#Can we skip to the good part but it's not necessarily good I'm just done with uni working a meaningless 9-5 in canada making enough money

[privateerstudies]

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[dellamortethelesser]

The Wigmaker Job (Final)

Notes and Thoughts - Part 7

pt1 | pt2 | pt3 | pt4 | pt5 |pt6 | pt7

This is my final installment in my attempt to organize my thoughts nearly line-by-line as I go through and analyze the relationship between Lucanis and Illario. These are my personal opinions and I'm open to discussion about any points I present here. DISCLAIMER: These posts I'm doing are my own analyses and are done with the intentional eye to examine the relationship between Lucanis and Illario. I try to source all my assertions from what the text is giving me. This is not Lucanis critical nor should it be taken as such.

this is going to be a longer post because I'm going to try to cover the last of everything at once. also as my disclaimer says I'm really in this for the relationship analysis which means I'm going to be breezing over a lot of this final fight with Ambrose. okay all of my caveats out of the way lets dive in

Lucanis felt no sympathy. They were, all of them, Venatori supporters, who either knew what Ambrose was doing or chose to turn a blind eye to indulge their own vanity. Ignorance is bliss, not innocence.

hm. okay hang on this is a doozy right off the bat in terms of Lucanis's subjective experience and opinions re: the Venatori when we remember that he is an assassin. a professional who kills people for money. Does Lucanis remember that? or does he think himself better because he's walking into this eyes wide open? so fucking chewy love this.

we can discuss it a little more when we skip down into the scene to where Lucanis and Ambrose are actually exchanging dialogue. wheeeee

"Normally, there's no judgment—only a contract. But for you, Ambrose, I made an exception." The Wigmaker raised a brow. "Oh? What makes me so special?" "You upset my delicate sensibilities." It was Ambrose's turn to laugh. "I thought a Crow could stomach anything—for the right price." Lucanis leveled the Wigmaker with a pointed look. "Not red lyrium." "Morality is not static. Right and wrong are a matter of perspective."

This interaction, to me, is the thesis of Lucanis's character. We can go line by line and pick apart what each one means to get everyone thinking. Come on guys come with meeeeee!

Line 1: Illario has been referring to the contract throughout this entire short story and it's been a point I've hammered in at pretty much every turn: Lucanis is not thinking like an assassin. He's letting his emotions, his morality, take precedence over the job.

Line 2: well. i actually don't have so much to say about what Ambrose says here but it is a good question. what DOES raise Lucanis's hackles so much as to cause a CROW to change their modus operandi?

Line 3: Lucanis is deflecting with a bit of humor here. He's not above the same dry wit that Illario is prone to, though his is usually more internal throughout the story expressed through his narration.

Line 4: Ambrose brings up the same point—they are PAID, HIRED KILLERS. paid money to kill. What about a trained killer implies that they'd blanch at anything? They certainly have a reputation to uphold.

Line 5: I had to go back to look at the red lyrium mention earlier in the story. Quick refresher—Ambrose was using red lyrium to keep his victims drugged and subdued and demon fodder pretty much lol. But Lucanis wasn't necessarily appalled at the use of red lyrium—not like he's been consistently appalled and horrified on behalf of the victims and slaves that fall under Ambrose's shadow. It also makes the previous lack of sympathy to those being killed by the demons interesting—guilty and not worthy of Lucanis's sympathy + vengeance by association, even though Ambrose tramples right over his guests and kills them, too.

Line 6: THIS. It's an excellent point to make to Lucanis specifically; morality is not static. Right and wrong are a matter of perspective. Sure, it means nothing to most people coming from the guy summoning demons and drugging people with red lyrium and killing them. But… let's just compare Lucanis and Illario? The "right" thing to do was different for them—the "right" thing in Illario's eyes was to finish the contract and leave. But the "right" thing to Lucanis—well, it was to get vengeance, pass judgment. Is it not so subjective? Lucanis says that the party guests deserve to die. Someone else might not.

Nothing irritated him more than self-righteous excuses. If you're going to do something terrible, just own it.

I'm really so obsessed with Lucanis and his mentality. Right here I just circled and scribbled the words "you're an assassin" but I suppose the point I wanted to make was that self-righteous excuses could be applied to him too? was that not what he was doing when he was changing up his plans on Illario to get vengeance and free the slaves? If you're going to do something noble, just own it.

You could argue that he did own it, but he just couched it behind the red lyrium excuse.

Hopelessness flooded the mage's eyes. "One day, someone will turn your work against you. Only then will you have some semblance of the emptiness you've made me feel."

I think this is the one good point I gave to Veilguard re: the Lucanis and Illario story-line because I did feel like this was interesting foreshadowing.

Fight ensues. Nothing really more interesting there that I want to dig into? Honorable mention to him talking to the abominations at the end, I guess; "you have your vengeance". Interesting. I don't think all of these abominations are victims, some of them are the high-blood mages that were there at the party, because he mentioned it earlier? Hmm. Thoughts to consider!

Immediately skipping past looking for Illario on their ship to check the CLEANEST TAVERN on the docks. And he's right. really fucking funny that did get me lmfao.

"get that man to stop yelling at me" �� see Illario's skills are useful!!! ok now we're about to get into the meat of the Lucanis&Illario dynamic that everyone loves to reference (even me)

"Yes, yes. I did my good deed for the year." ← Illario does keep his word! Just like Lucanis said.

The back and forth about the wine and bribery does something to me. "I think it makes it taste all the sweeter" from Illario versus Lucanis drinking it and saying that bribery hadn't spoiled the bottle. Obviously it's just saying that it isn't bribed? Or at least that Lucanis doesn't think— it means nothing I think I'm reading into this passage too much

Camille didn't make it and Illario is unfazed; "ah, well, frees me from promises I didn't intend to keep". sorry he's so fucking funny. Interesting that Lucanis chooses to tell him this? Does he think Illario was serious about the flirting? Does he feel bad about her death? Lucanis knew her NAME. Illario had to be reminded by referring to her as the guard-captain.

Illario offers to get a healer for the blood and Lucanis stubbornly refuses. Here we go everyone.

"All right," Illario said, topping off his glass. "We'll just pretend that's wine you're dripping all over the table." "What do you want me to say?" Illario's gaze grew hard. "How long are you going to keep doing this?" "Doing what?" "Caterina's bidding."

Obviously I don't think that Lucanis is thinking—or really wants to think—about how this ends, while Illario understands the game, the politics, the fact that Lucanis is passively letting this happen, and that Lucanis is continiously justifying Caterina's controll.

The wine turned in Lucanis's mouth. "Illario. Stop." "If I was in charge, you wouldn't have to do this anymore," he cajoled. "You could quit."

The main reason why I didn't write this out as an essay was because the very unsatisfying thesis is that you have to decide for yourself whether you think the writing from WMJ is consistent across The Wake & Veilguard. There's no indication from the narrator or from Lucanis whether Illario is being genuine here or not.

But I'm operating on the good faith that he is. Lucanis could quit! He's making an offer. Lucanis wants him to stop bringing Caterina into it, stop thinking ahead, stop making HIM think about where this road leads.

Lucanis stared at his cousin. "I don't want to quit." Illario sat back. The distance between them suddenly felt much wider than a table. "Even if it kills you," Illario whispered.

I actually don't think this was an indictment on Lucanis but an observation that Illario was making. He's not going to quit—even if it's going to kill him. I'm not sure those words were necessarily intended for Lucanis even if he heard them. My opinion though.

"Death is my calling," Lucanis stated, matter-of-fact. "Just as yours is to become First Talon."

I can go either way on this one. Lucanis is either saying that he wants to remain as a mere assasin who doles out death—or truly wants to die trying to avoid Caterina's placement of him as First Talon.

He clearly sees Illario as the one more suited for the task, but he won't tell Caterina that. His refusal to tell her 'no' is justified by how she raised them but it is crazy, man…

He smiled, hoping to ease the tension, but Illario's posture remained taut. "And if Caterina disagrees? If she thinks you're the better man for the job—" "I don't want it, Illario," Lucanis insisted. "But you wouldn't refuse."

Illario already knows that Caterina prefers Lucanis; they discussed this at the beginning. Everyone knows. Even Lucanis.

Lucanis finally answers Illario's question from that early scene! He doesn't want the job! But, no. He won't tell Caterina no, which is the real money question here. He's stuck and can't actually offer a solution to satisfy Illario—in fact, he offers no real solution at all.

"It's impossible to refuse Caterina," Lucanis admitted reluctantly. "Only prolong her, until she sees reason." He knew it wasn't the answer Illario wanted, but it was the truth. And in their line of work, honesty was hard to come by. Illario exhaled and lifted his wineglass in salute. "To reason, then." "To reason," Lucanis echoed."

To reason. [OUGH] I don't have a lot to add to this specific passage that I haven't already covered i just wrote "augh AUGH AUAUUUGHGHGH" all over my paper at this point. To reason! I'd argue Illario's crashout was justified but perhaps not reason. I see his reasoning.

Caterina was never going to see their reasoning. Only her reason matters. Why should she see reason? She has the way of it.

One last thing I want to cover before we part ways, lovelies. Although I will be making my Wake analysis later but that'll just be one long post lol.

Zara paused to marvel at herself. Every feature and proportion were in perfect symmetry. And yet, when she smiled, there was something ugly behind it.

Echoes Illario's description at the start of this story.

Quotes are either paraphrased or taken directly from The Wigmaker Job, written by Courtney Woods.

[justchillandshipit]

For the sake of discussion, let's say that Eddie comes out or has some sort of revelation about himself early in season 8. What do you guys want next? Personally, I want to continue with the slow-burn romance for a while longer, but I am ready for it to pick up speed. Seven years to get out of the closet was longer than ideal, but it gave us a lot of good material. As long as Buddie is happening, I'm going to trust the writers because I've enjoyed the Buddie moments so far. That said, I do have a wishlist of what I hope will happen.

If he has his moment of revelation (about his sexuality) in season 8 and we are guaranteed a season 9, then by the end of season 8, I would like him to realize he has feelings for Buck.

Also, by the end of 8, I would like him to come out to at least one person and confide in them about his feelings for Buck.

For Buck, by the end of season 8, I want him and Tommy to have parted ways as friends. I don't want Buck to get into another serious relationship, but I would like to see him go on a series of dates both male and female. I want the audience to be clear on the meaning of bi-sexuality.

By season 9, I'd like to see Eddie continue coming out to people around him, but not Buck. (obviously, not because Buck wouldn't take it well. Eddie has perfect trust in showing Buck every part of himself. He can't tell Buck because he knows that once he starts with the truth all of it would follow.

For Buck, I'd like to see him questioning why he can't hold onto any relationship and maybe through a conversation with Maddie, she could ask what he wants in a life partner. He might list a few characteristics that match Tommy (overlooking that the same match with Eddie.) Maddie does ask him if maybe there was someone else who shared those characteristics, and he has no answer. On Maddie's part, she is getting tired of biting her tongue and waiting for Buck and Eddie to figure it out. Chim thinks Buck needs to figure it out on his own. Maddie points out that if Buck had done that the two of them may still be pretending to be just friends.

I'd like to see more private conversations about Buck and Eddie because I do feel that at this point everyone who is closest to them knows they have feelings for each other. [This is not to be mistaken with knowing how they identify themselves sexually, though Buck coming out and perhaps Eddie's private conversations only solidify their certainty that the two are in love. So, in essence, Bobby and Athena are talking about it in private and with no one else. Maddie and Chim are talking about it privately and with no one else. Hen and Karen are talking about it privately and with no one else. The only clueless person is Ravi.

By the end of season 9, with a guarantee that there will be a season 10. I would like an EPIC emergency. I can't imagine what. During it, Buck and Eddie get separated and think the other is dead. (Not necessarily this specifically but something that causes Buck to realize it was Eddie all along and causes Eddie to realize that he couldn't live knowing he never spoke his truth to Buck. Bonus points to the writers if they have Eddie skip over "coming out" to Buck and go straight to a Kiss or Love confession.) In fact, a kiss at the emergency scene when they discover each other alive would be a great time for everyone to see them do it. Bobby, Hen, and Chim all pull out their phones to Facetime and record with their wives/partners. Ravi is standing there with his jaw on the floor and asking what is happening. (His shock is not about their sexuality so much as the fact that it is Buck & Eddie)

Early season 10 will see Buck and Eddie navigating their new relationship. I don't know how far ABC will go with allowing love scenes between two men, but if it is allowed, I'd rather it not be something that just happens off-screen. If it does happen off-screen, I hope that there is a lead-up to consummating the relationship that we can see on screen. I just feel like we've all waited so long, it should be special for the audience as well and not something that happens off-screen and never talked about. Depending on whether or not the show keeps going. Ten seasons would be pretty epic on its own, but if there is at least one more season (11), then the remainder of 10 should be a series of adjustments and learning that their friendship has not stopped, it has expanded. Depending on the status of the show, possibly a wedding at the end of season 10 or engagement if it goes into season 11.

Yep. I've thought that far ahead, but I've tried not to be too specific on how they get there to allow for changes. If the show is not renewed beyond season 8, I'd want the show to rush it. I would hate to have them rush it, but I would like to know that a happy ending is set up, and Buddie officially ends as canon.

[blluespirit]

Oh god..... NATLA analysis ahead (s01e01 - AANG)

EP2

With Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender now ~eight months old and season 2 being in production, I wanted to re-analyse the series. I spoke about it when it first came out (which you can find here), but now i'm ready to look at it again and see if my thoughts on it have changed at all.

This is my analysis/rambling thoughts of episode 1. It... got really long and I got unexpectedly really, really into it so.... enjoy?

[note before you read - this is just my opinion, you by no means have to agree!]

1 — Opening Scene This scene could have been good, however, to me the ending scene between the Earth Kingdom soldier and Sozin ruins it for me.

Exposition is the biggest issue here. The scene between these two is just... too long to say the least. Let me explain:

EARTH KINGDOM MAN: You’re too late. Your battle plans are already on their way to the Earth Kingdom.  SOZIN: Good. That means that all eyes will be on the Earth Kingdom. All eyes but ours

This is great. That’s MORE than enough to tell us what’s going on here. All we needed next was a look of horror from the Earth Kingdom soldier as he realises he got played, and then we can skip right to the part where Sozin kills him. However, the conversation is not done yet. It continues:

MAN: We’ll be prepared for your attack.  SOZIN: When your king receives those plans, he will redirect his forces to your borders and rally the support of the other nations. The Water Tribes and the Air Nomads and the entire world will turn their attention to the Earthbenders. MAN: You… You wanted us to know. We aren’t the real target. SOZIN: My sights are set higher. Much higher.

At this point it's a little over-done and on the nose, but - in my opinion - still forgivable if they ended the conversation here. We as the audience understand what's happening. Even without watching the original, it's relatively easy to understand that the attack on the Earth Kingdom was a ploy for another target.

But for some reason, there’s still more to be said between them... Insane!

MAN: Why? Why are you doing this? SOZIN: Because it is our time. [Sozin kills him by burning him alive]

Finally it ends! Longer does not always mean better and more explicit information does not always mean darker and edgier which this series is trying to go for.

It should have ended when Sozin delivered his ‘my sights are set higher. Much higher’ line but NO. It keeps going. It doesn't make Sozin or the Fire Nation scarier to keep on yapping.

Can you imagine how much scarier Sozin would seem if we just got that one line, a tense moment between them as the reality sets in, just enough time for the soldier to realise what is happening before being killed? And that’s just one example, but just a short, brief scene would have done everyone so much more favour than.. that. 

But WAIT!! It’s not even over. There’s MORE exposition needed apparently:

FIRE NATION GENERAL(?): A masterful ruse, Your Highness. But tactically, the Airbenders are not the threat. SOZIN: This isn't about the Airbenders. This is about one who lives among them. The only one who could possibly stand in our way. FIRE SAGE: But the Avatar is yet to be revealed.  SOZIN: Which is why we have to kill them all.

Why is this scene STILL going. It would have been forgiven somewhat if the next TWO scenes didn’t literally have Kyoshi explicitly explain the reason for Sozin's attack all over again and then immediately following that, have Sozin and the other firebenders killing the Air Nomads.

The opening scene chase between the Earth Kingdom soldier and the Fire Nation soldiers and the bending was amazing, but is immediately made redundant by whatever fresh hell this is.

2 — The Genocide  Showing the genocide was a risky move, and not necessarily a bad one, but the timing of it is terrible. It should not be one of the first scenes. It rips the build up away. There’s no mystery to who the strange kid found in the block of ice is. There's no slow build up of horror as the pieces fall into place of what happened to Aang's people. We just... know everything immediately.

It further takes away from Gran Gran’s speech later on in the episode, and her reveal of Aang as the Avatar because we already know he’s the Avatar. In the original, we found out (officially) that Aang is the Avatar at the same time Katara and Sokka do (when he confronts Zuko at the Southern Water Tribe). This works better because it feels like we are finding this out more organically, rather than being told over and over again that he's the Avatar, making Kanna's reveal lacking in impact or emotion for the audience.

We also get introduced to a new problem in this scene that I noticed - revealing too much too quickly (similar to the exposition issue mentioned above).

Information is revealed here, in episode 1, that was previously told to us in The Storm. The reason The Storm works so well is because we, as the audience, have had a chance to form an opinion and perception about both Aang and Zuko, one that is not informed by that much background. But it gives us our first insight into the real Aang, what really happened that made him leave 100 years ago and that under that goofy persona, there’s enough guilt to drown in. And we find out that there’s more to Zuko than ‘generic bad guy’. There are layers here. Despite his actions, we sympathise with him. Importantly, it contrasts and compares Aang and Zuko’s stories, and firmly brings them together for the audience. Zuko and Aang's stories are intertwined, and in my opinion The Storm gets that.

By revealing all this information here (about Aang, about the Air Nomads, basically Aang's whole story), makes it so that this is our introduction to Aang, rather than information that’s revealed later that adds to his character and lets us get to know him more organically and grow to love him. Aang's backstory being his introduction is just a bad move to me.

It lays everything out about Aang immediately. We already know what happened to him literally within the first 15 minutes of the series and it refuses to let us learn about him as he learns about his people or as Katara and Sokka learn about him - a much more impactful/meaningful way to explore a character. It also takes away from the Zuko/Aang dynamic - literally a cornerstone to the entire show. 

This is exemplified with ANOTHER exposition dump via an utterly bizarre scene between Aang and Appa (who looks so much better than the mov-*gunshot*).

AANG:  Hey, Appa. Couldn't sleep either, huh? Gyatso says I'm supposed to be the Avatar. Me. Monks don't even trust me to feed the baby bison, and I'm supposed to save the world? He said I need to remember who I am. But I know who I am. I like to play airball and eat banana cakes and goof off with my friends. That's who I am, not someone who can stop the Fire Nation. Not someone who can stop a war. The other kids always say I'm lucky because of the things I could do, but I'd trade places with any of them. I don't wanna leave. I don't want the responsibility. I'm scared of my power. I'm scared of being alone! I'm scared. You're right. I just need to go up where things always make more sense. At least for now.

girl, what are we doing here. Are we not allowed to see a characters personality shine through in literally any other way? We could have been shown this earlier if they desperately wanted us to know this about Aang before the original timeline starts by having him play with some kids, or they could have waited and let us learn this when we see Aang interacting with the Water Tribe kids. Hearing it from Aang's mouth in a monologue to his pet bison is certainly... a choice.

Also why does Aang not run away like in the original? Why is he just going to take Appa for a ride to clear his head? They talk about Aang’s guilt later on the series (literally all the time - at least that's what it felt like), so it seems utterly bizarre to me to simultaneously take something away from this guilt while also making it a bigger deal later on.

He’s a kid who was shouldered with an enormous and daunting responsibility that meant leaving everything he knew behind (with the fun addition if a war being on the horizon) and he panicked and ran away. That’s much more compelling than Aang being sad about having to leave and deciding to take a little fly to help him get his thoughts in order.

It's good to make changes in an adaption - however, those changes kind of need to make sense.

Having Sozin personally kill Gyatso is an interesting choice. It’s a horrifying scene, especially already knowing the outcome. Believe it or not, I am not trying to shit all over this and I am trying to find the positives, but I am not convinced that us knowing every detail about the genocide is actually better.

Personally (and this is very subjective), I think it was much more horrific when all we had was an empty temple and countless bones. That is a far more horrifying picture to me. 

In the original, having Monk Gyatso's first scene be Aang finding his body, colours every single flashback in the original in a way that's far more painful and actually more compelling to me than playing his death on TV. It's worse not knowing.

3 - Katara and Sokka  Okay so this whole interaction between Sokka and Katara in the live action isn't bad. It's actually pretty good. I would even like it if there was no comparison media. However, I have seen the original and I know what these characters are supposed to act like and what their dynamic is in season 1, which, while I think the live action basically/sort of/kind of accomplishes, it sacrifices a lot for seemingly no reason.

Sokka's arrogance is replaced with this crushing load of responsibility. There's none of that bravado that Suki manages to humble later on. He's tense and serious. Despite my framing of this paragraph, this is not a change I hate. I actually like Sokka's character most of all in the LA of the main cast (at least so far in my re-watch). He still has some quality humorous moments that come off well throughout this episode. So, I can forgive them for making Sokka serious here, since they establish it later on.

However...

Katara is literally a different character. She is relatively flat and has little to no fire to her like in the original. She argues back with Sokka but very quickly lets him win and doesn't try to push back. OG Katara was anything but a pushover. She stands her ground and asserts her own role in the village and its importance, rather than just managing to talk about Sokka almost exclusively outside of Katara attempting to waterbend.

Now, the solution is not necessarily copying the original verbatim, but I will use it as an example to show the contrast. 

Here's the two scenes side by side:

(here's the transcripts below)

SOKKA: It's not getting away from me this time. Watch and learn, Katara. This is how you catch a fish. [Katara basically ignores him and sees a fish in the water. She manages to catch a fish with her waterbending, holding it in a bubble. She attempts to get Sokka’s attention, who dismisses her, still focusing his eyes over the side of the canoe.  Sokka goes to lift up his spear to strike, only to accidentally piece Katara’s water bubble and ultimately get soaked with water.] SOKKA: [angry/frustrated] Why is it that every time you play with magic water, I get soaked? KATARA: [annoyed] It's not "magic", it's waterbending! And it's ... SOKKA: [Cutting her off.] Yeah, yeah, "an ancient art unique to our culture", blah, blah, blah. Look, I'm just saying that if I had weird powers, I'd keep my weirdness to myself. KATARA: You're calling me weird? I'm not the one who makes muscles at myself every time I see my reflection in the water! {later, after they are taken away by the current and are stranded on some ice} KATARA: You call that left? [referring to her telling Sokka to turn left when they were trying to navigate the current] SOKKA: You don't like my steering? Well, maybe you should've [He waves his hands, mockingly imitating waterbending.] waterbended us out of the ice. KATARA: [Indignantly.] So it's my fault? SOKKA: [Annoyed.] I knew I should've left you home! Leave it to a girl to screw things up! KATARA: [visibly furious] You are the most sexist, immature, nut brained- I'm embarrassed to be related to you! Ever since mom died, I've been doing all the work around camp while you've been off playing soldier! SOKKA: [notices Katara’s movements are cracking the iceberg behind her] Uhh.. Katara?  KATARA: I even wash all the clothes! Have you ever smelled your dirty socks? Let me tell you, not pleasant!  SOKKA: [panicked] Katara, settle down! KATARA: [Angrily] NO! That’s it! I’m done helping you. From now on, [yells] you’re ON YOUR OWN! [the final swing of Katara’s arms sends up large wave that finally cracks the iceberg in half. The ice collapses into the water, sending a large wave that throws them to the ice. The wave subsides, and Sokka is standing protectively in front of Katara.] SOKKA: Okay, you've gone from "weird" to "freakish" Katara. KATARA: [Astonished.] You mean I did that? SOKKA: [Sarcastically] Yep. Congratulations. [the large ice dome bubbles to the surface. Katara realises there’s someone inside it] KATARA: He's alive! We have to help! [she grabs Sokka’s club from it’s sheath and runs over] SOKKA: Katara, get back here! We don't know what that thing is! [Katara hacks at the dome until it cracks and air billows out, throwing them both to the ground. A light beam shoots into the sky] [Aang appears at the top of the mound of ice, tattoo glowing, before he collapses and falls down]

LIVE ACTION :

(I included the moment where katara teases Sokka just before they go fishing, because it a good teasing moment between them!) SOKKA: SO, where were you before? KATARA: [nervous silence] SOKKA: You were waterbending again weren’t you? KATARA: Don’t worry. No once could see me. [softly] not that it matters SOKKA: [growing frustrated, he turns towards Katara] of course it matters. If the Fire Nation finds out your a waterbender-  KATARA: [cuts him off] No one from the Fire Nation has approached the village in years. Besides, there’s nothing to see. An otter penguin could bend more water than I could.  SOKKA: It’s probably for the best. You should be helping around the village more anyway. [he faces back to the front of the canoe.] KATARA: [annoyed] Not everything is about preparing to fight.  SOKKA: We’re at war. KATARA: Waterbending is what built our culture. Our way of life. Keeping it alive is our duty.  SOKKA: Keeping ourselves alive is out duty,  KATARA: I know that. And if dad were here- SOKKA: He’s not here! I am!  KATARA: [is silent] [after they are swept away by the current, they land on a block of ice] SOKKA: you okay?  [Realises the canoe has floated away from them]  SOKKA: [quiet but panicked] oh no, no, no. That’s not good.  KATARA: [facing the large dome of ice] What is that?  SOKKA: huh. Weird. [he returns his attention to the canoe] KATARA: [stares at it, clearly entranced, as Sokka’s voice becomes muffled] [we’re briefly interrupted by Zuko on his ship before it cuts back to the siblings] SOKKA: [about getting the canoe back] Maybe I could float over on some ice? KATARA: [takes her gloves off and gets into a bending stance and tries to bend the canoe over to her. A rumbling starts around them and the dome behind them begins to crack before it finally explodes, knocking both of them to the ground. A blinding beam of light shoots into the sky] [Aang appears at the top of the mound of ice, tattoo glowing, before he collapses and falls down]

If I were to summarise the main difference in these scenes is personality, like I mentioned above.

Like I mentioned, making the live action better by making it exactly like the original is not the point I’m trying to make here. But the key difference is that we learn about Katara and Sokka as individuals and as siblings. We see that Sokka is arrogant and skeptical; Katara is brash and stubborn. They fight with viciousness that speaks to years under the same roof and arguments that have surfaced over and over again. Arguments that while heated, are forgotten about later.

In the live action, the interaction feels a lot more... forced. It feels a lot more like information dumping than a sibling argument. Like, why do they both spell things out for each other in this scene:

SOKKA: [growing frustrated, he turns towards Katara] of course it matters. If the Fire Nation finds out your a waterbender-  KATARA: [cuts him off] No one from the Fire Nation has approached the village in years. Besides, there’s nothing to see. An otter penguin could bend more water than I could. 

Katara knows what will happen if the Fire Nation finds out she's a waterbender. Sokka knows how long it's been since the Fire Nation has been here. This information is for the audience. In the original, they take their time and ease us into the world. We learn that Katara can bend water but is still learning, and that it's a dying art, but most importantly, we learn about them.

KATARA: [visibly furious] You are the most sexist, immature, nut brained- I'm embarrassed to be related to you! Ever since mom died, I've been doing all the work around camp while you've been off playing soldier! SOKKA: [notices Katara’s movements are cracking the iceberg behind her] Uhh.. Katara?  KATARA: I even wash all the clothes! Have you ever smelled your dirty socks? Let me tell you, not pleasant! 

See how Katara manages to info-dump all this information (even if it's biased, it's still interesting and revealing information!) on us without it feeling like an information-dump at all? It serves their conversation, gives us an insight into their daily roles in the village and how they both feel about it. Somehow, the live action manages to accomplish a lot less.

Ultimately, the live action is just... a lot more boring. Yes, they argue, but there’s no real heat to it. There's no history felt in that one interaction. There's also zero sense of Katara's personality literally at all.

There are some things that I don’t mind too much. Katara bringing up Hakoda and Sokka having such a visceral reaction to that is not a bad thing and adds extra context to why Sokka has behaved like he has thus far (I.e., trying to train the children of the village, generally commanding everyone around, etc.).

But here lies my concern with this: 

Kya is completely removed from this conversation, despite Katara bringing her up in the original when she’s yelling at Sokka. Sokka gets a moment that ensures the audience understands the pressure he feels he’s under with their dad absent and the responsibility of protector being on him. Yet Katara never gets a moment where we realise the responsibilities she’s taken on after Kya’s death - something pretty integral to not only Katara’s character, but it informs how other characters see her as well. The original goes out of its way to tell us this.

I wouldn't even bring this up if it was just this scene, but the attention is constantly removed from Katara and placed on Sokka, sucking the life away from Katara as a headstrong, passionate, daring young girl. You would not know that from this scene (or any scene tbh).

Katara is one of my favourite characters of all time and I am pissed that butchered her like this. 

4 — Zuko’s introduction  [this encompasses the little scenes that Zuko has up until he comes to the SWT to keep things in order here].

Zuko keeping a journal, detailing all he’s uncovered about the last avatars, omens and spiritual weirdness over the last three years is perfection and fits right in with his obsession. I absolutely love the red-thread board of conspiracy vibes it gives off. Love it.

Zuko’s ship looks absolutely fantastic. Such a horrific contrast between the beautiful surroundings and this ship billowing out ash.

When Zuko looks at his little avatar statues all glowing, the look on his face is perfect. I can feel the intensity. And that finally he says when he sees the pillar of slight plus the hesitant, aborted smile - LOVE IT!  

Zuko and Iroh’s first interaction is pretty good actually. Zuko is an appropriate level of unhinged in this scene. Iroh is patient but, you can hear the take a deep breath and stay calm in his words. It also manages to be kind of a blow on Zuko:  

IROH: All I’m saying is, it’s hard to see you get your hopes up every time you see a… sign. 

Like, that delivery is pretty brutal and you can immediately see it on Zuko’s face, even though it only lasts a second before he shoves it down so quickly and turning away.

He then says: 

ZUKO: It’ll all be worth it once I return home in glory to take my place as the rightful heir to the Fire Lord. 

It would have played nicely into Zuko saying similar things in the original, only for it to become increasingly obvious as the show progresses Zuko’s motivation has nothing to do with the throne. 

It is kind of ruined when Iroh responds with: 

IROH: Perhaps it’s time to consider that the throne isn’t everything. 

Is it just me, or was it obvious in the original that Zuko’s very much talking out of his ass whenever he says that about taking the throne (which isn’t all that often)? 

Zuko’s response is weird to me as well: 

ZUKO: It may not have been for you… but for me, it’s my destiny. 

I checked (I got up all the season one transcripts and hit control+F for ‘crown’, ‘throne’, ‘destiny’, ‘destined’, ‘heir’, 'rightful' to double-check I was remembering correctly) and Zuko mentioned the throne exactly two (2) times in the OG season 1.

He says it the first time in The Southern Air Temple because he’s being antagonised by Zhao. Their conversation is incredibly hostile: 

ZHAO: [Confidently.] You can't compete with me. I have hundreds of war ships under my command and you? You're just a banished prince. No home, no allies. Your own father doesn't even want you. ZUKO: [Angrily.] You're wrong! Once I deliver the Avatar to my father, he will welcome me home with honour, and restore my rightful place on the throne!

And the only other time is in The Blue Spirit after Zhao takes on the hunt for the Avatar himself: 

IROH: Don't give up hope yet. You can still find the Avatar before Zhao. ZUKO: How, Uncle? With Zhao's resources, it's just a matter of time before he captures the Avatar. [Turns back out to sea and whispers.] My honour, my throne, my country, I'm about to lose them all.

And he doesn’t mention destiny at all in season 1. 

In season 2 he mentions the throne in The Avatar State when he talks to Iroh on the anniversary of his banishment - he's feeling that loss of what he had more keenly than ever:

ZUKO: Three years ago today, I was banished. I lost it all. I want it back. I want the Avatar, I want my honour, my throne. I want my father not to think I'm worthless.

He mentions it again in Zuko Alone, which is one of the times he knows himself the least:

ZUKO: My name is Zuko. Son of Ursa and Fire Lord Ozai. Prince of the Fire Nation, and heir to the throne.

Like right off the bat, the original is telling us that the throne is not the driving force here, so it’s weird for Iroh to mention it because if he understood this, then he probably would not have even acknowledged what Zuko said or said something different, as he would have understood it’s just something for Zuko to grasp onto than face the horrifying reality of his situation.

It sort of feels like they've taken a conception of Zuko, understood he talks about the throne sometimes (which is sometimes played up in fanon) and ran with it instead of actually thinking about the words Zuko uses and the context in which he uses them.

You might be thinking why is she going on and on about this. The reason is because it's one of Zuko's first scenes that establish him and his motivations to the audience. The OG is careful not to have us mistake that Zuko's main driving motivation is the throne - it's the Avatar that pushes Zuko forward. Whereas this feels a little too direct for an establishing scene for the audience not to take it seriously (especially as the conversation comes off as one that's happened many times before).

I may be overthinking this one, but I wanted to mention it because I felt like they were so close to perfect here, but those two lines really disappointed me. 

4 — Aang is taken to the village  I like that the village’s reaction to Aang is variations of hey what the fuck is this??  It feels like an appropriate reaction and the delivery is pretty funny, especially the utterly deadpan line of he looks dead. Love that so much. 

I also don’t mind the change that Aang doesn’t wake up immediately after coming out the ice. I think that makes more sense, actually. 

Overall, this scene is fine to me. No strong feelings either way. 

5 — Aang wakes up & time in the village Aang seeing the kids playing and his instinct is to smile despite being confused literally is so… 🥺 I love him. This reaction says SO much more about Aang than any monologue i am so serious.

Also the whole scene with Aang freaking out about Appa: 

AANG: Have you seen Appa? My sky bison? Six legs, horns, brown arrows?  SOKKA: [stares blankly] AANG: [with growing emphasis] sky bison. SKY. BISON.  SOKKA: [deadpan] repeating it doesn’t help

Like YESSS this is the Avatar I know and love!! I love this exchange so much. 

Good news over… time for another rant. 

Aang reveals what happened to him (he got caught in the storm, it was the Great Comet Festival, he’s from the Southern Air Temple), and Gran Gran delivers her Four Nations speech that… I just really am not a fan off at all. 

Kanna’s delivery of the iconic intro is left completely redundant. We already heard it from Kyoshi of all people in the intro (another disservice to my girl Katara - she is the narrator!!) The delivery is very… flat, and filled with just an astonishing amount of exposition:

KANNA: [softly] The Great Comet Festival. KATARA: Gran Gran?  KANNA: Water, earth, fire, air. Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them. But when the world needed him most, he vanished. And so the Fire Nation marched and laid waste, plunging us into a time of darkness. Everyone in the village knows this story, but you don’t, do you, young man? Just as you don’t know that Airbenders haven’t been seen in generations and that the Southern Air Temple was the first to fall because you’ve been trapped in that ice this whole time. The last time that the Great Comet was seen in the sky was 100 years ago. He may seem like just a boy, but he’s much more. He is the last Airbender.

They either should have saved it for Kanna, or let Kyoshi do it. Not both. It’s lost its impact now that we already heard it. And I’m just not a fan of all the detail that she goes into when we already know most of it. What if it went something like this: 

KANNA: [softly] The Great Comet Festival. KATARA: Gran Gran?  KANNA: The last time that the Great Comet was seen in the sky was 100 years ago. You’ve been trapped in that ice this whole time. You are the last Airbender. 

I am no expert. I am hardly even a writer if fanfic even counts. But it didn’t need to be this long dialogue. We already know about the Four Nations, and we will find out about the details of the war later, but we already know that the Fire Nation is Bad at this point. The only point Kanna needed to communicate here was that Aang has been in the iceberg for 100 years. That’s it. 

6 — More Zuko moments Jee intro. Would kill and die for him thank you and goodnight. Zuko is appropriately bitchy. Zuko delivers a speech about the importance of their mission and tells everyone that they will see their homes and families again and prove themselves worthy. 

He ends the speech, looking directly at Iroh and says: or we will die trying. 

This is perfect. Exactly the level of drama I need from season 1 Zuko. 

7 — Aang and Katara   This section is a little rambly and mostly me reacting in the moment to each scene so bare with me:

Aang is in shock as the realities of losing 100 years and his entire culture in one moment. Katara tries to reach out to him, and I really love how clunky and flat her sorry lands. There’s so much pain Aang is feeling, but literally what do you say to that? I just enjoyed that part. 

Katara is trying to connect with him, so she tells him about what happened to her father. We get a flash of Kya, but she doesn’t mention her. She talks about Sokka instead, and the responsibility on him now that Hakoda has left. 

Don’t hate the idea that Katara finds Kya difficult to talk about at all actually, it just depends how they handle it going forward (I can't remember what exactly it is they do with this so I might have more to say later on).

Although Katara's constant emphasis on Sokka and how things are hard for Sokka and how Sokka is trying so hard made me super frustrated. It would be fine if it didn't keep diverting attention away from Katara and back to Sokka. I get she's Going Through It and finds Kya hard to talk about, but I'm not sure this was communicated very well. Katara's personality still suffers greatly from it. She's still so 😕 the whole time. Even when she's reaching out to Aang she's 😕. Like who IS she.

Also Katara saying “I’m a warrior. I should be doing more for our people,” When so far we’ve seen exactly nothing of that tenacious warrior spirit that we see in the original to actually back that up was laughable to me. Once again, justice for my girl. You can't just say shit and expect people to believe you when so far Katara is as enigmatic as a piece of cardboard.

Aang offers some teasing advice from monks, and he and Katara have a very brief, but very sweet moment where they really connect. The moment is dashed between them when Katara sees ash falling from the sky. Katara’s face falls, and it’s devastating (in a good way).

There are absolutely good things to take away from this, but so far the little bad things just keep piling up and digging under my skin.

8 — Zuko arrives to the Southern Water Tribe Oh my god okay so if there was nothing to compare it to, I think I'd like this scene a lot, but the problem is I know what I am missing out on and then I get so mad!!

I really don't know how to talk about this scene

What I liked/enjoyed:

a) Aang's reaction to Kanna outing him as the Avatar: The look of utter panic on Aang’s here is pretty good. In Aang’s POV, he literally just found out that he was the Avatar and the Fire Nation might attack - and then he wakes 100 years into the future, realising that’s exactly what happened. Kanna comes over and without warning drops that bombshell on Katara and Sokka.

And Sokka’s reaction is visceral, if understandable from his perspective. 

SOKKA: [angry]I knew [Aang] was hiding something. When the world needed the Avatar the most, he vanished because he’s a coward. He ran, and people died.

Aang says nothing, but I think him remaining quiet says the most. His brain must be going into overdrive or stalling out and there's no in between.

b) Sokka's anger, frustration, desperation. Building on the above point: Sokka steps up and does his best to direct everyone, but at the end of the day, he just doesn't have the experience or the manpower to do much of anything. That's communicated nicely when he turns from the gate. and looks at the little kids all standing there with rocks in their arms. You can see why in that moment, the only option for Sokka was to give Aang up.

c) Sokka apprenticing the other young boy in the village Idk. just a nice little touch. It was cute to see Sokka step into that role of protector and leader, even if he is wholly unprepared.

d) the kids throwing rocks at the Firebenders It's not going to work, but desperate times call for desperate measures and it's their home to protect.

e) the removal of the booby-trap scene on the abandoned ship. Idk I just feel like this was the best move. One giant beam of light already entered the sky, no need to have another, lesser one be the catalyst. (Although it did rob us of Katara fiercely backing Aang and showing us just what she's willing to put on the line to become a proper bender - but Katara is just 😑 remember so of course this scene is removed!!)

What I didn't like

a) The atmosphere. Where's the terror? The implication of the Fire Nation's arrival cannot be understated, and even with the little we know, the original communicates that fear very well which the live action manages to miss and badly.

-> You can watch it here.

(Tumblr says only one video at a time so have a link here for the comparison clips if you want to see what I mean).

b) The Zuko vs Aang fight misses the point I'll explain it this way: In the original, Aang and Zuko begin to fight. Zuko blasts fire and Aang defends against the flames. Aang quickly realises this could get out of hand with the flames brushing up against the Water Tribe people behind them. This exchange happens:

AANG: If I go with you, will you promise to leave everyone alone? [Zuko's men still surrounding him, spears poised. After a brief moment of hesitation, Zuko rights himself and nods in agreement. Aang is apprehended by Zuko's men.]

This scene allows two things: for Aang to show his compassion for people he barely knows is more important than his own safety (i.e., despite being a goofy kid, there's a deep sense of responsibility he feels); and Zuko is not completely heartless. It's subtle, but right from the start, we see Zuko is more than just Average Villain, and is willing to concede to some extent.

The live action, the kids start to throw rocks and spears at Zuko and his men. Zuko, annoyed, says this:

ZUKO: Enough games. Burn the whole place to the ground. [Aang looks around, panicked.] AANG: No! [he runs in front of the villagers] I'll go with you. Just leave them alone. I'm the one you're looking for. ZUKO: [to his men, angry] get him.

See how Aang now only reacts after Zuko threatens to destroy the village (and they exchange blows, resulting in an explosion), rather than seeing the potential damage a fight could cause and Zuko's moment to show some humanity is removed? Yeah.

-> Watch the clips here.

c) Zuko doesn't even try to fight without his firebending Also another little thing (yes little, but Avatar was a show that prided itself on the little things which is why people still talk about it 10 years later so I get to talk about this!)

Zuko establishes himself as a fierce and strong enemy from the outset by besting Sokka without even firebending. He only firebends to initially scare the villagers into telling him where Aang is, and after Sokka's boomerang strikes him and when he fights Aang. This immediately illustrates that Zuko is not just a good bender, he's also a very good fighter. Again, I wouldn't mention this if Zuko were literally anyone else, but Zuko's resourcefulness and 'jack of all trades' abilities are important to... well every season and his character.

-> Watch the clips here.

d) live action thinks its darker by the nature of its medium Kind of an over-arching issue, but I wanted to mention it because it's kind funny to me that the 2005 kids cartoon managed to portray a more terrifying scenario than the 2024 live action did. I think live action remakes think they're 'darker and edgier' just by the nature of them being live action. But that's not necessarily true.

The Fire Nation, Zuko and his men are all portrayed as skilled, hardened warriors who are on a mission, and will not stop until that is achieved. Zuko's men remain (mostly) masked and unknowable. Their faces aren't important - only Zuko's is. They say nothing and fall into step with him.

In the live action, their faces are showing, and Jee even makes a comment, which Zuko bites back on, reflecting cracks in the inner workings (but they do not let any such thing show in the original show).

How does a scene that literally includes this moment:

be more intimidating/scary than the 'gritty' live action lol.

It actually meets the same issue in the scene just before Zuko arrives. Nowhere near enough gravitas is placed on Katara and Aang’s visit to the abandoned ship. In the original, Katara clearly states this ship has haunted her people since her grandmother was young. There’s weight to that. You can feel the pain in Katara's voice. The ship is... creepy. It's quiet and dark. There are abandoned weapons and evidence of the existence of real soldiers who tried to kill them.

In the live action, all Katara says is no one comes here. It’s quiet and hidden. They only enter this broken open area in the hull. It would take two seconds to show even a little bit off the ship, to show the remnants of this past violence, to add to the otherness of it. To show that it’s something to stark from what we, the audience has seen up until now. Instead, it's where Katara is shown to be in her opening scene and she takes Aang there again later. There is no effort to make the ship feel like the scar that it is upon their land. A constant reminder that their waterbenders were systematically wiped out - and because of that, they can't do move it or sink it or anything.

It’s almost as though they completely misunderstood why the Fire Nation ship was put into the original, but understood that people recognised it and thought that that would be enough. This ship demonstrates to us that this war is old and it’s left generational fear and scars. It’s such a brilliant way to warm us up to what could be happening outside this little village, why the village is little at all, and what is to come. The kids show manages to talk about the generational impact of war in it's first few episodes.

(Again, probably wouldn't talk about it it was just this moment... but I'll have more to talk about in future episodes).

9 - Capture and escape from Zuko's ship

Things I liked:

a) Aang and Iroh's conversation I enjoyed this scene a lot. Iroh's respect for Aang is perfect and I just thought the back and forth between them was good. It didn't feel as much of an exposition dump like previous conversations, feeling a little more natural - Aang would naturally want to know how the war started. Also this exchange I liked a lot:

AANG: But peace comes from respecting life, not killing and destroying. IROH: A noble sentiment, Avatar, but in the end, for most of us, it doesn’t matter how this war started. It only matters how it can end.And the belief is that by capturing you, the Fire Nation can finally bring that about. AANG: Is that what you believe? IROH: [hesitates] I must leave, but I look forward to many more conversations with you, Avatar.

b) Sokka not wanting to get on Appa and Katara being eager Finally some good fucking soup. When they fly away on Appa with Sokka just fully screaming and Katara with a big grin on her face, yeah exactly I love that

c) Aang stealing Zuko's journal no notes for this, I just think its funny.

d) the CGI for Aang using his glider actually looks so good

Things I didn't like:

a) Zuko just stands on the deck the whole time when Aang is escaping Yeah he's shooting fire at them and smiling like a weirdo watching Aang almost fall to his death (????), but where's the Zuko who's chasing Aang like the fucking terminator and literally jumping after him as Aang tries to fly away, risking at least serious injury if he fell from such a height??

b) they never get on Zuko's boat, so there's some moments that we miss. This point is not necessarily a bad thing, but there are some things I missed: Sokka's I'm just a guy with a boomerang. I didn't ask for all this FLYING and MAGIC! Katara and Sokka running over to him in worry after Aang collapses using the Avatar State. No Aang using the Avatar State or him launching Zuko and Iroh's fire into the ice, crushing their ship means we don't get a glimpse of Aang's raw power. This one is more of an observation rather than hill I'm ready to die on.

10 - The Southern Air Temple

Things I liked:

a) the scenery of the temple God the scenery is visually amazing. I was going to take a screenshot but the quality was so bad I gave up 😔

b) Aang's memory of Gyatso while in the Avatar State This is said with a caveat (see below), but I don't mind Aang's memory of Gyatso being the the thing that grounds him - it's actually really lovely, and every Gyatso has me on the verge of tears.

Things I didn't like:

a) The removal of Katara and Aang moments I have flipped flopped on this and I don't know if I like it or not. As someone who doesn't really enjoy shipping... at all... I was initially kind of happy they seemed to be taking out the Katara and Aang moments, but then I got annoyed because if they really are not going the kataang route (which is fine, I don't particularly care either way), why does that mean Katara can't be a grounding force for Aang? She can still be the one that reaches him when he's at his most distressed (seeing the Gyatso's body) without it all building up to a romantic relationship. This might all end up redundant as we see where they decide to take it with season 2 and 3, but as of right now, I am just on the fence about the whole thing.

b) why is the 8-10 episode seasons the only way to go now... I miss long seasons We get the The Southern Air Temple tacked on the end of the first episode in the last 6 minutes of the episode. Why did we waste the first 15-20 minutes showing us all this exposition and detailing in specific detail everything about the genocide and that randomly long scene between Sozin and the soldier, when we could have spent more time here, learning that same information, but along side the characters, therefore we feel Aang's horror and devastation along with him as we all slowly realise that all his people were murdered. Either that, or we have longer episodes so we can actually spend time on Things and flesh things out more rather than leaving out so many amazing moments.

This scene is burnt into my memory. Even though we saw what happened to the air nomads, finding out as Aang found out, feeling awkward and anxious the whole episode and Katara and Sokka struggle to reveal this information left more of an impact on me than the live action.

This is truly haunting.

My point here is we literally could have had this if either: we cut down on the exposition or we used the format that shows used to use all the time?? idk I'm not an expert there might be a Really Smart reason why this doesn't happen anymore (but that won't stop me missing it!)

I'll leave this one here with a summary.

Things I liked:

Bending looks fantastic

Appa and Momo look great!!

Sokka overall does feel like Sokka (just a more serious version.

Zuko's characterisation is also not too bad (at least in this episode)

i think a lot of their ideas are fine (but the execution is lacking in some places)

What I didn't like:

why don't you explicitly explain this idea to me for the sixth time... i don't understand anything that's not explained to me in excruciating detail

KATARA!! THEY BUTCHERED MY GIRL

No Zuko vs Zhao. I'm still sad about this. I was hanging out to watch Zuko beat him up. It's not the best fight scene in the series, but it's just one of those things that deserves recognition, especially with the soundtrack Agni Kai in the background. It's iconic.

Some of the timing of scenes is weird

IMO not getting/understanding some things in the original and you can see that in how they've constructed dialogue/scenes.

Thinks its grittier and more serious than it actually is.

There's probably more to this list and things I'll think of later, but we'll leave it there for now...

If you made it to the end, kudos to you 🫡

See you later for episode 2 👁️👄👁️

[em-writes-stuff-sometimes]

Haven't heard from you in a while, hope you're doing well! <3

Hey, nonnie - I'm doing alright. Personal ramble below the cut. Skip if you're just here for fanfic reading and don't care about my silly little melodrama.

Not going to go into too much detail, but I've been really feeling the depression lately. For context, I have clinical depression and take a really high dose of antidepressants, which fuck with other aspects of my life (i.e. weight and lack of sleep). Medical consensus is that I'll need medication for the rest of my life as my brain does not perform the appropriate mood-regulating functions (I'm not super sure what the specifics of this are). I've struggled with low feeling, demotivation, SI/SH etc. for nearly nine years now. I've slipped into a bit of an episode lately - not necessarily related to being online but Tumblr is a part of it - but I'm trying to work my way out of it by picking up some new-old hobbies, such as crochet, and doing things that I like and that don't stress me. I'm safe and don't have the opportunity to action any of my feelings, so please don't worry about me!

Unfortunately, Tumblr has been a source of stress for me since I've come on here. I've made some downright terrible choices in friends, in behaviour, in the amount of energy I commit to this space, and the only one who can really break this cycle is me. This site hosts a really wide range of personalities, and I just... feel like I've encountered some of the absolute worst among all of that, and it's done me absolutely no favours when it comes to making good choices. We all say that as adults, we should know better, but there's no sudden switch that flips, you know? We spend our whole lives making mistakes and learning from them. Adulthood isn't the abrupt entry into moral infallibility, and that's been something I've had to address and work through when it comes to my own failings.

To be perfectly honest, Tumblr isn't a supportive place. Or the people aren't. I don't really know which. To clarify, I do generally speak of the community of artists and writers in this, not the people here who just want to enjoy art or read someone's fanfic. I suppose there's a certain level of - I don't know - self-centredness? - when it comes to creating an online presence and sharing one's own creations on the internet. That mentality, I think, bleeds over into feelings of entitlement in creative communities. Entitlement to other people's time, to people's attention, to people's promotion, and when one doesn't get that, the problems start: (best to worst =) transactional interaction, badmouthing, hate anons, public bashing, and the list goes on. I've definitely been someone who has been upset by people's lack of interaction. I've responded with "oh, I'm not reblogging until they reblog mine" more than once. We all know that I've been involved with badmouthing and publicly bashing others. I continue to be very ashamed of this, and I am honest with myself about what I've done and how I got there in my journey working through my problems and making meaningful change in my life.

Anyway, point is - I'm trying to divorce myself from the entitlement, and I think to do that I need to divorce myself from the notion that we exist as a community. I've put far too much effort into that idea, and it's gotten me absolutely nowhere. There are more people who dislike me than not. Most just straight-up ignore me. I deserve it, sure, but (or maybe and) I have no intention of continuing to engage in a space that either doesn't exist or where I'm not wanted. I've felt anxious and upset at the mere thought of going on Tumblr the past few months. It hasn't been bringing me joy anymore, and that was the whole point of it. There's so much bad blood associated with being on here, but I love writing. I love this show. I can't give up something that makes me so happy in every respect other than this one site.

So I've taken some time off, reassessed the way I'm intending to use this space, and I've essentially decided that I started it for me so I'm going to do it for me. I'm going to interact with who I want and post what I want and damn absolutely everyone who tries to police me (of which there has been A LOT - apparently I have a "responsibility" to support others which I now know is actually code for "I'm jealous that you're getting any kind of attention online, so instead of addressing my issue with this, I'm going to vaguepost about/anon/DM you to try and guilt you into giving my work attention so that maybe it'll transfer to me").

For the casual peruser, no change at all. But I'm done giving my effort to the idea of 'community'. It doesn't exist, or I don't belong. I am going to do what makes me happy now, and only what makes me happy. That's the whole point. I'm sick of focusing on negatives. I'm sick of posting about them, to be honest. I think this mindset will do me good.

If you've gotten this far, I hope that it's okay that I've decided this. I'm feeling positive about it!

[ducktracy]

Have you ever wanted to join the writers room of SpongeBob and the Patrick star show?

THIS IS A TIMELY QUESTION! i was just discussing this with my director a few weeks ago. tldr before i even get to the long part: not necessarily, it's never really been something on my radar and so i don't feel as equipped for it but that could--and i hope it does--change!

LONGER EXPLANATION.. i was in a meeting with my director recently pitching my boards to him, and we got spitballing back and forth and we essentially just started joke pitching an idea for an episode. he was like "yknow that's pretty good, i could get you in touch with our script coordinators if you ever felt you wanted to take it further" and my response was like ahhhhhhh nah i could never write an episode i wouldn't know where to start blah blah blah, and we basically had a talk that amounted to "don't knock it 'til you'll try it" and so it's definitely been more on my mind lately

IT'S AN INTERESTING SITUATION. i'd consider myself a decent writer and i certainly enjoy doing it, most of my free time is spent writing my reviews! likewise, i LOVE breaking down and analyzing dialogue and coming up with random character conversations. talking to the person who typed the entire Hamlet soliloquy in Porky's stutter one time because ?. i think i'm more interested in writing than i think i really am

but something about writing for cartoons has always been very intimidating to me HAHA. i'm not really someone who is sitting on a wealth of episode ideas and dying going like "ahhh man i wish we could see SpongeBob and Patrick doing this", etc--if and when i have those moments it's usually very spontaneous and in the moment! like what i mentioned above when i'm spitfiring in a meeting. i think i get intimidated by the "where the hell do i start" and "how do i organize this" aspects, because i have had ideas for cartoons before and aim to act on some of them! i still haven't forgotten the "Porky and Daffy are competing salesmen" cartoon idea i thought up in 2020 which is also partially responsible for my job in the first place. but it's like a blip, a skip in a record in that i struggle untangling and organizing and really establishing a working structure. i am a VERY detail oriented person and so i think i like working smaller and more intimately, where i can add my own personal flair to something that someone who may be more proficient in establishing a foundation has done.

BUT! maybe i just say all this because i haven't done it yet!! don't know it unless i try! for my purposes as an artist now i enjoy drawing and embellishing pre-existing ideas and suggesting gags and getting into the nitty gritty of the details on a small scale, but i also don't wanna put myself in any boxes and restrain myself from trying, either. i don't talk about them as much on here just because they literally dominate every other aspect of my life (well that and NDAs forbid me from doing so!), but i love SB and Patrick and all the Bikini Bottomites deeply! i'm so lucky to get to document their lives. they really are like real friends to me and i hope i'm lucky enough to find more ways to fraternize with them and learn about them and bring out their tics and habits and traits and how they contrast and support one another. i do that best through drawing right now, but i'm excited for all the ways i'll be able to expand beyond that. and maybe one day that'll include writing!

ALSO KINDA FRAGMENTED I KNOW i just made my closing statements above. i apologize for my pedanticism. but TPSS doesn't have a writer's room to my knowledge because it's board driven! we get to sit in on storyboard pitches (just had a wonderful one this evening) and watch the artists pitch their boards and it's such a wonderful experience. i have thought "i wonder how it would go if i pitched to the network like that" in sitting in these meetings. BUT JUST WANTED TO CLARIFY i know writer's room is an all consuming term and i'm being pedantic. but it's very neat that we get to work on a board driven show to begin with and has made quite a difference and so i just like pointing it out :) i love what we're doing

[spaceorphan18]

Not the OP but I imagine that last ask was re the fact they talked about The Box Scene in today's podcast episode and said they can understand why it was cut because it was 'lackluster'. 🙄

Nonny #2 - Sorry second nonny, I didn't realize I copied and pasted wrong, and deleted your message before adding it correctly. <3

@wowbright says : In case you didn't have this context, and the latest episode apparently they said that the box scene was probably cut because it was "lackluster" and "not very good." That has set people off. (And personally I think it's a weird opinion. Like, it was probably cut for time because of less relevance to the rest of the episode?)

I'm going to kind of hit all of this at once. Because I have some thoughts.

First of all, about the actual scene, while I understand why it was cut - in that there were time constraints and, no, it isn't pushing the story forward, it is a cute little scene that reestablishes where their relationship is in the grand scheme of things. And you know what? They made it canon at the end, so there's that.

It's not a bad scene, nor is it lackluster. It's of equal value, honestly, as the Santa Baby scene.

Secondly, that's a shame they downplayed what it did for charity. That's a huge deal, it's a shame they can't recognize the significance of a fandom movement -- especially as they raise money for things like Snixxmas and Alexandria House.

My third point is of two parts….

A) Kevin and Jenna do not know (or care) how to be objective. They just don't. They've proven time after time that they're watching things they like and do not care about the rest of it. It doesn't make me want to listen to it, and it's a shame they can't muster enough professionalism to try, but it's their podcast, and at the end of the day I can't change that.

B) You guys keep acting as if there's some big conspiracy theory as to their reasonings and at the end of the day -- more so going back to my original Nonny from earlier today -- they just do not care about Klaine. They think about Klaine in the way that I think about Jarley. They're there -- they take up screen time that I wish was given to other things -- and it's not something I particularly enjoy sitting through.

[But as an aside - I like to think I can be objective enough to admit when something is written or done well. And going back to point A, Kevin and Jenna don't know how or don't care to even put the work in on that.]

It is not about Chris. It is not about Darren. (And the speculation is a little odd there -- but we don't know them, maybe they do hate Darren (doubtful guys) but either way, I really, really do not think it has to do with this.)

And interestingly, I don't necessarily think it's solely a dislike of Blaine either. I know they praise Chris a lot, but they really skip over some great Kurt things, too, that aren't related to Klaine.

And yes, it really is about Naya and Cory and themselves. They are more personally invested in those stories and those people and that is going to color how they see the show. It just is. It's how people work.

Going back to point B - the reason it hits hard for us is that for them (like how I feel about Jarley) it's not personal and it doesn't mean much. It's just kind of there. But for us, it is personal. We do see all the good things (along with the bad) and it has meant a lot -- it's been a personal love -- it has meant very deep things to people.

And what may hit hard for people -- and what Kevin and Jenna are completely missing because they're really not good at the objectivity or the looking at the big picture -- is the fact that when you disregard the thing, it feels like a personal judgment on /you/.

And guys - it's not. They just happen to dislike/not be invested in a thing we really love, and that's kind of it. I find it unfortunate. I am kind of disappointed in their lack of understanding I really have stopped listening to the show other than interviews I want to listen to. I wish there was a way that I could explain that to them - but I don't really know how.

I don't really have any answers other than that guys. :/

It'll be interesting to see how they handle Seasons 4-6, where Artie is almost a prop, Tina goes crazy, and there is a fuckton of Blaine, Kurt, and Klaine.

Or maybe they'll end it at Season 3. Who knows. shrugs

[justdaniel-eh]

AnoVerse Book Update 📚

Hey guys. Hiiii. So y'know how last time I did an AnoVerse blog post I essentially did an interest check an AnoVerse book... Well I have updates because it did recieve enough for me to believe it is viable to do.

[Above: Concept cover. Heavily WIP]

So. First and foremost - story. This story is not the beginning of AnoVerse. Consider it like a pilot book. It's not necessarily something done - I know - but not any part of how this book is being "published" is normal, and so who cares. Point is, this book is here to show the vision for AnoVerse, and has a mixture of what I want the series to be. It will not be perfect for sure, I'm not a professional writer, but it will be the best it can.

So... what is the story?

Minister and Deejay attend one of the richest parties man can afford, hosted by Mayor Plum at Illumai Manor... only issue is Minister has been an isolated inventor for most of his life, only promising to come along because he specifically got invited. Now the old man has to survive a night with his lover, worst enemy, and many new faces without having a breakdown. Meanwhile, follow the chaos back home as Ave and Danny try to navigate the darkness of their own powerless house, and subsequentially try to fix it.

As you can see, the story will have an A/B plot structure, with 5 chapters that cover each section. It's looking to be around 15,000 words, so hopefully it'll have a good amount of content for my first book!

Pricing 💲 and Roadmap 🛣

I've spent the last few weeks, between writing, looking at pricing and the roadmap for this and I think I'm ready to share this information.

The book itself will be paperback and cost £11.99 with worldwide shipping. Shipping prices will change dependant on your location: UK has free shipping; Europe shipping is £2.99; and everywhere else is £5.99. This is to account for the additional cost it will take to ship outside of the UK, whereas UK shipping is already considered in the book's price. Though, I have plans to do what I can to find ways to reduce shipping costs in the future.

Hardcover copies will come to future books dependant on sales.

As for the roadmap - there's not lots to say for this book. The current aims are:

Writing Completion - March 2025

Art Completion - Late March/April 2025

Pre-orders - Late March/Early April 2025 (Set to last a month)

Shipping - Late May 2025

Online Release - July 2025

These dates I believe are feasible at the moment - the book itself is 50% done in terms of writing with art concepts now being started (as seen by the first image). These dates are set to change, however I do not wish to have this book out any later than June 2025. This is because if things go well - I have the plan for books 1-4... but I'm not ready to share info on them just yet, besides the fact that I would like them to be released over 2026.

One last thing I'd like to talk about that may standout here... the "online release." Given that this book is absolutely a test to gage interest in the series - I need actual reviews and opinions on the book. So, as a result, I will be releasing it later online after the physical books have shipped (or we may skip straight to that if I don't get enough pre-orders). The e-book version may be free, but I may charge a small price for it, I'm currently unsure. Either way, if you wish to support and see this series be made a reality - the physical book will be the way to go as that is what WILL get this series made.

Anyway, that's all the information I have for now. If you've read this far - thank you. I'll hopefully have more updates soon enough.

[punkshort]

Can I chime in on Roommates discourse? I'm going to because I love that story and I have thoughts. I was cheated on by my partner of 12 years who I'd known since I was a teenager, a couple years ago . I usually skip one shots with infidelity but if it comes up in a series, I can handle it depending on context, I guess? STR is a good example because that's totally fine with me and I'd say a technicality. Not in a masochistic way (maybe a little), but I loved how Roommates reader shuts down after she gets caught, kind of sorta distances herself from everyone while she takes it upon herself to figure her shit out and go to therapy. I thought a lot about that part of the story. TW personal trauma dump, but I only found out I was being cheated on when I mistakenly found out my partner got an STI test. What ensued is a long story but he was negative for what he thought he had and idk if he was only going to tell me what was going on if it turned out he had caught something he'd have to tell me about. I knew something was off but found out later from a mutual friend he was going crazy in the period he was waiting for results, before I unintentionally found out. In texts between him and that mutual friend, he was spiraling throughout the week and inconsolable (easier to put it that way now, at the time it was hard to care obviously and I thought it was entirely self-preservation on his part). I will never actually know if those spirals were mostly because he knew how I'd react and everything was about to be fucked up, or if he genuinely felt all the remorse he expressed and sadness that he had hurt me badly. Probably both but I do now feel like how you handle cheating is really important, too. Especially if the relationship is fully over and nobody but yourself is forcing you to reflect upon what you did. We were having ongoing issues and it was clear he regretted what he'd done, but I couldn't know if he was experiencing that remorse (like your reader does) and if he was going to come clean and figure out why he chose to cheat, OR if that was coming from a place of him just desperately hoping the result was negative so he could move on and not tell me and not lose everything. He was at least honest he wasn't sure what he was going to do while he was panicked waiting for the results. My sob story aside because infidelity is unfortunately not exactly uncommon, ALL of that is to say I was actually incredibly cathartic reading someone who fucked up and who was fucking ruined by it. Like, she was very fucked up over it and Sam didn't take her back so it was entirely on her to take it upon herself and be like "okay, let me figure out what led me to make this massive mistake." I also agree with what was said about empathy in these contexts. Someone who cheats is going to have people in their life and circle who are going to extend the grace of forgiveness which even I can admit is not bad because people unfortunately are complicated and are not necessarily motivated by cruelty, just carelessness and selfishness sometimes. Which can feel cruel. But empathy has its limits when you have to preserve yourself from the damage someone has done to your life, so I also appreciate Sam's response. It's so clear your stories are incredibly well thought out and I appreciate that a lot. <3

This is beautifully said, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts!

I am so sorry you went through all that with your ex. A big part of me thinks (hopes) whatever led him to get tested was a big wake up call for him and that's why he was spiraling. It sounds like you mostly got closure and at least he came clean, didn't try to gaslight you, etc. It's kind of fascinating you found out accidentally, though. I'm not one to believe in fate, necessarily, but damn if it doesn't sound like it. Because you're right: would he have ever told you if it was clean? Who knows? I'd like to think he would, but people, as we've discussed, make selfish and stupid choices all the time.

I'm glad you found some comfort in this fic, even though it potentially could have been triggering for you. I like to imagine reader and Joel were in this bubble during their affair and when they got caught, that bubble popped and suddenly they were both faced with reality. There's so much shame that goes with that, especially having it go down in front of your friends like it did with them. And you nailed it - reader was like, "what the hell is wrong with me? Why did I hurt him? Why can't I just make a decision?" So she did some self reflection and healed whatever insecurities she had so she could enter a relationship with Joel without any dark clouds hanging over her.

And I love this part the most because it sums it up perfectly: people are complicated. I really can't think of a better way to summarize that story arc better.

[morgana-ren]

Have you done like a kink list for what your AU are into? I'm very interested in their depravity!

For the public? Not quite. But back in the beginning when we first started setting it up, we did a sort of kink list for them to help get a handle on them when we wrote them. A lot of their kinks developed naturally as we wrote, but we needed a baseline to work with first.

Since half of the characters are ocs, and the other half are preexisting but warped to the point they might as well be new characters, it was a helpful way of getting a grasp on them.

It's important to note that these aren't necessarily our personal kinks, but more of a natural way of letting the character grow and develop on their own. Keep in mind, this is years and years running, so these are just the ones that come to mind off the top of my head. It's a deeply intricate au with a lot going on, but this should give you a good idea.

Astarion's are much the same as HERE. He's the same Astarion with a vastly different way of being saved from Cazador, a different way of ascending, and three new idiot brothers who he loves more than the world. Therefore, he's sort of a different person in the end, but also... very much the same. He loves his knife, he loves brats and loves a struggle. He's the least likely to hurt you if you spit in his face, but not for any reason regarding kindness. It's because he's going to deliberately antagonize you to make you angrier and more likely to fight back just so he can subdue you. There's a playful edge to his cruelty. He has been elaborated on already, so I'll skip the lecture.

Nightmare is a prince, and you'd know it from the uppity way he acts. He pretends that sex is vulgar and a waste of time. But he's also a pirate and a private hedonist. Nightmare is the most likely to hurt you for no reason, if only to see you cry. He has the worst case of dacryphilia you've ever seen. Allergies and you're sniffling with watery eyes? Run. Death in the family and you're wailing? Run. He backhands you and your eyes begin to tear up? Run. Or, you know what? Don't. He enjoys a nice hunt, and there's no way you're getting away. He gets off on fear.

He likes clever, soft girls. He's going to stalk them, and that's a nice way of putting it. He's going to ruin your fucking life and leave you with nothing. And then he's going to swoop in, the golden knight in shining armor. He has a hero complex. He's going to personally orchestrate the most miserable days of your life so that he can 'save' you from it.

He is an absolute sucker for domesticity. Nothing gets him hotter than watching the object of his affection with an apron on, baking just for him, cleaning his house, basically acting the part of a pretty little housewife. Except nuns. He is not allowed around nuns. He goes absolutely feral for any kind of religious girl (he's a devil, what do you want from him? It's not quite a corruption kink and more the act of defiling.)

He likes gaslighting and confusing his girls. He will use magic to literally construct you an alternate reality only to slam you back into your present one to make you feel insane. He will create a whole isolated pocket in the feywild to kidnap and keep you. He is a Baneite, and thus, he has a huge thing for power (if he can best you, he has earned what he wants from you, and if you cannot stop him, then it's your fault) and needs to be the one in control, and more importantly, you need to know it. If you're truly his, he will enchant a collar and put it on your neck permanently and it will shock you if you try to remove it. If he feels like it, you get the leash too, just to remind you of your place. He's a little too into the less fun aspects of pet play, like forcing you to sleep on the floor because 'no pets on the furniture' and making you lick cum off the floor. Disobey him? You get the lightning whip. He loves flogging and pain and-- just all of it. He will tie you up on his bed in the most uncomfortable position imaginable and just.. leave you there to think about how you've behaved.

Nightmare is cruelty for cruelty's sake. He's going to hurt you. Badly. Both mentally and physically until you worship him, like he deserves-- and he is a master at it. He's perfectly capable of seducing but gets more glee out of forcing himself on you. The more you cry, the more you cry out, the more rabid he gets. He wants you to trust him with your life, and then to betray that trust and watch your face as you realize it. He's in it for the long game, and will spend months orchestrating the perfect way to break you, working his way in to become your best friend or whatever else have you to get you to depend on him and need him, and then completely betray you. He's the least likely to have a fling or a one-night stand. If he has his eye set on you, it's the long haul. He adores punishment and even if you do everything perfectly, he's going to find a reason to hurt you.

It's not an incest kink, and he'll call you vulgar if you accuse him of it, but oh-so secretly, he does like being called 'daddy' or 'big brother.' He'll tell you he prefers 'master', and he's only lying about the preference. It's an abuse of power thing. You must get him 'foaming at the mouth' feral for him to finally admit it.

He'll invade your dreams and violate you night after night until you think you've gone actually crazy. He has no problem abusing magic in his sexual conquests. He is very good at what he does and is the most likely to get very into it. He enjoys a good roleplay and will even dress up himself!-- and then take his role WAY too fucking seriously. Oh, you're a student and he's a headmaster? He will give you an actual written test. Yes. He will.

He's beautiful and knows it. He is all about decorum and propriety. He's prim and proper until you get him in the shadows. You'll never know he wants you until he's got a hand on your neck and is pushing inside. He will insult you and berate you and degrade you and make you bleed with his claws until you scream. Secretly, all he wants is a family and children of his own and a housewife that adores and worships him and pampers him-- and a kingdom at his feet. He usually gets it. His atrocious backstory does not make up for his behavior, but it's certainly understandable.

Reaver is the most openly depraved. He's the least likely to hurt you physically if you do as he asks but the most likely to ask you to do something that you'd rather die than do. He has a strange pseudo-incest kink where he likes to be referred to as 'Uncle' even in bed, so.. that's great. He's massive and has a huge size kink as well. He likes little things that are much smaller than him and easier to manhandle (and if you're a six-foot-tall girl, don't worry, you're still much smaller than he is, and you still fucking count.) He likes sex in general, but loves 'non-traditional' sex the most, eg anal (this is horrible because he is massive.) If you squirm or fight too much, he will put your little ass in a cage he keeps in his room or dungeon and just watch you with an eerie smile.

He's also into stereotypical guy shit, like lap-dances and general degradation. He has a massive closet full of various outfits and appendages for roleplay and cosplay. He's extravagant and loves showing off, and will spend absurd amounts of money on you, buy you a ridiculously priced dress, and throw a whole ball to celebrate. He loves the finer things, and will buy out the nicest restaurant, buy you the most expensive dinner, and then want to have sex on the table while the staff are still cleaning up. He likes public sex to a degree but is usually not allowed to indulge because Nightmare calls it crass. He also likes tattooing and piercing his girls, and often wants his symbol on their body somewhere, but again, is shot down by Nightmare (which funny enough, I got his symbol tattooed on me willingly.)

He's easily the most openly licentious, and when he doesn't have someone in particular to lavish affection on, he's partial to orgies and anonymous sex. He loves abuse of authority and can be seen harassing maids and staff that he wants to fuck. He gets off on having sex (be it willing or no, usually not) with people on the opposite end of the political spectrum, and I'll let you use your imagination to figure out what side he's on (hint, it's his own side.) He will hold incentives over your head to get you to comply (Think: I'll pay fair wages for a year if you blow me right now,) and to his credit, he will uphold his word.

Basically, he throws money at everything and has become a soulless libertine that gets off on the most depraved shit imaginable. He likes shock. He's going to make you sit on his lap and call you his niece in public because he loves the looks of disgust, but more than that, he loves the fact that no one would dare do anything about it because he's so powerful. He is genuinely disgusting to cover up his tragic backstory and any vulnerability he might have.

Ilya was also a prince, but a very different kind of prince. He's spoiled and bratty and arrogant, but deeply intelligent and ambitious and has been around for hundreds of years, just like the other three. He was a bit of a whore (he had concubines and harems galore,) and he is capable of having regular one-night stands, but when he finds someone(s) that he wants, he becomes... terrifying.

He will use his beauty to enrapture you. You'll see him as the kind, gentle, intelligent, and beautiful but lonely man who lives alone in a manor that's far too large for just him, and some part of you will ache to help him-- and he knows. He will ensnare you with artifacts from ancient Mongolia and the East and Russia and whatever else interests you and by the Gods, he plays his part well. In truth? He's almost worse than Reaver.

He will take advantage of your kindness, set circumstances up just right, and then strike. He's so good at it that when he does make his move, you will gaslight yourself into thinking you're imagining it. His hand will literally be moving up your skirt and your brain will go 'No, it's an accident--'

...And then he will crank it up a notch because he wants the panic and the fear. He wants you to beg him to stop only to smile condescendingly and say "No. And what are you going to do about it?" You'll be in such a whiplash from the two personalities that it'll make your head spin.

A true libertine and hedonist. He believes the point of life is pleasure, and that you must take it where you will. He is also obsessed with power, but is a sight-bit more playful about it than Nightmare. He will still chain you to his bed, but unlike Nightmare, he will use your own pleasure against you. You will hate him, seethe and sputter curses at him, and then he will make you see the face of God. He will leave you in a puddle, dumbfounded and horrified on his bed, hating yourself.

He's the one that encourages and coaxes the basest desires of the other three. The devil on the devil's shoulder. He and Nightmare will drive the other two nuts by speaking Russian and they get along quite well. If Nightmare hasn't made up his mind about wanting a girl, it is Ilya that inevitably puts the final nail in the coffin.

Ilya has all the kinks of the previous three combined. He lived a very indulgent lifestyle before he died, and is used to getting whatever he wants. He's gorgeous and educated, just like Nightmare, and when the two get together, it's a huge problem.

Ilya is the most recent addition to the group, and he's mine. I won't go more into detail unless someone asks cause it's usually the original three that people like.

[worm-death]

Good and Bad Anime Backstory Integration

I'm writing this blog post to discuss in length something I'm really passionate about: making good, relatable characters. And through the many anime I've seen, it's done both good and bad. And so I wanted to write this to give my take on the subject. Fair warning: I will be spoiling certain anime series. I will warn again when I am about to spoil something (Demon Slayer Season 1, Hell's Paradise Season 1, One Piece, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop, Lupin III Part 6, Galaxy Express 999, The Wind Rises). These are also just my opinions. I'm not demanding you to write stories like this; simply my thoughts on the matter.

This is by far my least favorite way to tell a character's origin story. Right as they're dying, or even if it's the last time we see them on screen. Why? Because you don't have any time to let that sink in. I will tell you, nothing is worse than watching a character die just to have the wade to white and the BOOM flashback, no thank you. This is mainly in regard to villain characters.

Demon Slayer was a constant notorious example of this, and my main conflict with the entire franchise. It made every villain a complete sob story. And that's not even necessarily a bad thing, but it's the execution that is faulted every time. (No explicit spoilers since I can't remember Jack about that show, but season 1 spoilers, I guess. Skip this next paragraph if you wish to avoid any).

An episode starts out introducing our new demonic villain. Simple enough. And it's pretty straightforward: evil person does evil things. And it remains that way until Tanjiro has the final fight with the episode's villain, cutting off their head and whatnot. And as we see them fall back in slow motion, blood gushing everywhere. The origin story jumpscares me.

Why should I feel bad for a character who has only been presented as evil with little to no redeeming qualities? There was never a pre-established reason for me to feel bad for this character. They have only been presented as a bad person I should want dead.

I want to put this into perspective in the real world. There are plenty of deplorable people out there, the real-life villains. And aside from those few individuals born into this world truly evil. The majority of the time, there was a significant event in that person's life that brought them to the point of committing heinous crimes. And what does the public do when they find out these people are put on death row or sentenced to life? We are happy. We are glad that this evil person is gone (the sane ones of us, anyway). So, I see fictional villains the same way. "Oh good, the hero killed the villain! Wait, now I have to feel bad for them?? Uh..."

What it boils down to is the inability to form connections. The human mind does not work like: villain (I hate them) -> backstory (THEY WERE AN ORPHAN?!?!?) -> villain (OMG I LOVE YOU!! you were just misunderstood....) No.

When I say this is my least favorite form of backstory delivery, I have seen more of them fail than succeed. But that is definitely not the case for all stories. In fact, there are some simply amazing stories. I will be spoiling One Piece twice here (Dressrosa and Wano, please skip the next paragraph).

I think the smarter thing to do when creating a backstory like this is not to make it a sob story. In episode 1062 of One Piece, Zoro fights King, someone we practically knew nothing about, and gets his backstory revealed. It was great. And it's the tone that makes it great. It is an info drop, not a sob story. Simply informing the audience on how King and Kaido met. In turn, the information from that flashback also plays into Kaido as a character and adds more depth to him. There are practical things to take away from the flashback, even if the central character is no longer going to be relevant.

If you can make a backstory practical and give them a takeaway, then it's worthwhile. Something other shows fail to do. We may see a character's connection to another relevant character, but that's it, just a connection and doesn't actually say anything about them.

Again, back to Demon Slayer. All the demons were turned by Muzan Kibutsuji. We see how they met, and aside from literally turning the character into a demon, that is it. Each interaction doesn't give us a hint into Muzan's mind. He's simply there to serve the plot device.

With One Piece (yes, more spoilers), even though the central focus is on King, we get a bit of inside into Kaido. Although portrayed as a completely standoffish, cold monster, here we see a caring side of him. He lends a hand to someone who needs help. We aren't meant to feel bad for these characters in this flashback. We are simply having information being established. I call it a footnote in the middle of the fight because it is additional information not strictly required but adds further information.

Can an emotional backstory before death be done right? Yes! It's hard to pull off; again, I will use One Piece, Dressrosa, this time as an example. (Skip next paragraph)

Senor Pink is meant to be seen as obscene, pervy, and not a good guy. There's no reason to believe he isn't all of that until they reveal his backstory, as he's losing his fight against Franky. It clearly explains why he dresses like a baby to this day. It is genuinely tragic, even though I hated this guy mere minutes ago. Why can this strike a chord with me while other shows can't? Okay, sure, there is bias because One Piece is already awesome, but there are others! I may have hated Senor Pink until then because he presented himself as a horrible person. BUT I knew who he was. I understood what he did on a surface level, and that is crucial to establishing an origin story. I felt bad because it was relatable and tragic and explained why he acted the way he did. It left me thinking and reflecting. It gave me something to chew on.

This is still risky territory to deal with. You have to put a lot of faith in yourself as a writer that you can engage an audience with your characters without them having any idea who they are. Sometimes it's done well, and sometimes it's done poorly. And unfortunately, I see it done poorly a lot. It's definitely more of a mixed bag than final-moment backstories. I've seen more cases of it done well considerably, but it definitely doesn't mean it can't be screwed up. I will now spoil Hell's Paradise Season 1 (skip the two next paragraphs).

As characters start arriving in Paradise, they give some of them character introductions (or, as I like to call it, padding). Of those are characters named Tenza and Nurugai. In their introductory episode, or at least the first time we spend time alone with them, we are given both their backstories. Nurugai's village is completely destroyed, and she is blamed for it. Tenza was a child who never received love from anyone growing up and did whatever he could to survive, learning to kill people. Then, he's adopted and trained to become a swordsman. Learning to have respect and have someone to look up to and want to achieve goals for. Except, I don't care.

I think the trope of the characters' villages being burned down is overdone. The troubled child turned hoodlum trope is overdone. I couldn't care less about these characters because I've seen it 100 times before. There needs to be something that can engage me and allow me to feel bad for these characters. Tenza is a boring character through and through. I don't care how many times they show me his flashback. He's overdone. He fights valiantly and finds purpose in himself, fighting the monsters he faces to protect someone else. Then he dies, so it's like, ok, cool. Even if I liked his backstory (because, let's be honest, there's heavy bias because I did NOT like Hell's Paradise in the slightest), it didn't have any time to simmer with the audience. HI, CHARACTER YOU DON'T KNOW -> DEPRESSING BACKSTORY -> YOU LOVE HIM NOW -> HE'S FREAKING DEAD. Stop it. Don't do that.

Watching that episode felt like a waste of time. Why did I have to sit there and learn about this character's backstory, expecting they would be a bigger deal, just for the end of the episode to punch me in the face and laugh at me for how I just spent my past 20 minutes ingesting information that will not matter.

I'm happy to say I have more examples of how this can be done well. All of which cover different moods. The key to making a good introductory backstory is to have all the events surrounding the character be intriguing. We should be engaged and curious about the situation at hand, not just the character.

Since many backstories try to be tragic, I'll start with the first episode of Galaxy Express 999. We are given some world-building and then introduced to our titular character, Tetsuro. Immediately, we are already captivated by the world in which these characters live. We are now just following the life of one individual. I will forever praise Leiji Matsumoto for this and his ability to attach you to characters you've just met. There's something that comes off as just so human there's an immediate connection to be found. When we watch Tetsuro and his mother struggle through the cold, barren snow, you can feel the love they have for each other and their desperation for a better life. We understand their struggles. When Tetsuro's mom is killed, we feel bad for him. We don't even know him yet, but it's just the reality that this poor 10-year-old boy just lost his mom, and now he was to brave this harsh, cruel world alone, a world where humans are treated like dirt. This backstory sets up the motivation for his entire character as well. It's perfectly executed, and we can perfectly understand why he wants to get a robotic body to make up for the time his parents didn't get to live for.

The way Leiji Matsumoto executes backstories can be seen in practically every episode of Galaxy Express. In every episode, Tetsuro and Maetel travel to a new planet and encounter someone new and the life they struggle with. A part of the beauty in the message with Galaxy Express is no matter where you go or how distant you feel from other people, there's an inherent connection between us all. It's illustrated so well in this show that even though half the characters aren't even human, we understand their pain. Some characters don't even have backstories, all we see is the oppressive world they live in and feel immediate sympathy. This could be me being a major Leiji Matsumoto simp, but I think that there is so much care and consideration poured into that story. The difference between Demon Slayer and Galaxy Express is one says, "I want you to feel bad for this character," and the latter says, "I want to create something that's human."

Now, there are two other examples of good introductory backgrounds I want to bring up because they both show how this can be done to completely different genres.

I would first like to mention the start of Cowboy Bebop. At the start of the first episode, we are given a greyscaled noir-esque opening. The only sound is a singular music box as we see guns firing, a red rose, and a grenade, and then BANG, the opening starts. For anyone who's seen Bebop, you know very well that the intro sequence shows how Spike faked his death to escape the syndicate. It's something to be appreciated in retrospect, but this is gripping for newcomers watching the show for the first time. It's whiplash, this quiet scene, and then the loud booming intro. When I watched this show for the first time, I was excited. "Whoa, this is gonna be a wild ride," I thought. You want to find out what the backstory was about, however, and the pieces are put into place over the course of the show. The thing I love about Bebop is it's made to be rewatched. We understand the true meaning behind that first scene only by re-watching it. It's gripping with action, even if we have no idea who any of the characters shown were. That's not the point of introducing the characters. It's just meant for you to be curious.

As a final example, I want to talk about the first scene in The Wind Rises. The film starts out showing Jirou's childhood, but this is just a small part of the movie. The movie has a fantastic way of engaging us with the character. The first scene is Jirou's dream of flying a plane across the countryside of Japan until he's shot down. We don't know anything about this guy, but we can tell he loves flying, and it's done in an exciting way where we want to see more. His childhood is meant to show us where he is now, and you already have a great idea of who he is before we even reach the present day. It's done in such an engaging way, especially when he first dreams about Giovanni Battista. A kid so deeply rooted in this passion for planes, you want to see his story unfold.

And finally, my favorite way to integrate a backstory. It is in the middle of a show's runtime or after we've already established a character. I think that this is the perfect way to show a backstory because you've already gotten to understand and like the character, and you still have plenty of time before the show ends or the character dies for that backstory to truly feel like a part of the character that they carry with them and so when the show does end, or the character dies, the gravity of their whole story is felt that much more. However, there still is a way to mess that all up.

One glance at my profile, and it's obvious I really like Lupin, but any sane fan will tell you Part 6 was not it. It suffered from a lot of problems, both technical and in the show itself. It's obvious that the whole thing got thrown together quickly, and that goes for our main antagonist, Lupin's "mom." Hearing Lupin mention his mom was just a "nuh uh, no, we are not doing this." Did it have the potential to be presented in an interesting way? Yes, but that's not what happened.

For those not well-versed in the Lupin universe, there is basically no canon outside of the very, very few established things. Lupin's grandpa and dad were both master thieves; Goemon is the 13th descendant of Goemon Ishikawa, and Inspector Zenigata is the descendant of Heiji Zenigata. That is literally it. Characters' pasts are changed constantly, and even within the same show. Really, a "canon" event is only canon for that singular episode. I preface Part 6 with this because, obviously, bringing up a new character that is a massive part of Lupin is a big deal.

As it turns out, this character, Tomoe, was not actually Lupin's mom but his mother figure who helped train him to be the thief he is today. She was the one secretly pulling the strings behind every episode. That's why all these girls started appearing in Lupin's life. Ok? So yeah, you suck? Tomoe's character is confusing at best, but it is such a slap in the face to anyone invested in the show. That is why I use it as a perfect way to NOT integrate a backstory into a pre-established character, because the way part 6 was handled feels like fan fiction.

To compare, Lupin Zero which came out just a year after Part 6, was a 6-part series solely created to show the origin story of Lupin and Jigen. In that series, it includes Lupin I and Lupin II. These are characters we've only heard talked about, so seeing them was very exciting. Their existence and influence on Lupin are believable and add to his character because this flashback doesn't come out of nowhere. "Oh we've heard of these guys, and now we finally get to see them!!" See that's how to do that right. Not just "Haiii guys~~ So I have a mom now~!!☆*: .｡. o(≧▽≦)o .｡.:*☆ She is also evil now and you have to believe this is extremely important!!!"

In summary, characters like Tomoe feel like someone inserted their OC and we had to sit there for 24 episodes and actually believe that she was someone we should care about. (This is why I don't read fanfics with OC's). If you're going to throw in a backstory, make sure it doesn't come out of literally nowhere.

There are two different types of middle backstories, one is leaving hints and only getting glimpses into the past, and the other is dumping the whole thing. And both can be done really well.

My favorite example of just leaving little hints, is Evangelion. Practically all the characters follow this type of progression where we're giving a lot of hints where we're meant to put the pieces together. One I want to give special applause to is Asuka. Until the episode where her backstory is revealed, we don't really know much. Like Bebop, Evangelion is a show that demands rewatch in order to understand where everything fits into place. Initially watching Evangelion, Asuka comes off as annoying and narcissistic, and she is, but through her backstory, we find out why she acted the way she did throughout the series. The clues were all there, we just didn't fully understand until we got the main reveal.

As a kid, the one person she ever cared about was her mother, and the only thing she truly felt accomplished in, becoming an EVA pilot, she was never able to tell her mom before she hanged herself right in front of her daughter. This is why she comes off as so high and mighty because she needs to reassure herself that she is because she never had anyone that mattered to her, tell her that.

The way we perceive her actions is now understood because of her past. We needed this story to take place in the middle because we needed to form an opinion on Asuka and pick up on her character traits so that her backstory would explain all of that. The final two episodes speak a lot about her past and why she's like this, without this prior knowledge, we would not understand why she is such a troubled character and after we are allowed to see her express herself, why she is feeling insecure.

One final example. Luffy's backstory is almost as iconic as the character himself. Something I like that the anime does is put his backstory 4 episodes into the show, a change made from the manga, where it's the first chapter. I think that allowing us to spend 3 episodes with Luffy and getting to know his character so his backstory has all the more impact. I instantly fell in love with Luffy's character, so seeing him be so different as a kid and the emotional connection he has to Shanks, has all the more impact to me. I now understand why that hat is so important to Luffy. The little bit of context to Luffy's character before getting to know his past I think creates a deeper connection than starting out with it (I am not dissing the manga at all, I just prefer the anime in this one instance).

I think I've been able to explain my thoughts on how each type of backstory integration can be handled, and again I would like to reiterate, that this is all my opinion. This is something I find very important to me still, so I wanted to share the ways in which they are executed properly and improperly in all different forms. This part of a show is a make-it-or-break-it for me, so I think it's good to have high standards for how to execute a backstory properly. I hope whether you agree or disagree with me, you at least found this interesting. If you do have your own opinions I would like to hear them.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Dialogue Parallels Between TWB Coda and Beth/Daryl From @wdway (Part 2)

@wdway:

I'm going to talk about the dialogue in the TWB coda but before I start I want to say that I just went to your Tumblr site, @twdmusicboxmystery to check out what you had written about the coda back in the day.

I probably should have done this days ago but I didn't and I wanted to see if what I'm about to present was a different direction from what you wrote and what we were discussing right after it aired. What I'm about to present is different. I've stated many times I'm not a writer but you guys are so I have many questions that I want to ask y'all about on your takes on the wording comparing it to Beth's journal entry from Inmates and some lines from episode Still.

I took a shot of the dialogue in the code from your post.

Beth's journal entry from Inmates.

Hey. I know It's been a while. I'm going to be honest, I forgot about you. After the farm, we were always moving. But something happened. Something good. Finally. We found a prison.

Daddy thinks that we can make it into a home. He says we can grow crops in the fields, find pigs and chickens, stop running, stop salvaging. Lori's baby is just about due. She'll need a safe place when it comes. The rest of us we just need a safe place to be. I woke up in my own bed yesterday. My own bed in my own room.

But I've been keeping my bag packed. Keeping my gun close. I've been afraid to get my hopes up thinking we can actually stay here. The thing is, I've been starting to get afraid that it's easier just to be afraid. But this morning daddy said something. If you don't have hope, what's the point of living? So I unpacked my bag and I found you. So I'm going to start writing in you again. And I'm going to write this down now because you should write down wishes to make them come true. We can live here.

We can live here for the rest of our lives.

(This next part was voiced over at the end of Beth and Daryl segment of the episode as they are sitting across from each other with the fire between them.)

We're not going to die. None of us. I believe now. I believe for daddy. If this doesn't work, I don't know how I could keep going.

A few key lines from the fight scene between Daryl and Beth in episode Still.

Beth: killing them is not supposed to be fun. (Now I'm skipping down to just after Beth tells Darly that how he's acting is bullshit.) Daryl: Is that what you think? Beth: That's what I know. Daryl: You don't know nothing. Beth: I know you look at me and you just see another dead girl. I'm not Michonne. I'm not Carol. I'm not Maggie. I've survived and you don't get it 'cause I'm not like you or them. But I made it and you don't get to treat me like crap just because you're afraid. Daryl: I'm not afraid of nothing. Beth: I remember.

When I went back and read the dialogue from the TWB coda I read it several times and certain words stood out to me. They, Them, Their and You. In this exchange the word They shows up 11 times. The word Them 2 times and the word Their 1 time. You 7 times.

W: "if they were to return here... to their work... they might end all of this.. even after all of this time." M: " they should be dead. If they aren't.. and they somehow come back like you... we won't jail them like the others. We'll kill them. End this. You started this. All the teams. Then.. you make it worse."

Gunshot.

I put in the dots, pauses between the words just as they showed up on the subtitles in the episode. You need to read the whole thing several times to get the true effect and being more conscious of how they phrase using they, them and the word, you, are used and what it could mean.

We know the woman changed very quickly after she is shot. It makes me wonder if she's sometime of variance. That when he's talking about they, them, you, he's not necessarily talking about regular people. Have the scientists use experimental drugs on themselves?

"If they somehow come back like you...we won't jail them like the others."

Would you guys check this out with a writers mind because I truly don't know if I'm making something out of nothing but I truly don't think this is nothing.

The thing that made me start thinking of Beth journal entry was the woman talking about hope.

W: I hoped against hope that they...were here. That some how they came back... and that they were still working. And that they were close. (A little further down again about hope.) W: I was tired of running. And I had that hope against hope. And I had to try." Beth: I've been afraid to get my hopes up thinking we can actually stay here. Beth: But this morning Daddy said something. If you don't have hope, what's the point of living? So I unpacked my bag and I found you. It may just be me but her journal had a similar feel to some of the coda women's dialogue.

Now looking at some of the dialogue from Still.

Beth: Killing (them) is not supposed to be fun. Daryl had just shot a walker for fun. Beth used her knife and stabbed it in the head killing it. In this instance the word them=walker. Beth: I know you look at me and you just see another dead girl. I'm not Michonne. I'm not Carol. I'm not Maggie. I've survived and you don't get it but I 'cause I'm not like you or them.

Them=walker but Beth survived and she's not like Daryl or (them.) Am I crazy for connecting these three separate dialogues together? that there's overlapping themes here? Remember Matthew Negrete write both the TWB coda episode and Inmates along with Slabtown.

I'm speculating here (as always) that Gimple and Negrete put the coda in s2e10 The Last Light as a reminder of TWD s2e10, 18 Miles Out, that storyline focused between Rick and Beth and the 3 coda's in s5.

When Matthew Negrete wrote the dialogue for the coda he had certain phrases, words he wanted to include as a call back to certain episodes. That he reviewed Beth's journal entry from Inmates that he wrote just to give a hint for anyone who was looking closely because Beth is somehow the key to what we're going to see and find out in Daryl's spin-off.

I'm going to give you some words/phrases from the three sources I've talked about above TWB coda, Inmates journal and Still. Also a few shots from when certain words were used in episodes just to emphasize that all these words, dialogue and images has a purposeful plan in the new arc of the spin-offs.

From Inmates,

Beth: Daddy thinks we can make it into a home. Episode Home was s3e10. Beth: the rest of us we need a safe place to be. Beth: we're not going to die. None of us.

Episode Us s4e15. TLL coda,

French man: we won't jail them like the others. We'll kill them. Inmates, Beth: killing them is not supposed to be fun. Inmates, Beth: you should write down wishes to make them come true. Still, Beth: I'm not like you or them.

Episode Them s5e10.

Still, Beth: I remember.

Episode, Remember s5e12.

TLL coda,, French woman: I had to try. Consumed, Daryl: I'm trying.

Episode, Try s5e15.

@galadrieljones:

This is SUPER interesting. I need to go and watch some of these scenes I think and I need to think about this a bit. I will come back later tonight maybe to try and talk some of this through. I actually have like several pages in a notebook where I have logged episodes written by Gimple, Kang, Negrete, Powell, Reid, and a couple more.

I lost the notebook and like I can’t find it anywhere but for a while I was trying to draw connections as a way of trying to understand which writers are like, on certain beats.

This analysis fits really close with some connections I drew. One thing I noticed was that Matthew Negrete is really an interesting player here and his involvement in WB made me pretty sure that he has been on the CRM beat from the start, same with Channing Powell.

[ssuperficialspacecadett]

Really, really lovely story

I really appreciate the way they got together. It wasn’t a slow burn but wasn’t immidietly sex, just a nice pace

But what truly got me was how they hooked up

So like I’ve done it in fics where the character is a victim of SA they are hesitant to have sex and that’s fine and good but it’s not always true for everyone

Without getting too much into it, it happened to me and then I hooked up with another guy a few times

It happened again and I still hooked up with a few more guys. It wasn’t a huge deal, I didn’t cry after, it didn’t trigger me and these weren’t guys I necessarily would say made me feel “safe” but decent guys

I appreciate how you made it that it wasn’t this big deal that they hooked up bc it’s not always

Of course it’s lovely that she trusted him with that part of her, but it wasn’t this gasp moment

And the way she deals with Brunson is great bc just bc she’s traumatized doesn’t mean she can’t stand her own you know?

We need more victims who are still strong and keep moving and it doesn’t mean what happened was any less horrible or traumatizing but people deal in different ways

I love this series, thank you so much 🥰

P.s. WILL AND ROBIN will miller my beloved

I feel like will needs a girl who can hold her own bc Will takes care of everyone and could stand to get taken care of once in a while

TW: sexual assault ,, please read at your own discretion & if you want to completely skip this that's okay as well ! have a good day/night !

as much as i wanted to write a slow burn that was so agonizing and gut wrenching,, i kinda fucked myself with the six month time limit LMAO but I'm glad that you liked the pace ! i thought it was sweet and realistic for these two characters

since you were kind enough to share, i will as well ,, i was a victim of sexual assault back in 2020 and i really didn't know how to cope with it/ how to talk about it for a long time so writing became a major outlet ,, i know that including it in my stories my be triggering or hard to read for some people and i completely understand if they chose not to read it because its a theme ,, and I do want to say that I am so sorry that you had to experience something like this

i wanted to make sure that i put that first explicit consent in the clementine kisses chapter because that's something thats important to me specifically,, that tiny check in to make sure all parties are having fun with what is going on/ what will happen

yes (: just because she had a terrible experience I wanted to make sure that she is still a strong individual and that strength (in real like unfortunately) may come into play in situations that involve men like Brunson

I truly believe that we deal with our trauma in our own time,, i won't claim that you are completely healed from yours as I know I am definitely not healed from mine,, but I hope that this story (i know its just a silly fic but never the less) can help people who have dealt with SA be reminded that they are still just as powerful as before it happened,, it might feel like something was taken from you and I never want to invalidate someones feelings, but just making sure that i told myself that my abuser didn't take anything from me was healing,, im still me

i'm so beyond happy to receive a lengthy ask like this and that you love this series enough to talk to me about it <3

PS: i have some cute things cooking for our sweet sweet willy boy and our lovely robbie hehe

[my-stories-and-fanfics]

Chapter 5

Cold, it's so cold. I hate the cold.

It was very slowly warming up and I was just started to come out of the cryofreeze.

The first thing I saw was Rumlow's face staring at the Cryogenic chamber. After I was fully woken up, I was lead to the testing chair to make sure my vitals were healthy.

They deemed me healthy and guards came to escort me out with Agent Rumlow.

We got to Pierce's office. Except, Pierce was no longer there, none of his things were there either.

I suddenly realized why it was Agent Rumlow to get me out of Cryo instead of Mr. Pierce.

Pierce was dead.

Part of me wanted to jump up with joy and the other part wanted to sit and sulk in a corner. Before I could do anything though, Rumlow spoke up.

"Asset, I regret to inform you that your partner, The Winter Soldier, has gone rogue. You have been in Cryofreeze for 2 years. It is time for you to get back in the game."

I looked at him for permission to speak. He nodded his head.

"If I may ask, what happened to Director Pierce?" I asked Rumlow hesitantly.

"He was killed by Nicholas Fury. One of your earlier targets you failed to assassinate." He said with a little bit of disappointment at the end.

I just nodded and hung my head down in shame.

Rumlow spoke up once again. "We have a mission. You are to accompany me while we find something. We will be leaving in 10 minutes. Get your weapons and the guards will escort you to where you need to be."

I nodded my head and let the guards drag me towards the armory.

I grabbed my usual weapons, 2 guns, a few knives and my suit. I went to a separate room to get changed and hide my weapons on me.

After I was done getting ready, it was off to a jet. On it, Rumlow debriefed me on the mission.

"Your mission is to make sure the package doesn't get intercepted, Asset." Rumlow explained.

We reached our destination and got into 4 yellow vans. In front of us, there was a garbage truck meant for a battering ram.

******Time skip cause I'm lazy.******

I was in the middle of a fight with a redhead that felt familiar, but I couldn't place it.

"You." The red head in front of me said surprised, like she knew me somehow, and didn't expect to see me.

I just grunt and lunge at her, she was annoyingly fast so I couldn't get a good hit on her.

Now, she seemed more reluctant to fight me. "You don't have to do this." She very stupidly put down her weapon.

I took this as my chance and lunged at her again, this time landing a deep gash in her cheek with my knife.

"Right, you don't talk. So much for trying not to hurt you." She muttered to herself, I was confused.

Why did she want me to talk, we were fighting?

This time, it was her that lunged at me while I was distracted.

I heard Agent Rumlow's voice in my ear, yelling through the coms.

"Get out of there, Asset!"

I followed his orders, not like I had any choice, and ran away, back to the rendezvous point.

The red head was confused, but luckily didn't follow. While she was looking at me, Rumlow jumped out at her.

I made it back at hid in the shadows, on guard for anything that might jump out and attack me.

Tony Stark (2 years ago)

"Rhodey! Can you come here for a sec?" I yelled over to my best friend.

"Sure Tones." He stood up and walked over.

I took a big breath, preparing myself for what I was about to do. "I want to show you someone."

He nodded and followed me to a locked room, I took out the key and unlocked it.

I walked over to a cabinet and brought down a picture, I wiped the dust away and brought it down so Rhodey could see.

I took another big breath. "This is me, and my little sister." I looked at it guiltily before looking away once more.

"Tony, you never told me you had a sister."

"Only Pepper and you know. It isn't something I'm necessarily proud of. I would say she's dead, but I think I know better." I say and start to pull up a picture on one of my many computers.

"A random number sent this picture to me 7 years ago." I showed him the picture of a girl that looks almost exactly like my sister. Probably because it was her.

Sure, she of course grew up, and other than all the other gear on her and her emotionless expression, and quite a few new scars, she looked exactly the same.

"This was her, most likely 7 years ago. I haven't seen her in 30 years, Rhodey."

"Oh. What happened to her?" Rhodey asked quietly.

I sighed. "30 years ago, I was a horrible person, I'm pretty sure I still am. But anyway, basically, I drove her a few miles out and, I, uh, left her on the side of the road. Apparently, somebody found her, and took her because the next time I drove by, she wasn't there." I sighed and couldn't look my best friend in the eyes.

"She was 5."

Silent Assassin

It's been barely 3 days since my last mission when a HYDRA agent came to my cell to prep me for another mission.

On the walk to the debriefing room, I checked my on the weapons hidden on me.

"Your target is your past partner, the Winter Soldier. If you can bring him back, do it, if you can't, eliminate him." They said.

I nodded and they gave me a file about where he was.

I arrived and broke into his run-down apartment, looking around. I decided to hide in the shadows of the corner by a mattress on the ground.

Another person walked in, the same sort of familiar feeling came over me as I studied him.

Captain America.

He was looking around and thankfully didn't see me yet.

"Heads up Cap, German special forces approaching on the south." A voice sounded, I was unsure of where it came from and figured he must have coms or something.

I saw my target come into the room and came out of the shadows, making my presence clear as well.

Winter looked at me and instantly knew why I was there. Captain America also turned around to see two deadly assassins staring each other down.

The captain went to move forward but Winter stopped him.

"Don't." He said and sent a look towards him.

My former partner slowly loosened his grip on his weapon, knowing it was unwise to put it down.

"Hey дочь, remember me?" He asked me softly. "I know you're in there."

I faltered. This man, he was important to me. I shook my head in frustration at my sudden headache.

"You're a traitor! You don't know me." I screamed at him.

"No, I do. I'm the only one who knows you дочь." He said and stepped closer to me once again.

An image flashed in my head and I closed my eyes.

It was me and him. He was hugging me after my first kill mission.

"папа?" I asked with tears in my eyes.

"Yes дочь. Its me. I'm here. I'm sorry I wasn't earlier, but I'm here."

"You left. They said you left and forgot about me." I said and backed up again.

"I did. And I'm sorry. But I needed to be free, and now you can as well."

"Um, sorry to break up whatever's happening here, but there's German special forces approaching." The captain broke in.

I sent a death glare towards him and sent Winter a look. Wondering if we were still trying to kill him.

He shook his head at me and replied to Captain America.

"I wasn't in Vienna, I don't do that anymore." Winter told him. I wondered what happened.

"I know. But the people who think you did are coming here right now."

"This doesn't have to end in a fight, Buck."

"It always ends in a fight." He said and grabbed the gun from the holster on his waist. I did the same and got ready for the fight ahead of us.

"Breach! Breach!" The voice from earlier said.

A grenade was thrown in through the window, I ran behind Winter and he kicked it towards the Captain.

Winter lifted the mattress to cover both of us from the gun shots that were coming in through the window.

I threw a table over to stop the door from being opened.

Men started to come in through the window so I fired my gun at them. I hit one, but I didn't have enough time to tell whether or not it was fatal.

Winter punched the floorboards my the captains face and brought out his bag as I was defending them.

Bucky stood up and threw his bag over to the roof of the other building next to this one.

He looked at me seriously. "Go!" He yelled and I jumped after his backpack.

I ran away and eventually started to run off.

(15 minutes later)

We were cornered. There was a big machine pointing big guns at us, Winter finally stood down and gave me a look to stand down as well.

"Congrats Cap, you're officially a criminal." A machine like voice said.

The machine's helmet came down and I could finally see his face.

Rhodey

I looked towards the girl that was standing gaurded. My face paled as I recognized her.

I took out my phone as Barnes and the girl were being led into two very high security plastic containers.

I went to Tony's messages and started to text him.

Tony, you might want to hear who I just found.

Who?

Tony, it's Nadia. It's your sister.

[adickaboutspoons]

Point of order - Arson is on the FRONT of the poster (along with Theft, Brigandry, Larceny, & Tax Evasion).

And I did say that the time-stamped raid montage SUGGESTS a raid-a-day, not confirms it. Fair play to the rest of it, though 😉 Ready for me to make it worse? I don't think Stede's part of episodes 1 & 2 are happening at the same time as Ed's. I'm think that Stede's part of 2x1 -2x2 takes place at the beginning of Ed starting his run for the Ned record just after he's racked up all the crimes on the back of his wanted poster. That's why in 2x2 Stede thinks he can track him based on those reports ("I'm using this long list of crimes and dramatic upsets to basically triangulate where he's most likely to be"). During Ed and Stede's date in 2x7 on the Republic of Pirates, Stede says "We've been living around here for weeks. Can't believe I didn't know about this place." That suggests to me the crew spent maybe a maximum of a month working for Jackie, and then the balance of the time, the crew is on the Red Flag. Stede's part of 2X2 necessarily has to take place immediately after 2x1 because he's shown as being unaccustomed to the wake-up bell, suggesting that's the first night they spent on the ship, but I think there's a time-skip between 2x2 and 2x3 where Stede starts implementing his scented towel routine, with 2x3 picking up where Stede & Ed's timelines meet up. Ed's story, on the other hand, picks up at the END of the 5 months, just as he's nearing the end of the record run (as evidenced by the tally marks in the background when Izzy is telling Ed that the crew are feeling the strain of the raid schedule, and Ed responding by asking if everyone got cake.

There might be a timeskip between the end of this scene and Izzy ordering the crew to throw the treasure overboard, but I'm not 100% sure, and I'll get to my evidence in a second.

Because I'm a bit more convinced that there IS a timeskip between Izzy getting shot and the Impossible Birds speech. Ed says "We've got a record to break" as he steps over Izzy, suggesting they're not quite at 90 yet, meaning they've got some more raids/days before they're done. Just before the Impossible Birds speech, Frenchie comes to ask Ed "what the plan is, because, as first mate, [he] thinks [he] should be doin' something." I'll admit it's mostly vibes to me, but if the they've got a record to break, the plan is to find the next vessle and continue the streak, right? - so this kind of feels like a "well, we broke that record. Now what?" convo to me. Since they were on their way to intercept a ship (hence the need to dump the booty), though, I'm willing to accept I might be wrong about this one, and they were just on their way to the last raid needed to break the record and the Impossible Birds convo takes place that night. My evidence, for a timeskip being there at all though? The little groom dolly. He goes from looking shiny and clean in the "did everyone have cake" scene:

To lightly smutted up after the Impossible Birds conversation:

As though someone has been taking him out and rubbing him like a worry doll and awful lot.

I think there's ANOTHER timeskip between 2x2 and 2x3 for Ed, because when Ed is playing with them on his "very rough night", groom dolly is looking EVEN MORE worse for wear:

Additionally, when Ed asks for confirmation that Frenchie killed Izzy, Frenchie's response is "Certainly did. Ages ago." Weird way to respond if it was just, like, yesterday afternoon. But what about "Fuck you, Stede Bonnet" and "Good night, Ed Teach" and the shared moon? Surely that means both of their timelines are matched up at the end of 2x1, right?!?!?! I'm glad you asked, hypothetical inquisitor, because that's something that actually supports my non-contemproaneous time theory. Check out the moon during that scene:

Now check out the one from 2x5:

You see how the later moon is a LESS full waxing gibbous? 2x4 picks up right after the events of the end of 2x3, and there might be a SHORT timeskip between 2x4 and 2x5 (long enough for Wee John to sew up Ed's potato sack penitence onesie and for the guidelines by which Ed must abide in order to be permitted to stay to be finalized), but I doubt v. much it's more than a day or two. In Ed's timeline, all the timeskips amount to maybe 10 days maximum (4 days to complete the record-breaking run since there were already 85 tallymarks on the wall, 2 days for Frenchie to have killed Izzy "ages ago" without Izzy ACTUALLY dying of gangrene, max 3 days for Ed's coma, and then a day for sewing the penitence onesie). But moons don't wane from left to right - so there has to be at least a couple days shy of a month between the moon in 2x1 and the moon in 2x5. Also, in the 2x1 collage, I matched up the clouds from the pan as best I could, so you can see how the moon is far closer to Stede than it is to Ed. My suspicion is that the moon belongs in Stede's timeline - almost full, just as his heart is full of hope that he will soon be reunited with his love, but uncomplete because they are not together. The clouds belong to Ed's timeline - indicative of his tempestuous, troubled mind, and the true storm to come.

hi! I've come back to posting on tumblr just cause of OFMD and your blog is amazing thank you!! I have a question I might have missed- do we know how much time has gone by from the ending events in s1 to the beginning of s2?

nope. that's the sort of thing the show just kinda shrugs about lol

[thejustmaiden]

So out of nowhere I was tagged and quoted by a SR shipper for a blog of mine posted in August of last year. Talk about throwback but, hey, gotta appreciate that level of snooping. 😉

Back in the day I actually used to encourage discourse amongst Inuyasha fans- both shippers and antis alike- but I've since realized that it's a lost cause. But for you, @feministmetalgreymon , I'll grant this exception. Just 'cause it's been a while so why the hell not. haha

I want to assure you, however, that nothing you say will ever convince me that Sesshomaru and Rin are meant to be together romantically or that the story intended it so. Nor will you find any validation here. You can ship them for all I care, but please for all that is good and holy while I have your attention try- I mean really try- to understand why it is so many of us Inuyasha fans are so against this pairing in the first place (newsflash: it's not about ship wars), and why we believe a romance between the two of them is completely and utterly out of character.

For those of you interested in reading this, the blog of mine in question that the above shipper mentions in their counter-argument is here for reference. It's titled "Jaken = Rin's Dad?" I'm going to try and keep this short, but I'm also making no such promises. After all, I'm not exactly known for my brevity. haha Now let's get crackin'!

Like you, feministmetalgreymon, did for your recent blog here where you took screenshots of mine to address certain parts, I will be doing the same and dissecting yours accordingly.

[Snippet 1]

I worked with kids for many years as a teacher, and many people in my family have too or still do. Two of them happen to be just over 5 feet which is quite short for the average adult woman living here. I've also worked alongside many a women of short stature, and never did I hear any of them complaining of issues with their students having difficulty differentiating them from their own peers just because they were short as well. I'm sorry but that's just ridiculous. Kids are quite smart and pick up on a lot more than you seem to give them credit for. Height is not the only characteristic they look at to determine who's an adult and who's not, and it's foolish to suggest otherwise. So unless you're a babysitter who's still in their teens and/or who has very childlike features or behavior then I'm afraid what you're getting at is total hogwash. This is just another example of how you shippers offer nothing of real substance to your reasoning, it's only ever cherry-picking or strawmanning from you guys. Stop deflecting from the real issues please, because this certainly isn't one and only winds up being a complete waste of time for all parties involved.

[Snippet 2]

Okay, calm down now. I wasn't insinuating that relationships between parents and children can't change over time in terms of how they get along. Of course that's possible, as all families experience their fair share of estrangement and abuse. What I was speaking about was in reference to the overall dynamic between the two. Because a bad mother or father can still be viewed as a parental figure to their child even if say they're not in said child's life anymore. Since Sesshomaru and Rin share a healthy bond- and just a friendly reminder that in my blog I even said that he doesn't have to necessarily be labeled her father but that a romantic relationship later would still be inappropriate- I didn't deem it necessary to address what you brought up. Plus, it kinda, umm, misses the point?? Please, let's stay on topic. And it's not captured in the screenshot, but stop acting like there isn't a small part of them that idolizes their parents at some point during childhood. Just like you mention later on how it's normal for kids to have innocent crushes on adults that they eventually grow out of? Well, guess what, the same concept applies here. Kids eventually learn that their parents are far from perfect and make mistakes too. Rin is so damn young in the OG series though that we never even get to see her reach that maturity level.

[Snippet 3]

LOL! Alright, okay, so the "unbreakable bond" bit you're mentioning was actually me quoting you sessrinners. Did you not catch that? I literally spelled it out. *sigh* The whole point I was making is that shippers like yourself make hypocritical and contradictory statements all.the.goddamn.time. One moment you guys claim that Sesshomaru and Rin were essentially strangers and meant very little to each other, only to say in the same breath a few seconds later that they were destined to be together and their bond is like no other. I agree, their bond is special, but why must that mean they're going to fall in love?

That is the root of the matter here. Too many animes/mangas have romanticized this older adult man & young girl growing up falling in love trope that it's become way too normalized and widely accepted across the world- and yes, in some cultures more than others. Sadly, you lack the awareness to recognize how this all works. You know how we know that? When we see that you shippers are so desensitized to sexualized images of girls in the media that you share posts like this one below which *subtly* imply a future romance although one half of that pairing is still just a child in the pic and then try and pass it off as cute. That's like super fucking problematic and it scares me that you can't see that (or deny you do). 🤢

After all that's said and done, Sesshomaru leaving Rin in the village with Kaede is to me the strongest indicator more than pretty much anything else he's done for Rin that proves he is her adoptive father. It's so funny to me how you somehow see the exact opposite though. 🤔 What I think is happening is that you got yourself on some squeaky clean ass shipper goggles fresh out of your little echo chamber. Because I hate to tell you, but what you're fantasizing is what you want to see and not what's actually there on screen or was written into the story. I'm strictly talking about Inuyasha and the manga of course. [For the TL; DR version skip to the last paragraph.]

Parents looking after their kids is what parents are supposed to do. A good parent will do anything to keep their child safe and ensure they are cared for, so what he did for her by leaving her there was in her best interests clearly. Besides, as a babysitter, you more than most people should understand that parents aren't always able to be there for their kids so sometimes others gotta step in to help. Haven't you heard of the saying, "it takes a village to raise a child?" Which in Rin's case is literally true! 😂 Sometimes kids are even sent off to stay with grandparents and that's who raises them instead. Or maybe they have to temporarily live with an aunt or uncle because their single parent's job requires they work out of town 4-5 days of the week so they're hardly home. But that doesn't mean that the parents care or love their kids any less, and it's foolish to assume that Sesshomaru must have thought very little of Rin simply due to the fact that he made the decision to leave her in the village. Come on, y'all are acting like he abandoned her there!!

It's just given the circumstances Sesshomaru finally came to learn that Rin traveling with him was no longer safe. I also like to think it's because he wished for her to live a more normal life and to learn how to fully trust humans again. Plus, continuing to travel with him as young as she was would have proven dangerous and unwise. Now for you to know all this and still manage to turn his past actions towards her while she was just a child into a romantic gesture is what boggles my mind. Regardless of how you look at it, from my perspective or your own, Sesshomaru is in the wrong. Either he's a father figure who impregnates his daughter at the young age of approximately 14. OR he's this man she used to travel with who maybe isn't a father to her but who nonetheless basically rapes her since kids her age can't consent to sex with an adult. Idk about you but it sounds to me like nobody here wins with either scenario we're given. In other words, you should be just as mad as we are. If only one side didn't choose to forsake their morals they know we both have in common for the sake of a ship. Welp. 🤷‍♀️

I agree, incest is disgusting but that's not the only problem we have with this pairing. A romantic bond forming between Sesshomaru and Rin would also constitute as grooming.

You realize that over the years he visited her in the village that he brought her gifts too and essentially watched her grow up right before his very eyes, right? I mean, I know you do, but I really shouldn't have to explain further why pursuing a romantic/sexual relationship with each other is plain and simple wrong. And before you say it's not because he didn't have any malintent, please understand that considering their history and power dynamic up to then that yes this is still considered grooming even if Rin supposedly "wanted it" or "made the first move." Whether you consider him her father or not, as the adult who took on a role resembling that of a caretaker in her early life- a critical developmental time for a child- Sesshomaru is obligated to turn down any advances by Rin and most definitely should not initiate any himself. As the first close adult figure she's had in her life since her parents died, it's unfathomable to imagine how Sesshomaru could go through with taking advantage of this young girl who was under his care and supervision since they met. To think he could be capable of betraying that trust sickens me to the core.

This. Now THIS is how a parent/guardian or a similar adult caretaker (babysitter, teacher, etc.) talks to a child. And, in turn, this is how some young children talk to adults. You'd be insane and delusional to deny it! We see it in our everyday lives, do we not? From where else do you think our stories draw most of their inspiration? Yes, obviously these fictional universes have aspects of fantasy that don't exist in the real world, but so how then do you suppose we're able to relate to them? The reason for that being is because these stories are written by people for people, so naturally there are going to be real life aspects embedded throughout. Sure, a little escapism doesn't hurt as we don't need to take everything so seriously, but ultimately we all need to recognize that the messages in the stories we tell matter. Most stories possess a combination of both light and dark themes, but when it specifically comes to the latter we gotta be careful with how we tackle this in children's media since kids are far more impressionable.

So if at the center of a story we have two of the main protagonists whose mom is basically their same age and to top it off she knew their dad when she was just a girl and who just so happened to help raise her, wouldn't you say that's beyond fucked up or at the very least so fucking weird? Like why would we think it's even remotely okay for our children to watch this garbage?? Really think about it. Try and be objective for once and think about how it would sound explaining this storyline to an outsider who's never watched IY or HNY. Well, antis have tried this before many times and we always get the same reaction: Ewww!

Like I said earlier, if you wanna ship it then fine, but 1) please stop seeking our approval or trying to change our minds - your ship wish came true didn't it, so why do you need us to validate it? 2) even though it's not canon, respect that we don't support this sequel portraying pedophilia in a positive light. It's harmful af to not only allow but glorify the continuation of sexualized images of young girls everywhere. And I shouldn't have to say this, but just because this trope is popular as you say does not make it right. Lolicon themes in the media have been an issue forever and it needs to stop. Yes, even some people in Japan or "the East" would agree. Shocker!

We're pissed off and rightfully so because Yashahime's TV rating is 14, not to mention it airs at the prime time kids in Japan watch TV after getting home from school. That's Towa and Setsuna's age, true, but if Rin being the mom when she's like only a year older than them (please don't argue w/ me about the math- antis have so far been right every time with it) is straight-up disgusting and not something we should be supporting or endorsing. Rin's a whole ass child!! Please don't start with the "but times were different then so her having kids at 15 is acceptable" argument either, because we've already debunked that and every other single excuse you guys throw at us. Besides, how or why would you expect young viewers to know these historical "facts" anyway, especially if as you suggest fiction doesn't affect reality so what does it matter? Yet here we are, arguing over a fictional show in real life almost a year and a half into the "Sesshomaru fucks?" sequel being announced. My ass, your ass, hell all our asses fiction doesn't affect reality!

Look, I do apologize if the tone of this blog came off as snippy or condescending at times. I do not wish you any ill will, it's just I'm not really sure what you expected to get out of all this besides maybe getting on my nerves perhaps. haha A lot of you shippers have been desperately scrambling to interact with us, lurking in our tags, jumping onto our posts screaming canon and getting so defensive even though you sought us out first. We've been sticking to our tags, so how about you stay in your lane too. By the way since we're on the topic, have you seen Twitter or Reddit?! SR shippers there are the actual worst and many Inuyasha fans (not just antis) have complained of not feeling welcomed to engage in fandom spaces anymore. Shippers swarm them and scare them off simply because fans don't like your ship and refuse to accept it. It's pathetic, really. No one should ever be bullied or harassed just because they don't like something you might. We're all fans of Inuyasha, aren't we? So let's act like it. Yashahime on the other hand, you guys are welcome to that pungent heap of trash. Fans have a right to criticize it too, but if you like it then good for you, so keep on liking it and don't mind us.

I'm almost done, but real quick back to Jaken! Let's not forget about how the official Yashahime website- which came out after my blog, mind you- described Jaken. This translation isn't the best one available but it's the only version a fellow anti friend could track down. They do recall a better one done by a native Japanese speaker who was also an anti, and that member confirmed that Jaken is indeed called Rin's babysitter. So you see, I was right in my interpretation. In the original post I did compare Jaken to a brother, but after talking to others (some comments can be found under said post) I did acknowledge that he's more of a reluctant babysitter who's not related. And if he's not at least a brother to Rin, then he's definitely not her father.

At the end of the day, the creator Rumiko Takahashi has the final word. Which is guess what? Hogosha. 💖 Probably should've just started out with that and saved us all the trouble, huh? Good day/night to you.

Papamaru bids you adieu now. 🤞