#(More developed with more screentime and also in love with each other)

[socratesgirlnextdoor]

duo gilmore girls btvs post because i often clash the two shows together in my mind for some reason? maybe it's because they're early 2000s shows both on the wb in a small town with snappy dialogue and similar writers and three love interests that the show is associated with

spike and jess to me are always going to be THE love interests for one very important reason. they are characters FIRST and love interests SECOND. let me explain, but you guys probably know what i mean.

in each show, the main character gets three love interests (plus a toxic yuri frenemy). rory gets dean jess and logan, buffy gets angel riley and spike. (plus paris and faith ofc)

jess and spike are definitely the same brand of love interest, sarcastic little shits punk rock guys with mommy issues and a heart of gold? of course they are the most loved! these are our special guys who are sad and funny and they smoke and they used to live in new york!

in addition to that, dean and logan versus riley and angel is sort of tough because arguably, angel is a little like jess as well, in terms of being liked by the main character. but the reason why he isn't fully like jess is because angel is, on btvs, not a character outside of his relationship with buffy. when angel shows up, buffy is usually involved.

a lot of angel's character is buffy's vampire boyfriend. dean and logan were like that with rory, whenever either of them showed up or were being developed in anyway, we always saw them through rory. we didn't get screentime of their characters unless it had to do with rory.

riley is, honestly, a little different, but a lot of who riley is is him being into buffy, even when we see him at the initiative doing his army stuff. he never got to be a character because we are introduced to him through buffy. same with angel. same with dean, same with logan.

but jess and spike. my sad angry boys. they are NOT introduced through rory and buffy. they have completely separate lives because of this. jess is not simply rory's boyfriend, spike is not simply buffy's... guy.

jess was definitely always intended to be rorys love interest, but even then, the first time we see jess he's getting off a bus to live with luke (and he was literally written to separate luke and lorelai, not just as a new guy for rory). his access to the world of stars hollow is filtered through living with luke and being luke's nephew. he is written as luke's troubled nephew first and then he falls for rory. that second connection makes it more natural than forcing him into the show by having him meet rory first. we get the opportunity to see jess as a character before rory, and he gets a better chance at being his own character.

spike was never intended to be buffys love interest which is on its own, why he is such a great natural love interest, but even though like jess the episòde he is introduced in is the same when he meets and interacts with buffy, the first time we see him is when he crashes into the town sign. spike came to sunnydale for dru, and then he gets caught up in trying to kill buffy. we are able to see him as some guy for years before he will become buffy's vampire boyfriend, but angel is kind of always buffy's vampire boyfriend, from the moment he steps on screen.

my point. here it is: the beauty of jess and spike compared to the other guys is that when you create complex nuanced characters who aren't introduced to the show through the main character they... are more interesting?? because we get to see them be people and grow??? also having these guys??? develop morality and become better people on their own??? because of how badly they fucked up in their relationship??? compared to the other love interests who??? sort of implode and never really grow??? because they were never introduced as actual characters and their existence on the show was dependent on how they were with the main character?

anyways my final assessment is jess is a bit of angel and a lot of spike, dean is riley (and angel because stalking before meeting her), logan is is like parker or some shit idk someone tell me who logan could be. maybe spike too intellectually? it doesnt totally work because rory and buffy are two different characters lol

i guess the same could be said about luke and lorelai, though ive always been a jason stiles fan (dont shoot me) for a similar reason to the whole spike/jess thing he is introduced through lorelai's father so i always appreciated how he had a reason to be there. max medina is lorelai's riley finn. that's all i know

gimme ur gilmore girls x btvs connections kittens

[galactic-rhea]

ok but can i say how much i love your profile banner. like, besides being hillarious it also feels like, idk, an acknowledgement that anidala/vaderdala/etc is by no means perfect. it isn't. there's definitely some unhealthy behaviors (tho i'm no psychologist), but it's not irredeemable or intensly toxic. with some work (and a universe that doesnt hate them, seriously) they could be like, THE couple. I mean they kinda already are to me... couple goals. minus the infanticide.

Snskdja i think you need to see the full comic

(My partner drew it for me!)

They're pretty much mutually obssesed and codependent, their whole deal is that they bonded over trauma. These were two kids forced to grow fast and carry responsabilities beyond comprehension, in extreme danger and away from home and family, in circumstances where they weren't allowed to grow any kind of normal way of coping, and very lonely; so there isn't anything normal about them and honestly they don't need to be because they fit perfectly what the narrative needs of them, which is Space Romeo and Juliet with magic and laser guns and swords thrown around.

Their whole love story started because they both are deeply scarred and damaged individuals who were dehumanized in different ways but found solace in each other and their similar personalities, and because of their circumstances, they developed that extreme obssesion that became a brand for them and they hadn't much of a room to actually work a more normal relationship

Usually discussions about wether a ship is toxic or not (which is kinda a buzzword at this point, not pointing at you, anon! But i mean the general public, some ppl heard it once and never dropped it) are kinda reductive because it more often than not ends in a very White and black approach to the text and a very 'eh' conclusion, especially in cheesy and camp movies like SW because of course they aren't normal nor they cope on the correct ways, there wouldn't be story or much of a interesting aspect going on! Their devotion is insane and fantastical and closer to a greek myth or a Shakespeare tragedy than many of the other aspects in SW (like the politics) and they do have a positive impact on the other, and that's what's fun about it; there's no much point of comparison in real world because it simply can't be compared 1:1, but they're fun to analyze regardless because of how much of a compelling characters they are! And yet they can be very simple, narratively their concept isn't hard to grasp but you can dig so much about them with what little we have (particularly Padme has very little screentime compared to other characters, but there's still a lot to infer about her).

What's also fun about Anidala is that because SW is actually about love conquers all and all of that cheesy stuff, is also at the center of the whole story and through Luke it gets proven correct, Anidala as a relationship haunts the narrative and there's some gothic kinda vibes to it that I love. Both Anakin and Padme as characters come with SO MUCH to unpack, and so many flaws, and I have joked before that they lowkey match like puzzle pieces in such a way that they're mostly able to water down their issues, but that if they were to date someone who's more normal? It would be over, lmao.

(Now, Vaderdala, or at least my Vaderdala does take the insanity to a whole different league, theyre particularly freaky and evil in the empress padme AU lmao)

Alas, sorry for the rambling! I just love them!

[thescreaminghat]

actually would have loved to see more of elita's introspection after the "sentinel took everyone's cogs" reveal in tfone. like we got some good elita moments (e.g. her speech to orion showing that she too is an optimist despite having built a "tough it out" personality in order to survive the mines; the fact that she immediately turned to helping pax/dee/jazz during the cave-in after evacuation orders didn't work, showing that she's also one to instinctively break protocol if it means saving other bots from harm), but it would have been great to see elita's reasoning and emotions at learning about sentinel's betrayal. like yeah, ig d-16's crashout made sense given that he was physically attacked by darkwing and arguably had a stronger emotional attachment to the status quo/the "heroism" of sentinel prime, but elita is also the one who was insulted/belittled by darkwing for not having a cog and for breaking protocol, and the one who got dumped to waste management despite being so close to her goal (and she probably would have stayed there if she hadn't been on the train with orion and the crew). cave-ins don't seem unusual in the mines (everyone seems familiar with the emergency protocol), and elita as the team lead is probably the one who had to bear the responsibility of reporting dead or missing miners. after finding out that sentinel is the one who created this situation, elita should be seething just like dee: how dare the likes of sentinel prevent her from reaching her full potential as both a leader and citizen? how dare sentinel place the burden of carrying the very lives of other bots in the hands of those who have been rigged to fail? how dare sentinel set her up to chase after false hopes to improve her life and believe that it was ever a "good thing" for her to have wanted to try and "rat out" orion and dee when they first got on the train? who is to say that mechs with existing cogs, like darkwing, won't keep bullying those with newly-given cogs after sentinel is exposed? and elita didn't seem to have anything against dee before they went to the surface--if anything, dee seems to be the more reliable one compared to orion, so it would make sense if elita initially sympathised more with dee's reaction to events.

but she ultimately doesn't side with dee, even though she has a lot more invested in the system than orion. and i think tfone should have shown us more of elita's specific thoughts and reasons for why this didn't happen, to establish her as a major player in the ensuing conflict. the only other series that im familiar with outside of tfone that has elita is g1, so in my mind she's one of the "big three" in that she's established as a leader capable enough of keeping together the only major autobot resistance group against the decepticons after op leaves cybertron. if tfone's story was extended to the civil war, then the foundation for elita's later development should also be well-established.

right now it feels like she was largely relegated in the movie to "punch and get promotion" and while that's cool, i think she should have had more screentime than bee (im sorry but imo elita and bee have become kinda conjoined both in their function within the movie and in fanworks---i get the writers were pressed for time and chose to focus on the orion-dee relationship, which makes complete sense, but elita and bee were just kind of left to stand next to each other and give audience reactions when something happened shocking in the orion-dee dynamic. and elita has become b-127's mom in fan stuff ig. which again is fine and great and i love it, but what about her preexisting relationships with orion and dee? like orion was confident enough to trust elita to have his back when the cave-in happened even though elita tried to keep a hierarchy of sorts between them, dee seems to respect elita's leadership when they're on the surface and doesn't immediately shoot at her when she fights him at the end, elita even seems envious (at least to me) at orion and dee's entry into the iacon 5000---we should have had more of the push and pull among the trio's dynamic, with elita being a sort of "wild card," in that she had valid emotional grievances that would push her to side with dee, but an equally strong set of beliefs that would lead her to side with orion).

anyways more elita character development pls she's such a good character

[reboundttv]

Another one of these posts? Yeah sure why not.

So I know that there's a sort of, tongue in cheek joke about how the AU that Ekko ends up in, is WAY better because Vi is dead. That's a big one that people love to harp on: "oh Vi is dead in this universe and everything is okay HMMMMMMM how INTERESTING perhaps VI was the jinx after all HMMMMMM"

and like. no. shut up.

Because there are (no less than) TWO specific canon divergences that we are aware of in S2E7 that contribute to the way the cities are in that universe. The first is, obviously, that Violet dies in the heist in S1E1.

As an aside, I 100% agree with/believe the wiki entry that says that Vi and Caitlyn are soulmates in every universe, which means that Caitlyn probably also died in the Hextech explosion.

So Vi (and Caitlyn) dies and Hextech doesn't get developed. Neither Jayce nor Viktor are shown in this universe, so one or both of them are dead (Jayce likely via suicide if he wasn't imprisoned or exiled, and Viktor because he doesn't ascend to be Super Jesus with the Hexcore).

But there is another, less obvious one that gets a fair bit of screentime but isn't really like, touched on. And that is:

ZAUNDADS.

Silco and Vander are cool with each other. That's really important. It means that either:

They didn't fight because Silco found the note from Vander (S2E6), OR

They DID fight, but stopped themselves before they did something they regretted.

See, because in the main universe, neither of those things happen. Silco nearly gets drowned and gets bunch of sump water all up in his face, so he becomes dependent on Shimmer to keep the bacteria in his eye from killing him. He would assumedly lean on Singed to iterate on the formula, which is why he becomes the kingpin and rules over the Chembarons. The production of Shimmer, and its propagation through the streets of Zaun, contributes to things being arguably EVEN WORSE for the Zaunites.

But in the AU universe, he doesn't need Shimmer. I would argue that Singed is probably still on some fuckshit, but isn't helping anyone make Shimmer or chemtanks. This means that a lot of the industrial waste and runoff that's a byproduct of Shimmer production is also not there. Zaun isn't just better off because there's no Hextech, but also because there's no Shimmer.

Now, I'm gonna point a third thing out and I'mma use big ass letters so you can't miss it:

PILTOVER STILL DOES NOT SEE ZAUN AS EQUALS.

The heist still happens in this universe, which means that Vi and the other kids are still adopted by Vander. Which means that bridge riots or something similar still happened. There is still inequity and injustice in this universe; it's just not as dire as it is in the main one. They're still talking about Piltover like "yo fuck those guys" but it's less "they're hunting us for sport and killing us in the streets" and more "we're gonna show 'em up in this STEM contest that we're doing."

They're basically farther along in the "things will get better" timeframe than the main one is after S2E9.

[thenationofzaun]

Thoughts on Act 1 of Arcane Season 2

The positives:

- The animation is fucking incredible.

- Jinx and Sevika teaming up watered my crops and cleansed my skin.

- Underwater goodbye with Jinx and Silco. That scene was made specifically for me.

- Jinx's voice actress continues to be excellent.

- Loved the designs of all the Chembarons. The glimpse we got of the gang wars was also interesting. Unfortunately, too tiny a glimpse. Which brings me to...

The negatives:

- Too many plotlines. They stuffed the season with too much shit which is why each individual plot gets a much shorter screentime than it should. Smeech is introduced and killed in the same episode. Chembarons' gang wars, a huge issue which has repercussions on the entire Undercity, gets only one musical montage before moving on. And this is coming from someone who loved that montage, as well as the song. My favourite on the soundtrack so far. But musical montages shouldn't come at the expense of the story and definitely shouldn't replace the story. There are just way too many music video scenes in general that feel like a way to condense a storyline into the sparknotes version because they don't have the screentime to flesh it out. And they would have the screentime if they cut out all the extra stuffing. Look I'm happy for the League fans who are excited for the Black Rose and all that, but what the hell is it doing in a Piltover/Zaun show. And with zero foreshadowing in Season 1 too. It would definitely be easier to swallow if they had at least hinted at it in the first season. They could have kept Ambessa's beef with this magic cult for a Noxus show. The P/Z narrative has enough to deal with, enough characters to handle already.

- The new side characters are uninteresting and generic. Maddie and the two other enforcers (we don't even know their names after three episodes LMAO) are bland. We know nothing about their characters or personalities. Maddie looks like a rookie, and one of the dudes is an alcoholic, yet they get chosen for an elite strikeforce to capture Jinx? Isha is pretty generic too - the token cute kid that needs protecting. I get the role she will play in Jinx's arc. But that's the problem - she should be a character in her own right, not just a vehicle for someone else's character development. A good example is Mylo. He died for Jinx's arc, but when he was alive he was a distinct character with his own personality. We had a sense of his insecurities, his goals, who he was as a person. Name a single personality trait of Isha and Maddie other than "generically nice person". That's right. You can't.

- Whatever the hell is going on with Viktor. He wakes up from his coma and immediately rejects Jayce so quickly that it was funny. Apparently disapproves of Jayce using the Hexcore to save his life, but then immediately goes to use the Hexcore to save random Undercity people. Bruh. I also don't really like the way the fridged woman from last season seems to be his motivation so far. Nor the way he seems to have no agency in his Machine Herald arc. Instead of Viktor himself believing in transhumanism and mechanizing himself, Jayce does it for him. Instead of Viktor having an ideological drive and wanting a "Glorious Evolution", he is driven by guilt over Sky. Meh. Also he's not even mechanized, instead he's weirdly fleshy?? In a magical way?? More like The Magic Herald :(

- Vi. Her whole character is a mess. Insanely rushed arc which I find unacceptable for one of THE main characters and one of the faces of the show. She and Jinx are supposed to be the leads, their relationship the heart of the story, but so far only Jinx is a well-written fleshed out chaacter with a believable arc. I have too much to say about Vi so I'll expand more on this on another post.

- So much nuance and detail is missing. How does Heimerdinger feel about his ex-colleagues being killed? Does he care? Does he feel guilt? Relieved that he wasn't in the chamber when the bombing happened? No clue! Let's have comedy Mission Impossible instead! How does Ekko feel about the Council attack? Does he approve of it? Think Jinx went too far? How does he feel that she even survived their fight to begin with? No clue! Here, have him joking around with a Councilor for a bit (someone whom Ekko logically should despise), then he can talk Science with Jayce and all three get sent to another dimension together. Yay. What does Vi think happened to Ekko? The last time she saw him, he was fighting Jinx to the death to give Vi and Cait time to escape. He could be dead for all she knows and she doesn't give a fuck. Doesn't even think about him nor mention him once. It's like the writers forgot they're childhood friends. What does the entirety of Zaun make of Silco's death? I assume they heard about it from Piltover (who heard about it from Caitlyn), but how do they think it happened? His body is gone and to Zaun it seems he just mysteriously disappeared. Are there conspiracy theories? Conflicting accounts and rumours? So much nuance that would give the world and characters more depth, sacrificed so we can pack in more rushed subplots and music videos.

- Caitlyn "Wifebeater" Kiramman. And Caitvi in general. So far Caitlyn has guilt-tripped Vi, manipulated her into joining the enforcers, insulted her and then physically abused her. After Vi sacrificed everything for Cait, wore a badge she hates for Cait, even let Cait kill her own fucking sister (and only intervened when the random kid got involved). Why should I give a shit about such a one-sided relationship lmao. "B-but Cait's mom is dead so she's sad about it", every other fucking character in this show has dead parents. Half the cast has faced unfathomable amounts of trauma and pain that make Cait's pale in comparison. Nothing justifies her hitting Vi. "B-b-but it's a parallel to when Vi hit Powder", a shit parallel then. Because the circumstances are not even remotely comparable. "God forbid lesbians do anything🤪", give me a break with this corny bullshit. Be serious for a second. I'm not even a Vi fan and I think she deserves better than this mess of a relationship. The power dynamic between them makes it worse. The way Caitlyn is one of the richest people in the city and Vi is broke. The way Caitlyn is highly educated and Vi never went to school and spent her entire teen years locked in a box. Did the writers think about all this when writing their relationship? Keep in mind, Vi met Caitlyn like a week ago. She barely knows this chick. She's been out of prison FOR A WEEK. Where she was physically abused every fucking day. Putting her in a relationship with a cop who hits her would certainly be a choice! Do I have faith this show will handle it with care? Not really, no. They already ignore Vi's prison trauma. Most likely they will make Vi forgive Cait way too easily because "muh mummy muh grief".

[salpho]

TO CONTINUE

Something I noticed is a lot of people who hated BATIM love BATDR and a lot of people fond of BATIM dislike BATDR. To me, this seems like a mechanics vs story issue. The actual game mechanics and aesthetic of BATDR disguise the lackluster characters and plot holes. However, BATIM still suffers those same issues.

This is a vague question, but what are your thoughts on BATIM vs BATDR story wise? Is either of them truly better? Or are they just flawed in different ways?

Sorry, this is long, but so are BATIM and BATDR :')

I think you hit the nail on the head in the sense that yes- BATDR has better gameplay and mechanics than BATIM, but BATIM by far has a much more compelling story that was able to capture and keep attention over the course of five chapter releases. And yes, BATIM is not without its flaws, for example it's mainly a walking simulator in terms of actual gameplay- the only thing saving it being the unique ability to suck the player in through the rich, stylistic environments.

In terms of story, here's my take for both of them-

BATIM is more solid overall, there are more connected plot points and there's a thread there to be followed from start to finish. It does suffer from some WTF plothole moments, the biggest one being Alice's 180 degree turn with suddenly using Boris as a killing machine rather than...what I can only assume was a plan to use his ink/body as some kind of reparative agent for the hole in her face (like thicc ink premium idk), or...some kind of spell...? It's honestly not very clear HOW she was going to use him, but bottom line she decided to entirely change her plan off-screen, which could have been remedied with something like a cutscene's worth of explanation, and more of a buildup to Brute Boris. The "reveal" in the haunted house didn't hold that much weight (at least to me,) just because we didn't even get a cookie crumb of a hint that Alice was going to mutilate him and use him as a drone instead of just axe him.

There are other nonsense details like Allison's ominous "I'm no Angel" line, which didn't make sense when Tom was the one to want to leave Henry. It was never explained WHY the Ink Demon walks around with a limp when he can shapeshift into a bigger and faster Beast version of himself (and apparently he was ALSO the hand in the ink river??? I guess???) And can we talk about how the cult Joey started was just never brought up again? Wally talks about how workers were encouraged (or mandated, idk) to put offerings in the break room to "appease the gods." What gods? Was Joey worshiping Bendy like a god? NONE OF THIS IS EXPLAINED EVER and honestly I think Micheal D. and Meatstick just Forgot that Joey was a cult leader in favor of Sammy's cult storyline.

But despite all of the plot holes, we still get a tale of a deteriorating studio, humans being used as literal skeletons for lifelike versions of cartoon characters, themes of life, death, cults, art, and more. Honestly, going deep into the plot of Bendy would take its own post to really do it justice.

I guess the main plot is this: Ex-co-founder of Joey Drew Studios, Henry, is trying to get the fuck home to his wife, learning along the way that through the power of a mysterious ink machine, his ex-business partner decided to coerce and persuade people to Literally Die so he could have the necessary materials to create living versions of his cartoons, thus making "his" characters (and more importantly, Bendy,) a reality. Once Henry does escape, he learns that Joey has sent him through this same hell before, still filled with hatred and spite, just in time for Joey to assumedly "reset" him and send him on a different version of the same journey, as we can guess from the storyboards on display in Joey's apartment. THAT on its own is an intriguing and layered tale, and that's not even including the other details, voices, and faces we run into in BATIM, AND the new info we learn in BATDR.

Now, BATDR...is something I've come to view as a mixed bag.

Story-wise, it weirdly wants to have its cake and eat it to. Henry's story is elaborated on, and part of Audrey's origins are also brought to light. This is helpful information concerning the plot of BATIM...but then we get assblasted with a ton of new characters and lore for a completely new Cycle under the reign of a completely new Random Old Man. I know he's Nathan's son, and he was mentioned in both Illusion and Fade to Black...but those were de-canonized, so it almost doesn't help context-wise...???? So...????

In a lot of ways, BATDR almost acts like it wants to be an AU branching from BATIM rather than a direct sequel, which it was marketed/confirmed as.

I think my biggest problem with BATDR is that some of the main characters are bafflingly like. Mishandled.

I'm gonna have the mildest take on earth and say I didn't like the new Ink Demon. Old design was better and more uncanny by far, the new design looks like Generic Satan or something straight out of Baldur's Gate. He was given a deep, guttural growling voice because....tumblr sexyman I guess. Even if they needed him to talk, it could've been something more breathy and raspy, true to the heavy breathing of the original Ink Demon. Also, his alternate form was made very childlike, and I'm just weirded out by the fact that you have this oddly "sexified" version of the Ink Demon on the flipside of Bendy the Child. I don't think any ill intent was meant by this, but it's more confusing than anything thematically. I'm also not sure why Bendy's abuse was brought up and then never touched on....? Like wasn't this guy locked up and called a monster his whole life? Are we going to...say something especially considering the moral of this story......?

Memory Joey is completely fine, but I just can't shake the feeling that the narrative is trying to paint IRL Joey as "UWU fixed now" when that's not the case. The most sympathy I can extend to IRL Joey is that he was a gay man who desired to have a family at a time when that was not only frowned upon but dangerous, not just socially speaking but in terms of his physical safety. But beyond that, this was a dude who locked people in a building to keep them working, coerced and possibly forced the deaths of many people to get what he wanted (the ink machine was a scientific advancement that could've had AMAZING implications for society but he Did Not Give a Shit about that), and was abusive towards Henry. If we trust the Bendy books, he also gaslit and killed his teenage staff. This motherfucker isn't a patron saint of anything, and even if Memory Joey can learn from IRL Joey's mistakes, IRL Joey was still a shitbag who just happened to raise a daughter.

Which leads me to Audrey. Some of Audrey's tale is explained- she was raised by Joey, forgot Joey was her father, and came to work at Archgate as an animator. Got to know Wilson, who works as a janitor at Archgate, and then he drags her into ink hell because....idk, she's his version of "A Perfect Boris" I guess. Fair enough. However, it's NEVER EXPLAINED how Audrey doesn't remember her father, or WHERE she went to live after his passing, or WHO she lived with. Remember, Joey was as old as a cave painting, so he clearly passed when she was very young. While you could argue she doesn't remember his name because she was little, SURELY she remembers his face or voice, or the fact that she HAD A FATHER??? Like, was there some huge trauma there? (Other than the fact that Joey was her dad?) It makes little sense to me that she would forget so easily. If I had to make a guess (and granted I'm no Mark Twain), I'd wager that Allison probably found Joey dead. Remember that Nathan hadn't talked to Joey in years, and Allison was the one who went out of her way in the first place to visit. At this point, Allison's gonna find a little girl running around by herself, and assumedly her and Thomas would've taken her in. If that's not the case, someone else found Joey dead, at which point Audrey would've possibly lived with Nathan and Tessa, considering how much Nathan cared about Joey. Either party has ties to Archgate. But all of that is just speculation, not confirmed, and even if any of that were true, Audrey makes no mention of it. And I'm sorry, Audrey's backstory makes me want to cry, because it's just NOT THERE and she has the personality of a depressed bucket.

Alice was alright...but she was kind of stupid? Which is like....the antithesis of everything cool about her? Instead of using traps and luring the main character from a distance, she knocks out Audrey (via unspecified drink), plays Diet Jigsaw with Audrey, and then gets pushed off a balcony. She was also a lot more...idk, suave and sultry in speech mannerisms in BATDR, which isn't bad, but her unhinged and clever nature seemed a bit watered down.

I don't really have notes on the rest of the main cast. Sammy was brought back to die immediately, which honestly was fine considering his death track record. We get some mentions of BATIM characters. Wilson and Betty were fine, and even some of the lore explaining how the timelines work made sense.

HOWEVER,

I've already said it a hundred times, but the old cast was shoved to the side for a bunch of new characters we had no time to connect with. A new butcher gang member was added when we still have Miss Twisted as a potential female-role filler (keep in mind the Projectionist is based on Camera Man and Brute Boris was based on The Brute.) The whole "Amok" thing was a REALLY roundabout way to get the Lost Ones to stop attacking Audrey.

Wilson's motivations are mostly consistent and I'd argue somewhat compelling, but I don't understand why he didn't do more to protect Audrey if he was going to need her for the endgame for Shipahoy Dudley? Like what's all this about letting her run around and get killed? Was he just aware that she'd revive?

The main message of BATDR was fine, but it didn't work super well for Audrey's character. She'd already forgotten Joey was her father, and was living in blissful ignorance of that fact until Memory Joey decided to infodump on her right away. Sure, the "just because you were born of darkness doesn't mean you have to be darkness" thing applies to her AFTER she learns Joey was her father, but...Audrey was never threatening to Become Evil, so it almost didn't need to be said and was kind of a flat message...? I would argue Memory Joey would benefit more from that message- as he's a literal copy of a Very Bad Dude. My guy was projecting this whole time.

I do think BATDR was worse story-wise, but I'm not going to sit here and pretend it didn't have certain disadvantages from the start. The Kindlybeast debacle happened, BADTR was trying to continue a story from an existing property, and there was a severe lack of Adrienne Kress. Okay, maybe the last one was a bit much, but still. That doesn't mean I hate BATDR overall, I can appreciate a lot of things about it, but strictly in the story department, it needs soooooo much work and makes me want to jump off a Minecraft cliff.

[tessarionbestgirl]

I'm absolutely sick of every ship in HOTD being about Rhaenyra.......... Even Alicole is paralleled with Rhaenyra/Criston, IT'S SO TIRESOME. The creators emphasize that Alicent lives in the same room, she drinks tea in ep4 of the season just like young Rhaenyra in the first season, hell, she even probably thinks about Rhaenyra while she has sex with Criston, why not... Rhaenicent, Daemyra, Rhaesaria, Rhaewin. We get it, Rhaenyra is the center of the show, but it gives off a Mary Sue vibe when everyone is in love with her, even her enemies switch teams for her, because she is sooo wonderful and special. Is this an adaptation of a YA novel or a GRRM work? It's especially annoying when there are other interesting characters and relationships that could have been explored, but won't be because the writers can't move past Rhaenyra and her romantic and sex life:

- Jace's potential romances have been cut, Sara Snow is not in the show and his relationship with Baela is more of a friendship, they don't look in love. Also Baela's interest in boys was removed.

- Daemon/Nettles. Cut from the show because Rhaenyra needs to be the center of Daemon's universe. GRRM is particularly mad at this one, I'm sure.

- Helaena and Aegon. Not saying it's a romance, but they could've still had scenes together.

- Aemond and Alys. It's unclear, but Alys is team black or team prophecy in the show, so she is also Rhaenyra centered.

I really don't understand this even from a marketing perspective. Everyone should just be a fan of Rhaenyra, there are no other option. GOT had so many characters, ships and dynamics that you could pick anyone to follow. And the whole thing for HOTD is "stan the rightful queen or go away". I used to like Rhaenyra after the first season before I read the book, but after reading the book, I started to dislike and borderline hate her because of how the showrunners push her as the lead and center of every character's life, it's just frustrating. Rhaenyra already has 4 hours of screentime in just 18 episodes which is equal to or even more than Dany's entire screen time, by the end of the show she'll probably have 8 hours of screen time, it's insufferable. This story that is meant to be an ensemble cast was turned into a one person show.

Olivia tried to distance alicole from Rhaenicent, but in the inside interview of the episode Ryan was so much implying that.

So you are right anon. In everything you said. And this goes beyond relationship too. It affects even small scenes. Like, I saw and heard so many complains about tb council scenes in S2, because the writers start from the premise that Rhaenyra has to come out as right or look good. She needs to stand out on her team. And this probably a condition that Ryan or Sara set for the writers. So all characters around her suffer from it.

That is why all tb characters are less and have no particular motivation. With Daemon as a exception, because he never stay in one place for to long and that includes interacting with Rhaenyra.

Is not that Tg had way better written in S2. It was just that they are not interacting with her so they suffer less from this problem. So the writers have more freedom to develop them as individuals even with the small screen time.

Now regarding the relationships. I think S2 was the biggest disappointment for me in this sense too. That is why people asking me about Alysmond, i know they will fuck up, because all their relationships are either focused on Rhaenyra or is read in a incredible cynical way .

Baela and Jace have more siblings energy than Helaena and her brothers.

Alicent and Cole, had some good moments but started to bad. Besides the weird parallels to reminds us of Rhaenyra. Alicent as character wouldn't just have sex with someone so casually. Sure there is a lot passion on the act, and sure they do have feelings for each other, but the way the things led to this moment makes no sense when you consider Alicent in s1.

Helaena and Aegon/Aemond: I had this conversation with someone a long time ago. And this person ask me, who do you think won more in S2, Helaegon or Helaemond? And to me both lost in ways. Because Helaegon has the most complex dinamic but is not romantic at all. They are strictly platonic. And Helaemond is framed as one side love based on Aemond ideology of Targaryen supremacy. And I enjoy all their scenes but when I think about it. I realise how poorly explored they are.

Actually that is my biggest fears for S3 when comes to Alysmond because I think they will frame as a rebound relationship.

The only relationships frames as good are Rhaenyra relationships.

And oddly enough the only one out of the curve is Alys and Daemon but it because at end served Rhaenyra.

[kittenface40]

I.M.P is irrelevant to Helluva Boss

When Helluva Boss Pilot came out,I was really excited, to know more about these characters, their personalities, their relationships to each other and how they would develop. Additionally, I was also wondering on why each of these characters joined I.M.P and why did Blitz start his own business.

However, as the series went on, the show went on to become the Stolitz show along with dedicating episodes to fan-favourite characters that have nothing to do with I.M.P (Ozzie, Fizz and Stolas).

This is one of the (many) reasons why I'm disappointed with the current state of Helluva Boss, I.M.P's irrelevance to the main story, while I do enjoy the new episodes. There are a lot of story issues that I have with it, the fact that IMP is basically irrelevant to the Helluva Boss.

NO IMPACT ON THE OVER ARCHING STORY:

So far we only had five out of fifteen episodes (excluding the times where it's offscreen), of IMP doing it's job is the main plot of the episode, while five episode may seem fine for some it becomes a problem when their actions are basically inconsequential to the main story.

The only times where they are important is for one-off adventures like in Murder Family, Spring Broken, CHERUBS & Unhappy Campers. The problem is that their existence doesn't impact Stolas' story in anyway (aside from Blitz), like why are we focusing so much screentime on Stolas (a secondary character) who isn't even employed at IMP. And instead focus on Blitz, the titular character, protagonist and him being the boss of IMP. Understanding his goals and reasoning as to why he wanted to start IMP.

HELLUVA BOSS? WHAT BOSS:

Another problem I have with IMP, is the fact that we don't know why Blitz wanted to start a business on killing people, was it because of his tragic past and to distance himself from it, is it that he discovered he's really skilled at killing people and decided to make it big , is it because he wants love and new connections from his employees, is it to prove the higher class or his father that he can make it big and break class traditions. What is it? We only now why he wants love and respect from his employees due to his tragic past. But we don't know why he started his business.

Also we never get to see him develop into a caring boss that genuinely cares about his employees, with the show only showing the ending of the development in the same episode but none of the development.

In addition, we also never get the chance to see him as a leader of IMP, you think Blitz would be the leader and he needs to grow into being one for his employees. But the show never has Blitz develop into becoming a Helluva Boss.

NON EXISTENT SURFACE-LEVEL RELATIONSHIPS:

Another thing I really hate is that the relationships between employees at IMP, are never explored beyond the surface level. The only one I can say this doesn't apply to is Moxxie and Blitz.

We don't get to see the M&Ms relationship grow outside of loving each other, and when they do explore it, it's written poorly (Unhappy Campers).

We don't get to see Millie and Luna, relationship grow, they don't even talk to each other that much in the show. What is Blitz & Millie relationship, why do they get along with each other, why is she fine with Blitz behaviour. Luna and Moxxie relationship, why is Luna so mean to him, how does Moxxie feel about Luna bullying him, has she ever went too far, would Millie get angry at Luna for bullying.

(Side tangent; but why is Millie not standing up for her husband when Blitz and Luna bully Moxxie, they do it right in front of her. Wouldn't she get angry at them, edit: I checked and she did get angry at Luna for calling Moxxie fat, but not at Blitz for joking about this. But she needs to say something, put her foot down, not just make an angry expression)

EMPLOYEES LACK OF REASONING:

We don't know what the employees motivation was to join IMP. Why did Moxxie and Millie join IMP, was it to prove their parents wrong, to make it big, or is it for similar reasonings to Blitzo.

Why did Luna join IMP? Was it out of gratitude for Blitz saving her, was it because she couldn't get a job as a hell hound, was it to be with her father more.

-----

Anyway, that's my thought for a day, on Helluva Boss, let me know what you think about IMP. Do you agree? Disagree? Why? Let me know!

[pndrgn]

okay, i am not as upset as thought i was going to be. my week already sucks so me being positive and negative is a good thing (me: speaking to myself)

let’s get into it!

-the editing of the movie and pacing was a bit ? the cgi. well.

-i still suspect netflix meddling

example: https://www.tumblr.com/queen-of-badomens/788086012763095040/is-there-any-truth-to-this-when-it-comes-to

-& as i suspected, the writers have different interpretations of this movie series AND too many ideas at once (looking at you greg rucka) remember when charlize (if i am remembering correctly had issues with tog’s initial screenplay), yeah, we needed intervention here.

-i am pleasantly surprised by quynh’s story and andy/quynh so i will consider this a win for me even if i am not completely happy

-quynh’s rage and grief and trauma and love. most of all, love. thank you movie for giving her some of the time to explore that but also fandom, please understand her actions and trauma just as you would with ur favorites.

-andromachequynh: i love. my immortal wives. we sort of did it????.gif we got more than I thought we would and while technically ambiguous but also not??? but is. but also not. it SHOULD have been explicit, and there’s no excuse for that. throwing in a line about them being in love would have been so easy albeit the bare minimum. also give them more screentime. yes, i am very conflicted.

also: https://www.tumblr.com/gabagools/788111528697249792/i-think-whats-most-baffling-to-me-about-tog-2-is

-why the hell didn’t quynh get to react to Andy being mortal? why the hell didn’t Andy get to react more to Quynh being mortal? (WHY IS SHE MORTAL). what the hell. why is / was the run time so short.

-i enjoyed joe/nicky even if i wished they had more screentime. their characterizations are mostly very true and accurate. forever love them being best friends as well as lovers. not sure why people are shocked by them being playful with each other????? also where is nicky speaking arabic? 🥲 come on guys. come on.

-loved the family moments but we needed more especially joenicky to quynh & nile to quynh & them as a group. like why are we missing that. that’s crucial???? ex of my post: https://www.tumblr.com/pndrgn/788016498465783808/another-thing-is-no-reaction-from-joe-or-nicky-to

-the flashback montage is A+

-not enough space for breathing room or condensed thought like how the first movie had (think of the earnest emotional development and impact which didn’t feel the same in the sequel ) so cutting it down to an hour and 44 minutes length wise was a terrible choice and the movie suffers from that. as well as the script. a show would be obviously better. or at least a three hour movie. would the choices if still made suck? yes. but i think some would be less mad if everything felt more paced and interactive as the first movie.

- i love love nile always but why did they sideline her. and how like half of the characters in the movie kept using her :( or the fact she doesn’t exactly know about her power exactly AND doesn’t get to react. this explains it the best imo: https://www.tumblr.com/normal-thoughts-official/787974523249131520/i-get-that-many-people-are-disappointed-because-of

again: i am not sure about the immortality taking away part nor why didn’t anyone tell nile that. the birthmark thing is very random. really good post: https://www.tumblr.com/normal-thoughts-official/787979289806176256/its-actually-sickening-how-much-nile-has-been

as well as: https://www.tumblr.com/gabagools/788019793916837888/still-cant-believe-that-they-basically-turned

and i wish there was more for her within the movie. plus, more screentime. i always want more screentime for nile. also https://www.tumblr.com/hauntedfalcon/787986853389320192/if-we-are-going-to-give-nile-this-then-we-should

-terrible lore dump and retcons x 100 and no, none of it makes SENSE

like the dreaming stuff? nile randomly seeing discord shoehorned in but not the rest of the team? andy not telling the team about tuah for centuries. why didn’t they dream of him? or discord? but tuah dreamed of them? immortal myths???? what do you mean there is an immortal librarian. transforming immortality like hot potato! but hey sometimes you can just lose it! (re: lykon) but now, nile has this power she never asked for or has truly even reacted too?? nile stabbed andy and andy healed afterwards in the first movie - she didn’t lose it until later which makes no sense in the second movie with this sudden relevation.

what do you mean TUAH rescued andy. they said joe and nicky did. what the hell. also ignoring that!

-‘first and last immortal.’ ok.

it’s like they want you to suspend disbelief in order to have their ideas done in the movie which is Frustrating!!!!!

-copley being a part of the team is fun and i really hope he’ll be okay. tuah sort of took on his role which was ?

- i still don’t care about discord or even tuah like yeah they are there but i just don’t care. 🤷

why did they know about quynh being in the ocean. why did they leave her that. what the hell is that. also it should have been joe and nicky finding andy. why did they retcon That!

-i am not really a booker fan but this being his arc is ridiculous (he’s severely suicidal and depressed and it sets a terrible precedent to kill off a mentally ill character like that. he shouldn’t get what he wants! he needed to make amends and learn to live (coughs at the end of tog1 with andy’s line about being better) AND it should be the old guard six as a team) and it makes me wonder if that is why matthias has been so quiet about everything (regarding the choices made with his character)

AND since the movie is doing what it wants, they could easily retcon his death too. and should. and yes, i am ignoring his death. you should too. (note: it wouldn’t undo their shitty writing choice since he shouldn’t have died anyways.)

-andy being immortal again (i can roll with that, even though it goes against the first movie. if the writers are going to do what they want then i will take this crumb happily) (BUT i do understand people not liking this. i get it.)

-quynh being mortal makes no sense and they need to fix or retcon in a third sequel that may or may not happen. i will be ignoring it anyways even if there is no third movie. you should too. i remember people being shocked that we got a second movie considering how Netflix has handled this whole series so it really is 50/50 when it comes to a potential third one. yes, we know how Netflix is, but they also make unexpected choices so i don’t think a third one is unlikely but also is? it could go either way.

-joenicky possibly losing their immortality if there is a third movie would make me very unhappy so let’s not do that in the last movie either. temporarily, fine, whatever. but permanently? not on my watch!

-i don’t think they will let nile become mortal after becoming immortal AND learning she has this power but not letting her react. (no reaction? seriously?) she deserves so much better.

-they walked back Andy being mortal so they probably could remove it again in a hypothetical third but that just seems questionable??? but this movie kept doing things i didn’t think it would. suspected they would do, but also hoped they wouldn’t.

-i repeat they need to fix quynh. she doesn’t deserve that </3 and making andromaquynh live without each other would be tragic and i don’t want that or care for that

-don’t care about the action part AND i think it’s cool when the tog family fight together

-more new immortals who cares omfg just focus on the original six + copley as well. there is so much backstory there and heart? like what do you mean we might have to share more screentime with MORE PEOPLE and that we already have???

-overall reactions seem to vary. general audience (ex: rotten tomatoes) are super disappointed) and fans either love it or hate it.

-it’s so incredibly ridiculous to have a second movie feel so unfinished to set up a third movie - there must have been a way to write this movie satisfactory and convey a set up for a third one (which isn’t guaranteed)!

-is it the greatest sequel? no. did the writing suck a lot? yes. were several bad choices made? yes. did the movie have its good moments and highlights? yes. did the movie have andromaquynh (should have been explicit btw) and joenicky? yes. did i love nile? yes. everything else, well. it’s not the worst sequel and it’s not the greatest sequel. it’s for sure a movie though.

-the movie could have been so much better.

-i wouldn’t be mad at a third movie, probably. i want to say they couldn’t make it worse..but it kept doing things i didn’t want it do so lol. ex: i would be mad if any of the characters die or are mortal in said third movie after all of this back and forth permanently. yes, they should walk back booker’s death. yes, they should get new writers. i hope the trilogy will end on a hopeful note if we ever got that. but there’s always fanfiction (even though the rest of the series should be satisfying as well!)

[cloudyskiiees]

what are your thoughts on eva?

YEAA EVA ty for asking about her i love her sm <3

first things first, she is so incredibly underused within the tdi universe. ridiculously underused.

i think she has one of the most wasted potential of the entire gen one cast, if not THE most wasted. the writers did her so very dirty just over and over again.

the only good thing they did was forming team escope, which is mainly what i’ll focus on here!

eva herself though, is a very fun character who deserved more screentime to have some kind of arc or even play a villain. i think villain eva was robbed from us guys.

her aggressive nature and clear anger problems are what she’s always boiled down to in the fandom, but the season one finale ep is what gives us the most real insight to what she’s actually like. because she’s with friends!

it’s my personal opinion that team escope was formed simply because the writers couldn’t find anyone else for those three to be teamed with during the hunt for the million. eva and noah were voted off so early and are very off putting socially, and izzy was deemed absolutely mental by the majority (if not all) of the cast by that point. the three misfits had no where else to turn besides each other!

and how amazingly wonderful it was.

i think the biggest thing for eva is truly how authentic someone is. my reasoning lies within how different izzy and noah are, practically polar opposites, and yet eva seems to consider both of them friends.

noah calling her out on her bs with justin, calling her “iron women,” very very naturally? eva responding with “i’m so ashamed!” BRO THEYRE SO BESTIES

noah and izzy are so incredibly themselves at practically every moment. noah will never be able to shut his damn mouth and loves to be the little bitch he is, and izzy is always ready to pull some kind of prank or jump into some kind of acrobatic trick. they refuse to back down for anyone, and that’s the kind of strength eva appreciates more than anything else. people will who be themselves proudly!

also, eva is fairly loyal with her friends! she doesn’t ever really noah behind in that episode, even calling out to him to hurry up when he falls behind. this is a difference with her and izzy, in which the redhead isn’t afraid to take off for her own interests. (although i still feel that she does deeply care and is loyal in other ways!)

but yeah overall, eva is a very underused character with a lot of potential for plot and character development. i really wish we got to see more sides of her than just the angry one, which is the most prominent, but definitely not the only thing that makes eva who she is!

i hope this was a relatively satisfying answer lol thank you again for the ask!!!!

[kestrel-of-herran]

I get what you’re saying in response to the markgemma anon, but I can’t help but wonder if the reason these people exist in spades isn’t because other people are stupid/lack media literacy, but because of a flaw in the show’s writing. My question here is this: if Markhelly is endgame, and Helly is the main character alongside Mark, why didn’t Helly/Helena get more screentime or arc(s) of her/their own? You are clearly a very thoughtful Severance fan and good at understanding the characters, so this question is a sincere one that I feel like most Markhelly diehards avoid responding to or addressing. And I’m not asking this from a perspective of shipping anything else, to be clear. My issue is that Helly/Helena’s whole arc in S2 was about Mark, and Helena got almost no screentime beyond when she was pretending to be Helly. The writers claim that Mark and Helly are the main characters, but Helly isn’t being given the interiority Mark is. Gemma isn’t either, obviously, but I think it’s overly generous to the writers to say that Helly is a main character just because they claim she is. She certainly hasn’t been given the interiority OR screentime that a true co-lead would have. Kim Wexler she is not, even though I wish she was :/

I ask this because I felt underwhelmed with Helly’s presence in S2, and as sweet and romantic as Markhelly’s S2 arc was, I am really going to need more of her in S3. And I worry that this desire isn’t shared among other Helly/Helana fans who, because of their love for Markhelly, are already content with her role in the story, and have no concerns about whether she was given the requisite screentime or individual attention she deserves and that she NEEDS in order to truly be a co-lead.

first off, i'm sorry you felt underwhelmed by hellyna's story this season, this totally wasn't the case for me. i'll try to break down your questions because there's a lot to address.

if Markhelly is endgame, and Helly is the main character alongside Mark, why didn’t Helly/Helena get more screentime or arc(s) of her/their own?

starting from season one, helly has an overwhelming presence in the story. we can split the season in two arcs based off her and mark, because they move simultaneously, which is also the point. first half: helly tries to escape the severed floor while mark fights the idea of rebellion. second half: helly channels her desire for escape into devising a plan while mark gets radicalized by the you you are and his growing admiration for her. she's the one who leads the mdr team once they're all ready to defy lumon. it's her inability to withstand life on the severed floor that infects everyone into revolting, though they are helped along the way by catalysts of their own (i.e., irving losing burt).

throughout this time, mark scout drinks himself senseless, stalls engaging with petey's warnings about lumon, and fucks up his romance with alexa. mark s is the one heavy-lifting the character development here.

My issue is that Helly/Helena’s whole arc in S2 was about Mark, and Helena got almost no screentime beyond when she was pretending to be Helly.

in season two, we get helena, because we haven't had helena up to now, and we need to begin to develop her. the keyword here is begin: she was withheld as a character in s1 for a reason, her backstory is withheld in s2 for a reason (and so, hopefully, is gemma's, as we need to know more about her too). hellyna's arc here is twofold, as is mark's. hellyna has an emotional arc regarding her feelings towards mark, and a plot arc regarding her feelings towards herself as both of her learn more about each other and she begins to emulate behaviors from her other personality (helena acting as helly in zufu, helly channeling helena in her face-off with milchick). at the start of the season, her selves seem diametrically opposed, but by the end helly is able to say she is helena, based both on her responses to helena's trauma and most characters failing to differentiate between helena and helly. that's not an arc that's exclusively tied to mark, although he's an instrumental part of it, same as how helly's rebellion made him wake up to his own personhood in season one. again, their arcs are entwined purposefully. there are a lot of things to notice about helena as well, particularly the way her trauma with her father manifests in her strained relationship with irving. a lot about helena is subtle and needs to be read into rather than simply seen, especially how little control over her life she has, how terrified she is most of the time, and that her grasp for connection with mark is part of her arc towards achieving autonomy, because love in this show as a whole is a tool for self-determination (irving with burt, dylan with gretchen, everyone becomes more their own person once they have a romantic goal to pursue).

now let's take a look at mark's two arcs in season two: an emotional arc where he's caught between hellyna's fight for autonomy, and a plot arc that is a growing fight between his and mark scout's conflicting interests. mark s again undergoes significantly more development, from someone who thinks of himself as an extension to his outie to someone willing to fight for his own autonomy through making his own decisions (exemplified by choosing to stay with helly regardless of who she is on the outside, because their arcs always reinforce and propel each other), than mark scout, who spent the entire season trying to establish contact with mark s, and the moment he did, fumbled the ball so quickly mark s left that conversation threatening scout will never see his wife again. mark s was the one who took a beating and almost died while mark scout mostly yelled at a nurse. talk about narrative uselessness. this guy needs so much character development, compared to helena he hasn't moved a single step from the start of the season, while she went from "innies aren't people" to falling for an innie.

She certainly hasn’t been given the interiority OR screentime that a true co-lead would have.

i couldn't disagree more with this. hellyna never feels like she gets less screentime than mark, or less interiority than mark. i'm just so baffled with how she doesn't seem like a main lead to you given the amount of pov-focus she's had as both of her iterations this season. the marks hardly get more depth than she does. her arc is also way more complex than mark's, because she has the legacy of her cult family to reckon with, and he has, like, that he thought his wife was dead. not terribly complex or dystopian stuff to deal with. if anyone's arc revolves solely around a romance, it's mark scout's preoccupation with his grief and guilt over gemma. he's in dire need of other goals next season now that we've established she's alive.

one thing we can agree on is that we need more hellyna in season three. let's shake on that!

[fraeuleintaka]

Now a villain ranking would be the only one missing... :3

I have a few other rankings planned but a villain ranking is a great idea! I hadn't thought of doing one because I can't properly rank those from the later seasons and with just three sets of main villains ranking them isn't as interesting. BUT then I thought about it again and including the secondary villains actually gives a decent number to rank. So without further ado:

Ranking the Winx Club Villains (from S1-3)

1. Darkar

Darkar is the best villain in the series to me because he's truly scary and powerful for the entirety of his screentime. The shadow monsters he creates and controls are amazing and provide a great variety of foes for the Winx and Co to fight. He's not only strong but also cunning and has several surprisingly clever plans that earn him some of the most decided wins. So many plots involving him are executed wonderfully (shadow Avalon, Dark Bloom, his betrayal of the Trix) and his backstory/origin - combined with this amazing design - adds some really interesting stuff to the lore of the Magic Dimension. We rarely see Darkar directly fight with any of the Winx but I don't think this hurts him much because he's still involved in everything main plot related that's going on (reacting, giving orders, etc.). Apart from that we have a truly epic final battle against him which easily makes up for any lack of previous fights and includes all of the Winx, the specialists, the headmasters, the Trix and a number of side and background characters! It takes a joined effort from all of our major characters to defeat him and only him and I think that says it all!

2. The Trix

The Trix are the main staple villains of Winx Club, the very first ones introduced and the ones with the most amount of screentime and battles against the Winx. I love how they develop from school bullies/mean rivals to waging war against all of the schools over the course of S1 and that finale, the entire final fight against them, is absolutely legendary. They're definitely at their peak in S1 while only playing the secondary villains to a major villain in S2 and S3 but I still love (most) of their involvement in those seasons. They have a great dynamic with Darkar, still pose a major threat against the Winx and the twist of them joining the fight against Darkar with their own convergence after he betrays them is epic. They lose some of this epicness in S3 as Valtor manipulates them for the majority of it and despite leaving him in the end of their own accord they don't really do anything afterwards to make up for it making them feel somewhat weaker than before. Still, I love their dynamic with each other, their powers and the challenge they give the Winx. They're not overused to the point of annoying yet and still (mostly) formidable foes that I enjoy seeing the Winx go up against. Ranking the Trix individually my favourite of them has to be Stormy because I love how unapologetically aggressive and chaotic she is. Her sisters are more cunning than her, she's all about the direct and brutal approach and even has a certain naivety without being portrayed as dumb which is really interesting to have in a villain. The decision between Darcy and Icy is more difficult because I find them both "only" moderately interesting personality-wise. Darcy gets a slight edge because her abusive relationship with Riven and her conflict with Musa are really interesting while Icy doesn't really have any kind of subplot that doesn't involve Bloom. She's still a great villain though and a very fitting leader for the Trix. In general, my favourite thing about these three is their sibling bond and how despite their cruelty and occasional fights they genuinely care about each other and always have each other's backs when it really counts.

3. Cassandra & Chimera

I'm combining these two as they mostly act as one unit and share the same goals (like the Trix). Two power-hungry nobles from the royal court of Solaria make for amazing villains and I love how they're a mother-daughter-duo who care about each other and are equally crual and power-hungry. On top of that, they're specifically villains for Stella which is a breath of fresh air compared to every other villain focusing on Bloom instead. (I wish the other Winx had their own villains like this tbh.) Chimera is a wonderfully dark version of Stella and a great contrast to her. The way Cassandra whipsers horrible things into Radius' ear and makes him reject his own daughter is wonderfully chilling as is how she just leaves him behind to save herself. The entire Solaria arc is one of my favourite parts of S3 and Cassandra and Chimera contribute a lot to that. Seeing Stella defeat them in the end, Chimera with her own dark copy of her staff and Cassandra when she finally gets through to her father and breaks the spell, is absolutely epic! If there's one thing I'd criticize about them, it's that we should've seen a little more of Cassandra before Valtor makes his offer as Radius meant to marry her even before the spell but we can't glean much of a reason why he would do that. (Was it a political move? Did he misguidedly want to give Stella a new mother? Did he genuinely think he loved her?) Speaking of, Luna should also have played a role in that entire Solaria arc, it's weird to have her completely missing from it, though that's not an issue with Cassandra or Chimera specifically.

4. Valtor

Valtor is a great villain. He has a fascinating backstory, an interesting connection to our main character that justifies him targeting her, a talent for manipulation that he uses very successfully and throughout the season he's portrayed as scary, powerful and tough to defeat. He only has one major issue that brings him down in comparison to the villains above: The way he ends up being defeated is really disappointing. Suddenly he's not scary or powerful at all, just kinda weak and pathetic. That's certainly an option for writing a villain arc but the way it's done with Valtor just doesn't work properly. There are too many different plots and ideas thrown together and none of them are really followed through to a satisfying conclusion. He could easily have been just as great as the Trix in S1 or Darkar in S2 but the finale ruins quite a bit of what the rest of the season build up with him. He's still great but he can't quite match the other (main) villains of S1-3.

5. Diaspro

I quite like Diaspro's character but she's easily the lowest in this ranking because I don't think she should've been a villain in the first place. When we first meet her she's condescending, rude and arrogant but the entire conflict with her is completely Sky's and Bloom's fault, she did nothing wrong. Yet the story acts like she doesn't deserve any sympathy just because she's not a particularly nice person. She's not really a villain in S1 and S2 (and the rescue mission for her in S2 is a nice moment) but then S3 turns her into a full-blown villain by having her drug Sky with a love potion to force him to marry her. How she's suddenly fine with resorting to these drastic measures is not explained. She's supposed to be Sky's childhood friend but she doesn't seem to care about him at all and it makes no sense how Sky would've ever liked her given her personality. You could definitely write a character like her developing like this but that development has to actually be shown.

[descendant-of-truth]

On principle I don't really like the idea of Sonic being sent after Shadow at the request of G.U.N for two reasons:

It robs us of the god-tier cold open of the original game where Sonic busts out of a helicopter to escape arrest

I always loved the setup where Sonic and Shadow meeting was pretty incidental - neither of them had any idea who the other was, but Sonic thought Shadow was impersonating him on purpose while Shadow just thought he seemed fun to mess with

But depending on what the surrounding context is, I can see how the movie could make this plot point interesting in a completely different way that still complements these versions of the characters, even if I don't prefer it to the original.

So, some ideas:

G.U.N has been the villain of the last two movies, so in order for Sonic to be working with them, they must have a pretty good deal for him. My guess is that they promised to leave him and his family alone - no more schemes, no more kidnapping, nothing of the sort - on the one condition that "Team Sonic" helps them deal with Shadow.

This would already function as a narrative parallel to Sonic enlisting Robotnik's help later for the same thing. The name of the game becomes "we don't like each other, we're enemies, but we need to work together to deal with this guy because he's too powerful," which becomes a triple threat if the whole cast including Shadow gets to team up at the very end to save the world

I think it would also be very fun if Sonic is trying so hard to talk things out with Shadow in large part because he heard that there was another hedgehog on the loose, and wants so badly to be friends with someone like him that it takes at least one full-blown beating before he gives up on that idea

(The other reason he keeps trying is "it worked on Knuckles" of course)

Now, this puts Sonic in a fascinating position, particularly when using the game as a frame of reference. SA2 was very straightforward with how it presented its conflict at first: you have a Hero Story and a Dark Story, and as such you're primed to think of everyone on both sides as either being good or bad.

And most people, I think, were inclined to play the Hero Story first; it's the one with Sonic in it, and the select screen hovers over it by default, too. It tells a very simple story of Sonic and friends stopping Eggman's (admittedly very threatening) evil plan, developing some new rivalries along the way.

It's already a little bit of a twist for Sonic and Knuckles to have formed a respectful relationship with Shadow and Rouge by the end, since you see them as villains initially, but they still remain antagonists. Rouge returns the Master Emerald pieces, but she's still working with Robotnik. Shadow thinks Sonic is pretty impressive, but he still tries to kill him to stop him from saving the world.

But then you get to the Dark Story, and then the Final Story, and you think, oh. It's really not that simple.

For starters, you get to see more of Rouge's bond with Shadow. There's some conflict inherent to their relationship because Rouge is a spy and is only here to get information on Shadow, but after he saves her life, there's a definite shift to their dynamic. There's something genuine there, even if it doesn't get a lot of screentime dedicated to it.

But most important to the story is what we learn about who Shadow is, in part through his interactions with Rouge.

Shadow is cunning and ruthless - heck, his goal is to literally blow up the world. But whether out of compassion or survivor's guilt or both, he can't let Rouge die, so he saves her and then lies about his motivations for it to seem colder than he is.

And even though the things he's doing are definitely bad, his motivations are famously sympathetic; he wants revenge for his best friend, a young girl who was killed by the G.U.N military during a raid.

(It was implied that there was some sort of brainwashing done on him by Gerald after Maria died as well but that part of the story is incredibly vague)

By the end of the game, Shadow comes into his own as a hero and helps save the world instead of destroying it. And suddenly it makes sense why the stories weren't called Hero and Villain, because neither Shadow nor Rouge are especially villainous characters; Rouge is selfish, and Shadow is driven by grief and hatred, but they're ultimately kind at the end of the day. Both of them find people to care about - each other, as well as Knuckles and Sonic respectively.

But y'know, there wasn't a lot of ambiguity about who the heroes were in the Hero Story itself. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles are pretty clearly The Good Guys, and nothing they do is really questioned because they're always fighting The Bad Guys.

So what I'm seeing here is an opportunity for Team Sonic to not be totally in the right for once. Yes, it's good to stop Shadow from going on a rampage and destroying the world, but look at who they're keeping for company here. G.U.N? Robotnik and Agent Stone? As if either of those groups are trustworthy enough to not stab them in the backs as soon as it's convenient. As if they're not going to find some way to exploit Sonic for their benefit.

And frankly, Shadow is totally in the right to hate G.U.N, and Team Sonic for working with them. Given that his backstory seems to be largely unchanged, it's kind of impossible not to be on board with him fighting the protagonists at least a little bit.

Besides, I don't think it's a coincidence that Shadow is doing the wrong thing for the right reason, while Sonic is doing the right thing with the wrong people (and maybe also for the wrong reason). That has the potential to be very clever if executed well.

I can only imagine the dawning horror on Sonic's face as he realizes just how much he's not on the right side of this conflict; when he learns about what happened to Maria and everyone else on the Ark. Especially if Tom's family was involved in it, like the current popular theory going around.

Also, last-second realization: what if there's something more to that line from Tom, "it wasn't always easy, but you didn't change who you are in here"? Most likely it's going to be used as a way to show how Shadow is different from Sonic, because he did change who he was in response to trauma and it'll be really poetic when he "finds himself" again

But also, consider: maybe Sonic does end up changing throughout the movie. Maybe he does something that goes against his core principles in order to get an advantage in some way, and they kind of play around with the idea that Sonic is similar to Shadow in ways that aren't always flattering to either of them. I want those hedgehogs to make each other worse before they get better

In any case, there's a lot of potential here, and I'm very curious to see what they ended up going with

[jerreeeeeee]

actually its kind of crazy how little we actually see the starblaster crew interact with each other. like other than tres horny boys and each of the pairs in that trio, and like, arguably lucretia and thb, barry and lup, and lup and taako, most of the relationships between the crew are only a few lines, if anything? like obviously in-universe they're all really close and griffin says that (time enough to grow indescribably close), but there's a lot we don't see. like, taako & barry, for example, have a handful of moments, lines we can point to that show they are really close (you're my family, taako, can i speak frankly?), but as far as actual screentime, there's really very little.

and even those i mentioned before, like, lup has more screentime with barry and taako than with anyone else, there's the whole little legato monologue about her and barry's relationship and she has (comparatively) a lot of scenes with taako, but also, as a character, she's only around for maybe a sixth of the show, so there's just not a lot of time to work with?

and that's not to mention the relationships we can figure were probably present in-universe, but literally never see, like lup & davenport. and on that note, i actually can't think of any other pairs who don't interact at least once, but still, very rarely. like now i'm considering davenport & barry. who we hardly see but there is the fact that barry cast command on him to drink the ichor. it's one line in the show and the implications are never really mentioned but there's a lot of significance to be wrung out of this one tiny interaction. barry condemns lucretia's methods of stealing agency from their family in the service of the greater good, but when he thinks it's best for davenport, does the same on a smaller scale? barry doesn't have the time to try to convince him to drink, he needs davenport back to himself now, because davenport is someone dependable, a leader, someone who barry knows will be capable and decisive and relieve him of the responsibility he's been shouldering by himself? that barry knows davenport won't begrudge his use of the spell, because he'll see it as pragmatic, necessary, assistance, and forgive him for it? none of that is necessarily supported in canon but it can be extrapolated from, again, kind of a throwaway line.

the non-thb crew have presence and are important to the narrative, but most of that comes from thematic significance rather than them as individuals, you know? we hardly see lup and barry and davenport (maybe arguably lucretia too, though we see more of her than them), but we see the echoes of their decisions and their goals and their love for the rest of their family and the way they shape the story.

but actually, even that's not entirely accurate, because as significant as they are in that way, their presence isn't only due to that, they're full characters too. they have personalities and depth and connection, they're not only plot devices. like, maybe griffin needed to explain why lup was missing, and that's why she became a lich, and her needing to be a lich is why she and barry had their romance, but also, if that were all there was to it, the legato monologue wouldn't exist, the best day ever wouldn't exist. those are scenes designed to build lup as a character through her connections to other characters and to the central themes of balance, not to fix plot holes. it's just that all of that character building takes place in a pretty small fraction of the show compared to tres horny boys, who have the entire thing. idk its interesting and impressive how some of the deepest characters and most profound relationships were developed in a very short amount of time

[curtsies-from-princess-ashlyn]

I cannot for the life of me understand why the writers are still dragging the Claire storyline out. If we, the audience, are supposed to feel as anguished as Carmy is over losing her, I think the writers really failed. I really didn't see that their connection was so deep that Carmy would be this distressed over their breakup - even if it was due to something insensitive he may have said. Having multiple characters continue to push him to rectify his relationship with Claire feels so forced, as well. If their relationship was something that I truly believed could be lasting, then I could probably connect to that emotional tension, but I had thought the entire purpose of his S2 storyline was that a step towards Claire was a step away from fulfilling his responsibilities to Sydney and their restaurant. His relationship with Claire was in direct conflict with his relationship with Syd, and he continually let her down until he finally realized he was letting himself be pulled in two different directions. His making amends with Claire should've been finished in the first few episodes - she's not a main character (she's not even a character who's developed outside of Carmy's POV), and I'm pretty sure she had more screentime than Marcus. These writers cannot write a manic pixie dream girl and expect audiences to actually believe in the strength of her relationship with the lead so much that they root for them. (I also still don't understand how Claire is supposed to have all this free time when she's a hospital resident)

If the goal was to sow this division between Sydney and Carmy, which will force them both to seriously examine their relationship next season, I get it and that can be fine. That's also sort of what happened in S2 already, but they can still further develop that idea in a meaningful way. I'm gonna be honest, I'm here for the writers to pair up Sydney and Luca for a time as a plot device ship. They have excellent chemistry, and I would love to see Sydney exploring a new relationship until Carmy figures his stuff out. It can be reinforce the strength and importance of Sydcarmy's relationship to each other.

Just to warn you all, though, Sydcarmy could either be headed the Rina route (Ricky and Gina from HSMTMTS) with a planned slowburn executed beautifully, or this could end up being a Bellarke situation (Bellamy and Clarke from The 100) where the writers have a vendetta against the romantic pairing, despite obvious romantic undertones. Whichever one happens is anyone's guess, at this point

[regrettorisotto]

Can you do Brett and Corey? 👉👈 (they're my babies and you already did Theo and Liam)

Oh for sure for sure let me get into it ��‍↕️

Let's start with Brett:

Sexuality Headcanon: bi ! Wiiith a preference for guys?

Gender Headcanon: cis man, potentially in a i might be sth else but I've got a game to win so i cant focus on that rn type of way lmao. either way totally comfortable in who he is, has rocked a skirt and will do so again.

A ship I have with said character: i really enjoy Brett x Liam before Thiam happens. I also really enjoy Brett x Liam x Theo all together. I ALSO really like Brett x Nolan or Brett x Nolan x Alec 🙂‍↕️

A BROTP I have with said character: THEO AND BRETT ARE THE PERFECT BEST FRIENDS i scream into the void as they try to drag me back to hell. No fr the fics with them being asshole best friends are everything to me.

A NOTP I have with said character: hmm dont know, if done right i could see him with a lot of the characters tbh. (Except the weird ones ofc. Like keep Peter out of any ships ever please)

A random headcanon: i think he genuinely didnt like Liam back when they went to the same school. But after Liam gets bitten, after the shit he goes through, after Liam grows up, Brett is absolutely baffled by the person Liam has become. He finds himself weirdly fascinated and impressed, by Liams maturity and his strength and his character. He never thought the annoying kid he knew would ever turn into this and its throwing him off. He definitely spends a few days if not weeks after that realization in a very weird huh state whenever he thinks about it.

Liam also once accidentally makes a flirty comment towards Brett and Brett totally malfunctions because i didnt know he could do that

General Opinion over said character: love him!! I think hes so fun and i wish hed had more screentime. Hes also one of my favs, best side character for sure. I also have his hoodie, the one with his jersey number and Talbot written on the back

And Corey !!

Sexuality Headcanon: gayyyy very gay.

Though hes regularly blown away by a woman's beauty, in an aesthetic way anyways. (Him and Mason both, theyre very aestheticly appreciative people 🙂‍↕️)

Gender Headcanon: im realizing I've been exposed to a distinct lack of gender hcs in this fandom. Hm... trans man Corey fits very well imo.

A ship I have with said character: well Mason and Corey are just a given, i dont think either of them have a lot of potential other contestants.

Though ive gotta say, just by sending me this ask and putting their names together, you've given me many thoughts about Brett x Corey. I think Corey is totally Bretts type. And if anyone could fluster Brett it might actually be Corey. And we all know Corey and Mason both drool over Brett regularly..... i need a fic where Mason and Corey try to get Brett to join their relationship and i need it NOW. And then Brett thinks theyre just joking cause hes hot but theyre actually dead serious.... mmm yes.. yes

A BROTP I have with said character: i really enjoy him and Theo as friends. Its soo interesting. Itd take so much time and work and bitter feelings thatll never fully pass but they have such potential to be genuinely good friends. To acknowledge each other fully and develop a mutual respect... ugh yeah

A NOTP I have with said character: uhhh any female character...? Hes canonically gay so. As for guys i dont think i like Corey and Theo as anything other than platonic. Also Scott and Corey just doesnt fit. Scott is their literal dad 🤷‍♂️

A random headcanon: i know its not like this in the show, since both Scott and Liam are able to find Corey when hes invisible, but i think he should really be able to disappear completely. I think when he turns invisible, his scent and his heartbeat should be totally indetectable to any supernatural too. Even supernaturals shouldn't be able to detect him!!

He also should use his ability way more and for anything, just in day to day life, just cause its fun. Through that he also learns tricks like only disappearing his head but not his body, scaring the absolute crap out of Liam the first time he does it. He also sometimes accidentally turns invisible when he's sleeping, and the whole McCall pack has spent at least one whole afternoon frantically searching for him all over when he was just curled up in the armchair in the corner of the room taking a good old nap.

General Opinion over said character: when I first watched the show i found him pretty plain and boring, mostly because I don't think they utilized him and his abilities enough. I have since read some great fics and reconstructed my own image of him and he's a great character!! So much potential to be such a fun character. He's such a little shit, and he's also really brave and a great friend. I like it when fic authors make him hold a grudge against Theo for longer too for example. It gives him a depth that I really like. He's not just this happy go lucky guy, especially not after the stuff he went through.