#And I think a good arc for her to have had was her realizing she didn't always need to be the 'okay' one.

[trrenchertrash]

It’s quite literally indicated right in the title. The thematic question that The Phantom Menace asks is how do you contend against forces that you cannot fully see or understand? In your own words, every character and plot point reinforces this theme. The Gungans are overlooked by everyone only to end up being the unexpected force that secures Naboo’s victory. The Trade Federation is blind to the full threat that Queen Amidala poses because they have written her off as an unaggressive and pliable young leader. She herself poses as two separate characters and surprises everyone with what she has been organizing behind the scenes, doing her best to gain another vantage point from which to observe and operate because she understands that there are forces at work which are hidden from the Queen, and she wants to leverage that same advantage against her enemies. The Jedi too know that they are navigating in the dark; they understand that their vision is clouded and yet they are forced to make decisions they cannot know the outcome of in order to try to stave off the sinister forces at work. Did Qui-Gon make the right choice in insisting Anakin be trained? Has the threat been vanquished with Maul’s death, or does some phantom menace still work against them, out of sight? Like Padme, Palpatine himself conceals his true identity, posing as a good natured politician who worries for his people while pulling all the strings and orchestrating destruction from the shadows. How do you fight against what you cannot see?

All that said, the first 6 films are best viewed as a single story told in 6 parts, and the larger overarching themes are much better appreciated that way. TPM is mainly exposition. It’s like asking what the theme of arc 1 s1 of Arcane is. It’s not that there aren’t any themes there, but it’s more about asking questions than answering them, because the story has just barely begun. TLJ isn’t like that. It was written much more like a standalone film that happens to be part of a trilogy of movies. Rian Johnson had one movie to say what he wanted to say, not 6. This is not a critique, it is a fact; the creators have said that they were not given a planned out story to follow so much as a general idea of what the trilogy should be and do, and each director was allowed to realize his vision in his own way. And that doesn’t have to be a bad thing — I want to emphasize that I have no desire to critique TLJ here. My point is that comparisons between TPM and TLJ are not really even as they hold completely different positions in two narratives that were designed very differently. And yet, you asked me about TPM, which is thematically the weakest of the first 6 films because of what I just explained, and I was able to identify a very clear theme and message anyway. So I’m sure you won’t doubt that I can do the same for any of the other 5 films.

I’m not here to shit on TLJ. I just think that if you have to tear the other films down in order to prop it up, that’s not saying much.

People scream “show don’t tell!” all the damn time, but the second a show actually DOES just show you stuff and make you use your brain to piece things together you scream “bad writing! Bad writing!”

Fuck you. You don’t want a story to “show don’t tell,” you’re literally angry they won’t just spoon feed you the answers on a silver platter.

[generalluxun]

To clarify the previous ask, I confess I have two main but extremely divergent versions on it which makes it hard to specifcy things in an ask XD

One would be: how would you handle a post S3 fic where Chloe basically had this realization:

Chloe: This has been the worst day ever and those stupid Kwami didn't even listen! Chloe (Thinks back to the Kwami and what they looked like & then remembers the "Keychain") Chloe: . . . MARINETTE!!!

IE the starting premise is "Post Miracle Queen Chloe realizes Marinette is Ladybug, how does she respond?"

Idea two starts with the premise that Chloe had the above realization but canon otherwise followed its tracks until at least post Queen Mayor.

So basically, "Post Queen Mayor Chloe has known Marinette is Ladybug for a long time and is about to be sent away with her mother or already has been. What does she do with this information to maybe change her circumstances?"

Sorry if that's still too broad ><

No this is much easier to work with.

For your first scenario, with all canon off the table post S3-

Chloé corners Marinette and demands a Miraculous. Not the Ladybug(having it after you? ew!) and not the Bee(That ship has sailed!) but she demands in her words 'A good one!' Without any support(Fu is gone) Marinette hems and haws and actually does cave. (she doesn't know what to do!) She picks the Rooster(sorry Marc, it's thematic)

Marinette wants to know if Chloe is going to help fight Hawkmoth.

Chloe: Help? Help! Marinette I'm not going to play with your little band of losers. I'm going to be the best hero there ever was!

Enter: Crevecoeur (actual French Breed, and the name is perfect)

We're throwing the whole 'Cat Noir neglect' arc RIGHT in the trash to make room for a new arc. We can instead have Cat Noir & Ladybug grow closer dealing with the new situation. That makes a better transition into a S5 love-square collapse into the final ship.

Instead the 'vigilante' arc is the main throughline of S4 (Alongside the Shadowmoth&new heroes)

Crevecour presents the heroes with unique challenges. She is a hero, but also competition. She doesn't fall in line, but she is still a *hero*. She's both very driven, but also gets into trouble. It's a great way to introduce kids to 'third party' dynamics, which is something ML lacks completely.

The Rooster is a very difficult miraculous for Chloe to utilize, but also a good one for her to have *if* she can. Chloe isn't stupid, but she is impulsive. She *can* be clever, but defaults to short cuts. The rooster gives her the power to have *anything she wants* ... ... ONCE.

So she has to fight against her instinct to 'Gimmie!' the first thing that enters her mind. She has to consider, and weigh what she WANTS vs what she NEEDS.

On the upside for Marinette the *in class* bullying drops. Chloe has a new focus. Who cares about a dinky little classroom when you're a real superhero 24/7?

Initially it's very much frustrations and comedies for all involved, but as it progresses a loose affiliation and some teamwork grows out of it. Chloe realizes that *not* being a dick in class gets more attention and interaction. She still may not like/mingle with the commoners but the antagonism diminishes sharply.

As a part of the finale can have her actually return the rooster to Ladybug 'for safe keeping' (perhaps she almost blabbed her ID while under Risk's influence)

Of course then they all get stolen, and THAT might send things in any number of ways :)

for #2

I think the key here is that despite *everything* else, Chloe never blabbed about Marinette's secret identity.

This doesn't mean she is 'secretly good'. It DOES however mean(especially once Marinette finds out she knew- preferably NOT through Chloe telling her) that Marinette now has to grapple(and the audience!) with the notion that Chloe does have *some* sort of principles in there.

She might have despised Ladybug, she might have wanted to take her down, but she never did it in a way that would even hint she knew the two were one person. She would *not* give away the secret identity. Who else other than Chloe would know just how 'sacred' secret identities have to be? Who else could think 'I'll show them I can keep a secret better than anyone!'

The actual chain of events post Marinette finding out in S6 that Chloe knew are very up in the air. You can take it in many directions. The core idea is that people are more than the faces we see them wear in public. For a show about Masks and identities ML doesn't touch on this very much. Most of the cast are simply 'themselves in PJs' when heroing.

Cat Noir was the starkest example of this, but they kind of flattened him out in that regard. Not that merging the two sides was bad, but we didn't really have a solid self-actualization style story beat to go with it. (I mean, we can't give our boy trapped in a tower with no autonomy having a self actualization moment)

I think an interesting dynamic might be that Marinette knows Chloé knows... but Chloe doesn't know Marinette knows she knows. This allows us to have Marinette be the person reshaping the dynamics on her own terms, giving our protagonist something active to do for once in her own plot 🤣

[suchine-toki]

Thoughts about gintsu in the Silver Soul arc

The other day I saw someone talk about how Sorachi neglected gintsu after the Love Potion arc so here's my two cents (spoilers ahead):

Short answer: Yesn't

Long answer:

The argument was that Sorachi just dropped the ball on Gintoki and Tsukuyo's relationship that he started writing since… her introduction. And I'm not gonna pretend that LP wasn't the last arc that gave them a ton of development. But I think we've to look at it within the series' context.

Love Potion was the 62th arc of Gintama, spanning chapters 492-496. It was the second to last arc before Shogun Assassination, that began in lesson 502. This meant that it was something Sorachi felt he'd to do before he reached the point of no return. In other words, before the end, he'd to develop the relationship between Gintoki and Tsukuyo and give them some sort of resolution.

Said resolution can be interpreted in two ways. Essentially, something could happen in the future, or nothing would ever happen between them. Nada. But that's not the point of this. OR IS IT??

After that, Sorachi had to address major plot points throughout the next three arcs. Gintoki and Takasugi's fight, the Shogun's death, the Shinsengumi disbanding, Utsuro's rise as the final villain, Kagura and Kamui's showdown, the reunion of the Joui 4...

All of these things were crucial to the plot, but took a long time to unfold. Finally, when Tsukuyo reappeared in Silver Soul arc, a lot of time had passed (lesson 620, over a hundred chapters later). And the first thing Sorachi chooses to do is to have her help Gintoki and make a sex joke. Ok, nothing new in this manga, I guess.

But what was surprising was this one heavy panel that people wouldn't stop talking about at the time, because it really left no room for interpretation. Yes, it was Hinowa who said it, but, again, this was written by someone, and that someone didn't intend this to be a light tease.

Sorachi had no need to do so if he'd already closed the door on future possibilities between them and we already knew she'd feelings for him. And yet, he dedicated several pages to showing the struggle she'd with leaving Yoshiwara to go help Gintoki and the rest of her friends in Kabukicho.

In LP she realized she was in love, but she still felt embarrassed and stupid because of it, and Kyuubei had to tell her hey, it's ok. Throughout the series, although Tsukuyo loves Gintoki, she often needed reasons to be with him. Sometimes it was because of her duty as Yoshiwara's guardian, sometimes because she's with her girl friends, sometimes even Hinowa created these reasons. But this chapter addresses how dumb it is. In LP arc, Gintoki was around just because.

In other words, at this point, Sorachi continued to develop their relationship, even after that arc. But did something else happen?

Well, after a while, when Gintoki was resting peacefully on his futon, Sorachi has Tsukuyo conveniently trip over a damn bottle containing alcohol right next to the guy, all during a dialogue explaining how in times of power outages and such, the population increases. So the joke here was that they would fuck and Gintoki would get her pregnant like heyooo? (ch. 628).

But that would be it? Their last moment being a high-caliber sex joke before the end of the manga?

The thing is... the manga didn't end there lol it lasted about 70 more chapters. Here Sorachi once again needed to address some loose plot ends before finishing the series that took priority, like Gintoki and Takasugi's bond and what would happen with Shouyo/Utsuro.

We might think that there're no loose ends between Gintoki and Tsukuyo anymore. We already know she's in love with him, so why bother?

HOWEVER Sorachi once again decided to hit us with something (and quite sappy this time, in a good way)...

When they meet again, there's a flashback in which Gintoki leaves and Hinowa asks Tsukuyo why she didn't follow him (ch. 686). She replies that she decided to stay because yes, she has a duty, but the main reason was to tell him what had happened in his absence... LITERALLY THERE WAS NO NEED FOR IT TO BE SO CHEESY, but then again Sorachi wanted us to know what Tsukuyo had gone through and he wanted Gintoki to hear it too.

This is another way to show how real and deep her love is and how she understands what Gintoki is going through on a fundamental level. Sorachi wanted to show how Tsukuyo knows that Gintoki needed to embark on his journey alone, otherwise he wouldn't have disbanded the Yorozuya. She knows that it's important to him that someone be there and update him on what has happened, so that he feels connected to everyone again. And Sorachi chose that someone to be Tsukuyo, making explicit how she's an anchor for Gintoki here.

This time it wasn't because she needed a big reason or because she felt stupid, it was her own decision, which is huuuge for her and what could happen.

So now that she knows for sure he's in Edo, she's going to help him with everyone else. There's also the idea of endings and new beginnings that Tsukuyo talks about, which could also apply to her dynamic with Gintoki, but that's a talk for another day.

The last thing to mention is when they're at the terminal and Sacchan teases Tsukuyo about the man she loves... You know, the woman who's been stalking Gintoki since the beginning... And it's really dumb, because everyone is saying these heartfelt lines, talking about how they want to reach him, how they want to help him... and Sorachi, instead of having Sacchan tell a dirty joke about herself, like she always does, has her say something about how Tsukuyo should fuck Gintoki, or vice versa, does it matter at this point? (ch. 699).

And it's not just a sex joke as before. Contrary to the sentiment expressed in lesson 620, here Tsukuyo intends to go on living and see Gintoki again, which is something said by herself.

From what I can tell, Sorachi wanted to keep giving their relationship some form of development right up until the end. Even after committing to an open ending, the fact that he kept their dynamic in mind, even with limited interactions, just to push it forward in some way is honestly kinda sweet, ngl.

Tsukuyo isn't a character Sorachi uses a lot, probably because she's not as available as the rest of the cast living in or near Kabukicho. And yet, almost every time she appears, he develops the bond that Gintoki has with her. You can tell that some scenes, heck, even some lines, are quite deliberate to be read romantically.

If anything, we could say that the real problem was that we didn't get much from Gintoki in the last stretch, which I think could be attributed to both the in-universe context of the series and the time constraints and difficulties Sorachi faced in finishing Gintama.

(Sorry this ended up being so much longer that I intended lol.)

TL;DR: It's not that he forgot, Sorachi just had bigger priorities. In any case, he still threw in scenes JUST to show how he didn't forget and develop their relationship a little more.

[yall-hate-kids-tourney]

Asuka Langley Soryu (Neon Genesis Evangelion) vs. Chloe Bourgeois (Miraculous Ladybug)

Y'all Hate Kids: Screwed By The Writers

Propaganda below the cut (spoilers)

-

Asuka Langley Soryu (Neon Genesis Evangelion)

Fandom historically has treated her like she’s an irredeemable abusive piece of shit, despite the fact that she’s a 14-year-old girl in a terrible situation. She’s also not treated the most charitably by the writers.

Chloe Bourgeois (Miraculous Ladybug)

cw: Abuse, neglect, spoilers

haven't been in the fandom in a while so my memory is a bit fuzzy but the writers hate her sooooo bad it's not even funny. she started having a redemption arc where she realized the error of her ways and started working on herself as a person bc she wanted to be a hero and then did a 180° by siding with the villain. writer called her irredeemable multiple times on twitter despite the fact that she's just a spoiled bratty teenager who was also emotionally abused by her mother. her dad gets victimized despite the fact that he was complacent in the abuse and never tried to help her be a better person. overrall what the hell were you guys THINKING!!!

-

SHE HAD SO MUCH GOING FOR HER.... The writers tried giving her a redemption arc but then the creator of the show said that she, a TEENAGE GIRL, was incapable of change and redemption so all of that development was thrown in the trash and she became a shallow character again. Meanwhile, the creator gives a mini redemption arc to the MAIN VILLAIN, who literally ABUSED AND NEGLECTED HIS SON. She deserved so much better man

-

Typical Mean Girl character with an aborted redemption arc. Chloe has bullied the main protagonist Marinette Dupian-Cheng for a very long time. However, in Season 2 there was a beginning of a redemption arc that was wholly abandoned because the new showrunner deemed that a mean girl (who had an absentee/abusive mother and a limp noodle of a father) is evil incarnate and therefore can not be redeemed in good faith. The one good influence on Chloe's life abandoned her at the time of need and the fandom belittles and blames her for reverting back to her abusive ways when really she was left behind by the narrative. Even her own half-sister never gave her the time of day.

OH MY GOD. DUDE.Ok so she was a main (ish) villain within the first 1-3 seasons, but over time she was slowly getting a redemption arc, and we were getting more info about her past, and it turns out she was pretty heavily neglected as a kid (WHICH EXPLAINS WHY SHE WOULD ACT LIKE A BAD PERSON). And then, Thomas "dipshit" Astruc decided to THROW AWAY HER ENTIRE REDEMPTION ARC, AND WRITE HER OUT OF THE FUCKING SHOW!!!! AND THEY *REPLACED HER* WITH AN RANDOM NEW CHARACTER, EVEN THOUGH SHE WAS LITERALLY ONE OF THE MAIN HEROES???? And when confronted about why the fuck he would write that, Thomas said that she COULDN'T BE REDEEMED. Mind you, this is a TEENAGER, and a abused one at that! I'm sorry if this sounds like like a 2010's YouTube cartoon reviewer ass rant but oh my lord ,,,Chloe I could've saved you

-

i havent watched nor caught up in a while, but from what i remember: she started out as a typical 1-dimensional mean girl, but then they gave her a surprising amount of depth?? like she got to be queen bee, learn responsibility as a superhero, she even is one of only a couple characters we know of to actually fight off hawkmoth's power. they were going to really interesting places with her character, and we were all excited for her redemption arc.

...and then they made her a flat villain again, taking away all of her complexity and development, and instead gave the powers and depth to a new sister of hers that suddenly arrived out of nowhere instead. what

[crooked-wasteland]

This Anon makes a point that fascinates me.

I know we all know the Fandom runs on emotional inertia. They really think we just feel a certain way about the show and so when we argue how Stolas abuses Blitz, but then how Stolas also abandons his daughter, they are legitimately confused.

How can we criticize both of those when they seem at odds with each other? They genuinely do not understand that our issue isn't in these choices, but the lack of weight and validation they have in the story. I have always loved the idea of Stolas having emotionally abandoned Octavia since Loo Loo Land due to only seeing her as a small child. This characterizes Stolas as not having been around to be a parent to her for a while. Specifically since she started puberty.

And that is great.

But the whole arc in Loo Loo Land was about bridging that divide and Stolas committing to being more involved in his daughter's life, even as he burns it to the ground. It's his shame incentivizing the relationship with his daughter to become rekindled, and that's excellent. I love the way the episode set this up.

So when Stolas proceeds to keep neglecting his daughter in Seeing Stars, it recontextualizes the message of Loo Loo Land. Stolas said he would be there more, and in fact he is still an absent father. So to have Seeing Stars end with Loona telling Octavia that she should be more forgiving, it makes Stolas, and Loona, a terrible person.

Which to clarify is not a problem.

Which means if that scene had a modicum of self awareness, Loona looking at that lighter shouldn't have been her saying how hard "Dads try" but rather realizing she is terrible to Blitz the same way Stolas is to Via and if she keeps treating him badly, he will abandon her the same way Via ran away from home.

What is the problem is this:

While we are supposed to see Loona as "connecting" through sharing her own feelings about her father, really she is the Stolas of her dynamic with Blitz. She is equally emotionally abusive to Blitz as Stolas is to Via. Not in the same ways, but to the same extent.

This isn't about emotions. We aren't hung up on characters because we think Medrano has it out for them or doesn't like them. We want these characters to be potentially unlikeable. But the story never takes into account the larger implications for how these actions, all actions, have consequences.

Except she kicks him between the legs when he apologizes for doing nothing wrong.

In the same way, the show does not identify stolas as being the problem. And because the show doesn't recognize that how he's behaving is harmful. He has no way of actually growing past that. It's okay that he's terrible but the show needs to know he's terrible.

This is why I keep stressing the importance of world building. Any show that doesn't have any world building, like Hazbin and Helluva, will be terrible. No matter how much talent or effort or good ideas go into them. Emotions are not good enough to love or hate anything. Emotions are fickle, fleeting and highly changeable by context. You can't survive on something so unstable. And the longer you try and manipulate people's emotions, the weaker the effect you have. You need to ground on something firmer than how the characters feel.

You can't build a house on sand, and they are trying to build a city.

Stolas saving Blitzø isn’t the problem, for me it’s Stolas’ lack of moral dilemma and hesitation. Helluva Boss loves slapping the audience in the face of how Stolas loves his daughter/how she means the world to him, show official painted images of Stolas taking care of Octavia, etc. But Stolas for the most part doesn’t show it with his actions onscreen.

Immediately once Stolas found out that Blitzø was going to be executed, he immediately rushes to his rescue. In this moment, he doesn’t think about Octavia. It’s only after Stolas gets stripped of his powers that he now thinks about Octavia.

I know it wouldn’t change Stolas and Octavia’s overall fight but at least it would illustrate that Stolas does cares about his daughter and that she isn’t an afterthought or a meat shield to use against Stella for an argument.

[mintywolf]

A Long Road Home - Page 92 Author Notes

Page 92

The flavor that Imogen/Laura gives to her Dissonant Whispers spell (which inflicts psychic damage and on a failed Wisdom save causes the target to flee involuntarily from the caster) is that she is reflecting all of the pain and noise of other people’s thoughts back outwards, which is a great character detail. Mechanically it’s the psychic damage hurting Laudna, but even though she can tell it’s not Imogen’s voice throwing all those hateful words at her, she’s heard them directed at herself enough to want to run because what follows them is usually violence.

I made a point of using different fonts for Imogen’s Dissonant Whispers to keep them distinct from Laudna’s creepy message whispers. Appropriately enough, the names of her fonts are “Spiritual Lightning” and “Haunted Moon.” (Laudna’s are “Restless Soul,” “Echoes,” and “Witch Girls.”) :)

My original plan was for the cleric (seen back on page 65 as just a hooded eisfuura figure in yellow) to be a devotee of the Everlight but I changed them to a cleric of the Matron of Ravens as a means of preserving some essence of a plot arc I ended up cutting from this chapter because it was just way too long at the script stage. It involved Imogen and Laudna finding shelter from the cold (which they are shortly going to be sent out into, sorry) in a town centered around a temple of the Duskmaven. They are treated kindly there at first, while Laudna is hypothermic enough to be mistaken for a genuine corpse, but once the clerics realize she’s only mostly dead they get caught and Imogen is put on trial for necromancy. This plotline survives in Come In From the Cold (in the most recent chapter, in fact) and, aesthetically, I really liked Sister Iseult, the piebald raven eisfuura paladin who serves as the arbiter of the trial and regretted leaving her out of the comic. I considered including her in place of the cleric here, but since the dragonborn with the gun has already kind of been established as the leader, preventing the cleric from getting the character arc she will have in the fic, I decided it wouldn’t be a satisfying use of a good design. But since the point of that arc was to establish Laudna’s fraught relationship with the Raven Queen (who despises necromancy, which Laudna assumes must include herself, an undead, and not just the necromancer who made her that way) I decided to make the cleric here one of her followers, who is doing nothing to disabuse her of that belief.

Conveniently, there is canonically a notable group of Duskmaven worshipers who wear yellow cloaks, so I didn’t even have to change that, although why this lone member of Paragon’s Call would be so far away from Bassuras is a question I will have to answer later, haha. They could just be wearing yellow to compliment the gold on their tabard.

Speaking of yellow, the rogue was originally supposed to be thinking "Dibs on her bandana," which was just a silly throwaway line (like obviously it's part of her character design she's not going to lose it in a prequel) but since I forgot to work it into her outfit in the previous scene I had to change it to the bounty hunter planning to steal her coat, which Laudna made for her, and now it comes across as a lot meaner than intended.

[thefandomenchantress]

I NEED TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR ACE WRITING HEADCANON RIGHT. NOW.

Oh okay! Well, I already made my original crack theory in this post. In it, I assumed that Ace would live for a while longer, and since Ace can't really have a happy ending as a jockey, I thought maybe they'd set it up for him to have another interest he could pursue, that being writing. I came to that conclusion by using the fact that Ace had a good vocabulary, for seemingly no reason (now that I think about it, I don't think we ever got an explanation or purpose for it outside of a joke). Authors are one of few professions I could think of where a large vocabulary would be especially helpful. And I figured the only reason he wouldn't tell anyone about a talent like that is if he wrote something he thought was embarrassing, like romance. And so, my crack theory that Ace was an aspiring romance author was born (as well as him reading romance novels haha). But yeah, if you want the full theory go check that one out.

While Ace obviously can't have an arc where he pursues his love of writing anymore, I still think the fact that the creator chose for Ace to be the one to make that carousel comment is interesting. After all, him misspelling responsible in his note to Arei would imply he wouldn't have an interest in language, but maybe he's just really bad at spelling and spellcheck is his lord and savior while writing (relatable honestly). Anyways, I think that if anyone, including me, wants to use it as proof he'd be good at English-y things like writing, they can!

I actually made a few different versions of this theory. One fun version I never posted about was a version where instead of being the Ultimate Jockey who happens to like writing, he had two Ultimate talents, the other being the Ultimate Romance Author. But that one was so unrealistic I knew I would never be able to call it an even slightly plausible theory, so I haven't really told the masses about it until now. It felt so self-indulgent that I thought people would think it was cringy. But now I've overcome that, and I will freely write about my stupid ideas haha. Though I'd call this less of a theory and more of an AU.

The AU's backstory would be something like this: So, Ace is writing a book, and (unlike me) actually manages to finish it. He's planning to never share it with anyone ever, but his older sister sees him writing and really wants to read it. After she wore him down for a week or so, he relents and lets her read it, warning her it's very bad and that she will be scarred for life. However, she actually really likes it, and suggests Ace should see if he could get it published for real. She knows that Ace hates jockeying, and she wants to encourage him to pursue his other interests. Ace is, once again, very unsure and doesn't really know if he wants to share it with anyone else, but she manages to convince him.

After they found a company willing to publish it, they did all the book-publishing things like editing and making the final draft and such. And finally, his book was published. However, Ace is very against using his real name and insists on using a fake one. So he picks a generic female name he knows no one will ever think to connect to him as a pseudonym. The book is published, and after a slow start, his sister checks on how the book is doing and realizes it made it to being the #1 best-seller, and her and Ace freak out about it. She's freaking out because she's happy for Ace and his success, meanwhile Ace is freaking out because he's terrified that if it gets too popular people will try to track down the author and realize he wrote it.

Luckily, that never happens, but his book was such an amazing success that the publishing company says they'd be happy to publish another one of his books. Ace figures that he would make a lot of money, and he does like writing, so he tries writing another one. This one is also a success, and so the process repeated until he became a very well-renowned author by complete accident.

Since he's being hailed as one of the best authors of his generation and the 'about the author' section of his book claimed he was within the age range of their program, Hope's Peak thought he would be perfect for their Ultimate Romance Author title. So, they did what Hope's Peak always does: Get what they want through extremely sketchy means. And so, through their mysterious means, they gather information and realize Ace is the author they're looking for. While they were already planning to give him the Ultimate Jockey title, they don't want to let go of the opportunity of being able to claim one of the most successful authors in the current age is attending their school, and give him the Ultimate Romance Author title as well.

Ace could maybe deal with telling people about that title if it was just the Ultimate Author, since he could simply refuse to mention what he wrote and let others think that him having two titles was really awesome and cool and badass. However, Hope's Peak specifying that he was a romance author ensured he would never tell anyone, because they'd totally laugh and tell everyone else in the world and he'd be a joke forever (at least in his mind). Plus, he doesn't want to risk the public figuring out his real name, he hates the idea of being famous, it stresses him out (and he likes feeling mysterious, people talking about him like he's this other-worldly enigma makes him feel cool haha). Hope's Peak appreciates (and perhaps intended) that he won't tell anyone he has two talents, because they don't want to deal with the backlash from other Ultimates who think they deserve two as well. It'd get complicated fast.

And so, Ace was doomed to try (and fail) to act totally chill and casual whenever a classmate mentions "that author" who was supposed to be at the school this year and wonder where/who she is or discuss her books. Luckily, only Whit seemed to notice and he just assumed Ace must secretly like her books or something and teased him about it.

...That wasn't meant to get so long, but that idea has been brewing in my head with nowhere to go for a while, haha.

Anyways, like I said, Ace can't have an arc about liking writing or anything anymore, but I still headcanon him as liking it. He likes writing romance because writing is supposed to be an activity that distracts him from stress, and anything too action-packed or super dark wouldn't achieve that. So instead, it's cute little stories where his characters always have a happy ending and end up together, despite everything.

To him, jockeying always felt like something he did out of obligation and was only good at because of luck or pure determination rather than actually building up skill over time. And of course, it really stressed him out. He likes writing because he chose to do it, and he chooses to keep doing it and improve over time. He didn't just start doing it one day and found it really easy, he had to keep working on it. It feels like it's his, and no one else can take it from him. People can control him all they want, but no one can control this one thing, this one hobby, and what he does with it. He controls what happens in the story, he controls how much writing he feels like he wants to do each day, and he controls if he would ever want to take it more seriously as a career option. And he really likes that about it.

(I also think it's funny to imagine he writes fanfiction, too, he'd totally be one of those authors who writes author's notes like: "Sorry I didn't update yesterday, I fell off a horse and broke my leg :/").

...And that's pretty much it, I guess. I really like this headcanon, if you couldn't tell, haha. Thanks for asking about it! :D

[thecluelessdoctor]

i need us all to be aware I think of Wendy and her family a very normal amount

[druidshollow]

"what would your character be like without their trauma?" is such a hard question for me because it makes me feel like a massive asshole LMAO

(im attaching a picture of a tundra literally to add context to my ramble in the tags because my posts are structured by a sane person) (you should read the ramble in the tags i talk so much about rivers fsr)

[empty-blog-for-lurking]

Me: I don't know what to do with Veronica's character in post s8 au, I don't want her to be Just Lance's sister and Kuron's friend with Pidge's storyline slapped on her, but also I'm not really sure about her character. Sure there's the whole lying to her family thing but I don't think that's enough?

Brain: ok so what if Veronica started out as trying to look for what was Lance upto but she ends up being so obsessed with finding the truth that not only she repeatedly puts herself in harms way but also the original goal falls on wayside.

This could be her way of dealing with trauma which is getting engrossed in the Mission and a problem to fix while suppressing her grief and refusing to actually acknowledge her problems and her own emotions a foil to Kuron's arc that is him being literally driven by emotions. She's angry at Lance for leaving without a word and angry at her family for their clinginess, however she keeps it to herself and just avoid them pretending everything is fine and normal

Also a foil to Lance who started as trying to figure out what was going on but as soon as he realized that 1) Allura and Kuron are still sorta alive 2) he can bring them back, he got obsessed with it consequences by damned.

Plus through her we can actually explore how quintessence actually effects and changes humans rather than become aware of the end result

Also there's something a character who is obsessed with truth but is also such a frequent liar

[finalexpenses]

i will forever think about my deconstructed damsel chapter 3 idea . god it could have been so good

[bibridlizzie]

Absolutely ridiculous that we didn't see Hope Mikaelson kiss a girl ONCE. Like not even in her no humanity arc. Like unbelievable.

[the-best-bagel]

ok final verdict tiger and bunny 2 is really good and a huge improvement on the og HOWEVER. lunatic's ending was bizzare rushed depressing and went against everything his arc was pointing to. like it felt like some hayes code contrived bullshit

[hauntingblue]

Skypiea time

Robin saying that because I know she only got on a ship to then leave it...

Nami sees Conis and gets sanji out of there so SHE can talk to her akdhksajka not a single second lost

Hello my favourite panel of nami maybe ever

Sillies...

CHOPPER YOU ARE THE CUTEST

Robin throws this guy off a cliff and to make just to make sure she breaks his neck too akdjsksk who is doing it like her???

OMG ACE!!!! IT IS TIME!!!!

[cup-o-stars]

Relativity Falls!

Design Concepts (and my unnecessary thoughts):

Excuse the the colors, ig my apps are fighting.

I see Mabel finding success no matter what happens to her, but I really like the thought of her running an insane arts and crafts business in GF. Alternatively, if she fell in the portal, she'd come out acting confident as always, but she probably wouldn't realize how much the constant change and lack of family/stability wore her out until she settled back in. In either case, she's a bit cracked.

Dipper is investigative, but cracks easiest under stress and is not as inherently adventurous as Mabel or Ford- so the portal wouldn't treat him well. If he's not the one in the portal, he'd be into stargazing and real magic to share with people, while also warding tourists away from the dangerous stuff. In general, he'd be an unhappy adult if left to his own devices, lol.

Between Dipper and Mabel, I like Dipper being in the portal more. He's a great protagonist, but as a supporting cast member, he needs to be more insane to match the draw that is 'Mabel taking care of children,' ha. I also love the idea of there being no portal / some other looming threat for these two to struggle with (at least because Hirsche has made it clear that Dipper and Mabel are equally smart, and to me it seems like the portal would reopen way quicker with them), but I didn't plan on posting these and I don't know how my followers feel about me posting lore.

Stanford and Stanley:

Pretty much how they are in canon, but now they're in a setting where they can get over themselves, ha. They aren't quite as mature as Dipper and Mabel were at their age, but after coming to GF, they finally found other people to look out for them. Dipper could be a more emotionally available and level-headed role model (I think having people to take care of is calming for him in turn), and they'd both look up to Mabel as the peak of somebody who knows how to socialize.

Fiddleford:

He's a sweet, southern, farm-raised mechanical engineer just like in canon.

Idk why Fiddleford is in GF (visiting an unnamed grandparent?), but I really like his relationship with Ford in the journal. Following that thought, in this AU, he starts out more of Ford's friend than Stan's, and it's kind of a big deal. Unlike Dipper's arc on learning to be a kid, Stan and Ford clearly struggled a lot with interpersonal relationships / finding security outside of eachother, and that's what I think this AU could be about (it's great they realized they need each other in canon, but the part where they had no one else to turn to is also kinda crazy if you ask me).

Ford gets to meet another smart kid in a weird town, which helps him feel more normal. He has a better idea of what friendship is because of it, but also, since I can't imagine Dipper wanting an apprentice so young/vulnerable/impressionable or Mabel asking only one of the twins to stay- he'd have to come to terms with the fact that he can't live in his dream world forever. (Or maybe the apprenticeship comes from somewhere else, just because the conflict around going back to Glass Shard Beach at all, or sending Stan alone could be pretty good.)

On the flipside, I think Stan's initial jealousy of Ford and Fiddleford's friendship would force him to try finding his own friends / hobbies. I like the idea that he fails at first- and a lot- but Mabel notices his mounting frustration (which he is very keen on hiding), and her consistent and unorthodox support makes him realize he wasn't alone to begin with. He can be more open around her, which makes it easier to open up to others, and then he can make friends without having to pull any tricks. He probably starts with some animals, and then at least gets closer to Fiddleford anyways (I feel like they're both more practical than Ford and value human company more, so they'd bond easier once Stan gets over his personal hurdle).

Anyways- because that was way too much- Mabel's exes are a constant source of antagonists and Dipper is stressed about setting a good example.

(I was more of a Monster Falls fan back in the day, but I can't draw animals, lol)

[lullabyes22-blog]

"I think the cycle only ends when you find the will to walk away."

Got a lot of Q's for this in my inbox. Figured I'd just address them here.

tw: mentions of suicide, suicidal ideation

Re: the ending of S2:

Jinx did not die.

She symbolically killed her old self, and with it, her last ties to the past that imprisoned her. She understood that for her sister to move on and live her life - be happy without guilt - she'd have to renounce the bonds that held them together.

Her talk with ghostly Silco was the 'sign-off' she'd been waiting for, ever his dutiful daughter. Throughout S2, she kept hoping he'd haunt her, and in doing so, offer some impetus given her aimlessness. Maybe just straight up boss her around, and tell her how she's supposed to exist now that he's no longer there to be a (subversive if loving) guiding hand.

But it was the promise of time (as represented by Ekko) healing old wounds, and the courage to feel, as she once had - a hopeful child with a hopeful future - that allowed Jinx to commit impetus to action.

Her blimp-ship in the climactic battle is a tribute to Isha - but also to the child in Jinx's own fractured psyche: Powder. She's letting both little girls have one last hurrah before she takes care of business - and cuts off the last oaths, duties and commitments that bind her to a past whose parameters she's outgrown.

Better still, she knows she's got the capacity to outgrow them.

That was the point of Jinx's arc with Isha, and why, no matter my misgivings on Isha's character herself, I found Jinx's trajectory towards a more nurturing and fun-loving figure more life-affirming and positive than the straightforward 'Daddy's Villain Goes Postal' shtick.

It's even why there's a minigame titled Jinx Fixes Everything. It's Jinx, struggling and stumbling, as she tries to rewrite her narrative, and finds in herself the capacity to do good.

To fix things that seem irreparably broken.

And to understand why she's reached this stage, we've got to let go of our tendency to project our own stuff onto Jinx (precious meow meow, unrepentant terrorist, manic pixie crazypants, edgy hot psycho) and acknowledge the purpose she plays in Arcane's thematic structure.

Jinx's character comes off as a death-seeker, and that's no shocker. She is hounded by terrible guilt and loss. She's got blood on her hands, and ghosts on her heels, and no matter what she does, she can't seem to be rid of them. Her inner mind's fractured, her mannerisms ooze pure chaos, and she seems a creature of pure feral impulse and no mercy.

That's the Jinx we're accustomed to seeing in S1 - except that's also both the front she's most likely to put on during that timeline, and the persona that is necessary for her to inhabit to survive, as Silco's daughter and his top enforcer.

Then Silco kicks the bucket, she symbolically fulfills his dream by shooting at the Council HQ, she accepts that she must inhabit this path of shadows and loneliness (as symbolized by her starkly decorated chair in the tea party scene), she accepts the fragmented push-and-pull between past and present, and...

And now what?

Silco's given her a semblance of direction for six years, and he's gone. Vi, the sister she'd hoped would return, and whom she'd hinged so many childishly idealized hopes on, is herself traumatized, and afraid of what her sister's become.

Jinx has her shadows and her loneliness. Jinx is traumatized. Jinx is suicidal.

But Jinx is still, whatever else, alive.

And all living things need connections.

That's why we as the audience enjoy her little found family dynamic with Isha and Sevika. It's Jinx, taking the first tentative steps to reach out to people beyond Silco and Vi, and realizing, wow, she enjoys the pay-off.

And all throughout S2, we see Jinx growing more and more comfortable in this newfound space - even jealously guarding it at the expense of Zaun's liberty, and Silco's wishes, because she can't bear to lose what she's found.

And what she finds empowers her enough that, when Warwick shows up, she's actually willing to reach out to Vi, and call upon their family connection, because Jinx is learning the value of bonds, not as baling hooks of guilt, but as buoys to carry her forward.

That's the story Jinx's relationships serve to tell in S2. Each one shapes the choice she makes in the finale. Until she learns to accept the past (Vi), to lay the monsters to rest (Silco and Vander/Warwick), forgive herself (Caitlyn) trust that time heals all wounds (Ekko), and hope for happier new beginning (Isha), she'll never trust herself enough to just seize the chance.

Jinx's culminating arc is not about death, much less self-erasure. It's about resurrection, and embracing the sublime chaos of a freed mind, and a lightened spirit. That's what she craves beyond simple death, and what her baptism by fire, blood and riverwater, has been about.

Each trial grinds her down into someone else. Someone new.

Someone closer to who she is meant to be, rather than who she's expected to be.

That's why she's so glad to make the sacrifice for Vi. She's not dying as an act of self-immolation. She's giving her sister - the one who's proven she'll never give up on her - the ultimate gift, and showing Vi that she deserves to live.

She needs Vi to live, so Jinx, the persona, can finally die.

"He (Silco) didn't make Jinx. You did."

She's basically saying, "I love you, I will always be with you, but you are no longer responsible for my actions. Please move forward with your life, and grant me the choice to do the same."

It's two sisters embracing everything they've meant to each other, acknowledging the pain weighing them down on both sides, and welcoming the new so they can each slough off old paradigms and live life as a whole person - or at least take steps to remembering what wholeness feels like.

That's the reason the show's final shots linger on the Hexgate tunnels, Jinx's monkey bomb, and the aircraft.

It's the show's way of reminding us that Jinx has ascended to a different version of her identity - one removed from the past that haunted her. It's Jinx, finally striking out alone, away from the sister whose memory she clung so desperately to, and who was, in turn, horrified by her hand in making Powder a monster (perceived guilt or real, fandom may debate ad nauseum) due to past mistakes and abandonment.

The ending of Arcane isn't tragic. It's deeply hopeful, and serves as a reminder that no matter how damaged you think you are, and no matter how monstrous the world finds you, there are still ways to come back to yourself - or to walk the path toward a new you.

Jinx is symbolized by crows. Jinx is shown with firelights emerging from her mouth. Jinx is depicted holding a torch like Janna ushering in the winds of change.

Thematically, Jinx is change.

And the best way she can embody that change is to write her story, and make it her own.