#mad rants

[fandomsmadness]

TBHX episode 24 rant

This will, I think, mostly be incoherent. You have been warned.

Spoilers below cut, as always.

Bullet points on main post today. Any deeper analyses will come later and if so, I'll link them to this one.

Addition to the Zero lore drop here.

Small side notes on the segment where everyone's stories are connected here.

First half of the episode was just everyone going "kill X!" but stellar animation and we got introduced to so many heroes

I am finding it interesting though, that Treeman is strangely absent from this battle

Speaking of animation, I love how they supplemented this ep with little text prompts. A very cool nod to X's powers and a strong contender in favour of said powers being animation related

X really misses Smile. This messed me up

I still think he went to the bridge that day to save Nice and not Smile tho, because he's so time conscious. This entire episode, he constantly aligns with time. Heck, even at the end, he says he's clocking out on time. And he clearly has some control over time; he showed Ahu (and us, it was sorely needed) a chronological timeline.

Weird that he would be late to save the person he so obviously cared about. I believe he had to save Nice and not Smile, for some reason, but that doesn't stop him from feeling guilty and missing him.

We have yet another version of the Zero lore drop! Going to supplement my post on the earlier lore. New analysis here.

My man was just straight up aura farming for most of the episode and I loved it

I love how they characterized Ahu; he's a hero, but unlike the humans, he is a dog and unable to comprehend how hypocritical humans are. Valid. But I lowkey don't like the way everyone is condescending to Ahu. Like c'mon guys, y'all should do better instead of laughing at the wholesome one

On the same note, pixel Ahu is cute and he has a funny side. A win-win

THIS PARTICULAR SHOT IS SO INTERESTING. Is X undetected and unnoticed by people he doesn't want to be noticed by?

X is not omnipotent (although we knew that already) but the interesting part is that even he doesn't seem to have any idea how he became a hero; even he puzzles over it

The infinity symbols surrounding X are still very intriguing. What happens when you're in the middle of an infinite domino effect?

It would be really funny if it's the top 10 heroes' own belief in X as an opponent is what gives him his power.

Okay I have no analysis here except WTFFFFFFF NICE????

LH0 can you stop breaking this boy? First it was mentally and now you literally physically break him??? BRO

He's reminding me of that particular technique in ceramic where you put together broken pottery with gold in the cracks. Except we don't know what Nice's cracks are sealed with. He's so fragile. A porcelain doll. LH0 WHAT-

The ending credits deserve a whole post of their own: Fortunately for me, @/ceo-of-xfc has done a great job here. An addition tho:

IT SHOWS US. Us, voting in the damn polls! Does this mean X is sustained by our real life trust value fr????

On a final note, there's notable additions and deviations from the plot we know in the domino segment.

Lin Ling falls with Nice

2. Mo Sha attacks E-Soul just after he kills Moon (we have confirmation he did in fact shoot Moon, and that, for some reason, Mo Sha is also there)

3. Lucky Cyan and Queen (not new info but also very cute)

God, can't believe we went a whole season and the damn tournament STILL didn't start.

How are we supposed to live like this-

[madmoonfae]

Big fan of the vibes in these books

[dootznbootz]

It's genuinely frustrating when you enjoy the Odyssey and Epic, as while they DO share a lot of similarities, they ARE very different :/ And it's super duper frustrating that people somehow think that Epic Odysseus loves Penelope more than Odyssey Odysseus, like, y'all, where do you think Jay got the inspiration from?

[autismcreature7]

+43 +4!ng $0m3 p30p13 d0n’+ $33m +0 und3r$+@/nd @/80u+ c@/11!ng @/n7 0f +43 D@/+3 3v3r7+4!ng c4@/r@/c+3r$ “c4!1d-c0d3d”

1. M!$u$3$ +43 +3rm “c0d3d” @/nd $40w$ 70u 4@/v3 n0 c1u3 w4@/+ c0d!ng @/c+u@/117 !$

2. N0rm@/1!z3$ +43 !nf@/n+!11!z@/+!0n 0f @/du1+$ w40 100k 70ung3r 0r 4@/v3 “8@/87 f@/c3$, 0r ju$+ 4@/v3 $0f+3r f3@/+ur3$. 70u c@/n 1!++3r@/117 ju$+ $@/7 “04, !’m ju$+ n0+ @/++r@/c+3d +0 +4!$ c4@/r@/c+34 83c@/u$3 !’m $!mp17 n0+ !n+0 +43!r p47$!c@/1 f3@/+ur3$ 0r “+4!$ c4@/r@/c+3r ju$+ !$n’+ m7 +7p3”, 8u+ 70u f0r $0m3 r3@/$0n d3c!d3d +0 $@/7, “!f @ p3r$0n 100k$ 1!k3 +4!$, ! w0n’+ $33 +43m @/$ @/n @/du1+” @/nd !+’$ $up3r fuck3d up +0 tr3@/+ p30p13 1!k3 c4!1dr3n 83c@/u$3 0f 40w +437 100k.

@/1$0 n0n3 0f +43 D@/+3 3v3r7+4!ng c4@/r@/c+3r$ 100k 1!k3 m!n0r$ @/nd !f 70u +4!nk +4@/+, 70u’v3 n3v3r $33n @ c4!1d.

The thing some people don’t seem to understand about calling any of the Date Everything characters “child-coded”

1. Misuses the term “coded” and shows you have no clue what coding actually is

2. Normalizes the infantilization of adults who look younger or have “baby faces”, or just have softer features. You can literally just say “oh, I’m just not attracted to this character because I’m simply not into their physical features” or “this character just isn’t my type”. But you for some reason decided to say “if a person looks like this, I won’t see them as an adult” and it’s super fucked up to treat people like children because of how they look.

Also none of the Date Everything characters look like children and if you think that, you’ve never seen a child.

[into-the-hell]

Can’t believe shit I’m reading about Win Butler… why are men such pieces of shit!?

Arcade Fire means so much to me and reading all this stuff makes me sick and heartbroken. I wouldn’t have made it through the high school and half of my uni years if it wasn’t for Arcade Fire, but now I feel betrayed

[aesthetic0of0a0peach]

You like being mean to the ones that love and care for you to be liked by all the others. Loser

[stillmadaboutpetra]

i work a full time job n a part time job and am tired all the time :)) *looks at my lack of energy n motivation* this is fine,

[fandomsmadness]

TBHX episode 8 rant

Hey, for once I'm not actively a wreck (just passively and internally curled up into a ball, not that that's much better)

Lucky Cyan is so precious omg. Heavy spoilers from this point on.

Before we start the breakdown, establishing timeline before I myself forget. Cyan survives a plane crash 23 years after commission (at 3 years old, I think someone said?) and by the time the episode ends we're 11 years from then, 34 years after commission and 2 years before Yang Cheng's whole...disaster.

Since I am apparently allegic to breaking down things in order, first up is religion. Jesus freaking Christ I did not expect that turn of events At. All. But it makes so much sense retrospectively!

Of course powers of luck would be distilled into a hope cult, of course she has a great singing voice, of course she was made a "sacred maiden" when she was not even hitting two digits of age. Her singing Neon Rain and its lyrics suddenly make a lot more sense now.

This shot killed me. I was not expecting religious commentary at all given what we knew of Lucky Cyan's background but I have to give it up for LHO, it's so well done.

There is a closely tied-in theme of exploitation here (and isn't that telling in and of itself) and I love how the episode took the time (it was noticeably slower paced to let this sink in, which I liked) to expound on the different types of exploitation and their extents, regardless of intentions.

I also loved (absolutely hated) how the Dean told Ms Zhao that she's exploiting the child, only for him to go and do it a whole other way, just without the money part. Morality really is subjective, but it doesn't stop exploitation from being exploitation.

Like girl really never had a break. She needs a hug.

Second - technically - on the list is that I am hyped about a character being from the media! I was really wondering how much censorship would be rampant to keep up trust value and now we have our answer:

A LOT.

But it also feels to me that the media is unfair and demands too much of heroes (as does everyone else, tbh). Expecting them to prevent every single accident (emphasis: accident) seems a bit of a stretch, and in airspace. It's impossible for heroes to monitor everything everywhere all the time, no matter the numbers. A singular accident leading to accusations and pointing fingers does seem far-fetched.

At the same time, what did they mean hero conflict? A hero couple in a scandal? Cyan's arc seems to be showing us the politics of the system through Liu Zhen far more than Lin Ling and Yang Cheng's understanding was able to fathom.

Me reading the subtitles: "Oh that's very particular wording." Liu Zhen two seconds after: "What do you mean?" Say what you want about Liu Zhen, but man undeniably has good reporting instincts. But I also think this means we will get to see Enlighter this arc too, or at least, the beginning of the fear org, whose name I have promptly forgotten.

Third on the list is trust value because hold on what do you mean it's always been like this.

Cyan has to be the daughter of a hero couple at this point. There's no way hero couples are suddenly introduced to us, Cyan has trust value out of nowhere, survives a plane crash with whisperings of "hero conflict" around it, for this to end up not being related to her trust value. It's fascinating how every single arc we've had so far have different stories on trust value.

And what was up with Yang Cheng and his 0 trust value when even the Bad Luck Calamity had 10?? What??

Other highlights:

Queen!

No wonder Queen is about order and decreasing chaos and seems very political, she has a reporter for a father (said father is increasingly suspicious as it goes but we ignore that for now). She's so poised at 14 and will likely meet Cyan soon through her dad I hope. Her statement about "wanting to overturn trust value" was also ringing multiple bells in my head somewhere.

Animation style

Gave me quite a few laughs, which was sorely needed in the middle of being deeply disturbed by how people treated Cyan.

X(?)

Idk, but that flyer's timing seemed very fishy. The X marks the spot on the treasure map, Queen striving to be X, even the cross behind Cyan's silhouette looking like an X there's a lot less subtle X references in this episode. The aforementioned scandal may kick off another hero tournament.

The good luck/bad luck combo

This is so precious and he's totally going to die isn't he? But he's the only one who seems to see Cyan as a person and not a means to be exploited until now.

Overall, great introductory episode, fuck the dean, and we have two years to go before we know Cyan is on stage performing while Xia Qing cries.

Also, I love her song. That is all.