#good writing

[fevermuffin]

The more miserable they look, the better the writing is

[crewdlydrawn]

This encompasses so succinctly why I love so many villainous characters.

[writerofstuff]

Dead Boy Detectives was surprising.

It surprised me when, instead of Crystal dropping in and fracturing Charles and Edwin's thirty years of friendship, they went with Crystal sinking into the fold of Charles and Edwin's friendship and becoming an important and unique addition to the group.

It surprised me when, instead of Gay Boy Pining Over Straight Best Friend, they went with Gay Boy Realises Feelings For Straight Best Friend And Confesses Almost Immediately with a bonus of Straight Boy Accepts Confession With Surprising Grace And Nothing Changes, Not Really.

It surprised me when, instead of making the female characters repetitive and semi-rational and ultimately less powerful, they went with characters who are smart and selfish and kind and cruel and strong and flawed and oh, they happen to be female too.

It surprised me when Charles liking Crystal did not affect one bit of how much he loved Edwin.

It surprised me when Jenny talked about spinsters with cats and Niko did not bat an eye.

It surprised me with Edwin and Niko. It surprised me with, we have forever to figure the rest out. It surprised me with Crystal's kindness, Jenny's empathy, the casual and absolute, the good you do will come back around.

Dead Boy Detectives was surprising. One day, I hope I can sit back and watch another show and none of this has to be surprising anymore.

[esterslightly]

that one Shakespearean level sentence you accidentally wrote at 3am

[garfieldthehuman]

"A dog... but with slouching skin, and a man's hands."

Is such a deeply unsettling way to describe a werewolf. I don't even really think of werewolves as particularly scary but that line just freaked me the fuck out.

[fraeuleintaka]

I don't think I've talked about this so far but I need to mention it: I love what OPLA does in involving both Nami and Vivi (or their female characters in general) in significant fights!

Shonen-type shows since immemorial always find a bunch of convenient excuses for why the few main female characters that they have don't get involved in important fights. "They just happen to sit this one out because of plot reasons", "they're not strong enough", "they're not much of a fighter", "they have other super important skills besides combat!" but epic fights are still 90% of the reason these types of shows exist and the vast majority of the plot. How convenient that you have about 3 main female characters across 3 different shows and this conveniently applies to all of them. Huh, what a coinkydink!

I would've preferred if OP had more female characters in its core cast but it does have Nami, at least, and some significant female side characters. OPLA also does a lot to counteract this trope of the female characters conveniently never fighting any significant battles, at least so far in S2.

Vivi has some major moments in helping out Luffy against Wapol in the season finale. Nami and Vivi both face one of the named villains in the Little Garden arc with Miss Valentine - and Nami even helps in Zoro and Usopp's concurrent battle against Mr. 5 while busy fighting herself. Nami completely naturally participates in the battle against Buggy's goons in S2E1 and, with Usopp, even defeats the only "boss" in that battle with Alvida. While Smoker fights and defeats Miss Thursday, Tashigi fights and defeats Mr. 11, which even directly goes against the "action rule" that women are only allowed to fight other women. There's no feeling that the women are less capable fighters than the men, apart from individual characters obviously being more powerful than other individual characters, and there's no sense that the women are constantly taken out of the action for one convenient reason or another. Nami does spend the last 3 episodes of the season being ill which is also explicitly the reason she doesn't participate in the final fight against Wapol and his henchmen, but this is an exception, not the rule, which is why it doesn't hurt the story. Isolated cases like this are normal and happen to the men just as well (e.g. Luffy in S2E1) which is also shown in how Vivi participates in the final fight no problem.

Of course, the female characters also have other skills, characteristics and plot relevance that doesn't just revolve all around fighting (e.g. the way Nami's navigation skills are a major topic in S2E2 or how Vivi's bonding with the crew and her goal of saving her country drives a lot of the plot in the second half of the season), but the involvement of the female characters in the fighting is significant and feels completely natural, and I love OPLA for that.

[itsyourvoiceuseit]

I will say, I like that Kyle's War College buddies, even if they don't approve of his interest in Jay-Den, are still willing to throw down to defend his right to pursue Jay-Den. Because it's not like Darem was trying to physically attack Kyle. He was just trying to pull Jay-Den away because he was being a possessive baby. But Dzolo still stomped over to tell him to fuck off so Kyle could keep dancing with Jay-Den. It stops them from being two dimensional villains, and I appreciate that.

This show is so good.