#((He genuinely looks like he's gonna be a secret antagonist but hes not. He's just a stressed child))

[antihibikase-archive]

Couldn’t think of much for post-Flocessy Retreat Cheren, but here’s some things about him! 

He’s growing too tall for his old jacket and definitely needs a new pair of glasses, but he’s holding onto some things of the past out of fear. His temper is also a little shorter than it was before, but it’s mostly due to the fact he’s under stress from the media.

Forgot to mention, but his jacket pocket also has Hilbert’s crumpled letter for him!

[kurosagileo]

alrighty its post mortkranken thoughts time! under a cut so that spoilers are easier to avoid

(did one for obscuary here)

for a spoiler free thought first off, though, i think the time between episodes both works for and against the story. it's a good pacing so far imo, even if it's disappointing there's not much to do in the game between episode drops. there's enough time to let people analyze the most recent episode and secrets revealed, come up with guesses as to how things connect, and when that starts dying down, there's time to hypothesize about the next episode because teasers have started dropping. Game wise, there's time for people who have been playing for a while to get farther in cases so that once the episode does drop, it's easy to go through whenever you're ready. On the other hand, the time inbetween, the teasers can possibly hype a episode up a bit too much, i think that happened with obscuary and may have contributed to how the episode felt unbalanced (at least to me). High expectations mean there's a lot that could go wrong when things end up differently. I don't think they should release the episodes sooner, that would be an overload, just something i've been making note of and trying to not expect too much from a new episode so that i enjoy what comes out rather than being disappointed with what didn't

spoiler wise, i'll follow the format i had for obscuary!

jiro is winning the idgaf war and i absolutely love that for him. I think the writers did a good job of makng him the straight man to yuri's antics and thoroughly enjoyed scenes with him

yuri... is so silly i love him sm i want to kiss his cheek so that he bluescreens on the spot. i love that he seems like he's gonna be a scientist with questionable morals leaning to the evil side but then he ends up being so expressive about every little thing. he's smart but not manipulative mastermind ike if he's thinking something you Will know it

there's an interesting dynamic between the two which I'm looking forward to learning more about. Some of the few times where Jiro outwardly emotes are during interactions with Yuri. (Also with pc with the body lmao)

now for the story content, not an analysis of what things might mean but just overall storytelling

I think this did well with bringing the standard back up from the obscuary episode. for my thoughts on that, feel free to check out the other post i made. it was far more balanced with the investigation driving things, mc getting closer to the two ghouls, and the progression of mc's curse for the overarching story. the cameos from all of the other characters was exciting to see while going through, and was great for showing how different characters interact with each other. I think each of those small moments showed a lot about the characters.

for a few examples: alan's regrets for not saving naoki, highlighting how much he values being able to save people and blames himself for not doing enough even when he couldn't stop it; leo taking the documents, seeming to just do it to be antagonistic, but actually genuinely helping out both mc's investigation and alan's ass if the files went missing; ren and ritsu talking about ramen in the store, they're getting closer despite ren not liking working at his job and always complaining that ritsu is there, clearly they're starting to become friends; the three vice captains meeting and the absolute tension there

i could go on, each of those little cameos was meaningful imo, not all of them served to progress the main story, but they're important to see, to show how the ghouls are interacting with each other and how they act when mc isn't investigating their house

I think the investigation portion was a little rough near the end. The case wrapup wasn't as satisfying as I'd like, I think the best two episodes for that so far were vagastrom and sinostra, but the framing of it makes sense considering yuri's stigma. (specifically the part of the wrapup where we found the patient was behind things, the fight at the end was something i really enjoyed) It's something that lets yuri process everything instantaneously, so it makes sense that the answer is just given in a monologue, even if it ends up being somewhat unsatisfying. Yuri is a character who likes his monologue, and he's found everything out and is confident in his answer. I don't think that he would present the information in another way

The foreshadowing in this chapter was...... well it could've been more subtle. I kinda wish that while Jiro was leading mc through Mortkranken, there would be more attention drawn to multiple things, aside from exactly what would be relevant. I think that may have also led to the unsatisfying reveal

the very ending with the assembly was also well done, imo. it reiterates that the faculty want mc to gain the trust of the ghouls and is doing so. but it also calls into question where that request is coming from. right now, mc is very much being used by the faculty. she was pushed into the investigator role, pushed into being a student, pushed into earning their trust, threatened with a possible punishment for not being able to prove it. it serves her as well to grow close with the ghouls and be an investigator, and she clearly is, but I really don't think that's anywhere near the reason the chancellor put her in that position. we always keep the spy thing in the back of our minds while reading, while she's essentially also advertised as a spy to the ghouls

the phone call between hyde and sho was both surprising to see, but also not. Sho has a campus chat with hyde where he says that he's using hyde to get ahead any way he can. Learning that hyde is giving secret missions, it's unsurprising that Sho is one of the students he's using. I think this would be too obvious for the whole spy/traitor thing, however... there was one other campus chat that came into my mind, the one between subaru and leo. Subaru's waiting for MC for lunch, Leo approaches and sees he's got food from Sho's food truck, and comments on how Sho is really good at the friend act. Acting like he's a friend to customers to convince them to buy more. While the likely reading is Leo just lying to mess with Subaru (and honestly I wouldn't doubt that), I think it could also be that it's a true analysis of Sho.

He is good a the friend act. Sho has no problem lying to someone to appear nice. He did it to an old lady looking for a train station in the vagastrom episode. Leo told her he had no clue where it was, Sho gave her instructions and after she left, Leo asked how he knew and Sho told him oh I didn't. A lot of Sho's flaws are looked over because he's nice, when he is kinda an asshole a lot. I don't think that he's using a friend act on Subaru, but it's genuinely hard to tell. The scene at the beginning of the episode was cute, but depending on how you read it, it could be Sho playing it up for the bet with Leo.

I doubt the phone call from the end will actually be how we learn about the traitor, but I also think that Sho has a lot more resources than most to be a traitor

[presiding]

I'm not a new follower and I've been here long enough but i do have a relatively bad memory

So I've wanted to ask, what's your opinion on "Dishonored: death of the outsider"?

Right now I'm replaying Dishonored games not in the release order, i already finished DH2 and started Daud dlcs. Maybe I'll go for vanilla DH later

But thoughts about going through death of the outsider again makes me feel something that i can't explain... 😬

It has some interesting ideas but antagonists are underused. Locations repeat a lot. And Billie herself deserved SO much better than whatever is going on with her character

I'm genuinely debating if i should revisit *this* one or pretend that DH2 is the last game. I know that some people love DOTO but i can't find strength in me

love to chat about death of the outsider, ty for the ask!

i feel your pain. it's the one game i struggle to revisit. but! i was thinking about your points and how DotO has the feel of budget cuts.

it's been about a year since my last DotO post - so, essay time -

a measured response to common DotO criticisms

(the thousand bugs of dishonored 2 I had borne as I best could, but when doto ventured upon sidelining billie and retconning daud's arc I vowed revenge*

*can't resist a cask of amontillado joke

criticism is easy and creation is hard, so, if this isn't the type of response you wanted, you can read my other DotO posts:

how i'd write death of the outsider

that post i did after trying to play doto a third time and couldn't make it past the opening scene (you might like my tags on this re: your comment "makes me feel something i can't explain")

billie lurk as a nonprotagonist & misogynoir (more on this below...)

gonna leapfrog off your comments cause I agree!

antagonists are underused/locations repeat a lot.

who is steering the boat?

let's start up at the top; everything stems from there.

DotO was caught up in ownership/transition issues. here's an article about harvey smith and raphael colantanio at that time. if you didnt know, colantonio is the main founder of arkane (semi-related but just for fun look his appearance up then go through arkane's protags and tell me what you notice...).

quote from harvey smith re: DotO -

“Then, just as I move back, [Colantonio is] announcing that he’s leaving. Going forward, I’ll focus more and more on the Austin studio and what we’re going to do there. Death of the Outsider is my wrapping up with the guys in Lyon – the first half of that we planned together while I was living there, but the second half was worked on while I was living in Austin. I’ve been communicating with them through video conferences and stuff, so they carry a lot of the load of the second half of it.”

so the founder jumped ship and the co-creative director has to step away from his usual position (over to sinking ship Austin). meanwhile, DotO is still in development. i'm a big believer in people making art, and not companies (even in this article Smith acknowledges much of their "secret sauce" can be traceable to specific devs but i digress)

$$$ kaching - some speculation

on the note of founders - past this point in arkane's history (ie. the main founder stepping back), arkane would have been being primed for sale. this translates to high scrutiny on project expenditure (such as hiring cheaper early career staff, hiring less workers, denying your best staff raises causing them to leave and hiring cheaper workers in their place, etc) to make the company's EBITDA look more appealing to buyers (briefly, its the piece of paper that proves you're profitable). based on speculative timelines, from a purely $ perspective within the first year of dh2 being released is when you'd be looking to slim down your capitalised expenditure (aka: cutting staff while the revenue is at a peak to make number go brr and make your company look like a better investment) because to maximise the profit of a company's sale, you really have a great track record for a few years.

this is purely speculation based on timelines. companies are very careful to hide when they're doing this, ideally they want ~3 years of a great track record (and staff that will keep working their hardest).

big goals and no money

DotO was meant to be a two-part DLC like the Dh1 DLCs, so shout out to what could have been made if their original pitch had worked.

On locations & antagonists & budget - this dev's site discusses the Conservatory level in game AND specifies it was budget constraints being the reason for cutting off traversable area from that mission. Great link for comparing the original level & the DotO version, especially re: your point about reused assets/levels.

We could pick other examples here but this post is already long so -

Billie herself deserved SO much better than whatever is going on with her character

i would forgive this game anything if there was any good billie storywriting.

:')

its never just the writers

after revisiting articles to fact-check for this essay, i've seen a lot of articles blaming writers by name (you didn't do this anon which i love <3)

games are made by teams, and decision making is generally done top-down, so blaming individual contributors is shit. 1) writer's pay isn't good enough to cop this kind of abuse. 2) it's rarely in their control - you can write a beautiful scene only to have that level cut due to costs (etc), and then you need to work out how to make the story make sense. ideation & decision-making are separate and i guess 'this idea was [X]'s' should not be mistaken for 'this is the fault of [X]'s.'

on hiring fans (& imm-sim writing strategies)

the new writers [...] already had an idea of the world, as they’d seen it from the outside, as fans. “These are all people that knew this world we had created and they took it as canonical, as the gospel. Whereas, for us, it was bits and pieces we’d made up along the way.”

as someone who used to hire writers, and i promise this isn't in bad faith: don't hire fans unless your priority is cost then, sure, fans are likely to put in overtime (and not be in a position in their career where they can ask for higher remuneration - they'll pay the passion tax to be involved).

writers (esp new career writers) have to be open to receiving feedback assuming healthy/functional processes, and being a fan makes that harder because you care more. and, as a fan, you know what loose ends exist and that's where you'll naturally jump to, even though writers should start with target audience and branding, and build from there. if i expand on this i'll get offtopic so let's keep going!

DotO feels lifeless because it doesn't add anything to the DH universe, it only takes away by closing storylines without the satisfaction of closure. sure, stuff was added - the cult subplot, locations, some NPCs/enemies, etc. but they feel like part of the objectives, not part of the dishonored universe. you can feel the decision-making process when you play: there's a feeling that the priority was to finish the assets required for missions, instead of writing a story that feels immersive.

compared to standard videogame writing, where you can generally get away with "everything you touch and read relates to your objectives as the protagonist", as an imm-sim writer, you need to focus on:

how does this text build the universe so that the player feels like they're only seeing a small part of the world?

of course - this is difficult with budget/time concerns. i've said it before but this is part of why we rarely have games as rich as dishonored 1 & 2, because imm-sim design philosophy flies against the current videogame industry trends of microtransactions & cheap-to-make addictive mobile games. given a tight budget you focus on the high level story, but player immersion is a function of details.

most likely, dh2 was the end of an era. typing that out makes me sad.

what did the devs say about writing billie

*breathes deeply*

the death of the outsider protag was originally pitched as being about a regular human, someone not related to emily and corvo but instead an overseer or a brigmore witch. daud was also pitched.

this could have worked! really cool to have a nobody, or a heretic, or an overseer, be involved with the death of a god. and i've mentioned before that storywise DotO's protag could have been anyone (i think i made a joke about wyman? hah) and wouldn't change the story much, bar some daud bits.

quote from the same article:

eventually Arkane settled on Billie Lurk, Emily's companion from Dishonored 2. [...] Bakaba tells me that because Billie had already received her redemption arc in Dishonored 2, Death Of The Outsider's story could be about something more than that.

welp.

so there's two things here - a redemption arc claim, and DotO's actual story.

in addition to not being the first pick, the view was that billie's story was over. i question the 'redemption arc' claim - sure, billie helps the protag in dh2 but after her confession, if you tell her she's changed, she brushes it off and you part awkwardly without forgiving her... does that count? if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it does it make a sound? if a character redeems themselves but the story never tells you, are they redeemed?

billie's role in dh2 isn't really that different to the dlcs, where she follows you around being Mr Exposition while withholding a LOT of information that could have actually helped the protag. given DotO's plot, going after the killer who shaped her doesn't scream 'reformed' either. ludonarratively speaking, the lack of chaos implies billie never changed from being a callous killer - which i'm not against, it would have been a cool story.

and! contrast this with daud who already had his redemption arc!

When first conceptualising Death Of The Outsider in around 2014, Smith and Duval knew they wanted two things: Billie Lurk being used to get to The Outsider himself, and closure for Dishonored villain (and later ally) Daud.

in the two DLCs, as we know, he comes to realise his actions sucked, and as the player you actively make things right (related: my post about ludonarrative dissonance in dh2). so if billie had "already received her redemption arc", why was this another daud story?

imo this isn't a budget issue but a misogynoir issue. "we want this story to be not about the protagonist so any random NPC will do, how about we go with billie lurk and get a black woman as a dishonored protag?" this logic, which is what i'm reading of the above two quotes, feels frustratingly tokenistic when she's an established character with a rich background. it's an example of surface level diversity because DotO is not about her by arkane's own admission. it's a similar vibe to the companies who say they have a diverse team but you check their staff page and all the people of colour have 'assistant' in their title and the board is all white, so it's not people of colour who are driving the business. maybe this was entirely by accident but these accidents add up to systematic failure - billie gets her own game but never her own story. it feels like she got assigned the caretaker role for these two guys. great.

for fairness, let's compare to dh2. corvo & emily are relatively hands-off protags in terms of their ongoing thoughts about their surroundings and the lore placement about them specifically is sparse, and this style continues in DotO. the issue is the core narrative: corvo & emily are both the protagonists of their story in the sense that dh2's story reflects their goals ("take back what's yours"), whereas Billie is an established character who has arguably little reason to go along with each mission. worse, the main plotline she's literally forced into going along with. in the opening scene billie gets assaulted and still helps the guy who assaulted her.

fundamentally, DotO's narrative is not about billie but about daud and the outsider, and this article makes clear that was by design.

whats the takeaway

DotO is the weakest entry in the Dishonored series for most people, and blaming budget & a corporate changeover makes me feel... uh well it doesn't really help me tbh but your mileage may vary. it does interest me to think about what we could have had!

for me, my opinion is that if writing billie was a priority (link to my own post where i describe the feeling of playing doto as someone interested in billie) arkane would have made it a priority, even amidst constraints. billie's redemption arc was not resolved imo, and putting her in a game without a chaos system feels like as much a backwards slide for her as daud's plotline to kill the outsider was for his arc.

we absolutely 🤝 on not being in a rush to play the game again.

on the upside. dishonored 2 is a really wonderful game and i love it very much.

[milquetoast27]

Charles Augustus Milverton [LFW]

"And yet I can't get out of doing business with him - indeed, he is here at my invitation."

Another count of Holmes obsessively wanting to be face-to-face with his criminals. Honestly he would be a criminology major if it were an available subject to study. Such a true crimer for real /affectionate

Holmes remarks on this in ILLU!

"I love to come to close grips with my man. I like to meet him eye to eye and read for myself the stuff that he is made of."

SERIOUSLY ARE YOU OKAY 😭

Watson, mentally: Days since Holmes has put himself in active danger: 0 (disgruntled face palm)

Big thing to mention in the beginning of the story, there is a LOT of out-of-character Holmes. But certainly not in a bad way! In a "oh fuck this is serious" kind of way. It's genuinely unsettling and it's what makes Milverton such a scary antagonist. Here are some examples:

• Holmes's rant after Watson asks who Milverton is, STEAMS of his boiling hatred and how furious the man makes him. He calls him not only "the king of all the blackmailers" but also "the worst man in London". We do not often see Holmes this angry ���

I'll tell you, Watson. He is the king of all the blackmailers. Heaven help the man, and still more the woman, whose secret and reputation come into the power of Milverton! With a smiling face and a heart of marble, he will squeeze and squeeze until he has drained them dry.

What I find interesting about this passage, is that typically Holmes condemns Watson for the "poetry" in his descriptions in his stories. After all, a reasoner must see everything exactly how it is. But when Holmes's blood is boiling and he needs to illustrate exactly how he feels, sometimes only a snake metaphor will do! And after the rant?

I had seldom heard my friend speak with such intensity of feeling.

basically Watson's saying "Oh shit".

Holmes sat motionless by the fire, his hands buried deep in his trouser pockets, his chin sunk upon his breast, his eyes fixed upon the glowing embers. For half an hour he was silent and still.

Holmes was grey with anger and mortification.

Holmes disregarded the outstretched hand and looked at him with a face of granite.

Holmes being cold and antisocial here is very out-of-character in the canon. "Face of granite" is particularly unsettling here, since he is usually stoic and collected. He always knows what to do, and when he's THIS apprehensive, that familiarity of security is gone! He's face to face with simply another person and he's tense! That's how you KNOW shit's gonna get scary. Doyle did everything right here, to make Milverton a terrifying antagonist. 😭

Next point:

"Dr. Watson is my friend and partner." "Very good, Mr. Holmes. It is only in your client's interests that I protested. The matter is so very delicate - " "Dr. Watson has already heard of it."

Both lines said by Holmes, I imagine that it was probably common ettiquette to use the formal name in front of guests/acquaintances, but the emphasis of using the name back to back like that has a more aggressive tone of, "It's Dr. Watson to you." and I just - 😭

Finally, just love this bit. The tension really picks up when the gun's pulled out and there's lots of shouting, and amidst it all -

I picked up a chair, but Holmes shook his head, and I laid it down again.

FOR THE RECORD, WATSON WAS PREPARED TO BEAT HIM UP WITH THE CHAIR. Good old Watson! If I may say so 🥰 seriously such an MVP.

That covers it for LFW CHAS part 1!

[teriwrites]

Below: 'Chapter Six'

My Live Reactions to Reading Through My 2011 Novel, pt. 6

Firstly can we just appreciate how every other chapter has a proper title, but I just couldn't be bothered to come up with one for this

We're starting off with Mr. J's crew! Trinity is the only capable person here

"How in the world do you work this stupid thing?" it's a walkie-talkie, Mr. J, i'm sure you can figure it out

"Loud and clear sir," Trinity answered, rolling her eyes. She had done a lot of rolling her eyes in the last few days.' so real, girly, we gotta get you out of there

First confrontation post-Institute: a stand-off in a hotel hallway

Nick immediately teleporting Lea away, our antagonists really could've accounted better considering they already knew what his powers were

yayyyy.... misogyny.......... and dumb blonde jokes??? Kristen, this woman is currently Wiping The Floor with you

Nick is clearly the MVP of this team, he's literally just picking them off one by one and teleporting them away from the fight lol

'I didn't want to hear the fighting, I just wanted to know what Nick was thinking when he teleported me into the closet. Did he believe I was too weak or too aggressive to fight?' maybe he just wanted to avoid fighting entirely, seeing as the oldest among you is a 16-year-old, and you're facing off against three grown adults

Kristen and Lea hanging out in this supply closet, having totally normal conversations about how they're not gonna die of old age lmao

Okay so how this confrontation worked out: Lea and Kristen are teleported into a supply closet away from the fighting. TWO HOURS LATER, they emerge and head back to the scene to find a hallway with 'blood staining the walls and carpet, and a pile of [ash] on the floor.' coolcoolcool

Kristen finally acknowledging that she needs both Ben and Raevin around, afraid one of them has died

But of course they didn't! That pile of ash on the floor was just the hotel maid!! That's totally cool and chill!!! What a relief!!!!

"I deserve a whole lot worse than trouble, but I was saved from that a long time ago," Raevin sighed.' THE ANGST

Not even remotely described where the villains have actually gone. Presumably they just ran off after Nick teleported everyone away

AHA!! Proof that I've ALWAYS been into 'same height' couples. Forget height differences, I want those bitches looking each other DIRECTLY at eye-level at all times

Reading through 'romantic' scenes is genuinely as difficult as I anticipated lmao

It's not even that bad!! Like not that much worse than the rest of it. But something about it is like... oof, I really wrote that out

"I asked what the matter was," Ben took a bite out of his cookie and swallowed before continuing. "You've been really uptight ever since we escaped." I choked down a laugh and then realized that I had sounded a little uptight.' (Kristen's so distracted even her narration is doing the whole 'repeating after the person you're having a moment with' bit)

ONCE AGAIN i'm using "Hardee har har" as Real. Genuine. Dialogue.

wtf Ben suddenly spawned a random book

4/5 of these teens are Crawling. Across. A. Cafe. Floor. In public. On a random day of the week. To avoid being spotted by officers standing by the window.

It works.

Somehow, simultaneously, the entirety of the police are in on the Institute of Discovery's top-secret business, and will all be on alert to follow after these escaped convicts, yet the state and federal government aren't supposed to know literally anything about it

Brooooo ACAB!Teri was PISSED

'[Their apathy] made me twice as mad at the police as I was at the scientists. I mean, sure, the scientists were okay with it, and actually did it, but they were paid for this and it was their lifestyle. The policemen just didn't care what was going on, and would bring people back to be treated however they wanted.'

Something tells me 13-year-old Teri was confronting real world issues for maybe the first time

Throwing out shade at a real-world location I knew (and still know) absolutely nothing about. Sorry to Decatur, AL! Or not. I truly know nothing about it.

Kids getting into arguments about where to go, just to retrace their steps back Towards the institute is a bold move

Oooo it's Nicole's turn again

Superpowers and evil prison complexes aren't enough! What this story really needs are demonic elements! And who better to provide those than the 'removes her soul from her body' girl?

"You fool!" the voice thundered. "I will never let you escape this place! You will be cursed to live alone for the rest of your life! Forever! Forever!" Nicole half expected the voice to go 'repent! Repent!' but it stopped at 'forever'.' PFFT sass must run in the family

"It's better this way," the voice told her. "Oh, then why am I on fire?" Nicole thought angrily. (the presence of mind this girl has while being tortured to be so blase is impressive LMAO)

I think Teri had two different story ideas and decided to simply combine them into one book bc I have no idea how else to explain this drastic shift in the storyline lol

Demonic-style entity promising power, I'm sure this will go swimmingly for her

If I read the word 'power' one more time, I'm closing the document

This is all honestly kind of funny, considering what I wrote in 2012. More on that later~

omfg Teri I know you were only 13 and didn't know that what you just wrote is a WILD innuendo but holy shit. I don't think that phrase means what you think it means. I don't think that whole section means what you think it means. No I will not be sharing it here lol

Aaaand we end with Nicole's soul leaving the Institute entirely to go in search of this strange demonic source

Ending Thoughts

I'm still a little stuck on how insanely and fully unintentionally suggestive that last like page of Nicole's POV was. Oof.

For Kristen being the acknowledged-by-all leader of the gang, she really isn't making many of these decisions. Something tells me things aren't going to go well in Decatur, what with her warning the group that they're definitely going to be found out. And I'm pretty sure there's another confrontation before the end of the book.

We only have one chapter left though, which is wild. I have a vague idea of the very end, but I honestly think it could totally throw me for a loop. I feel like a lot of what I've 'known' about this story has been at least somewhat off compared to the reality of it.

Which is so much more fun than actually knowing everything!

[anewp0tat0]

Chapter 198

I've wanted a Christmas filler chapter for a while, just because I think it would have some great phantomfam interactions + some snide comments from Sebastian about how useless God is or whatever he likes to brag about... but I know we may never get that, so I am over the moon with this image here. this is all I need😫 Ciel's scarf bow is our Christmas present.

and Ciel gets a muff too FINALLY☺️. it seems that once again yana really doesn't care about the fact that she's giving him predominantly female gendered clothing for the time era(as far as I know), but when has she ever cared. let's just congratulate Sebastian on his good parenting and feminism. or rather in this case, traditional values?.... mhm

it's just adorable.

...

we also got weird interactions like this:

yea Theo knows. and he angry. the real question is if in the end, he'll help the others escape their fledging day(most likely O!ciel's aptitude) or simply work to save himself(most likely R!ciel's aptitude).

finny is the best possible boy though, and who knows maybe this will all be solved by the power of friendship and Theo will ultimately put his trust in team O!ciel. that would be great!

...

;_;

this truly makes me so upset, it's not fair for Mabel to feel anything other than bittersweetness that her friend is leaving, rather than agony. same goes for everyone else.

....

these 2 kids are strong and it's is pretty odd, but I guess when compared to other characters like Jane, it's not too surprising...

maybe Doll gave them circus training, who knows. Mabel most likely, since Doll spends most time with her group, at least I'm assuming from the clothes.

also, I'm not a knife expert but those look like something they probably just plucked from the kitchen. if doll is with them, she isn't giving them special weapons like Layla owned. that's probably just a kitchen knife the "collie class" have access to.

...

honestly, I've tried so far to be very suspicious and hostile towards these kids in the hope that they'll get to walk away into the sunset like the possible side antagonists they are. but really, I'm just very much hoping that they don't end up going through any pain. I don't want any more serious moments where children cry, please...

so the ambush, why did this happen: I'm guessing that these kids don't just guarding the hallway regularly, and they just so happened to run into Finny today. my guess is that they knew/found out that Finny would sneak around(probably with Doll's insight? cause this is his first night!) and quickly prepared for him. but most importantly, they must know one way or another that the orphanage staff(or Doll?) is prepared to kill Finny soon.

what's most surprising to me is that these kids want Finny alive. idk about the other kids, but I think plenty of us assumed that Theo would rather have Finny(and snake) disposed of. so either I was wrong, or what's going on here is a manipulation scheme where Theo makes Finny think that he's in danger, simply so that he can use him. this makes more sense to me because if both Finny and Snake were in immediate danger, they would probably wake up Snake, too. after all, Theo is a pomeranian, he could think of such a thing. in this case the kids may be working for Doll.

if however this isn't a scheme and instead a genuine attempt to help finny and Snake, then they probably aren't working with Doll, since she probably wouldn't want to sneak them into the inner working of the facility.

ah idk, well find out next chapter. or, the whole next chapter will be spent walking to the meet up room. maybe finny will start flashbacks right there right now. who knows.

where should I place my bets, that these kids are gonna take Finny back to some secret hide out room(possible blood drawing), or are they gonna take him back to where Doll is cause they're working with her...

...

also, it's really interesting how these two stay in "character" right here, both in the typical pose of the person/role they're mocking.

...

actually you know what, Theo probably figured that Finny was worth being recruited after this right here:

sorry, long post today, lots to worry about, and if you read all this then you mean the world to me! have a great day!

[rhythmmortis]

imstill thinking. i want to know so much. Which is ur favorite trio. Ur favorite kh game. Favorite kh world. Whats ur favorite kh headcanon. Thoughts on axel

fave trio: this one is hard but im gonna have to go with wayfinder trio because aqua and terra my beloveds....... the autism duo........ (and also ventus is there and he's cool but i am more focused on aqua and terra because i have so many fucking thoughts about them. where did they come from. how long have they been training and how much do they know about keyblades and history since they were presumably studying. what specifically made them be chosen. i am so excited for their future in the series because AOUGHHH). since i think the series might be headed towards a shift in the 'light good darkness bad' mindset where light might serve as a slightly antagonistic role (what with the whole keykids fighting over light and whatever the fuck is up with MoM, also i think it would just be cool), i think aqua and terra and ven are kinda the perfect trio to explore that with. there's also them ACTUALLY dealing with the aftermath of bbs (since we never really got that!! and i wanna see how their dynamic actually is, how do they deal with the fallout of those events like terra killing eraqus, aqua not trusting ven, ven still technically being pure of heart?) and how aqua is gonna handle basically being the successor the eraqus (especially since aqua BECOMING a master and not terra was part of why shit fell apart. theres drama to be had (even though in bbs xehanort does call terra 'master terra', its just to trick him into trusting him more yes BUT xehanort is still a master. to our knowledge all it takes to name a master is another master seeing them pass some sort of arbitrary test and saying they are. yes xehanort is evil but he is still a master. making terra technically one too. and i wonder how he would feel about that title still, as its everything he wanted but thats how he got it)). i have so many thoughts on them all but it's very chaotic and disorganised so i will move on fkhfdkjh

fave kh game: bbs i love you so so so so much my beloved wonderful game!!! ive talked about this a bit before but bbs is very accessible for me to play since you can choose your own moves and commands so you have a good degree of customisation with how you play, you can choose if your finishers have QTEs (since my hands are kinda shit, i cant really do QTEs or input heavy things, so being able to choose if i want to or not is amazing), command board is actually quite fun and a fun way to level up commands without having to go into combat so you can take a break but still enjoy it, i enjoy the movement options and how varied they are between characters, and its easy to move between commands on the command deck (im looking at you ddd. why do i have to use the goddamn D-PAD). aside from actual gameplay, while the story is a bit clunky at times and theres DEFINITELY room for improvement, i still find it quite endearing and theres some REALLY fucking good moments in there i still think about so often. the fact that terra's final fight is a fight we as the player know he cant win but he fights regardless. and then sprouts a stupid little cape like its from a tissue dispenser for the sake of continuity. terra's voice genuinely cracking slightly when he's crying after he kills eraqus. aqua calling vanitas a freak. the extra chapters in the bbs novel that add so much depth to vanitas and ventus (which isnt in the game but its still so good regardless). the entirety of the secret chapter in aquas route. the vanitas remnant fight (you find what's left of this sad kid, beat him up, and steal his keyblade). good fucking game

fave kh world: for some goddamn reason this is also bbs worlds. what the fuck is wrong with me. it's either land of departure (which we literally know basically NOTHING about and i am so curious about it) or the realm of darkness SPECIFICALLY in the secret chapter.

(^one of many insane ramblings i sent to my friend after playing bbs again and again) when you first start the secret chapter, you're put in a place right after that scene on the bridge thing in the realm of darkness where aqua gets surrounded by the darksides. if you turn around, you can still see it slightly but you physically cannot go back. you can never go back. and being able to see it gives me this really weird feeling like im being watched or followed, and who's to say that she isn't!! the darkness is always lurking!! after that message i also mentioned that while enemies can drop potions and stuff, its never a guarantee and you are constantly fighting for even the smallest chance of surviving, if that can even be called surviving. your most valuable item that you have (if you have any left) are the ice creams that can trigger command style changes. disney world, the place you get them, is one of the brightest, happiest worlds, and once youre in the realm of darkness, you cannot get any more. you're essentially trading fleeting memories of a happier time as a desperate attempt to stay afloat (you can tell im a kh fan because im essentially thinking about A SECOND TRAGIC ICE CREAM). its a futile and tragic experience which, while 0.2 also has the realm of darkness, the secret episode has such a specific feeling to it i cannot stop thinking about

fave kh headcanon: this one is actually pretty hard because there's so many and i have been losing my mind over other things recently BUT. theres so many headcanons about physical appearance that i love (brown eyes for ALL please put those blue things away, freckles for sora, namine, terra, and a few others, XEMNAS WITH CURLY/WAVY HAIR which is from one panel in the days manga where he's just slightly distorted by water but like. its a good fucking idea, giving characters their normal skin tone back. im looking at you ssbu sora v kh1 sora. they took my boy's melanin (which isnt really a headcanon and more of a genuine anger at the whitewashing), scar headcanons for kairi and sora from where they died, etc). current favourite headcanon is either: aqua using more strategic fighting styles (with teleporation being a BIG part of her bbs moveset, like her unique teleport dodge, her ultimate finisher being teleport spike, and a unique command style being ghost drive) and that either playing into either her feeling detached from everything like a ghost (ghost drive) after being stuck in the realm of darkness for a decade or since these moves leave after images, maybe her developing a fear of isolation (or HERSELF especially given mirror aqua in 0.2), kairi also training with terra because i want her to fight like a fucking TANK instead of being more magic focused. i want her to kill (and if we get a rikai teamup, i think mage riku and tank kairi is such a fun idea), OR the current headcanon/connection of xion to the cavern of rememberance (i talked about it in the tags in this post), but i know theres so many ive had over the years that i genuinely cannot think of right now fkhfdkjh

thoughts on axel: the organisation's assassain. they chose HIM to be the babysitter. and then those kids said 'i could make him feel emotions after a decade of feeling detached from everything' and they did!! they gave him a heart!! but i LOVE thinking about axel during com and i think its the closest we'll probably see of his actual job as an assassain. he AIR FRIED A MAN (and i think in the manga he used his chakrams to physically attack instead). he 'betrayed' larxene and marluxia so easily. he wasn't afraid to go through namine to fight marluxia (that scene where marluxia uses her as a human shield, you can actually visibly see namine shaking in fear and rewatching some com scenes to get gif footage REALLY made me remember that its literally just Kingdom Hearts: Namine's No Good Very Bad Day) but he had NO hesitation. he ordered repliku to STRANGLE zexion. needless to say, this is all treated very casually for him that it makes me think what he mustve done during his time in the organisation to get the status as an assassain. he treats murder as an 'icky job', but on the flipside, when we see him actually care about something, it's just that same drive and motivation but used for his own personal goals (tracking down xion, following roxas in the kh2 prologue which is terrifying without context), but MAN. seeing him from a detached perspective without context is like 'holy shit this guy is scary' and then you play days or read the manga and anything else with him and you realise he's so sillies. wonderful guy 10/10

[cartoonkitten]

ngl. can I like, throw out some ric and cherry (and garth sorta) villain/antagonist arc hcs or something

I’m gonna assume they were in the same bunch of students at howlington when they were 14. but ric wasn’t initially friends with cherry and garth (cause let’s be real, those 2 have been besties since then), but eventually became friends with them. I’m gonna contrast him to freddy for a sec and say he was kinda bullied, but unlike freddy, he ended up taking the wrong path in life and glorified the destructive and absurd behaviors of the wilder wolves in secret, and to cherry and garth he did give sorta weirdo vibes, being sorta reckless (even more so than garth but actually intentionally and not accidentally lol), but he never explicitly seemed like a bad guy, so they did become friends. I wanna say after howlington was wrapping up for them and they had just graduated into the night patrol is when ric sought out real wilder wolves for whatever weird reason, but was never taken seriously by them either. now the part that really set him off into deciding to be evil im not all that sure of, but maybe I’ll just say that he was just pissed off and frustrated that not only his own pack thought he was too reckless but his ‘icons’ (for lack of better words) simultaneously thought he was too tame/not really wild and had no good use, and it tore him. idk I’m really working with crumbs here. but basically he decided to form his own wild pack out of spite, while still maintaining an image as part of the pack to infiltrate and catch off guard. eventually just deciding ‘yeah fuck this I’m officially against y’all’. admittedly I sorta lost what I had going for this idea but really I cant come up with very good ideas I fear. but i wanted to make his arc kinda ironic in the end, cause his mind was so clouded with arrogance and frustration that he forgot that despite all he had planned to be evil, right in front of him (or his facade really, but still, it’s still /him/, like /his/ personality nonetheless, just masking his villainess) he still found people who respected him, like his new night patrol crew, flashheart, cherry and garth, his students who looked up to him sm. he could’ve changed for his own sake and the sake of others, like cherry, but kept falling into his anger and let himself grow more power hungry, leading him to his death, contrary to freddy, who held his father’s, mutton’s, and batty’s (his closest family) words close to his heart the whole rest of his life to guide him down the right path and find his place that made him happy, and look where that lead him.

as for cherry i genuinely have no idea what to do for her. like she has 0 character depth I have to work with so I’m just gonna make up some shit. maybe she doesn’t feel strong enough, or smart enough, or like she’s pressured so much it makes her wanna go ape shit a little, who knows, just /something/ that could give her a reason to turn against the protags. now, this might be a wee bit random, but ngl, it would’ve been so cool of 100% wolf if they made cherry’s character a message on untreated mental illness. cause they could’ve totally hinted more towards her having some sort of mental issue and have her fall down an awful path due insecurity and anxiety n such. fucking hell, going back to the first 3 suggestions, it could literally be lead from any of those and still be some sort of reference to that. it can deliver the idea that nobody struggling deserves to go unseen when they’re at their lows, and that doing nothing will only make things darker. your friends are here to listen to you, to pull you up, and be there for you, only if you let them, and allow yourself to support yourself moving forward as you heal, and you will feel better, you’ll grow a different view on life. again, it’s literally another reference to the whole franchise’s theme, only slightly more unique. leaving us with "I wanted to be wild, but turns out I’m not" isn’t how you write something that’s clearly supposed to be compelling and interesting. give us some feelings within her, some internal conflict, something we can relate to that isn’t so nonexistent and bland. idc if the mental illness idea I had even makes sense, I literally just want some cherry development cause there’s no way they really left us with that little info 😭

[sewer-rat-89]

what a fucking essay, but i'll address this in chunks because i'm not so much of an asshole that i'd just refuse to read it.

"Clan Nosferatu always finds out" not if you're fucking good at it??? it is Not hard to disappear even from nos records, most people are just too stupid to figure it out. seems like you are, too. we're the best at digging up secrets, but that also means we're the best at burying them.

sounds like your sister's a lot wiser than you are. sounds like you agree that you're proud and needed to be taken down a peg, so i'm not sure why you're arguing it, lmao

it is a black and white line, it is literally that simple, either it's about beauty or it isn't. this isn't some big huge moral quandry, either you are or you aren't

honestly, sounds like your sire's just an asshole. i'm not gonna pretend like there aren't dickwad nossies, of course there are, but you seem reaaaaaaaally caught up with "woe is me, my sire was a big ol meanie who embraced me, now everyone bullies me and there's nothing i can do about it :( mean old nosferatu! i'm So Much Better because i think they're so mean!!!!"

you're not gonna like my answer to this one, but i'm not ashamed to give it. the ones who spit on me. the ones who throw things at me. the ones who call me a dog. who say they'd kill themselves if they looked like me. the ones who look down their noses at me like i'm something to be scraped off their shoe. you don't need days, weeks, or months to pick them out of a crowd. they're rancid and the scent of it oozes off of them. i'm not one for Embracing anyway, especially not cleopatras-- i'd rather just fucking kill people who i think deserve it, 'cause i'd rather not have to deal with them later-- but you can tell who's ugly. you can tell who's a fucking cleopatra.

what fucking warren are you from where they reported childer to the prince??? jesus christ. i know i'm being very antagonistic to you here but i am genuinely, truly sympathetic on this one. any group of nosferatu that would turn their own over to a prince, any group that would KILL one of their own-- even a cleopatra-- deserves to have the worst fucking things happen to them. any warren who's more loyal to a sect than their own blood are no blood of mine. i'm genuinely sorry that that's the warren you were brought up in-- nobody deserves that. even a cleopatra deserves to have a family.

i'm gonna be real with you, anybody who embraces minors deserves Final Death and i'd be happy to deliver it, not sure why you'd think i might disagree with that. of course people care about their families still; one of the best parts of being nosferatu is that your clan will help protect them. or, at least, they're supposed to.

i mean, you're right about the systemic issue inherent to all this. i will admit that the whole system of making cleopatras is one that does allow for shitty people like your sire to flourish. i also think most cleopatras deserve it and i'm not embarrassed to say it /shrug. i don't have any sympathy for cleopatras in general and i never will.

"He told me that I had learned nothing from his teachings, and it made me realize he never actually wanted to fix us or make us better people, he just wanted to feel like he did." I actually agree with you. he sounds like a real piece of work.

honestly, i have quite a lot of sympathy for you. seems like you've been dealt a rough hand. you came up in a shitty warren under a shitty sire who wanted to tear you down 'cause he was jealous. sounds like he was the one who needed to be taken down a peg.

on the other hand, you're too childish to accept that your shitty situation is just that-- a shitty situation. you had it rough, you made the best of it. that doesn't mean every single fucking nosferatu in the world is being shitty to you. you continue to rebel against the love and community of a warren because you've only ever been in a fucking awful one.

no wonder you've got the attitude of a cleopatra. sounds like your fucking sire was one, honestly.

hit me up if you ever decide you'd like to see what an actual warren is supposed to look like. i'm sure we'd be happy to have you.

I have a question for all u vampires. I promise its not mean im just... trying to learn or perhaps understand.

If you could choose to never have been embraced would you? And if so why? And why not?

[familyagrestefanblog]

Episode 2 of season 4 is confirmed to be "Lie" and a Kagami episode. I'm not entirely up-to-date with the spoilers but I think it's most likely this episode

I guess the show will take the route that ep. 1 "Truth" will be about the Lukanette break up and in ep. 2 "Lie" so will Adrigami. I won't lay judgment upon this decision yet, I want to see the episodes first. The parallel in the titles is interesting tho and maybe that's how we can identify what Kagamis powers will be!

Going by the parallel, if Luka as "Truth" wants to find out secrets and bring them to light Kagami might be the complete opposite. Maybe she can sense the desire of people, the life they wish they had and what(or who) they wish they had in their lives and use it as bait to lure them in so she can get them.

The reason that lead me to this idea is the one thing everybody screamed about when they saw the trailer, Adriens "sacrifice". Because I'm gonna be honest here, the more I look at it, the less it looks like a sacrifice to me. I know everybody seems to agree on this but what we have seen just doesn't add up to me.

I mean, Ladybug is the one these two who is perfectly SAVE and out of harms way when this happens and Kagamis attack seems to be directly after Chat Noir. HE is the one trying to escape the attack not Ladybug.

(gifs from @dailymlgifs)

Not gonna lie, I'm kinda lost on how the white energy ball works. Ladybug seems to be on a lower level than chat but she isn't in danger of getting swallowed by the energy? The attack really just seems to be after HIM

So how could he sacrifice himself for her when she is not even in any danger?

This is why I think there might be a very different reason for why Chat let's himself fall into the white nothingness (totally not a visual callback to Chat Blanc noooooooo) and with a SMILE on his face non the less!

Every episode has a topic and I think here it'll be "the life we have vs the life we WISHED we had" and we will see how it'll affect at least Ladybug, Chat Noir and Kagami.

Concidering that this is probably going to be the Adrigami break up episode its fair to assume that it could happen because either Tomoe and/or Gabriel do not approve of the relationship between their children (we already saw Gabriel sabotage Adriens relationship in Chat Blanc) and Kagami gets akumatized because of it (also parallel to Chat Blanc where Adrien was able to save Marinette from the akuma). She then "freezes" her mother as we saw in the leak.

There are so many possibilities with Kagami in this scenario when you look at it from an "the life we have vs the life we WISHED we had" angle: Maybe the forced break up happens because of the business contract we saw in "Animaestro" (the episode also included the almost random topic of the possibility of Kagami and Adrien leaving for Japan)

and Tomoe tells Kagami they will go back to Japan but Adrien and Gabriel stay in Paris. Kagami would then loose every friend she tried so hard to make, loose both Adrien and Marinette and go back to being all alone. That is one HELL of a reason to get akumatized!

Continuing this topic with Marinette/Ladybug it would explain why akumatized Kagami seems to ignore Ladybug to go after Chat Noir. As we also know from the trailers Marinette will loose alot of her social life to her duties as Ladybug AND guardian, Marinette is definitely NOT excluded from the longing for other circumstances in her life.

But the thing with Marinette is that while she indeed has the emotional tumult for Kagami to target her, the circumstances in which she losses her social life give her a purpose to NOT give into the longing and it saves her from Kagamis power.

Marinettes social sacrifices are painful but she knows they didn't happen for no reason. This is the complete opposite to Adriens losses in life and in my assumption the reason why Kagami not only goes directly after Chat but why he then lets himself fall with a smile.

(Gif from @valleybone)

When I see this moment from a "the life we have vs the life we wished we had" angle then I realize again just how much Adrien LOST already and how purposeless it must seem from his perspective.

-Emilie got sick out of nowhere and then just vanished from the surface of the earth in Adriens eyes. He has no idea what happened to his mother, she is just GONE.

-Nathalie may start to become his new mother figure now but she is also bedridden with the same "condition" as Emilie. So even that light is dimmed with a certain darkness.

-Chloe officially crossed a line in "Miracle Queen" and from the way she behaved there Chloe will get even worse this season. Oddly we kinda tend to forget it on some levels but Chloe was for a long time the only friend Adrien was allowed to have. And while they definitely drifted apart althrough s1-s3 Adrien still genuinely cares about her and with her going "antagonist to villain" now, it makes Chloe one more person Adrien now losses.

-How much do I have to say about Gabriel? "Stormy weather 2" already forshadowed that Gabriel will loss Adrien when he continues to go down his evil path and Adrien brought up the possibility of moving on with life without his father. And now with Gabriel being ShadowMoth he will distance himself even more from his son. Gabriel is definitely a person who must basically feel almost lost to Adrien.

-Of course Kagami herself which the break up and loosing her after they became such great friends

-and we can even include Marinette and Ladybug on this list. Adrien/Chat in the s3 finale at last accepted that Ladybug doesn't love him and the summary of "Truth" says that Marinette "neglects Chat Noir" because shes so overwhelmed. So the potential for Adrien feeling like she's drifting away from him as well is definitely there. And I think Marinette is reasonably enough to include here because if she has no time or opportunity to see everyone else, then it also means Adrien doesn't get to see his very special friend very often either.

-combine this with how lonely Adriens civil life normally is and how "Chat Blanc" forshadows that Adriens popularity will increase even more now and how that will definitely affect him

Then you know what? I would perfectly understand why Kagami would go after Chat in particular when she feels such a longing in him for a life where things are normal and peaceful and his loved one do not slip right through his fingers for reasons he cannot know. Adriens losses in life and the way he has to accept that a normal life in general just was never meant for him just HAPPEN to him and therefore I completely understand it if Chat letting go with a smile on his face has to do with him not being able to resist the longing he feels within. He already has to fight and suppress it every day in his normal daily life but faced with an Akuma like Kagami might be he would succomb to it. Because unlike Marinette he can not hold onto a purpose that explains his losses and gives him the strength to hold onto reality.

I will stop here because I don't even know if this will actually be the case x3

But can you imagine how heartbreaking it would be if we were to hear Emilies voice talking to Adrien for the first time and it's the reason why he let's go of his staff??

(gif from @dailymlgifs​

Gurl I know I'm going so hyper-specific again that I shouldn't expect to actually see it in the episode, but the sheer possibility makes me so sad and now I'm having FEELINGS

[classic80sand90smovieloves2]

Cowboy and Animal Mother fighting over you would include~

(My gifs)(Requested by anonymous)

- Since it’s about the only place you’ll ever be around Cowboy and Animal Mother at the same time, lets say you’re stationed in Vietnam with the Lusthog squad (whether you’re a soldier, nurse, or what have you).

- You’re the only girl in a troop of soldiers and the only American, non “comfort woman” these boys have seen for months, all of them are going to be hounding you. But there’s one good thing that comes out of that: you and Cowboy become close. 

- Cowboy’s a sweetheart; at least when it comes to you, his genuine kindness and use of manners towards you ensures that the two of you become quite close very quickly. He keeps the other guys off your back, gets you some space to breathe and becomes a reassuring face in the wave of disaster that surrounds you. 

- Because of these reasons, you stick to his side, rarely straying far away when you don’t have to. And Cowboy couldn't be happier. A pretty, sweet girl keeping him company makes the long days a little bit shorter; even if it’s just because he spends a good amount of them looking at your beauty. 

- Animal Mother, on the other hand, isn’t nearly as friendly. To him, you’re just dead weight and a; most likely, unarmed ass he’ll have to cover if anything goes wrong. Sure, you’re pretty but you’re an unnecessary complication; especially if you aren’t gonna put out. 

- At least, that's what he first thought. Then he saw you doing your thing, proving yourself capable and useful and putting your foot down to someone and he decided that you weren’t so bad. And after that, you find yourself with two very different boys vying for your attention. 

- Animal mother is more obvious about his intentions; at least to his rival, while Cowboy is a bit more ambiguous about his feelings towards you. He’s the sort of person who denies knowing what someone's talking about when they question him, giving the stereotypical “I don’t know what you’re talking about” when Animal confronts him. 

- Obviously, Cowboys a lot more approachable and friendly. He’s the first person you’ll connect with and he’ll hold a special place in your heart. He’s the one you can talk with, share memories with, confess fears to, hug and touch without wondering if you’re “allowed” to. He’s like a friend you’ve known for years.

- He’s going to win you over with his personality but Animal will win you over with his heart and the impending feeling of necessity you’ll have when it comes to being around him. 

- It’s no secret that when you’re on the battlefield or in any kind of danger, you’ll want to have Animal Mother with you. If the mans good at or good for anything, it’s protecting his own and killing the enemy, and it’s during these moments of danger that the brute will earn himself a place in your good graces.

- He may be more rough around the edges and antagonistic, but he’s loyal and he cares about his crew whether he’ll admit it or not. All he needs is a chance to save your ass from something and he’s got his ticket into your life. And that’s exactly what happens. 

- You wind up in deep shit and he bails you out, arguably saving your life. Like any rational person, you’re grateful and while you find it a bit strange when he sits next to you later and asks if you’re alright, you certainly aren’t going to complain. 

- Soon enough, the two of you are warming up to each other and becoming friends in your own interesting little way. And that’s when the battle truly begins.

-  Cowboy is a bit more well spoken, more …delicate, delicate in a way that Animal Mother just isn't. Cowboy knows how to use his words, how to flirt in a way that most people are used to, while Mother is just more of a physical being by nature. 

- While Cowboy will compliment you and use his words to butter you up and make you blush, Animal will use his actions. Shoulder bumping, hair ruffling, pulling you around by your clothes, “teaching you” how to shoot a gun so that he has an excuse to be close, giving you looks or smiles that make your heart race; things like that. Sure, he’ll use his words to tease you, but it isn’t nearly as common. 

- Mother is always really smug when you choose to go over to him; especially when it’s during a scary situation since he sees it as proof that he’s more of a man than his rival. Cowboy doesn’t necessarily see your actions as having some deeper meaning. So you’re sitting with him, whatever, you’re allowed to converse with your other crew members the same as he is; and he won’t deny that Animals a good soldier. 

- Since he’s in a higher position; and was your first army friend, Cowboy can just use an excuse to pull you over to his side whenever he wanted to. 

- Animal is more likely to just tell you to come with him or sit down next to him without any subtly. You’re friends, aren’t you? And trust me, you’ll want to be his friend. 

- Animal definitely gets more jealous over everything. The joking around with cowboy, the looks, the being around other men. He’ll make pointed comments to you the next time you’re alone and do whatever he can to keep you away from the other man. 

- Cowboy is known to be more gentle and tactful so him brushing you off, helping you up, wiping something off your face, asking you if you’re alright and worrying over you is seen as normal. It’s something Animal yearns to do but it would be too out of character and would make him look like he’s gone totally soft. 

- Instead, Animal is more of a “back off, she’s alright” type of person; as though saying it will immediately make it a reality. Once he decides he likes you, he’ll become protective over you and come to really respect you so his confidence in your toughness will really be a testament to that. 

- Animal Mother, ever the instigating asshole, would be itching to get into a fight with the other man, and Cowboy might just get annoyed enough to take him up on the offer. But more likely than not, these are the moments that Cowboy can really get his revenge, all he has to do is rile animal up then leave him hanging, his chest still heaving and his hands balled up into fists.

- The other troops would definitely pick up on and joke about the feud between them. You’d probably just roll your eyes or not even be around to hear it but the two men would definitely exchange some fiery looks as the others laughed. 

- Once he decides to really confess, Animal is going to be blatant with his feelings towards you. It isn’t hard to see; even from the beginning, that he likes you more than his brothers in arms but now there’s going to be no mistake about the emotion behind his eyes. 

- Animals used to going into things head first with little thought so don’t be surprised if his “confession” really just consists of a kiss. 

- If you choose him, Animals going to be ridiculously smug. The minute you agree to be his, he’ll parade you around, flaunting your relationship and making sure Cowboy knows that he’s lost. 

- Cowboy would be more graceful with his confession. He’d let you know how he feels about you; maybe a bit shyly, and then he’d ask if you’d like to go out with him; and hopefully go on a date if you have the chance. Depending on your reaction, he’d ask if he could give you a kiss, giving you a little smile once you agree and taking your face between his hands to give you one. 

- He wouldn’t throw your newfound relationship in anyone's face but he’d show it off just enough so that everyone would know about it; and he’d sort of revel in the burning looks he’d get from Animal. 

- Cowboy would definitely be bothered if you chose animal but he’d accept it and let the two of you live. He may feel like he was the better choice but it’s your decision, right? He’ll still be there if you want him. 

- Animal wouldn’t be too keen on giving up the fight even if you choose Cowboy, he’d still try to win you over and continue to antagonize your boyfriend. If you decide later on that you want him, it won’t be nearly as easy to get him as it would be for Cowboy but he certainly isn’t going to turn you away; at least not for long. He just wants to make you work a little; like he did. 

[rainbow-hammock]

Ok Redwall fandom, I need to scream into the void for a bit here; there were some posts in the tag awhile back theorizing some elements of Slagar’s past, and thinking about that got me thinking about the Kingdom of Malkariss and, more specifically, the Wearet.

Guys, we need to talk about the Wearet.

Possible spoilers for Mattimeo and Loamhedge, for those not familiar with all the books. I’m gonna put the rest under a cut because this got to be quite long, though a lot of it is just me divulging some personal theories I’ve developed.

So the Wearet is essentially this mutated crossbreed creature, right? By itself, it’s not the most shocking thing in the series, as there are multiple instances where an antagonist has been keeping some monstrous creature in captivity--think the Gloomer from Mossflower, or the Dirgecallers from The Bellmaker, etc. Furthermore, Razzid Wearat (the main antagonist in Rogue Crew) is also a hybrid of some sort*.

(*though he’s specifically listed to be a different sort of hybrid, and we also have very little information as to Razzid’s origins, so I’m really not going to include him in this meta.)

(Apparently there’s also a Wearet in The Lost Legends of Redwall games, but I haven’t played them and I’m not familiar with the game’s lore in relation to the books, so I won’t be discussing him.)

But in the specific case of the Wearet of Malkariss, I feel like there’s reason to believe that this crossbreeding was done on purpose, and it makes for some nasty implications of what goes on behind the scenes in the underground kingdom.

Look, the Redwall series is pretty well known for being quite dark at times for a series aimed at children. The kingdom of Malkariss is without a doubt, a pretty horrible place to be--it’s a secretive but extensive underground kingdom built on the backs of slaves, ruled by a mysterious tyrant who is outright worshipped by his followers. A lot of people in the fandom would agree that the Kingdom of Malkariss is a cult, and personally, I don’t think that’s too much of a stretch. 

I could dedicate an entirely separate post to theorizing about the kingdom of Malkariss, but I will say that there is a lot we don’t know; we don’t know where Malkariss came from, how his kingdom came to be, much less how long he’s been there. As already stated, Malkariss and the kingdom he has created are very secretive, and while he does have some level of notoriety in some circles, for the most part he doesn’t seem to be incredibly well known. Slagar’s band of slavers know OF the kingdom, at the very least: in chapter 7 of Mattimeo, Slagar’s henchmen “moan [with] despair” when they find out they’re going to the kingdom of Malkariss because it’s said to be a “realm of nightmares”. However, they don’t seem to know much about what’s involved; they try to ask Slagar about it at several points, and seem genuinely surprised when they encounter obstacles like the Painted Ones and the giant gorge.

Furthermore, in chapter 17, when we meet the Stump family, Jubilation tells Matti and the other young captives that his family never go to the south because it’s where the slavers go. His mother, Rosyqueen, tells Matthias and his company the same thing later in the same chapter, but also says that “no one knows what lies beyond the great Southern Plateau.”

However, on the other hand, it’s referenced multiple times that Malkariss has a LOT of followers at his command, and he seems to have amassed quite a bit of territory, which could indicate he’s been in the area for quite some time and it’s bigger than we think--and you have to consider that all those rats that make up his horde have to come from somewhere. They need spaces to eat, sleep and train.

It’s also a fact that they’re born and raised to serve the kingdom: when Slagar offers up Vitch as a “gift”, Malkariss rejects him because he was “not born of the Host, [and their] ways are not known to him.” (Mattimeo, ch. 43). Based on this information, I think it’s pretty safe to say that there were probably areas of the kingdom dedicated to families and children, though we never see it.

If that’s the case, and Malkariss and his enormous horde have been around for awhile, this could indicate that by the time he appears in Mattimeo, he was working to expand his kingdom, or at least the spaces underground. What does this have to do with the Wearet? When the Wearet is introduced, Nadaz calls him “The Slavemaster”. Sure, Malkariss has got lots of followers, but having a great scary-looking creature under your control overseeing the construction could be a good show of power to both slaves and follower alike, so I think it’s less likely that the Wearet existed before Malkariss created his kingdom underground, especially if the expansion he’s supervising is a more recent project. 

But then how did the Wearet come to exist at all? I posit that there were ferrets/weasels/stoats living in the kingdom of Malkariss. There might even have been other Wearets. But they were being kept deep underground, possibly for the sole purpose of creating (and later, maintaining) the Wearet line. Here’s why:

The Wearet is described as “somewhere between a ferret and a stoat.” (Mattimeo, Ch. 46). The thing is, there’s absolutely no mention of any mustelids (ferrets, stoats, weasels) serving within the kingdom; according to the book, the residents of the kingdom of Malkariss (at least, those that aren’t slaves) are made up of entirely of rats.

The only exception is its king, Malkariss himself, who is a polecat (aka a wild relative of the domestic ferret). 

You’d think that if having other mustelids around to do things like lead his army and serve him was important to Malkariss, there would have been some evidence of it.

Now let’s fast forward to the book Loamhedge, which takes place many, many years after the events of Mattimeo. As the title implies, a group of Redwallers return to the Southern Plateau, aka where Loamhedge AND Malkariss used to be. Guess who they encounter?

^This guy. Kharanjul. 

Another Wearet.

Remember the giant gorge everyone had to cross in Mattimeo? Kharanjul lives in caves along its walls. It makes sense that he’s not in the exact same location, given that there was a giant cave-in, but he is definitely within the same vicinity. If we’re going off the assumption that the kingdom was a lot bigger than what we saw in Mattimeo, it would make sense that there are tunnels and caves everywhere underground along the plateau, so even if one large area had been lost to the collapse, it doesn’t necessarily mean that all of it would have. 

In the same line of thought, it doesn’t necessarily mean that all of the creatures living in the kingdom of Malkariss were lost, either. The rats in Kharanjul’s army could even be their descendants.

Speaking of descendants...when his followers are singing his praises, they specifically reference how Kharanjul has “the blood of Wearets” running through his veins. (Loamhedge, ch 36.)

Unlike Malkariss, though, Kharanjul’s army consists of “mainly ferrets and weasels, with a scattering of large rats among them.” (Loamhedge, ch. 42). But if the kingdom of Malkariss had consisted only of rats, then where did the ferrets and weasels come from?

And another thing: we know that in real life, it’s definitely possible to make hybrid animals out of different species--a horse and a donkey make a mule, for example. 

(Yes, Redwall is a fictional world made up of anthropormorphized animals and we have to have suspension of disbelief, blah blah blah, but go with me here.)

When I dove into this rabbithole, I found this website, which is essentially a compilation of reports referencing instances of hybridization between different animals (in this case, mustelids). 

There was one segment that stood out to me:

Would you believe it, it is actually entirely realistic for something like the Wearet to exist!

Furthermore, this tells us two things:

1. It is possible for a stoat and a ferret to produce fertile offspring. (The Stoat x Ferret hybrid in the referenced study apparently produced four successive generations.)

2. A stoat and a polecat could (hypothetically) produce fertile offspring. 

Look, we don’t know very much about the Malkariss Wearet. We don’t know how much Malkariss was involved in his creation. The Malkariss Wearet’s existence could have easily been a fluke. though apparently, and there’s no good way to put this, but polecats can get around, if you know what I mean, so he may have been a lot more “””””involved””””” than is comfortable thinking about. 

But if we take into account that a stoat and ferret hybrid is capable of producing multiple generations of fertile offspring in the first place, PLUS the fact that there is another Wearet present in the exact same vicinity, hundreds of years later, AND there is now a notable population of mustelids in the area...it leads me to believe that Kharanjul was not a fluke. 

Headcanon time: if we go off of the whole “it was a cult” thing, the shift from worship of Malkariss to worship of Wearets is how the remnants of the kingdom ended up evolving after the destruction of the kingdom, especially if the survivors consisted of the creatures used to create the line in the first place. Aside from the giant statue, we know that his rats carved a mural in his likeness, so there are probably lots of similar likenesses scattered throughout the tunnels and caves that make up the kingdom. I could see creatures interpreting these types of effigies as a tribute to a creature like a Wearet, especially if a lot of what was known about the kingdom of Malkariss was lost over time. 

TL; DR: We don’t know exactly where the Wearet from Mattimeo came from, but its existence implies that there might have been mustelids present in the kingdom of Malkariss, possibly for the purpose of making Wearets. When Malkariss and the kingdom were destroyed, some of the rats and the mustelids used to make the Wearet appear to have survived and continued the Wearet line.

[bookwyrminspiration]

thoughts about evil like me from descendants being a fintan to keefe song? (in any context no matter if keefe is playing along or genuinely believes it. could also apply to alvar or sophie depending)

oo that's an interesting comparison!! of course, the whole Descendants franchise has a lot more of a "haha we're evil and it's fun I love being evil and being villainous," while the kotlc antagonists are more...I believe in this thing fervently and if that makes me evil, so what? There's less revelry in it, though they can enjoy the chaos they cause, if that makes.

that being said one of the lines that stood out the most was "Clawed my way to victory / Built my master plan" as that is essentially what Fintan tried to do. He wasn't entirely successful, but he was clawing his way through the elven world, creating a master plan behind the scenes to tear the place to shreds and built a world without the issues of its predecessor. There was very little he wouldn't give up for this vision of his, little he wouldn't sacrifice. He even sacrificed himself (the mind break) to keep his secrets so the world he envisioned would come to fruition. He was deliberate and bold and determined. And he was taunting/degrading people for their obedience, about how they were blinded by their compliance and that he was brave enough to break out of it. it makes sense that Keefe would also be the subject of that. If Keefe has a role in the future the Neverseen is building, he doesn't want Keefe to be like everyone else

for some reason this line also stands out to me: "Who wants an evil queen without a sack of sins?" You know how revolutions and change never come from those in power being comfortable? That's what that makes me think of. Fintan would have the mindset of "if you, the people who made this mess, are uncomfortable with what I'm doing then I'm doing something right." How can he be revolutionary if he's not breaking the mold? if he's not standing out and defying who he "should" be and making sure people know it? If he was trying to stick to the rules, he wouldn't get anywhere. There have been centuries prior to his rebellion where nothing happened, but now that the rules are being broken things are happening. Who wants a visionary who complies with his own discrimination? How can he even be a visionary if he's not doing anything new? And if the world is uncomfortable with the new, well that's just more proof that he's standing out and challenging the norms.

Also, the lines "And we're gonna be spiteful / Yes, spiteful / That's nice" seem to fit at least part of his motivation. Fintan doesn't like how pyrokinesis has been treated! Which is fair. His status was taken from him and he was branded talentless, and all pyrokinetics after him are scorned. Who wouldn't be spiteful about that kind of thing? That kind of unfair treatment warrants a reaction, and being spiteful about it is entirely understandable. I wouldn't be surprised if Fintan tried to pass on this perspective to people like Keefe, like "do you see what they've done? we can't tolerate it. they deserve our retribution," playing up the anger and the justice side of it because that's where he comes from! Doesn't justify his actions, but his motivation is understandable. Like you know what? We're not gonna let this one go, actually! All the things you've done? We don't forgive you!

Fintan's passionate enough about his cause that having Keefe under his wing would be a prime opportunity for him to start persuading him to think differently, to actually take a moment to think about what he's saying instead of discarding it all. I don't think the "haha be evil!!" part of the song applies to Fintan as much, but the parts woven throughout it definitely fit.

it's a fun way to look at them, so thank you for the suggestion!!

[constellaj]

16

Please talk more about your reboot!

16: If you could change anything in the show, what would you change?

okay so how i would re-do CANON is completely different from how i would talk abt a reboot so im gonna touch on a couple things in both contexts! the reason for the difference is canon rewrites imply i can go back in time and introduce dp fresh and new, before anyone knows what it is; but for a reboot, id be working with an audience that has a better understanding of the source material, so i dont need to spend as much time explaining, but i also need to keep everything recognizable

Valerie

REWRITE: i would def make it more danny's fault that her dad lost his job, like danny was intentionally being reckless and shattered some security stuff, and he has a whole mini lesson about learning to not just run in guns blazing. i would probably remove the dating stuff with her and danny (and tuckers crush) too, I think them wanting to be good friends is good enough for freshman year

REBOOT: the fandom already knows valerie exists, so i would actually skip the whole shades-of-gray introductory episode and have her be present as the huntress from day 1-- probably even before danny got his powers. cujo is also HER dog, and her backstory-- we'd find out in like, season 1, that a natural ghost portal (maybe one wulf opened) ripped open on her dog and killed him, and since then shes had a vendetta against ghosts cause of how reckless they are and their disregard for life-- of course, cujo isnt actually dead. cujo is a halfa. a puby halfa. anyway instead of a hoverboard she actually rides cujo around cause he can fly and its big and epic. valerie has BEEN amity parks ghost-eradicating superhero for at least a year (tho shes been in the shadows abt it) and her hatred towards danny actually just becomes really petty, like them flying next to each other chasing skulker just going "I got this. no I got this. no I got this" and they just get in each others' way and its a mutual grudge.

BOTH: i am NOT keeping in vlad giving her the suit to watch danny under any circumstances. it was only utilized half assedly in canon (when vlad couldve just had an invisible duplicate watching him instead) anyway, and I dont have any reason to keep it in a reboot either. instead i want her tech to be a combination of half-stolen and half-gerryrigged stuff and she slowly slowly learns how to build her own.

I also dont want anyone knowing her secret identity, except maybe her dad, and sam or tucker. i think it works better if danny isnt privy to this magic info

Freakshow

REWRITE: i would honestly just remove him. the episodes hes in arent particularly interesting, theyre just generic "we need a plot about x" filler and he's not compelling enough a character (at least in writing) to carry a better plot that another antagonist couldnt. i'm serious

REBOOT: unfortunately in a reboot he's gonna have to pop up somewhere or else ppl will be like "where IS HE" so I'm going to stick with running some kind of ghost circus, maybe a few occult things, but cut out a lot of the spooky magical knowledge and mcguffin stuff. maybe i could make him like, someone from vlad/jack/maddies college who always felt pushed around by them and so he has a vendetta? and theyd be the only reason he even learned abt ghosts in the first place. idk in either way I want to force him into being irredeemable but also include LYDIA (the tattoo girl ghost) way more-- I want to give her an arc that ends in her tossing freakshow aside and running off to be a ghost vigilante.

BOTH: dear god the infinity gauntlet is stupid that needs to GO AWAY. especially for the reboot cause it would exist in a post-mcu world and way too many people would complain about it

Vlad

REWRITE: amp him up to a far more sinister and villainous character. the crushing on maddie isnt enough, I want to show him on-screen performing experiments on ghosts and himself, dismissing everyone else cause he thinks hes smarter than them. i want him to be actively sabotaging the fentons at every turn. i would also clarify that he doesnt actually want danny as a son, but as a trophy-- a line where danny says something along the lines of "you don't want a son. you want a slave". i want to make him a character who wants to destroy the entire planet and put it in the ghost zone so he can be the true ghost king and i want to make this all evident from day one. if i'm writing a series villain you can bet i'm going to write a GOOD one. less petty drama here and more actual stakes.

REBOOT: it seems silly but sense with reboot we have the benefit of hindsight and recognizing that vlad wasn't a big series villain, theres no way i'd actually go back and write him to be such. for starters, of course, theres the fact that anything he does would really be an exaggerated part of the original, and it would bore an audience to see the same story again-- theres also the fact that it doesnt seem right to take a character who was treated as a joke half the time and suddenly make them big and important. no, instead for my reboot i want to lean into the petty gay uncle vibe. he had a crush on jack and now just casually insults him. he moves mansions every now and again by just haunting the family who lives in the one he wants, and taking over-- i mean, who is gonna believe that an actual ghost haunted you. he dislikes danny not because he has some concept of 'evil' and 'good' but bc danny is just too damn active. of course he actually does care about danny and his safety deep down, it's just on the surface they have very conflicting motivations-- not to mention that danny has been raised on legends from his parents of the villainous Wisconsin Ghost, who has to be stopped at all costs.

BOTH: i want jack and maddie to KNOW he's a half ghost and to actively be hunting him down for it, maybe bc they think hes possessed, or been a ghost tricking them this whole time, or the victim of a tragic lab accident who needs to be put to rest, etc. whatever the case it will give vlad actual tangible reason to despise them and genuinely suspect they dont have dannys best interests at heart. i think it would be neat if vlad was cynical and every time danny hit him with the "I'll expose us both. at least theyll still love ME" vlad could be like in the back of his head "oh god theyre going to kill this child"

Dani

REWRITE: cut her out. we don't need her character at all. maybe replace her with a more ominous shadow duplicate / clone that actually looks like danny himself and doesnt really have a name? you could probably combine her and dark dans characters for their arcs

REBOOT: instead of a clone from vlad, she's a guys in white creation using some of dannys dna after he was captured (and vlad broke him out bc he was like "ugh i guess i have to save this child")

BOTH: vlad actually cares abt her (duh), shes nonbinary (double duh), she gets the funny dissolve into goo powers

i had more i thought i was gonna write but this post is already very long and also im running out of coherency for this LUL

[ellasadventuresinfandoms]

Okay, back in May @isolatedphenomenon asked me if I had an les mis fic recs and I went "oh boy do I !" and then promptly fucked off and disappeared from tumblr for like 6 months...

Anyway on the off chance people are interested, here is my vastly too long list of  my favourite les mis fanfic (that I'm almost 100% sure I'll have accidentally missed some of my favourites off of...)

The vast majority of these are main pairing Enjolras/Grantaire, so I've put those first, divided into multi-chaptered and then one-shots. Below that will be other pairings!

Multi-chaptered

• Witch Boy Series : magic AU, starting with Grantaire solving Enjolras' curse - this is just Incredible world building which gets better as it goes on - my favourite is the Babet interlude

• World Ain't Ready : you know how fandoms tend to have a fic that is just associated with it ? in my experience, for les mis this is it - and well deserved ! High school, fake dating AU with some of the most engaging writing

• BE : Enjolras is dragged back into theatre production, helping Eponine put on a production of Hamlet - really love the characterisation in this, and this is really one of those modern AUs that actually feels like real life - really good writing

• After the End : the definitive apocalypse AU in my eyes - les amis are an underground resistance to the dystopian government - really wonderful characterisation of Grantaire and the amis

• You never have to wonder; you never have to ask. : I tend to find fic by scrolling through bookmarks of a pairing, which means I often see repeats; this is a fic that if I see I just re-read cause I know I'll enjoy it - the amis sparked a failed rebellion, and now 18 months later Grantaire ends up staying at Enjolras' after returning to Paris for Marius and Cosette's wedding

• Your Heart on Your Skin : Soulmate AU with flower tattoos marking important emotions and events - wonderful concept and world building 

• Impatient to Be Free : Daughters of Bilitis AU - if that doesn't make you excited I don't know what else to say to convince you (aside from saying the author is a simply wonderful writer)

• You Dance Dreams : Okay. Not to be over dramatic, but this fic did genuinely qualitatively change my life, in that it was the first thing that got me looking up contemporary ballet and now that's like one of my favourite things and big hobby So. Also its really great writing; music/creative arts school les amis with Grantaire choreohraphing the ballet for Combeferre's opera, with a heavy emphasis on Grantaire realising he really never actually got over Enjolras

• philia : this one is an absolute classic to me, but not given nearly enough recognition - one of the more realistic college AUs ever written, and the writing of Grantaire is so good because it hits the perfect balance of sympathy and annoyance about his behaviour (that's a genuine compliment) 

• Coffee Hooligans : fucking tragedy this never got properly finished, Enjolras leads the amis as social justice vigilantes and tries to hide the criminal bits of his life from R

• Fighting the Hurricane : Pacific Rim AU that's less an AU and more just placing the les mis characters in the Pacific Rim universe. Really good and riveting read, also super interesting depiction of Grantaire

• Weaving Olden Dances : Fairy AU - Grantaire "claims" Enjolras to prevent his execution - really good writing, love Grantaires characterisation 

• Paris Burning : canon era (sort of) where cities have a physical being - Grantaire is Paris and becomes entangled in Enjolras' revolution - oh the world building is truly *chefs kiss*

• Euphoria is You For Me : Enjolras and Grantaire keep meet cuting in a wonderfully written Brooklyn - feels like a love letter to Brooklyn at times, and I really like the characterisation of Grantaire 

• so please just fall in love with me this christmas : Enjolras works for the environmental company Grantaire volunteers at, and keeps getting secret gifts at Christmas - I sound a little like a broken record but the Grantaire characterisation is very good

• You Are the Moon : Wild West esque Space AU - Grantaire has to call on the amis to help rescue Valjean and Cosette, despite Grantaire leaving the amis 6 months before. On re-reading the Enjolras characterisation feels a little rushed, but overall fantastic story telling and the Grantaire arc is a Delight 

• Pandemos : Enjolras is aphrodite, and seeks peace from all his suitors in R/Hephestus' cave

• Pining for You : Hallmark christmas romance - Grantaire returns home to work on his father's tree farm, and Enjolras is the lawyer helping prevent the farm being sold - cute as shit imo

• Once We're Kings : Fantasy AU - a country hosts a ball to marry Prince Enjolras and the rival country sends Grantaire as a fuck you - one of the best ways of doing Enjolras as a prince in a fantasy and just really nicely written

• Never Bitter and All Delicious : Fairy Godmother AU - yes really, yes its genuinely a very good read

• On One Condition : Fantasy AU - Enjolras is a bored knight who finally goes to check out the local dragon, which turns out to be Grantaire - I really like how they capture Enjolras' stubborn nature and it's such a well written soft growth of love between them

• That's How Easy Love Can Be : Les Amis work at a primary school; and its secret santa time! very fun portrayal of Enjolras

• The Lark and Her Lieutenants : re write of canon where Cosette is the leader of the revolution - just *chefs kiss*

• If You Tickle Us, Do We Not Laugh : Grantaire is Enjolras' secret android - really good at writing a relationship that's incredibly loving but just keeps being antagonistic and coming off wrong 

One Shots

• True Colours : AU where you leave colours on the people important to you - Enjolras and Grantaire falling for each other is so soft and gently written its lovely, this is genuinely one of my favourites

• Keep It Kind, Keep It Good, Keep It Right : this one is so good to me, because it builds off my pet hatred of everyone assuming Enjolras doesn't care about (or at least actively show he cares about) his friends

• blooming : very soft post-dystopian utopia that has just a really wonderful sense of hope and light to me

• and the wall leaned away (or: The Pros and Cons of Tilling) : perfectly realised characterizations of the amis, Grantaire needs a date to her final year art exhibition - deals with anxiety over protest in a way that actually hits for me

• not just one of the crowd : R helps run a leftist bakery and bike repair shop - very cute characterisation, and I think more les mis fanfic should link to anarchist essays

• Lovesickness : Enjolras is an idiot and thinks he's sick rather than having a crush - the writing of Joly and Combeferre in this is some of my favourite depictions of these two

• If there's a rocket, tie me to it : absolutely heartbreaking sci-fi AU about the amis as doomed mecha pilots

• Where I Fall is Where I Land : Enjolras is a Roman commander as Rome's power is leaving England, and then meets the pict Grantaire (+ fun soulmark stuff !)

• You Started Foreign to Me : Enjolras moves to america and R is the overnight grocery clerk who helps her learn Spanish - cute fluffy lesbians with a wonderfully written driven Enjolras

• Love Is Touching Souls : very cute soulmate AU - and one I really love for really truly considering the implications of soul marks and creating historical lore around it

• Ten Years : R is a musician, and it non-linearly charts his relationship to Enj from high school to 10 years later

• put up with me then I'll make you see : Grantaire lives above Enjolras, and its christmas - I find it to have a very fun interpretation of pining Enjolras

• A Cat Called Trash Can : this was one of the first les mis fics I ever read (yes I know it says it was published in 2020, but I think it has to be a re-upload or something?) and it does still have a special place in my heart - Grantaire rescues a cat, but Enjolras is the only one with an apartment free to look after it 

• Still I'm Begging to Be Free : inception AU where les amis have to rescue a sleeping R from his own brain

•I'm in it for You : cw: illness, cancer - R has cancer and is being a martyr about telling his friends so Enjolras drives him back from chemo

• walls come tumbling down : sky high au - a very good high school AU with the perfect level of campy superhero powers

• This brave new world's not like yesterday : Enjolras needs a job, so ends up working in a bowling alley with Grantaire and bonding

Enjolras/Grantaire/Combeferre

• In Defiance of All Geometry : les amis are a student co-op house, Enjolras and Combeferre are pining friends and Grantaire is the newbie

• Still the Same : this is very good writing and very compelling - if you can get over the (imo) plot hole of Enjolras working for the FBI. R was an art thief Enj put away and is briefly helping the FBI out, and Combeferre is Enjolras' husband

• To Kingdom Come : cw: war and PTSD from that, Enjolras and Combeferre are part of a group of refugees that have crossed into a more fantasy land, and Grantaire is a lone traveller from that land that attempts to help - that was a shit summary of this very emotional, wonderfully written fic about war and love in all forms

• Gonna need (a spark to ignite) : I always love a twist on a classic trope, and this is a very fun take on the soulmate AU - Enjolras loses feeling in his soul mark as a child, falls in love with Grantaire and then his soulmate, Combeferre, turns up

Eponine/Cosette

• Pretty Girls Don't Know the Things That I Know : simply stunning writing - perfect example of soft writing about a harsh world

• she knows her way around : Eponine and Cosette bond, ostensibly so Eponine can find out about her for Marius, and their interactions are so playful and realistic, its wonderful

• always find me floating on oceans : Cosette stows away on Eponine's pirate ship - I do always have a soft spot for eposette fics (not just cause I ship it) because they truly characterise Cosette in a really considered and interesting way

• There's No Making Love : I'm putting this under eposette even though there is some significant enjolras/grantaire content, because the Cosette characterisation is so fun and cute

• round and round again : this fic really beautifully translates Cosette's bad childhood and then isolated teenage years, and the impact that would have on her as an adult into a modern AU

• Underwater Thunderheards : this is based off the book The Scorpio Races, and is just a really nice short fic  about longing

• How To Change The World Without Taking Power : Marius has a crush on Cosette and she's tried being polite and subtle in turning him down, so just ends up fake dating Eponine instead

• blood red fruit and poison's kiss : Snow White AU - Cosette as Snow White

• The Winters Cannot Fade Her : Snow White Au 2.0 - Eponine as Snow White - this was written as a pair to the one above which is just so cute to me

• marriage à la mode : Cosette and Eponine run a bridal shop together and it's very cute !

• Temporary Hold : I personally find this a really fun and very unique take on Cosette - with exams coming up she decides she needs to get laid on the reg and so hits up Eponine to act as if they're already long term girlfriends

Combeferre/Courfeyrac

• better than you had it : fake dating but kick it up an emotional notch - Courf and Ferre pretend to still be together after breaking up for a family event

• take flight, come near : nice and cute low fantasy, where Combeferre runs a dragon sanctuary and Courf finds an injured dragon

Rare Pairs

• The Future's Owned by You and Me : cute Enjolras/Feuilly with actual radical politics and real life organising difficulties and wins

• First Dates and Other Dangers : Combeferre and Grantaire agree to go on a blind date and it's awkward until it isn't - just cute !

• after midnight : Combeferre has insomnia and meets Grantaire in various all night fast food chains

• as you are : Bahorel and Jehan getting ready together

• Almost Romantic : Jehan works at a museum, and takes Combeferre on a little tour

• Understudy : Jehan/Combeferre, with Combeferre's insecurities regarding being seen as second best to Enjolras

• Here There Be Dragons : Courf/Enj/Ferre - Courf and Enj are superheroes and Ferre is the doctor that patches them up

• To Let it Occur (Laisser Faire la Nature) : Feuilly has a stupidly long stopover in Paris and meets Enjolras

• rule of three : Courf/Enj/Ferre as spies and loving boyfriends

• Good Rhetoric : snapshots of cute cuddly courf/enj/ferre

• subluxate, dislocate, replace : found family and chronic illness with Joly/Bossuet/Musichetta

• Strike stone, strike home (like lightning) : so this fic took one minor piece of lore about Tolkien's dwarves and made a beautiful j/b/m fic from it

• Almost Inevitable : Bahorel/Feuilly friends-with-benefits

• god only knows (what I'd be without you) : Bahorel/Feuilly with a closeted Feuilly and a beautiful Feuilly and Eponine friendship

[isagrimorie]

Spyfall 2

Commentators: Jodie Whittaker, Sylvie Briggs (Ada Lovelace), Chris Chibnall

Much like the Doctor doesn't like being alone, Jodie also isn't keen on doing scenes alone.

Chibnall actually did consult with his brother in law, who is very knowledgeable in aviation, about landing planes without a cockpit. And it is possible to do so remotely, people will be surprised how a lot of modern planes are actually flown by a computer. I'm not surprised, my dad's a pilot and he told me a lot of modern aircraft are actually flown more by the computers than the pilots. It's a two edged sword tho because then the pilot becomes too over reliant on the autopilot, and that's when accidents happen.

The scene with Ada and Thirteen meeting in the Kasaavin dimension was actually Sylvie's (Ada Lovelace) final day. Her first day was waking up in 'Paris' with Thirteen.

Interesting comment about how the Doctor's rhythm and speech changed dictated by the period of time she's in. It's modern but enough to sound period.

The hall the Doctor and Ada are in is a school, the dining hall.

The Master and his Top Hat! Jodie and Sylvie are both admiring how Sacha commanded the room and how genuinely terrifying he was. 'He (Sacha) rehearses in a way physically you kinda know what he's gonna do but emotionally its different.'

Jodie: "We're the same height, well you can see it 'cause we are but what is really ace is bein' able to eyeball somebody, because very often when you have a standoff with someone there's usually one's looking up, one's looking down or whatever but to be absolutely--"

Sylvie: "Because that changes the power dynamic."

Jodie: "Yeah."

Chibnall: "I never clocked that."

[snip]

Chibnall: "But I wonder if that's what makes it feels so much like your Master, your antagonist, your nemesis. It's like... that's interesting about the eyeline."

Jodie: "Cause in the scene obviously with Lenny outside like this (does something we can't see) and I like doing that thing of scrunching up and kind of, y'know, I suppose the.. doing that thing that kids do headstrong where the body leans forward. But with this two its (growls)."

Chibnall was uncertain about writing the kneel scene, Jodie agrees and didn't like it, Sylvie mentions that it feels epic to her. Chibnall:"There's something about your perfromances that makes it feel epic. But it's just that two-hander."

In the kneel scene, when they were filming, to keep the secret of the Master's identity, Jodie called Sacha 'Myka' instead of Master.

Jodie: "I like my bowtie." Chibnall: "Are you angling for the return of the bowtie?"

Jodie: "Every set, I try to knick something." LOL.

I love how Jodie compliments Sylvie, and I agree she fits the era very well. And an instance where costume (corset especially), and the hair all tied back helps get into character.

Ada really had episodes of paralysis, and one of the jumping off points for Chibnall's story.

Sylvie and Jodie comment on how lovely it was to have scenes with three women and not about 'Hey three women! Let's talk about being women! It's (their gender) is absolutely irrelevant to it but it is really lovely to have just three women. The kind of craziness Doctor Who brings with Ada in period clothes, the Doctor in a tux, and Noor in her period appropriate clothes.

They go on to discuss the Master's SS uniform and how it makes them (Sacha included) shudder because of what the uniform represented. And it's more of a reflection of the Master because he just treats wearing the SS uniform as a dress up without accounting for the implications and history of it. An alien tourist playing dress-up. [ED: I think the optics of this is still problematic I think it's something we need to acknowledge..]

There really was a point where Jodie and Sylvie were under the floor boards with people walking above them, and they held each other's hands because that experience was awful. On page it was very cool, but in execution. (Ed: I love that scene the whole way where there's a tense standoff between Noor and the soldiers, and the Master. And the steeliness of Noor just staring them down even with the soldier strafing the floor.) Chibnall wants several films with Noor Inayat Khan.

OMG. There was a point in the shoot where the Doctor was supposed to speak in perfect French, and Jodie joked that she already didn't speak English very well, and so she practiced speaking her line just to get the accent perfect... only for it to be cut for time. I WANT DELETED SCENES NOW.

Scanning through the Spyfall 2 script there's no mention of the scene where the Doctor speaks in French which really just confirms my suspicion that the scripts are not the shooting scripts, or at least the copies the actors use.

So, Chibnall gave the production several possible locations hoping to bring the budget to manageable scale and then he started writing and he got to the scene where the Doctor and Master spoke and the Master asked where they'd meet and then the Doctor answered; "Where d'you think?"

And Chibnall goes: "Oh they've got to meet in the Eiffel Tower. Production is going to kill me!"

Also, by this it confirms to me that Chibnall, like all of the showrunners is a Doctor/Master shipper, which I should've known already because Jack and Captain John were very much Doctor/Master lite.

Jodie loves doing duologues and is hoping for more two handers in the future, and Chibnall is taking note of that. Two handers where the other person has more of the dialogue... LOL. I guess Jodie really loved The Timeless Children.

[ED: Ada and Noor were such good companions. I want a historical companion for Thirteen next please. Thirteen, Yaz, and a historical Companion!]

Sylvie is so fascinated with the Doctor and Master's relationship, about how complicated it is.

One of the advises RTD gave Chibnall is that 'you can save anything in a line.' LOL. Apparently some of the Master's trauma across 77 years involved tailoring.

Jodie comments on how exciting it is being involved in the costuming, between herself and Sacha, they get to build their Doctors and Master's look and shape them. Also Jodie really loves cropped pants.

Jodie and Sylvie love the power walk, the big iconic, backlit smoke walk. The Big Exposition speech.

The scene where the Master arrives in Kasaavin dimension, same day filming for Jodie, and Sylvie too.

Jodie loves all the engineering and carpentry work, and any practical work.

They did do a shoot where they moved forward to a scene where Noor died, but in the edit found a better ending in the one that was broadcasted, and IMO, that was the right choice. Chibnall wants it more that Doctor Who will inspire people to read up more on Noor Inayat Khan and same Ada.

Chibnall didn't want to rob Ada of her agency, that the Doctor helped her discover computers or suggest that she didn't come up with it, everything Ada did she came up with herself.

The scene where Thirteen is alone and contemplating what happened to Gallifrey, Jodie comments how this was one of the few times where she's just very still.

Chibnall: "This is second series Thirteen, the place you take a character once you've done the first act, done in the beginning of your Doctor's second act."

Jodie and Sacha made sure that they're there in person for the scene in the TARDIS because having a stand-in would change the energy and performance of the scene.

Chibnall: "That performance from Sacha, the layer he brings to the Master there, of emotional truth and pain is so fantastic. It's a gift for a writer, and opens up the Master as well. And opens up your Doctor, I think, the trauma's so personal."

Hang on. Chibnall: "Is that the first appearance of the jumper? [ snip] They've come in this second series, its the first jumper. Little tiny changes you and Ray figure out." Are they implying there were more Doctor wearing only her long sleeve jumper we didn't get to see???

Chibnall: "And you got your Doctor theme but also it's the first time you [speaking to Jodie], it's interesting, I deliberately kept them back in the first series so that when you say them here, it's like you're saying 'Gallifrey', 'Kasterborous', 'Master for the first time."

Jodie: But its good that it ends with a: [using the same steely, angry voice]: 'Questions?' Like: 'Back to business, c'mon.'

Chibnall: (watching Thirteen's face subtly change when Yaz asked if they can visit, and it changes from a broken void to a forced smile). "Ohhhh. Why won't you tell them?" (LOL a writer asking his character.)