#And he has no reason to be in the show except being mayas father figure
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redeemed-wren · 1 year ago
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okay Eric has shown up in Girl Meets World and given the very broad hints my flatmate had given (she is so bad at hinting) I was legit thinking all yesterday 'if Eric ends up as a hermit like in that one flashforward everyone gets a bad ending episode of bmw I'm gonna be so mad' and he DID and I am so mad.
Admittedly it sounds like there are people around which does soften the blow. Eric is a people person he needs people and I do appreciate the episode acknowledge that. But STILL my guy is more than Idiot Man 😭
The more I watch of girl meets world the more I want to write a longfic
#Wren rambles#Boy meets world#Girl meets world#Don't even get me STARTED on Shawn#I don't hate that he's getting together with Maya's mother#But I DO hate that they basically just thew out his entire relationship with Angela foe it#And he has no reason to be in the show except being mayas father figure#Side note the flatmate who hadn't seen it before was asking if Shawn WAS mayas father#And ngl that would have made a way more interesting storyline imo and I might write it one day#Shawn had a kid maybe without realising and dipped#Realised he's turning into his father#Having to make an effort to break the cycle and being in her life#Anyway that's beside the point Eric.#My guy deserves to have depth#I love the later seasons of BMW so much#But I HATE how Eric just gets relegated to idiot man#Like there that one episode where he throws his dignity away to do everything the rich nepotism new boss lady said#And Jack is trying to be like bro she's using you#But Eric just ignores him and does whatever she says#I Hate It#Fjshfjsjfsjfjsifj I'm gonna have to write a full character analysis aren't I#Or at least a fic#Something about Eric hearing he's stupid from everyone EVEN HIS PARENTS and internalising it#Not seeing any worth--or point in trying--and ending up with a crowd that's taking advantage of him#He's SMART#He's good with people! Stop calling him stupid!#(I also have a headcanon that he had an e ating dis order in highschool#Wanna write something expending on that one day)#ANYWAY I NEED TO GO TO BED NOW ERIC MY BELOVED IM SO SORRY THEY DID THIS TO YOU
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oodlyenough · 6 months ago
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I'm snipping this for other people's dashes but lolll I'm excited to ramble about my AAI1 complaints so let's go
Definitely the vibe I got from AAI1 is that it is preoccupied with the mysteries over a lot of the character drama that made the original set of games so beloved. You could see where it was trying to emulate success -- they have Kay to fill the sort-of Maya role to Edgeworth, they bring in tons of familiar faces from the trilogy (except Phoenix or the Feys, the characters I'd most want to see interact with him fhlgklg), 1-5 is like... long and extremely tedious but conceptually it wants to do the big "everyone works together to save the day" thing, with crucial evidence coming from Franziska, Lang, Kay, and so on.
But I think with Edgeworth they were sort of stuck between wanting him to be the main character but also not really having anything new to say about him. His arc in aai1 to me just reads like a truncated redux of the arc he already had in the trilogy, where despite not being the main character it was ... better... lol. He has these late-game revelations about how perfection isn't everything and I'm like yeah dude, we figured that out back in AA1? you good?
Then you get the Bratworth flashback case, and like ... I wrote about it at the time when I played but it was so weird because they clearly wanted to do a flashback but couldn't commit to writing Edgeworth, the player character, as the kind of asshole he was at the time -- they pepper his speech with uses of "perfect", but like, I simply don't believe 19 year old Edgeworth would go to such great lengths to clear Gumshoe's name instead of taking the easy trial win. The whole point was that he wasn't committed to #TheTruth back then, he was committed to winning at any cost. That was the whole point!!!
Also Franziska is my special little girl and half the reason I wanted to play AAI was more of her, but I found her mostly kind of flanderized and flat. Baby Franziska was the best because her OTT competitiveness and reverence for her father made sense there, but adult Franziska felt like she'd lost the development she got in AA3. And she was my fave part of 3-5! To have her show up in Investigations rambling about the von Karma creed when she barely cared about MVK in AA2 was such an eyeroll for me lol.
AAI did have some moments I liked, a lot of its original characters like Kay and Lang and Callisto are likable, and it was pretty funny. But yeah stuff like the jacket on the wall to me is just, as you say, one small example of where it felt like the game didn't really "get it". Incidentally I'm playing AA5 now and it is making AAI1 look like a riveting character drama in comparison, so :P
the bratworth jacket being framed on edgeworth's office wall in RFTA (and subsequently AAI) seems to me like the only real reason it's there is because RFTA is full of little easter eggs from future cases and that was a nod to AA3. i can't really think of any coherent character reason it would be there, or at least that it would still be there by the time AAI takes place, post-trilogy.
anyway: i'm just curious if anyone has any justifications they've invented for themselves. i can believe taking it down would not be first order of business after turnabout goodbyes, lol, but it seems... out of place... to still have it up years later. it seems hard to imagine that's a period of his life or career he'd be proud of or want to commemorate
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Batman and Robin (2011) and Robin:Son of Batman.
Okay, but let me present the best version of Damian Wayne.
I think it's important to talk about these both comic books and their impact into Damian's character and development.
Batman and Robin (2011)
This comic book series make an introspectation in Bruce and Damian relationship and their development.
They are not perfect, they made mistakes more than you can realize, but both of them are really trying to improve, as a father and son.
Bruce's progression to become a better version of himself, not only to be a better dad but also moving on and being able to hold a family is probably one of my favorite versions of his character.
So human and protective, but also full of love to his beloved son but mainly, he is not perfect, he made mistakes but also realize and improve himself.
And even that his dynamic with Damian is not as good as Dick and Damian's dynamic, it was always been a pleasure to see a Batdad in action.
For othr part we have Damian, who is definetly the star of the show.
He is so alive and sweet in all the moments and if you have any doubt about how you see Damian, this comic books scream to you to see him as your son.
He's baby. Confused, scared but at the same time innocent throught all the bs he had went.
He also made mistakes, but as the same as Bruce, he is really trying to improve himself all the time and become the better version of himself.
We explore completely their relationship and bond, since the beginning when they have arguments and troubles, to the climax, then resolution.
But also we could see their darkest time in their lives, dealing with the grief and pain and having one of the most emotional issues with no words that I've ever read.
We have some great issues with an exceptional art and great stories.
9.8/10
Robin: Son of Batman.
The reason why I put SOB in the same place that B&R (2011) it's because I've always feel like an spin-off.
An excellent spin-off dedicated to develop and had an introspectation of Damian's character.
Talking about his traumas, fears, innocence, relationships and childhood.
Son of Batman make an excellent path to the redemption and self-forgiving.
SOB is probably one of my favorite or my favorite Damian Wayne introspectation of his character.
Explores so much his character in all the dimensions and density that this can have and also his relationships.
We have Maya, one of the best friends and a big sister figure to him, she is a great character, having the enough density to collaborate with Damian and being easily recognize.
Her design is beautiful and memorable and her story is also great and make contrast with Damian. She actually has a character arc that talk about forgiveness and moving out.
We also have Goliath, I already talked about this beautiful being, but it's so important to Damian and his development to the story.
Ravi, I think it was great including Ravi as a good teacher and maybe some kind of grandpa figure that cares about Damian, but also as a symbol that somethings can't never be change no matter what.
Then Talia, who was also make a good impression here, denying GM version of her, she is humanize and Gleason actually make her justice, not putting her as a good nor bad person.
Damian's path is determinated by pain, traumas and regrets and will not be easy to moving on, but Damian will always be compromised to do it.
It involved child abuse, but it's not too graphic.
We also have a ton of moments of Damian being a total chaotic child and it's incredible.
He's baby.
It's a great series, but one of my little tiny complain is that it could have been longer, having a little more adventures returning objects of the year of blood and expanding more Damian and Maya's friendship, it's still great tho
Another thing it's that after first 6 issues the quality just went a little down but it was still good, this was mostly because the theme was already finished, so it was more like extra adventures.
Not mentioning that the art was stunning and beautiful, Patrick Gleason's art is so beautiful playing with the sky and shadows that we really need him more.
9.7/10
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pluckyredhead · 4 years ago
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wip amnesty: super sons fake dating (but different)
So while I was working on It Wouldn’t Be Make Believe (If You Believed In Me), my brain abruptly gave me a completely different Super Sons fake dating scenario, insisted that I write two scenes, and then abandoned me entirely. There is like a 1% chance that I will ever finish this so instead I offer it up to you, my very patient friends. (Don’t worry, I have different Jon/Damian fics planned!)
Also, this completely ignores the Bendis run, because...well, you know why. SIGH.
-
Damian cast a weary eye over the guests assembled at the gala, the latest tribute of the Gotham elite to their own wealth and frivolity. He wasn’t even sure what this one was ostensibly raising money for, but he had a feeling most of that money had gone into the refreshments and entertainment rather than the intended charitable recipients.
He hated these things, but Father was in space with the Justice League, Richard was undercover, Drake was on Earth-3, and Todd was just generally unsuitable for public consumption. Once again it fell to Damian, as the heir to the Wayne name, to carry the entire family on his shoulders. He usually didn’t mind, except when it took the form of wearing a tuxedo and making small talk with empty-headed socialites.
Maybe the Riddler or someone would show up and try to steal everyone’s jewelry. That would be a pleasing diversion.
He saw Gracie Van Nuyck, daughter of one of the few Gotham families older than the Waynes, making her way over to him and quickly took out his phone. He was meant to be the latest irresponsible Wayne playboy; he could be rude and spend a whole party texting and not talking to anyone as long as he kept a stupid expression on his face.
He already had a few texts from Jon, he saw when he unlocked his phone.
giant kraken attacking honolulu
titans & i r teleporting over
u in?
Damian clicked his tongue.
I know you’re overriding your autocorrected capitalization to irritate me.
And I can’t. I have to attend this gala.
sucks 2 b u 🐟 🐠 🐬
“Damian Wayne.” Gracie had not been put off by his texting - in fact, she had her own phone in her hand. Damian dimly remembered that she’d once told him she was an “influencer.” She had influenced him pretty strongly to get as far away from her as possible, so he supposed she was good at what she did. “Look at you, all dressed up and looking like a snack.”
“Gracie,” he said. “Nice to see you.” He did not attempt to make it convincing, or glance up from his phone more than briefly.
Trust me, I’m aware. Everyone here is an imbecile and none of the hors d'oeuvres are vegetarian.
“Do you like my dress?” Gracie asked, giving a little twirl.
“Lovely.” Damian did not have Richard’s ability to give genuine compliments, or even Father’s ability to fake them well. It didn’t deter Gracie in the slightest.
“I have a proposition for you, you beautiful boy,” she said.
“I’m the same age as you.”
that blows. what about the orderbs?
Damian fought a smile. I also know you know how hors d’oeuvres is pronounced.
😂 😂 😉
“What’s that smile for?” Gracie asked.
Damian forced his facial expression back to neutral. “What’s your proposition?”
She held up her hands like she was illuminating a marquee. “Gotham’s new dream couple: Dacie. Or we could be Gramian, I guess, but that sounds horrible.”
“Excuse me?”
“You and me, joining forces,” she said. “Me and my millions and my beautiful body, you and your millions and your beautiful body...we’d be the toast of the glitterati.”
“You want to date me,” Damian said, flatly, disbelievingly. This was what Father and Richard’s inability to resist a pretty face had brought him to: being literally propositioned at parties by socialites who thought every Wayne was an easy mark.
“I want to date you,” she agreed. “It must be your lucky day. Well, night.”
Damian stared at her for a long moment, just enough to let it become uncomfortable. “No,” he said finally, and turned back to his phone.
once weve kicked this things ass i bet i can bring u some shave ice before it melts
Bring the kraken instead. It can eat everyone here.
“No?” Gracie repeated.
“No, thank you,” Damian said, as a sop to good manners.
He glanced up. She looked bewildered. It might be the first time she’d ever been told no in her life. “Why not?”
“I’m seeing someone,” he said. Totally untrue, but a reason she couldn’t argue with.
Not that she didn’t try. “Oh? Who’s the lucky girl?” she asked, her expression calculating.
Damian raised an eyebrow. “Not sure why you would assume pronouns,” he said, more to wrong foot her than anything else, though it was true that gender didn’t make much difference to him. He disliked most people equally.
Her eyes widened before she recovered herself. “My apologies,” she said. “Do I know...uh, them?”
Damian’s phone buzzed in his hand. It was a selfie of Jon, with Billy and Lian pulling faces behind him and a tentacle snaking through the air above their heads. Idiots. He fought another smile.
Stop taking selfies before you get drowned.
“It’s a long distance relationship,” he said. The last thing he needed was Gracie tracking down Colin or Maya or someone and pestering them.
no its cool we made friends with it
i gave it ur shave ice
sorry
“Oh?” Gracie asked. “Where do they live?”
Out of the corner of his eye Damian could see that she seemed to be on her phone too, so he felt even less bad about ignoring her. “Metropolis,” he said, because it was the first city he thought of. You traitor, he texted Jon.
“Innnteresting,” she said. “Well, it was worth a shot. See you around, hot stuff.” She brushed a kiss in the air near his cheek and sauntered off.
Damian blinked. That had been...relatively painless. Maybe the whole night would go by so quickly and easily.
He checked the time. Three and a half hours to go.
Tt.
*
Jon had heard the noise before he stepped outside, but he hadn’t really processed it. Metropolis was a noisy city, and if there were no gunshots or cries for help, he had gotten pretty good at tuning it out.
Which was why he was so surprised when he walked out of his apartment building to be confronted with a sea of reporters flashing cameras at him.
“Jon!”
“Jon Kent!”
“Jon, over here!”
His heart stopped. Had they somehow found out he was Superboy? Which meant they knew about Dad, and Mom was probably in danger, and all of his friends, and…
“Jon, long have you and Damian Wayne been dating?”
What?
“Back off, you vultures! Leave him alone!” Uncle Jimmy emerged from the crowd, red-faced and disheveled. He put one hand in front of Jon’s face and the other on his shoulder. “No comment! He has no comment! Come on, Jon, back inside.”
Thoroughly baffled, Jon allowed Uncle Jimmy to steer him back into the building.
“Hey, Frank, don’t let any of them in unless Mr. or Mrs. Lane-Kent says it’s cool, okay?” Uncle Jimmy said to the doorman.
Frank, who Jon had known since they moved here when he was ten, put his imposing frame in front of the door. “Absolutely not,” he said.
“Thanks, Frank,” Jon managed, and waited until he and Jimmy were in the elevator and out of sight of the reporters. “What the heck is going on?”
“You’re a social media sensation, kiddo,” Uncle Jimmy said, and held up his phone to display a picture of Damian wearing a tuxedo and looking elegantly bored. “Apparently Bruce Wayne’s kid told someone called ‘GraceFace’ that he was dating a boy who lived in Metropolis, and she told her three million Instagram followers. A bunch of them found this photo.” He swiped to show a slightly blurry picture of Jon and Damian in Centennial Park, clearly taken on a cell phone by someone moving quickly. Jon remembered that day but hadn’t realized anyone had recognized Damian, though it did happen. “And someone figured out your name.”
“And assumed I’m the boy Damian is dating in Metropolis,” Jon said, putting it together. “Wait. Is he dating someone in Metropolis? Did he mean me? Why would he say we were dating?”
Uncle Jimmy held up a finger. “No, first question before that: how the hell do you know Damian Wayne?”
“Uh.” Jon paused. Uncle Jimmy knew all about him and Dad, since he was basically Dad’s best friend, but not any Gotham secret identities, and Jon was pretty sure both Damian and Mr. Wayne wanted to keep it that way.
Uncle Jimmy’s eyes flicked to the counter that showed what floor they were on. “And before we get to your apartment...any chance you want to give me the exclusive on this saga of young love?”
Jon’s mouth dropped open. “Uncle Jimmy!”
“What? I’m a reporter, it’s in my blood!”
“I’m telling my mom you asked me that.”
“No, please, tell your dad. He can only heat vision me or throw me out the window. Either way it’ll be quick.”
“Yeah, that’s why I’m telling Mom.”
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superbadassnatural · 4 years ago
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Humanity and Its Perks
Summary: Castiel has fallen and Y/N decided to show him the pleasures of human life. Square filled: Fallen!Cas Pairing: Fallen!Castiel x Winchester!reader Word count: 1,165 Warnings: mention of smut, fluff,  A/N: this was written for @spntfwbingo. This is also my first time writing for Cas and I really enjoyed it. Hope you enjoy it as well.
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(x)
The human world had always been foreign to Castiel. He had tried to understand it so many times, but every time there was something he couldn’t get. For him, humans felt too much. They were driven by their ambitions. They were weird creatures. Castiel didn’t bother though. He didn’t have to figure out every single detail of human beings. He didn’t live with them so there was no reason to learn much about them.
Castiel used to think like that until he had to grip Dean Winchester tight and raise him from perdition. He pulled the righteous man from Hell and since then his life hasn’t been the same. He did everything he could to stay away from the Winchesters, but every now and then he'd have to get them out of trouble. In fact, the angel started to think that the word trouble was short for Winchester. Every time Castiel happened to meet with the siblings, they’d talked some sense into him. They made Castiel both understand and question humanity even more.
As the years went by, Castiel and the Winchesters not only became friends but a family. He was welcomed into the Men of Letters Bunker with open arms. He even had his own room, although he didn’t need it because angels don’t sleep. The Winchesters knew that, but they wanted to make Castiel feel at home.
His friendship and alliance with Sam and Dean were strong. He knew the boys had his back no matter what. He had theirs too. The problem for Castiel was you, the youngest Winchester. Sam and Dean’s beloved half-sister. The angel had a soft spot for you. You made him feel something he had never felt before.
The brothers had found out about you six months after your father’s death. You were only sixteen. Your mom had died of brain cancer. The last thing she said to you was to call the number she had written on the paper she kept on her drawer. Your dad’s number. You called and Sam answered. After the phone call, Sam and Dean hit the road and drove from the motel they were staying in Ohio to your house in Texas. They explained everything to you about hunting. You had two options: DCS or coming with them and that meant being on the road and sleeping in crappy motel rooms. You chose them. You knew you’d be safer with them.
You suffered immeasurably when Dean went to hell. The day he knocked on Bobby’s door was one of the best days of your life. Then you met Cas. He was insanely handsome and so damn attractive and so off-limits. He’s an angel of the Lord for Christ’s sake. As time passed, both of you grew closer to each other. It didn’t take much for you to fall in love with him. After what felt like forever, you figured Cas had feelings for you too. Then you’d sneak around with him every chance you got. If your brothers caught you, you would be screwed. They never did though.
Things started to get messy when Castiel fell. He was lost and he couldn’t reach out to the Winchesters. After a few days, Castiel found them and they brought him home.
When you learned Cas had fallen, you felt terrible for him. Then there was a small — and extremely selfish — part of you was happy about it. Cas would get to experience human things. He would understand how it feels like to be human. And you would do anything to help him with that.
“How’d you sleep?” you asked as you noticed his beautiful blue eyes flutter open.
“Really good,” he nodded. “Sleeping is nice.”
“Did you dream?”
“I did. I remember I was-“
“Nope,” you stopped him, placing your index finger on his plump lips. His eyes widened in surprise. “Don’t tell me just yet. It’s bad luck telling a dream before eating anything,” you explained. “C’mon, let's get some coffee and some real crispy bacon in that belly.”
Castiel ate breakfast quietly. Except for the moans that escaped his lips every time he took a bite of bacon. He was amazed by how good eating actually is.
You helped him try so many different things in the last five days. Cas really enjoyed chocolate. His new favorite thing now is binge-watching 'Orange Is the New Black' while eating pizza. You had gotten Cas drunk on his second night as a human in the bunker. Let’s just say that you and your brothers now love drunk Cas. You had given him a massage and he was so relaxed he ended up falling asleep.
Castiel knew Sam and Dean must be suspecting how close you and he were in the last few days. Truth is he’s almost sure your brothers knew about you two. And he didn’t care.
You were used to cuddling with Cas at night now. Sleeping with his arms wrapped around you became something you didn’t know you needed.
Eventually, you ended up having sex with him. Cas was just amazing. At first, you thought he’d be shy, but he was anything but that. Somehow he knew exactly what to do to have you screaming. His tongue did a marvelous job to your body. And you’d never thought you��d actually enjoy having someone on top of you. You were so used to being on top that you expected to not like it. But there was something different about Cas and the way he made you feel.
He was gentle but also rough when he had to. He made sure to make you feel good. Cas’s face when pleasure coursed through him was something you’d never forget. His blue eyes locked with yours and his pink lips parted in an ‘o’ shape.
You were panting in bed. Eyes glued on the ceiling as you tried to steady your breath. Still, you couldn’t shake the smile off your face.
Castiel stood up, dumped the condom on the trash, and approached you with a washcloth. He cleaned you up and smiled at you.
“You’re beautiful, you know that right?” he said, before laying beside you.
You both laid in silence, waiting for your breaths to even.
“This was-“
“Awesome,” you beamed.
You snuggled closer to him. His arms wrapped around your body. His fingers traced up and down your back, soothing you. Your arm draped over his stomach and your head resting on his chest.
“Do you think Sam and Dean know about us?” his voice was low and reluctant.
“I think they do, but that’s okay with them I guess,” you shrugged. “Lucky for us the bunker’s walls are soundproof or they’d actually try to kill you.”
“Yeah, they would,” he chuckled before kissing the top of your head. “No matter your age, they’ll always see you as their innocent baby sister.”
“Good thing I can be naughty with you, handsome,” you smiled, pecking his lips.
“Yeah, a good thing indeed.”
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Cas honeybees:
@maya-craziness​
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agoldengalaxy · 4 years ago
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A Samurai’s Love
read on AO3
There’s a Steel Samurai marathon at the Wright Anything Agency, and Miles and Maya have a heart to heart.
--
“Justice will soon be served, evildoer! Your foul deeds will not be tolerated, for I, the Steel Samurai, shall strike you down!”
Miles does his best not to grin, though keeping it a secret that he is a fan from his companions has proved to be fruitless; it’s why he’s here in the first place, after all, at the Wright Anything Agency. Since Phoenix had gotten disbarred, he’d been rather distant - not returning many calls, only focusing on the little girl that his client had left behind. So Miles and Maya had to take it upon themselves to do anything they could to support him, and that included showing they cared.
“Oh, this is the best part!” Sitting on his left, a starry-eyed Maya is grinning ear to ear as she stares at the screen. Beside her, her head in her lap, is Pearl, curled up rather contently, having fallen asleep much earlier. She doesn’t really understand the appeal of the show, despite being a child herself.
Miles can’t hide his smile this time, and he nods. “I agree.” Of course, he’s seen this episode before. How would he not? The watch party was more of a distraction for Phoenix than anything else, even if the man didn’t particularly care very much for the show.
The Steel Samurai grunts in his struggle against the Evil Magistrate, though besides the TV, the room is very quiet. Just as Miles is wondering why they hadn’t been met by a sarcastic comment from Phoenix, he feels a soft weight press into his right shoulder.
He glances down and bites his tongue to keep from gasping, trying to comprehend the scene before him. Phoenix had slumped over, head resting against Miles’ arm - it seems he had been falling asleep and needed someplace to lay. Trucy is curled in her father’s lap, head against his chest, a hand grabbing a fistful of his hoodie loosely.
When the surprise wears off, Miles takes a moment to look at his old friend’s face, only illuminated by the flickering light of the TV. His brow is slightly furrowed, and his lips slightly parted. Relaxed like this, he looks more his age; the past few weeks, he’d been looking a little worse for wear. Miles frowns deeply at the dark circles underneath his eyes, unlike anything he’d ever seen. He wonders how long it has been since Phoenix had gotten a good night’s rest.
He sighs softly, shaking his head a little. He has half a mind to wake him and tell him to go home and get some real sleep, but...he has a feeling it won’t go well. He’d certainly fight him over it, so he might as well let him get some well-deserved rest. Without thinking much about it, he reaches over with his opposite hand and pushes some of Phoenix’s stray hairs out of his eyes. He doesn’t move.
“He hasn’t been sleeping.”
Blinking, Miles looks up, finding that Maya is now looking at him. Her expression is one of concern now, and he realizes she must have been watching for some time. “...Is that so?”
She nods, her eyes shifting to rest her gaze on the sleeping man beside them. “I haven’t been able to visit him as much as I’d like,” she admits softly, “but he told me...not that I couldn’t have figured that much out on my own.”
He closes his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. Even he had come to that conclusion. “I can’t say I blame him,” he replies, opening his eyes to meet Maya’s. There’s so many unspoken things in just this one look - concern that doesn’t really need to be voiced, because they know. But there’s nothing they can do about it. Phoenix is disbarred, and that’s that. Although Miles will be doing everything in his power to help, he is not Chief Prosecutor, and he doesn’t have very much authority. So all they can do is support him.
“Um, Mr. Edgeworth?” Her voice is still soft, though she’s dropped her gaze to run her fingers through Pearl’s hair in a comforting way. For a moment, she looks like she might cry.
“Yes?” He’s not sure what it means, but he’s almost positive he won’t like it.
Maya swallows hard. “He won’t tell me anything about that day. About the case. He hasn’t even told me if the rumors are true.” Taking a shaky breath, she lifts her gaze back to the TV. “I don’t believe them, Mr. Edgeworth. Nick would never forge evidence. But I…” she closes her eyes, shaking her head. “I feel so useless. I sometimes wonder if things would have turned out differently if I was by his side like I should have been.”
He has to admit it catches him off guard, at first. Maya is such a positive force, it’s hard to remember she’s still young. She’s the one that forces a smile and does anything she can to get Phoenix laughing again. He hadn’t even thought about what kind of toll it must take on her.
Shaking his head, he tries to meet her eyes. “You cannot blame yourself for what happened. Even I don’t know all of the details, but…” he sighs. God, what can he even say? It hurts to think about, let alone talk about. “I have a feeling this was bound to happen, no matter what. This trial...it reeks of foul play. But not to worry, Ms. Fey. I will get to the bottom of it.” If it’s the last thing he does. He would do anything to see Phoenix Wright genuinely smile again.
Maya reaches up to wipe under one of her eyes, and she smiles a little. “Yeah, I’m sure you will. I guess there’s no use thinking about what might’ve happened, huh?” She sniffs, then looks back up at him, still smiling. “And geez, Edgeworth, how many times do I have to tell you to call me ‘Maya’? We’ve known each other for so long.”
Blinking, he stares at her for a moment, then smiles just a little, himself. “I apologize. It is just a habit.” He bows his head. “I’ll try to remember next time.” They both fall quiet again, turning their attention back to the screen, though he’s sure they’re both paying it only some attention. He allows himself to look back down at the man leaning against his shoulder, and for some reason, he smiles. He’ll chalk that up to relief, but...something about having him so close like this really warms his heart.
On his opposite shoulder, he feels a nudge. Looking up, he’s met with a smirking Maya. “You know, Nick may keep secrets, but I know he’s not the only one.”
“What on Earth are you talking about?” he asks carefully, not liking the way her smirk curls upward smugly.
“It is so painfully obvious that you love him, Edgeworth. Well, obvious to everyone except him, of course,” she answers nonchalantly. What…? His heart leaps into his throat, and he stares at her blankly. Any coherent thought leaves his mind, because...she’s right, of course, but he doesn’t want to admit that much.
However, he’s well aware that the longer he stays silent, the more suspicious he seems, so he clears his throat and looks away. He can’t look into her eyes. Not now. “I...I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he notices her roll her eyes. “Right.” She draws out the word. “You may be a big bad prosecutor, but you happen to be a terrible liar.” A hand comes up to rest on his arm, and he brings himself to look back at her. Her smirk has softened into a smile now. “Look, I know it’s probably hard for you, but I just want to let you know that you have nothing to worry about. No matter what, through thick and thin, Nick has always been there for you. And I know...I know he feels the same.” She seems very confident. “He may not be in the right place right now, and you both may be too stubborn to admit it, but...I just want you two to be happy.”
For some reason, the words end up making his eyes burn. He has to drop his gaze, not wanting Maya to see. What can he even say to this? He closes his eyes for a moment, shaking his head a little. “I...don’t know what to say.”
Maya seems to understand, and she smiles again. “Just think about what I said, okay? I’m sure Nick could use some good news.” She yawns, stretching her arms above her head, then leans back against the couch, just barely resting her head against his other arm. She rests one hand over Pearl’s back comfortingly. “Guess we’re not going home tonight, huh?”
Miles pauses, staring down at her, then smiles a little, despite himself. “Hmph. I suppose not.” He looks back up at the TV, watching the credits roll.
“Good night, Mr. Edgeworth.”
“...Good night, Maya.” He feels her smile against his sleeve, and then relax.
And he is alone.
He lets himself look down at Phoenix again, his face still as handsome as ever, even shrouded under the cloud of exhaustion. He can’t help but wonder if he truly was as obvious as Maya claimed, or if she is just exceptionally perceptive. Perhaps it is a bit of both.
Letting out a quiet sigh, he leans his head against the back of the couch, noticing Phoenix’s hand by his lap. For a long moment, Miles considers taking it, but decides against it. No. Not yet.
But soon. Despite how out of the blue it had been, he supposes Maya has a point. And perhaps he will feel better when his deepest secret is no longer just a secret.
His eyes slip shut, and as he drifts off, Maya’s voice echoes in his mind.
I just want you two to be happy.
Perhaps they do deserve that much.
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swansstuff · 4 years ago
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So uh, I've been thinking about a hypothetical Trucy Wright: Act Attorney and here is the very poorly written outline for it because yeah. No spoilers except the Apollo Trucy thing. Tw death, murder, blood and grieving so yeah.
Trucy's first case is literally her first ever case. This is a flashback case. We follow her as she wakes up, slightly stressed about today, Phoenix gives her cereal and a pep talk and a cryptic message. Trucy asks where Papa is, it is Miles, they are married. Phoenix is cryptic about that too. He stays behind as he "has to buy groceries" so Trucy heads into the office. Apollo greets her, it's clear they know they're siblings, and he hands her a case. Miles is prosecuting. She is fucking terrified. She goes to the crime scene, Gumshoe is the detective and he's educating his teenage sons, constant confusion of who's who, because they are twins and they look very like Gumshoe, it'll be kinda funny. Its a simple investigation. During the investigation, the player can check Trucy's profile and the profile system shows character's middle names now. We get some gems such as Klavier Hyacintha Gavin later on, the reasoning behind this is coz Trucy is nosy. The important one here is Trucy Mia Wright. She says something about how she chose her own middle name when Phoenix adopted her and she chose Mia after learning about her. Yada yada. Trucy wins the case. Edgeworth is very proud, Phoenix is in the gallery and there's a flash of him crying proud tears, Apollo hugs her afterwards, Athena congrats her.
Next case, flash forward three years later, we do not see Phoenix and nobody really mentions him. Thats because he's fucking dead but we don't know that yet. This case is a Fey case, we meet Maya who is married to Franziska and they're technically on honeymoon in Kurain and Pearl becomes the Maya to Trucy's Phoenix. Its another fey murder case. There are a few mentions of Trucy's admiration of Mia, mainly just a mirror of a few lines she's said and a conversation where her and Maya talk about her, Trucy says she would have loved to meet her and Maya explains how her spirit has been dormant for ages now and how she assumes she's moved on.
"If you want I can try and channel-"
"No no no no NO. Its ok!"
This is our first hint that Phoenix is no longer with us, but we don't know until later thats what she means. Sebastian is the prosecutor, the player finds out that Miles is taking a break from prosecuting work, Trucy already knew of course, and Sebastian is dubbed Chief until he comes back, Fran says
"It would've been me were I not on my literal honeymoon right now." We are not told why yet, but it is because of Phoenix. Kay Faraday is the detective, somebody murders someone and frames Maya, no-one is shocked by this. We also get an update on Iris, she's thriving. She wins yada yada.
Next case, a couple of months later, Trucy gets a call from a friend that the player can't identify at first. Its Katrielle Layton. She needs Trucy's legal knowledge because someone is sueing her detective agency because have you seen how they practice. This, of course, turns to murder and we get another surprise when we meet the prosecutor. Who probably has a licence to practise law in England? Simon Blackquill, he is British ok. Yeah, Trucy wins with Kat's help, we meet Ernest and Sherl and Alfendi and Flora if we have time. I miss them. Trucy and Kat have a conversation that cryptically addresses their fathers and their "whereabouts" and living up to their legacy. We see Trucy cry, but only a similar flash to AJ:AA and we do not know why. Yet.
Next case, flashback case. Trucy is the assistant on this case but we still play as her, even in the court sections since Phoenix is prepping her for the bar and getting her to give him the answers. The bar exam is only in three days. Klavier is prosecuting. The case somehow relates to Kristoph and there's the whole mirror dynamic thing of when Phoenix lost his badge. Kristoph is dead by now, but the whole thing is there was a plot inside prison to make Phoenix pay for putting a bunch of them in, Kristoph was the assumed ring leader until he died and the cops now dont know who's running it. Somebody (Godot? That would hurt big time) was their inside man, sent to figure that out, so when whoever it was turned up dead, the whole thing got exposed. We get a bit of a Mia moment in the trial where Trucy tells Phoenix to flip over the receipt (thats evidence for some reason). Phoenix says "I feel like that shouldn't be the second time someone has said that to me". The killer is found, by Phoenix, and put into isolation, as have most of the other participants. We then see Trucy get her badge. They have a conversation and Trucy says Phoenix basically forgot about it for a couple of months. The case closes with a foreboding "and I forgot about it too, until..."
Next case. Phoenix is fucking murdered. Trucy gets a phone call late at night, she hears laboured breathing on the other end and a "don't forget I love you" from Phoenix. Trucy pulls a simba and goes "dad? Dad?!!" And the line goes dead. The player is presented with a choice of who to call. They have two phone calls. Who they choose first makes no difference, but the second time they are forced to choose Ema who will trace Phoenix's phone call. They could call Apollo and he would comfort her, Miles would panic, Maya would say he was just messing around, Athena would sense her distress and say she's coming over etc. You could attempt to call Phoenix back but he would not answer and you would be allowed to call someone else. Ema then traces the phone call and we follow Trucy to the crime scene. We get a truly haunting cutscene where everything kinda goes blurry except Phoenix's face and the blood. Trucy doesn't cry. She stands there in shock. The WAA is there in various states of shock and upset. Return of grieving Apollo I guess. Miles turns up and the look on his face is haunting. Trucy and him make eye contact and they share the thought of something has to be done. And then. "The bar association took me off the case and Papa too, they said we were too close to it. As a result, we never found out who did it... Until now." And we see a determined Trucy face. We jump forward to where we last saw Trucy, she and Pearl are coming back from England and its a bit more cheery. Trucy sends Pearl on a train back to Kurain and heads on home. She enters the house and we see Miles pouring over Phoenix's case. He jumps up and runs towards her.
"Trucy! I think I have a lead, I-"
"Papa, you're tired, go to bed." (Or better dialogue along those lines)
Its clear he's been doing this sort of thing a lot.
"But I do! At least...I think I do..."
He trails off and rests his head in his hands.
"Do I? Or am I just a mess?"
Trucy gives him a sad smile.
"C'mon let's go to bed."
Miles returns the sad smile and fades out like all ace attorney characters do. The player is given the option to look around. There's probably some emotional dialogue and bits that give clues to how she and Miles have been fairing the past 3 years. Answer is, not very well. Examine the pile of papers on the table. Trucy will take a look and then realise her papa may have actually been onto something. Its a diagram of which prisoners knew each other, with an arrow from each leading to a defense attorney we have never met. Trucy is confused, but she calls for Miles anyway. He comes back downstairs and Trucy asks him about this lead he found.
"Well I realised all those prisoners would know this defense attorney (insert name?)"
"Why? And why would they be suspicious?'
"They (pronouns?) Were always the defense attorney who would take on the cases of those Wright had already accused. They gained a reputation of being the doomed defense attorney."
"So... They knew all the prisoners in the plot and they had a grudge against daddy... Papa I think you're onto something!"
And the case continues, since we already know who's been accused, it plays out more like an investigations game, Trucy has to prove it, with Miles' help of course, literally every other character we know and love plays a part in making sure this guy gets a guilty verdict. There is still a courtroom bit and a moment when all is looking dark, Trucy literally has a full on breakdown as the Judge threatens to remove her from the case again. Miles is by her side, they're both technically prosecution here i guess. Miles, however, is too deep in his own mental breakdown to help. Everyone else is in the gallery besides Pearl. Pearl channels Phoenix as a last hope sort of thing. Phoenix comforts her and tells her to keep fighting, he touches her badge and probably says some sort of bullshit about it. The Judge is about to bang the gavel when Trucy and Phoenix object at the same time. Miles looks up and realises whats going on and he objects too, a little later. The battle goes on until it finishes and the other attorney has a breakdown that steals little bits from every other murderer Phoenix has put behind bars.This is the one time seeing the word guilty on your screen feels good. There's a whole heartwarming celebration at the end, Phoenix sticks around for a little bit and everyone gets a bit of closure. Its assumed he's gone since Pearl passes out and Trucy dips out for a sec. She's away from the festivities, staring at the badge in her hand and we see someone coming up behind her. Maya is channelling Phoenix now. He gives Trucy a hug and utters the words "the only time a lawyer can cry is when its all over and, Trucy darling, my light, its over." Echoing both Diego and Mia.
And the screen fades to black with a final hug between father and daughter.
:)
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yicruz48 · 5 years ago
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My Review on the Teen Titans(2016) So Far
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Date Written: March/14/2020-March/18/2020
Updated: May/10/2020
[Overall review of Special 1, Annual 1 and Issue #20-40]
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My Opinion So Far [Issue #20-40 written by Adam Glass]:
-> In comparison to the first 19 issues of the Teen Titans, issue 20 and on have been bearable.
-> I will reiterate this over and over again; I will never understand why create new characters (Djinn, Roundhouse and Crush) when DC has a perfect stash of characters that Damian is already acquainted with (Colin, Maya, Surren, Maps and Jon). Although, having characters like Red Arrow (Emiko Queen) and Kid Flash (Wallace West) apart of the Teen Titans is understandable.
-> But again, in comparison to last group of Teen Titans [issue #1-19], I favor this group more. The first 19 issues are just literally Starfire, Beast Boy and Raven parenting Damian in Bruce's absence.
-> In my opinion this group is much more balance in terms of heroing experience:
A) Literally new to being a superhero and working in a group: Djinn, Roundhouse and Crush.
B) Still figuring out their place in superhero world: Robin, Red Robin and Kid Flash.
-> I am totally in favor in Kid Flash being considered the “moral compass” of the group. But so far in the Glass’s run haven’t really seen Wallace really prove this.
->It really shows that Glass had no idea or didn’t bother to do research on Emiko. Glass wrote Emiko as a sort-of Damian clone (And we all know Glass doesn’t write Damian well, so a badly-written-Damian-clone). Emiko is much more sarcastic and upbeat type of individual and wasn’t written that way.
->You can also tell Glass didn’t do research on Wallace. Wallace has a love for comics, is actually quite intelligent and is a prodigy engineer, but none of that was really expressed in the 20 issues.
->Crush, AKA Xiomara Rojas is a character besides the core three that I’ve grown to like. She is an empowered latinx Lesbian feminist who could care less what you think of her. But her backstory is rooted in stereotypical and racist beliefs. Her adoptive parents were druggies who were constantly running away from legal issues...ring a bell? Yea, its the common stereotype that latinos are all drug dealers, a stain on society and always run away from the legal ramifications of their actions. As as a latina myself, this was was extremely disappointing to see. 
-> I have a lot of issues with the hyper-focus on Robin, as much as I love Robin content, I feel like like every-other mission the Teen Titan’s have revolves around Robin. I would like to explore Red Arrow, Kid Flash and Roundhouse’s character development more. And I believe writer’s are totally capable of advancing Robin’s character development without the mission being tied to him anyways.
-> I ABSOLUTELY LOVE Robin’s ongoing goal to create a criminal system better than their superhero processors (mainly Batman and Superman) who only arrest criminals in a prison with “a revolving door” which criminals always escape from. Although, I ABSOLUTELY hate how Adam Glass has handled how Robin has gone upon learning the best system.
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-> I have to admit, I like how most of the members are comprised of teens that...
A) Been raised/used to kill; Robin, Red Arrow and Djinn.
B) Are related to villainous characters; Robin, Red Arrow, Kid Flash, Djinn and Crush.
In the words of Kid Flash, the Teen Titans are just, “a bunch of screwed up kids,”
-> I strongly dislike the love triangle that Adam Glass (the previous writer) was creating between Robin, Crush and Djinn. I felt like Djinn was just created to mimic the popularity of Damian x Raven and it just lessens the value of characters like Crush and Djinn. (Plus I am on the side that believes that Robin should developing his friendships before developing a romantic interest). Hopefully, Robbie Thompson (New and current writer), will throw that idea in the trash. Although I wouldn't mind Djinn × Crush though😶.
-> Also I hate the connection Adam Glass created between Robin and Roundhouse (Billy Wu). It was soo unnecessary, and he could've found another creative way to get Djinn a trapped in her ring🙄.
-> Love the growing friendship between..
1. Robin and Red Arrow
2. Red Arrow and Crush
3. Kid Flash and Roundhouse
4. Crush and Djinn
5. (Would like to see Robin and Kid Flash’s friendship grow)
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-> The build up to "The Other" for over 18 issues [Issue #20-38] was disappointing. I am still trying to understand the villain motivations because it made no sense whatsoever besides the obvious fact that Adam Glass was attempting to give Robin yet another useless redemption arc he didn't need.
-> Excited at the connection between “The Book of the Damned” and Batman #666 ( I will most likely make a post expanding on this). This offers an explanation as to why Damian was suddenly using magic in that one Batman issue and claiming he could take down Superman with magic in another issue.
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-> Robin's "Prison", AKA torture chamber. Although it's not out of Damian's character to believe that his father's way of imprisoning villains in Gotham is GREATLY lacking better security, I DO NOT THINK DAMIAN WOULD CREATE A PRISON, much less a torture chamber. Damian does research on ALL the batfamily including his own father, he would know that Bruce attempted something similar  and failed which would make Damian hesitant about creating his own. Instead of developing his character this whole fiasco with the prison just ruined it and gave Damian haters another tool in their arsenal to “prove” Damian is evil (which no, its just bad writing).
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-> Yes, I will acknowledge that Robin is not the kindest of the batch. But Blackmailing Black Mask with threatening to put his son's life endanger-even if he was bluffing-would not be something Robin would do. Robin is known to have compassion for children (*cough cough* Batman: Streets of Gotham) and wouldn't use a child as leverage to get his way EVEN if he was desperate.
-> Robin basking in the pain of his prisoners. LIKE EXCUSE ME, WTF. Like Robin does enjoy beating up criminals who deserve it but the way Adam Glass wrote it made it seem like Robin was a sadist and a psychopath.
-> Pissed off they killed Emiko’s development by killing Deathstroke. There really wasn’t any real reason given as to why Emiko “killed” Deathstroke. 
-> Don't get me started on the fight between Red Hood and Robin. JUST DON’T.
But I have hope:
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Teen Titans issue #39 and #40 written by Adam Glass and Robbie Thompson.
As you may or may not know, Robbie Thompson has now replaced Adam Glass as a writer. And his first issue he worked on was released February [issue #39] and I've already been seeing some improvements. Robbie will be fully taking over after issue #41.
-> Robin has stepped down as leader. Leadership in the Teen Titans will now be a collaborative approach.
-> The Teen Titans struggling and learning on working as a group instead of working under one leader. They've already failed their first mission as a team without Robin as leader. Which I'll give them a break for, they've recognized how poorly their plan was executed themselves. But this just shows that the writer is demonstrating that the Teen Titan's is still learning how to best work together without a leader.
-> Robbie Thompson is now writing Damian more in character. Instead of writing him off as an asshole for no reason like previous writers.
-> Confirmed Damian went to hell after being killed by Heretic. With an added plus of the Teen Titan’s finally learning a bit more about Robin’s past.
-> Brought up Damian’s ongoing internal struggle of finding his own path that isn’t influenced by his father or his grandfather.
-> I’ve gotta admit, issue #40 has exceeded my low expectations I have set for the past 19 issues.
What I am Actually Looking Forward to [Upcoming Issues]:
Teen Titans #41 / Teen Titans Annual #2
Written by Adam Glass and Robbie Thompson
-> Finally, we get Batman's involvement in all this. I just hope he doesn't beat up Damian like he did Jason 😒. I’d like to add there was actually foreshadowing for this encounter in Teen Titans #26 (I believe).
-> But the only reason I am looking forward to this because it seems like Robin has been keeping this new group of Teen Titan’s secret (including their base), or at least heavily restricting Batman’s involvement.  
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-> And even though I think I know why Damian has been trying to keep this new Teen Titans a secret from Batman (if my theory is correct), I'm curious to hear it myself from him (if the reason is written well).
-> Don't get me wrong, I am pissed that the writers decided Batman is going to fire Robin. Although, I am not against Damian being his own superhero (I actually don’t want Robin to take up the Batman mantle), but I can see DC writers abusing this. Killing his character development and making him evil like they've been foreshadowing in some comics 😒.
-> Although, I am not sure if it's really gonna happen, or Damian got the memo, because Damian appears to wear the Robin outfit in future covers of the Teen Titans.
-> I am excited the current Teen titans getting a glimpse of Batman's and Robin's current strained relationship(maybe even learning more about Robin’s upbringing). The Teen Titans (except Red Arrow) are always criticizing Robin for his way of thinking without questioning the influence to his thinking.
Teen Titans #42
Written by Robbie Thompson
->Batman kicking them out of Mercy Hall?  I am actually kinda of excited for a Teen Titans without a base. 
-> But I wanna know what this means; less oversight by Batman or more?
-> I wonder what will motivate the team to retrieve Robin back into their team? The only one's who actually seem to have some sort of relationship with Robin is Red Arrow and Djinn, besides them, everyone seems to despise Robin
Teen Titans #43
Written by Robbie Thompson
-> We are FINALLY getting a proper reaction from Robin to Nightwing's near death. What we got from Nightwing Annual was definitely not enough.
-> Apparently, Damian goes on a hunt for KGBeast (who shot Dick). Which I don't see as out of character because we all know how much Damian cares for Dick, who is a brother and father figure to Damian (more than Bruce).
-> Hopefully, the Teen Titans don't let him kill or have lethal vengeance against KGBeast because that would just kill his character development 😡. 
->I wonder if this issue will tie in with the Joker War where apparently Dick is suppose to get his memories back. I doubt it, but thought I’d mentioned it.
I've been reading Teen Titans because I've been desperate for new Damian content. But it seems like the comic is finally starting to get interesting with Robbie on board.
I wanted to give you an honest review on what I've thought of the Teen Titans so far just in case you've been on the fence about reading it or not. I've tried not to hold back on my criticism so my review is as honest as it can be.
So I'll leave it to you guys to decide whether you will read it or not.
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heroes-trash · 4 years ago
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personality + powers (theory)
far as i know / have heard, there are 4 possible explanations as to why a person has the power that they have.
the first two are almost the same, really: random chance and genetic inheritance. why they’re the same? because the chance of inheriting (not to mention, expressing!) the exact same traits one of your parents had is pretty low irl as well. much higher is the chance to have something similar, but not rarely are children rather different from both of their parents.
the other two are the ones the show propagates, and while they’re not at all alike, they’re still intertwined: convenience and personality.
the convenience theory is brought up by Daphne in the scene where she, Matt and Ando debate what’ll happen if Ando receives the serum - Daphne is convinced it’ll give him something he needs, citing it’s what happened to her and claiming it also describes Matt’s situation. but the way she says it... it could also make a rather good case for a personality-based theory, and that’s also the one i see most often in fandom.
which is why under the cut, i will go through every single powered character on the show (who we know a reasonable much about) and do a quick analysis of how well each of the latter theories fits them ^^
credited-as main characters:
Peter: personality-based seems more likely, as he is a very giving/empathetic person, and he wants to be extraordinary
Claire: if her ability had activated in Meredith’s burning home, i’d have argued for convenience, but a simple cut in her palm (however deep).... nah. neither seems to apply much here in fact
Hiro: personality-based maybe, because of all his heroic dreams
Matt: Daphne claimed he’d ‘always’ worried was others thought of him, so you can kind of argue personality... but mostly i suppose convenience, in his job as well as possibly generally because of his dyslexia (although he was adamant about not using it to his advantage that way)
Mohinder: one could argue convenience if you consider the fact that some guys tried to rob him when he was still dozing after the injection, and the first thing he did was defend himself against them... but you can defend yourself with many abilities. i once read that his ability amplified him because he’d always ‘had more in him’, and while cheesy, maybe that’s true? so personality-based for him i’d wager
Nathan: his ‘high ambitions’ are basically a running gag at this point, and the comics never fail to overstate how much he’d always loved flying - hell, even the show hints at it. so personality-based for him for sure
Sylar: while we can’t be certain when exactly he activated (at the latest eclipse, or even in his early childhood?), it’s undeniable he is fascinated with complex things. personality-based again
Angela: her powers have often been convenient, but also pretty hit-and-miss; especially at the start, fatally so. and unless you make the stretch to her taking responsibility (= being farsighted) young, i don’t really see personality-based either, so neither seems to really apply
Micah: we first see him use his power to help his family, but he surely had it before - he seemed confident with it already at that point. he’s smart, and very interested in electronics; though we can’t know for sure which came first (see Sylar), personality-based is likely here too
D.L.: arguably a good example for convenience, as he (according to some deleted scenes, anyway) first manifested when he was desperate to get out of prison 
Isaac: as apparently you don’t need to be able to paint to be a precog painter (see Peter’s stick figures), i don’t see how either much applies here...
Elle: again neither looks very likely, unless you stretch personality-based to electrifying-slash-prickly (and she activated at nine so ,,,)
Monica: she’s ambitious and wants to be more successful than her family before her, and support them and herself - so is that convenience or personality, now? i’d argue convenience, because nothing in her suggests she specifically wants to copy other people
Samuel: frankly we don’t know enough of him to argue for either, but it’s definitely not convenience-based because he literally activated before he was born (much like Nathan and Malina), sooo
Ando: funnily enough, although Daphne argued so hard for convenience, i’d say it’s a personality-based case for him - he is the devoted friend, the designated sidekick in the best way. or is that convenience again after all... bit of both maybe
Niki: i’m not quite sure about convenience here honestly, as we don’t really see her first first time of using her ability (Jessica threatening her (their?) father was an early one, but the first?? no, how would she even know?) - and it’s even kinda implied in the comics that the triplets all started expressing theirs as teenagers or even younger - but the strength of an abuse survivor....... yeah i’d go with personality-based
Maya: she’s a bit whiny and occasionally bitter sure, but there’s nothing in her personality to suggest she wants to commit mass murder every time she’s upset. it’s not even convenient, really [well it was in Exodus but ,,,] so [for the timeline we wound up getting] i’d argue neither
Adam: what i couldn’t claim for Claire, absolutely applies to him - his ability literally saved his life upon first manifesting, so convenience here for sure. (although he’s pretty persevering, in a very weasle-y way...)
Tracy: again with the comics implying the triplets activated as teens / even kids!!! but discounting that.... personality-based, i guess? what with her ice-cold career-orientated attitude... sure there’s some convenience in the mix, but there are a lot more convenient ways of getting rid of a journalist than killing him, so :’D
other relevant characters, introduced in S1:
René: convenience is straight out of the window here, considering his primary ability activating got his people killed/abused, and his secondary ability activating killed those oppressors (which only on first glance sounds good) - but personality-based? i’m not sure either... he’s an unsuspecting little fellow, but that’s not quite enough... and he uses his ability to fight against ability abuse he experienced as a kid, but i’m still not sure. thoughts? i’ll tentatively say neither...
Molly: neither really fits, far as we know
Charlie: she has a strong interest in learning and we can at least assume that didn’t just start when she discovered she was good at it - so i’d say personality-based
Claude: i’d tentatively argue for convenience, as he isn’t exactly the most subtle fellow... and has been obscuring his identity even before he started working for the Company (!!), so he’s likely running from smth, for which his ability is definitely very useful
Sanjog: we absolutely don’t know enough about him to argue for either, although he does seem to embrace his ability, so maybe he wanted something like this....?? really all speculation though
Charles: he seems like an empathetic, kind man - so telepathy isn’t the biggest stretch for personality-based. it is however some stretch, so how about convenience? well; we do see him using it to stop (well...pause) racist regulations and police brutality......
Linderman: very classic case of convenience-based, as the first time he activated, he healed his dying mother
Ted: neither in my opinion - his ability isn’t even slightly convenient for him, and he is stubborn not unstable far as we at all know
Hana: possibly neither, possibly a bit of both, as she is a descendant of fighters and a spy herself - but then that’s too wide a field, a lot of abilities could help with that... i say neither
Eden: convenience, as she first used it to escape her oppressive home
Paulette: we don’t really know enough about her to argue for either
Meredith: neither seems quite likely - her ability hasn’t exactly brought her much luck, and she has a strong character but not exactly fiery enough to quite play into that cliché, either
Kaito: very likely personality-based, as his ability plays right into his career ambitions (in fact pretty much was what made him so successful so fast)
Candice: something both, something in-between, maybe? she dreamed herself away, and dreamt of punishing her bullies, and she could do both with this ability
other relevant characters, introduced in later seasons:
West: he enjoys being special, but apart from that, there is no real evidence that can be used to argue for either
Alejandro: [if you even assume he has an ability, i personally have some Doubts] probably personality-based, as he is Maya’s other half one way or another
Bob: his ability is objectively convenient, but i’m still not sure an argument can be made for either, as too little (= nothing) is known about his childhood, and neither about his character except ambitious/controlling and kind of a loser when it comes to relationships (divorced and often the fifth (or seventh) wheel when younger)
Maury: another case of too little information for either - he seems to submit to strength/authority rather easily, and only ever committed petty crime, so one can’t argue for criminal mastermind either
Doyle: i don’t think there’s been any information on how he activated (correct me if i’m wrong), and while he does use his ability to compensate for being unsuccessful in forming,, Any kinds of relationships, i still wouldn’t say it’s necessarily personality-based (and something this broad definitely doesn’t qualify as convenience)
Alice: her ability isn’t exactly what you’d call convenient :’D and personality-based would probably be something more fairytale-esque for her, so that’s out as well
Alex: he’s a swimmer, so a bit in-between i suppose (we once more don’t know enough to argue semantics)
Samson: we definitely don’t know enough about him or what he was like before activating (is this ‘putting animals/people to sleep’ thing even part of his primary ability, or does is that just his preferred hunting tool like telekinesis is for his son?)
Luke: we don’t know how he first activated, but maybe personality-based works if you stretch it to ‘destructive teen’...?
'Baron Samedi’: both seem plausible if he’s always dreamed of ‘making it big’ (in his way), which i think we can safely assume, but once more we don’t know nearly enough about his childhood, and technically there’s a lot of ability that are good for demonstrating strenght... maybe he first activated in a firefight (with the Tonton Macoute?).........?? but that’s pure speculation
Arthur: he has always been ruthless and controlling, and never for a minute believed that people with abilities should stick together by default - being able to take them away from others to strengthen himself fully plays into his personality imo
Ishi: apart from apparently being a nurturing, sweet mother, we know little of her... i’d tentatively argue for personality-based, but who knows how she activated?? too little information, again
Daphne: convenience for sure, there’s a reasons she made a case for that
Knox: general question - is ‘circumstances X grew up in’ still convenience or personality already?
Jesse: same as Knox pretty much, we can’t know
Flint: i’d carefully say unstable temperament -> personality
Scott: again a bit of a what-came-first question: he wanted to be ‘’better’’, but did he always want that or did that only come from past failures and the resulting fear for the future? we don’t know because we barely know him
James Martin: i’ll stick my neck out for personality-based, that he’d longed to be somebody else, somebody significant for a while even before activating (i mean - why else impersonate others instead of just improving himself?)
Emma: mostly convenience-based, but as she has a general affinity for music and soft things... in-between, maybe?
Edgar: IF he was indeed the commitment-averse guy Lydia described, i’d say personality-based, but i’m honestly torn about that and don’t have any other significant things, so i won’t speak a final verdict
Rebecca: convenience for sure, for hiding and revenge
Lydia: assuming here she indeed activated young, this is another difficult one - maybe she was always empathetic, maybe not??
Joseph: his ability sure is convenient, but it’s absolutely unclear whether other people perceived him as pleasant/trustworthy because he made them feel that way (literally) or whether that links back to his true character. he seems like a responsible guy overall, but that doesn’t get you to either side of the coin, only an in-between
now i left out some of the most obviously inherited ones / ones that at least have a heritable component. those are, in short: Peter(-Arthur), Matt(-Maury), Sylar(-Samson), (Maya-Alejandro?), Ted(-Mindy), Meredith(-Flint), and the Bowman family
and i also left out Reborn, which works a lot more with heritable abilities, but this post is really long enough already :’D
so, final summary (regarding convenience vs personality):
convenience-based: 11
personality-based: 15
both/in-between: 4
neither: 12
too little information: 14
which makes for a pretty even split that lets one argue for whatever they prefer, honestly XD still hope this was enlightening/interesting to read, and looking forward to all of your opinions!!
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twdmusicboxmystery · 5 years ago
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The Bird Cage Symbol 🤔🕊
Morning, Everyone! I have an actual new theory for you! Are you excited? Okay, it’s not SUPER new and groundbreaking, but I’m still very excited about it. It has to do with some spoilers that were released last week. So yes, I’m analyzing spoilers. If you don’t want to read about spoilers, don’t click the “read more” below. You’ve been warned.
These were actually posted in my group early last week, and they made me happy, but they also didn’t come from TSDF, so I didn’t want to about them until I knew for sure they were reliable. I just kinda hoped they were. And they are! Yea!
Here are the spoilers (I’m paraphrasing):
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The group trapped underground with Alpha’s herd realizes they’re in an old mine. They find old bird cages the miners used to keep canaries in with dynamite in them. Carol takes it to blow up the herd. Connie and Magna get buried inside the cave, and Daryl leaves the rest of the group to try and find a way to rescue them. Sounds like that is how 10x09 will end.
Okay, two major things here:
This may well end up being a death fake out of sorts for Connie. I have a hunch that even if Daryl finds his way back into the cave, Connie won’t be there. If so, he may have to go look for her. I’ve said more than once that Connie might have a death fake out (like Beth). But even more than that, I’ve been saying since the beginning of the season that Carol and Daryl will jump on his bike to go look for something, and while I’ve waffled on who exactly it would be, one of the prime candidates has always been Connie.
Of course, we can’t say for sure it will play out like this. For now, they’re simply trapped in the mine. But my head canon is that they will be rescued by someone other than Daryl (perhaps simply Alpha or the other Whisperers; perhaps someone else entirely, who takes them to the hospital, maybe?) But either way, Daryl and Carol will eventually figure out where they are and go looking for them, and they’ll end up wherever Beth is, and Connie will have a hand in reuniting Beth and Daryl, fulfilling the symbolism we saw in 10x01 (her bringing Dog back to him on the beach).
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The other thing that caught my interest, of course, is the bird cage they find in the mine. Mostly because we saw a bird cage in Beth’s cell, and also many times since then. I looked up “canary in a coal mine” to make sure I was familiar with all the connotations of that phrase. We’ve all heard it before, but I wanted to be sure I had the definition correct.
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It’s basically a death omen. Miners used the birds to warn themselves of carbon monoxide. It’s an odorless gas, and if they were breathing it (a very real concern when one is working in a mine) they wouldn’t know it. But CO would kill birds far faster than humans. So, they kept canaries in the cages, and if they looked over, and the canaries were dead, they knew there was CO gas in the mine and quickly got out before it killed them too.
A bit brutal? Yes. But seen as a necessity to keep the miners safe.
But here’s the thing. In this episode, the group doesn’t actually find any canaries. Just the cage. And it’s full of dynamite. An obvious foreshadow of what will happen with the dynamite. I’ll explain why I think this below, but I believe an empty bird cage (no bird in it) represents a death fake out, in which the person disappears, but lives. To be fair, this really may be more about Connie than Beth, but the symbolism is still there and applies to Beth.
So, I knew when I first read this that I needed to sit down and think about the bird cage symbol more. I knew there would be more than simply “the one in Beth’s cell” to point to. It took me a few days, but when I did, I came up with a lot of interesting connections. First, let’s list the bird cages we’ve seen. I’m sure I’ll miss a few, but here are the ones that come to mind.
1. The (empty) bird cage in Beth’s cell
2. The bird cage Carl saw in 4x09. It was technically empty, but a dead bird lay on the floor outside it.
3. An empty bird cage we saw near Glenn in 6x07.
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4. And now this one, in 10x09. (I’m willing to bet there’s one somewhere around Rick, but I’d have to go re-watch several episodes to find out, and I haven’t had time to do that.
Let’s talk about bird cages in general in literature.
The first thing I did was look up “bird cage symbolism.” The biggest thing Google points me to is Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.” I actually read that book in college. (It’s really beautiful by the way.) But I also know the reason Angelou used that analogy is that it’s common in literature. I know Jane Austin used it in Mansfield Park, but those are the only two instances I know of off the top of my head. So, as we’ve talked about before, the caged bird obviously represents imprisonment, but via Maya Angelou, it’s much more than that. Throughout her book, she uses the analogy of the caged bird (I think she’s got an actual poem in there). She talks about how the bird WANTS to sing a beautiful song like other birds, but all it has is a bitter song because it’s angry about being caged. In her case, the cage represents racism, oppression, and sexual abuse, all of which she endured as a child. 
So, it’s a book about learning to sing despite the cage. And understand, it’s not about someone railing against a physical cage. Angelou would have grown up during the American Civil Rights movement. So even though African Americans weren’t slaves anymore and hadn’t been for some time, they didn’t have any choice but to deal with segregation, racism, and it’s not like she could do much as a child about the sexual exploitation she was a victim of. 
So the title, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” suggests that, while most people would expect the bird to be angry and bitter, and might even criticize the bird for singing in its cage, she knows why it does that: because it’s learned the lesson that it’s better to deal with your trials with grace and still choose to be beautiful than to be bitter and resentful your entire life about something you cannot change. Sound like something that can apply to Beth? Let me mention Jane Austin’s bird really quickly. I had to research this. In Mansfield Park, they tell a story that I guess was commonly known in JA’s time. It’s about a bird trapped in a cage and asking someone to help him. He says over and over again, “I can’t get out. I can’t get out.” But even those who try to open the cage for him can’t do it. *coughs Coda* Austen uses this as a statement about how women in English Regency society not having any choices, and not being able to get out of marriages for any reasons (including abuse and deep unhappiness). She actually has a character say that about her marriage. “I can’t get out.” Okay, so back to TWD. I’m just thinking that the bird cage in Beth’s cell represented not only that she’d be imprisoned, but that she would need to learn to sing her song even during 8 years of imprisonment. In fact, perhaps that’s the only way she would ever have survived. Let’s look at Carl. Carl and Beth are very alike. They both dealt with harsh trials when they were young and somewhat petulant (Beth’s suicide, Carl when he killed that kid who was with the Governor). Both of them, thanks in part to the love of great fathers, and the group at large, came through it stronger than ever emotionally. Both have a great respect for human life and helping people. 
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So I’ve always seen that birdcage in 4x09 as a foreshadow of Beth. Yes, the bird is dead, which might suggest her actual death. But I’ve always just assumed that it meant that when she tried to leave Grady, she would “die.” And it still probably does. But think of it this way. What if that cage was also a death omen for Carl? Remember that earlier in that episode, he fell onto his back on the ground while fighting walkers. And in the scene where he’s with Siddiq and is bitten, we get the exact same shot.
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So, chances are that entire sequence is a foreshadow of Carl’s coming arc. We also saw an eyesight chart (his eye) and a bat (Negan) in the house he and Rick stay in. And all of S4 was one great big foreshadow, right? AND. When Carl ventured outside Alexandria to bring Siddiq in…he died. And then there’s that pesky phoenix we saw at his death.
So, what I’m thinking now is that Carl is actually a foil to Beth in this way. They’re parallels in that when both of them tried to leave their prisons, they “died.” Except Beth really didn’t. And she probably learned to accept the prison and sing anyway (I still sing) where Carl…I’m not going to say that he didn’t sing a beautiful song, but maybe it’s that he was never satisfied with that. He always wanted to venture out on his own.
Think of that in 4x08. He told Rick he didn’t need him anymore and left on his own, just to show that he could. But maybe Beth learned to accept her prison and just have faith that somehow, she’d see Daryl again. 
I think we could also apply this to the other birds we’ve seen in some way. Daryl seeing the blue bird in S9 could show that he’ll find his bird again soon. But I also think Lydia was something of a caged bird with the Whisperers. All the birds in Still and Alone (heron, yellow ones on the wallpaper, etc.) are obviously about Beth, but I think they also show that Beth and Daryl made beautiful music together, even when they were kind of trapped in zombie world.
Meanwhile, um, Coda? Annnddd…hopefully when Connie goes missing, she ends up where Beth is, and Daryl goes to get her, and POOF! Reunion!
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Now let’s just say a word about the other cages. The one by Glenn was empty, and we saw it after they revealed to the audience that he’d survived by crawling under the dumpster. This is why I think the empty bird cage represents a death fake out, in which the person lives. We saw an empty bird cage in Beth’s cell as well. (Again, by empty, I specifically mean no bird.) And now we have this empty bird cage in the mine, which tells me Connie will live, but she’ll probably also disappear in such a way that Daryl can’t find her.
I’ve been looking for a bird cage around Rick, and haven’t been able to find one. Thanks to @wdway​ for helping me. We’ve scanned through 7x12, Say Yes, which had a heavy foreshadow of Rick’s death fake out, and 9x05, where he actually disappeared. We haven’t been able to find one. But there are a few possibilities. 
1) There is one somewhere, and we’ve just missed it. I’m sure someone will notice it eventually, but since I haven’t had time to rewatch every episode in detail, we definitely could have missed it. 
2) We didn’t see Glenn’s bird cage until 6x07, AFTER he was revealed to be alive. So perhaps we haven’t seen one for Rick yet, but we will. 
3) Chances are good that in the next handful of episodes, Michonne will learn Rick is a live and that will be the catalyst for her leaving the show to go find him. I’m wondering if maybe we’ll see a bird cage then. We’ll just have to wait and see.
My point is that we’ve seen this symbol being used a similar way over and over again. If Connie disappears, and especially if Daryl assumes she might be dead, that will just be more proof. And remember that empty bird cage in Beth’s cell. You know, along with the gnomes and the “no exit” sign. Just saying. ;D
Thoughts?
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psyga315 · 5 years ago
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Fixing RWBY Volume 3
Volume 3 is most likely not going to receive a lot of changes due to how this is the lynchpin for which all other RWBY volumes make or break. It is because of Volume 3 that people were either turned off or were re-engaged by the tonal shift and it is because of Volume 3 for which people compare all other finales to, as well as scenes that were clearly made to recapture that feeling from Volume 3.
So, instead of going episode by episode in trying to change plot elements, I’m going to go in broad strokes with this.
Like before, I’d recommend Celtic Phoenix’s Fixing Volume 3 video, though only for the Vytal Festival Tournament and Cinder’s overall plan. After that, all bets are off.
Though, we need to address the Goliath in the room. Midway through Volume 3’s production, Monty Oum passed away and, if Shane Newville is to be believed (which, given how they used Adam’s V3 fight footage for V6, might be more likely), a lot of stuff was changed last minute, much to Shane’s chagrin. Now, some rewrites would simply go for “let’s go with the original plans” route, but I find that would be not only too easy, but would go into the route of “this is what Monty wanted”, which is not only a stupid complaint in more ways than one, but a real slap in the face to his friends.
Instead, I want to go with a somewhat more… meta route. I understand that this is a little more controversial, so if you wish, you may skip this. The long story short is that we’d be getting a 2.5 where we see the Vytal Festival Tournament and its ulterior motive is to get animators that hopefully would not lead to the fight scene drought of Volumes 4 through 5. Also, Jason Liebrecht is Qrow instead of Vic because Vic was busy in another role by the time RWBY finishes up with 2.5.
Those Who Treasure Monty
We begin in our world, on February 2, 2015, news of Monty Oum’s passing breaks out onto the web and a long, lingering shadow is cast over RWBY’s future. Even with multiple confirmations that RWBY will continue, it’s clear that without Monty Oum’s animation, RWBY would eventually slow to a crawl in fight choreography.
So, RT is forced to make a decision. They need to put RWBY off for a year while they figure out how to proceed. To ensure the RWBY fans stay sated and to search for talent that could either replicate or even succeed Oum’s, they create short, five-minute fights set during the Vytal Festival tournament that anyone with an animating talent can use. While some used Poser like RWBY, the fact that Maya is used more gets RT to thinking… Perhaps they should make the switch to Maya.
It’s been stated that Monty insisted on Poser when Maya was a superior option, and I wanted to reflect that in this meta-arc. This would also pave the way for animators to get RT’s spotlight.
In the middle of this hiatus, we’d also get Grimm Eclipse, which, given how not a lot of attention is given to RWBY proper, means that RT would funnel more support into the game’s first year than they did originally. This might also get Gray to try and put his name out by doing Gen:Lock, or at least releasing teasers for it, much like how Monty hyped RWBY through the four trailers.
The fights are in a purgatory of “semi-canon”, where it technically happened, but don’t expect RT to actually call back to it. Much like the DC Comics. HEY-O!
By the end of this hiatus, RT will most likely get their new talent and will definitely cut ties with Sheena and Shane, much like they did originally, but hopefully with less resentment given the cooldown. RWBY would get an October 2016 premiere which would be predated by RWBY vs. ABRN, JNPR vs. BRNZ, and SSSN vs. NDGO being the final three fights for Volume 2.5, done by people who would end up being lead animators for RWBY going forward. The last of the fights will end on a familiar scene.
“Wow, now that was a match!”
“Pheh, that was a mess…”
The latter of which being delivered by Jason Liebrecht. I reason that, in the time RWBY took to process the passing of their brainfather, Vic would most likely have been in another role and be too busy to do Qrow. This would also avoid the… unfortunate circumstance of which we shall not name.
With that, we shall properly proceed to…
RWBY, Volume 3, The Vytal Festival Arc
By the time 3 kicks off, we’re already done with the first round, having already seen most of it from 2.5. We instead open up with Ruby talking to her mom, the final moments of RWBY vs ABRN, and Ruby and her friends celebrating their victory, much like V3. What changes is that JNPR is also celebrating their victory over BRNZ.
However, it’s clear that not everything is bright. Ruby’s still scarred over the Breach, Blake is frustrated with the lack of closure they got and believes that the case is still not over, and Yang is thinking back to what Raven said, to which we get an extended flashback of Raven explaining that she saved her once and that Yang should not expect her to save Yang again and also how Summer was a pawn in a larger game. She doesn’t say much, but she leaves enough information for Yang to know who Summer was a pawn for: Ozpin.
We end Episode with a ship entering Vytal and Qrow deliberately going over to face it as Weiss looks on in a bright smile. Episode 2 kicks off with Qrow vs. Winter, now being a lot more vicious as Qrow believes Ironwood to be putting his jackboot over Vale and strangling what free will the people had remaining. We get to see his bad luck be put into motion as bystanders get attacked by debris and getting injured in the process. His Semblance is literally uncontrollable. However, the trick is to not show that this is his Semblance until Volume 4.
Glynda and Ironwood arrive and chew out both Winter and Qrow for their fighting. Even though they have differing opinions on Ironwood, Qrow is explicitly told that his drunken fits only help to cause fear, something Ozpin does not want in the Vytal Festival. Qrow brings up that Ironwood’s army is bringing fear and while Ozpin agrees, also agrees with Ironwood that it also brings some form of safety. Bottom line with how the scene plays out is that Qrow, while a valuable asset on the battlefield in more ways than one is outright a liability in social situations, made apparent when he hangs out with his niece(s) and only makes a bad situation worse by making his “cut one Taijitu head and now the other one calls the shots” speech sound way worse than it sounds.
However, there’s also subtle nods that imply that the only reason he’s such a drunken wreck with social skills so bad that he’s actively making things worse is because of the trauma he received from his days of being in STRQ and serving Oz. Basically, downplay the comedy of Qrow being drunk and show off that Qrow being drunk is a bad thing like in Volume 6.
Winter also has her hangups. Because of being raised by her abusive father, Winter inherited a bit of that. Think the DC Comics version of Willow. Weiss notably sees just how much like her father Winter’s become and Winter tells her that her ambition of being a Huntress has done more harm than good, bringing up her scar. Winter then tells her why she came. Not just to oversee the deployment of new robots, but also to warn Weiss. Jacques cutting Weiss off and constantly calling her is his way of saying “Okay, this is getting out of hand, come home or I will take you myself.” This kinda worries Weiss quite a bit.
The doubles match are the ones that are a major focus for episodes 3 & 4, showcasing Yang and Weiss vs. Neon and Flynt, Nora and Pyrrha vs. Sun and Neptune, Mercury and Emerald vs. Coco and Yatsuhashi, and Penny and Ciel vs. some random members of CRDL. Not a lot of changes here. With a whole episode to ourselves, we can spend that to see our cast one final time before the plot throws them into hell. Weiss talks to Ruby about her father, she assures her that RWBY will not leave her side. Blake tells Yang about her worries for the White Fang, especially since her name had been publicized by the tournament, even knowing that Yang is hiding something.
We end the episode with Glynda asking Ozpin if he’s sure about something and he reassures her that time is of the essence and that they have no other option. “The only one with a choice will be her.” Before we cut to Pyrrha.
Episode 6 is unaltered, except there’s a heavier emphasis of Ozpin pushing the issue onto Pyrrha and making it clear that it’s making her mentally unstable.
RWBY, Volume 3, The Fall of Beacon
Okay, the only thing that changes for Episode 7? NO BLACK SCREENS! It works for some mystery with the Grimm and Salem, but for meeting Roman?! So, no black screen. If you need to add mystery, just add dark shadows and for the Grimm, glowing eyes. The biggest change would be how Cinder interacts with Adam. Obviously, we keep how he acts in the flashback… But we get a bonus scene of Cinder talking to Adam and manipulating him into resenting Blake for leaving him. Boom. We got our transition covered.
The only change for Episode 8 is that Blake doesn’t go “lol, okay” when she gets Yang to say she’s sorry for kneecapping Mercury. In fact, she expresses doubt on Yang and does not change her mind about it, believing that the thing she was hiding had something to do with injuring Mercury. We end Episode 8 not with Ruby encountering Mercury, but Hazel.
Episode 9 remains relatively unchanged, as it’s the necessary lynchpin to cause the Fall of Beacon. Really, most of the final act can remain unchanged for the most part, save for some quality of life changes like “how come no one called out Emerald when she was in the middle of the crowd even though they were told that her team went home?” or all those tiny nitpicks that really makes Cinder’s plan fall apart if you think too hard about it.
The most that changes is that Hazel fights Ruby reluctantly. Obviously, he doesn’t want to fight Gretchen’s partner. Cinder would have no idea Ruby’s incompetence led to Gretchen’s death, so Hazel wouldn’t use that to guilt trip Ruby. He does, however, rant about the flawed system that Ozpin has made and it’s clear that this is him talking about how flawed the system is, not Cinder whispering sweet nothings in his ear. He lets Ruby go just as the fight between Pyrrha and Penny ends.
Yeah, this still takes place despite Cinder not knowing, since she lacks her virus for now. Cinder is smart and is able to put two and two together when she sees that Penny is doing a lot of the heavy lifting during her fights. I mean, it was obvious to us that she was a robot from Volume 1, Cinder didn’t need no fancy scroll to tell her “hey, Penny’s a robot.”
I should add that, throughout the tournament, Cinder had been rigging the tournament so that it’d come down to Vale vs. Atlas, using the narrative of the Breach to set the stage. She’s also making sure the losses for Mistral and Vacuo sting so the Grimm get attracted sooner. How is she doing this? Via the backdoor program she had. As I said previously, the virus feigns being dead and can only be reactivated by a backdoor program. However, this isn’t the full extent. Cinder is basically using the program to activate a few nodes in the CCT to rig the randomizer enough so that no one stops and goes “wait, this is fishy”. It doesn’t help that the way the tournament is held, each Kingdom representative is guaranteed to face an opposing Kingdom once per round, so if one Kingdom was really good, they’ll overcrowd the subsequent doubles and finals. Two Kingdoms? Then you essentially guarantee that the rest of the fights can be nothing but Kingdom A vs. Kingdom B.
Penny is killed and this becomes the straw that broke the camel’s back. I also would make it so that her big speech, while imposing and setting the tone for the fall, doesn’t sound like “I’m the big bad evil guy and I’m going to announce my terrorist attack!” Also, Adam can get involved too, saying how humans are so sad over a dead robot, but when it’s a Faunus, no one gives a crap, white guilting the crowd. When the Beacon staff cut the feed, Cinder goes “OMG! CENSORSHIP!” and riles up the crowd that way. Basically, her speech causes fear and panic. The Grimm and White Fang attack, we kick off the Fall of Beacon Arc.
One major change to kick off the finale: Port and Oobleck are killed. It doesn’t have to be shown, but it would be implied as Ozpin notices that he lost contact of the two. Really, this is your chance to get rid of all the characters that won’t make an appearance in later Volumes or wouldn’t really matter. After all, there will be no rest or love. Hell, kill off CFVY while you’re at it. Hammer home that the dark tone is here to stay. Also, the backdoor is the thing Roman puts on that ship and thus reactivates the virus.
Of course, the major change is Adam’s fight with Blake, since they fought before. Blake tries desperately to ask why he’s hurting people, but Adam gives her his response: “Because this world doesn’t reward the kind-hearted people. You should know that after what happened to your father!” This puts Blake in a lot of fear and anxiety, requiring Yang to interfere. The one thing I’ll change from this is that Adam does not one-shot Yang, because that horribly unbalances him in the grand scheme of things. Instead, he relies more on manipulation to put Yang in the absolute worst spot throughout the fight, absorbing the increased blows he got from Yang before letting it all out in his Moonslice, taking off her arm.
The other major thing I’d change is the handling of Pyrrha. The bit where they’re underground changes immensely as Ozpin explicitly instructs Jaune to wait by the door, thus separating him from Pyrrha. Ozpin and Pyrrha go to the pods, but as Pyrrha begins to have second thoughts, Ozpin activates the switch as Pyrrha screams in pain.
Meanwhile, Jaune finds Cinder entering the chamber via a superhero landing (No one’s gonna acknowledge that she managed to follow the group down a longass shaft?) and as Jaune tries to fight Cinder, realizing she’s the one who organized all of this, she tells him “I didn’t cause this… I merely exposed Ozpin for what he truly is… Arrogant and willing do to anything to win.” Jaune pieces together what Cinder could possibly mean and enters the chamber, seeing Pyrrha in pain. Just then, Cinder kills Amber and takes her power.
Ozpin decides to hold Cinder off while Jaune and Pyrrha go to get help. While this will be revealed in Volume 5, it’ll be revealed that Ozpin threw his battle with Cinder so that, not only would he reincarnate quicker, but also to avoid the Council chewing his ass out. This leads to the consequence of Cinder forcing Pyrrha’s hand, however…
Like with the show, Pyrrha fights Cinder by herself since Jaune did enough. We’ll have him try to contact Glynda and the others, but they’re unfortunately busy and it’s this poor communication that causes Jaune to panic call Weiss. The fight proceeds like normal and Pyrrha is killed by Cinder, making her sacrifice seemingly in vain before Ruby, having enough with all this bullshit, Silver Eyes the fuck out of Cinder and the Dragon, turning the latter to stone and Cinder into a cripple.
Ending remains the same, but give a lot more emphasis on Ruby and Yang coping with the new change and the losses of their friends. One day, Jaune comes by and asks Ruby if she and Yang would like to accompany them to Mistral, figuring that Cinder came from there and that they’d be able to find some answers. Ruby, having had enough of moping around, leaves much to her father’s chagrin. Salem’s speech remains the same and we get two stingers, split by Divide and Cold. Divide’s credits would be for the Volume and Cold would be for all the animators who helped out during Volume 2.5 and a tribute to Monty. The first stinger is Qrow following RNJR in bird form, the second is Cinder, literally on the edge of death before the parasite Grimm begins to heal and nurture her. She’s furious that Ruby managed to hurt her and this negative emotion causes a Grimm to stalk her. She tries to sing to it, but her voice gives out a rasp.
Just as the Grimm is about to kill her, it gets killed by an unknown assailant, who just scoffs to Cinder. We don’t know who it is, but the shadow of a scorpion’s tail and the creepy voice pretty much gives those with foresight a good idea who he is: “Poor, poor little girl… Bit off more than you can chew, hmmm?” before cutting to black with him giggling.
DVD Extra
This would basically be an encore of Volume 2.5, where animators that nearly made the cut were invited to animate doubles and finals battles and even have a speculative RWBY vs. JNPR battle for ol’ time’s sake.
And that’s RWBY Volume 3 tweaked. Only two more left to go and they’re the most… interesting ones to tweak. Well, with this isolation, I might as well give a little bit of time to this…
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comicteaparty · 5 years ago
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March 21st-March 27th, 2020 Creator Babble Archive
The archive for the Creator Babble chat that occurred from March 21st, 2020 to March 27th, 2020.  The chat focused on the following question:
What are some background details you know about your story that won’t ever actually come up in the main narrative?
Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)
Oh boy... So many in Whispers of the Past... The first—which I believe I've mentioned before—is that some of the characters' sexualities never really get brought up outside of some subtle subtext. For example, Ryukou is asexual aromantic, but he is married, and he honestly doesn't even know that being aroace is a thing. His wife, Maya, is bisexual, and her attraction to women is hinted at, but not explicitly said. The second background detail that will likely never make it into the main narrative is Kelan's grief after SPOILER the death of his wife. END SPOILER The story takes place years after this event, and yet he still hasn't completely recovered. That being said, it just never really comes up in the narrative, again, outside of subtext. Thirdly, Izrekiel actually has a dependency on physical contact and skinship, because of the lack of affection he was given as a child. This, once again, only really comes up in subtext and is hinted at through his actions, but it is never explained. Aaaaand finally, there is a lot of magical lore that is never explained even remotely. In the story, it is treated very much like a soft magic system, but there are some "harder" elements that go into explaining why certain things have happened, but... they are not actually explained in the story. More like... I know about them, and I can explain these things to anyone who cares to ask (edited)
Capitania do Azar
Oh I suppose that in https://www.sarilho.net/en/ I'm never gonna go in detail about the geopolitics, the different power structures or even how the main empire is structured. We may get hints at it, but it's not necessary for the story so I don't think I'm gonna include much. Details about characters' sexualities are prolly just gonna be hinted at mainly because they don't have the words to express them the same way we do Also I really care about the differences between the different languages and particularly between the spoken and written versions of these, but I can't find a way to have a character explain those just because so you'll have to figure it out through background information like posters and graffiti
sagaholmgaard
Ohh this prompt came at the right time because it's been on my mind lately!! In Reclaim, https://tapas.io/series/_Reclaim_ My two main characters, Albus and Styrka, are in a queerplatonic relationship, which they don't have the word for and it doesn't ever come up except in subtext. I'm trying to write them so that it really shows that they love each other, and everyone knows this, but there won't be a point were they "get together" so to speak because they already have everything they want between each other! And I'm very Soft for this but also nervous that when the story is finished people might feel let down that it doesn't end up in straight up romance? if that makes sense And there's a lot of history research I did that is contextually there but not mentioned in words. That's just one of those things where my knowledge is deeper than what shows in the comic, but I think the story is better for it :D (It's not historic fiction because I'm taking a lot of liberties, but the research is helpful all the same)
chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]
One of the paladin/church knight's gay, but it never comes up, because, you know, marriage in their world's decided by the parents, because it's a matter of inheritance and heirs not love. He's married, and actually decent friends with his wife and children, but he's taking his oaths seriously. So he never even mentions the people's he's attracted too.
There are openly gay couples in the story, it just didn't work out for him; his family needed that alliance.
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
In Phantomarine (http://www.phantomarine.com/) I have two gods that drive the entire story. But seven other gods existed at one point in time. I will be delving into at least two other gods’ stories - as a good background for why the remaining two are in such a tumultuous relationship - but there are five others that I don’t really plan on writing about in great detail. Their symbols and names may pop up in various texts/decorations/etc, but there’s not enough time for a super detailed character study of each. Perfect for side stories, though
mariah (rainy day dreams)
Rainy Day Dreams (http://rainydaydreams.mariahcurrey.com/) takes place in an alternate dimension and the plot deals mostly with interdimensional travelers, but the world is post first interstellar contact also. Only the story isn't a sci-fi so there's no real reason to talk about how robust their space program is and there are already monsters so there's no easy way to tell who's a native and who's and alien.
eli [a winged tale]
Whoa Mariah that sounds fun! I love how everyone’s worlds are complex and in depth and there are clues within the story
Would these details be part of another project/side stories/lorebook? What’s everyone’s plans for these secrets
Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)
My secrets are basically just stewing in my brain I mean, I guess if a reader ever asked, I'd spill all the secrets, but so far, that hasn't happened.
Tuyetnhi (OIYD!)
same lmao
I guess a background detail the comic won't get into is how the imagery in Cara's dream became promiment before her dream boyfriend came to the picture. I did wrote a prequel where she was having dreams of her late grandma who's stories got super visual in her head. Most of the events she told to Cara were from late 70's Vietnam.(edited)
some of those dreams and nightmares were partly inspired from my parent's part growing up in the time, such as my dad encountering a ghoulish corpse with his grandpa and my mom actually building things from a hut in the jungle
so yeah lmao. ghost story dreams
eli [a winged tale]
Mariah I’m curious about non-scifi parallel universe space program alien monsters are they more the reasoning for how the story exists but you won’t be going into depth with them? (Ie not a plot twisty thing?)
Ghost story dreams and parallel places in real life sound like a good atmosphere/mood element in your story!
Tuyetnhi (OIYD!)
yeah lmao. I wasn't sure how to add it but Cara does mention about her grandma's story in future chapters (if my hands let me draw faster lolol). but as a small tibit. Maybe I'll sit down and write more as a side story lol
eli [a winged tale]
Side stories sound like a great way to showcase more of the world
Tuyetnhi (OIYD!)
I'll consider it lolol
mariah (rainy day dreams)
Mariah I’m curious about non-scifi parallel universe space program alien monsters are they more the reasoning for how the story exists but you won’t be going into depth with them? (Ie not a plot twisty thing?)
They're just kind of an additional details that I came up with while thinking about the world. The planet itself I decided a long time ago is Eart but like 100,000 years in the future so the tectonic plates have shifted and the continents are different. The setting is kind of a mix of old-timey and futuristic, but also mixed with magic so the lines between what is technology and what's just supernatural are already pretty blurred. So since it's already sort of a futuristic society I thought it would just be a neat addition to also have had aliens either have shown up or been discovered. I also figured that since the world is super used to inter-dimensional travelers they probably wouldn't be super freaked out to life from off-planet since they already know they aren't alone in the multi-verse? X'D but this stuff really doesn't have any baring on the main story. Like it might be something Mara tells Tristin as some point to blow her human mind. I just like to dig into little setting corners and make tunnels readers probably won't ever see X)
eli [a winged tale]
Ooh that sounds really neat! A big world to discover for the attentive readers
DanitheCarutor
Oh I got some stuff! 1. Part of this can be spoilers for future scenes, so I'm putting it behind a thing. SPOILER Apollo's origin. He was adopted and while at some point him and Julian discuss his parents briefly, it never really comes up in the main narrative. Apollo himself doesn't really care much since he was adopted as a baby and doesn't even know who they are outside of a picture that was given to him as a kid. Essentially they were an Irish couple who moved to the states, the father died at some point and the mother followed close behind during childbirth. There weren't any known relatives, at least ones that wanted to him, so Apollo went into the system and was lucky enough to be adopted almost immediately. END SPOILER 2. Julian's origin. This is kind of brought up briefly later on, but Julian doesn't really know where they're from so nothing much comes of it outside of remembering small bits of how their life was before being found. Although it is eluded to what the situation possibly could have been. 3. Julian's real age and date of birth. Since they didn't have any kind of ID the doctors had to guess their age, which isn't an important detail for the story so I don't see a point in adding it. 4. The details of what happened at Hopeful Hands. This place is discussed a lot, but the talk is more about the trauma that was inflicted and how to move on, rather than lingering on the details. Although enough of what happened is brought up to get a good picture of what kind of place it is/was. I figured laying it all out would be a little too much, and would take away from the main point of the story. 5. The lives of Apollo's friends. There are a couple side character who get fleshed out a bit later on, but since the story isn't about them I didn't see a need in showing more than what is necessary.
snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)
Hmm... there's certainly quite a few things that don't show up in the main narrative. Like Super Galaxy Knights Deluxe R is very much the Mizuki show, very few other characters get deep explorations into their backstories. But, like, that's what the short stories are for. As for things that never show up in the series at all... the only ones I can think of are the history of the world (because, like, it's pretty boring) and the specifics of how certain technology works. Like, I have a list of people & companies that various locations in the series were named after, and a list of the dynasties in the Giduli Kingdom. There's... not really any interesting stories there, it's just a dry list, so it's not something really worth caring about. And, like, saying "FTL travel in this world works by traveling to a parallel universe where everything is exactly the same except half as big" is kinda interesting I guess... but there's no reason for any character to mention it, and that specific detail really isn't relevant to the story besides "there is FTL travel in this world".
Feather J. Fern
Oh man, for Teasday, any detail about what the actual background of the story is. It's mostly character driven, if the characters don't care, or don't know, they don't talk about it. For Go Figure, I think no one is going to be told anything about the other battles in the past but they did happen.
sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)
There are so many stories I have built into the backstories of various characters that probably won't come up in the main work but have thought about making other adjacent comics about. For example I could imagine doing a prequel type thing about Joe's life & exploits
Since he is a cool character but unfortunately dead for this entire story
AntiBunny
In AntiBunny, http://AntiBunny.net/ I can't think of any reason to bring up the fact that Runo is asexual. Juju is also bisexual, and that also never comes up.
Desnik
Right now it's the warlock's magic system. I got it all worked out and then it suddenly had nothing to do with my plot.
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
I think sexuality details are easier to work in than a lot of people expect. You don't need a character to stand up and announce Have I Mentioned That I Am Asexual Today -- it can be an offhand mention that not all your readers will even pick up on. (But the ones who are looking for it will notice.) https://leifandthorn.com/comic/family-deserts-4-33/
What I've teased but never been able to work into Leif & Thorn canon (yet?) are the details of the World's Largest Cheese Sculpture.
There's also a lot of country names and flags in the bank that haven't shown up yet...but I'm about to draw scenes from a big international song competition, so I'm probably gonna need even more than I already have.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
TBH as an ace person, I don't really pick up on these things. It has to be more concrete for me. Kudos for those who do pick up on them and find them validating, though.
The cheese sculpture sounds epic.
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
Ahhh, that's what "reading the comments section to check out other people's theories" is for!
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I do that, but I don't consider that canon until the actual comic convinces me
It's also not something we creators can rely on, especially those of us who don't get many comments...
I'm not saying this is bad. Offhand mentions are great, just not concrete proof for everybody (and nothing is for everybody, sooooo).
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
Yeah, as a reader I like a lot of comics that don't get many comments...but it's cool when they do and there are people coming up with things.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
So I get it if a fellow creator finds it difficult to show that a character is ace -- like, maybe they're like me and they want Concrete Proof rather than an indication.
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
But the creator would already have concrete proof, right? Since it's their character. And the idea is that, even if it won't reach all readers, the indications are still better than nothing.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Yeah, like I said, they're not bad to have.
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
(for reference, the comic I linked above isn't the first offhand-mention related to that character, it's just the point when readers started putting it together)
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I'm not trying to dissuade anyone from slipping in those indications. Just saying different strokes for different folks.
DanitheCarutor
Reminds me of a comic I read called 'WANDERING' (https://tapas.io/series/wandern), the main male character in it is ace, although this is never stated out right in the story. At some point readers were speculating about his sexuality due to some hints, although I was totally oblivious. Didn't have any idea where the discussion came from. I do agree that a reader is more likely to pick up on something if they're looking for it though, as someone who doesn't care too much about a character's sexuality and gender (when those subjects aren't important to the story) I don't pick up on then unless the author holds my hand a little. Although when it comes to one of my character's genders it's never stated in my comic either, someone just asks about pronouns and attire later on and that's it. Kind of ironic. Lol
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I'm in a similar boat. Most of my characters' orientations are left ambiguous. I may need to drop an additional hint or two for some of them...
DanitheCarutor
Pfff right? I don't think my comic even had the word 'gay' in it until a few pages ago and I'm already into chapter 5. (to be fair, Apollo's sexuality is pretty obvious. The hits are really unsubtle.) I've thought about making my character's gender more easy to read for oblivious people like me, but that part of the comic is more about what makes them feel good in their own skin rather than putting a title to it. So people who miss my Twitter posts and author's comments can just speculate for themselves, I guess.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I can respect that. For me, a big part of the reason I'm wanting to put more hints is because I don't want people to accuse me of.... what people accused Legend of Korra about (I didn't watch it, but I did see some of those complaints)
Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)
Ah... The good ol' "why is she randomly bi?"
They didn't do a good job of showing it throughout the series up until that point at the end
But, big but, the creators mentioned that she was always intended to be bi, but they were afraid that Nickelodeon wouldn't let them represent a bi character on TV.(edited)
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Again, coming from someone who hasn't watched it, I feel like the complaint should be "why is she suddenly in love" rather than "why is she suddenly bi" -- same issue with shoehorned in straight romance
Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)
That too
These characters were fighting over the same man at some point
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
big shrug indeed, it sounds like
DanitheCarutor
Oooh! I thought it was the "stop the show to announce my gender/sexuality" thing. I never saw the show either and didn't see many of the complaints since I don't hang out on social media very often. Lol @keii’ii (Heart of Keol) That's understandable! With how stuff like that is nowadays it's better to be safe and make sure readers know, rather than not make it known till the last possible minute. It does kind of suck if putting in bigger hints doesn't mesh with will your story though.
Gosh, about the Korra thing, they could have dropped some subtle pick up lines in while fighting over the dude. But not wanting your show to get pulled or not wanting to be denied stuff is understandable.
Tuyetnhi (OIYD!)
oh yeah, the LoK convos about Korra and Asami. I watched the show during that time and it's just rip
Nick said to the creators they will pull the show if there's an explict statement that Kora and Asami being BI
so they had to be lowkey as hell in the end, which at the time of 2013-2014? idk the year
it was a steping stone for american cartoons I guess rip
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Yeah, and even though LoK aired back when things were a little different.... honestly I still feel that kinda pressure from EVERY angle, just a different flavor of it.
Tuyetnhi (OIYD!)
yea
DanitheCarutor
Well, last minute LGBT+ is better than none. Now there are a few shows like that, right? SU is super into it? (I don't watch this show either so I'm guessing based on fan discussion) and the MLP final dropped in some last minute stuff.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I have at least one character with cross orientation, and that's really awkward to show when I don't wanna put any... sex in the comic. (It's got lots of juvenile "tee hee butts" kinda stuff, but nothing steamy)
AntiBunny
Other tidbits I've thought of that I couldn't really address without just dropping a big exposition bomb are bits of lagosapien biology. They for instance have a shorter adolescence than humans, so they're shorter, but reach adulthood sooner. Their eyes are a bit wider than a human's, giving them a wider field of view, but less depth perception, and that they have higher muscular density, but being about half the size are on average human, are a little weaker than an adult human.
eli [a winged tale]
I know some webcomics have world lores and character notes at the end of each chapter
mathtans
Oh, things that don't show up? Randomly I'll toss in here that Expona is left handed. (Mostly consistently, I may have slipped up in the art once or twice.) Never something that makes sense for characters to talk about though, and not plot relevant, so... does that qualify? I dunno.
Joichi / Sarah
@Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn) sorry I'm late but I like the way you point out about asexuality. I was thinking of how to show concrete proof one's ace. But most of the time, I can pick up 'emotional signs' if it has inner monologue about romance.
The hard part of it, is being one myself, and it's always 'been like this' but in comic, it has to be said somewhere
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
Ah, good to hear!
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
And yeah, that was my intention, encouraging people who feel stuck between "explicit announcement" or "nothing at all" to remember that you have in-between options. And if you take that approach, there's all kinds of creative/offbeat/fun things you can do with it.
(Applies to everything else, too, sexual orientation just happens to be the thing people were talking about when it came up.)
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sysig · 5 years ago
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My Case Against 1-5
aka Why Miles Edgeworth is the most important character in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (and it’s not just because he’s my favourite I swear)
*spoilers for Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney cases 1-1 through 1-5! *also opinions
Miles Edgeworth has the strongest character arc in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and using a backfilled case to undermine his character growth not only reduces his impact as a character but delegitimizes the entirety of the first game’s central plot progression. In this essay I will
Miles Edgeworth’s character arc is the strongest of the entire cast in PWAA. His maturation and closure from case 1-2 to 1-4 are the heart of the whole plot of the first game, showing his progression from cold and clever to vulnerable, and willing to listen even to his opponents. This progression is very important to the player’s attitude towards him, as well as his worth as a character, as if he were to always be one way, either cold and clever or vulnerable and more open-minded, he would be rendered a flat character. Not to mention, case 1-4 is arguably the most important case in the game, being the original climax, as well as finally showing all the events of the DL-6 case and Edgeworth’s childhood, furthering his characterization and lending more depth to him, Phoenix, and Larry. Having the events play out as they do, with accusations and uncovering a past that was repressed and hidden, to slimy dealings with the prosecution and blame pinned everywhere, at least Edgeworth didn’t do what everyone, even himself, had been convinced of. But wait, isn’t that a little familiar? Isn’t that very similar to the kind of thing Edgeworth has been accused of, and how Rise from the Ashes plays out? The finger is pointed at Edgeworth, not for murder perhaps, but incriminating nonetheless, and while the past doesn’t reach back as far, it still throws so much into question, the biggest one being: Did Edgeworth use unscrupulous methods, no matter to how willing he was to do so, to win his cases? This case says, well, yes, Edgeworth unwittingly used forged evidence and lays out how he did such a thing, but in the end paints him as having been a pawn for a power he had no control over, an unintentional offender. Do I believe that though? No way! Who was there in the first case against him when he intentionally went out of his way to tamper with a witness’ testimony! Who was there as he covered up for a real-life murderer and let me take the blame! Who was there while he twisted the truth to better suit his four year career as a prosecutor, or two if 1-5 is to be believed? It was me, I saw it all, I bear witness to Edgeworth being unlawful, intentionally, on purpose, knowingly! And you know what? That’s great. It strengthens his characterization more effectively than case 1-5 could ever hope to. Why? Well, in this essay I will...!
Cases 1-2 through 1-4 perfectly set up and foreshadow reopening and solving the DL-6 case; the new cast is small, the old cast is well-established, some evidence is even brought up again, and everything is very tightly written. 
1-2 introduces Edgeworth and all his scummy back alley ways of dealing with unfortunate-for-him evidence and testimony, giving us, the player, reason to dislike him beyond just Being Bad - he’s actively making this case more difficult for us, and has us framed for murder! That bastard! His loss throws him into question, as it did for his mentor and adoptive father, von Karma, but unlike von Karma, Edgeworth’s heart was not hardened past the point of no return. This is reflected best in 1-3
1-3 starts with Edgeworth still gunning to win and making our lives more difficult, with Gumshoe still being on his side and making gathering evidence harder, which leads back to the impression of Edgeworth - if Gumshoe and Edgeworth are working together, and it’s making this case more difficult, it comes back to thinking Edgeworth is a bastard who’s just there to get in the way. But then he underhandedly helps you - refuses to object, presses witnesses, even the Judge seems skeptical of his position as prosecutor! He’s starting to shift, to change, to become more interested in the truth rather than keeping his winning streak alive
Finally 1-4 is where it all comes together. You see his mentor, his father figure, who trained Edgeworth to be just like him, to be unscrupulous and cold and always make sure to get the defendant declared guilty - von Karma. And wouldn’t you know it, Edgeworth of all people is now the one in the defendant’s chair, framed for murder and unwilling to talk, believing not only that von Karma can have him declared guilty, but that his is guilty. Protecting Phoenix from the truth that he’s been wrestling with for fifteen years, until it finally comes to a head - 
Edgeworth is not a murderer, but he’s also not innocent. Not necessarily in 1-4, he’s declared Not Guilty, but in his life, he has done underhanded deeds and dirty dealings. He’s manipulative, cold, refuses help and refutes compelling arguments if they might be inconvenient for him. But he changes, before it’s too late. He becomes vulnerable, is willing to change, to listen, to admit defeat. If he ever got caught he’d surely go to jail, and in 1-2 I’d be tempted to say he got what was coming to him! But he’s not static. He’s dynamic. He learns, he grows, he becomes a better person. And he hates it, he feels so uncomfortable changing that part of himself, those “Unnecessary feelings.” But Phoenix was right - they are necessary, and they prove that Edgeworth has changed. You want evidence? He gives it to you himself, with his uncomfortable expressions and his stopped nightmares. He refuses to become the monster that raised him, stops beating himself up for something he never did, and admits the greatest defeat - he stops prosecuting. Not because he was found for forging evidence but rather because he was saved from anyone finding out now that he’d turned that page. Phoenix Wright saved him from callout culture.
So other than the obvious things about case 1-5, like the occasional typo (not great in a detail-driven story but nobody’s perfect) and some of the more particular puzzles (looking at you unstable jar), Rise from the Ashes has some more egregious problems, least of all being pacing and tone, and most of all being ruining continuity and the heart of the first four cases.
How it lifts from 1-4 aka Edgeworth’s sordid past & statute of limitations on opening a case (and repressed memories)
It’s cast number and amount of evidence as a climax vs. 1-3 & 1-4 (how 1-3 was a murder unrelated to any of the previously established characters and had a decently large cast but not /so/ large as to be confusing) and (1-4 as a climax works the smoothest because of the foreshadowing of the DL-6 since 1-2 and only introducing a few new characters to keep the characterization tight) plus (refusing to get rid of superfluous evidence despite having already done that in earlier cases)
Lack of/contradicting established continuity and canon (Edgeworth being Lana’s understudy, neglecting mention of von Karma except at the very end and only once; the Blue Badger being made “This year” i.e. 2017 when the plush already existed at least as far back as 2016, if not earlier; Rumours about Edgeworth forging evidence/any other back alley deals being thrown around when even he himself didn’t know about the forged evidence but did know about tampering with testimonies because he did those himself in case 1-2; bringing up Miranda Rights, evidence law, etc., when neither of them had been important to the plot before (internal continuity rather than real-world application)
It’s a badly written mystery (the way it pushes off the initial murder to the very end to make it seem like an afterthought, the way it intentionally redirects the chain of events many times (something like four times?), its “options” only leading to yes or no which really end up with either one or the other with just a strike (!) taken off (i.e. not clever writing); it just seems like it’s a gaslighty mess)
The Good (because there are good things, both objectively and subjectively)
Gant (his design, his theme, the idea he represents (being corruption in the police, blackmail & lies to achieve an end; well established just not well executed, especially taking pieces of evidence, one of which he planted, and intentionally hiding it from Lana instead of further implicating Ema i.e. Lana should’ve been aware of those pieces of ‘’evidence’’ so that it would seem even more like Ema would be implicated if they were real)
The screwdriver reveal (divorced from the context of everything else in the case, the image of Edgeworth truly being used to transport a corpse unwittingly is very well done. It’s in-character, well-revealed, and an interesting concept, especially towards Edgeworth, because of his baggage)
The question raised of corruption in the police force, and foils of Starr and Lana to Gumshoe and Edgeworth
The Bad (objectively bad things like pacing, logical jumpscares (edges toward subjective), hand-holding (like flashbacks to things that happened literally just before the last save), arguably tone shift)
Having this case be both an introduction to new gameplay elements, and the climax of the game i.e., the hardest level (the way things are introduced doesn’t mesh well with having to have the most difficult plot line/convoluted story/etc., because there’s no time to gradually tutorialize these elements without killing the pacing of the case, which it does anyway. It does both things wrong, amazing!)
The Ugly (subjective things, plot progression around and in relation to Edgeworth my favourite charater, sense of humour, using Ema as a replacement for Maya, introducing such a large cast with no foreshadowing (because they couldn’t help it is not an excuse - if you can’t write your plot and have it weave naturally into the pre-established story, maybe you should do a rewrite)
Edgeworth is not a static character and you’d know that if you played Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. His characterization and character arc are the strongest of any other character in the game and writing as though he never did anything unscrupulous undoes the entirety of 1-2 through 1-4
Admittedly, this is neither a good nor a bad, it just is - Darke was convicted of a murder that he did not commit, and was put to death for murders that were never proven. Darke could be Not Guilty for all we, the player, know, and I think that’s maybe the most interesting thing in this case. Too bad it was sidelined for the rest of it
Backfilling as an art is something I’m very familiar with, and if I may toot my own horn, am fairly decent at. You see it all the time with fanfiction and other fanworks, backfilling is a very popular way of making sense or just filling in the time between canon events - fun speculative fiction for fiction. This case is one of the worst examples of backfilling I’ve ever seen. It explains nothing that wasn’t already established, it actively ignores canon, it introduces a dozen new characters that were previously unmentioned and makes them integral to the plots of the established characters, etc., etc. It makes it difficult to want to get to know them when they fall into the conventions of unskilled writers, no matter how earnest
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laufire · 5 years ago
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Omg I cackled when I saw how meh you were on fitz. God, me too. The scandal fandom was a trip back in the day and as a mellie stan I eventually left bc I couldn't stand how up fitz' ass the black female fandom was. I also couldn't deal with how hypocritical people were being about fitz being white in comparison to mellie being white esp wrt fitz' sexual aggression and entitlement to olivia
OMG YOU’RE A MELLIE STAN TOO. ISN’T SHE AWESOME (ofc she turned out to be my fave lmao. It’s the reason why I refrained from trying the show for so long, I could see I’d fall for her and I didn’t know if it’d be worth it). She even makes Fitz bearable, sometimes. It’s outstanding. My other fave is Liv’s father…… smh. Eli-Rowan/Maria-Maya is probably my OTP?? IDEK man xD. I can’t tell you how much I wish Rowan-Liv was a Ted-Daughter duo, with Rowan-Maya as the romantic sub-Tobin lmao. OTOH Mellie has no place on that structure, so. I’ll take it :P
I remember seeing Things from the Fitz/Liv fandom way back when lol. Let’s just say I’m very, very glad I wasn’t watching the show while it aired. Like, on some level I get the reaction, because black women rarely get to play Robins and have those types of ships, but err. Like you say, the hypocrisy wrt Mellie vs. Fitz sounds annoying and predictable (and it’s not like the show isn’t obvious when it comes to Fitz’s entitlement, lbr. They event went ahead and explicitly compared him to Jefferson at one point I could barely believe it lol).
And just, okay. This is slightly off-topic and one of those times where I show how shallow I can be but it’s just… he’s so, so ugly. I swear I spend the majority of his scenes trying to figure out why any of the women in the show are attracted to him (Mellie is an exception because she was mining the political capital of the relationship, okay xD). I GUESS being the President of the United States is one hell of a trapping, but isn’t it cancelled by the lack of eyebrows?? LMFAO. And his personality isn’t doing him any favors! I know love is blind and stupid, but damn, Liv.
Yet more off-topic stuff: I think he’s, at the top of my head, the only Pilot Ted I’ve ever encountered whose father was a.) a terrible person AND father; and b.) didn’t love him or even respected him (barring something they might do later on, but since Fitz Sr. is dead, I doubt it).
It’s something that I’ve seen writers shy away from; even when we’re talking about Late Teds or Adaptation Teds that came along with abusive fathers from the word go, they try to find a way to cancel it out (i.e. Howard being re-written in EG as Deeply Adoring Tony But Being Bad At Feelings, or Klaus killing all his parents a few times for good measure xDD).
It’s as if they feel that a Ted can’t be a Real Man, The Hero of The Story, if his own FATHER didn’t respect him. Because is there anything more emasculating than that? Mothers of Teds, and in a different way Robins, ofc are limited too –they’re either timid and unobstrusive, often conveniently dead, or Mafia Mother types that cross lines but make some kind of sacrifice for their children.
But if there’s someone with some level of moral authority over the Ted, it’s his father, right? (sometimes Ted-Structure reminds me of my Roman Law classes, with the pater familias etc.; or, if like I say in that post, writers love paralleling Teds to Christ of all figures, well. You do the math xDD). So the fact that Big Jerry is basically this plot device to continue to ~emasculate Fitz is quite interesting to me, idk.
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immortalpramheda · 5 years ago
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The 100 6x07 ‘Nevermind’
Clarke sees some people from her past. First off, her father, which was a very sweet reunion. That makes her think she really is dead, but he pushes her to realise that she’s not. Her heart is still beating.
The reason why Clarke is still alive is because of ALIE. The mind wipe failed because the ‘neural mesh’ from the City of Light chip still remains in her head. It contains a place for her memories to be stored so they wouldn’t be wiped completely.
An EMP was used to forcibly remove Raven from the City of Light. That means there is still a part of ALIE in everyone who took the chip. So even if they do turn everyone into Nightbloods and use them as hosts, anyone who took the CoL chip would be in the same situation as Clarke. That memory is the key that Josephine needs to kill Clarke for good.
Josephine and Clarke meeting for the first time was great! As much as Josie admires Clarke and all that she’s heard about her, two minds in one brain cannot survive. One of them needs to die.
Josie’s mind drive was put into a 6 month old baby in one of the early tests (how could they possibly think that putting a 20 year olds mind into a baby could work?), as well as a 15 year olds body, which both failed. Their brains were not fully formed, therefore their minds were not completely wiped and it eventually led to a stroke and they died. Josie seems so nonchalant about the whole thing. She has no regard for human life except for her own.
The detail of all the drawings of Clarke’s memories is incredible! It’s so cool to see them all and how each of them shaped Clarke’s life in an important way. I loved that when they run their hands along the walls, little soundbites of each memory play. Clarke’s memories are all over the place. Some are big drawings, some are small, and they don’t seem to be in any kind of order. That’s obviously how Clarke’s subconscious organises and processes things.
Once Josie finds out about the missing memory and realises it’s what she needs, Clarke kills her. But Josie’s mind has a back up so she can just keep coming back. She can’t die in here.
There is no way Clarke is giving up. She runs right into the fighting pits and is confronted by Bloodreina. She says things that deep down Clarke feels about herself. Stealing the bunker is one of the things she feels great shame about. The pits are also the setting of one of her biggest regrets, when she left Bellamy to die. She cares about him, she always has. And Bellamy forgave her for what she did. But the projection of Bloodreina questions whether he really did. If he did, then why is he not here too?
Because Clarke is too afraid to face him. While she wants to accept that he’s forgiven her, on the inside she doubts that he really has. Having to face the possibility that Bellamy hasn’t forgiven her is something she doesn’t want to confront. She’s afraid of facing him because a part of her thinks he sees her as a monster. But that’s not true, if only she could see how devastated he is over her ‘death’.
Next, Clarke finds herself in Mount Weather and encounters another thing that is eating away at her. Another death on her hands that she feels deep regret over. Maya.
She’s covered in radiation burns, exactly how she looked when she died in Jasper’s arms. It makes sense that her guilt about Mount Weather would be wrapped in the girl who gave up everything to help them. The girl who was nothing but kind and died because of her actions. Clarke knows that she had no other choice, she had to save her people, but she still finds it hard to justify what she did. Maya also brings up that Jasper’s death is on her hands too. Maya’s death is what led to Jasper’s downward spiral and Clarke also blames herself for that.
Clarke hides the memory in the part of her brain where her most traumatic memories live. Behind the airlock where her father was floated, and out into the woods where there is Lexa’s throne, the pole where Finn was tied up and the knife she killed him with, and the box she found in Arkadia. She’s wearing black, her S3 clothes, which was one of the darkest time in her life.
Josie convinces her that giving up the fight is what is best for her people. If she gives in then her people can live peacefully in their own compound. She shows her a memory of Bellamy agreeing to the peace deal, and that is what pushes her over the edge. Bellamy gave up on her, that’s what it seems like.
Just like during the eclipse, all of these things that come to the forefront in her mindspace are internal thoughts of how she really feels about herself. Everyone blames her for the impossible choices she’s had to make, for the deaths that happened because of her. Wanheda, the Commander of Death. Wouldn’t everything be better if she was gone?
And so the always selfless Clarke Griffin decides to once again sacrifice herself for the people she loves. She unlocks the box (0102 “You forgot Bellamy and Raven.”). Jasper’s goggles, along with some other painful reminders are in there, and the memory that Josie wants.
“You call this doing better? Giving up isn't better.” Of course Monty would be the voice of reason she needs! Deep down she still does want to live, that’s why she conjured up a projection of Monty, the person who always urged her to do the right thing.
The make their way through to Josephine’s memories, a library organised in chronological order. Wow, thats a lot of books! I guess that happens when you’ve lived for hundreds of years.
Clarke takes the last memory of Josephine VII, her previous host. As we found out a couple of episodes ago, Kaylee was the one who killed her. She drugged her and pushed her out of the window, making it look like an accident. It was revenge for killing Isaac, a good friend of hers, who Josie referred to as a ‘null’.
The ‘nulls’ are people who do not carry the gene of royal blood. They are treated as lesser, with no power and less important jobs such as janitors and guards. And to make Josie’s lust for a pure bloodline even more horrendous, the Primes feed null babies to the forest. Isaac was trying to save one and take it to Gabriel (is this where the name Children of Gabriel comes from? They originated as the babies that were rescued from the forest?).
Josies also says that Gabriel in his current body is 95. So 6 years later (Josephine VII died 6 years ago) that means he’s now 101 years old. He really is old, no wonder they call him the Old Man. The anomaly must somehow be keeping him alive because at that age he really should be dead.
After seeing what a sociopath Josie is, Clarke is determined not to let her win. Clarke and Monty make their way to her most traumatic memory.
Back on Earth at a diner, before the first apocalypse. There is a newspaper with Diyoza’s face on it, and a magazine with Becca. A guy walks in, someone who seems a little (or a lot) obsessed with Josephine. He’s acting like a crazed stalker, upset that she kept rejecting him. He then shoots himself in the head.
Because of this event, Josie’s whole life changed. She had decided not to go on the trip with her parents, the Eligius 3 colonising mission. She originally wasn’t going to go on it but then because of what happened, I’m assuming she decided she wanted to get as far away from Earth as possible. That led her to who she is now. If this event had never happened, she never would have become an immortal being with a cold heart. The fact that she doesn’t want to face this memory shows that there is possibly a hint of humanity left in her. Why else wouldn’t she want to face the root cause?
In that first flashback when Eligius 3 first arrived on Alpha, Josie made a lighthearted comment to Gabriel about being obsessed with her. Seeing her most traumatic memory makes that even more disturbing. Is making fun of obsessive behaviour how she deals with trauma? That is not a good way to process these things and could definitely explain why she turned out like this.
Before Josie realises where Clarke is, the projection of Monty hides. That’s how she’s still in there when Josie wakes up! A part of her subconscious, in the shape of Monty, is still in her mind when she’s awake. As Josie said earlier, brain functions are attached to deep emotional trauma. Because a part of Clarke snuck into her most deeply traumatic memory, she could effect her body without Josie realising.
Clarke knew that Josie was meeting with Bellamy, so she knew when she sensed Josie wake up that Bellamy would be nearby soon.
Clarke’s subconscious/Monty’s projection uses the lights in the diner to send a message in morse code. Clarke and Bellamy both paid attention in Earth Skills class (unlike Miller who fell asleep!) so of course he was going to be the one to figure out the message!! He knows her better than anyone. She’s alive! And he’s gonna fight to get her back!
What an episode! The attention to detail in this episode completely blew my mind. All the drawings and the memories they correspond to, the recreation of sets and outfits, and how it all connected to how Clarke was feeling right now. Simply incredible. This episode was everything I could have hoped for and I can’t wait to see how they get Clarke back!
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myfandomrambles · 6 years ago
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Shawn Hunter Character Analysis (Updated)
Facts:
Shawn hunter went through extreme neglect and abuse throughout his childhood/teenhood.
His Birth mother abandoned him when he was an infant.
His father cheated repeatedly giving him multiple halves brothers who he has a varying degree of relationships with.
His mother comes and goes in and out of Shawn’s life constantly. She is overall neglectful and emotionally vacant.
His father is an abusive alcoholic. He abandoned Shawn over and over after promising multiple times he would change, he would be, he would care. I definitely believe there was worse emotional abuse off screen than we saw and possible physical abuse.
his parents are domestically abusive towards each other setting up a bad example of how families are supposed to interact, and how to have a proper romantic relationship.
His family didn’t have showers, food, heating, money for clothes or money for school.
He feels the need to help their friend when she was an abusive situation and his first thought wasn’t “police” it was how to muddle through, showing that he most definitely went through similar situations people who have been through abuse understand the dangers of getting authorities involved in abuse.
Analysis:
Shawn Hunter is a headstrong, loving, scared, strong and loyal man. He spent his whole life fighting for his survival and to push through a life that pushed and pulled him into situations where he is either expected and pushed to fail or people expecting him to be everything that they expect of a kid who went through no trauma in the same way, instead of a way modified to encompass his struggles and mental health issues.
Shawn uses sarcasm and playing the chill due to puts up walls to keep people out of his emotional state. He masks his struggles to not have to deal with any of it or every process what happened to him. His natural devil may care attitude and determination to try to enjoy life make this masking easier. This mask falls through multiple times when his emotions get too strong and break through. It makes it obvious that to some extent this chill is fake.
Shawn deals with chronic low self-esteem, unstable moods and a lack of stable self-concept. He has a warped sense of self not knowing who he is separate from what people say he is. Shawn puts a lot of stake in the thing he considers his one real attribute his looks. He sees himself in a negative light and holds on to the one thing he believes he does better than anyone else, being cute and flirty.
His families history of the cycle of abuse and poverty and social judgement around his socioeconomic status cause feelings of worthlessness, being lost and never good enough for anything. He repeatedly does things in reaction to these feelings. Being baited to beat the bike, running away, never trying in school and the insecurity is the roots of most of his fights with cory. It’s a large part of his identity he wears and plays into his poor self-esteem. It was ground into him that this was the only life he could ever have, something he had to break out of.
One of Shawn key traits is extremely self-destructive. Cory even points out that he is going to do something to hurt himself when he gets the letter from Verna. Shawn has a tendency to run, or drink, or break things off when he is really hurt. This tends to negatively his relationships with others and danger his own well being. His huge act of cutting out his only loving relationship after Riley’s birth is a less dramatic self-destructive behaviour like drinking or running away as an adolescent but was terribly destructive to his own mental state working back in any ability to move forward in healing.
Cory is his most important relationship throughout the show and Girl Meets World. He is the only character Shawn actually trusts and cares for the whole time. Their relationship is more than most platonic relationships, often coming off as homoromantic (something that was viewed with even more comic derision by others in the 90s). The codependency they have on each other sometimes worsens Shawn's issues. Cory has the most power of anyone to trigger his insecurities and tendencies to splits on people. Cory is the only one to hold his trust their whole life, also giving him the most emotional weight in his life. The idea of being “Shawn & Cory” is integral to the way Shawn views himself often experiencing crisis moments when he feels this idea threatened. It’s one of the only things that was stable in his childhood and adolescence. His issues with identity are filled in with Cory quite a bit. When this idea is fundamentally broken when Cory and Topanga have a child he completely isolates himself, breaking off his relationship with seemingly anyone. His identity is shattered and his only relationship that was healthy feel irrevocably torn from his grasp.
Shawn’s other most defining relationships are his parents. Chet Hunter is a textbook abusive parent. Emotionally neglectful, never committing to any real improvement, forcing Shawn to raise himself and clean up after his father, gaslighting, and forcing his son into a painfully degrading childhood. He is cruel to Shawn and makes him feel like he doesn’t deserve love. His consistently gaslights him and pushes Shawn away and then drags him back in because they're ‘family’. Shawn grew up with this alcoholic who has been highly implied to be verbally abusive and possibly physically. He grows up with this abusive, neglectful, disorganized man constantly making him feels worthless and breaks down his whole self.  His adoptive mother in Verna is not much better. She is neglectful in the utmost sense drifting in and out of his life. Never showing Shawn any kind of healthy love. She was never willing to actually work through her own issues to be there for Shawn in a real way. Eventually ducking out completely. And flippantly telling him his birth mother gave him up. Anytime she was there she was pulled into a domestically violent situation with Chet, exposing Shawn to no semblance of healthy love or attachment. 
 One of the most devastating things is when we see that Shawn hates himself more than he hates his abusive father. Blaming himself for his abuse feeling like he is wasn’t good enough for Chet, Verna or really anyone. These relationships broke his self-esteem a lot and messed up his ability to even express love to anyone but Cory. He is actually unable to even get the words out to Maya for most of the show. Shawn’s relationships with his other Parental figures was key to his ability to pull himself forward. Cory was his rock but he was also generally indulgent of Shawn’s behaviour and when he wasn’t it often ended in a hot-headed fight often triggering Shawn’s worst impulses. 
Alan and Amy are Shown's only real view of a healthy romantic relationship and the way caregivers should really behave towards their kids. They often care for Shawn, though they struggle to do so long-term when raising their own kids. They were aware to some extent the way Shawn’s family treated him and attempted him to give him some love. They never actually stepped into the extent one might hope they would do for an abused kid but were an important lifeline. We also know that they considered Shawn to be integral to their family. Alan even offering to adopt him after he learns he never had any parent care for him. They are protective of their children and Shawn, though more than once play into Shawn’s issues when they put Cory over Shawn.
Mr Feeny is everyone's grandfather and Shawn is no exception. Shawn even tells him that he was the only who never gave up on Shawn. He was also a tough love expecting Shawn to do his best and achieve things when Shawn never believed himself capable. He was always willing to give tough advice and offer guidance when everyone else fell through. A stable figure in his life since childhood a constant teacher and mentor. I believe probably one of the key reasons Shawn got into school and was able to believe in his ability to write and do something with it. They start off in antagonistic way Shawn believing that Feeny sees him as dumb and a lost cause like others do. Learning Feny doesn’t see hi allows Shawn to internalize the sometimes detached kindness better. Even when they end up as adversaries in Shawn's troublemaking, Feeny isn’t seen as just a force to hurt him.
Mr Turner was another important figure the one to accept Shawn as his responsibilities when his parents up and leave him. They grow pretty close but Shawn was never really able to internalize that Turner would want to be his father. I think Shawn was never able to internalize the kindness in this situation as much as Feeny. It was important and sets Shawn up to be able to connect with Maya in the future. However Mr Turner turning him back over to Chet was able to undo a lot of the good work they learned, and then he just became another person who left. After his coma, his didn’t ever come back to him. 
Shawn can’t keep healthy romantic relationships easily. Shawn loves fiercely when he does let them in and wants a relationship like the ones he idolizes in Cory/Topanga and probably the adult Matthews. He cushes hard a few times but ditches out of all them, preferring to date around and sleep with multiple people. When he does love someone Shawn and never bring himself to put down his walls to get it even with Angela someone he wanted more than anything to love him. He is unable to ever fully commit till Katy gives him everything he wanted in a family and he didn’t have to actually let her in, but play a role. 
In Girl Meets World we see a Shawn who cut off his relationship with the Matthews in a large part and seemingly anyone. He built his own walls up higher again and has been actively afraid to let anyone in. His identity has seemed to extremely shaped in his abandonment. He views himself as just never going to have the perfect picket fence life he wanted his whole life, and then just decides to not try to form even a different version of happy. He didn’t seem to ever try and process or integrate any other part of the abuse but the abandonment. Not really ever presenting or discussing the alcohol abuse his witnessed, the emotional abuse and domestic violence, poverty or the fact he literally was so lost he joined a cult. It makes to some extent a worrying case for the fact that even the relationship he forms with Katy might have ended up somewhat Shallow. He built a mythologised version of Chet hunter in his head to offer comfort and never learned to deconstruct and see that Angela and he fell apart due to being young, dumb and traumatized. 
With Maya, we see him actually form a new healthy attachment besides Cory. He takes her under his wing and actually breaks through to even loving someone new besides Cory. It’s an important love to help Maya move forward and heal giving her a father and himself another thing in life than just surviving. They bond heavily in a history of abandonment and depression. His attention to her is really important. It’s depressing in a real sense that His relationship with Katy Hart seems mostly a fulfilment they both want of healing a family. He can give Katy a better life financially and make her feel less alone, he can give Maya two parents and a dog, help put her through college, watch her graduate and walk her down the aisle. It’s not so much that he loves Katy as a person it’s somewhat questionable the ever really had the time or interactions to really fall in love. It’s a kind of an obligatory least bad option. 
Shawn is an equally inspirational and kind of tragic character. He overcomes a lot and learns to make some amazing decisions. He overcomes a cycle of poverty and abuse. He learns to handle addictions, find his own passion for something and is a survivor through and through. But he also never really caught a break, experiencing trauma continuously throughout his whole adulthood. He lives his life a lot of times in necessity and "why the fuck nots" instead of dreams. His only really dream ever is to have a family. To stop standing in his own way and be happy. He never really get this though. His own internalized trauma and very 1-dimensional view of family and success hamper this. Cory getting married must mean he won’t matter anymore, Riley makes him superfluous and marrying Katy means he can’t love Cory the same way anymore, when they were each other's everything for a long time, Cory openly putting Shawn on the same level as Topanga. He never really deals with his Abuse or trauma letting all sit in lockdown in his chest under a facade. Choosing suppression as the best option to recovery and integration of his past. It’s a tragedy that someone who deserves so much loves so much and has lost so much kind of ends up in this situation of still having to survive. Even when putting together what he always wanted in a family it doesn’t get to include finding a way to understand himself as a whole person. 
He’s still an inspiration of a person, and it’s amazing that he even got himself to the place he is in to be a successful writer, creative person, and learning to love Maya and Katy. But it’s still sad that he never got to really put everything that happened to him into perspective and find relationships that understand and support his healing from this.
Nd Headcanons:
BPD:
Addictive tendencies
Anger outbursts
Breaks off relationships to avoid pain
Easily susceptible to suggestion and manipulation
Emptiness
Extreme lack of self-worth
Fear of rejection and Abandonment
Fave Person in Cory
Highly reactive emotions
Lack of identity
Lack of impulse control
Recklessly lashes out
Seeks attention both healthy and also negative attention
Splitting on people
Unhealthy attachment styles
Unstable relationship patterns
C-PTSD:
Considers neglect to be normal behaviour
Comorbid addictive behaviours
Deification of abusers
Expects to be treated poorly
Guilt over both things he has done wrong, and things that were done to him
Highly reactive emotions
Hypervigilance
Irritability
Lack of a belief system
Obsessive preoccupation with abusers
Rejects help
Self-destructive behaviours
Shame
Social isolation
Struggles with an unstable identity formation
Struggles to connected with others
Shattered self-esteem
Trust issues
Depression:
Doesn’t believe in himself
Feels undeserving of others attention and love
feels consistently inadequate
Hopeless view of the future
Irritability
Negative self-image
Self-isolation
Struggles with self-care
Empty feelings
ADHD:
Brushed off as dumb and lazy by everyone including himself even when it’s clear he isn’t
Disorganization
Easily distracted
Enjoys always being on the move and doing things hates staying stationary
Extreme RSD
Functions better in creative areas and excels when able to guide his own knowledge and do things practically like the business project, philosophy and creative writing
Inability to concentrate
Lack of impulse control
Restlessness
Struggles in school
zones outs
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