#( totally used this to write some cannon backstory )

[in-fair-verona-we-set-our-scene]

Oh if you think Lusamine is bad, have you ever played a Fire Emblem game? That franchise can't write an evil women to save their lives.

Even a woman that trafficked and enslaved orphans as cannon fodder soldiers got a last minute sob story about how it wasn't her fault and a purely evil man victimized her and made her to do it.

Oh jesus christ that is pretty bad. Like god forbid she's actually evil. No, it's because of a man (the only gender allowed to have any agency I guess). Lusamine at least had a sad backstory and some driven-mad-by-the-revelation stuff going on that could certainly make her tragic on top of everything else, but at least she was allowed to have her bad decisions put on extra-dimensional chemicals driving her crazy instead of a man abusing and using her. Still, even if they wanted to go the route of Lusamine's agency being compromised, they still could've done more with it instead of it being used an excuse. It should be used constructively, making her more nuanced and interesting and human, giving depth to her behaviour rather than undermining her character by essentially saying the most important things we know her for weren't even her in the first place. It also really stands out because I think she's the only main plot pokémon villain to be let off so easily and casually while also being the only woman.

And in your case it seems like they wanted to have your character "redeemed" but couldn't stomach either the work actual redemption arcs require or the idea that a female character (or any character really, but female characters are always held to a higher standard, so either they're totally faultless or nothing but pure evil) can be redeemed after a certain point which is just... lazy honestly, or cowardly. So instead of actually dealing what she did they just nullify it by making it not her fault so she doesn't actually have anything really bad to redeem herself for. Which means all the impact these major things she did had on her character and how others relate to her was totally pointless. Fine, make her sad and tragic and soften the edges, but that doesn't mean they don't have to actually deal with it. Like, it's fiction, redeem your war criminal if you want, just... actually do it. Or have her just be evil! Women can be evil! A female character can be unapologetically evil and still great!

Regardless, it's one thing to make your character a woobie. It's another to say all the things they did didn't matter at all.

And like, I also think the redeemable-irredeemable binary is pretty reductive anyway from a writing perspective, especially when it's targeted at female characters because it flattens them and screams of a reluctance to have them do anything truly bad unless they're like, 2D caricatures we're meant to just hate, because that requires female characters being complex and full of depth and interesting even when they're shitty people. I don't even think they need to be "held accountable" or whatever, I just think if you put something that big in the narrative it needs to be followed through on instead of balking at the last minute and, especially with female characters that are meant to be liked by the audience, people are reluctant to do that.

[armchairaleck]

WIP update as I might post snippets of some of these and it will be handy to remember what they are..

I am slowly.. very slowly coming to terms with the fact that TDP is probably going in a different direction with certain aspects of lore and world building than I originally thought and that certain burning questions I have may never actually be answered and hey, that’s fine.. I get there’s theme and minute details about historic events might not be that important to the story being told.. ngl I do miss the flashbacks though, I guess Viren’s dream almost counts..

Plus side it leaves a vast amount of writing ideas wide open and lets me indulge in all my weirdest Viren ships so.. yay?

But also meh… historical world building..

Anyway current WIP projects which are all in various levels of unlikely to ever see the light of day:

Gothic AU which I had planned to be a kinda intense wuthering heights style Kpp’Ar/Viren romance while they sorta accidently unleash Aaravos on the world, but it has now turned more into a tale of academic/magical snobbery in a universe where dark magic is largely obsolete and everyone vies for the last scraps of power to curry favour with the king.. thanks season 5.. Viren is a poor wannabe student who can’t afford the fees to study even the theory of magic.. Kpp’Ar is a very rare practising but shouldn’t be practising dark mage… and because of how show Kpp’Ar turned out there is now more power play in the inappropriate age gap relationship, but damn, I still ship them pretty hard so I guess those student/master vibes have to go somewhere..

It swings kinda close to my dark King Atticus IS CANNON KING ATTICUS backstory… which I badly want to squeeze in around the snippets of what we have despite him seeming like such an utterly chill geezer… but whatever… I want total bastard Atticus who will use and abuse his access to dark mages and magic in order to further the political aims of Katolis… who will plot and scheme with Kpp’Ar to create an intricate web of deceit that no one can penetrate, who will take the deep insecurities of everyone he knows and hone them to his advantage, who will pimp out his own son to Viren to tighten their co-dependence and generally fuck them up…

and then I kinda also want his dying spirit to inhabit Viren dybbuk style, so Atticus can be constantly sniping into Viren’s subconscious whenever he tries to bone Harrow… because that’s amusing to me… anyway that’s basically just a long list of stuff I want but obviously won’t get…

Then ahem there’s my Viren/Corvus shipping, that probably shouldn’t be mentioned, is almost certainly completely inappropriate for this fandom, (as if any of the above wasn’t..) I’m keeping quiet on this one as it’s what I currently spend the most time actually writing and might actually get finished.. oh well.. RIP me.

Plus I still have cyber punk AU on the back burner because whenever I start really thinking about it and theorising on how Xadia and the human kingdoms would look with a hard cyber border in the year 1988 and Aaravos secretly pulling all the strings towards his own dubious machinations I come out with something pushing the word count of Dune and I cry.. because really I just want a little bit of Viren and Ibis smut action and this is the only way my brain can think of achieving it..

So the main issue for me here is that all these ideas clock in way over the 10k word mark that I like to limit myself to in the interests of getting something finished.. multi-chapter is not my friend, nor is intensive world/lore building, nor is development of OC’s, or deviously intricate plot.. so why all my ideas now involve quite a lot of those things I don’t know.. it probably means I won’t complete any of them..

Still I do also have a few 5-10k Virrow angst ideas that I might be able to get on with..

[sadistic-sakamaki]

@lvndrbattle​ has said:

I follow you because I like they way you wrote Ayato I don't think I can be good at writing cannon muses and I am new to this dark trope.

Send me an “I follow you because:”

Ooc; Thank you so much! It makes me happy to hear that you enjoy my work. Ah~ Writing canon muses is all about studying the characters well, and then implementing what sounds right to you! I can see how it can be difficult for some people to write canon muses, but, personally, I have always admired those who have their own original characters. I mean, coming up with a backstory and an entire character all by yourselves? That’s so admirable work right there. At least canons have some base; some foundation to build upon or to refer to. Originals characters are a totally different challenge. Both takes require talent, though, so let’s enjoy both canon and ocs alike! 

As for the dark trope, you’ll get the hang of it.~ It can be a bit tricky to get used to if you never wrote the genre before, but it’s so fun! Wishing you all the good luck on your journey!

[lgcbyungho]

LGC 3RD ANNIVERSARY : PERFORMING ARTS

performance song : hoody ft gray - adios  word count of 332

byungho’s audition was completely different from his introduction video. as an aspiring musical actor one has to be able to sing.

during high school, byungho associated himself with a group of ‘friends’ ( who ditch him after he was accepted ) that was consider to be popular around school. for someone who wishes to be accepted by the popular crowd byungho did what he had to do to stay with them. though even if they’re not friends now he had to admit that he owe it to them for getting him accepted. 

byungho grew up acting in varies school plays. however, being an idol wasn’t his dream but the other kids wanted to be idols. they took vocal classes, and so did byungho. he did everything he had to so that he could prepare to sing for this audition. 

on the day of the audition , byungho was getting second thought. he didn’t want this idol career that the others was shooting for so why was he here, singing? however, it was too late. byungho was here and he was next.

“seong byungho.” he heard his name being called - ah fuck.

he could hear his so call friends mocking him as if he was going to fail. however, he knew better than to doubt himself just because his friends were. byungho laugh it off and walked into the audition room. 

“hello, my name is seong byungho.” he introduce himself. before getting the second cold feet, the male close his eyes and perform a verse from his song of choice. 

[ staring at 1:40  - 2:17 & resumes at 2:28 until he is asked to stop ] 

was that good enough? he hope so, just so he rub it in his friends face that he was better. better than they had assume he was. a judge smile? that had to be a good thing right. they stopped him and with a bow he smiled at them. 

“i’m seong byungho, I love singing but I hope to be the future rising actor.” he proudly reintroduce himself. 

[spittyfishy]

Do you have hc’s or writing on how shuichi would be as a remnant or a design I rly liked your maki one

Suichi’s actually been the hardest yet to pin down what he’d be like as a remnant, I simultaneously had lots of ideas and no ideas lol.

I think he’s the one most responsible for keeping the future foundation from catching the remnants for so long. He’d be able to use his detective know how to cover their tracks really well and set up false leads to send the future foundation on wild goose chases.

Personally wise, I think his pre game personality would probably be best? So like he likes his friends and thinks they’re all super interesting, and he’s vibing with all the despair stuff (possibly a little too excited), but he’s also very skittish? I think that’s the right word? Like he’d be able to stare at corpses and gore and be totally fine but if he gets startled he’ll react a lot.

I don’t think he would like not knowing what was going on, definitely some control issues there. Sudden changes in plans would be horrible for him, he’d rather make a plan he knows will work, and then have everyone just do that plan. However he’s a bit too meek to really keep any of the others in line so they often abandon the plan.

He wants to be in charge, but he’s not confident to actually do it, or if he tried he wouldn’t do a good job. So he’s better as just a strategist. Something I remember from his backstory in v3 is that he felt bad about the consequences of solving cases, so he’d likely be one of the more murder happy despairs to get more of that guilt.

I think he’d be generally well liked by the others, helped by him being a little bit of a push over which they’d likely think is funny. But he comes up with fun ideas and always seems down to help with whatever kooky plan the others have. He’d probably be with Kaito or Kaede the most.

For his design I was really head empty, his cannon design both in game and pregame are both very similar and very plain, so there wasn’t much to draw from. I kinda just put him in a goofy Sherlock Holmes-esc detective outfit and then just added dirt and blood to the bottom half lol. If I get some crazy better idea for a design later I’ll update it, but this’ll have to do for now.

[mkstrigidae]

Okay so I'm making my way through your masterlist and I'm in love?? Like let's start off with Winter's Child- a masterpiece. You make Sansa a loving and relatable character and interweave the powers into cannon in a way that actually makes cannon make more sense (preconceived biases and such). Jon and Sansa's relationship is SO SWEET and they way they bonded was absolutely adorable (and the backstory with the houses and the powers they have make so much sense) 1/3

(2/3) Neon Rain literally the best Cyberpunk AU! I've ever read. Like what you did with the world building?? The stark class differences (haha see what I did there?), the choices in SOUND, and I could FEEL myself there! I love the family dynamics between the Starks and I'm loving the little details you're dropping with the Greyjoy's , Jon's parentage, and all of the medical procedures. Jon is dramatic af and I love it and Sansa is a bamf AS SHE SHOULD. Nothing but love for this

(3/3) A Past Worth Having has a special place in my heart. You build up this setting like a tapestry, just seeing more richness and depth the longer you look. I'm proud of Sansa for holding her composure, just FEELING in the angst that the older Starks feel at her return, and loving the relationships with Robin and the rest of the Starks + Jon Arryn. The detail that you're putting into the investigation/Oberyn is awe inspiring and I can't wait to see what you do next with the trial + Jonsa

Haha thank you so much!!! This is such a sweet ask to get! My response is under a cut, because this might get kind of long! (lots of my own meta below, bc i accidentally had a lot to say, haha)

With ‘Winter’s Child’ I’ve really enjoyed weaving in fantasy elements to the world because I like to look at stories and pick at loose threads until they unravel and asking ‘what if?’. I thought it would be a super interesting concept to take a character like Sansa, who in ASOIAF is exactly what she is supposed to be as a noblewoman of her class and conforms very well in that role, and put her in a position where she was essentially a societal outcast in a lot of ways! In WC, Sansa has a lot of similar coping mechanisms to ASOIAF Sansa, in that she sort of romanticizes society to avoid thinking about how absolutely awful it is. In ASOIAF, Sansa holds tight to the notion of knights and chivalry and courtly love to cope with the fact that she essentially has no control over her future and, as a woman, is basically property. In WC, I have her really struggling to make herself into that perfect lady and using that as a sort of shield to the fact that, without a gift, there isn’t anything she can do to improve her lot in life. Sansa has these ideas about becoming a perfect lady and hoping that being perfect in other areas will ‘make up’ for what society perceives as deficient about her, but is more jaded than ASOIAF Sansa due to her age and her earlier exposure to the ills of society. So you get a Sansa who gets along better with Arya and Jon as a result, in part because she’s had that exposure to what it’s like to be an outcast in society. I think that the best fantasy has a really strong emotional backdrop (a really great example is ‘Fruits Basket’ which starts by hooking you with this wacky, fun premise about people in a family turning into animals when hugged by a member of the opposite sex, and slowly builds into a point where you can see that the family ‘curse’ is a representation of generational and familial abuse- of bonds that should be broken, and of bonds that may kill us even as we cling to them- it’s extremely complex and rich and if you haven’t read or watched it, I can’t recommend it highly enough), and so while I really love writing about the fantasy aspects, and writing scenes where Sansa does really cool things with her ice powers, the core of the story is really about Sansa coming into her own, and learning that she was a person who was worth something even without any sort of gift. Sort of overcoming societal stigma and realizing your worth and forcing others to see it. It’s so much fun to write, but i’m stuck at the moment, because i need to reread the books, and my roommate is borrowing them right now haha!

God, APWH is like, indulging my inner world-building suspense-narrative loving writer persona. It’s literally my all time favorite trope- which is of someone growing up to find out that they’re a long-lost somebody or have family they never knew about- combined with a lot of research on trauma (which i’ve been doing for academic and other reasons for a while) and a lot of slowly growing psychological horror courtesy of Petyr Baelish (trust me, it’s going to get WAY more intense). There are so many pieces of media that I love, but I think that GRRM has so many characters and such a well fleshed out world that it’s very fun to dive into his worlds and create something there. Inherently, I love a slowly unraveling mystery and morally gray characters, and this is allowing me to indulge in both!!! World-building is my favorite, because i tend to be fairly detail oriented, and i’ve been laying bread crumbs in so many places throughout the story to hopefully build up to a decent conclusion! I know sort of how it ends, and I think people are going to absolutely lose their minds if I execute it correctly. We have a few chapters to go until we get to anything in the semblance of a trial- there’s some more emotional aspects that I think need to get addressed first, and so I’m so grateful that people are so supportive of being willing to wait for the Jonsa, because they really start spending a lot of time with each other during the trial and prior to the trial (i’m a big believer in bonding via long car rides and so there’s a lot of that!). I’m just so humbled and awed by the response to it- I never dreamed that people would enjoy the story this much- when I started it, I was writing a light-hearted family piece that wouldn’t be too long, and, uh, it kind of evolved from there. Clearly, I am not good at keeping things concise haha.

I left Neon Rain for last, because your comments on this one really made me smile! Of all of my stories, oddly enough, Neon Rain is actually the most deeply personal for me, and I’m just so flattered at your kind words! I spend a lot of my time thinking about the flaws inherent in our society, and without getting too detailed, Sansa’s experience with a family member struggling in the medical system is not unfamiliar to me. There’s a weight that comes with the realization that a system that is supposed to care for people is based on capitalistic ideals of profit maximization, and as someone who has experience working in the healthcare system- no matter how bad you think it is in the US, I can promise you it’s actually worse.

Neon Rain actually just started out as a series of mental images from listening to music that I had to get down on paper, and evolved from there. I actually really love the ‘soulmates’ and ‘class differences’ and ‘mastermind art thief’ tropes, but am incapable of writing fun stories without thinking about the reality of those tropes (see APWH for another extreme example of this haha), and so as I was writing and trying to capture this mental image, the rest of the world began unfolding around me. Jon is different because of a different upbringing here, and so is Sansa, and to see the formerly idealistic Sansa become so jaded by the time she meets her soulmate is just catnip for me. You have this interesting dynamic between them, because Jon wants nothing more than to have Sansa in his life, and give her everything she wants and needs, but where the old Sansa (who was arguably middle-class and somewhat naive, as financially secure teenagers understandably tend to be) would have swooned over that, the Sansa who meets Jon when the story begins is seeing the world and all the unfair and unequal systems in it. She can’t just live happily ever after with him right away- there’s a sense of guilt there, of sansa not feeling like she deserves nice things, and there’s also Sansa’s deep sense of compassion and kindness that won’t allow her to just live life as the well taken-care-of girlfriend of a wealthy man, because she isn’t able to just put on blinders and pretend that all the injustice in the world around her doesn’t exist, simply because it wouldn’t affect her that way anymore.

I think that the core to writing Sansa, for me, in any universe, is that she is a kind and compassionate person who is capable of feeling sympathy towards even the people who have done horrific things to her and her family- that emotional awareness and empathy is a harsh thing to have in a world like Neon Rain, and in our own world, honestly. I’m so glad that you appreciate Sansa’s BAMF-ness in the story- I think that her chapters demonstrate that she is capable of doing extraordinary things when she’s doing them for people she cares for, to be kind (The scene where Alayne helps Robin down from the eyrie is most indicative of this I think), and so in this world, I just love having Sansa be a complete badass out of necessity. Also, it’s fanfiction, and I really wanted to give Sansa a cool motorcyle, because no one else was gonna do it!!!

Also, my characters like to run away with me, and before I knew it, Rodrik Greyjoy had a huge adorable crush on Sansa in the story that I immensely enjoy writing. The Greyjoys are fun because they’re all absolutely insane, and i’m a total sucker for ‘gruff dangerous character is completely a sucker for the kind sunshine-y character’ trope.

God, this accidentally got really long??? I’m sorry- thank you so much for such a kind ask!!! I love hearing what people think of my stories, and this was so sweet :)

[magmahurricane]

Assorted IDW thoughts

Let me preface this by saying Ian Flynn is not a perfect writer. 

I personally believe his greatest weakness is in writing this long, spanning arcs. We’ve seen this even in Archie with the Mecha Sally arc, and in post-reboot with the Shattered World Crisis arc. And it’s reared it’s ugly head again with the Zombot arc in IDW.

He also has a habit of favoring certain characters and trying a little too hard to argue why they’re good/likeable - this was especially a problem with Sally in his early run. 

With that said: I mostly enjoyed the Zombot Arc. I am someone who has been absolutely exhausted by media’s fixation on Zombies, but I found the Zombot arc... endearing, actually. 

The Zombot concept was a fun, fresh take and arguably more nightmarish than the average zombie, in that they were largely indestructible and you’d only need the slightest touch to be infected. And again, they couldn’t be put down.

An unfortunately common criticism I hear about the series is that this arc was “too dark” for a Sonic the hedgehog comic, which I find to be an odd take.

The Sonic series has always dipped its toes into darker concepts. We have the bad ending from Sonic 2, and far less implied is the death of Maria Robotnik in Sonic Adventure 2 - in which we witness, as part of Shadow’s backstory: an unarmed, terminally ill 12-year-old girl being shot and killed.

In that same game, Eggman acquired a super space Fuck You cannon and destroyed a part of the moon, and made a very clear threat to fire it at the Earth.

Sonic Adventure 1 showed us an entire civilization that was wiped out after harming a bunch of innocent Chao and angering a god. Perfect Chaos leveled an entire populated city - even if you make the argument that an evacuation was put in effect and nobody died (which I don’t believe), that’s still an entire city’s worth of people who are now homeless.

There was also Sonic Battle and Emerl’s entire plight, which saw the entire main cast coming together to raise this robot like a sibling, who all loved him and were loved by him in turn, and ended with Sonic having to kill him. 

Sonic and The Secret Rings had Shahra die on-screen. I mean, she got better but still.

And don’t get me started on all the fucked up things that happen during the events of  the Shadow the Hedgehog game.

The point is, the Sonic the Hedgehog series has always had these bleak, dark moments. I don’t feel like the Zombot Arc was any darker than what we’ve already seen in this series. We’ve seen these characters backed into corners, we’ve seen on-screen deaths, we’ve seen these characters break before.

I feel like this criticism is misdirected; I think when people say the arc was too dark, what they mean is that it’s too long.  If we’re counting the Zombot saga starting at issue 15 (when Rough & Tumble got infected), this story arc has been going on for... 14 issues. With delays in mind, this arc feels like it dragged its feet horribly. 

Now, with regards to Characterization...

I think we all can agree SEGA’s recent takes on Shadow’s character are ass. There, I said it. Taking away all the development he had over the course of SA2, Heroes, ShTH and other instances - and making it so he apparently doesn’t consider Rouge and Omega his friends - is such a mind-numbingly stupid move.

Ian usually writes a good Shadow (seriously, Sonic Universe arcs “The Shadow Saga”, “Treasure Team Tango”  - both pre-reboot arcs - and “Shadowfall” + “Total Eclipse” from the post reboot were really good!) but these mandates on Shadow’s character kill me. 

But unfortunately, Shadow isn’t the only character who suffered during this arc. Eggman started off the arc really well, but his choices and lackadaisical attitude towards how rapidly his plan spiraled out of control was so wildly OOC and frankly, dumb. It was frustrating to read through and didn’t feel like Ian’s usual mastermind Eggman.  It read as though Ian hit a bump in which he realized he needed a work around for why Eggman wasn’t doing anything about losing control over the Zombots and  decided to just have him not care. I can’t remember if a reason for this characterization was ever given. 

 Now, this on the other hand...

This is a scene I’ve seen people rag on for being OOC for Tails, and even comparing it to the abysmal portrayal we got in Forces. 

Here’s the thing: I don’t think this was OOC for Tails. 

Lets look at Tails’ characterizations in, say, the Adventure-era games. His entire character arc in both was him realizing his own potential as someone who can stand on his own two feet, without needing to rely on Sonic. And he did it! By SA2, Tails has achieved his own independence. 

When he believes Eggman has truly killed Sonic, Tails is sad, but he’s also determined to stop Eggman, to keep fighting no matter what and hold his head high, because he knows he can do this. He won’t let Sonic’s faith in him be misplaced. 

... But this isn’t like that situation, now is it?

Lets review Tails’ ploy over the course of this arc: He studied Sonic to the best of his abilities to try and discover how to cure his friend. He was confident and certain he could figure it out.

But the infection kept spreading. People - innocent people - were being claimed by the outbreak, and the pressure began to build. People Tails knew and cared about were being turned. The situation was growing more and more desperate. 

All the while, they slowly lost faith in Sonic, who was showing signs of fatigue. We also know from when Tangle was infected that the transformation into a Zombot is uncomfortable, if not painful. 

People around Tails were suffering, losing loved ones - and we, as the audience, knew that nobody was actually dead from this, but the characters don’t. Silver came from a future where the whole world became infected.

And just as soon as Tails came close to solving everything, it was all cruelly ripped away. Every time they thought they had a solution, it was lost. 

When the Zombots reached Angel Island,Sonic was at the point where he could hardly fight the infection off anymore. Zavok was advancing. They’d lost poor little Cream. They lost Knuckles. 

And Tails was slowly succumbing to the infection. 

I don’t think this was OOC. I think it made perfect sense, because the world was literally falling apart right in front of Tails’ eyes, and unlike SA2, there was nothing he could do about it at this point. He’s being infected and watching his friends fall while knowing that Silver’s future is a possible outcome.

He’s having to resort to pleading Sonic to succeed because this poor kid has watched the world fall before his eyes - and worse yet, he came so close to having the means to save it. 

I don’t agree that strong characters breaking makes them OOC. I think this serves to show just how broken Tails is by everything that’s happened, how bleak the situation is, and how genuinely scared he is. And who could blame him?

In conclusion, I think IDW Sonic has its flaws - Ian has some serious faults as a writer, but he’s also really good and has a clear passion for the series and characters. 

I enjoyed this arc for the most part - I just wish it had been trimmed down some. 

[carynsilver]

Favorite Fics: Darcy Edition

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these. Things started going on that hurt my soul, and I just felt like, who cares about some fic recs when people are getting hurt? But… I don’t know. I still find solace and comfort in reading stories, even when things are hard—especially when things are hard. So, I finally felt like maybe it was time for another. If the fic writers out there are giving me escape, warm fuzzies, and enjoyment during these weird times, then they deserve some love directed back at them.

So far, I’ve listed my top 10 favorite Stucky, Drarry, and Stony fics. I love them all, but… that is a lot of dudes. I decided it was time for a little girl power in my fanfic recs. One of my favorite BAMF female characters is Darcy Lewis—one of the best and most under-rated, under-explored characters in the MCU.

I love Darcy as the every-girl who has the moxie and chutzpa to hold her own in a life full of superheroes. The girl tased the God of Thunder because he was freaking her out, for goodness sake! I love her being BFFs with Jane, being Thor’s lightening sister, and creating a found family. I love her living in the tower and caring for all the superheroes and science geniuses like they won’t care for themselves. There’s enough leeway in her backstory for fun twists, too, like being Jewish, or—one of my absolute faves—secretly being the daughter of Tony Stark.

There are a ton of good Darcy fics out there, but these are my top 10. Thank you, writers, for sharing these amazing stories with us!

Casa de Island Avengers by @inkbert

I clicked on this story because of WinterShock (Darcy/Bucky), which is a favorite ship of mine (I feel my love of Bucky has been previously discussed at length, lol), but it has become one of my favorite fics of all time. Not even just in the MCU—if I were listed my top five fanfics ever read, this one is on the list.

The concept is simple—post-Ultron, the Avengers started falling apart as a team, so Steve spearheads the effort to get them all on a two-week vacation to Tony’s private island in a last-ditch bonding effort. Every character (except Thor, but he does get some good screen time) has his or her own point of view for at least a chapter or two. Sometimes, this leads to characters sounding the same, but @inkbert really grounds each character in their own backstory and makes their inner monologues sound unique. Then, so many wacky hijinks ensue—camping, drinking, movie nights, girl bonding, sailing, pranks, and the most competitive game nights and challenges you’ve ever seen.

The ships included are Darcy/Bucky, Steve/Natasha, Pepper/Tony, and Clint/Wanda, but this story isn’t only about the ships. It’s about all these crazy characters bonding—found family at its finest. This is probably my favorite Darcy/Jane BFFs story ever, and the Bruce/Tony science bro connection is classic. The story is fully seated in cannon (up through Ultron and moving to the ccmpound), except no Clint/secret family and Pietro lives. Read it. Read it now! And if you enjoy it, there are several one-shots that follow, including a Wanda-centric one that shouldn’t be missed.

Best Supporting Soulmate by Valeris

I love a good soulmate fic, and this is an excellent one. The first thing your soulmate says to you is written on your skin, and there are both romantic and platonic soulmates. Darcy has Jane as a platonic soulmate, but it’s her other soulmate who made her life crazy before she even met them. What are you supposed to do when your soulmate’s first words to you are to let them die? 

The two primary ships in this fic are Wintershock and Stony, which work well together, but the story delves into a lot more relationships. I don’t love the whole amnesia trope in a Stucky fic because losing all that history and friendship hurts so much, but in a WinterShock fic, I have a real soft spot for Darcy being able to help post-HYDRA Bucky learn how to person again, and she does that in spades in this one. She also cultivates friendships with just about everyone in Avengers Tower and beyond. Darcy/Johnny Storm BFFs are amazing, and the deep friendship Darcy develops with Tony in this story gives me all the feels. This is a great version of BAMF Darcy who can see what the tortured characters need and is able to help them get there. And there is some interesting conflict with the Fantastic Four, as well.

This was one of the first, if not the first, WinterShock stories I ever read. I had been trying TaserHawk, but it wasn’t really my cuppa, and then somehow found this one and got hooked.

Road Trip of Champions by @leftennant

Natasha and Steve are going on a road trip. Steve wants Bucky to come with, but they feel like they need a fourth to make things even. Natasha bribes Darcy into coming with, and over the course of the trip, we get a lovely WinterShock romance. The road trip concept is fun, and Darcy and Bucky have a light enemies to friends to lovers vibe going on. Bucky is recovering, Darcy isn’t going to take anyone’s crap, and Natasha and Steve really just want a little private time along the way. And the bit at the end of the main story when they play paintball—classic and a scene that has stuck in my mind long after reading many other fics. The protective vibe Bucky has for Darcy after all this and how it even affects paintball is adorable. There are other one-shots in this ’verse as well that should not be missed. You might never think of lemons the same again.

Daybreak by @anogete

Anogete has a really good touch with snarky, caretaker Darcy. I love all her WinterShock stories, but this is the one that’s stuck with me the most. The concept of Darcy trying to help dismantle Bucky’s trigger words by creating new memories for each one was so compelling. The therapy aspect did give me pause (a personal thing; it is dealt with as respectfully as possible in the story), but it all works out in the end. The fact that I loved it so much despite a mild personal ping with the concept speaks to how well it’s written, honestly. :-) And, if this one isn’t to your taste, Anogete has plenty of great WinterShock to read, so definitely try one of them instead!

The Run ’Verse by themonkeycabal

Though it eventually becomes a WinterShock story, my favorite thing about this universe is the Tony-Stark-is-Darcy’s-father trope. This is probably my absolute favorite version of that relationship. There is also time travel, and BAMF Peggy Carter. And even though I don’t love the Darcy-becomes-a-Shield-agent thing as much as Darcy the Scientist Wrangler, this story has a great, cannon-compliant reason for why Tony, Clint, etc., weren’t able to come help Steve, Natasha, Sam, and Maria in CA:tWS. There are a ton of stories in this ’verse, and I enjoyed every single one. My favorite, though, is the one where Darcy and Tony go visit Howard’s forgotten secret bunker and have three generation’s-worth of overdue conversations.

A Morbid Taste for Ice by sitehound

This is probably my favorite TaserTricks story, though I haven’t read nearly as much Darcy/Loki as I have other Darcy ships. I think it’s because writing Loki in character and making it believable to me that Darcy would fall in love with him, especially post-Avengers 1, is a fine line. If the fic apologizes too much for Loki’s wrongdoing without enough repentance/reformation, I don’t buy that she would legit be able to fall for him, but, go too far on the redemption and Loki gets OOC.

This story hits all those beats pretty perfectly and combines them with the whole Darcy/Jane/Thor (and now Loki) found family thing, Thor/Loki brother angst, Jane/Darcy BFFs, and a really compelling murder mystery to boot. There is also an interesting subplot with Loki being what basically amounts to a magical mechanic that I found really interesting amidst the snark, romance, and mystery solving. I’m sad this writer only has the one story up because it is so good!

Bygone by @inkbert

This story is Shieldshock (Steve/Darcy), not WinterShock, so even though I do try to only choose one fic per author (mostly), I’m totally fine having two by @inkbert on this list. Besides, this fic is amazing, and it’s not like there are anyone’s rules to follow on these fic rec lists but my own, lol! This is hands down my favorite ShieldShock story ever. 

Jane’s experiment goes awry and sends Darcy into the past—specifically after Bucky left for basic but before he shipped out and Steve got tapped for Project Rebirth. Darcy ends up living with Rebecca and Mrs. Barnes, and she falls head over heels in love with tiny Steve, so much so that they get married despite not knowing what the future holds for her. Then, the night before Steve is going to report to basic, Darcy blips out again, and when she blips back in, Steve is dead. The rest of the story has Darcy blipping her way through time, making friends with Howard, Peggy, and the Howling Commandos. Ultimately, though, it’s her brother/sister relationship with Tony that is the most poignant, especially by the time they catch up to the present again. And Darcy is a complete BAMF the whole time—going on missions, learning to fly anything with wings, doing anything and everything to keep her found family together. This story also gave me a plan for what I would do if I were ever shot back into a timeline like this where I couldn’t sew or cook or make a living—become a typist… genius, Darce!

Their Hearts Said by @anogete

Another Anogete story because I just can’t resist. All her stories are really good, be they WinterShock, ShieldShock, or even her really good Loki/OC fic. I would definitely suggest giving all of them a try.

This ShieldShock story is my favorite post-Infinity War tale. It picks up a few weeks after the snap, with everyone grieving and trying to figure out what to do next. Steve is barely holding it together while the remaining Avengers try to figure out what they can do. After Jane and her family disappear, Darcy heads to Avengers Tower, hoping against hope that maybe Thor knows what’s going on. Darcy and Steve start sleeping together as more of an escape from the awfulness around them than anything else, but as the team works on a plan to save the day and bring everyone back, they develop real feelings for each other. There is also time travel and I really loved the minimalist way she wrote how the day was saved in this. It balanced well with the character stuff. This story is much preferable to End Game—too bad cannon didn’t go like this!

Good Madness by Em_Jaye

Normally, I prefer my Darcy embedded within the MCU cannon. I adore that every girl keeping up with superheroes thing. But, I do enjoy a good AU on occasion, and this is one of my faves. It’s ShieldShock and kid!fic. Darcy runs a bakery that was left to her by her mother (real You’ve Got Mail tones there, but no creepy identity porn), and Steve comes in for treats on occasion. One day, he brings his daughter, and the rest is history. I love the Steve/Darcy romance in this one, and Steve’s daughter is a sweet character. I love the Full House thing Steve has going on co-raising his daughter with Bucky and Sam. And there is a nice Bucky/Natasha subplot and some really good Tony, which I would say more about except that I don’t want to spoil the surprise. My favorite story in the series is the five rules one at the end, so definitely keep going long enough for that. And if you like Em_Jaye’s writing, you should check out The Long Way Around—a Shieldshock, time travel, Endgame fix-it WIP that is excellent, as well.

One Year by @steeleholtingon

This story is WinterShieldShock. OT3s aren’t my favorite trope, but somehow with Bucky/Darcy/Steve, it works. Maybe it’s something about the boys’ history and Darcy dragging them into the future. Kind of what she does for each of them individually in WinterShock and ShieldShock, but with even more oomph. I haven’t read the whole tag, but One Year is my favorite.

Bucky’s Winter Soldier recovery has pushed both Steve and Bucky to the edge. Steve ends up leaving (at Bucky’s demand, but also because the team is afraid he’s going to do some kind of suicide via superhero duty if he doesn’t get his head on straight). The wrinkle—the night before he left, Darcy and Steve had a comforting one-night stand that resulted in two pinks lines on the test. The resulting story takes place one month at a time. Steve tries to piece himself back together and put his feelings for Bucky in the past whilst falling for Darcy over text messages. Bucky, on the other hand, realizes how he fucked it all up and vows to be there for Darcy and Steve’s baby while Steve is gone. Darcy navigates the waters of an unplanned (but wanted) pregnancy while balancing her feelings for both of them. And all the rest of the Avengers, science crew, and other Avengers-adjacent peeps support all three of them through it all. Angst, recovery, and a happy ending. So good!

So, after all that, what are you guys waiting for? Get to reading all this Darcy goodness! :-)

And now I need to figure out what fic rec list to work on next. I have a Stranger Things one (Harringrove and Mileven) almost ready to go, and then I need to decide what to do with the ships and characters that I don’t have a full top ten for. Group them together, perhaps? Bughead and LoVe might be a good combination, lol. And WinterHawk and WinterIron.

[arrtemisia]

Hey so... If you could redo cannon Makoto what would you do? How would she change? I'm curious cause out of the main cast she was the only one that I just couldn't get a solid interest in (aside from Ann but that's just cause the idea of her being a fashion model confuses me more than anything I think)

God. So much stuff.

There's a couple big things about her that bug me, and none of them really change at all in her canon vs fanon portrayal, which means it's hard for me to enjoy her even in fanworks. In my opinion, I think her biggest flaw is that she's simply miscast, and her character would have worked much better as a confidant instead of a thief, which would've given her a place of her own to shine and avoid the weird dissonance between different aspects of her character (and this was actually their original plan, so Hifumi would have taken her place which. She would've fit in much better imo bc she's actually suffered under another's will like every single one of the others and she's an actual strategist instead of just """smart,""' but that's a topic for another post), but since we're talking about how I'd personally fix Makoto in the role she currently fills, I'm going to list some of the issues I take with her and potential solutions.

First of all, just to get it out of the way, she needs an actual reason to be here. She doesn't have one, full stop.

The big thing tying the thieves together is that they're all victims of abuse and oppression who rebel against their tormentors and want to prevent anyone else from suffering like they did. I'm not saying Makoto has never struggled, because she has, but it's really, really not the same type of struggle.

This leads to weird moments where everything about Makoto's personality and characterization, such as being a stickler for the rules, idolizing the police, etc mean that she has no in-character reason to stick with the thieves after kaneshiro is dealt with and should maybe even be opposing the thieves' way of doing things, but the plot drags her along anyway because the game really wants her to be a party member. And really, what's up with her awakening? She gets threatened once and then bang-boom-kapow she has a persona? It's weak.

Also before anyone says "well all those things about her personality change when she awakens and she sheds her good girl personality and yada yada," no she doesn't, actually, and I'm getting there I promise

The easiest solution here is also the most drastic. Swap when Makoto and Akechi join. This kills two birds with one stone; Makoto gets an actual reason to awaken through Sae, and Akechi's betrayal hits harder because he's pretending to be with you for longer (although admittedly this is much less needed on Akechi's part ever since royal).

Not only does this give Makoto a much stronger reason to awaken and join in the first place (Sae starts twisting into something horrible and Makoto wants to help both stop and save her), but it also gives her an internally consistent reason to stick around. Before, unlike the others (who all at least have "I want to stop others from feeling like I did," or in Futaba's case, "I wanna find the ppl who killed my mom."), once Kaneshiro is done with, Makoto has no real big personal reason to stick around other than "I'm a thief now and the plot says so ig." Now, of COURSE she'd want to go after Shido because he's the one that was manipulating her sister, and after that of COURSE she'd want to help take down mr divine sippy cup in order to get Shido tried and jailed.

However, if we're not going to shuffle around the order of party members bc that'd nuke the canon plot a little, then we need to rework the entire Kaneshiro arc and/or Makoto's backstory and values as a whole. Yeah this is why the first solution was the easy one.

I'm going to go in-depth about how I feel Makoto's personality and values should be reworked later I'M GETTING THERE, so I'll talk about that then. As for reworking Kaneshiro, I... don't have a whole lot of ideas. The palace itself is fine, it has one of the coolest atmospheres in the game (c'mon, there's got to be a fun bank heist in a game like this), but Makoto's connection with him is very weak. Maybe have it be that he was extorting her for years in secret and she never said anything? Maybe have him be the one that ordered the hit on her father? I'm not sure what would be strong enough to match to the other palace leaders, without feeling forced. I'll have to come up with more ideas for this one.

The second big issue I have with her is less of one specific thing and more of a collection of smaller problems that all come from the same source. She waltzes in, takes over, and starts acting like she's the boss of things. She then names herself the "strategist" and yet only ever states the obvious and, to use a word I hate, mansplains things to you that you already learned two palaces ago. She's constantly condescending and passive agressive to the other team members, especially Ann and Ryuji, berates everyone for not being as naturally book smart as her when all the other characters are smart in their own ways and just not good at academia, all the while everyone around her, even characters that normally wouldn't take that (ryuji, ann) or are too prideful to admit to anyone bring better (mona), are constantly like "You're so cool, Makoto!"

It's a classic case of show don't tell, and rhe game is obsessed with telling you that Makoto is "smart" and "cool." Once she joins the team, all the characters that were originally shown to be smart in their own ways are never allowed to say anything meaningful ever again bc Makoto is the "smart" one. She never does anything particularly different compared to the other party members, but the game is constantly insisting she's special.

I'm very hesitant to call her a mary sue, because I don't think she is one, and also I disagree with the use of that term at all as these days it's just meant to devalue powerful characters that happen to be girls, but I definitely think she's emblematic of a common writing flaw that can lead to mary sues. The problem with making a character the "smart" one as a personality trait instead of something that just comes naturally is that you have to dumb down everyone else's characterization to make them look smarter or cooler by comparison. It means that the character you're trying to prop up bends everyone else around them, making them act in ways they normally wouldn't in order to make the one character you're trying to look cool seem better by comparison.

This has an easy solution: cut that shit out. Have her slowly find her place on the team naturally instead of forcing her way in as a pseudo-leader. Don't give every single "well, duh" line to her, and cut the scenes where she stands around explaining obvious things you already know in a condescending manner so she looks smarter. Let the other characters actually act like themselves when they're in the same room as her instead of bending around her to prop her up. Have her treat those characters with respect in turn, bc for all intents and purposes when it comes to thief stuff they are her senpai, instead of just having her act like she's better than them, or boss them around, or be passive agressive about the fact that their grades are bad. Show that other characters are smart in other ways instead of acting like Makoto's book smarts are the end-all be-all. And for fuck's sake, stop acting like "smart" and "punches stuff real good" are personality traits, which leads me into my last big point.

Makoto and Queen don't really feel like the same character. Okay, so to explain this, let's walk through her awakening again.

Makoto is a good girl who's a stickler for the rules, sucks up to authority, idolizes the police, is obsessed with her grades and academic performance, and looks down on others who don't do the same. A couple people call her useless and then she gets threatened by a mob boss, after which she decides to live her life for herself and completely shed her good girl lifestyle and rebel against everyone pressuring her.

That is, except for the teensy tiny detail where she doesn't.

Nothing significant about her personality changes all post her awakening and joining the thieves, aside from the part where she sucks up to authority maybe a little less. She's still uptight, her grades (and the grades of those on her team) are still her top priority, she still idolizes the law and those enforcing it.

Y'see, persona has a bit of a common problem with saying one thing about a character, be it making a reveal or saying they're gonna change in some big way, but not fully committing to it. You can see it most in p4 (party members saying they're gonna quit/stop/do whatever and then backtracking in the last two ranks of their social link), but it's rarely so severe that it completely ruins their personality and character arc as a whole. Makoto, I feel, is the main exception.

The writers want Makoto to become this tough, rebellious biker queen who oozes badassery in every move and will never follow anyone's wishes for her ever again, but they also want to keep her old personality of the uptight naive rule-following law-abiding academic. So, instead of altering one to better fit the other, they try to do both... badly.

Instead of integrating the two parts of her personality, it just feels like she swaps between them whenever the plot calls for it which is really, really jarring. She'll be stuttering about following the rules and getting to know her generation one second, and then the next she'll be yelling about mowing down shadows with her motorcyle the next. It feels like Queen and Makoto are two separate uninteresting half-characters, with only a couple personality traits each, instead of one whole well-rounded character.

Either rework Makoto's thief aesthetic to better suit her personality as a whole and give her something other than "I'm totally not a good girl anymore" to make her compelling, or actually commit to Makoto shedding her past life everyone around her had forced on her and change her personality. Have her grades start to slip, have her talk back to Sae, change the way she dresses so it's rougher and less perfect, hell, maybe even have her quit student council. Just, anything to make her more well-rounded as a character.

I have some other nitpicks with her here and there, like the fact that her confidant is actually just Eiko's confidant and doesn't give Makoto herself any development, or the way the game keeps trying to set her up as Joker's waifu or whatever, but those are just that; nitpicks. The three big things I mentioned earlier - her not having a compelling personal reason to be a part of the thieves, the way the writers shove her into the spotlight by putting down everyone around her, and the fact that her characterization is just one badass half and one smart half that don't mesh and have little else in between - are the problems I feel are what's actually holding her character back.

Again, I do think that all of this stems from the fact that she's miscast, but it's too late to fix that now. While I personally really dislike Makoto, I do kind of understand her appeal for others when she's written well, and she's a totally valid character to like. I just wish she was portrayed better.

(Also, if anyone wants to reblog this, feel free I ask that you please don't put this in Makoto's main character tag. I know how much it sucks to get a bunch of negativity in a character's main tags as I am an Edelgard fe3h fan)

[ninjaships]

Kisame X Mei

Q&A about one of my favorite Naruto ships, Pt1. 

1. Why I like this pairing?

It’s Shark Boy and Lava Girl, what’s not to like? No but seriously they would have such a compelling backstory. They’re both around the same age, and not only did they survive the era of the bloody mist but they are grouped together with some of the strongest Shinobi in the history of the Hidden Mist Village. There is no way these two hadn’t crossed paths multiple times before the main Naruto plot had begun. Kisame was somewhere in his 20s when he left the village, that would have given him plenty of time to form bonds and have many interactions with his fellow Mist Nin (maybe even getting it on with a certain future Mizukage?!?!). So not only is KisaMei chronologically possible (that is if you’re thinking in cannon universe) but I think they would have amazing chemistry as well! Polite, respectful, quick witted, and ruthless in battle, this pairing has a lot more common ground than just their roots. However what would make this pairing so great is not their commonalities but rather how they contrast! The optimist v.s the pessimist. They lived through the same times yet perceived and experienced things in a totally different way. While Kisame gave up on what Kiri was, Mei kept fighting for what she always hoped it could be despite all the corruption and bad blood that consumed their home. On a less serious note, I think Mei’s short fuse and emotional outburst opposed to Kisame’s nonchalant attitude and funny cometary would make for a good dynamic. They would definitely be a very spicy couple, and have an amazing sex life if anything.

2. What would the nature of their relationship be?

In Cannon universe? undefined, bittersweet.

In the cannon universe I don’t think they could ever be in a serious relationship due to the fact that Mei is the FREAKING Mizukage of the Hidden Mist Village and he is an actual ninja terrorist aiming to do away with all the hidden villages. However, I like to headcannon that before Kisame betrayed the mist he had kinda a thing with Mei, like a very casual on and off again relationship with some feelings on the side. I could see them having very playful banter and seeking companionship in one and other due to that fact that they were in a relatively small group of the most elite ninja in the village. I think they would both have a lot of respect for each other despite having different core beliefs. Mei would be open and understanding towards Kisame’s controversial take on their purpose as shinobi, and likewise Kisame would hold her in high regard due to her unwavering loyalty and genuine desire to fix a broken system. I think they would both always hold very tender feelings towards one and other despite being on sworn to two opposing organizations. Now if we're venturing outside of cannon rules, definitely married. Kisame would totally wife that scary dragon lady. Mr. & Mrs. Smith all the way. 

3. Who makes the first move?

Kisame

After much goading from Mei that is. Mei is very flirtatious and forward, yet when it came to down to it she kept waiting for Kisame to initiate things for the first time. I think Mei is a woman who is used to being chased and not being the pursuer, Kisame definitely knew this and was using it agains her. She would be dropping sexual innuendo and not so obvious hints left and right, The swordsman might have given her a chuckle every now and again or at least a huff of amusement, sometimes he would play dumb to her intentions only to get a rise out of her (which it did). But eventually his desire won out. It was after a couple of close calls, resulting from drunken nights after the exhilaration of battle, that Mei had pretty much given up faith in her comrade when he took her by surprise one day with a rather rough and much anticipated return of affections. xxx

4. Do either of them get jealous?

No, neither of them do. I don't think there is anyplace for jealousy in this relationship. They’re both mature adults and usually too occupied with shinobi duties. It just wouldn't work with their life style and professions, plus they're both very loyal people. Mei can be quick to anger as shown a few times in cannon, but at her core she is very intelligent and perceptive. Therefore she would know Kisame well enough to be confident in that he would never intentionally hurt her in anyway. Also Kisame wouldn’t do well with a jealous partner and would find it rather insulting to have someone questioning his character all the time. 

5. Do they want/have children?

Selfishly I’m going to answer yes to the later. 

I could see them having a child out of obligation to the village, I imagine after the third world war and Zabuza’s academy massacre there must have been a high demand to produce a new generation of strong ninja to defend the village against future attacks. Mei had always wanted to start a family of her own, but ideally in a time of peace when her village no longer needed her to fight. I think they both would have strong reservations about bringing a life into such a corrupt and morally grey world, especially Kisame. I have my own KisaMei OC children that i’ve been brainstorming for a while now, hopefully i’ll get around to writing that fan fiction one day. 

If you guys like this paring as well let me know or send me a KisaMei request some time! It’s always great to get inspired by my fellow shippers. 

[terramythos]

TerraMythos' 2020 Reading Challenge - Book 34 of 26

Title: The Harbors of the Sun (2017) (The Books of the Raksura #5)

Author: Martha Wells

Genre/Tags: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Adventure, LGBT Protagonist, Female Protagonist (Kind Of), Third-Person

Rating: 9/10

Date Began: 12/11/2020

Date Finished: 12/25/2020

Moon and his friends are reeling from the betrayal of a former ally. With several members of their party kidnapped, and a mysterious weapon stolen by their new enemy, the chase is on. He and the others must infiltrate unknown territory to rescue their missing family and avert a deadly calamity. At the same time, a massive army of Fell are gathering to attack the Reaches. The Raksuran colonies of Indigo Cloud and Opal Night must join forces to defend their home before they are overrun and destroyed. 

“But you don’t want to be near Fell,” Moon guessed. Considering what had happened to Shade when they had been captured by the Fell flight northwest of the Reaches, it was only rational. 

“No, I don’t.” He looked at Moon hopelessly. “Is that weak?” 

Consorts were supposed to be weak and delicate and need everything done for them, but Moon and Shade were different, and nothing was going to change that. And “weak” wasn’t really the right word for what Shade meant. What he was trying to say was harder to express. It was giving into feelings other people thought you were supposed to have about things that shouldn’t have happened to you in the first place, but were not like the actual feelings you did have. There wasn’t a word for that in Raksuran or Altanic or Kedaic or any other language Moon knew. Moon said, “It’s not weak.” 

Full review, some spoilers, and content warning(s) under the cut. 

Content warnings for the book:  Graphic violence and action. Implied past r*pe (it’s the same plot point as previous books). Genocide is a big plot point of this one. 

The Harbors of the Sun is the fifth, and presumably final, book in the Raksura series. And boy what a ride it's been. I've enjoyed settling in with a longer fantasy series. While I'm excited to read something new, I'll miss these characters and the captivating world they inhabit. Since this is probably the last installment, I'll look into book-specific details, but also provide some series retrospective commentary. I won't touch on everything, just things that stick out to me.

From what I can tell, The Harbors of the Sun is a little controversial with long time fans. I can see why, and it's the same reason I added "Epic Fantasy" to the tag list. Most of the series has focused on small-scale conflicts centering on the Raksuran characters. There's hints of large-scale stuff in The Siren Depths, but that crisis is averted, so thus not fully realized. However, these last two books contain a much longer storyline, and the stakes in The Harbors of the Sun are potentially catastrophic not just for the Raksura, but thousands if not millions of people. Think The Lord of the Rings trilogy vs The Hobbit in terms of ramp up.

Due to the larger scale, this book also embraces a rotating point of view. The original trilogy is entirely from Moon's perspective, and The Edge of Worlds only dips its toes into alternate POVs. The Harbors of the Sun features multiple character groups all doing important things to the story, so there's lots of perspective shifts. While I still consider Moon the main character, he shares the stage with many others.

Personally, I like the scaled up conflict. It seems like a natural progression of the series. While not every point of view wows me, finally seeing some stuff from Jade and Chime's perspective (for example) is really cool. While Moon is an enjoyable protagonist, he often interprets characters and motivations wrong. Getting someone else’s take on a given situation or character is refreshing. 

One of my favorite alt-perspectives is Frost. She's a young child and minor character, but serves as the perspective for a tense political discussion between Raksuran queens about impending war with the Fell. This whole section serves to convey important information, but also as great worldbuilding to see how Raksura interact with, indulge, and care for their young. While we have seen adult perspectives such as Moon happily playing with his children, it's interesting to see a child's view of life in the colony. This is emblematic of Wells' approach to the series and her technique when crafting this world. It would be easy to pick a major character like Malachite and tell this section from her perspective, but we would miss many interesting details. Using Frost isn't something I would necessarily consider, and is just a cool writing choice.

By the end, The Harbors of the Sun feels like it's been a long, epic journey-- more so than the shorter adventures of previous books. A LOT of stuff happens in this book, and there's so many different interesting places the characters visit. Even events at the beginning feel distant compared to where everything ends. There is a unique appeal in this kind of story. Maybe it's not for everyone, but I personally like the change of pace and tone, especially as a finale. 

For a series retrospective, the Fell are an interesting subject to discuss. I'm impressed with what Wells pulls off with them. One of my criticisms of The Cloud Roads is the Fell aren't especially compelling villains. They're an evil race of shapeshifters, distantly related to Raksura, who infiltrate cities and eat the population. The Fell are parasites-- they have no real culture or ability to survive except through the destruction of others. They’ve recently taken to destroying Raksuran colonies, kidnapping survivors, and forcing them to produce crossbreeds. Obviously, this introduces two narrative problems. One, "evil races" in fantasy are boring and already done ad nauseam. Two, how can one make the Fell interesting when they're literally irredeemable monsters? 

The answer, it turns out, is a nature vs nurture debate, and it's mostly approached through the Fell/Raksura crossbreed characters. While these ideas have been explored throughout the series, The Harbors of the Sun brings it full circle. The Cloud Roads' main antagonist is Ranea, a crossbreed queen raised by the Fell. She sees the crossbreeds as a natural way to strengthen the Fell and make them an even deadlier force than they are by default, since Raksura have their own set of powers and traits. She’s soundly defeated, supposedly concluding the subplot. Until, of course, it comes back. 

In The Siren Depths, we meet several crossbreed characters who are, for all intents and purposes, Raksura. Malachite rescued them as children and chose to raise them as Raksura of Opal Night. The result is that, while Shade and Lithe are aware of their heritage, they've experienced love and acceptance throughout their lives. Sure, they may have some physical traits and abilities that differ from the others, but often these have practical uses in the story. Their families don’t treat them differently because of this. As characters, they're just as Raksuran as everyone else.

In The Edge of Worlds, we're introduced to another crossbreed queen, a foil to Ranea. While she makes some early mistakes, unlike Ranea she seems capable of reason and compassion. We learn her name and backstory in The Harbors of the Sun. Consolation was born in a Fell flight, but most of her childcare came from her father, a captive Raksuran consort. Hence her name, which is painful with context and distinctly Raksuran. Apparently, the consort's influence didn't just extend to Consolation, but to other outcasts in the flight. After his death, Consolation and her allies slaughtered the leadership and took over the flight, and seek a place to live in peace independent of traditional Fell corruption and influence. 

One of the interesting things about this are the kethel and dakti in Consolation's flight. Throughout the series, these two Fell castes are basically treated as cannon fodder. If you need a big intimidating enemy, throw in a kethel. For annoying imp swarms, dakti. The Raksura tend to think of these creatures as intelligent animals, not people. They only talk when a Fell ruler takes over their mind. They're treated badly among the Fell; cannibalized them when food stores get low, thrown into suicidal situations, etc. 

In The Harbors of the Sun, the kethel and dakti can speak, much to the surprise of the main cast. Consolation's main advisor is a crossbreed dakti named First. There's also a kethel (presumably pureblooded Fell) that follows and assists Moon and Stone throughout the book and engages them in conversation. They clearly distrust it, but over the course of the story go from calling it "the kethel" to "Kethel", like an actual name. It has ulterior motives-- to convince the Raksura to help Consolation-- but is certainly not "inherently evil", nor just an intelligent animal. This is counter to everything we've been led to believe through the series, and it shocks multiple characters and challenges their way of thinking. 

The argument at the end is that the Fell are evil because of a poisonous ideology and the total control of the progenitors (female rulers). Raised with compassion and better treatment, they're very similar to the Raksura. I'm honestly impressed with where the Fell end up vs where they start in The Cloud Roads. I don't know if Wells planned this arc for them from the beginning, but I like the amount of nuance she introduced without it feeling gross or trite. Does it work 100 percent? I'm not sure; I'd have to reread the series in more depth. But based on my current thoughts, it’s a good development; it doesn’t “redeem” or justify the Fell, but demonstrates the ways in which future generations can change and break the cycle. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, and many characters clearly distrust these “new” Fell (understandable considering the sheer trauma most of the cast has), but it’s an interesting take nevertheless. 

On another subject, we never really learn what was up with the forerunners! Except they really liked flower motifs, I guess. I kind of like this; there's an impression that the long forgotten civilizations of the past were technologically advanced, but no one knows what happened to them. It's just an enduring mystery of the series. Ultimately it doesn't matter to the characters, and that's fine.

Also, we now have confirmation that The Serpent Sea is basically filler. It felt like a side story when I read it, but part of me hoped it would have some relevance to these last two books. Nope. I’m a little disappointed in this, but it’s not the end of the world, just something to keep in mind when reading the series. I think the book is entertaining on its own merits, but there’s little to connect it to the main story besides the characters. 

Overall I recommend these books to people looking for a non-traditional fantasy series. There's no humans or typical Tolkein-esque fantasy races. Instead there are dozens of sapient humanoid species invented whole cloth, with some obvious real world inspirations. The shapeshifting Raksura are lovingly crafted, with lots of interesting detail about their culture, customs, and daily life. I love how they feel like believable people but are distinctly nonhuman. As a setting, The Three Worlds is deadly and fascinating, with lots of interesting places and people. There's always a sense of a big, vibrant world, even when the books choose not to explore it in depth. While The Harbors of the Sun feels like a finale to the current Raksuran story, I wouldn't be surprised if Wells visits this setting in the future.

There are some short story collections in this series which I do plan to read sometime in 2021. However, I'm going to take a break from the Raksura series and dive into something else for now. Thanks for reading! 

[jcmorrigan]

Was looking at Meet the Robinsons stuff for an image edit hopefully forthcoming and...anyone wanna see my collection of Robinsons headcanons? Because every so often, I remember this film exists and also that I made, like, a slew of backstories for these characters

-I don’t have much to say about Bud and Lucille since they’re kind of what you see on the tin. Same with Lewis/Cornelius, Wilbur, and Carl.

-Franny has been dating Cornelius since the science fair. She actually went through high school and college at the expected rate while Cornelius blew right through college before Franny even graduated high school. She felt self-conscious about this for a long time, but Cornelius never saw her as less intelligent and always loved her. She eventually found out that she set herself up with Cornelius via time loop and her only reaction was “See? I’m ALWAYS RIGHT.”

-Gaston Framagucci knows so much about cannons because he used to develop weaponry for the military. After his designs killed civilians, he underwent a mental breakdown, walking out of his position and vowing never to hurt anyone else again. Cornelius invited him into his house with open arms so as not to leave him alone during his depression. He got better over time. He’s also gay and very shy around handsome men, which is why you never see him with a romantic partner. Franny’s still trying to set him up on the ultimate blind date.

-Art Framagucci has wanted to deliver pizza all his life. Delivering pizza is his passion. But delivering pizza doesn’t earn you a living wage. Once Cornelius realized he was making more money than he could spend on himself reasonably, he immediately invited Art to move into the house as well so Art could have food and lodging paid for without having to give up his passion. He doesn’t have a partner because he just hasn’t gotten around to looking for one (might be aro).

-Both Art and Gaston thought of Franny’s biology work as “nerd stuff” before Cornelius started coming over as a teen and giving them a double dose of the smart stuff, at which point Gaston realized ballistic physics interested him and Art, despite not being a scientist in any sense, had a lot of respect for most fields. They still liked to tease Cornelius a lot, though - never in a bullying way, but affectionately.

-Petunia Robinson died in a motorcycle accident. Fritz wears the puppet because he can’t bear to think of her as being gone. Her personality, while alive, was as boisterous and confrontational as Fritz makes the puppet - she and Fritz were always fighting like a married couple and very opposites-attract.

-Tallulah Robinson is trans. (Yes, I thought of this because of the voice - and kept it that way because I just liked the idea.) She told Cornelius before she told her own parents because Cornelius always was the one to be accepting of new ideas. When she did come out publicly to the family, no one judged. She’s not very science-oriented at all, but she loves fashion design, and she made that skyscraper-hat herself. Her closet is actually packed with really avant-garde clothing she has made herself. Her dream is to become a big name in the fashion circuit. And also to never need to take off her roller skates ever. She actually has held a part-time position as a waitress in a roller-skate café (I actually saw this idea on another Tumblr post a long time ago but can’t remember who it was, so if it’s you, thank you; I accept it!)

-Laszlo is similar to Tallulah in that he’s more artistically oriented than scientifically. He didn’t actually make his paint device; that was Cornelius. Laszlo loves to experiment with paint styles, but is one of those people who thinks there’s a very blurry line between “graffiti” and “public art.” He’s gotten some citations for “masterpieces” he doesn’t deny having painted on the side of the hospital. (Also, if you misgender his sister, he will squirt red paint into your eyes.)

-Though Laszlo and Tallulah seem to be at odds almost constantly, they are a dynamic duo and love each other very much when the chips are down.

-Joe Robinson is nonverbal but actually is very eloquent with the written word. Billie made such a good match for him because she didn’t mind doing the talking for two and he loves listening to her. He writes her the most beautiful love poetry in the world.

-Billie Robinson is autistic and trains are her special interest. She met Joe through being contracted by Cornelius for a monorail project for the city; she came to the house for business dinners and Joe stopped by the office to visit Cornelius a few times. She’s also asexual and Joe is completely accepting of this.

-Mike Yagoobian is a close family friend. He actually has made it into a local baseball league, with prospects at the Major League, adding the athletics field to the Robinson deck. While he is no longer evil (or, more accurately, has never been evil), he’s still that much of a goofball. Wilbur, Tallulah, and Laszlo all call him “Uncle Goob” and he loves spoiling them with candy and other fun things tailored to their interests (like fancy new shoes for Tallulah and bright paints for Laszlo).

-Lefty is another of Franny’s biological creations. He’s very close to her and she sometimes treats him like a big baby.

-The gag about Spike and Dmitri being total enigmas is so funny that I actively refuse to come up with any backstory or explanation as to who they are or why they’re there. They just showed up one day and the others made food for them and now they won’t leave the pots.

[ophidiasmadness]

Collision AU

Alternately the Everbody Loves Jaskier Because He’s a Sweetheart AU

Hear me out, canonically, there are different worlds that Ciri can hop to and from.  Why the shit not use that to make crossovers?  Because, Ciri isn’t the only one who can do it, and why not characters from other games/books I love?  And the chaos that would ensue…This got long, sorry.

*This is basically my excuse to have multiple powerful people adore Jaskier because the bard deserves it. Fuck off.  Also, Geralt gets a shovel talk from someone who can back it up?  

*So, there is Some Shit™ that happens and now multiple worlds can basically freely access each other and that?  Is not good. Tamriel, The Northern Kingdoms and Thedas collide as simultaneous cataclysmic explosions of power occur on all 3 coincide and create a connection.  You do not want things from The Northern Kingdoms to get involved with things from Thedas or Tamriel.  Or vice versa.

*Just saying, a Darkspawn Kikimora is a BAD DAY. The Daedric Princes would have a field day with the people in The Northern Kingdoms; especially Sheogorath and Sanguine.  And the kinds of vampirism present in both Tamriel and The Northern Kingdoms would cause some fucking problems in Thedas.

*Plus no one is prepared for the demons.  Thedosian demons are bad all by themselves, adding other magics to the mix just makes it worse.  Even Vesemir is like “Fuck this I need an ale.”

                                            Starting With Thedas

*I’ll be super honest, I mostly want to have an excuse for Geralt and the other Witchers to meet The Iron Bull and have no fucking idea what to think about him.  Here is this. Guy.  And he’s a certifiable BAMF. Routinely fights dragons and calls it fun, could go toe to toe with a Witcher and also call it fun but he’s also NOT a grumpy jerk.  These things do not equate in Witcher logic.

*Jaskier and Bull get into a Pun-Off, it ends with Jaskier conceding to Bulls “Pun-ishing grasp of wordplay”.  Jaskier brings Bull to tears of laughter with a few really dirty songs.

*Bull might seem like a big loud brute, but he is so freaking smart and he loves talking about poetry forms with Jaskier, and how easy it is to sway hearts and minds with just a little story telling and embellishment. He also introduces Jaskier to The Chargers and gets a “Dammit Chief.” from a long suffering Krem.

*Jaskier creates The Chargers Sonata and they all love it.

*Jaskier and Dorian are destined to be the very best friends.  Both in love a with a big strong warrior with a heart of gold, both love wine, both love fashion and music.  Both actually rather scholarly in their respective fields.  Dorian and Jaskier can both talk for hours, and Geralt gets annoyed until he realizes how much it means to Jaskier to have a friend he can just talk to.  Who can and will just talk back.  It’s cannon in book/game verse that Jaskier is actually Julian Alfred Pankratz, Viscount de Lettenhove and thus a noble.  He and Dorian connect over horrifying fathers, surviving abuse and unrealistic expectations that they turned their backs on.  More to come on this because, oh, I have so many thoughts about Jaskier’s backstory.  

*Vivienne and Yennefer drink wine and talk so much shit.  Madame De Fer yearns for Power and Respect. Yennefer has these two attributes in spades.  Yennefer is powerful in all the ways Vivienne wishes she could be.  And Yennefer finds a kindred soul in Vivienne, someone who takes all their bitterness and anger and wraps it around them in a fashionable wall of armor.  A woman who wants to be more than what people have decided she will be.  Beautiful, clever, deadly and powerful.  But both of them have just that little chink, that soft place named either Bastien or motherhood. That small hurting part and they find comfort in knowing that there is another person who matches them so well.  They are later joined by Triss.

*So, Joey Batey is 5’9”/175.26 cm and Henry Cavill is 6’1”/185.42 cm, but in my head Geralt is taller.  So, I tend to leave Jaskier around 5’9” and Geralt around 6’5”/195.58 cm.  This leads to a conversation, because the Iron Bull is described as being over 7 ft/ 213.36 cm tall, it’s never really specified, but I always sort of put him at closer to the 8 foot/243.84 cm mark because horns.

              Geralt: I never knew how much your neck had to hurt?

              Jakier: ???????

               Geralt: I have never had to look up at someone to talk to them before.                 Not as an adult at any rate.  You have to do it all the time.

               Jaskier: (ಠ_ಠ)     (ง'ಠ -'ಠ)ง

 *The Iron Bull thinks Jaskier puts up with too much crap from Geralt.

*Dorian just pats Bull on the arm, because he knows what it’s like to fall in love fast and hard with someone who ‘doesn’t do romance’ or ‘no feelings’.  Dorian knows how deeply Jaskier fell in such a short amount of time.  Because even if he struggles to say it, he fell for Bull the exact same way.  And by the grace of the Inquisitor, Dorian gets to have his love returned.  But oh, he will never forget the days of loving a man who’s very culture forbade romantic attachment.  And he also knows how Geralt feels; how absolutely terrifying it is to be loved by someone you know is too good for you.

                                            Starting With Tamriel

*The Companions are having a damn good time fighting all the shit coming to Tamriel, because unknown monsters invading?  Worlds colliding and spilling chaos into each other?  That’s what makes Heroes and stories that are told for generations.

*Until Vilkas gets the blight, Torvar gets clawed to death by a despair demon, and Njada is gored by a royal griffin.

*Farkas has never even thought of a world without his twin, and he doesn’t know what to do now that he lives in it.

*Jaskier reaches out to Farkas, because he can’t stand people being so sad.  “Tell me about your brother, tell me his adventures and manner and I will immortalize him in songs and stories across your world AND mine.”

*Farkas really comes to treasure Jaskier, even if he “Talks to fucking much.”  They develop the kind of friendship where one chatters and the other kind of nods?  Farkas has no clue what Jaskier is talking about most of the time but he really doesn’t mind listening.

*Jaskier carefully teaches Farkas to read, because Farkas is not actually stupid in my head.  I think he’s dyslexic, and when you have a learning disability and you get told you are stupid often enough, you start to believe it.

*Farkas’ Nord DB Wife appreciates the effort and comes to really appreciate Jaskier.

*Spoiler alert; She is the one to give Geralt the shovel talk because he is next to nothing compared to her. A steel blade or silver blade won’t touch dragon bone armor and signs are a joke to her. She could literally rip his soul out with a shout before he could do dick.  Axii can’t touch the mind of a this crazy bitch who’s gone against Hermaeus Mora and come out completely unscathed.  She knows no fear and every Witcher within a mile of her has their instincts screaming.  She’s just so oddly fucking soft. Her big sweet husband, sweet adopted children and twins on the way adding to already soft curves absolutely does not mesh with the aura of danger danger danger she exudes.  

*Jaskier seems to be loved by people from worlds that are not his own and it makes him feel like he doesn’t belong and he should have been born somewhere else.  Feeling like he’s outsider starts crushing him and then Geralt just holds him.  Surrounds the slender bard with his bulk and relieves some of that pressure.

*“You belong with me, songbird.  I am glad you are in my world.”  It’s not, “I love you”, but it’s pretty fucking close and now he can’t wait to tell Dorian and Farkas.

 There is a ton more to come, but I am writing waaay too much in head cannon posts.  Sorry my friends.  This is totally going to be Geraskier though.  It’s going to happen.  I am almost done with my half elf Jaskier thing too.  I’ll post it here in a bit.  

[lee-jinkis-ponytail]

Haunts & Hellhounds: A Player’s Handbook

Hi, Writeblr. :) If you’re joining me on this spooky, whacky adventure that is Haunts & Hellhounds over on Wattpad, here’s a more detailed (albeit very rough) glimpse into the ancient and irreverent “Player’s Handbook” that the characters flip through in Chapter 1! The “game” is basically just a very watered-down version of D&D with horror elements. I may add to this as time goes on if I’ve overlooked anything that pops up as I write the story. If you have any questions or think I’m missing anything important, let me know! I’m very new to tabletop gaming and am still learning the ropes. This whole project is basically just a way for me to combine my love of writing horror stories with D&D practice (as both the GM and the player).

Just a content warning--the fictional creator of H&H was a huge, racist, sexist douchebag who leaned heavily into some very problematic horror tropes when writing the rules of this game, so there are some descriptions of the characters that may be offensive. H&H is intended for mature audiences, 18+! It’s a horror story. There is violence, gore, and murder.

Anyway, I’m using this unpolished “handbook” to guide every single action and reaction in every single scene of the story.

Who will die? Who will survive? Even I don’t know! It’s all in the hands of the dice gods...

Welcome to Haunts & Hellhounds, Survivors...

Instead of classes, H&H players choose their role from a list of 7 classic horror movie tropes, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.

The Nerd: Proficiences: With an inclination towards knowledge, the LVL 1 Nerd will be proficient in ALL knowledge-related skills (EXCEPT FOR INSIGHT, because Nerds may like to read books, but they aren’t usually good at reading the room), and their attribute specializations are knowledge and dexterity. These scrawny losers tend to be weak and clumsy, however, and will always roll attack, athletic, and acrobatic checks at a disadvantage. Unlike the other tropes, Nerds can never take the average Hit Points of their hit die upon leveling up; they must roll a d6 (plus their constitution modifier), and whatever the result, they must always subtract 2 from the total (yes--that means, depending on their constitution modifier, it is possible to roll at a loss, because Nerds are just unable to endure these horrific scenarios for very long). If you’re a Nerd, you’re likely to die in a moment of lapsed judgment, foolish enough to believe that if you’re just brave enough you might defeat the evil once and for all and get the girl. Silly Nerd; good guys never win.

The Jock: Proficiencies: Meat-head jerks like the Jock specialize in strength, dexterity, charisma, and constitution, with skills in athletics, acrobatics, and an additional dexterity- or charisma-related skill for a total of 3; additionally, they can choose proficiency in the weapon of their choice, either ranged or melee. They are often too dumb to string a coherent sentence together, and thus roll knowledge checks at a disadvantage. A Jock’s starting defense points are the base 15 plus their constitution modifier, and if they are wearing sports gear, they add 2 more points per piece of gear to their total defense. Their beginning HP is 18 plus their constitution modifier. If you’re a Jock, you’re stupidly confident, you’ll probably get all the girls, but you’re going to charge into battle knowing that you’ll die a heroic, sacrificial death. Thing is, you care more for glory than logic or organized progress. Ah, well. You served your purpose.

The Party Animal: Everybody likes the party animal. Proficiencies: Charisma is this character’s number one attribute, and thanks to the dulling effects of whatever illegal substances they’ve pumped into their body, they have a surprisingly high endurance and are thus proficient in constitution as well; as far as skills go, they are proficient in deception and persuasion, and may choose one other skill for a total of 3, as long as it is not a dexterity-related skill. Why, you ask? Well, that’s because when the Party Animal rolls dexterity-saving throws, they always roll at a disadvantage, as they are likely too drunk or high to walk in a straight line. And so they cannot be proficient in any dexterity-related skills. As the Party Animal, you might make it close to the end through sheer, dumb luck. But that luck will run out and you will die eventually. It’s inevitable. Lucky for you, you’re probably too wasted to care.

The Harlot: The Harlot has a reputation too, but not for anything good. Proficiencies: Like the Party Animal, the Harlot’s number one attribute is charisma, and since she’s usually tiny, she is proficient in dexterity as well; also like the Party Animal, her skills include deception and persuasion, and she may choose one other skill for a total of 3, so long as it is not related to knowledge. You guessed it--that’s because there isn’t much going on in that pretty little head of hers. She’s dumb. Even dumber than the Jock. Vapid. Shallow. All of her knowledge checks are rolled at a disadvantage. So you picked the Harlot. The only thing standing between you and the killer is a Token Minority. Hope the premarital sex was worth it.

The Token Minority: Why did you even bother creating this character? The Token Minority is basically cannon fodder and will likely be the first to die. There may be only one Token Minority per group of survivors. Proficiencies: Pick whatever two attributes, and one skill you want for this character. Who cares? The only rule is that whatever d6 results you get rolling for your attributes, the lowest goes to constitution, and all constitution saving throws are made at a disadvantage. You won’t be playing very long as the Token Minority, so why waste time creating a whole backstory? Have fun being the first to die.

The Recluse: The Recluse is basically a stronger Nerd. All that time spent on the outside of the social jungle has allowed this character to become well-versed in all things weird and macabre. Proficiencies: He or she will have a knack for dexterity, knowledge, and serenity; able to keep calm in the most horrific situations and plan ahead because they know the horror genre inside and out, the Recluse is always proficient in arcana/witchcraft and sanity; at LVL 1 they may also choose an additional 2 skills that fall under the dexterity or knowledge branches. Like the Token Minority, there may be only one Recluse per group of survivors. As the Recluse, you’re likely to become BFFs with the Final Girl and tragically die just before the story’s end. Pity. If you were just more milquetoast like the Final Girl, you might have made it to the end, but alas, the audience couldn’t stomach your obnoxious need to "stand out from the herd.”

The Final Girl: The star of our show. The well-rounded goody-two-shoes. Like the Token Minority and the Recluse, there may only be one Final Girl per group of survivors. In fact, there MUST be a Final Girl in every game. At LVL1, her HP begins at 18 plus her dexterity modifier. When she rolls her 4d6 to determine her base stats at LVL1, she should discard any result lower than a 10 and roll again. Proficiencies: She is proficient in all attributes and all weapon types and can choose any 10 skills from the list of 19. All of her attack rolls, checks, and death saving throws are rolled at an advantage. If you’re playing the Final Girl, you’re nearly as immortal as the unkillable slasher. You’re guaranteed to survive... almost... every time. So long as you follow the rules of the genre.

Attributes: Much like D&D5e, there are 6 attributes in H&H. If a character is proficient in specific attributes, they roll saving throws of those attributes at advantage. The attributes are:

Strength, measuring physical fitness

Dexterity, measuring agility

Constitution, measuring health and endurance

Knowledge, measuring booksmarts, street smarts, and common sense

Serenity, measuring calmness and sanity

Charisma, measuring popularity, confidence, and charm

To determine the character’s numeric value of these attributes, roll 4d6, drop the lowest result, and add the remaining 3 together. Do this 6 times (1 for each attribute), and assign numbers where you feel they would be best. It is recommended you assign the highest numbers to the attributes your character is proficient in.

Skills: There are 19 Skills in H&H, each related to a specific attribute. Similar to attributes, if a character is proficient in a skill, they roll checks of those skills at advantage. Please see your trope’s description to see how many skills you may choose:

Acrobatics (Dex)

Alchemy & Chemistry (Kno)

Animal Handling (Cha)

Arcana & Witchcraft (Ser)

Athletics (Str)

Crafting (Dex)

Deception (Cha)

History & Lore (Kno)

Insight (Kno)

Intimidation & Distraction (Cha)

Investigation (Kno)

Perception (Ser)

Persuasion (Cha)

Religion & Occultism (Kno)

Sanity (Ser)

Sleight of Hand (Dex)

Stealth (Dex)

Survival (Kno)

Technology (Kno)

Proficiency Bonuses: All LVL1 characters start with a +2 proficiency bonus, meaning if they roll a check of an attribute or skill they are proficient in, they add 2 to their total roll. Proficiency bonus for all characters increases by 1 point every odd level--so at LVL3 it will be +3, at LVL5 it will be +4, etc. NOTE: Unlike other tabletop games, H&H only uses proficiency bonuses in skill rolls, NOT in attacks/hits; for example, if a character is making a dexterity saving throw and they are proficient in dexterity, they will add their proficiency bonus to that roll, but even if they are proficient in firearms, they will NOT add their proficiency bonus to attack or hit rolls in combat with a firearm. Combat proficiencies simply allow the character to roll attacks with those weapons at an advantage.

Attribute Modifiers: Your character’s attribute modifiers are used to give them a boost during attack rolls, saving throws, and checks. To determine your character’s H&H attribute modifier, subtract 10 from that attribute’s total, divide by 2, and round down. For example, if a character has 15 constitution, subtract 10 (5), divide by 2 (2.5), and round down (2)--which means, when rolling a constitution saving throw, the character would add +2 to whatever they roll.

Skill Modifiers: Skills also have modifiers. If a character is NOT proficient in a certain skill, their modifier is equal to the attribute modifier that skill falls under. For example, a Jock is not proficient in insight, a skill that falls under knowledge. So if the Jock’s knowledge modifier is +1, so is his insight modifier. If a character IS proficient in a skill, add their proficiency bonus plus the modifier of the attribute the skill falls under. So, for example, Jocks are proficient in the athletics skill. At LVL1 with a +2 proficiency bonus and a +3 strength modifier, the Jock would have a total of +5 for his athletics modifier.

Hit Points & Hit Die: Your LVL1 character’s maximum HP is always 18, except for Jocks and the Final Girl, who add their constitution and dexterity modifiers respectively. For every level after that, additional HP will be determined by a roll of the character’s highest unarmed hit die. Jocks and the Final Girl will roll a d10 as their hit (unarmed) die. Recluses, Token Minorities, Harlots, and Party Animals use d8, and Nerds use d6. The Nerd must ALWAYS roll their hit die to determine their new HP upon leveling up, and then must subtract 2 from the total. Every other character can opt not to roll the die, but to take the average roll of their die instead (d10=5, d8=4). Every EVEN level, the character adds a hit die (so LVL2=2d10 for a Jock, LVL4=2d10, and so on). In battle, ranged weapons such as firearms are rolled with a d10 plus the character’s dexterity modifier; melee weapons such as bats are rolled with a d10 plus the character’s strength modifier. *Note: Jocks, the Final Girl, and any character with a proficiency in weapons roll a d12 as their hit die if they are armed.* Upon a short rest, half HP is restored. Upon a long rest, full HP is restored. Characters may also eat food, drink water, bandage and tend wounds, or use a health potion to speed up the healing process if they have the necessary supplies in their pockets or backpack. If used during battle, consumption of these healing items count as a bonus action.

Defense Stat: If we were playing another tabletop RPG, this would be your character’s “Armor Class.” All characters except for the Jock, the Final Girl, and the Recluse start with a base defense of 15. The Jock and the Final Girl begin with the base 15 and add their constitution modifier, while the Recluse adds their dexterity modifier. Upon leveling up, the defense stat DOES NOT increase. (The exception is for the Recluse, Final Girl, and Jock, who CAN increase their defense stat if they increase their respective modifiers upon leveling up.) Defense stats can be increased at any time in one of 3 ways: (1) if a character dons armor (i.e. helmets, sports gear, even duct tape to defend against zombie bites, etc.--+1 defense per piece of armor [helmet, torso guard, arm guards, leg guards, gloves, boots] for every character except the Jock, who gets +2 per piece of armor), (2) if a character crouches behind cover (+2 defense), or (3) if a character takes up a shield (+2 defense). There are also some magical artifacts that can increase a character’s defense stat, both temporarily and permanently.

Sanity Points: In addition to traditional HP, H&H characters have sanity points. Everyone begins with a base of 20 Sanity Points, except for the Recluse and the Final Girl, who begin with 23. At the end of every hellish battle, all playable characters involved must make a sanity saving throw with a d20 plus their serenity modifier. If they roll 10-19, they are safe and do not lose or gain any SP. If they roll a natural 20, they permanently gain 4SP, even if they go above their original maximum. If they roll 2-9 or lower, they must roll a d4 to determine how many SP they lose. If they roll a natural 1, they automatically lose 4SP. If a character’s sanity falls to 0, they must roll a sanity d20+serenity modifier check along with every attack roll against an enemy. If they roll a sanity check below a 5, there is a chance of friendly fire and/or self harm that turn. The player rolls a d20 against all characters within 5 feet of them, including themselves; if they roll greater than the target’s defense stat, the insane character lashes out in blind fear and must roll a hit die against their nearby allies and/or themselves as if attacking an enemy. Sanity points cannot be regained during rests. Anxiety medications and certain potions may provide relief, if you can find them.

Death Saving Throws: Like other tabletop RPGs, H&H uses the 3-strike strategy. Upon reaching 0HP, you become unconscious and must make 3 attempts to cling to life. Roll a d20 with NO modifiers. Rolling a 10 or more is a success; anything below 10 is a failure. If you roll 3 successes, your character remains unconscious but alive, and it is up to your companions to get you back up on your feet by offering you a nourishing sip of water (+1HP), or tending your wounds (+3HP), or giving you a health potion (+5HP), or using a healing spell (regained HP varies depending on spell); if you roll 3 failures, you die a permanent death. If you roll a natural 20, your character reawakens with 1HP. If you roll a natural 1, you take 2 failure strikes. BEWARE: Some enemies have the ability to “double tap” and make sure you are really, truly dead on their next turn. It is in everyone’s best interest to work as a team and distract the enemy once a friend is down...

Rolling at Advantage and Disadvantage: When a character is asked to roll checks or attacks at “advantage” or “disadvantage,” they roll 2d20 and take either the higher of the 2 rolls (advantage) or the lower (disadvantage).

Extra Proficiencies: Aside from the skills and attributes above, your characters may have other specialties depending on their role and backstory. For example, Jocks are proficient in firearms, and the Final Girl, known for being quick on her feet and good at improvising, is proficient in all weapons. Your characters’ backstory may lead them to have certain training in useful foreign languages or subjects. For example: -Latin -Folklore and Mythology -Engineering -Driving -Herbology -And more The possibilities are endless. Choose whatever you think might help your characters get out of sticky situations. However, to prevent your character from becoming too much of an overpowered know-it-all, limit these additional proficiencies to a total of 5. As there are no hard and fast rules to these extra proficiencies, the GM and the player must often collaborate to determine how this additional feature will benefit the player. For example, perhaps the GM and the player decide that being an Art Student grants the character a +1 bonus to crafting tools and weapons.

Magic: Depending on the dungeon you play, magic may factor into your story. Characters with a proficiency in arcana & witchcraft are able to learn spells, curses, and hexes in books they may find from vendors or when they loot enemies’ bodies. When a character unlocks magical abilities, they receive a spell attack stat to be used in magical attack rolls; the spell attack is their proficiency bonus plus their serenity modifier (so a LVL1 character with a +2 proficiency bonus and a +3 serenity modifier would have a total of +5 spell attack power). When using magic in battle, roll a d20 plus the character’s strength modifier to determine if the spell strikes its target. If the strike is successful, the spell’s damage is determined by rolling a d10 plus the character’s spell attack bonus. Healing spells do NOT require the player to roll a d20 to check if their spell reaches its target. Each healing spell has unique requirements, such as being a certain distance from your companion, or rolling a specific die to determine how much HP is restored, but it will always be successful. There are many different kinds of spells, from mind control to healing magic, but the character using the spell does not need to choose a specialization. As long as they have a proficiency in arcana & witchcraft, they may use any spell they stumble upon if they think it will help. However, magically-inclined characters do have a limited supply of magical points, or MP. Each spell costs a certain number of MP, and when that MP runs out, the character must resort to physical attacks against an enemy. Half MP is restored upon a short rest, and full MP after a long rest. MP potions may also be purchased from vendors or looted from enemies. MP increases like HP; upon unlocking magic, the character begins with 15MP, and upon leveling up, they must roll their hit die to determine how much their MP will increase. Oh, and the magically-inclined may want to seek out an animal familiar. Having a little friend along for the ride will double your MP total.

Experience Points: After every battle, survivors will gain experience points along with anything else they loot off the enemy’s body. Players reach LVL2 at 200EXP, and levels rise exponentially after that every time the character’s total EXP is doubled. For example: LVL2 - 200 points LVL3 - 400 points LVL4 - 800 points LVL5 - 1600 points ...and so on. Upon leveling up, a character may opt to either choose 1 new ability (see below) or add 2 points to their attributes. The latter is especially useful if a character’s beginning attributes are below 10.

Abilities: Each character starts at LVL1 with 2 abilities unique to them. These are special attacks, bonus attacks, spells, and battle maneuvers that have notable conditions that set them apart from regular attacks, such as the ability to knock an enemy prone. Every time the character levels up, they gain 1 more ability. See the appendix for a full list. The GM may also add abilities specific to individual players as he sees fit. (For example, a character who plays a sport that is not listed under the Jock abilities may be given an ability unique to that sport.)

Inventory: Characters can carry either: (1) one or two small weapons, (2) one medium weapon and a shield (one per hand), or (3) one large two-handed weapon. Additionally, they may carry as much loot as they have pockets. If they have 0 pockets, they may carry 0 additional small objects, if they have 2 pockets, they may carry 2 small objects, etc. (Cargo shorts, though hideous, do come in pretty handy here!) Characters may also find backpacks to increase their inventory size. Backpacks have a carry capacity of 5 small objects and 3 medium to large objects. Holsters, sheaths, and belt loops can also be used to store additional weapons if the character finds any.

The Safe Room: Every dungeon must have at least one safe room where the characters can rest, heal, interact with vendors (if there are any), and plan their next moves. Enemies are not allowed to enter these rooms. (The GM can decide why this is the case in a way that best fits the dungeon's lore. For example, perhaps the room is protected by a powerful spell, blessed by a priest, or simply locked and barricaded.)

Act Wisely...: Certain actions will act like echo-location for enemies. If your character opts to do any of the following during roleplay, the nearest enemy--whether they are a mere minion or a boss--will suddenly appear. (If the act occurs in a safe room, don't be surprised to find an enemy waiting just outside the door for you.) Do NOT: (1) drink alcohol or do drugs (2) have sex or undress (3) steal, vandalize, or otherwise break the law (4) let your cell phone ring or vibrate You’ve been warned...

Have fun--while you still can.

[freevoidman]

Okay I’m reading through Porg’s update so some of y’all can save your braincells and here are some great highlights (under a readmore bc i couldn’t help but tear into a few things she suggested):

Flat out ignoring that Vergil had changed by the end of the game as a result of V and Urizen’s separate experiences.

In trying to make V and Urizen their own character, she throws out the idea of Vergil being manipulated by the Qliphoth/Urizen (??? somehow??? even though the tree is implied to be non-sentient i believe???), with V being a Devil hunter looking through the remains of Mallet Island (which was completely blown up, turned to rubble, and then swallowed by the sea, so... that can’t happen), finding the cane which makes him youthful and not sick but... having the cane makes it so he can only kill demons through the cane??? for some reason??? And he needs the Qliphoth fruit to heal himself and free him from the curse???

How did she make V’s backstory even more confusing and complicated how the fuck did she do that

Almost immediately after bringing up the cane, she instead changes it to be one of the rings he’s wearing because she wants her “precious V” to use weapons other than the cane, which makes all the prior paragraphs about the cane’s curse and only using it pointless. She’s the one writing this fic, why can’t she edit her own work so it’s more cohesive?

Despite saying that V should be a Devil Hunter, she doesn’t explain why someone who is supposed to be killing demons would form a pact with at least three to fight demons. Her rewrite dismisses Visions of V, and she even states later that the manga is a waste of time as it won’t ever be translated into English (which 1) is not a limiting factor to reading it as many people have translated it already and 2) doesn’t dismiss it’s value at building up V’s character, who she supposedly likes the best).

Also, for someone who complains about DMC5 being a rehash of DMC3, she’s sure doing her best to change it to a rehash of DMC1 (Vergil being controlled by an outside force, bringing back Mallet Island, bringing back Mundus [the cane is supposed to be tied to Mundus]).

V apparently can’t be human because she wants to give him a devil trigger, despite having 3 familiars and his own strength. Okay I guess?

Also it’s really fucking sick how she describes V changing, because it’s apparently V fusing with Nightmare? Devil May Cry has never been one for body horror but she straight up says she was inspired by “The Thing (1982), The Fly (1986), Bloodborne, and Resident Evil 7″ for the transformation imagery and I wanted to nope the fuck out of there real quick.

Her segments of actual fiction writing and dialogue are really bad it’s almost like a parody Youtube skit.

She switches between prose and script writing randomly, it’s really odd. She does it primarily with Dante i’ve noticed? Here’s an example I wrote of what she does:

“Hey, don’t stress out about it will you?” Says John following a few steps behind VINCENT: Don’t get your panties in a twist

And that just happens... randomly? Like, there’s no indication why she’s doing that it just happens.

She straight up writes notes in her fic about the controls for character actions in-game what the hell--

She also shamelessly puts in a link to artwork that clearly isn’t her’s (and I highly doubt she got permission to post about) to try and show what V’s Devil Trigger would look like. I couldn’t find it because I don’t know how pixiv works, but that’s just a shitty move, especially with how she treats artists on tumblr when they draw art of Vergil.

EDIT: Porg has now straight up copy-pasted the art into her fic without the artist’s permission which is, we all know, fucking theft. While it is good artistry, is just a weird mashup of Vergil’s and Dante’s. It’s not all that unique and I don’t understand why she had to reference a bunch of body horror shit when all the Devil Triggers in game are essentially just a large flash of light and a seamless transition between forms??? It’s good art, I’m not trying to bash the artist, but... Porg, you could’ve been a little more original here rather than just ripping off another artist’s designs...

Everyone in her fic acts super casually to seeing Vergil alive in the Qliphoth and it’s like... honey, no.

Vergil acts WILDLY out of character holy fuck. Like, I know I should have expected that but this is NOT how Vergil would act in the slightest. She’s pretty much writing an OC.

Building off of this: EVERYONE acts OOC and... it’s not exactly cringey, but it is perfect proof that Porg doesn’t know what she’s doing and hasn’t properly analyzed the characters.

Dante acts weirdly... detached? There’s no sign of him acting like his normal goofball-y self, and he’s much more serious than normal. He actually acts more like cannon Vergil than himself, actually. (He also knows CPR apparently? Which... is a skill he would really never bother learning, so...)

Nero doesn’t act nearly as emotional, and acts calmly for some reason. You can’t feel any of his emotions behind his dialogue, only through the adverbs added to the tags)

V is too informative. He knows way too much about random shit that... no one should rightfully know. I’ll mention it more later, but... V doesn’t act like himself and I don’t really know how to explain it.

Vergil is essentially her OC. Seriously--he’s not as brooding or snarky, he’s far too open and apologetic, there’s practically no sense of rivalry between him and Dante. Weirdly, he acts more like canon V than fic!V does, despite the fact that Porg wants to establish V and Vergil and separate characters. His actions also make no sense when put alongside his canon personality. We aren’t reading anything about Vergil, we’re reading about Porg’s weirdly idealized version of him.

I’m going to make a break in the post here because I feel like this is the part that needs the most attention:

Porg goes OUT OF HER WAY to dedicate a GIANT portion of this chapter to her own OC: Nero’s mom. There are several long paragraphs of establishing the relationship between her OC and Vergil, talking about leaving Fortuna, how they were ‘happy’ and then saying that after a hurricane (inspired by hurricane hugo, you’ll see later) she got separated from Vergil, never reconnected with him, GAVE BIRTH, died from a demon attack with Nero staying near her corpse, and then Nero was found by humans and taken off the mainland to be taken to an orphanage on Fortuna. She wanted a massive amount of time to be taken out of the fun parts of playing Devil May Cry to establish a relationship that would never come back and essentially turn into a 15 minute soap opera inserted into a game about having fun killing demons.

Alright back to the noted highlights.

Porg confirms in her fic that the universe of Devil May Cry happens in the US, and that Fortuna is an island along the southeast coast and I want to fucking rip my eyeballs out at this point.

The ONLY REASON why she is doing this is because she lives in Florida. I know she does, and she just wants to imply that this is all happening near her home turf. How anyone who lives in Florida thinks an island like Fortuna can exist is beyond me though, because playing through 4, most of the buildings are inspired by Italian designs, and no one in the states would build an entire island with italian designs. I’ve been to Florida multiple times--there’s no buildings there even REMOTELY designed to match Fortuna.

EDIT: I have been informed that Porg actually lives in Pennsylvania, not Florida, which makes both more and less sense. Why Florida? Why not a hidden island up on the east coast? Why does this have to be taking place in the states at all Porg???

Yeah, let’s take Nero off the MAINLAND OF FLORIDA after a DEVASTATING HURRICANE and send him to an orphanage on an ISLAND which would’ve been hit the hardest by ANY hurricane. TOTAL SENSE. 

She tries to make her own timeline for the series using actual real world dates and events and it’s terrible (she references Hurricane Hugo in 1989, and confidently states that 3 took place in 1990, despite all evidence for the actual dates of events being fan theory established through circumstantial evidence).

There’s so much horror movie inspiration here--not cheap horror, but really twisted shit that... doesn’t fit with Devil May Cry’s tone at all? In the slightest? She references Jacob’s Ladder, plus all the other body horror media I wrote above.

Straight up just tears Vergil’s arm off which sure, I guess we gotta make THAT a parallel between Nero and Vergil. They can have a father son moment over being physically maimed.

In the scene immediately before this, Urizen picks up Vergil by the head and roots around Vergil’s memories (somehow???) to show him all the ‘bad moments’ in his life to traumatize him. She describes it as the audience getting flashes of him falling to hell, charging Mundus, being Nelo Angelo, etc. 

This causes Vergil to cry and beg for Urizen to stop. Then Urizen rips off his arm. So. Yeah. Another point for the OOC!Vergil/OC-taking-Vergil’s-place board.

Also this point ALONE made me realize that Porg does not know how much time, effort, and money needs to be put into making assets. Like, the entire fic she was stressing that everything be done in 5′s HD Graphics--including the ruins of Mallet Island, so I have to assume she’d want these little snippets in HD too, which would be a massive money hole creating these assets for one scene that lasts maybe ten seconds total.

I know I stated it in one of my earlier posts, but most of what she’s writing would fit better with a sequel for the reboot series, not DMC5. It would make her OOC writing of Vergil make sense, all the horror movie inspiration and body horror shit would fit better there, especially all the crappy dialogue too.

She somehow made Griffon even MORE annoying than in cannon.

BTW if I had to listen to poetry while fighting the final boss of a video game, I’d sooner turn my PS4 off. Not that poetry isn’t cool and all, but it cheapens the final fight and distracts you. It wouldn’t work.

EDIT: I realized this point made no sense without context, sorry. Porg made the Book of Urizen (the poetry book by William Blake referenced multiple times by V) either weirdly prophetic or made it out like Blake had inner knowledge of demon powers or... something along those lines, and V magically has the knowledge that reciting poetry from the book about Urizen will... harm him? Weaken him? Open a gate to hell (she mentions a portal appearing near him)? It’s very unclear, but she essentially rewrites Urizen as the final boss, and makes it three stages (V [Griffon recites some verses, which is what the first point was about], Vergil and Dante [this is where Vergil gets his arm ripped off btw], and then Nero) with all three of them reading poetry from the book to deal the “final blow” to Urizen. I’d much rather have Vergil be the final boss than have to go through a three-stage boss fight while every character I play as recites poetry to kill the boss.

She mentions Dante using Sin DT against Urizen but I’m pretty sure with her fuckery of the game’s events Dante can’t GET Sin DT? Because there’s no fight between Nero and Urizen where he’d intervene?

COMPLETELY IGNORES VERGIL’S DEVELOPMENT OF WANTING TO TRAVEL WITH HIS BROTHER THROUGH HELL TO ELIMINATE THE QLIPHOTH FUCK OFF.

Also she changed the lore of the Qliphoth so that it sprouts semi-naturally around every 500 or so years? So... shouldn’t leaving the Qliphoth roots be fine now? Since it’s natural?

Nico acts like growing back arms is totally normal

Wrote an INCREDIBLY shoe-horned in moment in the van with Dante filling Trish and Lady in about finding Vergil and everything that happened where, once again, Trish and Lady act almost completely nonplussed that Vergil is alive after 20+ years in hell, with about 9 of those ten years being trapped under Mundus’ control and corrupted by the Demon King

Seriously why is no one surprised in this fic that Vergil survived? Dante has a brief moment before finding him, but everyone finds out and accepts it like flipping a switch (once again--ESPECIALLY DANTE, which is NOT how the grieving process works)

Porg states that the ending is trash because the twins are fighting in hell, but completely ignores that most of Dante and Vergil’s lives have been built on conflict and they like fighting demons, especially Dante. Both of them were happy and doing what they love.

She also completely ignores through this entire thing that Dante was really fucking depressed in the novels leading up to 5 but hey I don’t even know if she can read.

I can vaguely agree that Trish and Lady were sidelined and they should’ve had a bigger role. However, I can’t fault the directors for not doing this, because they were already developing three playable characters with their own unique fighting styles. She writes all this shit about the story, writes notes about controls and mission layouts, but forgets that it takes a lot more than pressing a single button to code a game.

She just doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Seriously, none of these things are cohesive or edited properly, and despite her saying she wanted better for Vergil, or Nero, or Dante, or V, she writes all of them incredibly out of character and doing illogical actions. I just... I don’t get it.

The best part is--I can’t even tell her about these things, or give constructive criticism. She moderates the comments on her fic and isn’t afraid to delete anything she doesn’t agree with or can’t make a ‘passionate rant’ about.

[izukillme-moved]

🌼🌼🌼

Hehehe… well, you asked for it…

(’It’ being Ultear meta.)

ULTEAR. UltearUltearUltearUltear fucking Ultear. Where do I even start?

She was, is and will always be the BEST character Fairy Tail has ever had; counting Gray, counting Erza, counting Natsu. Because Ultear changed. Ultear had more than a personality - she was a personality. She was a ‘round’ character in every sense of the word (and no, this is NOT an innuendo XD). See, the thing with FT is that Natsu, Gray, Lucy, Erza, Happy - they never change. Gray started out a cool, calm guy with a funny habit and he remained a cool, calm guy with a funny habit. He didn’t undergo any change, and that’s where Mashima fucked up. Because he went and made his side characters dynamic, and the main ones static.

But Ultear! This queen demanded her space in the tiny, flat role she was relegated to, and even then Mashima did her dirty. OHHHHHH did he do her dirty. 

But let’s get there by starting with why Ultear is the perfect example of writing a good character.

First of all, Ultear had an interesting past. 

She had a beautiful backstory, and she was powerful. And her past wasn’t the typical “I’m a poor little sad orphan” types - there were twists and turns she hadn’t known, which changes her character and brings her to this amazing redemption arc (will expand on this later). 

She is the strong woman trope (alongside Erza, not counting Mira because Mira was degraded) that we’ve all wanted for so long. 

Ultear dresses provocatively but is in NO WAY a femme fatale, unlike, say, Lucy, who does exploit her looks; and I’m not saying this is wrong at all, just pointing out how Ultear broke all the stereotypes of female anime villains.

Second, her powers. She’s OP as fuck and it’s amazing, really, and her powers are handled well. We need more OP girls who aren’t reduced to blushing sidekicks in anime, and Ultear was that for a while. (Until, you know, deus ex Mashima struck.)

Ultear has one of the most OP magics ever - the magic of Time itself.

She can LITERALLY MANIPULATE INANIMATE OBJECTS AND DECIDE THEIR FUTURE. And while it does come with some limitations, it’s still a very powerful magic. 

BUT WAIT! That’s not all! Oh, no, Ultear has her mother’s magic, too. The Ice-Make Ur so loved was passed down to her daughter. 

Ultear is said to have had an immense amount of Magic Power, and is incredibly skilled and talented. 

She’s also an expert at Energy Manipulation, Possession Magic, Telepathy and a bunch of other things I’m too tired to Google XD

Third, she develops. 

Her redemption arc was actually well handled, especially for a female villain. 

Her bond with her mother, and her realisation that Ur really did love her, coupled with her platitudes to herself that all her crimes would be reversed in the New World, made her realistic. 

Ultear was a broken and damaged and angry and mean woman, and she should’ve gotten more space to be mean and angry and broken, and to heal. 

Ultear was redeemed in a very good way because her ‘never actually evil’ stuff was - A) the first of many to come in FT, so it was refreshing until Mashima overdid it, and 

B) she had a reason to be angry. 

She was hurt and mad and even then she didn’t want to hurt anyone. She was just looking for a way to make a new world, one where everyone could be happy. 

Ultear is kind without being kind - she didn’t have to adopt Meredy. She didn’t have to feel guilty about the stuff she did because she underwent enough to become bitter and furious. But her conscience remained alive in the most realistic and beautiful way.

Her personality traits are interesting. She doesn’t become this totally innocent, sweet girl after her redemption: she retains her snarky and mildly sadistic nature. She does become more openly kind, which is to be expected on any redemption. But it was very refreshing to see that!

Now! Let’s talk about how dirty Mashima did my queen.

WHAT THE FUCK. Was the crap with saving Gray?! In my opinion, Gray should’ve died. 

Yes, I just said that. The girl who has a blog dedicated to Gray just said that.

Gray should have died because then - at least then - Juvia might have had some personality. And you know what? I’m okay with sacrificing my guys for the girls. Because all the girls of FT were screwed over by Dickshima.

Anyways, I’m going off topic, so… yeah. Ultear. 

Last Ages did not need to have that catch of aging. It did not need to be a single-use power with consequences, and it certainly didn’t have to be used then. Hell, Ultear has a fuckton of powers she could use to save everyone! She can literally change the time of the inanimate objects, cause a landslide or whatever. Possession magic: could have been used to possess the monsters and stop them from killing everyone. But no, Mashima wanted her out of the way because she was too interesting. She was too good, and she was taking over the plotline, and that couldn’t happen, now could it? 

Now let’s imagine a scenario where Gray actually dies. Where he doesn’t come back, where Meredy stops Ultear from using Last Ages. Where Ultear uses a different magic in her unique and clever way to protect everybody.

Juvia would’ve grown to love herself and let go of her infatuation. She’d be able to use her full powers. And Ultear would be able to learn what Gray did on Galuna - to value herself and her life. 

It’s the best lesson which she was never able to learn; and did we really need that parallel of Ur and her daughter both sacrificing themselves for Gray? Wouldn’t it have been way more poetic if it came full circle, with Ur going for Gray and Gray for Ultear?

Ultear was just drop kicked out of the narrative. She was given so much crap, and the funniest part is she’s the best character in Fairy Tail, writing wise. By Mashima standards, she’s astronomically amazing. Mashima started out trying to do with Gray what he ended up doing with Ultear, and failed miserably on both counts - one with keeping an MC dynamic, and two with keeping Ultear flat and sidelined. He didn’t think he had a choice: but I think he did. I think he could’ve chosen to shift Ultear gently to the sidelines while still letting her be an important part of the story. Ultear is useful as hell, has a beautiful design, and is just the  perfect character. 

tl;dr: Mashima should be kicking himself for doing Ultear dirty the way he did. She’s an amazing, nuanced character who was way better than any of the MCs, and I say this as a huge Gray fan.