idea it brings up has a 50/50 chance of being hastily written out of the plot the second the author gets bored, leaving all that investment feeling wasted and pointless. At some point, it becomes hard to emotionally engage with anything the show tries to pull; why bother taking the risk when there's no guarantee it's even going to be paid off, let alone paid off well?
And the longer I sit with that feeling, the more it pricks at a far more frustrating question: why Jujutsu Kaisen? Why was this story, out of all the potential options, the one chosen for a once-in-a-decade animator's wet dream? Why were mostly flat antagonists like Mahito and Sukuna given spectacular enough fight scenes to sell their menace in a way the writing itself barely accomplishes? Why was Miwa and Mechamaru's half-finished sketch of a romantic subplot deserving of enough evocative, wrenching filmmaking to almost manage an emotional response in spite of its utter lack of development? Why spend all this time, effort, and crushing human misery polishing a deeply flawed story to a mirror shine instead of giving an already good story the royal treatment it actually deserves? Why is this worth dragging Mappa's animators through the fires of hell for? I mean, not that any show would be worth the apocalyptically bad working conditions Mappa's corporate masters force on their employees to fatten their own bank accounts- seriously, can we figure out how to unionize the anime industry already?- but with all the horror stories coming out of this mismanaged production, it's hard not to look at the end result and wonder: Really? This is what we've decided to bleed so many people dry for?
Of course, that question's also fairly rhetorical. I know the reason Jujutsu Kaisen gets this kind of treatment when plenty of far more deserving shows have to settle for scraps: because it's a shonen. And shonen will always be favored by the moneymaking powers that be as long as the people making those decisions are traditionalist old men who don't see women and girls as a viable demographic. We're finally coming out of years-long drought for shoujo and josei anime, a stretch of time when almost no works targeted at women and girls were given anything above a shoestring budget and C-tier production schedule, and yet shonen has never once failed to be given all the tools it needs to devour the competition. Trite, treacly mush like Demon Slayer is given enough polish to become an era-defining blockbuster while the possibility of a Yona of the Dawn season 2 becomes an increasingly painful impossibility. And Mappa itself, a studio that first made a name for itself by winning the hearts and wallets of women and queer audiences with Yuri on Ice, has put the sequel film to that cultural phenomenon on indefinite hiatus as it grinds its animators into dust churning out shonen adaptation after shonen adaptation. Because even the biggest smash hit imaginable, the show that made this studio a household name in the first place, doesn't matter if it doesn't cater to the only audience that the industry really seems to care about.
It's all of this I can't help but think about as I watch Jujutsu Kaisen top itself over and over again. In every mind-blowing fight scene, in every stunning display of cinematic brilliance, in every skill and talent the animators pour on screen, I see the countless other, more deserving shows that could've been something special with just a fraction of this support. Just this season alone, we had I'm in Love With the Villainness and Shy, two female-forward anime with far more compelling ideas and stories that could've been genuine hits if they hadn't been flopped out with the most cardboard productions imaginable from studios that just didn't have the time or energy to do them justice. Imagine if just a few of the people pouring their souls into prettying up Supernatural Boys Punch Demons Version 347 were able to offer their talents to those shows instead. Imagine if a beloved shoujo, yuri, or BL manga getting slapped with a bargain-bin production inspired as much outrage as a shonen adaptation having only a small handful of animation cuts below spectacular (Yes, I still remember how stupid the Chainsaw Man anime discourse got). Imagine if this industry favored stories for women even half as much as it valued stories for men. Hell, I'd even be partly satisfied if blockbuster shonen anime just stopped treating their female casts so abysmally. And JJK used to be one of the few to manage that! What the hell happened between that first season and now, Gege? Nobara deserved better, god dammit!
This is the contradiction of Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2. It's a masterclass of artistry that raises the bar for animated action everywhere, given to a story that doesn't deserve the honor of bearing it. It's a showcase of the most talented people working in this industry today, all putting their best efforts in to the least interesting project they could be providing their talents to. It's a mediocre franchise elevated to spectacular heights at the cost of potentially reaching even higher with a more worthy source material. It's all this industry's imagination and all its laziness, all its ambition and all its cowardice, rolled into a single shining exemplar of anime's infinite possibility that doubles as a condemnation of its priorities. And I've spent this entire season laughing with glee at at the heights it's reached while I feel my enthusiasm for the overall show slowly bleed away. Never before have I been left so in awe of what this medium is able to accomplish, yet simultaneously so exhausted by its unwillingness to spread that effort evenly.
In the end, Jujutsu Kaisen is both the greatest success and the greatest failure imaginable. As a showcase of animated spectacle from the industry's most talented up-and-comers, it's a landmark achievement that will rightly go down in history. As a continuation of Jujutsu Kaisen, it's a death knell for this story ever being worth more than the sum of its parts. And as a representation of where this industry currently stands, it just leaves me sad, tired, and hollow. It will be a long time before we get a show as singular and staggering as this again. I just hope next time, all this talent and effort goes toward a story that can actually do something meaningful with it. Until then, though, I give JJK Season 2 a score of:
7.5/10
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tell me about kit!
*cracks knuckles* You have fallen into my trap. Prepare to hear about the singular best character that has ever been created.
Kit Baxter, also known as the Flying Squirrel, is the sidekick to Canada's greatest superhero, the marvelous masked man known only as the Red Panda from the radio show Adventures of the Red Panda. She is also his chauffeur for his secret identity (which remains secret even to the listeners for most of the show.) One other important bit of context is that the show is set during the great depression in Toronto, Canada, so life kinda sucks ass a little bit.
Kit is a first generation Russian immigrant, her father ran a boxing ring and taught her to drive. She's quick witted and quick on her feet, can throw a mean right hook, and drives better than most other people in the city, which earned her a spot as a taxi driver. Panda ended up in her car in his Secret Identity, asked her to drive (recklessly) to a crime scene he wanted to stop, and she, obviously, refused. She wasn't going to be running around like an idiot for some rich asshole. Panda than waved some money in her face to try and get her to listen, and what did she do? She said no, because she isn't some trained dog that'll bark for some rich asshole the moment he gives her a bone. She'd rather go hungry tonight than do that kind of shit for him, and if he's gonna act like he doesn't even know what manners are, he can get the hell out of her cab. (Once he says sorry and asks nicely, than she puts the petal to the metal.)
She's also like. So smart and cool and good with people, she's a jokester and flirtatious (mostly with Panda because she likes flustering him, its really funny) but she's allowed to be all of those things without ever feeling like "Oh she's just there to be the attractive side kick." Kit is very much her own person, its just that she happens to like being a thorn in Panda's side and sometimes that means batting her eyelids (and climbing up walls in a skintight cat suit).
Kit became the Flying Squirrel after, and I quote "I figured out your secret identity and then blackmailed you into letting me play." She cares so, so deeply about the people of her city, especially the people on the streets she comes from because she did not grow up in a nice area of town, and she is constantly trying to fight for the most vulnerable parts of town, despite many of them looking down on her as a woman, especially a woman in her field. She never takes anyone's shit, either towards herself or anyone else, and she is always ready to throw hands with someone she thinks deserves it.
(I'm going to be getting into spoiler stuff underneath the cut. I am asking so very nicely for you to listen to the Adventures of the Red Panda. They're on spotify here ad free, and you can also find them on their website decoderringtheatre.com along with all of their other shows and their audiobooks. It truly is one of the most impressive, fun, and thrilling stories I have ever read, watched, or heard, and it is Criminally Underrated. If you think this is even like. A Tiny Bit Interesting, throw on the first episode, its only 20 minutes, see if you like it. If you don't mind spoilers, or ended up not liking it, keep going.)
Something that I really, really like about Kit is how she's handled later on in the story, once we get into WWII. Her and Panda get married, and she ends up pregnant right as he ends up MIA (presumed dead by most of the world) and she is left to try and defend all of Toronto largely by herself with a child on the way and Archangel, a nazi spy whose manipulating p much everything, bringing havoc upon her city.
It would be super easy to let her fade into the background during all of this. It would be so, so easy to write her off as so many different things do as a mother and a wife and leave her at that. But they don't. She steps up as the mastermind behind everything, pulling the strings of their connections they've forged over the years, continues to fight in her suit until she physically can't anymore, working as hard as she can in and out of costume to make sure that her city, because with Panda gone (not dead. She never believes he's dead for a second and has and will fight anyone who says otherwise.) It is her city and her people and she will not let it fall to ruin. She will not let anyone else, Nazi or American or Canadian or anyone take her city from her.
Katya Baxter is a wonderful character who is just so, so funny and amazing and if anybody knew what the Adventures of the Red Panda were she would be an absolute HIT of a character on here. I love her so, so much.
#also i love you for asking.#i never expected anyone to actually DO it yknow#but shes just#shes so COOL man#i need more people to love her like I do because i've literally never had another person to talk to about this that isn't my dad.
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This fic was leading yesterday's poll and my impatient ass didn't wait for the results, I was already excited to post it 👌
pairing: Erwin Smith x Reader, established relationship, modern au
note: I wrote this sometime around January of 2022 when I was slowly coming out of the longest depressive episode of my life and when healing was interrupted with that moments felt so off :< or have thrown me off
wc: 564 || warnings: the overall fic feels gloomy, favouritism, unedited
Opening the door to their apartment, then hearing running water first, made sense why he felt uneasy when the clock struck twelve pm and he didn’t receive an enthusiastic text of what they’ll do later.
Erwin had their schedules memorised the month after they moved in. At this time— and always at this time, he’ll come home to a playlist of soft rock as she cooked their dinner. Though today, he opened to a quiet home. As quiet as how he left it in the morning. Briefcase going to its designated chair by the door, shoes next to hers and his blazer going on the couch’s back, he walked to where she would be.
They’ve reached a point where he didn’t need to look for her in their house.or call her name out with a worried tone.
“Love . . .” The bathroom. The one that had a bathtub in it. He was met with a slightly ajar door. “You kept the door unlocked,” he pushed it open only to have the steam hit his face.
Seeing her back facing him, his heart went at ease. At least she remembered to do that.
“Hello, Erwin.” She managed in a tired voice. He uncuffed his sleeves, slowly walking toward her to turn the shower off. “Do you want me to order something while you’re in there?”
“I’d like that very much.”
“Was it Korean chicken that you liked.”
“Mm.” A sniffle as she tried to straighten her back.“Thank you.”
As he left the door open, Erwin’s mind was loud again. He knew what sent her to such a state. A phone call, or a video call.
And again, she was compared. Reminding her that she was never the favourite child. Even when she was at the age when she could heal those wounds, a phone call so brief could open them again, Deeper even.
...
Her eyes were on the carpet. Not on the TV reflection of him drying her hair, carefully combing through the tangles. No. Following where she looked, Erwin’s mouth tugged at the corners when he realised that it was on the Korean chicken still in its packaging.
“Love. wear a shower cap next time. I appreciate keeping the door unlocked, too.” And every time she soothed herself in the shower, Erwin dried her hair—‘Of course not in the bedroom, we’d inhale the hair that fell out.’— in their living room, facing the TV.
“I’ll— I’ll keep that in mind.” Again, he thought. She must’ve sobbed out loud while she was in ther. “Your hair’ll get crisp, or keep your head out . . .”
“Got it,” her shoulders slumped down in fatigue.“Small steps, right?”
“Even a half a step’s enough.” He said, turning off the hair dryer, keeping a hand on her right shoulder so he could place a kiss on the side of her head.
“Let’s eat?”
“Let’s eat.”
He moved faster than her. As he pulled out paper plates from their cabinet he told her that she didn’t have to take care of him for however long she felt that way. “Where do you wanna eat?”
Pointing at the coffee table, her eyes showed a glint of hope. “I feel like sitting on the floor.”
“Rice?”
“Please.”
“So, wanna tell me about your day?” Erwin started when she joined him on the floor. “Mine was something, Miche’s sense of smell put us in . . .”
#nick writes fics#erwin smith x reader#erwin smith x y/n#erwin smith x you#attack on titan erwin#attack on titan x reader
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New Beginnings: A Wild Violet One Shot
Okay so I’m super behind in the game, but I wanted to complete at least a couple pieces for the Drabblecember challenge, and even though it’s the 29th of December, I decided to go ahead and share this piece with you all. It became more of a one shot than a Drabble, I hope that it okay! It is a very important piece to me because it signifies a very special moment in the relationship between my f/o Zach and s/i Violet. And this is the first fanfic piece I’ve posted in forever, so yeah! I can write again!
The prompt I am using for this piece is Day 1: Winter Weather.
Word Count: 1,662
Rating: Teen and Up
Warnings: Mentions of loss of child, mentions of pregnancy, morning sickness, light angst, one mild curse word, kissing/makeout session, a few suggestive comments (but nothing explicit/nsfw). If any of this triggers you please do not read! I don’t want to hurt anyone!
Placing the story below a cut, there is a second part, so I may update this post/link it at another time! Enjoy!
Selfship Taglist (let me know if you’d like to be added or removed 😊):
@snailchans-imaginarium @crunch-crunch-eat-a-bunch @changingcore @bitchywitchheart @stoatsapphic @3qu1us-main @kittycatkissez @benreillyswife @creativegenius22 @genderqueer-bithing @serenitytodd1234 @mailiow @celestetheseaunicorn
POV: This takes place during the Under Frozen Pond Episode, so here are some Zach screenshots from said episode 🥰!
The cold weather of the winter season enveloped me as I lay in the snow. I wore my husband’s scarf and trench coat, my own gray gloves, and a lilac hat that once belonged to my mother. I looked up to the bright blue sky, and breathed deeply, closing my eyes as I exhaled.
I’d run away from Zach after we’d had an argument about my recent health concerns. Zach was bound and determined to keep me confined to the plane until we returned to the city for me to see my doctor, but I was tired of being cooped up all day.
To be fair he’d gotten his way most days for nearly two weeks because I’d been too sick to even leave our bedroom, but today I’d felt well enough to join him while he surveyed the location for the Annual Villain’s Meeting.
As Zach was wrapping his former winter coat and scarf around me my hopes of breaking free from my confinement to enjoy the cold weather were crushed when I’d gotten sick to my stomach yet again. I narrowly avoided becoming sick all over his shiny winter boots, and Zach grimaced and gagged for a few minutes until my sick spell subsided. He composed himself after I’d come up for air from the trash can he’d ordered Tan to bring to me while Cro cleaned up the mess.
Zach pulled a box of mints out of his pocket and emptied a few in my palm, something he’d started doing nearly two weeks before when I’d first started getting sick, “We’re going to have to get you to the doctor, Vi, you should’ve been over the virus by now, I was over it after a day….this isn’t normal.”
“I know,” I whispered, itching to tell him my suspicions, but I just couldn’t face it, not yet, not after what had happened in July.
I opened my eyes, looking to the sky again, wondering if she was looking down on me with those green eyes so like her father’s, the red hair like her grandmother’s, and my face with the freckles Zach and I both had during childhood.
If she was here things would’ve been very different…but I knew it was best not to dwell on that, it would just depress me again. I tried to focus on the positive: she was now our guardian angel. And if what I suspected was happening, I knew we needed her protection now more than ever.
Zach’s shrill voice met my ears as he called out my name. I lifted my head up far enough to see him slipping and sliding his way toward me over the ice. I laughed and sat up, not wanting to miss the opportunity to see him fall flat on his ass. It reminded me so much of when we’d gone skating the first time a couple years before. I’d never skated in my life and Zach had very little experience himself so it was quite a comical sight.
While he wobbled his way toward me, his curses becoming louder by the second, I thought how much I’d like to go skating with him right then, but I knew with what was happening to me that it probably was not the safest option.
Zach finally reached me, and I flopped back down on the snow, exhausted from my uncontrollable laughter. Zach loomed over me, his legs spread so that my legs were between his, if I’d reached up and pulled him down it would have been a very compromising position.
Zach didn’t seem to notice because he was so absorbed in his own anger, he planted his hands on his hips and took the opportunity to yell at me, “what’s so funny?”
“You trying to walk on the ice, you’re as graceful as a hippopotamus,” I laughed, trying to catch my breath and wiping tears from my eyes.
“I am far more graceful than a hippo platter mouth or whatever,” he hissed, not amused by my comments. Zach turned away and walked in the direction of the plane motioning for me to follow him, “come on and get up, it’s freezing out here…”
I sat up with the full intention of following him, but a wave of nausea stopped me in my tracks. I slowly lowered my head back to the ground taking calming breaths, Zach had turned back to yell at me, “VIO…Vi?”
“I need a minute,” I whispered, covering my mouth with my hand.
Zach crunched his way back over to me through the snow and sat down beside me, his brows knitted in concern, “are you okay?”
I shook my head and he took my free hand in his, wrapping our gloved fingers tightly together, he laid down on his back beside me and we held hands, looking at each other silently until I was able to speak again.
“I’m fine,” I whispered, smiling weakly at him.
Zach lifted his head, and pulled his hand free of mine, “no you’re not, we have to get you to the doctor and find out what’s going on, Violet…I’ll call Donita and Gourmand and we’ll reschedule….”
“No, Zach…” I whined, I covered my face with my hands to hide the tears that threatened to escape, “I’m fine…I’m just sick is all, it’s because, well…Zach…I think we’re pre…”
I pulled my hands away and looked at his face, etched with confusion and curiosity, I couldn’t tell him here, not yet…I had to be sure…so I quickly changed the conversation, “do you remember when we first went ice skating a couple years ago?”
Zach’s face went slack for a minute, and his eyes widened, he lowered his head to the snow again, staring at the sky in confusion before he looked back at me, “uhhh, yeah?”
I quickly covered my near omission, “I think we’re perfectly happy like we were then…yes we’ve had sickness come our way, but we’re not going to let that stop us from being happy and doing what we need to do, right? We’ll just get up and try again after falling down, we can’t let this sickness stop us from enjoying our day…”
Zach’s face contorted with bewilderment again, “so…uhhh, you wanna go skating?”
I giggled, pulling his gloved hand into mine and kissing the top of his hand, “No, that’s not what I meant…even if I wanted to I can’t, but no, no, no…Zach, that’s not my point, my point is, we can’t let me being sick ruin our day, I’m just a little sick that’s all, after today I’ll get a doctors appointment, and we’ll take it from there…one step at a time.”
Zach, nodded his head slowly, still looking unsettled by our situation and conversation, “okay…then….”
I released his hand and grinned, waving my arms around me in the snow, “that’s settled!”
Zach snickered, “are you making a snow angel?”
I stopped moving my arms and glanced to either side of me, I hadn’t done it intentionally, but I indeed had a pair of snow angel wings started, “I guess so…wanna join me?”
“Join you?” Zach scoffed, moving to stand up, he rolled his eyes, “it’s childish, frivolous…”
I resumed waving my arms and moving my legs to complete the angel, “it’s fun…one of my favorite cold weather activities…”
Zach huffed and grabbed my hand, plopping into the snow beside me, he reluctantly started making his own snow angel, “this is humiliating…if Donita and Gourmand see us…”
“They’ll think it’s cute,” I giggled, and I sat up long enough to give him a peck on the cheek.
I peered out of the corner of my eyes and snickered as a blush crept across his pale features that were already tinted red from the cold, “oh no you don’t,” he hissed, moving from beside me to straddling me within seconds.
I could not stop giggling as Zach’s flustered face hovered inches from mine, his hands on either side of my head, “think you can just tease me and get away with it, do ya?”
“N-no!” I gasped between laughs, Zach smirked and closed the space between us, kissing me. My giggles subsided as he deepened the kiss, I reached my hands up and grasped either side of his face, pulling his face closer to me, earning a moan from him, “minx,” he mumbled against my lips. He then trailed his lips across mine and from my nose to my chin. He gave me one quick kiss on my nose and sighed. I opened my eyes and saw him looking at me.
“What did I ever do to deserve you?” He whispered, a grin spreading across his face, he shook his head and stood up, “come on, let’s get you back to the plane, laying in this cold weather can’t be good for you.”
I relented and sat up, I held my hands to him and he helped me to my feet, I bounced slightly as I stood up, earning a laugh from Zach, “always enthusiastic…”
Zach released my hands and offered his arm to me, I giggled and wrapped my arms around his bicep, “such a gentleman,” I teased.
He smirked, “I try.”
We started walking back to the plane, and I abruptly stopped. I untangled myself from Zach’s arm and walked back to our snow angels, Zach called out, “what’s wrong?”
I stood in front of the snow angels and whispered a quiet prayer, ��please protect this one,” I placed my hands into the middle of my snow angel, fanned out to look somewhat like a butterfly, I felt a tear trickling from my eye, and I brushed it away.
I quickly rejoined Zach who’d raised an eyebrow at me, “was that for Alexandria?”
“Maybe,” I whispered, biting my lip, Zach continued giving me an awkward stare, but he wrapped his arm around my waist, resting his hand on my stomach, unknowingly answering his own question with the simple yet touching gesture.
#wild kratts#zach varmitech#wild kratts zach#love zach varmitech#wild violet au#ziolet#violet varmitech#wild kratts fanfic#wild kratts oc#f/o x s/i#self ship#drabblecember#drabblecember 2023#one shot#fluff#light angst#tw cursing#tw pregnancy#loss of child#pregnancy tw#pregnant#making out#kiss#alexrinellavarm#selfship
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The Crossing
This one is for you my beloved @lightwise. I wrote my thoughts down while the episode was released and decided to take some screenshots. Not profread just copied the text and added the pictures.
This is still one of my all time favorite episodes.
Well, first of all, the scenery, the planet, the colors, the music that really appealed to me. You have to know that as a geologist I love deserts and sandstone formations. Unfortunately we don't have much of that in Europe, I was in America for three weeks once, that was the most wonderful thing I've experienced from a geological point of view.
Back to geology. The mine and that mineral they're supposed to extract. Needless to say, I would be there right away? Super interesting, I would of course pee my pants with fear, but what the heck. That sounds like an adventure to my taste.
I can't stop staring at Tech's tight Star Wars ''jeans''. This episode it's even a bit dustier and dirtier from the environment. Please don't blame me! (Where the thirst started ;))
I just have to mention again how beautiful these sandstone formations are. I read somewhere that someone wrote about Space Utah and I think that's 100% correct.
(And just a random Sergeant picture for you, because he's hot and we can, look at this man.)
And then comes the absolute lion king moment! That can only be intentional, right? I was really scared for a moment because I associated the scene so closely with The Lion King. It was one of my favorite movies as a kid and the scene where Mufasa dies still makes me cry sometimes. I mean, those critters literally look like space antelopes, don't they?
Oh man and I felt SO sorry for Wrecker! How heartless Tech sent him back down to get the Ipsium. ''What about protecting me?'' I just wanted to shout I protect you. And again a very uneasy feeling watching the animals trample over him, maybe that traumatized me more than I thought as a child.
And how Tech then just take the container himself, hello? I mean we already talked about him being a good fighter just like his brothers. But you're just not used to the autistic nerd being so physically fit. That's pretty hot. (Edit: Still a shrimp, we love it)
And the next argument between Tech and Wrecker. It's hard to defend Tech because he's really acting like an ass. You can tell how depressed Omega is in this situation and Hunter is just trying to hold everything together. I really feel sorry for him because I can't imagine he's doing really well, but as a parent, you always have to hold back your emotions. But isn't it clear here that the group has been thrown off balance? That they obviously care that Echo is gone, as some have complained after the last episode?
''What is your issue'' really wanted to make me scream.
And Omega's angry face afterwards. I just want to jump in and smooth things out. I mean it's nothing new that kids get traumatized in Star Wars. Boba didn't exactly have the dream childhood either, but I don't think it was worked out anywhere and thought about it, it's so wonderful.
And props to Wrecker I had to laugh SO MUCH as he looks at Tech afterwards and shakes his head in slight disappointment after she left just wonderful, so many little details anyway and the facial expressions just lovely.
And then comes THE moment. I mean this man just doesn't hesitate for a second and jumps after Omega, into the dark, into the unknown, he could just die but he doesn't hesitate. I'm just so speechless, if this isn't even a complete unconditional love father/brother moment I don't know what is.
It just seemed to me, but the way Hunter looked after they both fell, it felt like he could really sense that something was wrong and that they were both in danger, which I found really interesting.
The cave they end up in is so beautiful. But apart from that, I would have died of fear if I had been pulled under the water like that. And the moment when Tech is on the ground and lifts his goggles slightly to let water run out, another cute little detail!
And then comes the conversation, I don't even know if I want to go into all of this here, you could probably write an essay about that alone. I'll just sum it up, it was wonderful, it touched me and I think a lot of people who can identify with it did too. That there isn't just one way to express your feelings, that just because you don't show obvious feelings doesn't mean you don't have any or don't care. Most of the time when I'm feeling really bad I don't talk to anyone and you might think the same thing that I don't care about anyone and don't care, but that assumption couldn't be more wrong. I feel for Tech, I feel his words, I think that's one of the best lines of the season as well as his ''Understanding you does not mean I agree with you'' from season one. I'm jealous that despite everything he can express exactly how he feels, that he doesn't know how to feel about the changes.
And the first time, the first time they say they're a family, not just a squad, and Tech confirms it, that made me so happy. The scene is so beautifully acted, the facial expressions are so good. How Tech falters in the meantime and struggles for words, not at all self-confident and precise as usual. That made me so happy.
I may process moments and thoughts differently, but it does not mean that I feel any less than you. The sentence!!! And if he feels that way about Echo, how about Crosshair? His brother, who he's known since they were little? I'm crying! I really can't wait to see you all again Crosshair, it's getting so emotional!
And that it's just Tech who is allowed to shoot the Ipsium, no, not Hunter but Tech, how he holds the blaster with both hands, yes, we already had the topic of weapons, but that's just hot too. Now imagine some target practice with Tech or Crosshair, or best of all with both, I'd be a nervous wreck!
Did I mention that Tech sometimes walks a bit stacked, like a giraffe? It's hilarious, I had to remember that Penny once called Sheldon a giraffe. These tall, lanky nerd boys, I'm in love. (Here comes the shrimp again!)
And the perfect ending as Omega just uses Tech's words to keep morale up and he gives her a slight smile. Bonding mission successfully completed I would say!
Lot's of love and may the force be with you my space sister.
#the bad batch#the bad batch season 2#the crossing#zirkonia rambles#zirkonias edits#tbb tech#tbb hunter#tbb wrecker#tbb omega#family bonding time#space utah
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I need some Hot Crow Takes on what was the worst example of Villain Decay throughout ToA. also on what Leonora Janeth uses in her hair
send me a meta prompt (currently closed); thank you for the ask!
the arcane and esoteric mysteries of janeth's haircare regimen are beyond my humble (straight-haired) supposings. but for the villain decay? oh, morgana, hands down.
gunmar is spooky, but a bit of a ham. for most of trollhunters, he’s also relatively distant. bular is a lot closer, and much more of an immediate threat, but he’s always ultimately subordinate (either to stricklander or his father) and he does, in the end, get got by a teenager. angor is initially presented as terrifying, and rightly so, but even if he becomes sympathetic he’s always formidable; stricklander starts out pretty nefarious (especially if you think about some of the implications of e.g. feeding bular a human security guard) but is of course, in proper gdt fashion, domesticated by wuv. obviously i have niche side blorbo brain fungus re: the arcane order but it's hard to assess their actual "villain decay" without having to think about That Film. at any rate, i don't think they're actually the worst example in toa: despite a concept/design that fucks so absolutely severely, once they get on screen, they're not actually built up all that much (or...well). it takes them less than the space of an episode (22 minutes) to go from "dread, ancient terrors that even merlin is afraid of" to "merlin shooing away them, the green knight, and their evil floating skull castle with less effort than he usually spares to criticize douxie." but that's another post.
morgana, though. part of what made her such a compelling villain was how little arthur figured in trollhunters. the existence of merlin implies the existence of arthur, of course, but in trollhunters arthur isn't there at all. instead, we get the negative space of him: his right hand (merlin) and the anti-arthur (morgana). obviously this is partly her role in arthuriana proper, but it also strikes me as pretty deliberate here: merlin's liege vs. merlin's student (and that liege's sister); humanity's last best hope vs. the queen of the otherworld; the king under the mountain vs. the witch under arcadia. i was not very tuned into morgana when i first got into trollhunters, but looking back over the series for this ask, the parallels are so obvious. and so tight! i wouldn't be surprised if some of this was even deliberate.
and the thing is: trollhunters has enough space as a series that its antagonists don't really have to pull their punches. morgana was nasty in trollhunters. pale lady, baba yaga, eldritch queen, mother of monsters—holy shit, right? and she's creepy, too: all muttering whispers and dread ancient magic! she takes angor’s soul, and then his free will. she taunts stricklander while possessing the body of one of his students (while threatening the permanent exile of two more to the depression dimension), and then in the guise of the human he's in love with. speaking to her faithful children—who only exist through morally dubious, unpleasant processes, for which she is implied to be responsible—via institutional heirloom phonograph! she's so much more connected to the shadow realm, here, probably the most compelling justification for reading shadow magic as dangerous. she's the big bad behind angor and gunmar (while playing them both against each other). she absolutely feels evenly paired with merlin, and (rightly) kicks his ass through most of the battle of the eternal night. she's evil but charismatic and even despite all that still a little human: when she taunts jim for not knowing merlin used her hand for the amulet, it isn't without a shadow of what must have been an ancient hurt.
and then. wizards. jesus christ (tired ben affleck smoking dot jpg)
[ » read the rest of the essay on ao3 ]
#tales of arcadia#toa morgana#trollhunters#toa wizards#morgana le fay#q&a#mine#the obvious solution to your second prompt is 'janeth is also a wizard' ofc#but i was sitting here thinking about the first one and if you will pardon the pun. this answer. possessed me#this is public for now bc i know at least one person i really want to read it who might not have an ao3 account... but watch out maybe
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@knowledgeseeker01
I hope you don’t mind me responding to this with a post so I’m not restricted by the limited reply character count!
But, yes! I really, really loved that scene. My understanding was that the intention of the silence was mostly just to add a feeling of suspense for the audience, seeing that we experience the show with Suletta as our protagonist. While we do have a more omniscient understanding of the characters than we would if we were entirely restricted to a Suletta POV only, especially with the show’s use of dramatic irony to build conflict, the show is written for us to root for Suletta. So, during that silence, we have that extra sense of dread because we can clearly see Miorine shouting, but can’t hear anything until the moment Suletta wakes up.
I agree that it is a very well-integrated callback.
So much is the same from the blue light
To the headbutt (which is not really easy to get a screen grab of from episode 1 because that one was mostly a folly effect that conveyed it).
While it’s true that these two scenes were intentionally very similar, I feel like a lot of their relationship is in general centered around them saving each other in both a figurative and a literal sense.
Besides these two scenes, there’s also the one where Miorine drags Suletta out of the way from that first duel she witnesses. Then Suletta stops Guel and his lackeys from trashing Miorine’s greenhouse (which is very personal to her). Then we have Miorine trying to step in and fight Suletta’s duel against Guel for her and struggling, so Suletta steps in and takes her place. There’s also the instance where Miorine saves Suletta in court from her father and throws away her chance to escape to Earth. Suletta also continues dueling over and over to ensure that Miorine isn’t married off to some jerk. Not to mention that Miorine starts a whole-ass company to save Suletta from going back to court. Then you have Suletta having the spiral where she feels useless and Miorine confronting her and reassigning the work she originally thought was burdensome on Suletta so that she knows that she is wanted and needed. Suletta also literally KILLS someone to save Miorine at Plant, and Miorine responds in horror when she realizes how deep Prospera’s influence runs and she decides to sacrifice her own happiness for the sake of Suletta not being tainted by the whole “sins of the father” premise that we see through the show.
We see another small reference to all of these instances after they’ve been separated for that time after their “breakup” where we see Mio spiral into a depression for platforming someone to start a war, and is pulled back into reality by Suletta (which I could write another analysis on in itself). Shaddiq even asks Miorine if her change in character is “because of that Mercurian Girl,” which shows that their strengthening relationship is palpable to other characters.
So, to me, to see that this whole cycle of building trust and feelings for one another through saving the other person start and end in the same way was confirmation for just how important it is that their relationship is mutual in what they provide for each other, which is generally one of the primary factors of a successful and loving relationship. The sequence being the same is just a beautiful cherry-on-top for this whole “I want you to rely on me” / “Now I want to ask her the same” cycle.
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QUICKIE - 2: Watchu Want Me To Say Tho?!...
Listening to INDIGO by RM on repeat. STILL. YES. I KNOW.
[Music is a very big part of my life and I’m MOSTLY INCAPABLE of writing without music, so I just thought I'd share what I am listening to while writing this]
–🐺–🐺–🐺–
I know, I know, I know .. I have blogs to complete, comments to reply and asks waiting for me to answer; I know. There are reasons for the lack thereof, of course, but today, today I will not stay here and bore you with My Lifes’ Whys, I’m currently feeling a heavy wave of sadness, which I am starting to finally recognise as a sign that my period is looming. Used to only have pain, but now I’ve evolved to heave-ass sadness ungracefully tiptoeing its way into depression, which given some personal stuff and very recent Tannie Jin specifically stuff, couldn’t have come at a worse time. But I digress, as I said, today I shall not share negative stuff.
Instead, I’d like to share a cute/funny/peculiar thing that I realised/noticed Jikook do from time to time when they start something with each other and one of them proceeds to perhaps take it a bit too far until the other is left in a situation where they are like: “Whatchu Want Me To Say Tho?! …” NGL, most of it is usually JM, but JK has his fair share;source: Trust Me Bro. As this is a “quickie” I’ll bring up 3 examples for each. Let’s start with JM.
#1 … IT’S JUST A GAME THO.
Time & Place: RUN BTS 15 - Aired March 14, 2017.
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This was the second episode of “The Spy Who Returned” 3 parts RUN BTS episodes. At the very beginning of the episode, they are playing a “tolerance” game where they are divided into couples and each has to say something that they don’t like or that bothered them about the other and the other has to not be offended and “sincerely” state that they “understand/I see”. The couples were: Tae & Namjoon, JM & Jin and JK and Hobi (Yoongi was the host).
JK & Hobi went last and though JK had nothing to say, Hobi did, lots to say in fact 😂, which in itself would have been enough but JM, out of nowhere, had the not-so-brilliant impulse to get up in there, uncalled, to question JK about a mysterious toothbrush. JK is clearly taken-aback like all of us watching I am sure given that he and JM are in the same team. Yet JM doesn’t stop, he clearly wants to hear something from JK in regards to … the toothbrush. JK does reply, and says that the toothbrush wasn’t his and JM stands there speechless, seemingly not expecting that answer … oh the confusion of it all! … which is why JK’s “it wasn’t me” actually really felt to me more like a: “Whatchu Want Me To Say Tho?! …” .
This to me in “Whatchu Want Me To Say Tho?! …”-vibe is very close to the “JK hugs me when he sleeps” moment which happened at the Sinchon Fansign - May 15, 2015.
#2 SO MUCH FOR PRESENTS …
Time & Place: FESTA 2017 - Aired June 12, 2017.
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We’ve actually already discussed this in a different previous post. This was one of the few times where JK wasn’t able to even try and reply to something. If it were me, and we were just friends, you’d have to wait for me to gift you something on your next birthday: YES I’M PETTY. Yet, homeboi pulled up that same year with a trip to Tokyo as a gift, so obviously the problem wasn’t the question itself. What was the problem? We will most likely never know, but in that very moment JK’s silence was definitely a: “Whatchu Want Me To Say Tho?! …” silence.
#3 SO YOU GETTING MARRIED UH?
Time & Place: WEVERSE LIVE in Busan - October 15, 2022.
This is one of my recent personal favs, because as opposed to the Jikook VLIVE - June 21, 2020, which also had to do with a marriage related question, this time around JK tried his very best to not divert the convo and hold his own. Yeah, he really did … but JM was not having it. He really wasn’t. How many of you have said “Yoongi Marry Me” for fun? How many of them have said “Yoongi Marry Me” for fun, including JM? At times even changing the Subject all in good fun.
This time around, JK simply mentioned that saw “Jungkook Marry Me” and all hell broke loose. Yeah, for some reason, JM wasn’t having it, and so began a little back-and-forth between the two at the end of which JM accepted that in summary JK “just saw the sign and meant to take no action”. JM smiled/laughed, got up and got out of frame. JK also smiled, watching JM leave, with a: “Whatchu Want Me To Say Tho?! …” giggle, like I don’t even know what just happened tho! aaand he proceeded to wait for him to get back like:
Jiminah … 😬.
And now it’s JK’s turn. Differently from JM this young man is a tad more determined in getting his answers and JM indulges, for the most part, in fact I’ve noticed that he’s never just kept silent, but don’t let it fool you, cause at times, whatever answer he provides wasn’t the answer JK was looking for; lest we forget that JM is indeed the HYUNG … but yeah, let’s get it!
#1 SOMETHING ABOUT THIS PICTURE …
Time & Place: JinJiKook VLIVE in Osaka - December 15, 2016.
Jin and Jimin decide to have a candy-centric episode of EatJin, and Jimin seems to be a bit on his mischievous streak right from the bat, but Jin, being the outstanding eldest hyung that he is doesn’t seem to mind at all and cutely goes along with his playful dongsaeng. All is well thus far until the bell rings and, you’ve guessed, it is JK.
By this point Jin, like all of us, is still very much oblivious to any argument/quarrel which might have happened between JM and JK, one may even dare say that frankly my dears, he didn’t give a damn! But JM had damns to give and so he did, testing JK on the other side of Jin’s closed hotel room. Jin is now starting to get confused and to this point, JM has full control of the whole situation, until JK whips out his cellphone.
Quite clearly JM didn’t take JK seriously, at first, he even egged him to post “whatever questionable pic” JK thought he had but that was Jin’s danger-alert-signal moment: no questionable pic was going to be uploaded on his watch and that’s how the doors were finally opened to the maknae. So, once JK got his way into the room, Jin, and us watching, clearly could sense something going on, but as for what exactly, nobody had a good clue. Like anything else revolving around Jikook afterall, for example, we may know that they once fought and JK ended up crying in the rain (FESTA 2020 - Aired June 12, 2020), but as to what caused the argument? … 🤷🏾♀️.
JM at this point is still trying to have it his way don’t ask me why, how would I know?! But JK was high on courage that day and ever so casually, the moment JM tried to leave the room, he once again whipped out his phone, pulled up a particular pic which we got to see later as JK did momentarily uploaded and it seemed he had something like a hickey on his neck and simply said “I took a good selfie” and JM quickly sat back down and replied “I won’t go then, all right” in a very: “Whatchu Want Me To Say Tho?! …” resigned manner. Then again, if the selfie was just that, a good selfie, JM could have easily said “sure, go ahead and show them”, but that’s not what happened right?
#2 STILL, YOU TURNED IT OFF
Time & Place: Jungkook (eventually TaeJiJinKook) VLIVE in New Jersey - May 19, 2019.
Yet again, Jin and Jimin were up to their shenanigans with our maknae, who just wanted to show his face to ARMY. That’s all he wanted but the other two ended the stream. So what does one do? If you are a JM you post a quick apology video on twitter, but if you are a JK you start your own stream: obviously.
This stream is supposed to be just you doing exactly what you wanted to do to begin with, show your face to ARMY, but then … all of a sudden there is a cough in the background and the plan folds when do plans every work anyways?!, immaright?.
Hence starts a whole convo summarising what just happened in Jin’s room leading up to JK’s “cutting off” during which not only does JM explain himself, he also apologises and lets JK once again know that he loves him. Yet, JK still stresses that, he just👏🏾 can’t 👏🏾let👏🏾 it 👏🏾go👏🏾 at which point JM decides that it is time for him to leave in a very: “Whatchu Want Me To Say Tho?! …” fashion, more like “what else do you want me to say?!”.
#3 I SEE HOW IT IS …
Time & Place: FESTA 2022 - June 14, 2022.
youtube
Emotions are running high, slightly tipsy, but still hella high as the boys start getting us ready to momentarily part from them. Within all of this there is a lot, A LOT, of banter there are even first official talk of a PJM1 and everyone was hella excited, ARMY and TANNIES alike except for a certain JK who playfully made it known that he didn’t appreciate not knowing about progress in said PJM1, not once, not twice, not thrice, but 4 times (didn’t put the 4th time in the pic because, you know, aesthetics 😌).
JM does try to explain that he’d told everyone that they were all more than welcome to go and listen to him working if they wanted though apparently JK wanted his hyung to go to him instead, but that is a different story … in addition, when Namjoon pointed out that Hobi will always be the first for JM, both JM and Hobi quickly worked together to deny the “accusations” but at this point I think JK was very much speeding on the “I AM UPSET”-train, so much so that none of it seemed to matter and he very much and very blatantly ended up telling JM:
At which JM did reply, quickly, shyly and all the colors in between, that “I am sorry” but in a very: I mean “Whatchu Want Me To Say Tho?! …” way, and who knows, were the cameras not on he might have had more to add, but, we’ll never know!
There are actually many more moments I can think of, and much funny at that, but this was supposed to be a quickie, and I can see that it ain’t damn … So let me just leave you all with this, go make myself productive, and not stress about life for a second or two. Hope you all have a great week, okay? Okay!
Always respectfully yours 🫰🏾💗 pink heart in honour of Jin,
Marengo.
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“We have to talk a little bit about last season and the finale and all that good stuff. Last season was unique. Still Season 5 is my ultimate favourite season but Season 6 is in some ways so special and it’s because I relate to it the most. I relate to all the ideas that were explored in this season. Yes, it’s painful and sad but it might be the realist season so far. The Big Bad this season was the Gang themselves. Everybody was their own worst enemy and everyone in the real world can relate to that. This season we got a real and unfiltered look through our characters’ very psyche. It deepened each character to a whole new other level. All the pain, all the heartbreak, all the depression, all that darkness, all that drama. It wasn’t for shock value. It was for a harsh and yet meaningful heartfelt story, and I love the show for that. So yeah, for all its sadness, I really really love this season. It showed that Buffy wasn’t just a witty, happy show with some sad episodes here and there. It can go to a really dark place and keep it there constantly. It made sense making life the villain of the season because Buffy struggled just with the idea of living and it’s such a real thing. Each character’s problems were real life situations that everyone can relate to. It felt like a carry over from ‘The Body’ episode. Like seriously.
The darkness and depression - most shows would have solved it in an episode or two. But this show shows that realistic path that this thing can take so long. Grief, depression, addiction cannot be easily curved over night. It takes time. And it makes this show so much more than just a typical fantasy/supernatural show. The fact that this season started with Buffy crawling out of her own grave only to end with her crawling out into the light. This symbolised how she overcome her depression. I loved how the whole season didn’t go with their traditional Big Bad of the season. There hasn’t been a huge villain conflict since Glory and most all of the baddies of the week were either the Trios schemes or self-inflicted by the main characters. But when we finally had a proper Big Bad, it was so complicated because it was Willow. And when you look back and you see the episodes with the Trio, you can also see that they also focused on issues with Willow. Like always hidden in plain sight. What a great way to hide the real Big Bad. The very fact that one of the Gang becomes the Big Bad is so fantastic. All the build-up of the last 4 episodes, 3 of which have jaw-dropping cliffhangers - amazing stuff.
Xander rejecting Anya at the wedding; magical drug addictions; Buffy handling her depression in a destructive way; Spike dealing with the chip, his demon side, his William side and the fact of what he almost did to Buffy; Willow turning into Dark Willow; Giles’ appearance - what the hell? What the hell? By the way, Alyson acted her entire ass off in those last 3 episodes. Only she can pull off being diabolically evil while she’s still simultaneously being Willow. A big theme that I thought was extremely profound is the idea of consent. Willow struggled with it many times during the season. She did magical spells on Tara and all her friends without their consent. The Trio of course - Jonathan didn’t even realize that having a sex slave was rape. Then Spike assaulting Buffy with the justification that she needed to feel him to be reminded of his love. Amy giving magic to Willow without her consent. They all violated someone in one way or another. And it was an interesting concept. And it was interesting that the fact that they tried to touch on that aspect, you know?
For me, I really didn’t like the Trio this season. They were a bit one-dimensional. Usually Big Bads are but in this season particularly it didn’t work. But I do understand why it was necessary to have them - if it makes sense. The only interesting part about them is how they started being just nerdy boys playing games, trying to be Big Bads even though they suck at that until they became men who committed evil crimes. Jonathan got it out of the 3. He was the most mature. He understood the weight of what they did. Yes, he kept quiet but he did realize that Warren was dangerous. Andrew - Andrew man is just a simp minion willing to blindly be loyal to him.
The thing that kinda bothered me a bit - I’m not sure ‘bothered me’ is the right words - but I didn’t like the fact that we didn’t really have the time to digest Tara’s death because immediately we went to Dark Willow. I love the scene between Xander and Willow not only because he was the one to pull Willow back, but it was also a moment for the grief or pain that Willow has gone through with the loss of Tara. The impact of Tara’s death was finally dealt with when Willow collapsed with Xander on the bluff. But as I said - it really made sense that Xander was the one who pulled her back because Xander more than anyone holds a special place in Willow’s heart. He’s her first love. Her best friend since childhood. I can’t think of anyone else who could’ve penetrated her wall of grief enough to remind her of her humanity. This season Xander spent time doubting himself, letting his fears take control of himself. He doubted his ability to do good by the people he loves. And it wasn’t just in a relation with Anya, it was in a relation with everyone else that is close to him. He doubted himself. He thought that he was incapable of doing anything for his loved ones. And for me in that scene, he overcome his fears. His love for Willow was strong enough that he overcome his fears even in the face of death - which was so beautiful to see. The greatest thing about seeing Anya’s reaction to hearing Xander’s the one to save the world this time is that realization that she spent all this time trying to hurt him that if she did he wouldn’t even be able to, you know, save the world. It was so subtle that I really really loved it. I would’ve never imagined a story’s arc that ended with both Buffy and Giles out of commission and leaving it to Xander to save the world from Willow. I mean, who would’ve thought? Willow always thought that she was a nobody and it was a constant thing since Season 1. But before Tara, before Oz, she always had Xander. He loves her even though she feels like she’s a nobody. But nevertheless he loved her the way she is and the way she was back then. And Xander is that constant reminder that old Willow was worth something, you know? And it’s such a beautiful thing to see. Also the fact that Willow and Xander’s relationship isn’t romantic - it is what makes this whole thing way better. I appreciate so much this show for giving us a platonic relationship. They put friendship at center and not romance. And God, I love this show for this, like seriously. Like in this whole Buffyverse I feel like there’s 3 characters who had the most character development of all the other characters. Willow, Cordelia and Wesley. Cordelia also did a total 180 and became a woman to be proud of in the end like Willow. And Wesley - this guy was a literal geek in every sense possible - and yet in a few years he became such a dark and bad ass character. And Willow - like from this sweet, genuine nerdy girl that lacks confidence to dark veiny Willow - like what?
Spike - they had us in the end. Like, seriously had us. Like I really thought he was talking about his chip. But it turned out to be not the case. I was played perfectly even though I noticed how it was weird that he was there looking to take his chip from out of his head to hurt Buffy when we already established that the chip doesn’t work on her in the first place. So yeah, I was like what? But they really did play me. But it makes sense knowing his existential crisis, and his feelings for Buffy are a huge part of that. And he has been struggling with himself non-stop this season. And I feel like what happened with Buffy was the final tipping point that spelled him. I remember his words being like ‘What have I done? What did I do? Why did I not do it? Why do I feel this way?’ But then it came to him and he sets out to get his soul back. He wants to go back to being William. A man that he thinks is worthy of Buffy. But we all know that getting your soul back after centuries of torturing, killing and mayhem doesn’t mean happiness and rainbows once you get it back. But this is only going to make Spike worthy to have a redemption arc, you know, just like Angel. And it’s interesting to know that the difference between Angel and Spike is that Angel didn’t choose to have a soul, Spike had. He chose on his own accord to get his soul back. So I’m not sure how it’s going to work with him, you know? So both Willow and Spike got their souls back at the end of Season 6 - which is interesting.”
Your entire recap/review of Season 6. Wow. I had to quote the whole thing.
You are so insightful. Holy shit.
I fucking love you!
👏👏👏👏👏👏
Yeah, Season 6 is very special. And you’ve explained precisely why and how just like that. I’m in awe. 😮
“So both Willow and Spike got their souls back at the end of Season 6 - which is interesting.”
I swear I thought I was the only one who picked up on this parallel. The fact Dark Willow and Spike don’t interact. Of course they don’t. They’re one in the same thematically. They are the parallel characters in Season 6 and that’s why Spike was so wary of Willow. Because he recognized in her what he can’t stand in himself. He intentionally kept away from her because he didn’t want to be reminded of who he is out of a desperate need to be worthy and feel belonged. There is some striking parallels between Willow and Spike yet they barely interact. But I do believe that this season it’s very intentional that they don’t.
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Why do you think Leon’s weight fluctuates so much?
i've tried to make a case in the past that it coincides with his depressive episodes, but that is a prime example of me just talking out my ass lmao
the reality is that it's just a difference in art style/direction between concept artists. some artists model his look after his RE2 look, and others stay closer to RE4
like vendetta leon was very clearly pulling from RE2, whereas ID/DI felt like the artist was looking more at RE4
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SPOILERS FOR EAW EPISODE 14
If they pull the WE LET EACH OTHER GO TO AVOID HURTING EACH OTHER.
Or he stays by her side as a friend bs especially with that talk he had with attorney Jung. Like it better not be some sacrificial agape love bs.
Then I would say;
FUCK THE WRITERS AND CREATIVES BEHIND THE SHOW.
Junho and Youngwoo are fine They are going to have to make mistakes, learn and grow just like every other romantic relationship. They are good for each other. Theirs isnt a typical romance and they knew,we knew there would be challenges from the get go.
Fine,ngl, I love me some angst. THIS TEMPORARY BREAK UP plot better something that gets them both to be stronger and realize how good they for each other. This pain that they are going through, difficult as it is is necessary for them to navigate the future together.
They cannot end because of the prejudice against them. I know it's real. Even with people watching the show. Recall how a lot of people were so adamant that Junho was just being nice. They had millions of reasons but I still call out the hypocrisy that if the titular character was "normal",lots of the anti romance plot people would've been with fine it.
One person shared a theory with me yesterday,saying that Young woo was never invested in the relationship as much as Junho. That yes while she liked him alot and he was definitely someone she is comfortable with, dating him didn't mean anything different to her. That it was mostly the talks from Geurami that fit her curious. And so the break up with him isn't going to hurt her as much. She'll just go back to being herself and Junho will probably move on but still be there for her.
Like what the fuck? Excuse me? Pardon??
You're telling me that miss woo "you're the first person I wanted to see again again or you are in my head just like whales "(or something like that) young woo wasn't into it the relationship as much as Junho? Her telling him she likes him that her heartbeat accelerated even when she hasn't touched him. The same woman that watched him through the office blinds and blushed so bad when they held hands through the window. Are we watching the same show? And that uneccesary comment about Geurami? Acting like Young woo wasn't blushing when she was talking about her man?
They also brought up that young woo and Junho still address each other in polite form, rather than a romantic or even casual way means that there is a barrier. The show creators left that for a reason to hint that they won't progress.
Funny I didn't see that same reaction or theory when Dr. Winter was calling her boyfriend Professor Garden, Professor.
I know that this show is not centered around romance. I'd love it (and my young woo) without it too. The reason why I think I and many others are rooting for it is because the representation that disabled people can be loved. And not just portraying them as these quirky characters.
And what is up with the whole min woo getting the ladies now?? Like I've said, I'm not against a Minwoo perspective or even redemption arc. Though I wish that was introduced a tad bit earlier but this writing seems rushed and sloppy.
Is this plot to get Suyeon and Geurami together? They find out what he did and the founder and co founder of the young woo protection squad kick his ass? And then they date? I'm telling you if it wasn't for homophobia,those two would be an item by now already.
On less depressing abd annoying updates,DADDY JUNG IS OKAYYYY. All the scares we had thinking he was gonna die.
This also gives me hope about our whale couple.. The creators just like messing with us. They was like y'all been too happy. We'll hurt you and be all SIKE! at the end. Not at the very end I hope. I want to see communication between two of them and being clear on how they move forward together. THEY BOTH NEED IT.
Anyways I'll end this rant by saying, why would you let prejudice win? That would be a stupid thing to do. Thank you for portraying the prejudice that is a very real thing that happend but if you have them not work out,it wouldn't make sense. People in real life with disabilities and/ or disabled partners probably deal with this shit. I think they don't need a tv show saying yeah it will never work out because society says so.
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