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spaceorphan18 · 4 years ago

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Kurt Hummel Solos Ranked

Ever since I finished the Kurt Hummel Meta Series - Finding Kurt Hummel - I’ve been wanting to talk about the music a bit. Well, here we go. I have four different categories -- Solos, Duets, Small Groups Numbers, and Large Group Numbers, and I’m starting off with Solos.

Kurt didn’t have a ton of solos on the show, but that made them special when we did get one. Kurt’s solos are usually integral to his story line, and usually hold a great deal of emotion one way or an other. And while not all of them are 100% tied to his own plot - I think they all show bits and pieces of his character.

As a note - there are a few songs on here that may not initially be counted as a solo, but I’m doing so anyway -- either there’s a studio version with just his voice, or the tiny bit of someone else singing I’m kind of ignoring. For this discussion, I’m counting them as solos.

There are two songs, however, that I should mention first -- two short solos that didn’t have a studio release --

1. Pink Houses (Laryngitis, 1x18)

I still find this number quite hilarious. Kurt’s attempt at emulating his dad, and therefore singing John Mellencamp, to seem more ‘masculine’ is not only a great comedic spot, but shows us really what the opposite of who Kurt is. While, clearly, not a great song for Kurt -- we do at least get to hear Chris’s low register for once, and get a rare moment when we get to see Chris be actually comedic during a musical number -- something that didn’t happen all that often because Kurt’s musical numbers were usually serious in nature and involves a lot of crying. It’s not a great performance - but it’s a damn entertaining one.

2. Music of the Night (Choke, 3x18)

Another non-studio release for what is an extended comedic moment. Kurt’s right - his rendition of this is pretty bland, and you can tell he’s not putting forth his best effort. There’s clearly no emotional connection to the song that is a hallmark of his songs, especially his solos. That said - the scene itself is pretty entertainingly comedic -- from his ridiculous choreography, to Tina’s bored version of Christine, to the massive amount of candles on stage. The scene is a lot of fun - even if it’s not meant to be a serious performance.

So, with those out of the way....

Kurt Hummel’s Solos Ranked:

I should preface this with, these are, obviously, my own objective opinion. While I am taking into account performances and effectiveness of the song, at the end of the day, these are my own opinions, and everyone will have their own version of the list.

17. I’ll Remember (Goodbye, 3x22)

I don’t think that there are any bad Kurt solos. There are ones that I don’t think work all that well, and this is one of them. First off is the fact that I’m not a big fan of the song, originally done by Madonna. While the song does fit the moment lyrically, and I do buy Kurt singing it, the song itself isn’t that great. The performance is fine. Despite all the tears and wistful looks, it’s a bit standard of a performance that doesn’t lend itself to being all that memorable. Also, there’s the fact that this song is dedicated to all the men in the room. Ug, Glee your plot points suck sometimes.

16. Don’t Cry For Me, Argentina (Special Education, 2x09)

This is the first of a few songs on the list that are technically sung by two people, but this has a Kurt-only studio version, so it’s here as a solo. Kurt does relatively well vocally with this song. But it’s clear that it’s not his song at all. This is a Rachel song, which is made clearer as they sing it side by side as a comparison. While Kurt sings it technically and proficiently fine, he doesn’t embody the song the way Rachel does in the scene. (And that’s fine - the point is that it doesn’t fit him correctly.) Kurt is a little stiff and uncomfortable with this song, with a sense of emotion that doesn’t quite connect. And while fine for the scene that they’re doing - it lands this one low on my list.

15. I’m Still Here (Bash, 5x15)

This is Kurt’s last solo of the series, and, unfortunately, the only representative of season 5 (and 6), which is why it really pains me to put it so low on the list, but, also unfortunately, there are a lot of issues with it. First of all, at this point in the series, while old Diva Broadway numbers were his bread and butter - he had been growing past them, and while the song choice works for the story (mostly), the selection feels a little tired. Vocally, he’s proficient enough, though it lacks some of the grittiness and understanding of, say, an actual old school Broadway Diva. (I can see Rachel Berry singing this when she’s 80 a la Elaine Stritch.) The choreography is a little weird at times - but they did let Chris do the choreography of this one nearly by himself, and it shows a little.

One weird nitpick I have about this number is actually a production thing -- it’s clear that in the close ups Chris is doing better acting and giving more of an effort than he’s doing in the wide shots. It’s a weird thing to notice but between that and the tepid performance in general, it brings this one way down on the list for me.

14. Some People (Funeral, 2x21)

This one is a huge step above the others on the list, as the rest of this list is really a bunch of fantastic performances. Chris really brings it in this one (and fun fact, he helped do the choreography on this one), as Kurt’s energy is high and all of his moves here are quintessential Kurt classics. It’s like all of standard Kurt Hummel in one song, especially since it’s a classic old diva Broadway standard. While I don’t have any complaints about the performance, the reason it’s so low is for two reasons. The first one is the context -- it’s for an audition for a solo and not directly connected to any meaningful Kurt storyline. And secondly - it’s just not a favorite song of mine. But, Kurt at least gets to have a peppy and physically entertaining solo, which doesn’t happen very often, so it is worth a watch.

13. You Are The Sunshine of My Life

Honestly, the only reason this as low as it is, is because I’m not a huge fan of this song. There’s actually a lot of great things going on here. For one, this is a really sweet performance for Kurt as he sings a sentimental song for his dad. The choreography is silly, but it’s intentionally childlike as little Kurt came up with this with his dad. Kurt sounds really good when he’s in his lower register (I actually love his lower register - which isn’t complimented enough). And one thing I really like from second half of the series Kurt is that he’s less choreographed Broadway style and more reflective of the quirky weirdo that he is. And this performance is exactly that.

12. A House is Not a Home (Home, 1x16)

This is an interesting one, because there are a lot of great things going on here that bring it up the list, but a few things that very much drag it down. First of all -- it’s the first showcase in the show of something I don’t see Chris get much credit for (outside the fandom bubble). The fact that he’s able to act while sing. It’s a difficult thing that Chris does masterfully here -- it’s not easy to make a solo next to a piano visually enticing but he really sells it. Anyway - the way Kurt’s emotion bleeds through the song is perfect, it’s not too overt or too subdued. And we really feel everything Kurt is feeling in this moment. It feels real, in a way that isn’t apparent in a lot of the other characters when they sing songs (coughrachelcough). This song is a fantastic reflection of Kurt’s emotional stance, and fits into the story wonderfully.

Bringing it down... first of all, technically, Finn sings a verse of this. And while I don’t consider this at all a duet (duets, I feel, are sung together), it’s still there, and still a glaring ear-sore. (Sorry Cory.) It sticks out like a sore thumb that Finn’s voice is not suited for this material, and while I see what they were doing with the story, it’s cringey when it gets there. The other thing about this song is that it’s kind of uncomfortable to watch. Kurt sells all of his emotion, but it’s focus point is an unrequited love, and the discomfort on Finn’s face, as well as a few others, makes it not an easy watch. Still -- overall, this is a great number and a fantastic performance.

11. I’m The Greatest Star (I Am Unicorn, 3x02)

This is kind of an interesting one to talk about because there are a lot of conflicting things going on. It’s one helluva performance, it’s a terrible interpretation of the song, and it’s not a great choice of audition song for West Side Story (all of which was the point), but that doesn’t mean I don’t agree with Coach Beiste, that Kurt made the song his prison bitch. If nothing else -- this really showcases just how talented Kurt is -- not only can he act while he’s singing, he has other talents as well, such as climbing scaffolding and using sai swords. The comedic/tragic element of this song, for me, is the fact that Kurt’s trying to show off everything he’s able to do in one song -- and in effect, while being an incredible spectacle, kind of backfires for him. (If he had done this one for his NYADA audition - I would have bought Carmen Tibideaux’s remarks.) I think this is often an underrated Kurt solo due to the high level of proficiency that’s needed to pull this off -- but it’s also not the best Kurt has to offer.

10. Bring Him Home (Diva, 4x13)

This is another one of those Kurt/Rachel comparison numbers that I count as a solo because there’s Kurt-only studio version and because it’s not really sung together but side by side. What I really love about this number is that subtle delicacy that Kurt brings to the number. It’s sung with a restrained emotion that’s perfect for the number that is a pleasure to listen to when compared to the over-emoting mess that Rachel is doing next to it. The other fascinating thing I’m learning, as I do this list, is that there’s a sense of maturity about Kurt’s voice that I’m finding in the later seasons - which is really neat to listen for. My only real reason it’s as low on the list as it is - is because there’s the song holds no real weight for Kurt’s story. I kind of wish the Midnight Madness song had not been the popular number of the year thanks to Les Mis, but something more meaningful to their friendship - but ah well, for Kurt, it’s still masterfully done.

9. Le Jazz Hot (Duets, 2x04)

This is a fun number that really showcases Kurt’s talents and ability. I really love the moment at the end when he sings his entire range. Like I’m The Greatest Star and Some People, it’s a showoff number, but I think more so than those other two, Kurt really brings it extra in this one as the choreography and costume additions are incredibly inspired. It’s not his greatest vocal solo, or the most meaningful, which is why it’s a little lower on the list, but it’s quite entertaining to see Kurt push in so much on himself, especially when forced to do so by the story, and thus makes it a memorable solo.

8. I Want to Hold Your Hand (Grilled Cheesus, 2x03)

I believe with this one we’re getting into the iconic Kurt-solo territory. The show already knew that Chris was a great pretty crier, and that was used to great affect in this entire episode. The one really great thing that Kurt (and Chris in his acting) does is not over emote. He sings songs with great emotion, but it’s usually controlled and right under the surface, making it incredible compelling. (By contrast - Rachel is always over-emoting, and always giving the same kind of over emoting that feels bland the more you see it.) The fascinating thing is that Kurt draws you into his world and his pain with song, and while he’s not doing much but standing there, he is letting you get a glimpse of what is behind the guarded shield he uses so much. This is why Kurt solos are special, because they’re rare, and a rare glimpse of what’s going on in a character who blocks himself off so much from the outside world -- especially in the early years. While I just happen to like the other solos on the list more, I believe this is one of the best performances on the show.

7. Defying Gravity (Wheels, 1x09)

So. This is the last of the side-by-side comparisons that I have on the solo list. And I want to start by saying that vocally, even minus the intentionally botched note, it’s not very good. Honestly - go listen to the season 5 version, and you hear how much better a vocalist Chris became, and it’s really a treat to hear him grow into his voice. And I do think Rachel won this competition. However... there is something magical about this performance. First of all, the song is deeply resonant for Kurt (and for Chris) and that comes through clearly in the song. He embodies the emotion of the song in a way that Rachel (and I’ll argue Lea) doesn’t. The lyrics are meaningful, and are acted out superbly. And on top of that is a layer where Kurt is debating with himself as to whether or not he’s going to throw the song. The vocals might not be there, but the acting is, and the emotion is, and on that alone brings this song so high on the list. This is a character defining song if there ever was one.

6. Blackbird (Original Song, 2x16)

Do yourself a favor - go on Netflix and watch this one, the youtube version cuts off Kurt’s head, which really is a disservice to the song and the performance, but it’s the only link I could find.

First of all, I’m biased, because I really love this song. Kurt sings it beautifully, too, which helps. But really -- I think it’s an incredible story element on multiple levels. Kurt’s singing a eulogy for a dead bird, which is bizarre when written out. But this moment is perfect. It’s a moment where Kurt’s restrained emotion is channeled beautifully through song, and we see, again, an element of Kurt himself, who has been caged throughout the whole Dalton arc. So, it’s not only about the death of Pavarotti, but about the death of Kurt trying to be something he’s not - and the freedom that comes with allowing yourself to be you.

On top of that, it’s a pivotal moment in the Klaine story, where Blaine finally gets to see the raw emotion of who Kurt is, and realizes he’s in love with him. The fact that this song is so multilayered on top of a great and beautiful performance is really what makes it one of my favorites.

5. I Have Nothing (Dance With Somebody, 3x17)

This might be the most controversial choice on this list, but I’ll stand by it because it is one of my favorites. Yes, Kurt is straining to get to some of those high notes, vocally it’s a bit raw and forced. But my god, it’s one of the most stunning displays of emotion that he ever gets to do. Not only is this song about him, and the type of person he is, it’s also about love, and how Kurt expresses love.

Like so many of his best performances, there are a lot of layers going on here. Not only does it have the emotional intensity that A House is Not a Home did, but it has a razor sharp, singular focus that the other song lacks. Kurt is expressing himself, the best way that he can, to communicate to Blaine -- and the two of them have an unspoken dialogue during the song, which is really incredible. (The acting chops for both Chris and Darren here are really remarkable.) It is the most romantic performance on the list, and one of my favorite moments on the show.

4. The Boy Next Door (Choke, 3x18)

Believe it or not, this is one time I’d actually recommend the studio recording over the show performance. Despite lacking the Gold Lame Pants of Infamy, the studio version really showcases just how amazing this performance is. But anyway - unlike Carmen Tibideaux, who clearly doesn’t know our Kurt Hummel, there is nothing surface level about this performance. And unlike I’m The Greatest Star - this isn’t Kurt trying to shove everything he can do into one performance, it’s showcasing who he is as a person and a performer. Vocally, it’s fantastic, and I’m glad the later seasons allow Kurt to do more songs settled in lower registers - as that part of his vocal range is really quite beautiful. Visually, this is Kurt emulating a bit of Hugh Jackman while retaining some of his own, unique elements. This performance is truly special because it’s a time when Kurt realizes that it’s okay for him to be himself, and lets that shine through song.

3. Rose’s Turn (Laryngitis, 1x18)

Kurt’s first real big solo in the show, and it’s absolutely stunning. The fascinating thing about this one is, again, just how much is going on here. Kurt slowly gets to unravel, shaking off the expectations that he thinks society is putting on him, and blossoming into who he really is. This song is perfect for him as a character in this moment. While the vocals are a little shaky at times (I’m noticing that a lot about season 1 Kurt) the performance is not. We never really get to see Kurt be angry and gritty through song again, but I’m glad we do have this moment to show how it would go. I love everything this number chooses to be, and everything that it says about Kurt, which is why I feel it’s one of his best numbers.

2. Being Alive (Swan Song, 4x09)

There is something kind of magical about this song. And this is the reason that I find it tragic we don’t get an emotionally powerful song from Kurt after this point. (Though - after this point, we don’t get a long going individual Kurt arc either, so I suppose it makes sense.) But here’s the thing about this song... It is Kurt going inside himself, and reflecting on all the pain and heartache that his life has given him, and all the struggles he’s had in the change from child to adult, and almost unknowingly, as the song continues on, getting lost on that emotion as he reflects. It’s very hard for, I believe, for a musical number such as this to work on TV -- that relies on more action and visuals than other mediums. But as I’ve stated in all of these other entries -- Kurt (and Chris, really) is the master of reflecting all these different, conflicting emotions on his face, and making it visually compelling, even if it’s one person in a room, and nothing else going on. The emotion, the complexity, the story is all there in a performance much more mature than anything that had come before it. This is really one of the most beautiful and richly developed performances on the show, and truly one of the best that Kurt has to offer.

1. As If We Never Said Goodbye (Born This Way, 2x18)

I debated for a while which would take the top spot, and what I kept coming back around to was that while Being Alive is the most technically proficient, and deeply profound of Kurt’s solos... As If We Never Said Goodbye is the epitome Kurt’s character and story all wrapped up in one. It is his most iconic solo, and for a reason. It’s all of the emotion, vulnerability, and deeply layered story telling we get so often from Kurt Solos. It perfectly describes the journey this character has been on and where it’s going, as well as just being a fantastic performative piece. It’s helped by the fact that the show allows the whole five minute song to be sung, where we get to follow Kurt as he moves from one stage of his life to the next, again another song about coming out of his shell to reveal his true identity and what is buried in his heart. This song is why I love the character, and why I love his story. The fact that it’s subtle and refined, but having so many layers if you’re willing to look. It’s beautiful and imperfectly perfect, just like Kurt Hummel.

#finding kh #kurt hummel #kurt solos #glee #there ya go!#i'll be getting to the other categories later on this week

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roccinan · 4 years ago

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1/? simply because you have the most galaxy brain thoughts ever,,, what do you think would've happened if they waited until s5 to reveal sergio and andrés were (half)brothers?

i do know that when my fam started watching lcdp at first i was so put off. like i watched ep 1 and the prof creeped me out. ""berlin"" creeped me out. e v e r y o n e creeped me out. and i was cringing so hard becz of the short lived romance angle with alison parker. i literally did not watch s1 at all xcept for like sneak peeks. highlights being the scene where berlin discovers monica is alive and does his dramatic door by door thing? that was so SUSPENSEFUL even tho i had no idea what was going on. DOMINGO DE RESURECCION remains forever iconic.

2/? And OF COURSE the group bella ciao dance when they hit earth (hahah i thought the banda were actually like a "found family where they all love each other LOL") i am a SUCKER for found family. but anyhoo when i properly got intrigued was s2 when tokyo was kicked out (the music from that scene is still my favourite) it's just so dramatic..!! why am i telling u all this again? right, i haven't slept a wink and it's nearly 7 am pls forgive me if these rambles make no sense. i have a point with this.. i'm going somewhere

RIGHT. so when the fam actually rewound the ep cz i wanted to know WHY berlin did that (didn't fully realise how batsht crazy he can be), the russian roulette scene played. and pedro's acting. MAN. and like just that ep they made a point of showing us these flashbacks where sergio and andrés hug....

Hi anon! Thanks for stopping by- sorry took me a while to get back to you, will do my best to answer this string of messages (got all 4 parts)! Glad you like my thoughts XD

Firstly, I believe Andres/Sergio would be the biggest LCDP ship if the writers were evil enough to wait until s5 to reveal that they’re brothers asdfasdf. They’re already the two most popular male characters anyway.

It’d be especially crazy because it’s not like they tell the actors these things beforehand either. So that means there’d probably be a Serdres vs Berlermo vs Serquel fight every 5 minutes. I mean, even if not everyone agrees on everything in the lcdp fandom, it’s the most “peaceful” one I’ve ever been in because no character really gets in the way of any other ship (like even with helermo and berlermo there’s no true conflict since Andres is dead). But with Serdres in the mix?? CATASTROPHE. Everyone out here writing essays about how much of a bastard/bitch/homewrecker/motherfucker that Andres or Sergio or Martin or Raquel is. Never a moment’s peace!! so basically, a regular fandom lmao.

Then when we find out they��re brothers, it goes from catastrophe to Apocalypse. Suddenly serquel and berlermo have the upper hand. Everyone would double down and harass the crew/cast into whatever’s going on. Plot-wise, everything is the same though, just without Andres calling Sergio “hermanito.” Fandom however, would be a minefield! And I’m glad that’s not the case because I’d probably be an unfortunate serdres shippers XD No joke, my mother and I thought they were a couple in S1. So bullet dodged!

Secondly: haha, everyone creeped me out in S1 too, especially Berlin, I hated him, but thinking back, I think I mostly hated the fact that I didn’t hate him as much as I should have. I’ve made peace with it now but oh boy, was he a controversial figure in my head. I actually like the professor on sight though! IDK why, maybe because I thought his plans were cool or because of Alvaro’s delivery. I was afraid of an Alison Parker romance thing too- like, I do feel like she had a storyline that got dropped, but that part was quite cringey and overall unnecessary to the plot. Same with Ariadna, which was even cringier and even Less necessary to the plot.

Domingo de resurrecion was iconic though yes! And even with all that said, I genuinely enjoyed parts 1 and 2 because it was so different from anything else I’d seen. Not content wise, but maybe tonally? IDK, they were just really bold with a lot of things, like being objectively unafraid of having the protagonists (plural because all of them did LMAO) do objectively shitty things. Really kept me in suspense from beginning to end!

I’m usually a big fan of found families too! The funny thing is, then banda never struck me as a “family” until season 3. In 1 and 2, I was wondering what felt different about this show; then it hit me that these people remained colleagues to the end. Like, they backstabbed each other (repeatedly) and everyone was quite selfish, and only the bonds that were already there stuck. They were the opposite of a found family LOL But I think by S3, they went down the found family route and I didn’t mind because it makes quite a lot of sense for them to feel that bond after the Mint heist and almost dying/living together (and having witnessed 3 deaths together on the team). But I still doubt Berlin and Palermo were ever really part of this found family, with good reason XD

LOL the scene where Tokyo got kicked out is also among my favorites!! It was so funny and dramatic, and it was like, wow we can go anywhere with this now! Don’t worry- your rambles and thoughts are always welcome :D

I’m rolling over how you watched the Tokyo expulsion scene before the Russian Roulette scene haha. Also yes, PEDRO. Berlin may have been “controversial” to me at first, but I became Pedro’s fan from day one! Also the Hug is probably what made me like Berlin (despite my determination to hate him rip) in the first place.

3/? ... and like now that i think about it... tokyo had real guts huh. like she KNEW berlin was close enough to el prof to know his name (fhshshs imagine if she'd heard andrés saying 'hermanito' it's unrealistic that she didn't TBH. i mean obviously they decided to make them brothers only towards the end but like in canon universe. how tf did andrés de 'i raised my bby brother since he was 12 and i'd actually die for him and his stupidly brilliant plans' fonollosa go 5 months without slipping up once and calling sergio hermanito. or like,,, i like to imagine sergio kinda gave him lots of leeway(?) sergio's a lil oblivious too but like i'm sure half of it is.. that's my dumbass older bro shut up i'm not being partial you all have city names .. andr-berlin, pass the salt. like OOF. + sergio also knew his big bro was dYiNG so like. i'm sure they were sneaking in some quality time (i hope they did 😭 gosh imagine if sergio really did not ever consider the possibility of andrés dying in the heist so he'd tell himself he needs to perfect the plan now & anyway he'll have enough time to spend w/ his brother post heist in philippines. and then ... that happened :/

Tokyo has guts in place of braincells you bet that she’d do something like this, consequences be damned XD I also think it’s unrealistic for Andres not to slip up, but I have a feeling nobody besides Tokyo really tried to spy on them in private. I headcanon that Andres instead slips up and does things like ruffle Sergio’s hair or adjust his tie when other people are around. I also think Tokyo was convinced that they were a gay couple when she saw them hug XD And if Sergio never went on to tell the banda that Berlin was his brother, everyone would be giving Palermo such awkward looks after Nairobi accused him of being in love with Berlin LMAO.

I agree! I also imagine Sergio giving Andres leeway because he’s just so used to interacting with his brother that way haha. So either he’d go out of his way to ignore Berlin in front of everyone else or IDK, borderline telepathically communicate with him. Not even “pass the salt” has to leave his mouth- Berlin just puts salt into his food and cuts it up for him, in front of everyone who’s just staring like O.O

I actually do think Sergio never considered the possibility of Andres dying in the heist because he was just that confident in his own plan. Plus, Andres was probably the one person he expected to survive. And a lot of it has to do with Sergio’s attachment to him + Andres’ own habit of downplaying any illness/injury over the years, which I think is safe to believe canon. He was really in no condition to be in the heist, let alone lead it. Just the fact that he needs to take those injections is a big sign that he shouldn’t be there, but Sergio didn’t catch it because he’s human and blinded by faith :’) So yeah, I think Sergio was planning to spend proper time with Andres in Palawan and at Toledo, they just settled for those little moments by the fireplace.

4/? what always also just GETS me in the feels is that el prof was shown to be this in control creepily calm dude who is miles ahead of everyone. + in the 1st Toledo class itself we see how detached,, like how impersonal he is, how professional - choosing frickin CITY NAMES?! no 'personal relationships' ? (after recruiting his older brother, a father son pair, and war cousins... oh sergio 😂 he's such a frickin nerd and i love him) but like the earlier seasons really emphasised how robotic and down right COLD he can be. it still sometimes bothers me that he put the button in the car. he lead the police to his own damn brother, his blood, who took care of him and adopted him and was terminally ill and like - UGH i try to rationalise that sergio is that cold and unbothered. or that he has strict morals. but it still bothers me becz that button really sort of tipped andres' already unstable sanity. like andrés tells denver someth like you've robbed my future and after that he just seems so much more suicidal and accepting that he can't get out of the mint alive - WHY SERGIO WHY. I KNOW THAT AT THAT POINT YOU BASICALLY DIDN'T KNOW ANDRÉS WAS GOING TO BE YOUR BROTHER YET BECZ IT WASN'T WRITTEN IN THE SCRIPT BUT WHYYYYY

That’s so funny to me too LMAO No personal relationships, then he recruits these guys. Sergio, hello?? Also can’t forget how he just recruited his own girfrleind in the second heist too. Buddy! Love this nerd.

I don’t think that cold aspect of Sergio went away in later seasons either; he just had more opportunity to show a more open side of himself + without Andres, he had to metaphorically leave his comfort zone without a safety net. But in earlier seasons, he really did seem heartless at times XD Then again, we can argue that the same goes for Andres.

To be fair, I didn’t feel sorry for Andres over the button thing lol, but once the brothers reveal happened and all of Alvaro/Pedro’s headcanons came out and we know everything Andres did for Sergio, it makes what Sergio did REALLY harsh. We really just have to explain it through Sergio’s strict morals and him believing this to be the best non-fatal punishment for Andres, who at that point had convinced him he killed a hostage. And because he knew the television interview was coming up, maybe Sergio assumed Andres would use it to “clear” his name anyway. And empathy isn’t one of Sergio’s strong suits either, so through that lens, I can rationalize it.

Also it was lowkey funny to me how Andres was there like DENVER MUST DIE until he found out Sergio put the button there, then he was like “oh hermanito, you and your practical jokes <3″

Still, like you said, Andres and Sergio weren’t brothers yet at this point. They were probably supposed to be lovers lmao and had a dysfunctional Hannibal Lecter x Will thing going on. But because they made #hermanos canon, that button moment just feels very out of place now, especially given how much the two genuinely love each other.

Guess we could also say that Sergio’s just generally kinda bratty with Andres XD Like, he knows no matter what, Andres would forgive him anything. That’s how I see it anyway!

#anonymous #thanks for stopping by!#royalpaperhouse is this you my friend? :D

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rabbitsparklez · 4 years ago

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✨sorry Im kinda late if you're still doing the ask thingy. anyway, what are some of your UNPOPULAR opinions?

No, it’s fine! I’m happy to get asks whenever :)

First of all, I’d like to apologize for the delay. It took me like 3 days to answer this because I added a lot. This was a LOT more elaborate than you asked for so uh...... enjoy?

I have a lot of conflicted opinions that I wouldn’t exactly call “unpopular”, but I also have several that I would. There is negativity in this post, and if you’d rather not read it, then please don’t.

Please do not comment or message me about these if you disagree. This is my blog, and if you generally disagree with my than I don’t know what you are doing here.

Thank you for the ask!

1. I kinda... almost.... hated “Buddy”.

Yes, it’s a really catchy song and a great blend of Zach and James’ voices, but it also serves as a reminder that the writers prioritized Cassandra’s importance over Eugene’s. I’m already not a fan of it when people use strong and mature characters in overly silly scenarios, but it makes my stomach churn to think that they would actually dare to ridicule Eugene to such a far extent in order to give Cassandra the spotlight, when her entire arc was written poorly despite all their costly efforts to give it to her. I know that Eugene didn’t intentionally fall under the influence of those flowers and he certainly would’ve done something had he been there when Rapunzel discovered the Moon Incantation, but honestly that just bothers me even more because Eugene had so much potential and they wasted it.

2. (I don’t know what’s gonna come of this) I don’t hate King Frederick. I’m very disappointed in him, but I don’t hate him. Everyone hates him because of his failure to handle a threat to the kingdom, and his rashness and dishonestly toward his daughter, and I both agree to a lot of it, but I don’t hate him.

I have no excuses for the fact that he lied about having the black rocks under control because he didn’t know what to do about them. As the king, it is his responsibility to consider what is best for his kingdom, and by lying about a major threat, he only caused the problem to get worse. The reason the black rocks came in the first place, however, is because he took the Sundrop to heal his dying wife and unborn child. I know it wasn’t the most prudent decision, and he did a horrible job cleaning up the mess he made afterwards, but he was desperate to save his family, and chances are likely that he didn’t have time to consider every aspect and consequence that taking the Sundrop would cause.

Regarding his actions towards Rapunzel, I hate the fact that he would dare consider locking his own daughter in her room to protect her from something that he’s not making any effort to fix. Treating people immorally harshly while saying it’s for their own good is toxic, and I want to make it clear that I am the last person to defend abusers, but I highly doubt that Frederick gingerly considered every aspect of locking his daughter in her room and how it would affect her. Rapunzel was kidnapped as a baby, and that gives two reasons why Frederick is so protective of her: the fact that he is her father and the pain and trauma in itself. Everyone takes trauma differently, depending on the person and the weight of the situation. I hate it when people who are clearly smart and strong enough to understand the situation use their traumas as an excuse to justify their actions, but some people are so devastated by their traumas that they completely lose themselves. Again, he logically wouldn’t have thought about every single thing he was doing and the trouble it would cause. He lost his baby girl. I’ve heard many times that losing a child is the worst pain imaginable, and you could only understand that pain if you experienced it. Perhaps he even felt responsible for the fact that his daughter was kidnapped because he thought that he wasn’t as protective as he should’ve been, and the idea of “making things right again” and protecting her was drilled so deeply into his mind. In addition to the pain that he went through and how that affected his judgments, Frederick had no parental experience whatsoever. All parents have to figure out who their children are and how they should handle situations. Doing this involves trial and error, tears and pain. As seen in the episode “You’re Kidding Me”, Rapunzel and Eugene both thought they knew how to treat children but both of them made errors due to the cooperation and sensitivity of the kids they were looking after - this applies to every parent and every child. Frederick was completely ad-libbed into parenthood, and his trauma from losing his child did not mix well with Rapunzel’s spirit of adventure and independence.

As a king, Frederick failed in his responsibility to do what is best for the kingdom, and I agree that he wasn’t justified for the actions he took (or didn’t take), and he was a jerk for lying about it; but as a father, I feel more sympathy for him because in his eyes, he was doing the right thing, even though we know that he wasn’t. People are so quick to justify Varian for his actions following his traumas, when he’s admittedly intelligent enough to understand them; but people are so quick to demonize Frederick for his actions following his traumas, when he’s clearly not intelligent enough to understand them. I don’t think that’s fair in the minimal sense and it still irks me how biased a lot of people were in this situation.

3. I’m not sure how “popular” or “unpopular” this one is considered, but I hated both Stalyan and Brock Thunderstrike. It takes a lot for me to actually hate a character, but considering how much they wronged Eugene, I can’t ever see them in a positive perspective.

Aside from almost killing Lance, Stalyan abused Eugene. When he was only 16, she tried to marry him so that he could be her partner in crime, and judging by the way she talked to him in BTCW, it’s likely that she manipulated him and constantly belittled his choices. (which is another reason I hate how they did that with the Cass arc, because he should be entitled to such a valid opinion). She called him by his fake last name and tried to pull him back into the past, showing that she gave no importance to his persona and development as a character. When he refuses to marry her, her dad poisons his best friend and forces Eugene to either let his best friend from childhood die, or leave his girlfriend - his closest companion who filled in his missing parts and helped him to know that he mattered. Afterwards, she brushed it of with “that was my dad’s idea, but bad guys have a flair for drama”, in the least sympathetic tone imaginable. She then locked him and his dying friend in prison until the wedding, and tried to convince him that he wasn’t good enough for the woman he loved. The writers could’ve used her as a way to understand Eugene’s insecurities and pain a little bit better, but they freaking REDEEMED her. She just went with Rapunzel on a little road trip where she decided “y’know what, you can have my ex boyfriend and I’ll move on! Tell him I said hi!”. We didn’t get a proper address that Stalyan likely had a role in damaging Eugene’s sense of importance and trust, but even worse, we didn’t get an apology. I can’t believe that they made Rapunzel deal with someone else’s abusive relationship, where she hardly understood what was actually going on. Stalyan never said another word to Eugene or apologized to him or Lance for what she had done to both of them. She married a guy that looks exactly like him in the end too! Instead of looking for someone new, she chose a guy who looks exactly like her ex, showing that she cared more about his looks than his inner self.

Speaking of her new boyfriend, I hated Brock Thunderstrike. Let’s just pretend that Eugene hasn’t already been sidelined and ridiculed for Cass, and make an almost exact copy of him, only without his flaws and development! Let’s make him look exactly like him, make him repeat every iconic action and line that he made in the movie in a flawless way, and make him steal his entire former identity! - THAT WAS SO STUPID! I can’t believe they actually did that! Eugene is one of the most meticulously created, personified, and multifaceted characters that Disney has ever created, but not only did they push him in the mud to give Cassandra space, but they created this idiot Mary Sue copy of him with no personification otherwise! In the end, just like Stalyan, he decided with no redeeming deeds or apologies that he would make a new person of himself.

They really make a good match, and that’s not a compliment.

4. I love Lance as a person, but not as a character - If that makes any sense.

I love that wholesome boy a lot, but I don’t like the way he was used in the show. I think that even he pitched in to the factors that flattened Eugene as a character in the show. First of all, it takes away some of the meaning of love and it’s necessity to Eugene’s life. We always thought that Eugene was a lonely, rejected child who needed love more than he realized, but it turns out he did, in fact, have a buddy who wasn’t just his partner in crime for years, but a close, brotherly figure. That contradicts the significance of Eugene’s childhood and life as an orphan. Secondly, Lance was often used as an object to distract Eugene and drag him into the stupid and nonsensical scenarios that prevented him from interfering with Rapunzel and Cassandra’s overly prioritized involvement to the plot of the episode. Don’t get me wrong. I love Lance and have nothing against him, but his role as a character could’ve been used in better ways.

5. Adira should have either had a larger or smaller role in the show.

When we were introduced to Adira in Season 2, she was the fairy godmother that always came when the squad was in distress. She could do everything: she is superhumanly strong and agile, can cook, can effortlessly cut down trees, can survive in the wilderness, knows everything, and is practically perfect. But considering her knowledge of the Sundrop and Moonstone and her past with the Dark Kingdom, I was disappointed that we couldn’t explore more of her character and personality. In Season 3, she just kind of vanished. Considering her amazing abilities, we could’ve explored her character and learned of her weaknesses and backstory in season 3, but we didn’t. She played a lot of parts in Season 2 but almost none in Season 3. I thought Adira was sort of a Mary Sue. She’s perfect on the outside, but we have little knowledge of the inside. To make her a better character, she could’ve either been brought into the light in Season 3, or not given as much attention in Season 2. Either way, she’s an unbalanced character. I like her, but she’s hollow.

6. I like Shorty.

He’s kind of pointless and it made me roll my eyes when he unintentionally saved the day when other characters *cough* Eugene *cough* could’ve done so, but he also made me laugh a lot. He’s an idiot but fairly harmless otherwise. Also, unlike a lot of things in the show, he’s in character. In the movie, it wasn’t out of character for Shorty to pop up in weird places or save the day without really knowing it (he was one of the ones who helped Eugene break out of prison). The Snuggly Duckling was a major point in the movie and we didn’t see a lot it in the show. While Shorty’s tagging along didn’t contribute anything to society, it kept the Snuggly Duckling present in the show.

7. As much as I love him, I’m not attracted to Eugene.

I think he’s handsome and charming, but I ship him with Rapunzel too much to be in love with him :). I would give anything to have a platonic friend like him, but maybe not a husband.

To be frank, I’m a little creeped out by people who seem to “fall romantically in love” with characters, because they sometimes........well let’s just say that they portray them in a way that makes me incredibly uncomfortable - if you know what I mean. This applies to all characters, but especially to the ones that I like.

8. Varian’s role was too invasive. You’re probably surprised at this, because a lot of fans seem to think that he didn’t get enough of a role and wasn’t put to his full potential. I agree that he is a very elaborate character with a lot of potential, but he was never intended to be a main character, and he shouldn’t have been given a larger perspective and more angst factors than the actual main characters.

After his villain arc, fans started hating Rapunzel because they had sympathy for Varian and accused her of not treating him well, which I hated. It is true that he was in a situation worth having pity on him for, but they expressed a lot more emotional impact from his perspective than from anyone else’s, thus fans only considered his feelings. Rapunzel was going through an extremely difficult time at that moment, too, but it was shown in a less dramatic and sympathyzable way. She almost lost her parents and the man she loved in a snowstorm, while for the first time when she had to make prudent decisions as a leader, the kingdom was in a state of distress. After the storm, her father continued to lie to her, and the reason she never helped him was because he convinced her that Old Corona was under control. All she wanted to do was stabilize herself in a calm state of mind, which was ok, because she didn’t realize that there was more trouble. Even so, she could hardly do so because she was still stressed and traumatized. If these things from her perspective were more clearly presented to the audience, there would’ve been less of a war in the fandom and there probably would’ve been sympathy from both sides. But they wanted to show things from Varian’s point of view, which was valid until he went feral. {He stated in the episode before the finale that he understood that Rapunzel “did what she had to”, and he is clearly intelligent enough to pull things together, but everyone used trauma as an excuse. If he could connive that entire plot where he would kidnap the queen, use a dummy of him, extract the Sundrop’s power, etc. then he clearly was in a sane enough state of mind to put things together, but he didn’t. In Season 3, he admitted that the reason he became a villain was because he had taken his anger too far, after realizing that he was wrong. }

Considering that Rapunzel is the main character and the writers expect us to feel sympathy for her, they should’ve at least made the situation less dramatic from Varian’s point of view. Chris Sonnenburg himself was annoyed with fans who sympathized more for Varian and watched the show for him instead of Rapunzel - but in a way it was his fault for the way he portrayed the situation. I agree with him in the sense that I was annoyed with Varian fans taking over the fandom and demonizing Rapunzel, but it was the crew’s own choice to make Varian such a likable character to so many people.

Although his redemption arc was handled well in my opinion, it was more focused on and important to the show than that of the Father of Tangled Redemption Arc’s - Eugene’s. His redemption arc is the backbone to the entire franchise, but the series didn’t take him seriously, so even though his redemption subtly fell in place in Season 1 especially, I was disappointed that he didn’t have a nice serious episode where his redeemed self shined in the light, while Varian, a secondary character, did. Although not to such an extent, Varian’s role, similar to Cassandra’s was prioritized in the show above the main characters’ and that bothers me.

9. I’d say this one is more under-acknowledged than unpopular, but Cassandra’s existence contradicted Rapunzel’s development rather than bringing out her characteristic “compassion”

Even after all of the horrible things Cassandra did to Rapunzel, to Eugene, and to the kingdom of Corona after deciding to turn evil, she was redeemed. Anyone would’ve stopped pitying her and left her behind, but Rapunzel still cared for her and let her be her friend again. Why? Because the writers tried so hard to convey the message that Rapunzel has compassion for everyone and anything that comes in her path.

It is true and in her character for Rapunzel to be compassionate and humane. The movie conveyed the message that Rapunzel, even after spending so many years unloved and mistreated, loves and has sympathy for everyone. She sees the good in everyone and everything, thus she is capable of redeeming those who have strayed. This characteristic of hers is what caused Eugene to leave behind his past self and find a new life. She didn’t fix him; she opened his soul and brought out the good person who had been hiding inside him for the longest time. The same thing happened to the thugs, other former thieves, and many others. Rapunzel’s compassion and love for others brings the best out of the unlikeliest of people. The way Glen Keane described it, Rapunzel is the representation of humanity.

However, Mother Gothel is the representation of everything that is an obstacle to Rapunzel and her freedom. She gaslight and objectified her by passively claiming that she loved her, and used her as an object to satisfy her own vanity. She never let her express her energetic and adventurous self by locking her inside, and when Rapunzel rebelled, she locked her in chains and took her to the dungeon. Rapunzel’s development can only grow if she is not stifled by chains and abuse, therefore she should avoid Mother Gothel at all costs. But who is this person who, three years later, Rapunzel tries to redeem? The very daughter of Mother Gothel, who is more like a reincarnation of her to be frank. She brought back what Rapunzel was supposed to leave behind. She condescended over her and shamed her for her underdeveloped tendencies before she even betrayed her. She constantly wanted more from her instead of accepting her who she was. She blamed her for her problems and victimized herself. Rapunzel is supposed to be past these things so that she can grow to be a strong and independent woman. Using Cassandra as a permanent villain who Rapunzel would fight against would define her as a developed woman who has moved on from her traumatic past - but it wasn’t like that. Rapunzel pined onto Cassandra despite everything she put her through. The writers tried to use this situation as a way to bring out Rapunzel’s compassion, but it contradicted her self independence and strength.

Rapunzel and Cassandra’s relationship was a toxic one, and it shouldn’t have been portrayed as a good thing at any time in the show, because of it’s disintegration of Rapunzel’s development. Rapunzel is both compassionate and resilient, but because of how poorly the writers handled this, they contradicted both of her character tendencies. It looked more like schizophrenia to be honest: One day Rapunzel resents Cassandra for her actions and fights her with a powerful incantation to keep her away from Eugene; the next day, she sings a song mourning their friendship and expressing how much she wanted her to come back.The way a character’s personality traits are presented is very important. Imagine that you’re at a restaurant where every item uses the same ingredients, but is arranged and composed in a different way. A burger on a bun with lettuce, tomatoes, cheese and ketchup would be delicious and appealing; however, a hamburger and cheese smoothie with chunks of lettuce and tomatoes floating in it and ketchup drizzled on top would be nauseating and a horrible idea (sorry for the ridiculous comparison but hopefully it gets the point across). Even though the two items have the same composition, one of them works and the other doesn’t. Rapunzel is both compassionate and resilient, but the writers made a contradicting mess out of these two tendencies because they made them clash.

10.. It annoys me when people think Eugene overreacts to things. He’s neither whiny nor childish. He’s a realistic person in a crazy world, who can’t help but be upset about certain things.

Let’s face it, he’s been through a lot, and all things considered, he’s very tolerant and resilient. He’s the most realistic character in terms of skepticism and trust issues, and that’s something I’ve always loved about him. In situations where nobody’s in danger and things are fairly normal, he tends to “overreact” to minor things, but in dangerous and serious situations, he is the first person to stand up and help people. If he was a shrimpy, whiny wimp who can’t handle things, he wouldn’t have willingly died to save someone, led a rescue squad to save the king and queen in a dangerous situation, decided to live with his former abuser to save someone who was dying, or willingly accepted his role as a captain and lead the safety of the kingdom.

If you were abandoned by your father and ended up as a poor orphan who became a criminal to fend for yourself, it’s only human to not immediately feel inclined to accept him into your life, especially considering his apparently whimsical and unconcerned personality. By the end of the episode, he himself realized that his father kept in touch with him and by the end of the show, came to understand his motive for abandoning him. Nobody forced him to see the good in his father. He realized it by his own effort. When his father gave him a gift at the end, he was the first to hug him, showing that he had come to accept him willingly.

If for generations, your family has dedicated and lost their lives to destroying a dangerous object that has caused a lot of deaths and destruction, and you break your trust with your girlfriend to protect her from it; then when you finally allow her to take it when her jealousy-driven handmaiden takes it with every intention to kill her - of course you are going to resent that woman and be upset that your girlfriend still cares about bringing her back, (especially considering you weren’t keen on her in the first place). Even though Cass didn’t deserve it, he still patiently put up with and respected Rapunzel’s opinion of her despite obviously still disliking her. That doesn’t show that he was happy about it, but that he patiently tolerated situations that he didn’t agree with.

Imagine that the only comfort and security that you had for 15 years was your fake reputation as a different character, despite knowing it wasn’t a good one, and you find it difficult to let him go because you still can’t help but wish you were as established and “successful” as he was. Then some cocky twerp that looks exactly like you comes along, dresses exactly like you and uses the same name as you did, and repeated everything that you were proud to accomplish but only better, and is liked by your friends better than you ever were. Despite the fact that your former identity wasn’t a good one, it was the only thing you had and the only thing you could find pride and joy in because you had a low self esteem about your actual self. I can certainly say that if I met someone like Brock Thunderstrike but a copy of me instead of him, I wouldn’t be happy at all. But in the end, although he obviously resented and was jealous of him, Eugene disinterestedly told him that he saw potential in him, and allowed him to find his own identity.

Eugene is one of the most realistic characters that I’ve ever seen, but he lives in unusual circumstances that he’s not used to. There’s nothing wrong with the fact that he can’t immediately see something, because all’s well that ends well - and in the end, he always makes a just decision.

{There was one more that I wanted to post but I thought it would be too conflicting so I didn’t.}

If you agree with some of these but not others, that’s fine! After all, these are unpopular opinions and I’d be lucky if anyone agreed with them.

Again, thanks for the ask!

#TTS #Tangled the Series #RTA #Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure #Rapunzel #Eugene #Mother Gothel #anti cassandra #negativity on cassandra #slight negativity on varian and adira #anti stalyan #King Frederick #Shorty #rabbitsparklez #unpopular tts opinions #explainmybrain #unpopular opinions

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ambrosiaicecreem · 4 years ago

Note

First of all, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Secondly, all of the questions for the story writing ask game, or all of the ones that haven't been asked yet!

AHHHHHHH thanks for the asks jade! <3

2. Sims writing has a visual component. How do you utilize color/objects and settings in your stories?

Girl, all the writing DEPENDS on the visuals. I always compare my story to be a show, so I definitely require the visuals and the text to match first and foremost. I’ve had to change things up just bc of that. When it comes to the setting, I always want to have a feeling of continuity regardless of where each scene is. I want it to feel like no matter where they are, whether they’re at Camellia’s house, the Montolvo mansion, or somewhere downtown, that it definitely feels like it makes sense that all of these places would be in the same world.

3. Which process do you dedicate more time to, editing visuals or editing your writing? Why?

As mentioned above: visuals. There’s only SO MUCH you could do in the sims, especially as someone who doesn’t know how to do any type of cc really. So getting the visual to be perfect (or as close to perfect as I can get) is something I dedicate more time to.

5. Are there any scenes in your story that you enjoy re-reading?

I lives for the drama, so my favorite ones are the really dramatic scenes. The dinner scene, as messy as it is, is my favorite thing to reread so far. I literally had Serafina’s entrance and Camellia’s “i’m picking for you” line planned since the BEGINNING.

6. Are there any scenes you wish you could go back and re-write?

Very specifically, the flashback scene. I kinda wish I did more with it, but I was lowkey feeling burnt out while taking the pictures for it.

8. Are there any plots or characters that have changed dramatically since you initially began writing them?

DEFINITELY. Camellia didn’t have the backstory that she has now at the beginning of this. Ajax also went through a change! He was honestly supposed to be this real big athletic goofy himbo instead of the cool, quiet edgy guy. That was his original character in the first run of the Montolvo’s. Kassandra was also going to be a child!

9. Are you writing with a deadline in mind to complete the story?

Kinda? I don’t have a deadline for the entire story, but I really want to finish Season 1 by the end of this year. We’re SUPER close tho so I have faith that I’ll be able to do just that!

10. If you could choose to be one of your characters for a day, which one would it be?

I’d be Silas! Mainly because of his ability to project his memories. Because of that he’s got a near perfect memory and I for one could use a talent like that omg.

11. What are some elements you think are becoming cliché in the genre you’re writing?

Love Triangles. I’m not a huge fan of the traditional love triangle as you usually see them in these vampire romances, so I really wanted to avoid that when it could have easily been done with trios like Silas/Camellia/Serafina, Silas/Marcus/Angelina, and Silas/Marcus/Serafina. I could see myself introducing a version of the love triangle tho later on, just not for those characters.

12. What is your favorite thing about the simblr story writing process?

The community aspect! My favorite thing about writing simblr stories is seeing your guys’ reactions to my story! It honestly means the world to me that you’re interested and feeling things towards this story and these characters!

13. What characters do you feel most connected to? Why do you feel connected to that character?

I feel most connected with Camellia, honestly. You don’t really see a lot of Filipino representation in Western media, and you most DEFINITELY don’t see the main love interest being a Filipina too. Its a goal of mine to tell more stories with all different types of Filipino characters.

#answered asks #lazysunjade

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brifdi-daily · 6 months ago

Text

Day 57: Marker !

Source: 5 Secondly Object Show Season 2 + 5SOS: Bean's Show

love her or hate her you have got to admit that shes literally on a little walk

#marker #5 secondly object show #5sos2 #5sos:bs #5sos #sacri #contestants #osc #object show community #dailies #57

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alwaysrunningoutoftime · 5 years ago

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(Pictures: 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9)

Your Friendly Neighbourhood, Wizard. (Alex Russo/Justin Russo Fanfiction)

Prologue

Pairing: Superhero! Alex Russo x Justin Russo, Slowburn.

Genre: Action, Humour, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Romance

Warnings: mild/explicit language, Injuries, sisterxbrother.

Set: After Season 4x10 "Wizards Vs. Angels" (Which is somewhat heavily involved in both Alex and Justin’s separate storylines.) + “Back to Max”.

Est. Length: 8 Chapters.

Summary: After defeating the dark angels, Justin continues to teach his delinquent class unconsciously suppressing his guilt over the ramifications of the moral compass. Simultaneously, Alex unconventionally stumbles into a superhero gig. Inept and unprepared, great power and an even greater burden is placed on her shoulders. Bothered by his sisters reoccurring absence, Justin determinedly investigates her distant behaviour. Meanwhile, Alex is forced to face a truth she’d always buried, discovering it unwillingly from a formidable powerful being she will have to defeat.

Disclaimer/Author's Note: I’ve been brainstorming this fic probably since quarantine started. It’s mostly inspired by Spiderman! Into the Spiderverse, Holland! Spiderman and Garfield! Spiderman. As well as the looks and feel of DC Comic’s Raven and Marvel’s Scarlet Witch. Other inspirations include music from Birds of Prey, On My Block, Euphoria. All of which I do not own. In addition, I sadly do not own Wizards of Waverly Place.

However, Alex’s origin story is wholly my own that I personally thought up myself (so let’s hope it’s believable) and if it correlates with any other superhero storyline it’s purely coincidental. The OC’s are also obviously my own creation.

“Do you know why you’re here, Alex Russo?”

“Ummm…” Alex backed up at the man's intense stare. She was pretty sure he was going for intimidation, but it fell short landing right on uncomfortable. “Not really…”

“Well, young lady,” His words were layered thick with haughtiness. Alex had just met the man today and she already knew she disliked him. “It seems you were part of a riot in central park.”

“No…” She narrowed her eyes at him, shook her head, even elongated the word in an attempt to get it through his thick skull. “I was trying to get home.”

She was actually trying to find her wand, but he didn’t need to know that. The wand that Rosie and Gorog decided to fling off the dark realm tower. The detailed image of it glowing magic in the night sky as it twirled to its doom stayed seared to the front of her mind. She could even hear her own cry for it as everyone watched it go. My wand.

“So what were you doing in Central Park?” Right after returning the moral compass she searched Central Park assuming it had landed there. Key word: assuming. It was hard to calculate where objects falling off towers landed. For her, it was hard to calculate in general.

“A girl can’t go to one of New York City's finest parks just for the fuc- fun of it.” She replied with a smile, catching herself before she swore. It was just her luck to get the arrogant, novice, goody-two-shoes, by-the-book cop. They didn’t enjoy it when she did that.

“And you just happened to be hanging out with an enraged mob?” He asked mockingly. Okay so...she did get mixed up in a riot. Which wasn’t her fault. She was too focused at the task at hand to pay any attention to the crowd of screaming people she had walked through. What was more concerning was that one of those fuckers was stepping all over her wand, or worse one of them had already snapped its cherry redness in two.

“I wasn’t hanging out with them-”

“Yeah, instead you were disturbing the peace and provoking assaults.” Alex had to stay low to the ground for any sign of her wand which perhaps caused a few people to accidentally trip over her. There was also a minor possibility that her assertive bumping into others unintentionally started some fights. This all lead to Richard here (according to his desk tag), cuffing her and bringing her to the NYPD Central Park precinct. Meaning her wand had been left behind, defenceless against the grimy boots of crabby New Yorkers...if it was even there to begin with.

“How do you disturb the peace in a riot?” Alex fired back.

“Ms. Russo, you’ve had a record since you were twelve.” He said, abruptly switching topics and ignoring her. Rude much. To prove his point he made a show of flailing her folder around. It was a decent size for her age, Alex inwardly complimented herself. The first crime listed there was in summer 2004, when she sold those fake broadway tickets to unsuspecting tourists. That summer was a blast: hundreds of ice cream sandwiches and magazines.

“This behaviour is to be expected.” He finished. Alex suppressed an eye roll, this dude was getting on her nerves. Yes, she had a few run ins with the cops, but that didn’t mean she was always guilty of doing something vaguely illegal. Ever since she became a wizard, she'd barely caused any trouble with the mortals, Alex commended herself. Her last record was a good year ago, with a little vandalism and conning going under the radar but that was it. In their eyes, she could have set herself straight since then. Which she did.

What happened to the benefit of the doubt, what happened to believing people could change. Screw him and his patterns. And screw her wand for not being in Central Park. Now she’d have to buy a new one she sulked, slouching lower in the hard chair.

“I don’t like your attitude, Missy.” He said, noting her behaviour. ”Kids these days, not respecting the police.”

Oh my gosh, I just wanna go home. Richard Owens (what a lame name) continued typing at his computer, probably adding ‘riot starter’ to her record. He’d been holding her here for an hour now, still trying to gather evidence and witness accounts to file in her record. So far he had zero, zip, nada, not a single thing. Since everyone's memory seemed to be fuzzy, which she guessed was due to the moral compass.

Alex was annoyed at him and his cockiness. Annoyed at this hard chair that was making her butt fall asleep. Annoyed at the amount of people in this room, and how overly hot it. Would it kill them to crack open a window or turn up the air conditioning.

“Is that you, Alex Russo?” A woman said, approaching the desk. Oh finally her saviour.

“Wassup, June!” Alex grinned up at Song Namjoo, or June, as Alex called her. Much to Namjoo's displeasure. Not so much the name as it was Alex being an annoying little shit.

“What’d you do now?” She asked, placing a hand behind Alex’s chair, leaning forward to scan over the computer. The woman had her hair pulled down into its signature low bun, not a hair out of place. Her pristine police sergeant uniform was pressed to perfection with not a single crease, something Justin would greatly admire.

“No way, June you passed your Police Sergeant Exam!” Alex exclaimed. “You look dope.” She nodded in approval.

“Yeah.” June modeled for a second, before straightening her posture. “Passed about six months ago.”

“Well congratulations.” Alex smiled, genuinely proud. June was her life saver, and lowkey pain in her ass. Wherever she caused a ruckus (exclusively non magical) June would shortly be there. June had stopped a lot of unwanted things from going on her record, and also had a way of calming down Jerry and Theresa when they threatened to send her to the military. On the other hand, it's like she had some sort of Alex specific third eyes always managing to catch her in the act. Plus, her lectures were lengthy and boring and she didn't even allow Alex the option to sleep through them. In a way, she was Justin, if he were in the police force and was, you know, a Korean woman.

She shivered at the thought. Sure, Justin saved her a few too many times but that was because he was her brother. June was altruistic, she held herself with poise and grace. Like a cool aunt who'd let you off the hook halfway then let you decide for yourself the rest of the way. Besides, June was high-key a badass and Justin still cried over 'Mantooth'.

She felt a light pinch on her arm, automatically ready to shout 'POLICE BRUTALITY!' catching herself as she connected eyes with June.

June subtly raised an eyebrow in question towards Alex as if to say ‘What did you do now?’ Alex shrugged in response, her face saying ‘I’m innocent I swear’. June in turn gave her a half believing/ half disbelieving expression, before rolling her eyes. Which was always code for ‘Fine, I believe you’. After knowing June for a good 5 years they'd learned to read each others facial expressions pretty well. It helped with her record, it definitely helped with the parents.

“Okay really Richard a riot starter.” June stared at the man with clear judgement on her face. “Leave the girl alone. We have bigger things to worry about then a riot starter.”

“Oh, like what, June?” Richard goaded. First he disrespects Alex, and now June. Alex doesn’t know a lot of things she will admit, but she picked up on workplace professionalism. To begin with June was a higher ranking officer meaning she was above him. And Richard said her name without its formal title, displaying a lack of respect. Alex watched as June’s expression turned perplexed, or more accurately her ‘bitch, what did you just say?’ look. Alex wished she had popcorn now and a comfy chair.

“First of all, that is Sergeant Song to you Richard. Secondly, maybe you’ve been on desk duty for too long but we’re dealing with a lot more than riots.” June started. This was gonna be good. “There have been innumerable cases of aggravated assaults, burglaries, thefts, property crimes, arsons, and attempted murders. The crime rate has exponentially increased on this day alone. It’s worst than the 80s, Richard.” As the venom dripped from June’s mouth, Alex was quickly realizing what truly happened this night. “Every precinct in New York is packed to the brim and every hospital too. There are more citizens than staff members. And to top it off, a lot of these people had no previous record before this night. No explanation why they would do this and barely any remembrance of what they did. Not even a full moon could explain this utter fuckery!” She exclaimed, motioning around the precinct.

Alex cringed, knowing exactly what had caused this, or more accurately who. She didn’t realize how serious turning that moral compass was. It had only felt like a game of tug a war with her brother like what they did as kids. She even played around with him, tricking him into thinking he had broken the thing so she’d gain the upper hand. When they were flying above the dark realm tower, pulling and pushing they felt so far removed from the world. It was literal child’s play, no throwing punches, no broken bones just like a high school grip test.

But, she could see the damage they caused now. The place was overfilled with people. At each desk, in the cells, standing around. Some bleeding out, others with lost expressions on their faces, the ones she couldn’t even look at were the people crying. All these people had done something bad or suffered because of it. All because that moral compass pointed in the wrong direction a little too long.

“And out of everyone in that riot you chose the person farthest from the action, a clear bystander.” Alex wanted to laugh bitterly at that, if only these people knew just how involved she really was in this. If only they knew their desire to do good relied on a floppy arrow on a disk. But, she’d never tell them this, she’d let people continue to believe they had a bigger choice in their lives. That’s what she had to do as a wizard. As long as it saved her ass. As long as it didn’t affect her.

“So yes Richard there are bigger things than a 17 year old girl.” June finished. The room was completely silent, all eyes staring at Richard. It was so quiet Alex could hear the sound of Richard’s ego deflating like a balloon, saw his face turning as red as a tomato until he resembled a sheepish boy who had just been scolded by his mom in front of all his friends. She couldn’t even take pleasure in his pain, now faced with her own mistakes.

Ha, take that dick. She tried to lighten her spirits. Cause like dick is the nickname for Richard. It didn’t work that well.

And…

Richard let her go, with no new record of ‘inciting a riot’, all thanks to June and how she completely dragged him through the mud.

June walked her to the front door of the precinct, stopping at the door.

“Okay bye Alex. I wish I didn’t have to say this…” June said, taking a deep breathe and closing her eyes to ground herself. “See you soon.” She gave a fake smile.

“You know me so well June. I’ll be sure to bring my best stuff next time, though.” Alex replied back keeping her humour up. She was still a little unsettled at the amount of people she saw on her way out.

“Aha.” June laughed drily, clearly not amused. “Stay in school, kid." And then she was pushed out of the building.

Just as Alex took her first steps away from the precinct, "Hey! The streets are worse tonight, stay safe Alex.” June shouted before shutting the door.

Alex looked back, a sigh heavy on her lips. She composed herself, her mood quickly lightening at the prospect of going home. Which meant her bed, which meant lying down, which meant sleep.

She wouldn’t walk of course. Use magic, definitely. If someone thought she was gonna walk home, they were sadly mistaken.

Looking around to see if anyone was watching she backed into the nearest alley.

“Woah, watch out kid!-”

She was pushed with brute force into the alley wall. Are you kidding me? She smacked right into the bricks, her elbows preventing her face from getting smashed. Hadn’t she been jostled enough today. She stiffened as she felt a bolt of magic graze past her, causing the hairs on her arms to stand up.

Wait a minute… Magic? There was a wizard.

She turned around to see a woman in a Kevlar black suit push a man further into the alleyway. The woman threw a punch to the man’s face, a crackle of blue magic extended through her fist causing the man to crash into the wall.

“What the fuck.” Alex whispered. She must have actually hit her head because this couldn’t be real.

The woman turned to Alex, her dark blue boxer braids swinging with the movement. A mask covered half her face, but all Alex could see were her eyes glowing blue in the dark, as if rimmed with the magic. “Leave, now-“

“Watch out!” Alex screamed back, seeing the man getting up already. A bright pulse of white magic extended through his fingertips towards the masked woman, who quickly ducked dodging it, giving a swift kick to the man's stomach.

He was thrown off balance, long enough for the woman to turn to Alex shooting a burst of blue magic into her direction.

Alex brought her hand in front of her as if to stop it. Was this woman trying to kill her? She closed her eyes, ready for impact.

Then opened them to silence and a vast space of whiteness. She was in the wizard portal. The masked lady had teleported her here.

So, the blue magic lady was a wizard and a superhero…and people were still being bad even after the moral compass was returned.

Alex thought about it for a moment. Then with a shrug of her shoulders she brushed it off, beginning to walk to the lair.

Frankly, Alex was exhausted: her back hurt from flapping those wings, her knees were sore from all of the heavy landings she endured with the wings, her arms ached from that tug-a-war contest she had with Justin, her butt was sore from that hard chair, her feet ached from all the walking she did and she nearly got zapped in the face with magic. On top of all of that, she still didn’t know where her wand went.

Alex sighed in relief when she finally got to the lair. All that walking was making her even more tired. She pushed the door open, determined to get to bed and collapse. But her steps faltered when she was greeted by the sight of her brother looking down at a white feather.

It didn’t take a genius to realize the feather was Rosie’s. Alex was worried at the sight of him, grasping a feather from another lost love wasn’t a good sign. And more than that he hadn’t been himself for the past week. She’d barely talked to him for the past week, so she was nervous to see how he was after everything.

“Justin…” She began, confusion laced in her tone. He turned at her voice.“What are you doing still up? It’s late.” And also past his appointed bedtime.

“I stayed up because I owe you something.” He began. Her cherry red wand in his hand. Her glorious cherry red wand she’d been looking everywhere for. Finally, reunited with what had been plaguing her mind all night her eyes immediately brightened at the sight of it. She grasped at it with both hand, smiling down at her wand.

“I found it in Washington Square Park.” Oh, Washington Square Park. Damn she really did suck at calculating. Nevermind, the fact that it was in the complete opposite direction. “A two-headed dog had it. Pretty sure he didn’t start out that way.”

So her wand was chilling in lower Manhattan with a two headed dog as she searched the grounds of upper Manhattan, tripping people over and starting fights, and getting caught by the police. She giggled at that, amused with what her night turned into.

“Thank you.” She genuinely meant it. “What about your wand?”

“I, uh…” He held his wand up, inspecting it for a moment just to show her the sad state it was in; snapped in half with duct tape barely holding it together. She laughed at her brother’s antics. Secretly, relieved to have her brother back. Him and even his humour. Yup, he was still Justin. “I’ll find a spell to fix it.”

He set his wand down and turned to face her, an earnest expression on his face. Alex was taken aback by the swift change in atmosphere, the room suddenly feeling more serious. “And I owe you something else.”

He came forward. Her eyes flickering at his movement. Oh, And we’re hugging.

His arms wrapped around her, bending down to rest his chin on her shoulder. He quietly uttered, “Thank you for saving me.” while comfortingly rubbing her back as he always did. Ever since they were children, it was a soothing motion he always did when he hugged her. A distinct movement they could focus on together to calm down. She nodded slightly, silently appreciating the moment.

“It’s for all the times that you saved me when I wasn’t so good.”

Countless images were brought to mind, most prominent of all: a campfire in the rainforest. She began to feel nostalgic and a bit anxious. Not fond of the emotions, she quickly lightened the atmosphere. “And for a couple more times in the future, so we’re even.” She finished with a smile, satisfied with her little joke.

“No, we’re not.” Justin replied, coming to sit down on the desk beside her. “You saved the world today.”

She studied him for a moment, silently disagreeing with his words. She was only trying to get him back, everything else, saving the world was secondary to that.

She’d never admit how anxious she felt seeing Justin so unlike himself: stealing flowers, using magic in public, and stomping on people's groceries. Overall being a jerk. The worst of it was when she revealed Rosie's true nature, he still chose her, a girl he’d known for less than a month than his own sister. A dark angel, whose values would never align with his own. And when she tried one last desperate time to get him back he still chose darkness. Only turning good because of that girl. It hurt more than she thought it would.

But Alex had to remind herself of something very important: that Justin was the one influenced by dark angels. That he wasn’t himself at the time and that scarily some powers are greater than her connection to her brother. So she’d keep it to herself, shove it in the back of her mind like she usually did with all of her emotions, and ignore it, until she’d be forced to confront it.

Instead, she focused on the reassurance she’d gotten when Justin finally came back. How happy she was when he immediately told her to put the moral compass back, in that commanding voice he used when he would clean her messes. The ease she felt now that he was once again right beside her. Like a puzzle piece clicking back into place (and screw him for making her think of boring puzzles). This is where he was meant to be.

She would never say that out loud so she said, “You gave up a girl to protect it” instead.

She watched a faraway expression take on his face, familiar to the one he wore in Transylvania when he lost Juliet. He’d lost Rosie now, and a few weeks ago she'd learned she wasn't meant to be with Mason. It’s like they were both cursed to never have a happy ending. Only ending up with the comfort of each other.

She didn’t think about how established this felt. Or the strange notion that perhaps this was how her happy ending was supposed to be.

In an attempt to stop herself from wandering too far back in her mind, she asked him. “Why do we have to keep dealing with stuff like this?” He was Justin and he always had the answer. She could always count on him.

“We’re wizards.” And it was like that was the be all, end all. “I don’t think we have a choice.” The plain and simple answer.

It was horrible how that answer alone made complete sense to her. How she’d just thought about it in that overpacked precinct. All of her mistakes and losses were always tied into being a wizard.

So, maybe she was past the point of caring, past sadness and moving into delirium with a little sprinkle dead tiredness because she smiled instead. She smiled up at him and he caught her before she turned away. He bumped her with his shoulder, bouncing her away and back to him.

They were settling back into their pattern. Just the two of them: Justin and Alex. She sighed contentedly and a little tiredly resting her head on her big brother's shoulder, feeling his head rest on hers.

For all her mistakes and all her losses at least she always had her Justin.

And she hoped he knew for all his mistakes and all his losses he’d always have his Alex.

She closed her eyes, fully ready to sleep.

“We’ll be okay, right?” Justin quietly asked.

Alex yawned, furrowing her brows slightly at the unexpected question. Maybe they should have been more aware in this moment, appreciated it more. Maybe she could have helped him better if she’d paid more attention. Maybe, he could have protected her better from darker things than angels.

“Yeah, we’ll be fine.”

For Alex would soon face a burden so great it would compromise her relationship with those around her. After all, with great power comes great responsibility.

#Wizards of Waverly Place #wowp #Alex Russo #Justin Russo #Jalex #Fanfiction #Alex Russo x Justin Russo #Justin Russo x Alex Russo #Alex x Justin #Justin x Alex #mystories #wizards of waverly place fanfiction #wowp fanfiction #myfanfiction

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marcelgerard · 5 years ago

Note

top 5 found families in media

rags first of all soz for taking 70 years to reply to this i literally forgot and this is hard to narrow down, also secondly this is a leading question i know you’re asking mainly about THE ORIGINALS so welcome to my ted talk it’s under the cut. for those of you who don’t want my dissertation;

1) the originals klaus + marcel & marcel + davina

2) black sails jack + anne

3) gossip girl blair + serena + nate + chuck

4) elementary sherlock + joan

5) new girl nick + winston + schmidt

honorable mention, bc who amongst us would not love to occasionally full murder our families, interview with the vampire louis + lestat

1) the originals klaus + marcel & marcel + davina

okay everyone shut the fuck up for a second let me get into this, the klaus and marcel dynamic really does hit me in the face every time bc klaus is basically marcel’s only family: he finds him, he saves him as a child, he names him, he raises him, he turns him, he fucking loves this kid. marcel is literally one of v few people klaus actually gives a fuck about and the parental dynamic does murder me bc it’s klaus wanting to raise him and wanting to be a good father and be the opposite of his own father BUT when it came down to it and the opera house burns down in the 1920s or whatever, klaus leaves. he runs, he never looks back because he assumed his son was dead and he never fucking went back to check. BUT their dynamic when he comes back to new orleans and sees that marcel is not only alive but thriving and ruling the city that klaus built and left burning is so!!!! there’s literally so much shit between them but at the end of the day (or at least until elijah throws marcel off a bridge) they're still family to each other. they go back and forth from being allies to enemies like every 10 episodes but marcel backs klaus, marcel protects the mikaelsons, marcel saves baby hope from the witches and even if he wants to kill klaus it’s DIFFERENT bc he loves him he has the fucking right to do it after everything klaus has done to him, other people (the witches, the strix, that asshole lucien) don't. they reconcile at the end of the series but the one thing that like properly actually fully broke them apart was davina’s death. which brings us to.......

marcel and davina. theirs is a slightly less complicated dynamic (yes there's manipulation and lying but this is cw show grow up) and i’m obsessed with them. marcel saves davina from being sacrificed and takes on being her father figure bc when they meet she absolutely is a child, and they connect because they’re similar and marcel sees a lot of his younger self in her. after all the witch shit is settled and she’s a lot more independent you still see that they take care of each other because who the fuck else will? they both have enemies on either side of the vampire/witch communities so even if they’re not on the same side they still have each other’s backs. marcel looks out for her no matter what, and davina’s one exception to being asked to help kill klaus is to break the sire bond so that if klaus dies marcel doesn’t die with him. and after ALL of the shit that happened between marcel and klaus, it’s davina dying as direct result of mikaelson bullshit that finally finally breaks marcel. he takes the supervampire serum, and goes absolutely apeshit to avenge her because that’s his daughter they killed.

2) black sails jack + anne

i don’t need to explain this everyone knows i’m right. yes? yes. i’m right.

3) gossip girl - the original gang so blair + serena + chuck + nate

hey siri, play frank ocean - super rich kids. god!!!! baby’s first found family i think? i love these dumb motherfuckers!!! objectively horrifying behaviour from all parties but they love each other!! non judging breakfast club!!! they're a bunch of stupid fucking kids with no one but themselves!! they raised each other they aren’t really friends with anyone else bc who the fuck else has the SHARED EXPERIENCES that they do when gossip girl starts!! where does one begin,,, all of them having serena’s back in season 1 after georgina drugs her, serena fake dating nate to cover for him as he absolutely be fucking a married woman, chuck secretly loaning money to nate’s family so nate doesn't find out he’s broke, blair and serena’s entire friendship, them collectively coming together whenever something they think is actually serious (the georgina thing, serena going missing, serena’s car accident, bart dying, blair and chuck’s car accident, that scene where the three of them are trying to get serena out of jail!!!) happens ugh i do love them i do.

4) elementary joan + sherlock

i am obsessed with their dynamic!!! obsessed with it!!! monsieur crumplesnatch simply does not have the RANGE!!! they’re PARTNERS, he cares about her opinion more than literally anyone else's, when he thinks joan’s in danger he goes apeshit and so does she when it’s the other way around, they co own a tortoise!! he named a new species of bee after her!! she forcibly socialises him into acting like human being sometimes, he actively tries to be more considerate, she doesn't take any of his shit and they fuckign just,,,, get each other!! purely platonically!! god the found family of it all....the dynamic is so good lads it’s so good watch elementary

5) new girl - nick + winston + schmidt

they’re so motherfucking stupid i am obsessed with them and their dynamic. “would you consider us adorable?” “winston, we’re adult men, we’re cute.” the entire gave me cookie/got you cookie exchange, the fucking guys night episode where nick teaches schmidt to do laundry and winston to read a ruler, the flash cut in the same episode from nick saying “what, we’re just gonna sit around and talk about love?” to them under a makeshift tent in the living room drinking sangria and crying as they all sing i wanna know what love is. stunning.

6) honorable mention interview with the vampire louis + lestat

are we not all craving family so badly sometimes we’d fully just turn someone into a vampire so they’re forced to stay with you literally forever?? would you not turn a child also into a vampire to force your unwilling husband to stay with the family?? wouldn't you too, burn your entire home,, simply to get away from your family?? 10/10

#brownbicon #rags i enjoyed this immensely thank you #replies

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pisceansimmer · 5 years ago

Text

How to Custom Content...

Dear Followers and Readers,

I haven't written anything about the Sims in a while and thought I would. This post is a follow up to my How To CC posts.

Sims 4 CC Tips #1

Sims 4 CC Tips #2

The reason I am updating my above posts and adding new information is because I joined a Facebook group and I see that a lot of people are clueless about how to use custom content so this post is for the newbie to the average Sims 4 user who might not know this info I am providing. I do not think I am a pro by any means. I just want to help those who might not know as much as me. If you know more feel free to comment or pm me info so I may add it to the post.

Read more below for the rest of this post. It might be updated in the future and well there is a lot to read so the information will be below the cut. Piscean Simmer

As a disclaimer, I will be talking about a wide variety of tips. I will be providing my own personal experiences, but I will also be providing strickly information that can pertain to how and where to download certain custom content. For example how to get Early Pateron releases for free. I am not writing about that topic to anger any of the early Pateron creators. I respect them and I myself support some of them monetarily. I am only writing about it to provide more information for my Followers and those who read this post. What you do with the information I provide you is up to you. I am only putting it into one post when the information is already out there.

Tip #1 How to organize your Custom Content.

The better you organize your custom content the easier it is to go through it when you need to, to clean it out or update it. I know a lot of people think that this is just a pain in the butt and it can be, but it will save you a lot of grief in the future.

Here is a photo of how I have my Mods folder set up. You can set yours up however you want. This is just how it helps me stay organized.

Here is how my CCWoman folder looks upon closer inspection.

Not all of the folders have more folders in them. The makeup folder does have more folders and so do the Accessories. They only go one more folder through max.

Please note do not go more than 3 folders deep for Script Mods and I recommend not to for regular cc as well. The Sims 4 can only see scripts no more than 3 folders deep. That is why I have my modders I have a lot of stuff from in their own folders. Also, you will see that I have no spaces in my names and no symbols except the Better Body folder. By putting the !!! in front of that folder I am making sure that it is read first when the files are read when the game loads. It is what the creator recommended. The reason why I have no symbols besides that and no spaces will be covered below in Tip #3 more.

Tip #2 How to deal with bad CC.

Have you ever seen this before?

It's not a very pleasant look. What it means is you have BAD CC. You can get bad CC from a few reasons. First the CC is out of date and secondly, you have the recolor and are missing the mesh. To a new CC user, it can be a bit frustrating unless you know how to correct it. You will need to download The Sims Tray Importer. This Sims Tray Importer will help you to figure out what CC your sim is wearing exactly. It will also help you when you wish to go through your CC and get rid of items you may not want anymore. Here is a VIDEO that will go into more detail on how to use the program for fixing and deleting Cas CC. You can also use this program to go through your CC objects as well. You place the items you do not want on a lot than you save the lot and you can go through it and delete as the video shows. If you are looking for the missing mesh you right-click on the file that you are missing the mesh and you can Find on Google. It is a very helpful program.

Tip #3 How to speed up your load time.

Face it some people just really love CC and they download a ton of it. I have heard some people say they have 60 gigs or more of CC. Well, all that takes a while to load in your game. This tip I'm about to tell you helped my load time personally. I have heard it hasn't worked for some but it did for me and I feel it is worth sharing again. I first posted about it in CC Tips #1, but I have learned more about why it helps since then. I'm not really sure why it didn't work for some people, but I think it has to do how they used it. My tip is to use Bulk Rename Utility. This allows you to get rid of all the .*&! and other symbols in your packages name. Here is a LINK to a video on How to Use Bulk Rename Utility. I recommend making a backup of your Mods folder before you do it. Now my second tip is to only change the name of Cas and Object Files. Leave the MOD and Script names alone! They might be programmed to work with each other by the name they are when you download them. Also for me when I update my files and drag and drop the new files it helps if the files have the same name so you do not have multiple names of the same program. I cover more about updating in Tip #6. By renaming the files with no spaces or symbols it, in theory, gives the game less to read as I previously thought. The real reason is thought that it is because in the Sims 4 only 0-9,A-Z,-,and_ are recognized as proper coding. By getting rid of the extra symbols you make it easier for the game to read the files which will make it faster to load.

Tip #4 Merge the right way.

If you are unaware of what merging is it can help clean up your Mods folder and keep you better organized. It also gives your game fewer files to read when your game loads which can make load time faster. Here is a video on how to Merge package files. Here is the link to the Sims 4 Studio the program you will need to use to merge package files.

Please note merging package files has risks and you should keep a back up of your files until you figure out for yourself what works and doesn't. Also, do not merge mod and script files. Only merge cas and objects. Also, don't merge merged packages together.

A lot of people merge a ton of random package files together in hopes of speeding up their load time. You will watch tons of videos that people do that. The video I shared does that. I personally do not recommend it in any way shape or form. If you want to keep your game clean and bug-free you should think of how to merge your files in a proper way before you go and just merge them all together. By merging them together it makes Tip #2 much harder. Yes you can unmerge the package files now, but to me putting a ton of random stuff together never seemed worth the frustration in the long run of fixing it if you need to. I recommend only merging sets and pieces that go together.

Tip #5 How to Categorize and Batch Fixes.

This tip is not required for your game to work faster or to organize your Mods folder. This is something that personally drives me nuts and will help Tip # 2. This tip is to help with your actual gameplay in Cas. Not all creators properly categorize their CC packages. With the new pack of Seasons, it also has impacted older CC categories. To fix where you find your CC in Cas you have to manually fix them. To do this you will need Sims 4 Studio. There are batch fixes for some of the categories and I will cover that below. You will need to open each package by itself and change the categories to what you want them to be for your gameplay. I personally open each file before I even add it to my game or merge to make sure it is to my liking. Yes, it can be very time-consuming. But it brings down my frustration when I use Cas. To fix this when you have the files in your game already you can use Tip #2 and put the items on sims in Cas you want to fix and use the Sims Tray Importer.

This tip is what you personally like or don't like as I said. For me, I do not like random cc on sims. CC can make your sim look great but randomly not so much. I mean look at how bad some outfit are from the actual game content. To fix this you can go through each file or you can do a batch fix and set cc not to random. It as I said above will help with Tip #2 when you go through the cc you do not want and don't delete something you do. Here is a video on how to do use the batch fix and what batch fixes you can do.

There is a warning about batch fixes and the video does touch it. It can not work on your merged package files. It can also break your CC. These are very unlikely to happen but it is why I always say to back up files before you do anything to them. Sims 4 Studio will have its own back up for you when you batch fix incase as well. To prevent this I only use the batch fix on mods with Cas items added and manually fix the files before I put them in my folder.

Tip #6 How to update.

Sometimes I make sure my custom content is updated once or twice a week. Sometimes I do it more and sometimes I do it less. It all depends on how much time I plan on playing the Sims 4. Tip #1 is how updating is easier for me. You generally do not need to update your Cas CC or Object CC on a regular basis. For me, it is my animations for Wicked Whims and my gameplay mods. By keeping the CC updated you will run into fewer errors and smoother play. It can be time-consuming but if you have a solid organization already it doesn't take long at all. The files you have to make sure you keep updated more regularly are the gameplay mods. The ones that add to how you play your game. I'm sure a lot of people just add a mod and don't really think of it till there is the dreaded big updates which I will also cover in this tip. It is important though that you keep an eye on what has been updated or not.

You, in theory, don't have to update all your mods if there isn't an update. There are so many talented CC creators out there though that are always working on their mods and will put out a new version of the mod. If you are fine with what you have then don't bother updating til there is a need, but the new changes that creators make add to your gameplay. Plus a lot of creators mods tie into each other. So if for example Wicked Whims updates and you only update that then you might get errors from the ones that work with it. From my experience, this doesn't affect the animations when the program is updated. So when you download a gameplay mod make sure you know how it works and what it does and doesn't work with. So know what you have for mods.

When you want to update them you can go to where you downloaded them in the first place and see if they have updated. A lot of creators have their own way to let people know of updates. Make sure you also read how they recommend updating the files. Some mods require deleting old save files of the programs from your Saves. Some recommend removing old files and putting in the new files when you update. Some creators say copy and paste or drag and drop are fine.

So for the dreaded big updates. These happen when there is a new EA Content coming out or they are fixing a problem with the game. When this happens make sure you take out your mods folder before you update and start once. I leave my Cas and objects in my folder but I take out all of the mods especially. I haven't had any issues, but if you are not comfortable with them in the Mods folder when you start your game after an update take them all out. Make sure you remove the files that the creators say you should when you update as well. Do not try playing the game with them not updated in your Mod folder or it can cause your game problems. I have heard of it causing a wide range of issues from breaking a save to your whole game where you need to reinstall it. I personally make sure I have a copy of my Tray, Saves, and Mods folders in another folder before I update. After you have started the game at least once you can start adding back your mods. Only add ones that you know have been updated to the newest patch. If you want to wait to make sure that all your favorite mods have been updated before you do the update you can do that as well by playing in offline mode.

If you update and do not have all the mods you usually have I recommend making a new save until you have all the mods you usually play with. Or you could do as I have and have a Test Save that it's ok if it gets messed up. This is generally the save I use for Tip #2. If you open a used save without all of the mods you had you can loose some of the settings you have made for some of the gameplay mods. For example NPC Control Mod By Paulson if you open a save that you used the mod in all the changes you have made will go away. MC Command Center does not have this problem because the setting are universal for all saves. Wicked Whims has its setting in the mods folder that you do not remove or update. This allows the mod to share setting with other worlds. This is why like I said it's important to know what mods you have and how they work.

Tip #7 How to find Custom Content.

This section is why I put a disclaimer above. There are many ways to find custom content for the Sims 4. If you are reading this post then you already know about Tumblr. There are many other places as well.

Here are some of the more well-known sites:

Tumblr

There are many Sims related Tumblr pages within Tumblr to have just one link for the site to go to, is impossible. There are many CC Finds pages that are on the site. The CC finds page that started it all as far as I am concerned was Lana CC Finds. The page is still there with a ton of CC but she has since stopped posting since Tumblr started the NSFW ban. Some people have moved to NewTumblr because of it. From Lana ashes, there have been many pages that are strictly CC finds. Here are some of the more popular and useful ones.

Maxis Match CC World

Maxis Match 4 Sims

MM Finds

Love 4 CC Finds

Sims Creator Community CC Finds

Lost CC

Simblr Direct

Build Buy Finds

Here are some Alpha Finds pages I found as well. I do not do alpha so I am not sure which are the most popular.

Sims 4 Alpha Finds

Sims 4 Alpha CC Finds

The Sims Resource

You can join the Sims resource for a small free a month for unlimited downloads with no wait or you can wait 10 seconds per download for free. The site has a large selection of custom content for all 4 Sims games. All the content is uploaded to the site by the actual creator.

Mod The Sims

Mod the Sims is like The Sims Resource as far as all the content is uploaded from the actual content creator. There are no fees with downloading and no wait. It also gives you a page where you can see what you have downloaded and if you have the latest update of it. I have noticed though that a lot of the top creators have moved over to their own Pateron pages. I will explain that more below.

Sims 4 Studios

This site is set up like a forum for the Sims 4 Studio program. This is a great place to learn about how to use the program and ask questions. There is a Creators Studio where creators upload their content into a post for you to download from. For some creators, this is the only place where they upload the content. For example Andrews Pose Player.

LoversLab

This site is an 18+ site. This site has to do mainly with the Wicked Whims mod, the animation and other adult content creators make.

Pateron

There is no link for this site because each content creator has their own page just like Tumblr. This site is a site where you can pay a monthly membership for the content the creators releases. The monthly fees depend on what the creator sets them at. When you become a member you are privileged to early releases before the content is publicly released. I’d like to say that all the creators release their content after a while but some don't. I have seen the general rule is two weeks, but it depends on the creator. Some creators use the site as their own webpage to keep people updated on their content and have everything for free. They do have monthly donations if you wish to support them but there is no fee in content release to the public.

L'UniverSims

This site is home to the Sims Tray Importer program. The site has articles about the Sims, downloads, and forums. All the content is free and there is no download wait. It is a french site with other language translations. There might not be as much content as some sites but it is worth looking around for new content that you may never have seen before.

Naughty Sims Asylum

This site has a lot of the creators that have been creating for a long time and some only add to this site. For example CoolSpears. This site has content for all of the Sim games. Check out the INPATIENT CREATORS for what they have to offer. You must join the site to view content but it is free to join.

Simsdom

I won't be putting a link to this site read HERE and HERE as to why. I will explain how it works a little. It is trying to be like The Sims Resource. The biggest issue with this is that not all of the content that is on the site is voluntarily uploaded onto the site. Read the links I put to understand how this can cause issues within the Sims community.

Some Honorable Mentions:

Pinterest- A great site to find CC but not usually thought of.

YouTube- There are a lot of simmers who have youtube channels. Some do speed builds, CC finds videos or mod reviews.

Other blog sites- I personally only have a Tumblr so I can not say more about how the other the blog sites work when it comes to The Sims, my assumption is that it is a lot like Tumblr. Some creators have a Tumblr and another blog.

Above I told you of more of the mainstream sites to find content. I'm sure there are more out there, but I can only put so many in one post. I am willing to take suggestions on other sites to mention though. Below I will post about the not as mainstream sites. There are only two that I will post about but they could make some creators angry, but they are part of finding CC and I am writing a post on CC.

The first site is Down with Pateron. This site is updated every Sunday. It includes early released Pateron content for free with no membership. The links to downloads are provided by members of the creators for others.

The second and last site I will share is a forum page. It is called The Sims 4: Mod Collection. It is a forums page with a Mega folder of Pateron only content. They have a Discord as well that they share downloads with each other. You have to join the site to view the forum post but it is for free. The post will give you info on how to get to the Mega folder and join the Discord server.

I hope this post helps you all. It has taken me two days to write and I have a feeling I will be adding to it in the future. Enjoy Piscean Simmer

#Sims4CCTips #the Sims 4 #sims 4 custom content #Sims 4 Mods #myposts #mypost #ts4 #ts4howto #ts4information #ts4info #ccfinds

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alternativewinxcontinuity · 5 years ago

Text

Don't mind me, just losing my mental sh*t

Has anyone else ever noticed it always seems to be the people who’ve never written/posted anything that leave the most unnecessary (and often meanest) comments?

Or the people who themselves write like they haven’t hit puberty yet but feel like they can comment like a professional editor by giving advice that is exactly the opposite of what they were just saying needs to be fixed?!

Not Winx Related, I just really needed to vent. I got a shit review on a non-Winx Story and as I bitch a little about that I'm finally taking the time to address a review I got on my GOT fic, which turned nasty that I want to pick apart, but not to his face because he is not the kind of reviewer who should be interacted with, so I'mma dump it here. (Rant un-beta'd.)

Like? You really want to leave a comment on chapter 2 of a part 30 chapter fic that you haven’t read saying shit like:

“I don’t see the point its basically a rewrite”

When, had you read even one chapter on, you would have begun to see the divergence that is about to slowly snowball out of control while the universe does its best to stay on track. (yes the 'its' typo is review accurate.)

Like buddy, I get it, you've never written anything in your life and you think this is okay to say to someone because, and this may surprise you: you're an asshole.

"The point" was that it was a fun idea, "the point" was that I was enjoying the crossover and figuring out how everything could go wrong by replacing a single major part, "the point" was many, many other people found it hilarious and so did I. Not "the point" but it was also a version of Harry Potter not written by a fcking TERF.

Or:

'This Character is just really out of character, you're doing a bad job of writing him.'

Okay *goes to check their fics to see how they wrote him to see if she can figure out where reviewer is coming from. they have no fics in the fandom.* 'hey reviewer, you say he's out of character, how would you go about fix him so he's more in character?'

'Oh well, he's just not very *season 1 characterisation despite the fact he's explicitly stated to be season 3 end of his character growth story arc*, you should have him do *a thing that is something he would never have done even in season 1*'

Or shit like (and this is a long one from 'Richard' who hid behind the Anon function):

"This is a great fic. It's surprisingly difficult for me to optimize the protagonist. So first,"

Like? excuse you? why would you need to optimize my character?

"I really hope Sansa chooses to mine the metric tonnes of valuable honey and wax from that beehive once she gets her inventory."

So I hate to admit that the honey and wax would be a good idea, and she will be getting a boon of that, but it will be because she'll be getting Bee Hives later, not because she'll think to strip mine a people in dire straights.

"Also, she has valyrian steel claws, which she now knows can dig into the rock very easily. Those crumbling ledges? She can dig new ones, she can dig a staircase. She can widen the entrance so that her soldiers come in to help mine the liquid gold. Especially since she appreciates the difference between currency and goods. Of course, maybe she'll establish diplomatic relations instead."

So I am going to look so fcking petty when I finally get the next chapter out, because I actually addressed this idea with reality. Trust me, I did some research, and while there's almost nothing easily found on how long it would take to do this sort of work by hand, what I found supported the idea that it's stupid. It takes (and I shit you not) literal days with a team of men using hand tools to carve through even a few metres of rock (the exact time depends on how hard the rock is and how large they make the opening/area).

Sansa would be literally clawing at the walls with her nails which, while yes they are Valyrian steel, are still attached to very human fingers and arms. and here's where my first hand knowledge kicks back in: I went on a mock archaeological dig when I was in high school, I spent several hours scrapping layers of compact sand to uncover artefacts, resistance levels aside, the repeated action is hell on your muscles, Sansa would spend as much time recovering as she would digging. to get all the way to the entrance would take her literal years with Richard's suggested method.

PLUS: the point of the adventures is for SANSA (and Arya) to have the spot light, to be forced to think and find ways to use the new Abilities they've been given, or to come up with new ones. It's part of my whole "Power is Earned, or it is Corrupted" mentality, if you don't work for it, you will sooner rather than later abuse it.

AND: of course she's going to use diplomatic solutions, she's Sansa, and that's what the clue of foreshadowing was saying! Literally everything you need to know to solve the Dungeons is in their individual clues!!!

"Secondly, medieval people already had long-lasting torches which burned for hours and hours instead of 5-10 minutes. Each torch looked like a pillar or stupidly elongated torch that was carried with the tip lit and burning down like a candle. They also didn't use candles as those were too expensive. They used rushes soaked in fat which could be made by the dozens to hundreds with a few hours' work. There's a youtube video on this subject entitled medieval misconceptions: torches and candles."

Oh. My. God. Such. Valuable. Information. If . Only. I had. Known. This. When. I wrote. about. reed candles. in this. very fic.

Literally of the four times I used the word candle, twice it was explicitly 'reed candles' (and guess what other name rushes go by?) and once it was a metaphor specifically about the smoke and not the candle.

As for the pillar candles, the ones that burn for hours are too heavy for someone of Sansa's size and arm strength and the hour candles, (if you've ever seen Avatar Last Airbender, the candles they used in the Secret Tunnel) are unwieldy and aren't so good for putting down in a way that doesn't risk them going out. (Putting them far enough into a wall sconce that it won't topple back out makes it very tricky to remove it.)

Which, why even bother with torches that are more effort to obtain when Sansa's powers make the 'advantage' obsolete anyway!? Not to mention: Displayed Content! If a show uses something even in the background, it exists in that world. Wax candles aren't that rare. (Also side note, because I do my fcking research: the majority of hives which supply the honey and wax to Westeros are owned by the Maesters of old town.)

"I don't really care about those things though. The latter is a mistake literally everyone makes and I didn't know was a mistake until a month ago. Which goes into my third point, how Sansa could optimize things."

Then why bring it up, especially since I didn't technically make said mistake??

"At this point she knows she needs people and she's already given her powers to someone trustworthy. She also knows that healing is a power she can give. And she knows they're going to need this at least as much as medics. And there are indeed people she trusts whom she hasn't approached with an offer of power. Ned Stark, Catelyn Stark, Lyra Mormont of Bear Island, and Tyrion Lannister. Tyrion Lannister can wait but not forever. Lyra should be approached as soon as possible."

NO. Arya was the exception, not the rule, Sansa isn't going to just go off and give her god-blessed powers to anyone else. I was hesitant to give it to Arya as it was, and only let myself because I could use the 'Arya's God is Death, there's more stakes than you thought' to fully justify it.

Tyrion as he is can't be trusted, and future Tyrion chose Dany over Sansa, neither Sansa nor Arya know how his story ended, so as far as they are concerned he's a good ally, but not actually trust worthy enough for this.

For those of you confused, Lyra Mormont is one of the daughters of the Lady Maege Mormont, and one of Lyanna's sisters. Lyra got maybe two mentions in the books and nothing in the tv series so I can only assume Richard meant Lyanna, who is currently 2 years old! But we'll come back to this, because Richard sure did!!!

As for the medic thing, I really hope Richard meant he was fcking off for good in his final word, because if he comes back, I really don't want him to think he's responsible for the medic corps that I've been planning and attempting to foreshadow with Sansa approaching Luwin, and Beth and Jeyne following Sansa's lead with archery.

Like, oh hey, guess which unfortunate field medic bride of a Stark might find her way to Winterfell if she hears about young women being trained in some basic healing to help Maester Luwin deal with any cases of over flow of patients. That's right, I'm planning for triage nurses! No magical powers required.

"I assume she's going to get glass from Lys through the Tapestry of Doors. For that she's going to need tokens. She's going to need tokens for everything, and she already knows it. So collecting and hoarding tokens should be a big priority for her. And that means going places where there are tokens to be got. Places she hasn't gone to yet, like The Wall and Bear Island. Just to get tokens."

No. Again, just NO! Sansa already stated that Tokens and relying on them were a thing that would come back to bite her, she'll horde them as she finds them, but she's not going out of her way to find them because she has things to do! Also: the Tapestry of Doors was a piece of Flavour text for way late in the fic if it ever came back, and like a Stargate, requires one at each end, so someone would have to travel to Lys anyway, which is dumb when Sansa now has a Loom which can copy any 'raw' material, and the ability to convert that 'raw' material' into any object she has the blueprint for, which she can get by 'scanning' with her console.

She just has to put 2 and 2 together!!

"She also knows there are dungeons in each place, and that she needs to get to them. And that it's better if she gets in with people. Like people Lyra trusts to whatever dungeon is in Bear Island."

The thing about the Dungeons is that the whole thing is for Sansa, some of them will have special requirements, but very few of them are crucial, they're just there so Sansa has a place and a trial to obtain Unique Items of game breaking power or ability.

"The last way to optimise her powers is one I don't think she'll take even though it has a lot of benefits. Going with a squad of soldiers into the Dreadfort's dungeon in order to confront the walking dead, with hit and run tactics slowly draining the population there. The main benefit and reason to do this is to harden and blood the soldiers to prepare them for the Long Night, so she should have the soldiers on rotation in order to expose as many as possible to the horrors to come."

Problem is the undead in the Dreadfort Dungeon aren't the same as the Wights and White Walkers, they can just be killed in the same ways. The idea of these kinds of fics is that by the time the Long Night Comes, Sansa and Arya can do most if the heavy lifting. You are right that Sansa wouldn't risk her people for some EXP though.

Sansa will be going back though, there's a pair of Shears and Needle in there.

"Also, the loot should be great. Perhaps another loom. But I would do it even for more bobbins. Or nothing at all."

Literally the Loom is a one off item. It is super powerful with what it can do in the context, so having more than one would ruin the power balance I've been trying to keep between Power Fantasy and OP Bullshit.

Someone of course pointed out that (Richard said Lyra, but responder said Lynna) Lyanna was currently literally 2 or 3 years old, she can't do shit. (they also brought up that 2 (actually 3) characters had already declined the super powers, because it included bad timeline memory downloads.) Guess how Richard took that?!

If you guessed "not well" you get a cookie!

Seriously, I was kind of annoyed at his review because^^^ reasons he was wrong about stuff, but also the arrogance of 'telling me how to optimize my character' was just, icky, so I was just going to ignore him.

But then he went (in response to the other reviewer):

"(snort) I think you need to recall what Lyanna Mormont is like at 10 years of age. She is a force and she is in charge. And what exactly is your objection, that Sansa needs consent or is preserving innocence?"

No moron, the objection is that she's literally 2 or 3 years old, what the fck is she going to do in her tiny little body? But yes, now that you mention it, Sansa (was assaulted and lost her bodily autonomy, she) would place a huge amount of importance on consent, it's one of the reasons she was so upset by Arya taking advantage of her sleepy state to get her to agree.

"Lyanna Mormont wouldn't care. Jon and Robb care, that's why their sister cares. Lyanna would never thank Sansa for trying to preserve her innocence, keep her ignorant, or keep her weak. She would be insulted."

Lyanna is literally 2 or 3 years old, she doesn't know enough to care or be insulted by not being told that she's lost the chance to remember several years of horrific shit before being violently murdered.

Also I notice you didn't say anything about the name correction. Got it wrong the first time did you?

"Which leaves only respecting Lyanna's will. Or her mother's will maybe. Or at least informing them of what she's decided to do before she does it so they can prepare. But Sansa gains nothing by not asking."

And what would she gain by asking? also nothing. Lyanna is 2 or 3 years old. Also the fic isn't about her. Why would Sansa even trust her? The child who thought she could judge Sansa for being unable to stab her way out of some horrible places? who scorned Sansa because she was femme? Because Sansa's strength isn't the same as hers so Lynna decided Sansa didn't have any?

Lynna chose Jon to lead the North over Sansa who had a better claim to the throne, Jon, who spent the entire 8th season saying how much he doesn't want to be king, Jon who legit just tried to walk away from the Command of the Nights Watch.

"And this brings up another issue, the fact Sansa never decided FOR Jon and Robb cuts both ways. She informed them of their choice and she let them make it."

"Sansa didn't keep them in the dark without informing them of the decision she was making for them, as you seem to want to do, since that definitely isn't the right thing to do. Mushroom management is a shit heap."

The boys were already aware that something was up, Sansa had nothing to gain by lying, and she made the offer before she realised the memories were a thing.

"The question to ask a toddler is "do you want to grow up?" it's not a difficult question to ask and it does have a meaningful answer. And that's the problem you have, because you already know Lyanna Mormont would say yes and you want her to say no. That's why you want the question never asked."

"You want to pretend that Lyanna Mormont, DEFINITELY in charge of bear island at 10 years of age, is a gormless wimp like 25 year old Jon Snow who refused to be king and refused to even THINK whether or not Daenerys would be a good queen by constantly uttering the refrain "she is my queen"."

Laynna was in charge because she was the last of her family, everyone else was lost fighting someone else's war. More importantly: she's not even part of the equation? Why would Sansa travel to Bear Island to ask a 2 or 3 year old if she wants to become an angry and traumatised 10 year old in a 2 or 3 year old body which will feel like a prison because she's not as tall or fast as she used to be, because she can't lift or climb or jump or ride or fight like she used to.

And for what? a few super powers she has to ask Sansa for? For mental trauma her family and friends cannot comprehend?

But no, have a look at the part where Richard really started to cross the line:

"No, Lyanna Mormont wants power, wants to grow up, that is obvious. And you're an obstacle in her way. She would hurt you for standing in her way, probably smashing a mace in your knees. And you're so weak that yes you would in fact be hurt by a 2 or 3 year old toddler. She killed a giant and she would have no problem killing you for daring to think you're a giant."

"Stand aside little man and let Lyanna Mormont have her glory."

Now I don't know what this guy's obsession is with Lyanna, but that sounded like a threat to me. Like, who tells people that a fiction character would physically maim or murder a real person just for pointing out said fictional character is 2 or 3 years old?

Lyanna doesn't want power? She's not that kind of person, even if she is fictional? More importantly:

Neither I nor the reviewer were 'standing in her way' because she's a fictional character who's not even in this fic!!!

But his behaviour was pretty shit, so I told him to knock it off or I was going to turn the review filters on.

That went about as well as you might expect.

So I was All:

[I don't know what you think you mean by 'optimize the character' but half of your assumptions are wrong, the rest run counter to my pre-existing plans and I don't care for your overall demeanour. I was prepared to leave your post be, but your recent reply is inappropriate and uses language which runs VERY close to sounding like a death threat, which I DO NOT APPRECIATE. I don't want to be 'that bitch', but I am going to ask you to please be respectful, or I will be turning on the comment filters.]

Because I don't Know if you know this but AO3 has three filters in the privacy tab of every story posted:

1] “Only show your work to registered users”

this means that you MUST be logged in to an AO3 account to even find it let alone read it

2] Disable Anonymous Comments

you Must be logged in to leave a comment

3] Enable Comment Moderation

doesn't matter what you say, with out Author OK, your review will not be showing up in the comment section.

(… tumblr just did that thing again where it refreshes in the middle of my thousands of words of text and loses all my stuff, it is literally making me want to kill myself. Because I have to retype all the responses from the next fcking section. It's my own fault for not just using a word document, but also: fck tumblr? For being stupid?)

So, from here Richard had three options:

1- Apologise and move one

2- say nothing and pretend it hadn't happened and move on

3- He went with this:

“Your Sansa Stark is weaker than canon Sansa Stark. It's true your Sansa Stark has a strictly higher level of ambition than Sansa Stark. But what she uses in order to achieve her goals, her resources, is weaker.”

“She uses actions, capabilities and skills. She uses embroidery, archery, learning (archery), she uses the people she already knows but not strangers. She uses and manipulates the people she can interact with, learn from, act upon. The level of people that is directly equal to skills.”“

She doesn't use language, nor does she use strangers. Strangers are the level of people that don't require interaction but DO require language to deal with. And your Sansa Stark's language is too weak. When she manipulates the maid in the Dreadfort, it's entirely accidentally and unintentionally.”

Sansa has seen what power does to people, she's seen what lies ahead for the manipulators of the world, she's been taught at the side of Cersei and Petyr, and she does not want to become them. For all the horrific things she's gone through, Sansa came out the other side with her compassion intact, possibly even stronger than before.

“She talks to Domeric only because she's already interacted with him, she's been healing him for days by that point. She fakes Green Dreaming to her father because she knows her language is inadequate and will achieve nothing. The way her father and mother treat her, they know mere words would be inadequate. And they would dismiss any words she said. "Haven't we told our children dreams can't hurt you?"”

She doesn't want to interact with Domeric, he looks like the man who violated her repeatedly, killed her brother and sacked her home. She wants to be as far away from him as possible. When she does end up interacting with him, despite being so sleep deprived it's a wonder she hadn't started hallucinating, she manages to win him over pretty easily.

She fakes Green Dreaming because “a god made me time travel” is not only a ridiculous concept but a foreign one as well. Why would Sansa tell her parents that when it would mean admitting to going through some horrific shit, to letting her family down and being let down by her family when Green Dreams are a known thing which explains her knowledge. It's not inadequacy, it's efficiency and an attempt to hide horrible things.

I need to point out that “Haven't we told our children that dreams can't hurt you?” is said by Catelyn in self-recrimination afterwards, and is said specifically to reference the reason Sansa might not have felt she could go to them with her problem was because it was based on dreams. Because what parent would take dreams as a serious threat unless they were a Nightmare on Elm Street survivor, especially since Green Seers have become so rare they've been relegated back to myths and stories by the time Jojen and Bran show up.

“Language requires actions such as mouthing, shouting, tonguing, but actions will never add up to language. Actions are necessary but NOT SUFFICIENT for language. This is why you can't write a single damned sentence with only actions. Try it, you won't be able to.”

I can't take this paragraph seriously if only because of the use of the word 'tonguing'. FFS, he sounds like a small child trying to convince people he's got a PhD. 'If I throw out some big words and phrase them right they'll sound 'academic' and I'll look smarter!

'I know this probably isn't what Richard meant but: Sign Language? Is literally all actions?

(Obviously real language requires thoughts and concepts to be communicated to be a language, but even the most primitive of body movements can express something: I'm hot, I'm hungry, I'm angry, etc. It might not be true language, but it is communication, which is the basis of language, the reason we made language in the first place.)

“Canon Sansa Stark had dreams, plans, and designs on what others have. She wanted to wed a prince, she had designs on the princess position. She wanted out of King's Landing. She wanted Winterfell. She wanted the Knights of the Vale to fight ... FOR HER.”

“People who had never met canon Sansa Stark in their entire lives fought and died for canon Sansa Stark's benefit. For the designs of a (her words) stupid girl. And sure, her initial designs were stupid. And they only rose up to being pathetic. But they were designs, they were dreams, they were plans.”

I need to talk about my interpretation of Sansa for a minute, because that's what I've been writing: my interpretation of Sansa.

Sansa was raised with an idea of how the world should be, not how it was. She was raised loved and protected and surrounded by men of honour. Fed stories of heroes, brave knights and valiant princes, where good always triumphed, or was romantically defeated and beautifully tragic.

She wasn't raised to expect dishonourable men and hidden motives, she wasn't raised expecting a (metaphorical) dagger in her back.

She didn't want the crown, she didn't want the throne, she wanted “the prince” from her stories, who would cherish her and care for her and give her a family filled with love. And yes the pretty dresses and the shiny jewels and the adoration and praise. But she never wanted power, that came later.

Later after she'd seen the cracks in the world and the grime beneath the gilding, when she'd learned friend and foe were often the same, that people with power would hurt her, use her, that she was nothing but a trophy to them.

Sansa wanted power because “if I'm the one with the power, then they can't hurt me any more, if I have the power I'll be safe, if I have the power then I can protect people, if I have the power I can stop people like that.”

But Sansa has never had power, it was always borrowed, an illusion that could vanish at one misstep. She had no money of her own, her blood made her valuable to others as a trade commodity, but gave her no personal power.

When people fought for her, it was never really about her.

Petyr gave her armies so he could win favour so he could use her as a proxy for her dead mother. Brienne fought to fulfil an oath to Sansa's dead mother.

The Men of the North fought for Winterfell, to get revenge on the Boltons. The Wildings followed Jon Snow. And when it was over, it was Jon who was crowned king, not Sansa the one who had to talk him into getting back their home in the first place.

Her parents and Robb fought for her, but their armies fought for House Stark, for the insult Sansa and Arya's capture and Ned's death presented.

“Your Sansa Stark has no plans, has no dreams, and certainly has no designs. She doesn't use language, because her language is too weak and has no power. She doesn't use her emotions or feelings because they are brittle and far too weak to be used. Weaker even than the emotions and feelings of a stupid girl. She doesn't use her mind or intellect because she doesn't cogitate. She uses skills and ONLY skills. To try to fake everything else.”

It's odd that he says this when he started off this response by saying my Sansa was more ambitious than canon Sansa.

First of all: I thought I was making it fairly clear that her goals were: save her family, save the North, stop the White Walkers.

Her dreams are to never be beholden to another man ever again.

Sansa wants her family alive, she wants to be safe and she wants to be free of all the political manipulations she had to sit through in the first timeline.

Second of all: Richard has clearly never been assaulted in his life in any way and I am so fcking happy for him. Really.

Look, people who suffer long term trauma, (or short term, it doesn't matter how long really) are not magically okay afterwards. The idea that sexual assault makes femme women strong is disgusting and so toxically prevalent in movies and shows and books these days its... horrific. You'll notice butch women like Arya aren't typically assaulted to be strong, because they're already so 'manly'. It was a genuine surprise when they tried to have Brienne assaulted, but that was more about showing how much of a 'good guy' Jaime was than Brienne.

You can really tell in several places that the tv series had non-con fetishists on staff.

Sansa is so brittle now, because she feels safe enough to let herself feel the fear she wasn't able to earlier, to work through the panic and the anger and all the emotions she couldn't before.

“Your Sansa Stark plans to use skills in order to change the world. And since it's obvious the world isn't run by woodcutters or farmers or archers or anyone else defined by their SKILLS, she will fail. She will fail abysmally, totally and catastrophically. She hasn't got the slightest sliver of a chance.”

Quick tally: Sansa has managed to convince her parents she had knowledge of the future, put them on track to realising Petyr Baelish was stealing from the Crown, got Stannis curious in Dragonstone, came up with a plan to gain favour for the North by helping to pay of part of the Crown's debt and has begun working on a plan to ensure more food is available for the Northerners when Winter arrives.

Not to mention, (and you'd easily miss this): Sansa has begun influencing a shift in the young women of the North who had previously been influenced by the South.

The thing is, Richard seems convinced its about the looting and the grinding, 'kill enough stuff and you become a God!' but it's not.

“So you stacked the deck in her favor. You put a high tier deity on her side. Now Sansa has a slim chance to squeak out a win, using the power she's borrowing. But here's the thing, it will never be HER win because it isn't HER power, it isn't HER plans. Your Sansa Stark has no plans, but her deity does, even if they're stupid plans of puerile amusement-seeking. So IF there is a victory at the end, it will never be Sansa Stark's victory, it will be her deity's. Because she is only a pawn, a tool, a peon, a minion.”

Richard doesn't seem to understand what the introduction of Arya's God means for the lore. The amount of death from the wars is causing Bad Things in the back ground of the original timeline.

Sansa isn't the Being's pawn, she's their start player, the Being is a sponsor who's giving Sansa the chance and resources to be greater than she was. It's not about 'puerile amusement-seeking', but how do you tell a young woman who's gone through what Sansa's gone through that the fate of the entire human race is in her hands, that if she fails it won't just be her family that falls.

If Sansa thinks the Being just wants amusement, then Sansa will act as she pleases and hope it's good enough, which puts her closer in line with saving the world than if she's actually trying to save the world, because that is a much bigger task than 'stop the issues that got my family killed'.

The Being is only victorious if Sansa is, it's their shared victory.

Now up until this point Richard has been an arrogant tool, but it might almost seem like he's being reasonable. This is where he loses the plot and just starts back on his favourite fall back: threatening people with violence.

“Now generally, when an author writes a protagonist who is a pawn, a tool, a peon and a minion of a higher power, when they write a protagonist who is WEAK, it's because they themselves are weak. Generally doesn't mean universally however, so I had to know. And now I do. You are weak Jasper.”

“You want to convince me of something Jasper. You want to convince me that I'm wrong, that my opinion is wrong, that my position is wrong, you want me to change my mind, you want me to know my plans and judgment are wrong. Because they're in conflict with yours. But how do you achieve this? By threatening me with your borrowed power. Exactly like your Sansa Stark.”

Did he have to google the list of synonyms there?

I don't know what it is about being referred to by name, but it bugs me that he chose to use only a portion of my pen-name like we were somehow familiar, rather than not using my name or referring to me as OP or something along those lines.

Also I really have to disagree that only weak people write about people being weak, but I don't think his opinions of weak and strong match with mine either.

He is wrong, but more importantly: he threatened someone with violence for daring to correct him.

I wasn't threatening him, I was warning him to stop being an asshole or I would disable anonymous commenting.

“You do this because you're weak. And what do we call weak people who complain about strong people's actions when they are the bitches of higher powers? We call them exactly what you "don't want to be", we call them bitches. You are a bitch to higher powers and you bitch about higher powers like me. You bitch about people who can use their intellects. And for a good reason too.”

“You fear my attitude because I am the bitch slapper. I slap little bitches like you all fucking day long every single day. It doesn't matter to me who it is, whether it's my own friends who are bitching, I slap them for it. And you will never ever convince me that you're right. Because you're weak. And because I don't respect bitches.”

Look, I've seen enough therapists of different varieties to pull off some impressive psych 101 bullshit so I can tell you right now: Richard is a man who has never held any real authority in his life, he has mediocre skills at best and often feels talked down to because he feels more entitled than he is and no one treats him like a god for breathing. He refuses to back down when wrong even in the face of evidence and then he pouts because the world didn't shift to match his delusions.

The worst part is I know this, and I know I shouldn't let this bother me. But it does. But it shouldn't and I can tell him to his 'face' via review reply why he's wrong, or he'll know it bothers me, then he'll feel validated, even though he's wrong. And he'll probably threaten someone with more violence and then I really will have to disable anon comments and effectively punish some readers who did nothing wrong.

“So what are you going to do to me that I care about? Stop me from reading your fic? You don't have that power. Stop writing it so that I can no longer learn how your mind works, my ulterior motive? That would be cutting your nose to spite your face. You would suffer far out of proportion to me. I would just move on to some other author. Report me? Go ahead, I don't care. Really, we're done here, so have a nice life.”

Yes I do, literally the first of the privacy filters would stop you from reading, but that would hurt my other readers who don't have an account.

'Ulterior motive'? Buddy, you apparently don't understand how any mind works.

Again: if you don't care why bring it up?

Are you really leaving though? Do you promise?!

“The only thing you could ever do to me is surprise me by ceasing to be a weak little bitch. Or even resolving to not be one. This would invalidate all of my predictions by rising to my implied challenge. That's what I like, win-win. (lol) I'm not holding my breath though.”

I don't have anything to prove to this douche tool and it bothers me that this is bothering me so much!!!! The worst part is, this review came at a time when my attention for the fic was flagging, so I'll never know if it was really this review or not that made me stop writing for the past few months?

Those of you with an AO3 account who drop by my profile to see if I wrote anything interesting may have noticed my recent 'for archive users only' locked fic. I can confirm that yes: to mental detox this review I went and watched a Chinese Xianxia drama that has become my new hyper-focus. Almost 100 plot bunnies are being posted into the locked fic in an effort to purge it rom my brain so I can get back to what I was doing. It seems to be working. I wrote about 1000 words for Episode: Sisterhood this week, so the chapter is almost done. At last!

#just blog stuff #i’m just bitching now #absolute aggro #swearing #op would like to die #not winx or alt con related #i'm just really angry about it even though I know I should know better #eleven pages of op being an angry incoherent mess

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etoiledunord · 5 years ago

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The Magicians S4 Thoughts

Now that everybody has moved on to Good Omens, I’ve caught up with The Magicians. Please excuse my rambling. Many spoilers below the Read More.

Let’s do this (mostly) by character, because that way I’m less likely to forget stuff.

Quentin: For most of the season, I basically didn’t think much about him other than “Oh, shit, trying to keep the monster happy is horrible.” (Seriously, though, random people dying all over the place was awful and I wish the main characters had more of a reaction to that.)

When the whole going back to the past thing happened and he got back together with Alice, I think I kind of got what they were trying to say. It seemed like it was a matter of “life is crazy and good and bad and everything, so make your own happiness.” And, like, I get that it’s supposed to be a self-actualizing thing that’s part of his character arc, but the character arc was kind of oddly placed relative to the main story of the season. Also, Quentin and Alice have so much shit between them in the show that I’m not sure I’ll ever be really convinced by them getting back together.

As for Quentin’s relationship with Eliot, I had kind of expected there to be more of it, based on what I’d seen of people’s reactions. Quentin let the monster do basically whatever he wanted without trying to monitor most of it, and we never saw Quentin appearing to actually miss Eliot. I mean, I love them together as much as the next person, but I totally get how the show producers didn’t think they were writing a story about their relationship.

Quentin’s death was slightly ridiculous. First of all, that spell didn’t have to kill him. If Penny and Alice could get out, it wouldn’t have strained credulity for Quentin to be able to get out. Secondly, I’m calling bullshit on him being permanently dead. I don’t think he’ll be in most of season 5, but the groundwork for getting him back is all there. I have half the fic planned in my head already. That said, I did cry a stupid amount because of the quasi-suicide nature of his death (no matter what Penny said), and the way that all his friends were so upset. And while I can see what the showrunners were trying to do, that doesn’t excuse what they actually wound up doing, and I think people who are pissed off about Quentin’s death are right.

Eliot/the monster: I was surprised at how little the monster was actually in the show. He was almost a subplot, which was not how I was expecting the season to go. He was also surprisingly boring. Like, assuming he wouldn’t actually kill any of the main characters made him way less threatening and more of a nuisance than anything. I did like his little bit of humanity-ish-ness that showed up near the end, though. Also, I’m confused by how the gods could make something infinitely more powerful than themselves, but that’s small potatoes compared to most questions I have about this show.

Eliot himself was also quite absent, which saddened me. I was expecting there to be more of him hanging out in the mind cottage. I missed him. His list of potentially-worst memories was hilarious, though.

Julia: I rolled my eyes last season at the fact that Penny 23 was in love with her, and I’m still rolling my eyes at it now. It’s a forced romance for a character who was on hold for most of the season. That invincibility thing was indeed handy, but I’m glad she’s human again. Her divinity in the books doesn’t translate well to an ensemble tv show, and I actually like her friendship with Quentin, so I like that she sticks around.

The Pennys (Pennies?): I am so mad about Penny 40 being replaced. If they could have Alice be a niffin for less than a season and have Julia be a goddess for barley any longer, then there’s no reason Penny 40 should have to stay in the Library. And the fact that they had to have a sit down between the two Pennys so that Penny 40 could “objectively” state that the timeline was now Penny 23′s just made it worse because it was inorganic. I’m in the corner being grumpy right along with Kady.

I don’t dislike Penny 23, though. He’s a bit more compassionate than OG Penny, but he still has the sass that I like. If he’s going to stick around, though, he needs more of a storyline than being a traveler/psychic and being in love with Julia.

Kady: I honestly thought she was in fact going to die the world’s most ironic death. Not that she would have joined the Library, but I kind of wanted her to ride off into the sunset with Penny 40. Alas. I guess she’s sticking around as the ambassador to the hedge witches, since Julia’s only kind of in that world now. Kady also needs more to do. I’m glad they gave her that bloodworm subplot, and I know it’s hard to keep a whole ensemble at the forefront, but more story for Kady is still near the top of my wishlist.

Alice: Nice to see that she’s regaining her sense of nuance after being a niffin. She was a bit annoying with the whole “Magic can be used for evil and therefore it is evil” attitude. Her attempts to atone have been only marginally less stark, but I did like that she let Sheila go work with the Library. I’m genuinely curious what Alice might agree to do with the Library. Her role in the books was so limited that expanding it to something like the Library in the show might actually work well. I will never understand how she’s persistently in love with Quentin, though.

Margo: If I’d never read the books, I would have loved Margo’s desert storyline. And I did really like it. But the difference between book Janet and show Margo makes it feel just a bit lacking. Book Janet was so concerned about keeping relationships together that she did manipulative things while being scared as hell. Her desert storyline taught her that people will still accept her if she fails, so she doesn’t need to be manipulative, and then it taught her that people who don’t respect her don’t deserve her respect, so she doesn’t need to be scared of losing them. It kind of made her into show Margo. So having show Margo just go remember to be herself was slightly underwhelming.

Overall, though, I loved Margo. She’s uncompromising and she missed Eliot and she was just badass and wounded at the same time all over the place.

Josh: I was not expecting to like Josh and Margo together, but I do. I wasn’t terribly impressed by the sexually transmitted lycanthropy in season 2, but it being an actual Thing instead of a throw-away joke is better. The Quickening was horrifying. In the books, Josh and Poppy getting a happy ending was one of my favourite things, and it’s kind of weird that I’m not so much rooting for that in the show. When I first heard that Poppy was pregnant, I just assumed that Josh was the father, but now I’m really hoping he’s not. Also, I love that Josh stress bakes. I am very upset about him being cursed and potentially dead.

Other characters: Fen being cursed and potentially dead is also horrible. I’m surprised by how much I love Fen. I’m also surprised by the fact that I don’t completely hate Zelda anymore, though I don’t like her, either. I’m kind of sad that they made Lionel and the blackbird into irrelevant bit characters, and I’m hoping they’ll be relevant at some point in the future. Also, hi, Stoppard! Now I want Plum to show up. I love Plum. Also, I am sad about the potential lack of Tick and Rafe going forward. And Abigail.

Other random things: I really hope the whole “mixing elements from different timelines messes with horology” thing isn’t a Thing going forward. God only knows what Jane did to that branch of magic, and having it be a plot point later would be nothing but a headache. Julia as the other monster was much scarier than Eliot as the first monster. I’ve come to accept that the Library itself isn’t inherently evil, just a little corrupt and horrible about accessibility, but I still want to see it humbled.

And that’s about it for now, I guess.

#The Magicians #this turned out longer than I intended #oh well #spoilers

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sssssnakes-and-ssssseekers · 4 years ago

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Alright, that's it. Time to explain in detail exactly why this is my favorite 10 second fight scene in the entire show

FIRST of all...Mirage, an Autobot who hates the war and fighting and who is initially only here and not back on Cybertron as a neutral civilian because of his loyalty to Optimus Prime, is the type of bot to charge Thundercracker and Skywarp despite the fact that there's two of them and one of him (and they're a good team). This is because he's confident in his skill and agility (a fact nicely represented by his special ability (invisibility) which he doesn't use in this scene but which generally suits him much better than outright hand-to-hand combat)

SECONDLY! Cliffjumper is the type of Autobot to charge in underprepared against two larger bots to defend a comrade (they're not quite friends at this point - I figure Cliffjumper was kinda scornful at first, being as he's the single most battle-hungry Autobot there is and Mirage isn't too big on the whole million years of civil war thing, but this is the beginning of like, the greatest friendship)

Also note Thundercracker and Skywarp tossing Mirage off the bridge in perfect sync

Cliffjumper does this a lot - rushing into battle with little more than his fists (or, uh...several times he's rammed into a Decepticon (usually Starscream) in vehicle mode at top speed). When he DOES have preparation his weapon of choice is laser rifles as tall as he is

Thundercracker, being Thundercracker, is the first to hit Cliffjumper (Starscream's not here (he's off sabotaging Megatron) but he generally prefers ranged attack to melee (except for that one time he tried to beat up Optimus Prime with his fists for...some reason) because he knows his strengths, and Skywarp tends to follow one of the other Jets' lead)

Note Mirage, total acrobat, using momentum to his advantage

Not much more to say here except that Mirage, again, is very light on his feet, and Cliffjumper's recklessness is matched only by his short fuse and his loyalty to the Autobot cause

And again, Thundercracker and Skywarp in total sync - the Jets argue a LOT but they are undoubtedly a perfect team in battle

Again not much more to add, but it's just a great frame

I especially like how he kicks Skywarp in the shoulder but Thundercracker directly in the face because again, Thundercracker turned first

Mirage can do a backflip which makes him objectively the coolest Autobot

Superhero landing!!

Cliffjumper's just like "...huh, cool"

Mirage looks so happy, and he's like...he's very polite and more refined than most of the other Autobots, and the way he offers Cliffjumper a hand up is just so completely representative of everything he is (slight bow and everything - he's well aware of his artifice)

And Cliffjumper's every bit as excited to respect him - "You're not bad, Mirage!" that is HIGH PRAISE coming from Cliffjumper

And then they shake hands! The beginning of a wonderful friendship (...I guess, like, the prologue? Cause I think the actual beginning would be at the end of Season 2 Episode 5, Traitor)

They're one of the more unlikely pairs, and that's part of what makes their friendship so great. Cliffjumper never got to the same level with Perceptor - he barely respects the bot cause Perceptor won't fight - but man he and Mirage are better together because of their differences!

My favorite fight scene in the whole show

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the-trashy-phoenix · 3 years ago

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Supernatural season 8 review (part 1)

Link to part 2:

The first episode of the eighth season resumes from Dean coming back from purgatory and doing a weird spell to bring back also a friend he’s made in there, Benny. This starting in medias res was a bit puzzling, because we expect to see what’s happened in purgatory and we’ll learn only later on that those events will be recalled by flashbacks. It is also quite strange to introduce a new character without any presentation in the first episode, especially because Benny raises some questions in the viewer. As a matter of fact, he’s a vampire who’s helped Dean in the last year proving himself trustworthy, so that he’ll come back through the season, for example having the entire episode 5 devoted to him and his story, to help the brothers. This character is another step forward in Dean’s personal growth as a hunter: as I pointed out in the previous review, in the first seasons he would’ve never become friends with a vampire, but now, thanks to his wide experience, he’s able to distinguish real good creatures from evil monsters. This attitude, which could seem more Sam-like, brings about a sort of role reversal between the brothers, as for some time Sam will be skeptical about Benny’s trustworthiness, maybe just as a reaction to Dean’s lack of trust towards his friend Amy, who establishes a kind of parallel with Benny.

As if Benny’s appearance wasn’t confusing enough, we’re led to question at least on other two points. First of all, where’s Castiel? He was sent to purgatory together with Dean, but he didn’t come back with him. We’ll get the answer thanks to the many flashbacks Dean recalls about his rough year in purgatory: Dean refuses to talk explicitly about what’s happened to Cas assuming he’ll never come back and behaving as usual when he suffers for someone’s loss (we’ve seen an identical attitude about Bobby’s death).

Secondly, where’s Sam and what has he been doing during Dean’s absence? We find out together with Dean that he’s been living a normal life with a girl, Amelia, and his dog. So purgatory and Sam’s life are the alternative objects of flashbacks through the entire season, whose consequential plot is often complicated by continuous switches in time, marking once for all the big difference from the first linear seasons. Sam was the first to maintain the promise not to look for the brother while he was dead, and he thought it was the way Dean wanted him to live. I found it quite strange of eighth-season Sam, as he should be completely aware he can’t quit his hunter life and have a normal one as he hoped when he was younger. Also Dean is comprehensively mad at him, but it is as if Sam lived a kind of illusion he was too tired to let go. As always, both of them have a good point, but this time Dean seems to be more right, because they find out Crowley kidnapped Kevin, who asked for Sam’s help several times, so of course the brothers immediately start looking for him. Throughout the entire season Sam will keep on affirming that will be his last mission after which he will definitely quit hunting, even though deep inside I think he knows, as he knew for the whole year Dean was in purgatory, that’s the ultimate impossible illusion.

At this point we’re introduced to the main plot of the season: the Winchesters are willing to close the gates of hell and get rid of all demons once for all, but in order to know how to do that they have to find both the demon tablet and Kevin, the only one able to read it being a prophet, and making him translate it. When the Winchesters manage to do so, they try to keep him safe inside an abandoned ship surveilled by Garth, not the best idea if you ask me, as he’s proven himself a bit clumsy and naive, but I get that he’s the brothers’ best option being, without Castiel, their only friend and helper.

Speaking of the angel, as I said Dean is no help in understanding what’s happened to Cas, so we slowly learn it from flashbacks. At first he just appears on earth without knowing who saved him from purgatory, but he soon finds out that he was rescued by an angel called Naomi, a kind of a boss up in heaven whose aim is to use him. I’m really starting to hate angels more than demons (I never thought I would’ve said such a thing in my life), angels being so manipulative and subtle, while most of the time demons are simply mean as they’re supposed to. By the way, Naomi uses Cas without his consent to spy the Winchesters and to find the angel tablet. As a consequence, Cas begins to have weird behaviour and to take distances from the brothers, who have more and more doubts about him, especially when he kills Samandriel, an angel who has been tortured by Crowley to get information about the angel tablet (at this point all characters are looking for it in separate ways, the Winchesters, Crowley and Castiel/Naomi). The apotheosis of controlled-Cas is the moment when both the Winchesters and Cas find the angel tablet, which is also one of the highest moments of the season, as Cas manages to break free from heaven control. This is the second time he disobeys orders through an act of free will to follow what he thinks is the right side, which of course corresponds to what the brothers, or maybe just Dean, are doing: this time we feel all the heaven pressure Castiel has on his shoulder, and it makes it even more remarkable that he succeeded in escaping from such a powerful master as Naomi. Undoubtedly Dean’s intense speech about needing him and loving him played its part in Cas’ rebellion, and paradoxically disobeying to angels is one of the acts which contribute in making us think of him as the closest to an ideal angel. Having the angel tablet, Castiel just vanishes on his own in order to keep it safe from angels. As it was predictable, Naomi is so powerful she’s able to find him quite easily, demonstrating one more time that Cas’ idea of solving problems without the Winchesters’ help will never end up well (but apparently he’s too stubborn to realise that). So even when Castiel is alive and on earth, we’re not shown many TFW moments, as they often go separate ways and meet up only by chance or because one of them is in desperate need of help (some fans would say that if they were too close there would be too many undeniable Destiel scenes…).

We have to mention that Sam and Dean are finally able to find out where the angel tablet is thanks to Meg. As she’s in middle between good and evil she gets captured and tortured by Crowley and his demons, but at the end she makes her final choice deciding to help the Winchesters, just as Cas will do, breaking free from what they’re supposed to be and do, and that makes them honourably part of team free will. I honestly didn’t expect Meg to die, and above all I didn’t expect her to die fighting demons, her kind, to protect the brothers’ escape. I appreciated so much the deep evolution of her character, from an evil monster to a victim of evil, and I think one last act of love was a good way to conclude her life, even though of course I was sad with her death.

In this season the authors developed the character of Kevin much more, adding his mother to the storyline. They are a rare positive example of parental relationship in Supernatural: Kevin’s mum is a strong woman whose only purpose is to protect her son, a very difficult task considering how dangerous being a prophet is. I really liked her, also because I didn’t expect a secondary character to have this deep participation in the show. As it was clear from Kevin’s very first appearance, he embodies all the unfairness of supernatural world, as he’s just a victim of events, always in need of hiding from opposite forces who want to possess his power, living in the Sam-like illusion he can come back to his normal life when the Winchesters will manage to close the gates of hell. We are led to deeply sympathise with him and his fight against the evidence that his life will never be normal anymore, which is something all Supernatural good characters quite seem to have interiorised at this point.

Just a little mention to a character that’s becoming more stable, Charlie. She comes back in two episodes: one involves a role play, which fully demonstrates her nerd attitude, while the other one is more about her personal story. She’s now one of the few friends Sam and Dean can count on, both humanly and professionally, as she’s become a skilled hunter, and I hope we’ll see more of her going on with the show.

Before moving back to the main plot, I’m analysing once more the relationship between Sam and Amelia. As you remember, he left her only to follow his brother in his last mission, to close the gates of hell, after which he planned to go back to her and his family life. In addition, the situation is complicated by the fact that Amelia finds out her husband, who she believed was dead, is still alive, so she has to choose between the two men she’s in love with. After some time she decides to go back to Sam, but he’s not there waiting for her: I think he knows that she’ll have a good, maybe even better, life without him, while Dean would be completely destroyed by losing his brother, even though he often suggests him to go and live the normal life he’s always wanted from when he was a child. Of course they haven’t closed hell yet, so technically Sam comes back to Dean because the job is not accomplished, but as a matter of fact this is the confirm their brotherly love is stronger than anything else, and they have nothing else to count on except from each other, even if they sometimes seem to forget it. One example is in an episode about Benny, where he’s unjustly accused of having killed people and Sam wants to kill him despite Dean’s attempts to defend him. Benny’s one of the main problems between the Winchesters in this season and Dean does something really bad to save him, which is just partly excusable as Benny was truly innocent. He pretends Amelia is in danger and makes Sam go directly to her instead of hunting Benny. We already know that Dean isn’t able to be rational when he’s mad and desperate, but I think it was a real cheap shot on Sam, Amelia being his current weak point (and love), and Dean could’ve realised that with a little more empathy for his brother.

In the second part of the season a new storyline including a new member of the Winchester family is introduced. During a leap in the past we get to know Henry Winchester, John’s father, who’s part of a sort of secret congregation of educated hunters called Men of Letters. He’s catapulted, together with Abbadon, a very powerful demon, to the present day, where he meets his grandchildren: at first they’re shocked, but then they help him fighting Abbadon, one of the first demons created called knights of hell. They manage to momentarily stop her by cutting her in pieces, but Henry dies in that moment, leaving his son John alone in the past. The arrival of Henry clarifies to the brothers that their father wasn’t abandoned and that their granddad was a very good hunter, father and person, leaving to John the title of worst member of the family. Moreover, finding out all about Men of Letters, who were completely erased by Abbadon, leads them to the bunker, a marvellous and luxury house full of all the books and weapons a hunter could ask for. They will soon begin to call it their home, and I think it was high time they had a safe place where they could both work and relax, also because I, and surely Sam and Dean too, was sick of all those dirty and messy motel rooms.

As always, the most important turning points are in the last episodes, as Kevin is finally able to decipher the demon tablet: in order to close hell, Sam or Dean have to overcome three terrible trials. Of course they have to decide who will do that and, guess what, they fight about it because they both want to sacrifice and think the other brother has suffered more through the years. I have to admit it’s difficult to decide which one endured more pain, so their decision is Dean just because he imposes it to Sam: they can’t imagine destiny will choose for them, as the first trial, killing a hellhound and bathing in his blood, is accomplished by Sam partly by chance. So Sammy, as his second task, has to save a soul from hell and bring it to heaven: they choose Bobby, who was unfairly put in hell, but Sam and him remain stuck in purgatory due to Crowley’s intrusion. Despite that, this is a very positive moment, first of all because of the unexpected presence and salvation of Bobby, secondly because it allows a final conciliation between Sam and Benny (and as a consequence an improvement in Sam and Dean’s relationship), who goes to purgatory to bring back Dean’s family and in return stays there. It is as if in Supernatural nothing good can be obtained without sacrifice, but this time Benny was willing to remain in purgatory, as his life on earth wasn’t bearable anymore. He seems to be Meg’s double, a monster unable to change his physical condition but willing to redeem and help the good guys: we’ve learnt that staying in the middle is not tolerated, and everyone trying to change his written destiny is necessarily devoted to failure, in a quite pessimistic and deterministic view.

The final trial is curing a demon and making him human again. To do so, they choose their favourite demon, Crowley, and after having him captured Sam starts the cure the brothers’ have learnt from the Men of Letters, despite being abruptly stopped by Dean who’s found out that Sam will die if he completes the trials. I was quite disappointed they hadn’t thought of such a possibility: I mean, I know they didn’t want to die for it, but they have so much experience in the supernatural field that I found it naive of them not to think enough about consequences, also because some characters, Castiel first of all, had tried to warn them.

While the brothers face the trials and their final uselessness, Cass is plotting another closure with a new character, Metatron. He’s the angel who wrote the Word of God on the tablets and who’s been living far from heaven for centuries, but from when Sam and Dean find him, he becomes close with Castiel and together they plan, in parallel with the Winchesters, to close the gates of heaven, in order to erase all problems deriving from both demons and angels on earth. Castiel has to complete some trials, like Sam, as a last rebellion to the place he no longer identifies himself with. However, in the last episode, with a big plot twist, it becomes clear that Metatron’s intentions are mean and he just played Cass (by the way, it seems like he’s always too naive to do something right without Sam and Dean’s help…): he steals his grace, the last trial to definitely close heaven and make all angels fall to earth. At this moment the two parallel plots reunite, with a beautiful but terrifying vision of angels falling like bright stars from the Winchesters’ point of view, at the end of the attempt to Sam’s last trial. So this long and full-of-events season ends with demons and angels on earth, with the gates of hell open and those of heaven closed, good succumbing to evil’s success.

- Irene 💕

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