#But it’s just so… bland post retcon

[discocandles]

yeah, you're onto something here. i went on a rant in the tags but heres the stuff related to this:

a jon and chrissy friendship would be so awkward and so tragic oh my god. jon would see chrissy filled with fear & see will, his brother who's forever away. he abandoned his family, and now chrissy too. maybe she wouldn't have died if he went to california.

i think there would be a lot of guilt in the Byers family if this happened. Joyce because she wanted out of Hawkins, but she should've waited until Jon graduated to move so he wouldnt have to choose. Now her son is stuck in that town alone. Jonathan because he chose to finish high school at Hawkins, abandoning them after the pain of Starcourt. Will because if he hadn't been kidnapped and possessed, mom wouldn't have felt the need to move and jon wouldnt have had to choose. El is exempt bc she's new to the Byers, and grieving her dad.

also we wouldn't have had lucas being given shit by mike and dustin for joining basketball. Jon would not give two shits aout lucas liking sports and his music. even if Steve and Jon are jealous of each other right now, they would avoid bringing the party into it like the plague. and they would have good moments before everything officially goes to shit.

and speaking of Steve, the "you're a good person actually" talk would be way more impactful from Jonathan. given their history and how steve treated jon in s1, it would be an even bigger moment. and steve would probably give credit of his change to jon, the whole "thump on the head to get him going the right way" thing. which would impact jon, who feels like he's been abandoning everyone.

Sorry to be a hater for a second but st4 truly was so foul. Imagine them trying to convince us the Scooby teen gang included EDDIE while Jonathan was just some other random guy…….. and people bought into it……….

[sgiandubh]

I want to ship SC, trust me I do and I love them together, but I just can’t fathom how far they stretch a fake relationship (her and T). Like for example the recent picture of them holding hands- now it’s not an insane gesture but definitely one we haven’t seen before. So maybe they truly are just a private couple. But in my heart of hearts I just love her and S together so much, and don’t know what to think because on one hand they are simply everything together and on the other it seems like she really is with T. I’m confused 🥲 what’s your take?

Dear Confused Anon,

I will be brutally honest: no, I do not trust you and I do not care about your crocodile tears. Not a single bit. In fact, once I will be done with my answer to you, you are most probably going to press CTRL+C, then CTRL +V. And run to the nearest Mordor sweatshop, in the hope one of the Three Sopranos will insult me again.

You see, to trust you, I would have to speak with at least a handle, not a coward in disguise. And then, even DMs are neither always safe, nor always honest - I have recently learned it the rough way, despite my best efforts, tried (and up until now failed) to forgive and will never forget.

By now, I suppose everyone got a good look at this splendiferous picture:

Take a long, quiet, hard look at it, Shire.

So organic it could kill a moth colony on the spot.

So heartfelt - she doesn't even look at him.

So sentimental - that icy smile of hers. A happy couple, indeed.

A general round of applause, all across the Nation.

You are very wrong: it is not the first time they are holding hands, I mean, sort of. The much touted London marathon pic immediately comes to mind - although you'd have to admit, I looked and looked and he seemed to be checking her pulse, rather than being lovey-dovey.

A real private couple would never stoop as low as a cheap, laborious retcon, in retaliation for a couple of thousand people speculating on a niche blogging platform.

It took four years, a month and four days after that Remarkable Week-end to see McSideburns clumsily try and claw her hand. Remarkable, indeed.

And are you trying to tell me the MC didn't shake your beliefs and this does?

This perfunctory, formulaic, scripted AF, blip?

Wow. I have no words, Anon.

That unkempt, bland person - for God's sake, mister, tuck that damn shirt in your pants! - looking like the elephant in the china shop at a carefully curated event celebrating the supreme form of French refinement?

This is insulting, to say the least. To her (and her prized image), to Chanel, to this fandom, to S and believe it or not, to himself, too. Granted, the Berluti shoes are showing some improvement and are now clean. Hmph.

So here is what I think, Anon (and I know people are going to shriek and guess what, I do not care, for once):

It's been at least one year this fandom has been asking for this specific pic and for this specific whiplash. A childish tantrum, as she is regularly throwing. Mind you, that doesn't even come close to the painfully slow, monumentally boring Flukenzie Floozy Saga and looks as staged as the Ochoa & S London sighting (ah, patterns!).

This is the reaction to our scriptwriting ineptitude.

This is also the reaction to some underground shenanigans, directly related to a birth certificate apparently being peddled around. I will not discuss this, yet know just that: this is a legal claptrap, right there. I can, and if needed I will prove it. With the cold, surgical precision Mordor is so afraid of.

But she is a mother, for Christ's sake!

A mother!

As I said, I am not a mother and never will be. I do not wish this trial on anyone. But if I know something about life, I can guarantee you a mother would do whatever it takes to protect her child(ren).

Including taking precisely this kind of sad and forgettable pic.

So, there's that. We choose and we choose now: we fall for it once more and let the playbook fiddle with our insecurities once more and post endless trails of old pics once more to soothe the searing indignation.... Or GROW THE FUCK UP and show to whom it may concern we're not buying this shit anymore.

I know what I'll do. You're on your own, Anon: my tough love took you only this far, down the road. Sorry for the length. It was needed.

For the moment, I just booked an appointment with Miss Fotoula (roughly Claire, hehe), my genius hairdresser. I will ask her to refresh my dirty blonde mane.

[arson-09]

not to get book conspiracy theory on main BUT I personally think that Elucien fits Guilty as sin? (the new tswift song sjm posted on her story) if she is doing a little hint to the next acotar book

Not to be soooo literal but the “without ever touching his skin” works more for Lucien than azriel as literally elain has never touched lucien. Shes touched and almost kissed azriel, theres no not touching there.

I also think the theme of guilt works more with elucien then elriel. Yeah rhysand told azriel to not get with elain, which people take to say FORBIDDEN which. Get off the floor thats not forbidden at all lmao. BUT i can see elain feeling guilt for wanting lucien because of how the IC acts and talks about lucien. Hes treated like shit even by feyre, who’s supposed to be his friend. Hes constantly sent away and the ic keeps him away from elain. That gives a mindset of “i have a choice, but even if hes the one i want to choose my family acts like they dont want that for me.”

Also the theme of being locked away in a previous relationship makes me think of elain being kinda trapped in velaris. Shes said before she wants to travel but the ic is such a guilt tripping little gaslighting group thats power hungry. they dont want elain to leave cause then they wont havw her seer power. You know im right.

Also 2/3 bat boys are with archeron sisters. why not get all three? that would be perfection for the ic wouldnt it? all three sisters, who are all extremely powerful in their own ways, related to rhysand? girlll. A rejected mate bond might be fresh for the series but if its elain picking a bat boy it immediately takes away all the funky freshness. Also the whole point of this series is fated mates, sjm would literally be retconning her own work for that (which. she has done before but like)

I just find elriel the infinitely more boring ship. Azriel is honestly bland as fuck, especially in comparison to THE Lucien. Elain has already shown she has the potential for so much depth and character and if she does end up with a bat boy that book will be 90% the most boring smut you have ever read with azriel objectifying her body (which he has lowkey already done. just like the other batboys and their mates. im tired)

Anyway im an elucien truther and lover no matter what. they are the superior and more interesting ship. which means sjm may fuck it up, she has a track record *sigh*

[writingforfun0714]

So I wanted to wait and let the new Bad Batch trailer sink in before posting about it.

Warnings: Spoilers, some thoughts/opinions will be critical

Alright so I don’t think it’s any secret that I don’t care for the Bad Batch. Even ignoring the horrible, incredibly RACIST clone model, the writing is mid/passable at best and not even watchable for me. Most of S1 and 2 combined is the typical ‘mission of the week’ type of story where only a few Empire-focused episodes stand out. There are also instances of ableism concerning Echo in particular (CF99 are also super dismissive of him in general—going along with that whole fucking ‘superiority over regs’ thing—seriously wtf).

Most episodes were very bland and predictable. S1 had no stakes despite its finale. By Mando/ST it’s clear that something has happened to Kamino. Didn’t really need to see a 2pt ep of the city getting wiped. Plus AZI should’ve been sacrificed. Even Ahsoka learns the lesson that you can’t save everyone in S1 when she disobeys Anakin and Admiral Yularen. TBB S2 had no character development from anyone besides a little bit for Omega (and Tech—but that was always speculated by fans since S1 and he’s dead now so it doesn’t really matter). A lot of the dialogue felt…basic. I think the only thing that TBB does well is the music. It’s really amazing and beautiful along with the smooth, crisp animation/scenery. Shame they ruined it with racist clone models, racist tones with the ‘reg’ dispute in both seasons, and being ableist and dismissive towards Echo.

Which brings me to the trailer. Oh boy. First, right off the bat I noticed how similar the trailer opening is compared to the S2 trailer. I do like that Phee is back. She did take time to grow on me but I do like her character and am curious to see where they will go with her.

It’s interesting we are seeing Crosshair back with the group so soon. Personally I do believe that is Crosshair and not just someone else wearing his armor like some think. I like the idea of Omega and Crosshair escaping early on but Omega gets recaptured/separated and taken back to Tantiss.

I’m interested in Hemlock and his backstory (is his gloved hand robotic?). I wish they’d create more interesting and unique characters like Phee and Fennec Shand instead of relying on cameos of established characters/fan-favorites like Ventress. I loved Dark Disciple and I thought it was a great ending for her.

I know it’s officially said that Ventress’ story will follow Dark Disciple but I don’t see how unless they retcon her death or pull a ‘somehow she survived’. Either way that sucks. Reminder!! DAVE FELONY DIDN’T EVEN FOLLOW REBELS FOR AHSOKA. SABINE IS NOT FORCE SENSITIVE IN REBELS. DAVE RETCONS THE SHIT OUT OF EVERYTHING. I have no faith that they will remain loyal to DD. Anything that will be ‘canon’ will be mid at best because even Crosshair’s arc has been messy (which is due to the weird S1 ‘reset’ the characters go through. Like they totally should’ve appreciated ‘regs’ by the end of TBB arc in TCW S7–there was no need for that awkward food fight scene in S1).

I hate that this show has to rely on cameos to get the viewing numbers. Here is a list of every character cameo we’ve seen so far:

—Rex*

—Tarkin*

—Palpatine*

—The Lawquane Family

—The Syndullas/Chopper

—Nala Se/Lama Su*

—Cad Bane

—Bail Organa

—Riyo Chuchi

—Gungi

—Gregor

—Wolffe

—Cody

—Scorch

—Saw Gerrera

—Martez Sisters

—Kanan/Depa*

—Muchi/Rancor from RotJ

—Taun We/Halle Burtoni

—Ventress

*I consider these important/relevant cameos and am not bothered by them like the others*

What a list right? I might even be missing one. These were just off the top of my head. Some are big players, others smaller and almost not-relevant to the plot. Not counting the one’s I asterisked, it’s 15 characters. There are original characters but a lot of them, especially in S1 felt like one off, not important characters. And I hate Cid so much—glad to see she was absent in the S3 trailer. I’m really starting to love Phee and I’ve always loved Fennec Shand, and Hemlock is definitely an intriguing villain and Emerie feels like a total mystery (though the reveal was not shocking due to the similar design and accent to Omega). Like why can’t they create more characters like these? The rest just feel forgettable. And it’s clear that characters like Saw, Gungi, Scorch, Cad Bane and even the Syndulla and Lawquane families just felt like fan service. The rest kind of make sense that they’d show up but it also feels a bit like fan service.

Moving on..

I know a lot of people think that new weird dark trooper at the 1:40 mark is Tech. While I’m inclined to agree as I think the ‘Winter Soldier’ story is an obvious choice to pick, I also think that Tech is dead. I’ve changed my mind and kind of hope that Tech isn’t brought back.

I hope this is someone new. I also wouldn’t mind if it was a bounty hunter we’ve seen before. Due to the frame and stature, I could almost think of Boba due to him being older than Omega but it’s definitely more likely to be Tech than either of these choices.

It’s interesting a lot of cameo characters from S2 do not make an appearance in the trailer. Bail, Riyo, Gungi, Gregor and Cody are all absent from the trailer. Trailers usually show action shots to avoid story spoilers, but with Gungi, Gregor, and Cody all being capable fighters, I’m surprised they didn’t appear (usually stuff with politics is a story spoiler).

Overall I’m skeptical of the trailer. I don’t like Ventress being alive/in TBB being a Dark Disciple lover. There’s a lot of mystery surrounding the story of S3 so I don’t feel like I can give an accurate take on that. I hate how Omega’s longer hair looks. Curly haired Omega is adorable!! The animation (everything but the clone model) is definitely getting better. However, based on how S2 was marketed as a ‘darker story compared to S1’ and was like 80% fetch quest I’m definitely skeptical.

Those of you that made it through this post, thank you for your time and I hope I gave you something to think about. If you wanna learn more about the racism and ableism portrayed in this show, check out @unwhitewashthebadbatch for more info.

[kogo-dogo]

AN OPEN LETTER TO TODD HOWARD

Hi, Todd.

I know it must be very hard feeling like the most impotent man on earth, to look at the IPs you own and realize that the two biggest critical successes who have withstood the test of time were the two that succeeded in spite of you instead of because of you. Nobody understands you and your incredibly bland and tenuous grasp on worldbuilding and good storytelling. Don't people realize that the only thing cooler than generic European landscape is a colder generic European landscape? And why does nobody understand the intricacies of your post-apocalyptic dream of "gray landscape with an ending so bad that you had to retcon it" or "brown landscape with a story so bad that you refuse to address it out of fear."

I know. I know it's difficult. Your self esteem must be as small as your penis right now. Poor baby.

However, if you could stop fucking nuking things that make you feel like a wittle baby, I would appreciate it. It was already cheap when you shrugged and decided that destroying Vvardenfell was canon, but to go and nuke Shady Sands as well and follow it up with, "Vegas is also over. My big boy mean marines are in charge now :)" just reeks of you being a toddler (TODDler, do you get it?) who picks up your toys and goes home when the other kids decide they want to play a different game than you. Or worse, somebody complimented the other kid on their toy, so you broke it and then took home the pieces.

This doesn't even seem like you taking a chance at risky storytelling. It reeks of you being a jealous little pissant. It doesn't seem like a coincidence that you've done this specifically to the game you were tricked into taking risks with (and is therefore regarded as a better game than your D&D ripoff afterward) and the game you had minimal to no involvement in (that was well regarded because it was written by people who had an innate understanding of and respect for the source material). It seems like a little man had his ego bruised and is trying to overwrite everything so we only get to acknowledge the shit that he thinks is cool.

Read the room, asshole.

[eldragon-x]

yknow on the subject of female villains ever since reading the cosmos arc of the mlp comics ive been thinking about how I said a while ago that we need more discord or bill cipher type villainesses and cosmos couldve been that but really they just retcon the evil chaos stuff discord did to put that onto her and have her main motivation be love and theres something to be said about how tired it is for female villain to be motivated by love in some way and they basically just made a female discord but more bland but also this is a comic from a franchise aimed at pre schoolers so who cares. but im writing this post anyway.

[comicbookhyperfixationtime]

Uncanny X-men #197- To Save Arcade?!?

Again, not doing a full review. Don't want to talk about Piotr and Kitty's relationship again. See my last post.

Last Issue Recap: The X-men foiled an assassination attempt on Professor X, who is hiding his failing health and powers. A reformed Magneto and Rachel had a heart to heart. Kitty Pryde said the N-word.

What is with this trend of every issue title having a million punctuation marks? This cover is definitely a step up from the last two by sheer virtue of the scene on the cover actually happening in the issue. Honestly it feels very nostalgic, all the X-men are in their old uniforms, Cyclops and Storm are back, and they're fighting Doom again

Damn if he really goes through pajamas that much he should just grab some extra blankets and sleep in the nude because that has to be more convenient.

By the way, for all y'all who don't know who Arcade is (so, most people), he's an old X-men villain-for-hire whose schtick was like... killer escape rooms. Like he has this absurdly OTT lair called Murderworld and its sort of like Saw except instead of dingy white tiles and rusty spiky shit he's got absurdly realistic robots and holographs other magitek.

Also he dresses like this.

So, TLDR, Dr Doom put a hit out on Arcade and he's kidnapped recruited Kitty and Colossus to protect him, with the assistance of his giant army of X-men robots.

Also, it feels like the comic is trying to gaslight me into believing that's Colossus' uniform and always has been but I remember that slutty sideboob too well, you can't fool me.

I love how fucked up Marvel civilians are. When Spiderman accidentally sneezes on someone he's a menace who must be gunned down but when a pink robot who can disguise himself as any human brutally vaporizes two robbers in cold blood he's bigger than hula hoops.

Goddamnit they pulled the old "Actually a Doombot" retcon on the original Avenger's confrontation with Doom in X-men #145-7, which is just bullshit because I actually liked that story. Also, I refuse to believe it took practically the whole team three issues to defeat a Doombot but the real deal can be taken out by a literal child and the X-men's least impressive punchy guy in one. Ok, headcanon time, Arcade is lying to freak out Piotr and Kitty so they'll take this more seriously.

NGL its kind of rough to repeatedly see the X-men horrifically murdered by Doom, even if their organs are just robot bits.

You could just kill him. I mean, he's right there. I'm honestly super shocked Arcade followed through and let them go though.

All in all didn't like this issue. All of Piotr and Kitty's interactions make me uncomfy even when they're not still actively flirting (*shudder*). Also, the Murderworld was overall pretty bland by Murderworld standards. The X-men robots and not knowing which Kitty/Colossus was a robot and which was the real deal was an interesting gimmick but the fight only took place in one set piece which fails like a waste of a good Murderworld. On the bright side:

STORM'S ALIVE! Glad they didn't keep us hanging for too long.

(oh btw also Cyclops is temporarily rejoining the team to help Prof X but the scene of him saying goodbye to Madeline Prior was too wholesome for me to make jokes about so I skipped it).

[blazehedgehog]

You need to reread Archie Sonic. I can assure you, it was not as nearly as good as you thought it was, and the IDW comic is not as nearly as bad as you think it is. Slow arcs doesn't mean bad arcs, and there's more character development than just "Surge attacks Sonic." And this arc clearly had an ending. Stop letting the metal plague arc overright your critical thinking skills. It was *years ago.*

My question to you is this: are you involved with the production of IDW Sonic? Because if you aren't, it sounds like you're taking something personally that was not directed at you and have saddled yourself with the responsibility of teaching me a lesson.

I'd like to point you to this post from six months ago, where I had nothing but nice things to say about IDW Sonic. I ran across it recently while digging through my blog for a different post (which I could not find, thanks Tumblr Search). Contrast that with the post where I say "the last six months have been kind of boring in retrospect."

I think I'm allowed to say that. I'm allowed to be bored. A story arc that amounts to "Eggman built a really big and scary city" feels weirdly low key and kind of bland (he's built a lot of cities), and none of the other story arcs feel like they've been paying off.

Coming at me from the angle of "WELL ARCHIE SUCKS TOO YOU JUST DON'T REMEMBER IT" is very strange to me, because that's just, like, your opinion, man. You even suggest the concept of opinion itself is fallible.

And maybe mine is. I dunno. Who I was yesterday is not who I will be tomorrow. But who I was when Archie was good thought it was great. I was practically counting the days for new issues. I was about to start a monthly comic review column for TSSZ just to have an excuse to get a subscription.

I was a different person back then. But also I was feelin' pretty high on IDW Sonic just six months ago and now it feels like they're stalling.

Yes, I said it's felt like something has been missing for a long time, and to some degree it has. The world of IDW Sonic revolves around six characters and four or five locations, and some of those locations don't have very strong identities outside of "it's like the place from the video games." The depth and the breadth of Archie isn't there.

But you at least had intent. Surge was interesting, Starline was interesting, Belle was interesting, Sonic jabbing Eggman about Mr. Tinker was interesting, everyone jabbing Sonic about letting villains go all the time was interesting, Tails was desperately trying to use the non-violent approach with Kitsunami. There was strong characterization for miles.

What have we had over the last six months?

Surge came back, and she repeated a longer, slower version of the same interaction she had with Sonic in issue #50.

It was revealed that Surge is having PTSD hallucinations of Dr. Starline.

Eggman built another city, but this builds and repairs itself, which doesn't actually mean anything given we've never drawn attention to how Eggman builds or repairs his cities before. The dude has a robot army, it's reasonable to assume he's always had cleanup and repair crews. Telling me it's "special" now isn't really exciting.

Tangle said the wrong thing, upset Whisper and they had a girlfriends moment about it. But given Tangle was just being the way Tangle always has been, this isn't exactly a major event.

We were introduced to Lanolin, who so far has very little backstory and barely established a personality besides "does not want to put up with Tangle's shenanigans." So like half the cast, then.

Team Dark was retconned back into existence, so Shadow gets to be part of stories again.

It doesn't feel like this is going anywhere right now, and the world around it isn't robust enough to pick up the slack and keep it interesting.

And you don't have to take it personally. You don't have to hit back. It isn't about you.

[starrysupercell]

Do you know that a lot of brawlers descriptions are being changed this update?

Ohhh, for sure!! I scoured for a video with all of the changed descriptions, as soon as I found out!

I have mixed feelings, but generally positive! I really don't want to dampen anyone's spirits with my criticism so... that's the heads up to the mixed feedback in the post, lol.

Anyway! Spoilers ahead!

I love that it adds personality and some lore! It's highly interesting, though I am going to miss some of the more iconic ones, like Chester's. I also prefer Nani's old one. Sometimes, less is more, you know?

Ones like Jessie, I do appreciate because it coincides with my thoughts-- Pam's a little too overprotective, what with making Nani and all. but then with Pam, we get that she's busy and a little distant? That...that, I don't like.

Tara and Sandy are siblings!!!!! I distinctly remember it being confirmed that they weren't a long time ago? so I just think that's really funny. Or maybe it was actually Bo and the Twins? IDK.

Then there are ones like Gus', that I've seen people complain about. Because of retconning the heavy implications that he is a ghost. But luckily, I have a solution. (Which I apply to the other descriptions that I don't like.)

Starr Park is lying, of course. They're not going to publicly admit that they killed a child. Of course he just looks like a ghost, and of course he's just a fan of supernatural stuff.

I LOVE BROCK'S DESCRIPTION, in particular??

Two lil qualms I have is that a lot of the bios sound similar, so it makes me feel like only one, maybe two people worked on the bios. That's just me nitpicking writing things though :3

And the other is being told about things that should be shown... i guess another story telling thing. Bibi being a nerd, and Maisie liking/causing danger is such a 180.

No, Supercell, you can't just say it. PROVE IT. Or else I'll keep my Bibi with no thoughts headcanons, and be stuck with bland, but only sane man Maisie. (I'm trying to spruce her up in my own hcs.)

Overall! My reactions are /pos to neutral, with some negative feelings mixed in. It's fun though! I want to go more into depth, but it's 68 new descriptions... and I don't have time right now!

Maybe later on I'll do a post focusing on more though! ;0

[sprolden]

hi I was reading some of your tsc posts and saw you talking about how tlh character writing vs tmi and how cc’s maybe started actively making her chars more palatable because of criticism, I also think that while tda as a series is far from perfect (although it is my second fav after tid personally) it is one where, in books 1-2 at least cc took more risks imo with both the themes and the chars/dynamics being palatable in that way and fan response wasn’t always the best like with Julian being polarizing as a char, I also remember when I was in the fandom as the books were coming out a lot of weird moralizing about ships like people writing essays about how codependent and obsessive blackstairs are and how it was b a d to ship them and then shippers responding that no they’re not when like… a) of course they are that and b) it’s very fun and great that they are, codependency is sexy <3. Similarly weird morality discourse about Keirark/Marktina/Kierarktina at times. I think those things could have potentially influenced decisions for tlh especially your point about retconning what the original James/Grace story was going to be based on the whole vibe of the midnight heir. I also feel that while criticism of tmi definitely influenced some things about tda especially LM that departed from it TLH seemed very much like it wanted to imitate the success of TID and couldn’t fill her shoes, so that puts the writing in an insecure position.  all speculation ofc but just what that made me think about

ohhh thats interesting!! when tda was being released i wasn't really active in online fandom so i had no idea what the fandom response was. honestly, if julian was too much for the average reader, i get why she felt the need to change james from his midnight heir personality lol. blackstairs getting hated for codependency is very funny bc will & jem INVENTED parabatai codependency and everyone loves them for it <3

i think in general, flawed characters are a lot more acceptable now than they were a few years ago. i feel like in the mid/late 2010s, the general idea in YA was definitely that protagonists had to be exemplary people, and whenever a protagonist acted messily that would immediately be seen as bad writing, and i definitely feel like that that affected tlh (and even tda now you mention it!!)

i think you're right about tlh being influenced by tid a lot, or at least going for a similar vibe! obvious reasons aside, i feel like whenever people talk about tid's strong suits the main talking point is the lack of personal conflict between the main 3, because that created a really unique situation where the characters' relationships felt incredibly strong. and i think she maybe tried to keep that same idea of loads of love between the protags going in tlh, except that just left them kind of.... bland? bc in tid there WAS still loads of conflict between characters, just not the main 3, which kept it intersting.

that being said, i genuinely do wonder how an alternate tlh where james and grace kept their tmh personalities would have been received? i feel like this grace is still quite controversial even though i feel like her motives were explained extremely well and she's made as likeable as an anti-heroine could possibly be. i know the tumblr girlies and i would've ate it up but honestly... for an audience as big as hers, maybe it was the right move to make them more palatable? she could've absolutely changed other parts of tlh to make it more interesting, but when it comes to james and grace, well. who knows.

(on the other hand, it absolutely had to be james for tlh to be genuinely compelling. him not being allowed to break the herondale mold is imo the biggest wasted potential of this series </3 rip james who destroyed his carefully crafted family legacy you will forever be missed)

[lonelier-version-of-you]

I’m not quite sure what to make of that Casualty episode. I didn’t hate it, but I can’t say I was a fan. I think it just had too many Casualty tropes that I despise for me to fully appreciate it. I’m also not quite sure what to make of the new character yet. This is not an episode for which I can sum my opinions up quickly, so here I go into analysing my episode thoughts.

Welcome, Dr. Max Cristie! AKA, to many, Dennis Rickman from EastEnders. Lol. I think I’m gonna be calling this guy by his full name, surname, or “Dr. Cristie” a lot, because it’s already inconvenient enough having to differentiate between Max Walker and Max McGerry without adding a third Max into the mix (I think there have been more, but I’ve only watched these three). Honestly, they’re getting almost as overloaded as the Sams at this point.

Anyway, Max (who gets called by his first name for his first review post) is... interesting so far. He feels a bit generic and bland, to be perfectly honest, but his connection with Dylan keeps me intrigued. Some part of me is still convinced they’re exes after seeing this first episode, especially as the history between them still hasn’t been explained yet. It wouldn’t be the first time a long-running Holbyverse male character has been established as bi through the introduction of a male lover from med school - Henrik and Gaskell, anyone?? Though obviously I hope Max doesn’t turn out anything like Gaskell. The closest to Gaskell that Casualty should ever go is Stevie.

They really went out of their way to establish Max as very protective over children, first with the little girl he brought in (whose hair he was awkwardly stroking??) and then the teenager being groomed by her football coach. I’m almost certain Max will have a backstory where either he had a child who died, or he suffered some sort of trauma in his childhood (possibly abuse-related as it would add further complication between him and Dylan due to their similar trauma, and the useage of this SA storyline in his first episode, and how angry he was at the football coach, and also he reminds me of Greg Douglas, but it could be something else) that’s made him protective towards kids. It’s one of those Holbyverse cliches - if a character is protective of children, you know they have some sort of trauma.

Anyway, it’s not this guy’s fault so I’m trying not to hold it against him, but the introduction of a new character named Max really, really worries me because the most obvious option for who they could declare as CEO now that Henrik’s left is Max McGerry. But they wouldn’t want a new character and a CEO with the same name, as that could get confusing. So this makes me think it’s more likely that Casualty will retcon Henrik leaving, and we’ll have to be burdened with the knowledge that he’s still stuck in the job that he is utterly incompetent at and literally hates, rather than away from Holby with the man he loves. Sigh.

Robyn may or may not be leaving, Paul almost definitely is. Meh. I don’t really have strong feelings about Robyn, but I despise Paul. I’ll accept Robyn leaving if it means we don’t have to put up with Paul anymore. It would be a shame for the show to lose Amanda Henderson, as she is a very good actress when they actually give her worthwhile material, but Robyn as a character has hardly had any decent storylines or development since the excellent Glen story.

I don’t know why Robyn would want to marry Paul. He’s so annoying and irritating and bland. But if he makes her happy, then, er, good for her I guess??

I am really, really angry that the show had Faith turn out to be right about the football coach grooming the teenaged patient. Portraying a character who is literally an attempted rapist as some kind of hero to a rape victim is absolutely disgusting. I was hoping that this would be a story where Faith got it all wrong and ended up with egg on her face, so to speak, but evidently not. If anything, it feels like they’re saying “see, Faith’s not an abuser, look at all these men, that’s what a real abuser is!”. And as disgusted as I was with the football coach tonight, or the man hurting his daughter in that storyline a few months ago, I am equally disgusted with Faith and find it disturbing that the show wants to paint her as a hero to abuse victims.

Not only is this deeply frustrating, it feels like an utter letdown coming from Jon Sen, who did one of the best female-on-male sexual abuse stories I’ve ever seen on TV during his time at EastEnders (Mick’s storyline about being groomed by his foster worker). I know he can tell stories about female abusers better than this. So why is the show still romanticising and glorifying Faith? As a queer person whose abuser was a woman, I hate that the show doesn’t seem to care about people like me or Lev.

I know the storyline was more to provide an establishing moment for Max when he confronted the coach in the hall (and I was totally cheering him on when he did!) than it was anything for Faith, but in that case, why include Faith at all? Why not use a character who wasn’t an attempted rapist - someone like Marty, perhaps - to recognise the grooming situation? Or it even could’ve been Jacob! That would tie into all the Tina aftermath lately as well.

On the subject of domestic abusers in Casualty, Marcus is becoming more of a disgusting monster by the episode. Poor, poor Stevie. It was so upsetting tonight, seeing Stevie in one of the most vulnerable moments she’s ever had, and Marcus using it against her to isolate her. This storyline is so hard to watch, although I suppose that’s a good thing with a topic like this, but it’s still distressing. Stevie deserves so much better. <3

It looks like in the next episode, we get those scenes from the trailer with Jacob trying to use his own experiences with Tina to help Stevie see that Marcus is controlling her. I’m very interested to see how that plays out - it’s a genius bit of writing, and I’m glad the writers are having someone other than Faith help Stevie.

[hideoussundemon]

violence ask game: 13, 17, 18 ✨ ✨

You know how much I love violence and conflict

Worst blorbofication:

Okay this one's probably a little mean. I'm sure there are objectively worse characters to blorbify, but...Cam Mithcell from SG1. Not because he's problematic or anything like that. The opposite actually. I'd understand more if he was controversial. But he's just SO bland, such a non-character, that I deeply and truly struggle to understand what people see in him. I guess he's a handy blank slate? I know some people enjoy those kinds of characters, which is fine, but imo a blorbo should be blorbofied for who they actually are, and who Cam is is Jack O'Neill but if you took literally every interesting part of his character away but then inexplicably have everyone else on the show treat him like their best bud anyway because of a heroic backstory that you retconned in. God bless y'all Cam lovers, you do you, couldn't be me tho

There should be more of this kind of fic/art:

This is a personal preference because he's my fave, but I really wish there was more Carson fic in the SGA fandom - but more specifically, clone!Carson fic. Idk if people just aren't interested in writing Carson in general, or if they don't like dealing with the fact that he's a clone in the story, but there's next to nothing with him (much less as the focus) and I think that's a damn shame considering how interesting his whole situation is, and how underused he was in canon. It genuinely ticks me off when I read post-canon fics that feature pretty much all the characters, even side characters like Radek and Lorne, but which doesn't even mention Carson for some reason.

It's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on...:

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: y'all are SLEEPING on Jack/Teal'c. Their chemistry? Glorious. Their compatibility? Unparalleled. When I first started watching SG1, I thought heaps of other people would share my vision, but I've only seen a smattering of Jack/Teal'c content, especially compared to Jack/Sam or Jack/Daniel. And those ships are great, don't get me wrong! But Jack/Teal'c are my number one <3

[wesavegotham]

Also, I totally get why someone might read my posts, especially the ones about Bruce and Damian, and start thinking I have an issue with characters doing something wrong or drama in general I guess.

But that's not really my issue. In fact I think problems and characters having clashing morals and ideals is kind of necessary to make a story interesting. Even if both characters are fighting on the side of good. The lack of this is why I think some of DC's modern comics are kind of bland.

My problem with how DC deals with some of the problems and conflicts they set up is that they seem to lack the gut to truly deal with them.

Like instead of giving both sides understandable motives one often just acts very weirdly of out character to cause a conflict and when the ensuing fight makes the more popular one look very bad in the eyes of the fandom DC simply decides to act like it was okay, makes weird retcons or simply acts like it never happened.

It's kind of hard to get invested in the drama.

For example, the estrangement storyline between Bruce and Damian changes things like Damian's motives or Bruce's awareness of Damian's problems with him several times. The "solution" to their problems becomes kind of tricky because it has become unclear what their conflict was actually about, but since DC doesn't want Bruce to look too bad, but they were also getting a lot of online backlash for acting like Bruce's wasn't responsible for what Damian was doing, we ended up in a situation where Bruce apologized for creating a situation where "Damian felt like he needed to save Alfred, causing his death" and Damian only doing the terrible things he did during the Glass/Thompson Teen Titans run because he was traumatized from having to watch Alfred die.

Both are retcons. Damian was at no fault at all for Alfred dying, Alfred had lied and Bruce gave him orders, but Alfred's death was also not originally to blame for Damian's actions in Teen Titans. In fact Alfred shows up in one issue of Teen Titans and compares Damian to Ra's al Ghul.

It's a mess.

So when I'm complaining about some DC drama it's not because I hate DC for making two characters clash, it's about how I often feel like a conflict could have been done better.

[x-for-a-y]

100 gecs (please please please please they'd be fucking awesome. hyperpop in doatk. "bad music". another woman in the roster. everything is perfect here)

adventure time (it feels like a bit of a bland pick to me, which feels mean to say, but otherwise they'd be pretty good)

ted (i wouldn't want to See him in doatk because i feel like i'd warm up to him so much slower than i did even kebian but his music'd be good. maybe. i don't really like family guy music)

clubfoot (never heard of this guy. it doesn't seem to provide a lot of new stuff to the environment, especially in goners)

volo (he can suck my dick)

&

airy (good amount of sources & he's probably one of the preferable presences in lore/the general idea of the tournament. the character as a whole isn't ideal though)

wirt & greg (not as much grabing me source-wise but i know they could have range & i've got basically nothing negative to say about them)

/4. gold/kirby (i just can't make myself care about either of them. if kirby got a particularly good spread of platformers, if gold's genres got good use... i don't know)

???. jake (oh my god) (lore wise what the fuck. would all of gr1m3 be retconned? no more intimate anguished hopeless funkin' between jake & puppet? does the witness just Go Back to jake or do puppet & innocent have a custody dispute over it? i seriously want as little retconning to happen as possible unless there's a good amount of care taken to preserve the characterization & story we already have. god i need to write my essay about the Themes in gr1m3. and i still don't like advertising reps. like on many levels- i was going to make a post about this, i'm sort of glad jake went 0-3, meant korone wasn't the most fucked over, it doesn't hurt him horribly, it fits his position & character as an innocent but ultimately helpless individual whose presence is felt more in the after/surrounding effects on others & the environment. i am kind of content with where jake's at. and yet. just. jesus.)

conclusion: i am not voting rn. this form's open for a week & i don't want to do something i'd regret.

[1-monopoly]

Another One Leaves

I had an RP partner leave the discord rp server we had set up sometime within the last 2 days.  This was after a month and some change of them not posting any new replies to the ongoing scene we had and despite how they kept writing on Tumblr about how they were looking for new RP partners. It's not a big deal really overall because RP partners disappear all the time. This is one of the reasons why I hate plotting because I'll spend  40 minutes plotting with someone just for them to say they have to get going and then I'll never see them log on again. I had talked to the RP partner about ghosting in the RP world and they had written "i'm very pro-communication even if it's awkward. like i'd rather know if i do something wrong/not vibey, so that i can either do something about it or at least chat it out - so my brain just treats the people i write with the same way 95% of the time that whole "treat others how you want to be treated" got hella jammed into my head when i was a kid and just has not left since lol" It helped put my mind at ease. And to a point of their good character they did at least talk to me about a few things. Now I'm just going to post the last interaction we had. matty-1-monopoly — 01/09/2023 6:40 AM Wanted to reach out and make sure the scenes were still ongoing. littlemisssunshine — 01/09/2023 2:46 PM i don’t think so. i tried but there was just too much godmodding for me and it didn’t really feel like i had appropriate control over how my characters acted or reacted. it was off to a great start and while i respect your own preferences entirely plots and writing were a little too forward focused on your muses for me to stay super invested 🖤 matty-1-monopoly — 01/09/2023 5:21 PM Damn, I'm sorry about that. I was wondering about the last thing you said with noncon because I thought you were going to take the scenes in that direction but wasn't sure if you meant that I was doing that.

Can I ask for the example where you felt like I was godmodding your characters? littlemisssunshine — 01/11/2023 4:41 PM For sure, but it would just be me sending your last replies. I feel like you basically wrote my characters actions and reactions to a lot of things, and it made it difficult to reply because it was like I could only have them respond to what you already did with them. and writing nearly all of the side stories for presley, it just seemed like an unnecessary thing to do for someone else’s character matty-1-monopoly — 01/11/2023 5:05 PM Could your characters have said ‘that’s not true’ or ‘that’s not how it happened’

Idk how you feel about unreliable narration or characters misremembering things but I reread my last 2 posts and although there are references to things, they’re pretty vague. This is why I asked for examples because all I saw in my last 2 posts were “The Cleopatra costume, Black Widow or Wonder Woman costume, even naughty nurse or teacher.” And “Presley had just given him too much material to know what he should be doing. Matching the experience of some guys she'd been with in college, he really was paying attention when she told him about her excursions.” It all seems bland enough to me and fitting within the possible past actions of the established characters unless you really feel that Linnea doesn’t dress up for Halloween or you wanted to retcon Presley telling stories to her brother which I thought of as one of the reasons for his depravity. If you feel the character said something wrong then correct them with your character or talk to me directly ooc and ask me to rewrite it. matty-1-monopoly — 01/11/2023 5:21 PM I do know a few posts back in Linnea I had written what Matt was thinking and hoping for, which character mental exposition is pretty cringe but I couldn’t think of a better way to write it.

Like an example of what I think you’re constructively criticizing to me would be if character A said “I heard you fly planes.” Character B can say “I don’t.” Or “I do.” Or “I don’t fly planes, I hang glide.” Or “yeah I fly fighter jets.” Or “no that’s my friend.” Or “I don’t fly planes, I fly helicopters.”

The things I write are not definitive, like there is a huge level of ambiguity and wiggle room intentionally woven in.

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At some point they had left the server. I don't know  when but they did. It could've been after their last message or after reading mine or just ignoring mine and leaving the server. I sent a follow up message to them directly.

matty-1-monopoly — Today at 10:30 PM Saw you left the server with both of your accounts. Apologies you felt like you couldn't talk through the issues with me.

[russelldworld]

You ever have a ship you really like, but then it becomes cannon and it’s just… the worst possible version of that relationship. Like bottom of the barrel fanfic, written by a young internet addicted teenager trash, except it’s not written by a teenager but by grown ass adults. And it just, kills whatever you liked about the ship, because it basically says the least interesting version of that ship is cannon. So every one copies the shit out of it and now the ships been reduced to this hallow husk of what it was, and you just can’t stand it.

any way this post is about Davekat.