#Honestly…Any iteration of him works for this scenario.

[swiftyangx12]

[D/N] = Designation (Meaning your name; Cybertronian name)

Cybertronian![Reader]

[D/N]: I only had Bumblebee for a solar-cycle and a half. But if anything happens to him, I’ll offline everyone in this room and then myself.

Bumblebee: ??? *Confused and concerned*

[manda-kat]

i have a creative question for you actually, idk if this is something you can help me with but how do you become obsessed with your characters? i think part of my slow writing progress is just that i'm not so excited about the project that i go out of my way to make time for it

Honestly that's one of my big problems too. Usually the reason I switch between projects so much is because I get bored of the current one. But I can tell you the things I do right before I get excited again and maybe they'll be a good place to start at least.

So I usually will be listening to music and imagining my character's singing or being animated to the song. That's a pretty common one I think.

I also do that thing where I imagine scenarios with my characters as I'm in bed trying to fall asleep. Usually I either imagine whatever happens next in the story (getting some work done in advance!) But other times I'll imagine things I know would never happen and only suit the mood I'm in. Because sometimes my mood isn't suited to the characters I want to think about. So if I want a story about a zombie apocalypse my characters can do that for a bit. Or if I want to have that story where they're trapped in the snow and have to cuddle for warmth. Or maybe two characters have a contrived reason why they absolutely have to kiss each other and- Uh. Yeah normal things. Not bad fanfic about my own characters.

I'm also down to change them at a moments notice if I think it'll make them more enjoyable to me. My tastes have changed and I don't find the same joy in ideas I used to love. Happy, for example, has gone through a ton of iterations and because of it I still want to stare at him doing stupid little things because he makes me happy. I've changed his backstory so many times. He started as a punchline in a comic strip. A bad comic strip. Then he became a vaguely fruity stalker, a cute sidekick, a traumatized punching bag, the comic relief, a blatantly fruity stalker and now he's whatever he is now. I may change him again tomorrow if I feel like it. Obviously with something I intend to publish I have to get some sense of canon, but I try not to become attatched to details that may be holding me back from being obsessed.

Also I base a lot of my OCs off of dreams I have. I think that also means they have connections to my subconscious fears and concerns.

I also try to watch or read things that are similar in genre or style so I get more inspired.

I don't know if any of this helps. I'm not sure I'm great when it comes to motivation considering starting and stopping projects again is my brand at this point. Honestly- you made your characters for a reason so there's something in them that tickles your brain just right. So if you're not feeling it, maybe chop them open and find those things and then make those parts bigger and more catered to your personal brand of obsession. That'll probably also help you build charaterization when writing too. Idk.

Anyway- goodest of luck on the writing! Thank you so much for saying such amazingly nice things to me! I treasure you!

[sunny-days-and-warm-mournings]

Please I want to know more about your Son Wukong AUs!

OH!!! OHHH!!! So my inbox really is working after all!!

As for my AUs, well, *fixes bones and coffin nails*

SO I have a LOT of Sun WuKong AUs in my folder, some more fleshed out some not. I think I have about 15 AUs in total if I count the other "What If" scenarios that circles around in my noggin, but the more prominent ones that I'll be showcasing in my blog are: Huānlè Jìjié Dà (of course), Kǎishèng Dàshèng, SāngQī Yǒngjiǔ, SāngQī Zhēngdòu, and Qíyuàn Zhízhèng Guān.

As you can see there's a shit ton of em, which may speak about my malaptive daydreaming mind but hey! I may do with my hyperfixations.

For Huānlè I've already explained some bits about the AU here as well as there, and I'll explain more in the future once I'm done with the lil comic I've been working on ;)

The others HOWEVER, they are a little bit more complex and are interconnected with each other in some ways. For now though, I'll explain the list I've included in this post.

1. Kǎishèng Dàshèng is an AU that is related to the Monkey King Hero Is Back (2015) iteration of the Xiyouji, and this AU takes place after Jiang Liu'er died (or implied to have passed away, but honestly even as it breaks my damn heart and the ending was there I know what it meant). Sun WuKong goes on to some type of redemption after failing to protect the little monk, slaying Yaoguai here and there where major trails and ambushes happen.

He can already activate his golden eye bc it unlocked with some of his abilities when he defeated Hun Dun (can't remember the guy's name right) and with some heavenly interventions SWK knew about the reincarnations of the Golden Cicada (I can't get in too much detail but I'll take it to my notes after some research) and the fates that came with it.

Long story short he was hailed as a protector of children AND a War God after much fuss with demons trying to thwart him, all the while fulfilling his failed promise of protecting Jiang Liu'er through protecting kids like him. The process of this is even more complicated and circles around the idea of quasi-exemption bc "I must protect these young mortals because I failed Liu'er" "I was not strong enough to even save him" "I have fallen from grace long before I was imprisoned" and more, it's not really a "an eye for an eye" thing because SWK chooses to protect and look out for children. He wants to not as an obligation but something beyond that, like a higher form concept of promise and the child's death that sparked this fire. The death of his kid wasn't a power up and more of a realization that "I failed so many people, I left, and what did I get from that? What was the answer of my goal in the end? " I can word that much better but I'm running out of time so—

"Sun WuKong always spat out his guts and fangs laced with fire and ambitions, until infant teeth dropped with his gore."

2. SāngQī Yǒngjiǔ is the darkest of my AUs, holy shit, I've taken everything from this man. You know how we set fire to ant hills because they bit us? Yes, that's how this AU ended up in. The story follows just as much as the beginning of the book, he goes to find the immortal, takes his cudgel from Ao Guang, causes some chaos in Di Yu; but Heaven wasn't having any of that. They did not like this monkey one but and ordered for the "exorcism" of the Huagoushan troops, not batting any more of an eye.

It was a full on genocide. No monkey survived in the fire Yù Huáng ordered to be put upon them, and the mountains died with tens of thousands of monkey individuals either curled up in ashes behind the long gone Shuilian cave or is not set apart from the dead earth.

And guess what? This made Sun WuKong so distraught and full of rage (and so much more emotions). He didn't "die" per say, but his stole was taken back again to Di Yu for judgement. The half-dead half-alive monkey razed great havoc upon Di Yu and almost beat the living shit out of King Qin'guang— who wouldn't? When the whole of your household and home are gone? Forget the crown of the Monkey King or his immortality, he was the patriarch and communal grandfather to the Huagou mountains.

It was Buddha himself who intervened the anguished Sun WuKong's war path and struck a deal with him to stop him from killing King Qin'guang off completely and risk upsetting the balance set in Hell, including the mortal souls and the monkeys' souls. They compromised by striking a deal that concerned SWK "dethroning" King Qin'guang for the time being until every last one of his monkey family's souls were set for the Samsara Cycle, otherwise known as the Reincarnation Cycle. If SWK does not accept this deal then he'd face a much, much, worse punishment that if compared to the genocide of his people and what could've been the Five Elements Mountain imprisonment, it would seem like child's play.

Sun WuKong disrupted what peace was in Di Yu, almost completely turning over the Cycle, and there's darker Hell to suffer for that.

So SWK accepted, rotten and burning unlike flesh and maggots but like nebulae and empty enclaves of world-birthing stars, and accepts King Qin'guang's place only for the small comfort of overseeing his monkeys handed to the Cycle.

It is estimated that that lasted for 6,000 years, possibly more. Sun WuKong spent that time suffering and wallowing in his anguish and loss. The genocide and SWK's reaction also sparked something to other Yaoguai that was near then, or in Pūrvavideha continent that felt the sheer force of horror, agony, pain, and everything else that came from SWK. He also does not a face, only a void where it was supposed to be.

(I can't say he got any justice at all. Or comfort or felt the sun on his fur again. I can't say he recovered.)

3. SāngQī Zhēngdòu follows almost the same plot as SāngQī Yǒngjiǔ, but it wasn't a genocide. This one isn't too fleshed out yet but he stayed as Warlord and wasn't imprisoned because of the Havoc in Heaven. If anything, his relation to other Yaoguai solidified some cases that saved him from being put under Buddha's palm.

Let's just say he hates Yù Huáng's guts (they're both mutually exclusive, which is the greatest idea ever that Heaven came up with ever since sending Erlang Shen's army to raze Huagou), and mingles with other forms of Yaoguai more than ever. There are lots of deals and compromises in my AUs and this one isn't an exception. Sun WuKong doesn't back down when his goal perceives what may be the return of some of his troops.

Hints: God of War, white fur and red robes. Ruler of the Yaoguai Kingdom and the allied sworn brothers

4. Qíyuàn Zhízhèng Guān is a little more lighthearted and purely for shits and giggles (which provides as a pit stop from all the bloody angst).

Sun WuKong is a lot more bastardly here and gives Heaven the troubles they deserve. It started on him being bored out of his mind and thought that the best solution for this is to: tell the Jade Emperor he was bored out of his mind and wants another job, and then wanting freedom without anybody's decree of agreement.

Basically he kinda miraculously convinced Yù Huáng to give him a "raise" from his title as The Great Sage Equalling Heaven (that he knew was an empty title, btw) and Guardian Of The Immortal Peach Orchard. Passive aggressively hinting violence if the old Jade wasn't going to cooperate until he got what he wanted.

Which he did! He became a supervisor for some surprisingly religious stuff related to prayer and worship. Archon and stuff that will lead to greater things in that future, which I won't tell you about just yet ;)

There's actually a fic out there for this bit as well as another AU!

Here are the links:

Peaches And Prayers

White Sun | 白日，甚至在子時辰之前

5. (Bonus) White Sun is an AU that explores the idea of rehabilitation of Huagou Mountain and the monkeys, and that Sun WuKong escaped from Buddha's would-be punishment for him after the havoc in heaven just the last seconds. I may rewrite it to be more accurate to the OG classic but is is what it is right now.

——————————————————————

And that settles it! I can explain in it better and clearer ways but I don't have too much time left, so here they are anyhow! A couple of my more than dozens AUs! I hope you like them and keep asking about them still <3

I will make more art and content for these AUs when I have a better schedule and when our tests are done, so please be patient! I know how to write them I promise JDNKSNS

Anyway, it's time for me to go now! I hope you liked my messy explanation @blastflight :)

[moongothic]

Hey anon, I'm so sorry but your ask is obscenely long so I'm cutting it down to bare essentials

Most of the Original Ask was just a copypaste of this forum post, quickly highlighting this comment too

LOOK WHAT IT SAYS ABOUT MORIA, YO! "Defeated by Gellard and returns in the Final Scenario with an even more grotesque appearance than when you first met him."

But yes, I am aware, I have read that exact same thread before (when I first learned about the Romancing SaGa inspo on r/OnePiece and wanted to learn more), and I did briefly discuss the Seven Heroes when speculating about Cross Guild and wherever the fuck that plotline is going

And I'm now going to add onto that original post, because boy howdy do I have some additional thoughts to get out of my brain

Okay so yes, Doflamingo would be the OG Iteration of Bokuohn, the puppeteer who manipulates people. But in the context of Cross Guild... That's Buggy. "Bokuohn is in control of the majority of the Seven Heroes' forces. Situated in the Steppes region, he owns a large landship, complete with an innumerable amount of slaves." That's literally just Buggy. Like he's not a master of psychological manipulation nor can he forcefully manipulate anybody like literal puppets either (the way Mingo could), but. Like scratch out he RoSa2 terms, replace them with the relevant OP terms and it's a perfect description of Buggy.

Bringing that up because I'm still interested in Cross Guild becoming Shichibukai 2.0 But Without The Government This Time, but if we wanted to have exactly seven former Shichibukai to make up Cross Guild and make sure we had like ones who could actually fill out the roles of the Seven Heroes from RoSa2... Yeah there's going to have to be some replacements Not just because otherwise Doflamingo would need to be broken out of Impel Down somehow (which I doubt will happen, also I don't think Crocodile would want him working for him anyways), but also. Jinbei's with the Strawhats. And I don't think he's ditching Luffy any time soon for Crocodile of all people, not when he finally fucking joined the Strawhats for realsies.

So Doflamingo could be replaced with Buggy, cool, sure. What about Jinbei then? Who will take up the role of RoSa2's Subier?

So a while back I wrote this speculation post about if the Burn Scar Man (who has the final Road Poneglyph) could be a Fishman.(PERHAPS specifically Davy Jones?) Bringing that up because during Kuma's flashback we did learn that Kuma got the Shichibukai Slot after Ace defeated one of the seven at the time. And we specifically got to see Ace talk to Jinbei about it, Ace being surprised Jinbei of all people was glad the Shichibukai slot was being filled again. Now obviously, our Firefist Ace defeating a Shichibukai makes for one great candidate on who the Burn Scar Man could be, as Ace could very easily leave someone with some severe burn scars. This is platantly obvious lmao. But it's the conversation with Jinbei that actually interests me, because like. Sure, Jinbei being a fellow Shichibukai, it might be odd for Ace to hear Jinbei be glad that one of his fellow Warlords is being replaced. But that comment could make twice as much sense if that Warlord had ALSO been a fellow Fishman and/or a Merman (and perhaps someone Jinbei might've known better?). Now indeed. We are going to meet the Burn Scar Man eventually, 100%, it's mandatory for the plot to move forwards. Which means we're going to find out who that guy is, and if the Road Poneglyph gets stolen from him, he might have to find something else to do with his life since there won't be any point in guarding it anymore. And hey. If Mr Burns does turn out to be a fellow former Shichibukai who also happens to be a Fishman/Merman and a master of Fishman Karate... Oh hey, what's this? "Subier - A half octopus merman who controls the flow of the ocean to use as a weapon." Like. IDK I think we could have another Cross Guild member on our hands here.

(Honestly, currently the only problem we have is Dantarg, whose role currently being held by Kuma. Like the only other known Shichibukai we have who could be "available" is Law but he hasn't really done any "bodymods to become stronger" and thus doesn't fit the description. Hell, that description fits Kid more than anything but he was never a Shichibukai either. Guess we gotta keep on hoping Kuma somehow survives and just doesn't return to the Revolutionary Army for some reason)

Hilariously the most interesting thing you pointed out was that comment in the forum thread about Moria, 'cause I hadn't even realized this before but

So we know Blackbeard had captured Moria and held him hostage for... weeks, months? Until he was freed by Coby as per Perona's plea during the raid on Fullalead. Interestingly though, although theoretically we know Moria and Perona should have escaped the island by now, we have not seen either, now have we? Which is kind of suspicious now that I think about it. Because like. It'd make perfect sense if Blackbeard and co had been torturing Moria during his time in captivity, right. Have they been feeding my beloved goth onion well? Realistically, probably not?

Like. Thinking about it. We know Moria got chumby after the trauma of losing his crew and all, so what are the odds he might have lost that weight now during his captivity??? What if he looks more like his younger self again, the one see clash with Kaidou??? Or, the more horrifying option. I mean zombies aren't like an inherent part of Moria's DF abilities, just the Shadow Manipulation. But for all we know Moria could have lost a limb or two, and depending on where the fuck Hogback is (dude is supposed to be a competent doctor, he should be able to stitch Moria back up)... I mean theoretically the next time we see Moria he could look like one of his zombies. Or worse.

[dirgeforthedead]

On the matter of Dirge & Enver // @dirgeforthedead & @banefulbenevolence

I think one of the things that I love so much with Enver and Dirge with this iteration is that, objectively, on face value, before they meet they are two absolutely terrifying and awful people.

They have both done horrifying, terrible things. They both have very few scruples, if any, about what they are and are not willing to do, particularly in any 'ends justify the means' scenario. They literally meet because Dirge has been sent to kill a patriar for disrespecting her father and Enver was there working on his 'seduction for power and wealth' angle. The only reason he doesn't die is because he's good at talking himself out of things and convinces her that he's someone worth knowing.

[ She decides she needs to figure out more about him to see if he's a threat to her father and his plans, to know if she can kill him or if she needs to find out more first, eliminate other threats, and then kill him. ]

It's about the way you would expect two absolutely horrendous people to meet and become associates of necessity.

[ Enver needs to at the least buy time so he isn't killed on the spot, and Dirge needs to know if he's an isolated threat or how far the spider web goes. ]

Now, you would assume, when they meet, they would also, quite decidedly, make each other all the worse by one Bad enabling and 'Yes And-ing' another Bad about every terrible, wicked idea that either one of them can imagine.

Which they do on one level, at least in the beginning because they cook up this plan together about the Elder Brain and the Crown and the tadpoles, the Absolute religious hoax, and everything they need set into motion to really Sell It--murder and mayhem in the streets, distrust of outsiders, and an army of cultists marching for the city.

But, over the course of knowing each other, they also??? make each other better??? in other ways???

Enver helps Dirge to find herself, to help her realize she's more than just an instrument of death and obliteration. He quite literally helps her find her voice, her ability to express her thoughts, opinions, desires, and needs, which is why her language in the 'Prayer for Forgiveness' is so similar to his own, honestly. She listened to him and then she would parrot things she had heard him say but in regards to whatever she wanted to express, and slowly she began to speak for herself, but always with a bit of a slant from his influence. He shows her patience and understanding and compassion--where almost no one ever showed him as much--while she is figuring herself out, and it means the world to her for reasons she can't even begin to explain.

What's more, both with this matter and in many other ways, he shows her that she has value beyond her ability to Kill Something Really Well. He values her opinions. He values her expertise in her fields. He values her.

She says that he is her heart, because she didn't have one before him.

And Dirge, of all people, shows Enver absolute and unwavering loyalty and devotion. Gives him ONE person that he knows would never betray him. Who respects him exactly as he is, even if/when the pretenses and performances are set aside. Who he doesn't have to seduce or flatter or charm to have in his corner. Someone who has never INTENTIONALLY or KNOWINGLY hurt him and is absolutely beside herself the times that she has. Who does everything she possibly can to prevent it or at least mitigate the damage--from managing her bloodlust to getting him charmed rings and trinkets she finds that protect from certain types of damage to giving him a cane with a hidden blade in it so that he has another way to protect himself from her or others.

Even if she doesn't speak and has difficulty expressing herself when first they meet, it's evident to Enver that she's simply been neglected in some regards, but not that she's any less intelligent.

In fact, he says that she is his equal, which is something he's never felt like he had prior to her.

And, over time, they both end up stumbling and fumbling their way through learning what it is to love and be loved, truly, unconditionally, beyond explanation or words--without wax, as Enver is fond of saying [ even though the saying confuses the hell out of Dirge for the longest time until he explains the origin of the phrase; please do imagine his amusement when she begins to sign letters to him 'without knives, Dirge' ].

At the end of the day, against all odds and expectations, even if not in every regard, they are both better for knowing each other, for loving each other.

I also think, from Dirge's standpoint, that whatever her 'Prayer for Forgiveness' might say to the contrary, when it would reach the tipping point and it was time to make a decision, even if the tadpole matter never happened, the path she chose the moment she chose Enver would always lead to her death because she would always defy Bhaal and refuse to become his Slayer, refuse to end the world.

After all, she finally had someone that she couldn't bear to lose.

As much as it pained her whenever her urges overtook her and she caused him harm, the idea of killing him becomes intolerable, inconceivable. She would have destroyed anyone and anything to protect him.

Including herself.

Now, was she on a path to Redemption, prior to the tadpoles? I don't think that I'd call it that.

But a path to Defiance? Absolutely.

And all because two terrible people met and became at least slightly better as a result.

[batsplat]

can we have a conversation about how much ktm is in shambles? cause i’m hearing they’re having so many problems financially and apparently even technically. it seems like they got stuck from the start of the season and they are just not progressing. i get that the last few circuits weren’t stop and go circuits that ktm prefers but the performances were really worrying. now, no offense to binder but he clearly has no backbone, but pedro already scolded them this weekend because they are not working the way they should, is there a chance they finally decide to take a risk and develop a project around him? because i feel like that’s what they need to do, a bit like yamaha or honda did for vale and marc. also i’ve thought about the fact that a lot of ktm engineers are leaving ktm for honda, if honda is actually working on a good project for 2027, is there a chance that perhaps a rider like pedro could get them out of the hole they got stuck into? cause i think that would be very interesting to see. of course only if he decides to leave ktm which i hope he doesn’t cause i’d like to see him become the first motogp wdc winner with a ktm. also i can’t really see where else he could go if one day he decides he’s unsatisfied with ktm

love asks that clearly come from the heart. I've been holding off on being too mean about ktm because in a way I do want to save it for after the NEXT race. we're in austria now!! ktm's home race! which they've actually been remarkably successful at, given they're the only non-ducati manufacturer to ever win in the modern iteration of this race in the premier class - first in that quirky last corner shoot-out courtesy of oliveira in 2020 and then in that bizarre slicks in the wet performance by binder in 2021. which, okay, unusual races and all that, but it's a track they should be doing well at!! binder got two second places here last year. if they flop here, then the alarm bells will really be ringing

I guess we can get into an argument about what 'flopping' would even look like. it's entirely plausible that, hm, the first 4-5 slots at minimum are locked out by ducati again - honestly, at the minute another ducati podium lock out feels like the expected scenario. I have heard there's a decent possibility of rain on sunday, but by this point of the year I've been promised rain quite a few times so I'll believe it when I see it. if it rains, sure, anything's possible. a positive result for ktm right now would probably be... a podium, right, which in itself is pretty damning - how are ktm still this bad at actually winning races? last year, binder got a podium at silverstone, which isn't a massively ktm-friendly track. this year, they didn't get even remotely close to that. the ktm defence argument goes 'well, look at what everyone else is doing'. silverstone is a very aprilia-friendly track and they had a pretty disastrous weekend themselves this year. the less said about the japanese manufacturers, the better. but... well, ktm was kinda supposed to take it to ducati this year. they finished last year on a very promising note, with what really should have been a 1-2 at valencia. (the fact that they didn't convert on that maybe should've gotten some alarm bells ringing about the ultimate potential of that rider line-up, but let's not get into that.) after binder's performance at qatar, ktm surely should have been determined to be in the title hunt. they are extremely not in the title hunt

the thing is, anon, ktm does know that pedro is their title winner. the idea of 'developing a project' around him is tricky - because to the extent that ktm is capable of that, they will do it!! they're not going to develop the bike in a direction that suits binder over him, for instance, or completely disregard his feedback or any of that. manufacturers can struggle with being reactive enough to rider concerns... my sense is that ktm likes to throw a lot of stuff at problems, it likes to flex its muscles and use a lot of data and come up with big update packages and all of that - and for all the progress they've made in their bike development, clearly all is not yet well on the in-season development front. (cf the whole chattering thing that ducati has gotten a handle on and ktm hasn't.) manufacturers do sometimes have a tendency to believe they know best and not listen enough to their riders, especially when there's a disconnect between the riders and 'the factory' that's actually designing the bikes. yamaha is an interesting example of that at the minute, where a lot of their current problems are so long-running that you can find their roots in stuff jorge and valentino were complaining about YEARS and years back. they've become a lot more reactive in recent years and did do a lot to tackle fabio's complaints about the bike's top speed... but by that point, they were in such a hole that just 'fixing the top speed' really wasn't enough to actually make a competitive bike. still, part of the reason why fabio's decided to stick with that project is he feels like yamaha is finally listening to him - and if they'd lost him, they'd really be fucked, so that has to count as at least a little bit of a W

in terms of the valentino and marc comparisons, they are just about different enough that it'll only take you so far. with valentino, the simple truth is that nobody today could do what he did for the yamaha project in 2004. he couldn't do that nowadays; it just isn't possible for a rider and his team to make that sort of instant impact anymore. motogp is so different now, with all the aero and devices and all the other stuff casey hates. the balance of power, if you will, has shifted pretty decisively from riders to engineers. also, valentino by that point was a fair bit more experienced and a lot of the credit has to go to his even more experienced team for what they were able to do with yamaha's carte blanche. a rookie, however gifted, just won't be able to provide quite the same level of direction. with marc... well, the honda was fantastic when he showed up! best bike on the grid! it's not exactly an analogous situation to pedro in that what honda needed to do was 'keep being good'. they did listen to marc's feedback and it did bag them enough titles to make it worth their while, but it also did not send their bike down a particularly happy development route for anyone else riding that thing - which ultimately as a manufacturer is not a situation you should want. honda was already losing the development arms race to ducati in the late 2010s, but giving marc a fast if capricious bike and relying on his natural talent to ride around the issues managed to disguise the problems for a while... or at least make them hurt less. all in all, I'm not really convinced 2010s honda is a model anyone should be particularly interested in copying

what ktm should do is listen to pedro, obviously. I assume they're already treating him as their championship contender elect, but if they're not then, yes, they'd be idiots. and given how long it took for them to actually confirm his place in motogp last year, I am open to the possibility that ktm are being idiots here. whether there's a workable system in place to actually make use of that feedback and continue to progress is more open for debate, and that's kinda what pedro went to the factory to check in on. pedro today was talking up a "big, big step" in the coming few races, in part due to the impact of their two test riders and the more ktm-friendly circuits to come, so it'll be interesting to see if it lives up to that. beyond that, who knows? ktm does have money and resources and a track record of success outside of motogp to give it faith, but of course this year has been a disappointment. (quick note: I have seen the stuff about ktm being in trouble financially and obviously that would massively change all of this, but at this stage it's quite hard to judge how seriously to take that - so the rest of this ask will assume that ktm will continue having a lot of money at its disposal. if they don't, my analysis is that they're probably fucked.) the first bit of the season made everyone doubt whether the bike was actually better than thought and the riders were simply not taking advantage of it - which a few signs last year like 'surely dani shouldn't be this competitive' and the whole valencia thing already pointed to. now, it's definitely less competitive than last year and even their superstar rookie can't do all that much with it, so that's not great. they do have a little time to play with here, but not that much. pedro's signed for 2025-26, but if ktm doesn't start next season more competitive, it won't take long for him to start looking around. and even though you can't do valentino 2004 things in quite the same way anymore, this is clearly going to be a project that needs an alien-level talent to actually get it over the line. they've kinda managed to fail upwards into a very strong set of riders next year and they should be able to extract a lot of them for bike development purposes, but also their rider management has traditionally been godawful so it remains to be seen how that'll work out

that being said, pedro will be fine! I mean, idk if he'll be ktm's first premier class world champion. if I had to put money on it, I'd say it's pretty likely, yeah? but the 'where would he go' thing isn't really a big concern. all the big names have kinda hunkered down (as have the teams who signed them) with two year contracts that take us very neatly to the next rule cycle kicking in, which everyone expects will majorly shake things up. while this whole japanese manufacturer situation is massively annoying, I would be shocked if at least one of them aren't regular race winners again in 2027, and hopefully will already be so before that. most manufacturers except maybe honda have at least one star rider they're intending to be a title contender in 2027, and ducati has two. they probably won't all stay in the same place (even if they all remain reasonably healthy in that time) and there's bound to be at least one manufacturer hunting for a big name. pecco will be in his late prime and possibly grey-haired, god knows what state marc will be in *taps wood*, we have no idea how the whole jorge aprilia situation will work out. maybe yamaha will be so competitive again that they actually decide they want TWO riders fighting it out for a championship and we get a proper throwback in blue to the good old garage cold war days - which is where my imagination sadly fails me because I can't picture fabio putting up a wall or yamaha not sucking. maybe, like you say, pedro is just what honda needs to... well, honestly I don't think he could get them out of this hole - but perhaps in a couple years time when honda is looking healthier again, he's the kind of rider that could make it a title winner again. it'll be a new world! if pedro is as good as we all think he is, then obviously any manufacturer would be thrilled to get their hands on him, not least to deprive the competition of having him. how old will he be in 2026? about nine years old, I think? if I had to guess, I do kinda see him being a title contender around 2026-ish, because I just can't quite picture ktm making the necessary leap by next year so 2026 feels like a good way of hedging my bets and trusting his sickening levels of natural talent to make up the bike difference. one of my big remaining doubts is... well, it's actually been quite a while since a new manufacturer has won a rider's title. the last time was ducati way back in 2007 when they nailed the new regulations cycle and also kinda lucked into signing the casey stoner, but ducati had already been regular race winners for quite a few years before that. capirossi was third in the championship in 2006. I suppose aprilia got vaguely close in 2022, but that was a chaos season we don't have much reason to expect to see a repeat of any time soon, and in the end they also didn't get that close. ktm really needs to be getting into race winning form soon if they want to be thinking about titles. it's ridiculous that it's been over three years since their last win in the dry, and nearly two since their last win full stop. if I were them, I would maybe consider winning some races, instead of continuing to lose them idk. let's see how they do on sunday, eh

[alirhi]

10 Sebastian roles as boyfriends

Because... I'm bored and I feel like it. 😂 Probably some spoilers for, like... everything? So yeah... That.

Putting it under here for easy scrolling:

10: Chase Collins

Who doesn't love a goofball? In the first half of the movie, Chase is basically perfect. He's sweet, funny, not all caught up in his ego, and actually pays attention to what the girls around him are saying, not just to what he wants to hear. If not for the whole... it was all an act to get close to Caleb and try to steal his magic thing, Chase would actually be a damn good high school boyfriend. He's adorable and would be a fun date, but he's also only 18 so best not to start making long-term plans lol. Also, y'know... the whole psycho revenge/power grab thing.

9 Jack Benjamin

Y'all. Y'all. Words cannot describe how much I love Jack. Pretty sure I've made this clear. As a person/character in general, he's absolutely in my Top 3 - not just of Sebastian's characters, but any character ever. ❤ But as a boyfriend? Boy's got baggage. It's what makes me so protective of him, but seeing as how he's trapped in the closet thanks to his overbearing homophobic family and the insane expectations heaped on him, as the show left him, he can't handle an honest relationship. He's too easily influenced by all the wrong people, poor babe.

8 Chris (Destroyer)

On paper, undercover cop sounds cool and exciting, but even if you ignore the fact that he, y'know, dies... Chris got in too deep and kinda lost the mission, so to speak. Best case scenario, you're his sexy partner and in on it all with him and end up on the lam for the rest of your lives. Worst case, this man lies for a living, so can you even trust him? And... yeah. The whole dead thing. Chris is hot af but getting involved with him is a recipe for disaster.

7 Ben

Min and Hathor have mercy, I love Ben! He's smart, he's snarky, he's caring and loyal... he's an absolute disaster. He's another one who seems allergic to honesty, until his lying and avoiding nearly kill his girlfriend. Not exactly relationship goals lol. Everything before totally was, though! Ben's adorable, and I love how he stayed up all night to protect his girlfriend (from a ghost/demon thing... with a baseball bat. I said he was smart, not perfect, okay? XD points for effort lol)

6 Mickey Henry

I. LOVE. MICKEY. Oml I love Mickey. He's a spazz and - even more so than Ben - an absolute disaster of a human being, but I love him. Pros for dating Mickey Henry: he's fun, he's carefree, he'll cook for you even though he's kinda bad at it lol, he loves his son and wants to be a good dad, he wants his partner to be happy and to love life as much as he does. Cons, and the reason he's not higher on the list: He's a pushover; easily influenced by the toxic people in his life, and it gets him into a lot of trouble. Being easily influenced by toxic dumpster fire of a human being Chloe almost lost him the partial custody of his son that he barely even had. He's an absolute sweetheart, but he's a complete man-child, and dating him would often feel more like raising him.

5 Frank "Suffer Buddy"

Come on! You know he and Mickey had to be back-to-back - they're practically the same character! 😂 Frank is Mickey... slightly more grown up. He's still a disaster, but he's respectful of boundaries, he's caring, he's funny in a dry, witty way that I just adore, and hoo lordy that man is a giver! 🥴🥵 Honestly, if he didn't smoke and didn't ditch Daphne in the middle of a party hours away from everything familiar to her surrounded by strangers to go do drugs, I'd call Frank perfect. He listened, he respected her wishes, he tried to keep some distance between them when he found out she'd gone on a date with his best friend (it failed utterly and brought us to the "damn that man's good with his mouth" portion of the movie lmao but still)... I don't have a whole lot of experience with men who actually give a shit, okay? So Frank is like a goddamn unicorn to me lmao. But that drug thing... That keeps him at the bottom of the Top 5 for me. Sorry, bb

4 Bucky

I can already hear everyone on here raging at me for placing Bucky so low on this list, but hear me out: I love this man. I love all four iterations of this man. Flirty 40s Bucky was a doll (fun date, not commitment material). Post-POW camp 40s Bucky had a fire to him that set me on fire. The Winter Soldier can choke me any damn day. Unf. And TFATWS Bucky... Oh, lady above, 2023 Bucky is a gem! He's sweet, snarky, and broken. He feels utterly, wretchedly alone in the world, and everyone around him, including his only friend, is telling him to "man up" and "make amends" for shit that was never his fault to begin with, rather than helping him come to terms with all that he's suffered and all that he's survived. Bucky needs and deserves love. A relationship with him would be so solid, if he found the right person... But it would take a fuck ton of work. He needs someone strong, patient, and more stubborn than he is to prod him until he finds a better therapist and actually opens up, and to keep him on track because even good therapy comes with homework. He does have to "do the work," Sam was right about that much, but he was way off base with what that "work" is. Bucky needs help and understanding, and he would be an amazing boyfriend... if he found someone with the strength to help him weather his nightmares and flashbacks, and help pull him out of this PTSD pit he's been in since 1943.

3 Chris Beck

Big brains turn me on, okay? 😂This man is an astronaut and a surgeon! Yes, please! Come here, you sexy genius! He's smart, he's funny - pretty sure Sebastian is incapable of playing anyone who's not delightfully snarky lol. He's pragmatic when he needs to be but there's also nothing he wouldn't do or risk for the ones he loves. This man is husband material and I cannot be convinced otherwise! So why isn't he #1? Cuz of the whole... spending years in space, thing. Super cool job and I'd be his biggest fan on the ground, but god damn, I would miss him while he's away!

2 TJ Hammond

Look, I'm gender fluid and he's a little bit bi 😂😂😂 Let me have my fantasy, okay? TJ's definitely got a lot of shit to work through, but love brings out the best in him. Before that fucking closeted shitbag broke his heart and stomped on it for good measure, TJ was clean and sober for months, he was happy, he was playing piano again, he was pulling himself together. Not only would he be an amazing boyfriend, but his partner would get the extra joy of getting to watch their love and devotion to him be the thing that saves this beautiful man's life. It's not healthy overall to tie your self worth and will to live to a relationship, but if he found the right person who would be there for him through all of life's shit and stick it out, I think he'd be okay. Even after his lowest point and without the support of his family, TJ still had a dream and he still chased it. He's not just the sweetest person to ever grace our screens, but he's ambitious and business-savvy, too. Keep him off drugs and watch this man take over the world, I'm telling you!

So why is TJ only #2? Well, besides the fact that he's like 99% gay and I have no bits he'd be interested in lmao, there's also the fact that this guy owns my heart:

1 Will Franklyn

And not just because we get to see him wet and mostly naked lol. Will is fucking perfect. I would die for this man... because he's already shown that he would die for his love. He almost fucking did, and they weren't even together yet! He's smart and very aware, he's a writer so we'd get to bond/geek out over books together, he's not all full of himself (self-deprecating humor ftw!) and he's willing to help a total stranger despite actual mortal peril, just because it's the right thing to do. Fierce, intelligent, sassy, strong-willed, and a flawless moral compass? YESYESYESYESYES! Forget boyfriend - let me MARRY this man! 😍🥰

[prompt-master]

An Unseen Dream

Kokichi didn’t like making a habit of listening to Monokuma, he knew better than anyone else the trickery and danger that might hide behind every word that bear spoke. Every “hint” and every “gift” was nothing more than a push for this game to drive off a cliff. Sure, no one was being harmed. In fact, their goal was rather simple, they just had to date each other in ten day increments and then they could leave. That didn’t leave Kokichi lowering his guard though, any game that they were forced to play couldn’t be a good one. No matter how innocent the rules seemed to be. Kokichi felt everything that damn bear said was just a trick of misdirection.

... But when he heard there was a key that could open the door to fantasies of the participants around him, Kokichi was at the casino gambling his heart away.

The key was a gaudy thing, just holding it felt gross. “A key to certain places filled with greed and lust,” that’s what the casino called it. It made him want to gag, but it made him want to laugh all the same. Greed and lust… he was sure there were many that would use the key for such things. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that some fantasies must get more frisky than others. Especially with that skank Miu walking around. Kokichi wasn’t doing this for lust though. He wasn’t doing it for greed either. Kokichi told himself he was doing this for many, many reasons.

 He was doing it to win the game, because if he knew everyone’s fantasies then it would be a piece of cake to win their hearts within the time limit. This was a game after all, and if anyone would master the ins and outs of it, it would be Ouma Kokichi. 

He was doing it as a means of gathering intel. How could he know things would be alright just because he one some weird dating game? They were kidnapped. For all they knew this could be the first stage of many games. And if they were willing to kidnap for it, they were willing to hurt for it too. It left an annoyed feeling in Kokichi whenever he saw the others, far too relaxed for kidnapping victims. It sometimes felt like he was the only one looking ahead. And if the day came when these people were his enemy… knowing their secretive fantasies wouldn’t hurt. 

And sure.. Maybe he was doing it just for a bit of fun too. In a world of uncensored fantization, amusement surely awaited Kokichi. He could only begin to imagine the hilarious scenarios he could witness with just this key. As he flipped the key around in his hand he wondered if Kiiboy would even be able to have a fantasy. It was probably something boring, like being a human with a 9-5 job. 

Despite all this, Kokichi knew his main reason for buying the key wasn’t so important. He knew that no matter how much he lied to himself there would always be that curiosity for a certain detective and what was buzzing around in his head. He had been fascinated with Shuichi since day one. 

When the others had relaxed and accepted the situation with little to no issue, Shuichi kept his guard up just like Kokichi did. He could tell, he could see it in those tense shoulders. He could tell that between dates Shuichi was investigating every nook and cranny to try and understand who kidnapped them. And although the two seemed to think in opposites, Kokichi couldn’t help but wonder if maybe they were one and the same. Even in a dating game, however, infatuation of any sort was a risk to Kokichi’s safety. He tried, oh he tried, to let go of this but it was hard not to be allured by someone with the talent that Shuichi had. Kokichi was more than just a liar, it was more accurate to say that he was a lie himself. Lying was a part of him, he could never give that up, even when it pushes others away. But a detective… a kind, sweet, attentive detective like Shuichi? Could he one day get to the point where he could lie to his heart's content, but Shuichi would always be able to read between the lines? Could he one day have a playful back and forth with Shuichi, like a real life game of chess where the two one upped each other using only their wits?

Could he get someone who just… understood him?

Kokichi tucked the key under his pillow and fell asleep to thoughts of Shuichi. What sort of fantasy would Shuichi have? Would it be an awe-inspiring one where he had such confidence  that he could be a hero? Maybe Shuichi wished to achieve something grand in his life, and reach celebrity status? Maybe Shuichi would have more… fun thoughts in mind, the quiet ones think the loudest, after all. He drifted off to these possibilities until they were no longer words and instead were just vague thoughts about Shuichi in general. 

But when he opened that door, he saw Kaito instead. 

He spent the entire night playing the role of Kaito’s passionate pilot rival, somehow the gayest and yet straightest thing Kokichi had ever experienced. When he’d woken up, one of the first things he did was march over to Monokuma to ask what gives. Of course, in a fun, unsuspecting, Kokichi way. 

“What? You thought you’d get to choose which student you get to twiddle with? That would be waaaay too much power for one of you naughty brats, upupupu! If you want to see someone special you better work for it.”

Of course. Kokichi couldn’t even pretend to be surprised. There was always a catch with the tricky types. He would know.

So, Kokichi kept trying. Again and again.

Miu, Angie, Gonta, Tenko, Maki, Kaede (he’s pretty sure he played Shuichi in that one), Ryoma, Kiibo. He’d gone through so many god damn dreams. He’d even gone through Korekiyo’s (who he promptly kicked in the face and ran away from). What the Hell was so elusive about Shuichi’s god damn fantasy that he wasn’t able to get lucky enough to see? And as he progressed through the others… it only made him more and more curious about Shuichi. The dreams could range from sexual, to domestic, to platonic, all of which he could see Shuichi having. With how intense the others were, and how much Shuichi kept to himself… damn it all, he just wanted a little peek! He had spent basically the entirety of the first ten days trying harder to get into this one fantasy than he was trying to get along with Rantaro on their dates. 

It was the last day of this iteration. He had already won with Rantaro, so he was safe. But soon enough tomorrow he would have to wake up and woo someone else over in only ten days. Kokichi didn’t want to risk failing, who knows what the punishment could be. This would be the last try for a while, he couldn’t let this silly desire distract him from what was important. 

He wondered what awaited him behind the door this time. Whatever it was, there was a guarantee it wouldn’t be boring. For good or for worse. Keeping his guard up in case he was bombarded with some sort of insanity, Kokichi opened up the door.

…

There was no one there?

Honestly, Kokichi couldn’t help but do a double take. He was expecting a lot of things to happen. Not… nothing. The only sounds in the room were from the obnoxious Merry-Go-Round pony that did laps around the bed. Typically someone would… just be standing there, in front of the bed, already sunken down into their fantasy world. Kokichi glanced to his left, at the pool. No one. He glanced to his right, at the assortment of BDSM gear. No one. Was it possible to get a null result? Maybe there’s no repeats… so he was meant to experience someone he already saw, like Miu, but because he can’t repeat he just gets… nothing? He wouldn't exactly put it past Monokuma to put in place such a boring unnecessary rule.

Ah. Wait. There was a shift on the bed. Maybe he wasn’t alone after all. He approached carefully, unsure if the build up was part of his role or not. 

“Oh.”

In the bed was Shuichi himself. He wasn’t wearing his hat for once, instead it was down at the end of the bed. Shuichi was curled up in a fetal position, wrapped within the golden sheets of the suite’s bed. One of his hands was loosely holding onto the blanket, the other was placed below his parted lips. His hair was slightly tussled, bangs hanging over his face. Most of his face was pressed within the plush, expensive looking pillows. But the exposed bits that Kokichi could see revealed Shuichi looking simply… at ease. It had only been about ten days, but he had never seen Shuichi looked so comfortable and okay. He didn’t even know he could look so relaxed. Kokichi couldn’t bring himself to wake him up.

His fantasy was just… to get some rest. 

Kokichi laid down in the empty space of the bed left to Shuichi. He had never really gotten a moment to indulge in how nice this bed actually feels. He could feel himself sinking into the mattress. He wondered briefly if maybe it was only so relaxing because Shuichi wanted it to be. Kokichi tucked himself under the covers, which felt way too warm and soft for normal bed sheets. Even the movement of the Merry-Go-Round wasn’t grating on his ears anymore, it just felt like a humble background noise that lulled him into relaxation. This had to have been a part of Shuichi’s fantasy. Only he could create a fantasy world designed to ease your mind. He pressed his back against Shuichi’s, thinking about how this could possibly be the closest he’d ever get to him. 

Was this… really all he wanted? The others thought on a monumental scale. They were all so self indulgent, even Kaede. Even himself. But here Shuichi was, within the vast expanses of his imagination, the thing that brought him the most joy was the idea of getting restful sleep. Why did he dream so small? Kokichi gripped the blanket tighter within his fist, feeling the rise and fall of Shuichi’s back. 

“This dream could be real.”

Kokichi could make it real. 

-----------------

The next morning it was announced that ten days were over, and that no one had failed the first round. Now all they had to do was… the exact same thing again, but with someone else. 

Kokichi took his chance to enact his plan, jumping in front of Shuichi who was clearly trying to get to Kaito instead. 

“A-ah! Ouma-kun… hi.” Kokichi noted uncomfortable posture, although Shuichi always seemed uncomfortable. He took a step back. 

“Saihara-chan!” he cheered, hands behind his back. He wished Shuichi didn’t hide those pretty eyes, he always had to angle himself just for a glimpse of them under the brim of his cap. “Go on a date with me!”

Shuichi lifted a hand to his chin. He was thinking it over then, but that was alright, Shuichi had trouble saying no. His plan would still work. “Right now?” he asked.

“Ye-ap!”

“Well, I guess it wouldn’t hurt…” Shuichi gave him a kind smile, “Would you like to go to the-”

“Let’s go to the library!”

“Huh? The library?” Shuichi was now looking down at him, seeming confused, “How come? I thought you would prefer something like the game room or the AV room.”

‘Because it’s not about me, silly.’ Kokichi’s smile was too innocent to ignore, “Wow wow, how cruel, does my beloved Saihara-chan think I’m too brain dead to enjoy reading?”

“Ah..! That wasn’t what I-”

He grabbed onto the end of Shuichi’s sleeve, “C’mon, to the library! You’re so damn slow, Saihara-chan!”

“Okay, Ouma-kun, I’m coming, just slow down..!”

You know, Kokichi suspected that despite being a detective, Shuichi wasn’t used to things being energetic. And while normally that would mean he’d get annoyed easily at Kokichi’s antics… it also meant that they would tire him out faster too. The rapid talking, the lies that somehow kept tricking Shuichi at first, the bouncing around, the dragging. By the time they’d stepped through the library doors Shuichi already looked ready to go back to his dorm. 

There weren’t many places to sit down in the library, so Shuichi immediately went for the table on the left of the entrance. Kokichi redirected him to the back right corner instead, tucking themselves down on the floor and leaning back against the bookshelves. 

“Ah… is there any reason we’re sitting on the floor?” he seemed genuinely curious, not upset.

Kokichi’s smile grew sly, “Isn’t it more romantic here?”

Shuichi tugged the brim of his cap down, but Kokichi could see his blush through his exposed ear. “M… mm” was all he could get out. 

“Do you have any recommendations, Saihara-chan? You must know some good mysteries after all, Mr. Detective.”

Shuichi was looking down at his hands, which were placed in his lap. But Kokichi could tell he wasn’t disinterested, just awkward. “Not really… I used to enjoy mystery novels quite a lot but… after becoming a detective, I stopped reading them.”

“Ooooh, got too boring for an experienced veteran then?”

“Uhm… not exactly…” So Shuichi didn’t like being a detective, then. Kokichi made a mental note of that. 

“But,” Shuichi continued, “Back at home, we really only owned mystery novels. So unless I was at the library I would read them out of boredom.”

“Hmmm, so you’re the type to finish a book even if it sucks.”

“Haha, well, you should give it a good chance, right?”

“If a book sucks, it sucks.”

Shuichi’s laugh was gentle, yet overpoweringly sweet. 

“So you’re a huuuuge geek then, have you read any books here yet?”

Shuichi shook his head, gesturing to the impressive mess around them, “It’s too much to search through… and everything is so disorganized. I haven’t really gotten a chance to try and choose.” So he was the type to become indecisive with a lot of options, then. 

“Plus,” He picked a book up from the pile just sitting next to them, and flipped open to a random page. He turned the book to Kokichi, revealing strange organic patterns cut away into the pages of the book; they seemed to run deep too. Not to mention the crusty yellowness to them that left the pages crunchy and wrinkly. The words that weren’t cut out of the book from the holes were faded, smeared, and difficult to read. There was a musty, moldy smell that hit Kokichi’s face as it wafted off the book, likely coming from the strange spots clinging to the cover and edges of the book. “These books have been left here for a long time, they’re waterlogged from mold and moisture, and have bad damage from insects eating the pages. So they’re essentially unreadable.”

Kokichi stuck his tongue out in disgust, imagining gross bugs crawling inside the books near them. It would sure make Gonta happy, though.

“Well, luckily for you, not all the books are damaged!”

Shuichi’s intrigue was instant, enough so that he didn’t hide his eyes as well as he normally does. “Really?”

“Look at what I found!” Kokichi pulled out two books from the shelf, he’d put them there earlier just for this moment. “Maybe I just have Ultimate Luck, I stumbled on these completely by accident. Ah, but, that’s a lie.”

Shuichi took the book from his hands, turning through the pages with a careful hand. Making sure it really was readable, “This is incredible, Ouma-kun! How did you find this?”

“I had to kill Kiiboy for it, just so Monokuma would owe me a favor for the entertainment! It was brutal too. Lots of sparks.”

“That’s… a lie, right?”

“Who knows~”

Once Kokichi noticed Shuichi’s eyes were scanning the pages of the book he fell into silence. Kokichi sagged down further against the bookcase, arm just barely brushing against Shuichi’s. He opened his own book, but truth be told that was just a lie. He didn’t read a single page, instead he just occasionally turned one so that Shuichi would think he was enjoying their little reading circle. Kokichi’s plan was good. Genius even. He deserved every right to brag. The library was the perfect place to get Shuichi’s guard down. Around the others, things were a constant flurry of chaos. But here it was quiet, peaceful, and smelled like old books. Top that off with making him read the most boring, uneventful book he could find? Shuichi was a goner. 

Kokichi flipped another page in his book, but his eyes were focused on Shuichi’s. Shuichi’s face was alert, but underneath his eyes were dark circles that looked honestly draining. No wonder he was so tired he fantasized about rest. Kokichi wondered if something made it difficult for him to fall asleep. A restless sleeper? A ghost in his dreams? A painful past? Maybe Kokichi was just projecting, maybe he was just having trouble adjusting to their new day to day schedule. Well, here in the library by Kokichi’s side it seemed to be easier to sleep. Because after a while his eyes became sleepier and sleepier. Kokichi shifted himself so that he was leaning further against Shuichi’s arm. Shuichi, too tired to be embarrassed or think it through, dropped his head down to rest on Kokichi. Before long he stopped turning pages, then his hands loosened around the book, then Kokichi heard the relaxed breaths of someone finally getting some well deserved rest. 

“You’re too easy, Saihara-chan.” he whispered. 

Soon Kokichi would get up and ask Gonta to carry Shuichi to his bed. Then he would make sure he was comfortable, and that no one would interrupt his rest. But until then… it didn’t hurt to enjoy this moment.

[ilikekidsshows]

Honestly, I'm completely with you on the whole SentiAdrien thing, but what about SentiGabriel? I've never seen anyone talk about it and I imagine we'd run into a lot of the same issues, but what if Emilie made a mistake that cost her husband's life and because she was already fading, she created a replacement to either revive her or reverse her mistakes? I think it would explain some stuff, but probably also create more questions, like, what about GabeNath? How does it impact their partner-/ P1

P2 relationship? Was Gabriel Agreste really like this or is that Emilie's perception of him or what she wants/needs him to be? How do Felix and his mother and the rings factor into this? It does seem a little weird though to have your main villain basically comatose for most of the show and what amounts to a glorified henchman fill her shoes instead, so this is really more of a sudden thought that hit me after the Adrien flashback in Wishmaker.

There are some issues with the idea of Gabriel being a Sentimonster, mostly having to do with what that would mean for Gabriel's credibility as a villain and, of course, his dynamic with Adrien.

While the idea of a henchman running the show while the evil overlord sits on their laurels or is unavailable is not that uncommon, it's more a fantasy trope than a superhero trope. She-Ra, in its first iteration, had the main villain Hordak serving Horde Prime, who barely showed up in the show. Similarly, the reboot has Hordak tinkering in his lab for over half of the series while his henchwoman Catra fights the heroes as the main villain and he, in fact, never takes over as the main villain. The closest superhero media has gotten to this is probably Darkseid from DC or Apocalypse or Galactus from Marvel, who all often send envoys to fight the heroes, but they are always somehow behind the plan and the henchmen do report directly to them or are preparing for their arrival. Doing a simple villain switcheroo isn't something that would fit the scale of the Agrestes as a threat. All the examples I have given are some kind of evil overlords, godlike beings or both.

It's not just that the trope doesn't fit but there's, of course, some theming issues as well. I have seen a post earlier that criticised the idea of Emilie being evil specifically in relation to a scenario where she's actually even worse than Gabriel, making our main villain literally the lesser of two evils. This would make it so that Gabriel wouldn't really be fully responsible for his villainy, if he was brought onto that path by his wife, and it has some pretty unfortunate implications towards how women are viewed that can be seen even in mythology, like the tale of Adam and Eve. Basically, the implication is that evil, evil women corrupt poor, hard-working men with their seductive feminine viles.

Gabriel being a Sentimonster that Emilie made that was accidentally made evil by her has similar connotations of Gabriel only being evil because of Emilie, meaning that this man's crimes were only caused by his lady love. Women are just fundamentally evil and corrupt the men around them. I doubt a show that tries to be feminist would go that route. Emilie recreating a beast of a husband has less of those implications but it's still kinda iffy. Never mind the Pygmalion associations of Emilie sculpting her husband into existence, even if only as a copy, and a copy with no agency at that.

As a side note, I doubt Amelie or Félix would be aware of it if Gabriel was a Sentimonster or that there's anything up with him regardless. Otherwise they'd try to capitalize on that to get what they want: the rings. However, I doubt the rings would be the Amokized object, since then Gabriel would be more alarmed over losing one and Nathalie would be able to sense the Amok, since I doubt she would be in on it, unless she also used to be Emilie's confidant. Instead, the rings would be symbolic of the pretend marriage bond to Emilie, which explains why Gabriel fiddles with them in order to center himself, with the Amok being somewhere more secure. The other option would be that even he thinks he's the real Gabriel Agreste and doesn't realize that the ring(s) hold his essence. The Gabriel in the show being a Sentimonster would mean that Emilie would want her actual husband, so Nathalie could keep the copy she fell in love with, but any relationship with Sentimonster Gabriel would be iffy in terms of consent because Sentimonsters don’t have agency.

Finally, the show has shown us that Sentimonsters' capability for emotion can vary, most Sentimonsters barely emote, while Sentibug's mood flipped on a dime and came across as more performative than real, and she was the best effort of Nathalie to create a versatile Sentimonster that could pass off as the real thing. We don't know much about Sentimonster behavior since they're often created for a simple, singular purpose, but Astruc has said that all relevant information has already come out, so Sentibug's strange emoting is most likely on purpose and relevant. Her missions was "pass off as the real thing", and even then there was something off about her.

This would serve to excuse Gabriel's inability to form a true parental bond with his son. As a Sentimonster, it is very likely that Gabriel would be incapable of loving his son selflessly and taking care of him properly, either because Sentimonsters truly do feel lesser emotions or because Emilie didn't give him that ability. You could argue that there's some symbolism with adoption with them not really being "blood-related", and that being why Gabriel abuses Adrien, but that's a pretty weird parallel to make, unless the show is actually going to side with the myth that a parent will always love a child of their blood more than an adopted one. I just think that we really don't need more media that vilifies adoption, adoptive parents in particular. In addition, adoptive parents don't have a magical condition that makes them incapable of feeling as deeply as real human beings, so it would be ineffective symbolism as well.

[therosecrest]

I finished reading the 1978 run of Spider-Woman, which I became interested in after I happened to read a little bit about her origins and saw a few excerpts from her early run. I was not very familiar with Spider-Woman beyond her inclusion in the New Avengers, in which, to be honest, I seem to remember thinking she was kind of a bitch. But I thought the original concept of her dual nature was interesting, and found her sense of isolation and otherness relatable and appealing. However, her early run explored this in the most superficial manner. I’m no stranger to the verbocious writing of older comics, but those issues’ presentation of Jessica’s struggle was simply shallow.

Conceptually, I really like this iteration of Jessica Drew, but in practice, her writing was vapid; a string of lame villains, dubious writing, and, my least favourite, mandatory love interests. This, too, could really work, if the writer could, cared to, or was allowed to write her with any depth. Is it any wonder Jessica, to whom almost all humans are instinctively averse, fell into the the arms of the first man in her life who was attracted to her? Not wholly out of attraction - which I never, ever believed - but a need for companionship.

The next writer, I believe, would wisely cut Jerry from the story, parting ways with Jessica due to an increasing sense of emasculation. I was pleased to see him go. Unfortunately, he was not the only unconvincing straight love interest. Honestly, Jessica Drew just does read as a lesbian character. I doubt much of this, if any, was intentional, but I do find her relationship with Lindsay a little homoerotic.

The main problem with the run is the directionless first half, which periodically saw her character and scenario suddenly change. Eventually, the writing (and art) improved, particularly with the pairing of writer Chris Claremont and Steve Leiloha. Jessica’s characterisation largely stabilised around this point as well. This version of Jessica is much more confident, closer to her modern counterpart. I think it’s unfortunate that much of her early characterisation was discarded, abandoning her spider/woman dynamic, but perhaps it was untenable. Perhaps they simply didn’t know what to do with it.

As for what’s next, it seems Jessica didn’t have her own run for a long time after that. Perhaps I will try to find a jumping on point for her modern run. I’m moreorless aware of her current situation, although I’ve never liked superheroes with kids, much less babies. Feels like a bit of an anchor. Due to the sliding timescale, rarely can they naturally age. They also tend to fix the character in a dynamic or scenario, I feel. Well, one way or another, I want to read more.

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

Hi there! Just started reading your meta posts on Spidey and you've got me hooked! I've really enjoyed learning more about the webhead and how he's been portrayed over the years, so much so that I've now finished the Lee/Ditko era of the comics and am now starting on Lee/Romita Sr. On that note, I have a few questions regarding Spider-Man in the MCU and what the future could hold post-NWH (as someone whose interest in the MCU has always been passing at best and is, admittedly, not very knowledgeable of what's been unfolding).

1) Do we have any information that confirms how many more Spider-Man films Sony and Marvel/Disney will collaborate on after NWH? I've heard of various numbers and contractual agreements being thrown about, but I can't find anything concrete on the subject.

2) If speculated aspects of the OMD plotline (like Mephisto) hold true for this film, which scenario do you think is more likely: a soft reboot of Holland's Spider-Man that'll be more in keeping with his comic counterpart? Or, a farewell to this iteration of Peter Parker that'll see Miles Morales take on the mantle of Spider-Man for future installments?

Thank you for the kind words

1) So... this is a case of there may well be confirmed info out there but I've not actually checked. The way the deal worked in the past was essentially the team-up movies like Civil War and Avengers were 'Marvel's' stuff and the solo outtings were 'Sony's'. If that deal persists then it stands to reason that we're going to get Spider-Man as a guest or crossed over character in a movie that is unquestionably a Marvel IP. However, I suspect somehow they're going to use the muliverse they've been building to in-effect canonize the movies Sony has been making (Venom, Morbius, Let there Be Carnage, etc) as part of the MCU. This at the very least will in theory garner those movies more cash because their closer in the audiences' eyes to the cash cow of the MCU and at most might even allow for future crossovers into the MCU ala what is going to happen in No War Home. That is to say it is theoretically possible for Tom Hardy's Venom to appear in Guardians of the Galaxy or something

2) Honestly i don't see either scenario happening. Marvel have been replacing characetrs in the Phase 4 out of necessity not because they exactly want to or think it will be more profitable. They didn't choose not to continue with Steve Rogers, Chris Evans is inextricably connected to the part and didn't want to go on. So... legacy.

I highly doubt Holland doesn't want to do more with the MCU given his age, his career opportunities and his love of the character so there is no incentive to replace him on that front. And on a purely financial POV... Marvel know for a fact Miles Morales simply doesn't make the same level of money as Peter Parker.

As for soft rebooting him... I mean I guess that's more likely but we're talking merely in terms of comparisons. It is comparatively more likely, not that I think it is a real possibility. I think they aren't going to reboot anyone's history but continue on with the direction they've set (somehow). Possibly they will toss out that you want a more faithful Spider-Man? Well that's Maguire and/or Garfield who are now canon to the MCU, so your more faithful Spider-Man does exist within the MCU technically

[sanstropfremir]

what do you think makes someone have good stage presence? do you think it's something that can be taught or something one just naturally possesses?

i read your answer to the other ask. and re. super m, i like lucas. don't get me wrong. he's very much a hong kong beauty that i love (sm is really missing out by not putting him in more editorials).

but in terms of stage presence, he isn't a standout to me? maybe that's because he's in a group with, in my opinion, two of the best performers (taemin + kai). i put him in the same category as baekhyun. like you mentioned, he doesn't stand out but makes up for it by screaming. but for lucas, he's not the best rapper or vocalist and isn't given a lot of lines.

also, what do you think about nct's infinite concept? this is a bit random but wanted to group together since we're talking about nct members. nct2020 was a whole mess for me (as someone who absolutely LOVED nct2018 concept wise and thought maybe, hey this could work). watching nct2020, it seems... asjhdakjhlgds for a lack of better words. like if i was a member and wasn't taeyong/mark/ten/lucas/doyoung, i would be :/ there's definitely a reason why sm pushes them the most because they're just better in capturing the audience. the other members feel like glorified background dancers.

in my personal opinion, stage presence is how well a performer can convince the audience that they are alive, and that they belong there. the stage is an artifice. it isn’t real, nothing you do on it is real, all performance is just that: performative. a human being’s natural state is not on a large platform being stared at, obviously anyone put in that situation is going to find it difficult to act in a natural way. why do you think people hate public speaking? why stage fright is a thing? those of us that can make it over that initial hurdle of being looked at have dual challenges; we as the audience know this whole scenario is fake; what makes it real is our willingness to be convinced that it is real, and the performer’s ability to make us believe that it is real. a huge part of this is making their bodies move and respond in a way that we recognize. this includes making facial expressions. it also includes exuding the confidence that you belong on that stage. that we should be looking at you. this is no place for timidity or nervousness. yes, i do think this is something you can learn, it’s acting and anyone can learn to act. do some people have an advantage over others? absolutely, it's the same with any skill. are there some people that despite being on stage for years never learn? also yes. i don’t think it's a ‘you have it or you don’t’ scenario, like with all reductivist binary statements, it belittles the effort of the people that work extremely hard to get where they are. this is the fallacy of mozart***; those with a high level of natural talent cannot coast by just that talent alone - a true artist is dedicated to pushing their own boundaries and skills regardless of what others deem you as. no one is born a genius, but we all have predispositions that, if applied cultivation, can become fully fledged ‘genius’ level skills. 

i’m gonna put the rest of my responses under a cut because i got extremely deep in the weeds on that one, whoops.

i can totally see why lucas and baekhyun would fall into the same category for you, that's valid. obviously a lot of how effective someone’s stage presence can be is pretty subjective. my standards have a slightly different skew than the average kpop fan, since my life has been working and making performance for over a decade. yes, lucas doesn’t have the same presence as taemin or kai, and yea he's not the best rapper or best vocalist by far, but i think he carries himself extremely well despite that. he's got advantages from the start; he’s the tallest in the group and he’s pretty, but the few times that he is in center i am absolutely paying attention to him. ‘im the other one chilling with them other ones’? no idea what the fuck that means but i absolutely believe him. honestly i can't even remember any other parts of that song. if sm ever decides to give him more parts i think we’ll see a uptick in his skills. he really knows how to work a camera; his expressions and body language are already really strong and he exudes confidence like an overeager puppy.

i think nct’s infinite concept is ridiculous and a bit disrespectful to the original members who’ve done the lion's share of the work building the brand. obviously i understand why sm did it, when you have an established brand that you can keep plugging new members into you essentially never have to take the risks involved with debuting a new group ever again. plus with nct’s whole.....new culture + technology thing, they’re primed for any of the weird awful tech updates that are inevitably coming in the next decade. no shade on the girls in aespa, i just find the idea of debuting a girl group with overly sexualized ai robot versions of themselves into a world where the boundaries between idol and fan are already constantly violated uhhh...........distasteful. to put it mildly. i also think the concept is disrespectful to the new members that constantly get added in; because they get added into a system that has a clear working structure based on those original members, who are going to be in every iteration ever. because they’re the proven selling points. at least when you debut a totally new group you’re giving those idols a clean slate. any of the new nct boys will never really have a chance to truly establish themselves outside of that context. plus they will forever be plagued by exclusionist stans. if you’re lucky and charismatic and pretty like lucas you might get the chance to get beyond that (he made it to superm after all), but for pretty much everyone else? anon you said it not me.

*** i know this is not actually what the mozart fallacy is. hence the wording change. but as far as i'm aware there isn’t actually a name for this phenomenon so i'm calling it like how i heard it first described, which was using mozart as an example.

[hypmic-writings]

Hi! ☺️ Can i request a scenario where nemu’s friend ‘s been in love with samatoki and finally decided to tell him their feelings. For the ending, you can decide if you want it to be fluff or angst. Thank you and have a nice day 😊😊

Thanks for requesting! This was adorable and, like everything else I’ve ever written, got a bit out of hand. Hope you enjoy~

--

You watched closely as Samatoki, Ichiro, Sasara, and Kuko laughed and joked around at the table. Having taken a position in the kitchen, you were able to hear the discussion without having to be a part of it.

This lead you to a pastime you had recently become fond of – watching Samatoki.

You watched him closely as his face shifted through a range of emotions, noting how intense his scowl looked when he was annoyed, yet how charming his smile looked when he laughed. His silver hair was slightly pulled back and his sharp, red eyes watched his teammates closely as the conversation flowed.  

“Y/N, you’re staring again,” Nemu giggled as you quickly turned towards her, your cheeks turning a delicate shade of pink.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about…” you mumbled, pulling out your phone in an effort to avoid her gaze. She laughed once more and nudged you gently in the arm.

“You can’t hide your feelings from me so easily, you know,” she said from the seat next to you. “Samatoki might be thick-headed, but I’m definitely not.”

You rolled your eyes at her, but took a moment to quickly glance back over at the table.

“I was just listening to their conversation. It’s not like I was paying any special attention to Samatoki,” you said, matter-of-factly. Nemu raised her eyebrow at you and shook her head.

“Oh yea? Tell me what they were just talking about,” she demanded, putting her hands on her hips. Your mind drew an utter blank and all you could think of was Samatoki’s jawline, and how good his outfit looked today.

“Um…a rap battle?” you guessed, knowing that this was the topic of 80% of their conversations. Nemu made a noise signaling that you had given the wrong answer and shook her head, bringing a hand up to her forehead.

“I don’t understand, if you like him so much, why not just ask him out?” she asked, pulling you over to the fridge so that you could help her put away the food she had bought.

You shifted your eyes quickly to Samatoki before bringing them back to your friend.

“I don’t know…what’s the point?” you asked, sighing. “He’s just going to say ‘sorry but I only think of you as a sister’ or something,” you grumbled, mimicking his voice. Nemu smiled encouragingly at you.

“Listen, I’ve known you since we were young and so has Samatoki. You’re a great friend and honestly, you make him a better person,” she iterated, tilting her head a bit. “And actually, I think you make him a lot less violent…” she trailed off in thought. You frowned a bit.

“What do you mean?” you asked, quizzically.

“Mmm, it’s hard to say exactly, but when he’s around you he gets a little softer. Like he doesn’t want to fight around you. Maybe he’s scared of hurting you?” she suggested. You bit your lip in thought.

“But he does the same with you, right? Wouldn’t that mean for sure that he thinks of me as a little sister?” you asked, sighing a bit. Nemu pouted and frowned.

“No, it’s different! I can’t explain it, but it is!” she exclaimed. You fidgeted with the hem of your dress as you thought about Samatoki.

It’s true that you had known him for an incredibly long time, but these feelings had never been this strong before. They had really only begun to form in the past few years. It was becoming increasingly more difficult to act natural around the boy when all he did was make your cheeks flush and your heart race.

Naturally, Nemu found out quickly, but Samatoki was non the wiser.

“Just go for it,” Nemu said, taking your had in her own and squeezing it encouragingly. “Plus, if you marry him, you’ll be my sister for real!” she squealed happily, making you blush once more and hush her quickly.

--

A few days later, you found yourself at the Aohitsugi residence once more. Nemu had texted you, asking if you wanted to go out, and you had agreed to meet her at her apartment. Unfortunately, she must have been running late, because when the door opened, it was Samatoki.

“Ah, S-Samatoki!” you exclaimed in surprise, your heart already beginning to beat a bit faster than normal. Samatoki casually took a step back, opening the door for you as he spoke.

“Hey, Y/N. Nemu had to run out for an errand real quick, but she said she would be back soon,” Samatoki said, pulling your coat from your hands and hanging it up for you. You took a deep breath and wondered if your friend had planned to leave you alone with him like this.

“Okay, that’s fine. I’ll just wait for her then,” you replied, trying to be calm, but finding your voice a few notes higher than usual. Samatoki frowned and looked over at you.

“You okay? Do you want some tea or anything? It’s pretty cold outside,” he remarked, closing the door quickly and following you into the apartment. You shook your head with a nervous smile.

“No, you don’t have to go through the trouble. I’m sure she’ll be here soon enough,” you said, waving your hands out in front of you. Samatoki shrugged.

“Whatever you say,” he said. “I’m putting on a pot for myself though, so I can’t promise I won’t make you some anyways,” he added, shooting you a small smile that made your breath catch in your throat.

You averted your eyes and quickly cleared your throat as you placed your bag on a nearby chair. There was a brief moment of silence as your thoughts raced. This was one of the very few times you had ever been completely alone with Samatoki. Maybe Nemu was right…maybe you had to clear the air with him. Regardless of how he felt about you, he deserved to know your feelings for him.

You would just have to deal with the aftermath.

You slowly turned from your spot towards the kitchen, clasping your hands together as your heart raced in your chest. Where you were once feeling cold when you walked into the apartment, you now felt like you were on fire.

You watched Samatoki for a moment as he poured water into the kettle. When he noticed you standing in the corner of the kitchen he looked up.

“Huh? What’s up? You look like you’re gonna throw up,” Samatoki said, a plain look on his face. You quickly covered your face with your hands and shook your head. Why would he say something like that!?

“No, it’s not…I’m fine,” you managed, taking a deep breath before looking back over at Samatoki. He had put down the pot and you know had his complete attention. His ruby eyes seemed to sparkle as the gazed at you and you willed yourself not to get lost in them.

“There’s something that I’ve been meaning to tell you for a while…” you began, slowly and trying to sound as sure of yourself as possible. “…I just never really knew how to say it…honestly, I still don’t think I know.”

You continued to hold his gaze as you bit your lip in anticipation.

“What are you talking about?” he asked, confused now. You quickly began to speak once more, afraid that you would be interrupted or lose the will to confess your feelings.

“I have feelings for you, Samatoki,” you blurted out, feeling the heat rise to your face as you quickly dropped your gaze down to your feet. “I’m not sure what brought them on, but…I like you,” you stated, a bit quieter now.

There was a brief moment of silence which made you slowly lift your gaze up to Samatoki’s. What you saw in his eyes was surprise and a bit of confusion. When he didn’t move or speak you frowned, your hand over your heart which was pounding hard.

“Do you like me?” you asked, barely audibly. When he realized that your eyes were now on him in anticipation, Samatoki moved his gaze away from you.

You could have been wrong, but you thought his cheeks appeared to be just the slightest shade of pink.

“What are you talking about? Of course, I like you,” he mumbled, crossing his arms in front of him. “I’ve known you forever. If I didn’t like you by now, you would know,” he added, his words sharp but his tone soft.

You could only let the words sink in and wonder if he was reciprocating your feelings, or if he had misunderstood you.

“No, Samatoki,” you said, working up the nerve to ask him as directly as possible. “I have…romantic…feelings for you…” you trailed off, dropping your eyes once more as the words you spoke were far too embarrassing to say to his face. You didn’t have to wait long for a response as Samatoki shifted in front of you.

“Yea, I got that,” he stated defensively. “…I’m not stupid you know…” he grumbled under his voice.

His words made you quickly look back at him, finding his face to be even more lit with a pink hue than before. He was turned away and had his eyes fixed elsewhere. This didn’t bother you though as you felt yourself break into a smile with a sigh of relief.

“Really? So you feel the same way?” you asked, bringing your hands together and gazing up at him with hope in your heart. He glanced back at you before closing his eyes and sighing, bringing a hand to the back of his neck.

“Yea, I guess you could say that…” he stated, lowly. You covered your mouth with your hand as you excitedly took a step towards him. He looked down at you now with wide eyes and shook his head.

“What’s with that face?” he asked, quickly holding his head high and keeping a straight face. You reached out and took his hand in your own, grinning at him, unable to contain your own happiness.

“I’m just really happy you feel the same way too! I was worried…” you started, but then decided it would be better not to tell him your worries.

Samatoki started slightly at your touch and gazed at you with wide eyes, his heart beating just a bit faster as you looked up at him with a loving smile. He turned away once more, pressing his lips into a thin line and feeling his cheeks warm up once again.

“You shouldn’t wait so long to tell me these kinds of things. Next time say something sooner, okay?” he said, turning all of his attention to the water on the boiler. You tilted your head in confusion.

“Next time?” you asked.

Before Samatoki could say anything else, the door opened and a voice called out.

“I’m home!”

You felt Samatoki jump at the sound and you quickly let go of his hand, taking a step back. You tried to leave the kitchen but before you could, Nemu popped her head into the doorway with a grin.

“Did I miss anything fun?”

[whateverthedragonswant]

and the rewatch continues

So rewatching most of season 5 and dipping into season 6, after coming from season 4, I found some things very interesting, things I actually had forgotten about and some that just hit differently now that the show has ended:

Season 4:

Brothers - different iterations: Had that finale happened after this season, it might have made better sense (though I STILL say the manner of Dean’s death is laughable)

Destiel & Cas: While Cas and Dean have some uncomfortable staring contests and there’s chemistry, I didn’t get the whole Destiel vibe (this is just my personal take), yes there’s a bond there, a growing partnership so to speak but I feel like Cas is not around enough for it to be in the forefront of the story or even to demand Dean’s attention in a way. Like Cas made his big entrance in 4x01 and we saw how things took off from there for the story and for this connection/bond between he and Dean but Dean is early season Dean and Cas is early season Cas. Though I found Cas’ interest in everything Dean Winchester to be intriguing (and he put Dean back together with his own hands, I just...this really does become the greatest love story ever told, I swear), I personally didn’t get the whole UST vibes that has been talked about. I actually found myself wanting to go deeper into Cas’ story (a la 6x20 style) aside from Dean’s and Sam’s. 

Anna: That whole night with Anna was purely that: a night. There wasn’t a whole lot of chemistry between Jensen and Julie and it’s very clear that this whole sex-on-last-night-on-earth thing is for comfort, for both characters. I kind of get why they switched up gears there for Dean’s angel role, even if they didn’t intend for Destiel to read as romantic at all initially. 4x09 & especially 4x10 were so obviously trying to ying and yang the brothers and the sides that had chosen them/complemented them: Anna | Ruby, Heaven | Hell -> eventually Michael | Lucifer. But back to Anna, while I enjoyed her character and would have loved to delve deeper with her, I am glad Cas was the one who got to stay. Anna and Dean had no chemistry, outside of a couple of glances before the big hookup/last night on Earth deal, there wasn’t really anything there. Tbf, they didn’t have a lot of private time before that, except maybe one convo. To me, in this scenario, Anna was a source of comfort (after she tells Dean he needs to forgive himself for what happened in Hell which I very much appreciated, someone had to tell him that) and attraction, letting her have her last night on Earth, a hookup, etc. But there was nothing deeper there. And for this bond with an angel to happen, there needed to be something deeper there. Perhaps had Anna been around longer and didn’t go the way she did in season 5, it might have but I honestly tend to doubt it. We all know Cas and Dean’s (Misha’s and Jensen’s) natural chemistry is off the charts. I’m not sure Anna (Julie) could have competed with that had both Cas and Anna stuck around together. I know I’m completely biased here, but I almost felt like Anna and Cas had more chemistry together, it might have been because they got more face time, I’m not sure. But I thoroughly enjoyed watching it all go down again.

Adam: Omg I forgot about how Adam wasn’t Adam when Dean and Sam first met him. That was heartbreaking on so many levels, but mostly for Adam and his mom dying the way they did and of course, for Dean and Sam. Namely Dean because he was the most affected by finding out about Adam’s existence. And I swear I fell in love with Dean more in that episode as a character because despite his pain, his anger, his hurt, he still tries to do the right thing by Adam, to honor his dad’s wishes. And John...that mf’er doesn’t deserve any of those boys as his sons. What an asshole through and through. 

Season 5:

Destiel & Cas: And now we see Cas becoming a bit more forefront and the vibe has changed...slightly. Now it’s a partnership turning into a friendship. Dean and Cas get a bit more face time and it shows. 5x03 was awesome and of course the wholly unnecessary line of “One, Bert and Ernie are gay” -- like where did that come from? I still loved it. It was tough to see Dean and Sam go their separate ways in the beginning but we still got some gold out of it with 5x03 and 5x04. And thankfully, we get more into not only more of the angel and apocalypse lore this season, but we also get to see how Cas�� relationship with the Winchesters is changing and more of what makes Cas tick as a character in his own right. And of course, bamf!Cas was very present. 

Brothers: Once again, had that finale happened after this season, it might have made more sense (sans the junk death) - because it’s very obvious that the co-dependency is alive and well here and it would have made more sense for their characters - while they have others outside of the two of them they are caring about (Bobby, Ellen, Jo just to name a few), it’s still the exclusive Winchester-only club. I truly enjoyed watching these two working together and moving towards the season finale. Dean’s memory of Sam and the fireworks, Dean talking about how Sam’s best memories weren’t the same as his (shocker, John Winchester is a d-bag, I’ll keep saying it), Dean struggling to make the decision to say yes to Michael, having to agree with the plan for Sam to say yes to Lucifer to try to trap the latter, Dean showing up to the cemetery -- all of it was incredible and the two of them were the beating heart of the show at that point. 5x22 will always be one of my favorite season finales for that show. It was pure awesomeness, truly epic and perfect.

Dean: holy hell, they really, really threw a lot into Dean this season - not that they hadn’t before, but damn. Each season just amps up the Dean game, just like I remember, and I am happily here for it again. No offense to Sam at all, but Dean is just so complex, so complicated yet straightforward, and there’s so many layers to him that they just keep peeling back and they feed us well each season. I swear, if you turned the sound off and just watched that scene where Dean tells Zachariah to call Michael, where Dean and Sam go their separate ways, you would know exactly everything Dean is feeling and thinking thanks to the incredible talent of one Mr. Jensen Ackles. Just really incredible. How this man never got nominated for an Emmy at any point for this show just astounds me. Yes, I know that show wasn’t considered a contender for that type of award run, but dammmnnnn. He deserves it and more. Watching this season and season 4 really brought back the original reasons I fell in love with Dean as a character in the first place. One of the best characters ever, I’m telling you. And may I just say, I hated that they brought back John’s leather jacket for him in the season finale but I get it, it was Kripke’s swan song (did I just do that? I believe I did) so we of course went back to core Winchester things, not just in story but every element. I’m ngl, I was so glad to see Dean shed it though when he is sitting down to dinner with Lisa and Ben.

Apocalypse: I thoroughly enjoyed this whole plot line - this really was high stakes, more than ever before, and though angels were dicks, there was Lucifer of course and a mysterious though mostly absent God behind the curtain - you just never knew what was going to be thrown at you next, just like the boys were going through.

Heaven/Mary: even though this definitely has to do with Dean more so, I did enjoy them seeing Ash and Pam, Ash’s setup, and of course Mary being there, seeing how such a good memory could be manipulated by the dick angels and the horrible things Mary said to Dean. Of course, I felt for Dean but it was interesting to see that whole scene play out. Plus we got even more confirmation of what we’ve known all along: John is a bonafide asshole and Dean really did experience facets of spousification, even before Mary died (which just makes me so sad for him, I swear if they don’t put a Cas vs John scene in the reboot... because you know Cas will win that thumb war)

Meg: ngl, I wasn’t really crazy about this iteration of Meg - I don’t mean Rachel Miner’s version, just this particular performance, which I chalk up to whoever decided they wanted her to go this route in her performance - I couldn’t believe it was the same character, the same actress - I am so glad the show/Rachel developed the character we all love to hate and secretly really love to how she was in later seasons

Jo: omg Jo. I have to admit, in season 2, in the first episode she showed up in, I despised her. She was like that bratty teenage kid who’s a real pain in the ass and whines and doesn’t get it. But after that episode, I grew to love her with each one she was in. She became a bamf in her own right and I loved seeing that come through this season especially. Her death was horrific (what is it with this show killing off bamf female hunters in such a gruesome way? it brought back horrible Eileen flashbacks for me personally, and for them to turn Meg and Ketch into somewhat redeemable characters after that... you know, I swear...) but heroic and I had never been more proud of my girl. Except the scene with Dean in the kitchen. As much as I love my chaotic hunter son, I was glad to see Jo flip him off in the way she did. So proud. And then her goodbye with Dean, I had forgotten exactly what he did so I was going “omg, she just saved you, Dean, this girl has feelings for you, she deserves at least a kiss, kiss her. right. the fuck. now!” and sure enough, he did, on the forehead, which I was like okay, well I get it, he doesn’t return those feelings but he does care about her but dammit, she deserved for him to plant one on her. and then he did and I was just gone, I was a complete bawling mess. And her goodbye scene with Ellen, and then her death along with Ellen’s sacrificing herself to stay by Jo’s side and give the boys a chance to get out of there...yeah, I didn’t stop crying for about five minutes. I cannot tell you how much I miss those characters and I would have sold someone else’s right arm to make their return in the series finale happen. Besides the obvious characters that should have been present, Ellen, Jo, and Ash deserved to be there (just not Samantha and Chad, if we can get a “Cas helped” for the third major character/lead, we can also get a “Ellen and Jo went to assist in setting up the honeymoon suite above the roadhouse - I said what I said).

John: usually, I cannot abide giving any time to this jerk, never mind talking about him, but I have to say I enjoyed seeing pre-loss John in 5x13. That conversation he has with Sam I think is so glaringly important. I know it was for Sam to forgive John and heal, but the fact that John himself is saying “how could he do that to you? he was supposed to protect you” -- yep, that was pure poetic cinema in my eyes. Because pre-loss John is right, how dare post-loss John do that to his boys? There’s no excuse anyone or this show can give him. As much as I love JDM, post-loss John Winchester will never be okay in my book.

Adam: omg Adam. First of all, I loved his dynamic with Sam and Dean. I really, really wish we could have had him around longer just for that alone. What an awesome character we could have had giving Dean and Sam a run for their money. “Well, we’re working on the power of love.” “How’s that going?” “Not so great.” -- give me an episode of the three brothers on a milk run hunt (sans generic mask-wearing vampmimes) with all of the fixings and I swear we would get done!Sam, consistently being roasted between Dean and Adam, and then Dean thinking he’s got a mutual now, a BFF, and Adam turning right around to roast him as well. It would be epic, I tell you, epic. I wish Adam had gotten a better end, this season and at the end of the series. He certainly deserved better. And this may be a random observation but why did Michael take Adam at all? I know the countdown had begun and he was desperate to grab a vessel so he could fight Lucifer at the appointed time and Dean was not giving in (that he knew of), but what chance of victory did he think he had without using his true vessel? Using that logic, I guess Michael’s end in the series makes more sense now...? Who knows.

Chuck: Swan Song (5x22) and the lines, “Endings are hard. Any chapped ass monkey with a keyboard can poop out a beginning but endings are impossible. You try to tie up every loose end but you never can. The fans are always gonna bitch. There’s always gonna be holes. And since it’s the ending, it’s all supposed to add up to something. I’m telling you, they’re a raging pain in the ass“ -- did anyone else feel like that was Kripke speaking or is it just me?

Season 6:

the whole Lisa thing: while it was nice to see Dean go domestic, I have to say I was more invested in Dean and Ben’s relationship development than I was with Dean and Lisa’s. The chemistry just wasn’t there, I have to be honest (he and Anna actually had more chemistry for a few minutes than he did with Lisa this whole season). I don’t doubt they loved each other, it was real, and Lisa was good for him at the time but it just didn’t have that spark. I loved Lisa as a character in her own right, but I was happy to see her and Dean eventually go their separate ways. Though my heart broke for Ben on that one. He and Dean really had a whole father-son bond happening there. I appreciated that when Ben called him, even that one time that nothing was really wrong, Dean dropped everything and headed right over. They had a bond of their own happening outside of Dean and Lisa’s. I think Dean ultimately made the right choice in the end to keep Lisa and Ben safe (though they should have been able to choose if they wanted this), but God did that cost him and we see it in that scene outside of the hospital with Sam. How much that hurt for him, and for us to see how it killed him to do it. I’m still grateful that he got to see what the domestic life was like and that he got a reprieve from hunting for a bit. It made complete sense as to why Cas didn’t want to pull him back in to ask for help with Raphael.

Destiel: Welp, now there’s definitely an emotional relationship happening. Meaning the bond has become even more forefront and not only is Dean affected, but we also see that Cas is, too. Dean’s reaction to finding out Cas was working with Crowley the whole time, Cas’ reaction to Dean choosing to save the two boys instead of focusing on finding Eve, Cas’ reaction to Dean’s stance on the Crowley situation, Dean’s finding out Crowley kidnapped Lisa and Ben, Cas asking Dean to trust him, Dean seeing Cas becoming the new God and needing to summon Death, etc. It was fantastic. While it hurt during some moments, I enjoyed seeing the dynamics and reactions to these situations play out. This is definitely a friendship now, a family relationship formed (and still forming) like Dean says in 6x20. Imho, Jensen and Misha knocked it out of the park this season when it came to that relationship. I loved it.

Cas: holy hell, 6x20 has become one of my all-time favorite episodes of SPN. I loved seeing Cas’ POV. Cas was already a fave character of mine but this episode made me fall in love with him all over again. This was incredible and I’m so thankful they fed us so well with this one. I really enjoyed seeing Cas as a character stepping into the forefront, right there with Dean and Sam. Yes, he was a part of TFW before this, but you have to admit that in this season, it becomes a whole new ball game. Really amazing stuff and of course, Misha slayed it all.

Meg & Megstiel: I was so happy to see the iteration of Meg return that we know from later seasons. Maybe I’m just too used to that version but to me this felt more effortless for the character and for Rachel, that really let both shine. Personally, I’m not a Megstiel shipper. While I love their dynamic, it just isn’t there for me, but I really did enjoy their scenes together. Cas felt as if he needed a little shaking up so to speak so I think she was perfect for that. Plus, I have a hard time forgiving those in the show that sic Hellhounds on my bamf female hunters so that might be partially the reason for my bias, just saying. (I never really forgave Ketch either)

Samuel...& Co: I just...why? Don’t get me wrong, I liked Mitch but this felt a bit...I don’t know...off? Other than some place for Soulless!Sam to go while Dean was playing house and for nabbing Alphas for Crowley, I don’t get what the point of this story line was? Was it to show us that Mary’s dad was a d-bag? Check. Was it to show us how people sometimes make the worst decisions when it comes to their family? Double check. Like, we kind of already got that and it was just unnecessary confirmation if that makes sense. And the thing that kills me is that Samuel was in Hell (or goes to Hell, I kind of did other things in the background during that arc) but he loved his daughter enough to betray her sons and do the wrong thing but John gets to go to Heaven? This still confounds me. Though I enjoyed Gwen and it was a shame she couldn’t be a family contact in another state for the boys later on to pop up every now and then.

Soulless!Sam: I enjoyed this part of Sam’s arc but I won’t lie, I was relieved like everyone else when he finally got his soul back though waited with bated breath for the other shoe to drop. But it was interesting to see this side of Sam.

Dad!Dean: I know I mentioned Dean and Ben above, but that one episode with the shifter!baby, that was priceless and God, did I love it.

I just loved going back to this for both boys

[rpgmgames]

February’s Featured Game: Ressurflection

DEVELOPER(S): charlottezxz ENGINE: RPG Maker MV GENRE: Fantasy, Cartoon, RPG WARNINGS: Paranoia, fear and tension, mild swearing and blood. SUMMARY: Ressurflection is a Fantasy/cartoon RPG set in the fictional universe of the Arbvar and taking center stage primarily at the coastal city of ‘Horizon Bluff’. Its story and game play are heavily character driven, with its narrative divided into two parallels told both within and outside the mirror itself. Ressurflection’s core themes draw from our inevitability of fearing death, and that at some point or another, we all must accept it, and to treasure what’s really important in the time that we have.

Our Interview With The Dev Team Below The Cut!

Introduce yourself! *charlottezxz: Hiya this is Charlotte, lead game developer for Ressurflection! I’m some silly, overactive drawing monkey who works a lot with Narrow on Ressurflection! I’m always sketching and conceptualizing monster bois, taking a lot of inspiration from various games, primarily monster hunter! I’ve had avid interest in the Indie scene for a while now and a lot of the great friends I've made have been due to it and a lot of my recent favorite games have come from it! I would have had Narrow say a few things here but he’s hiding in a corner somewhere!

What is your project about? What inspired you to create this game initially? *charlottezxz: Ressurflection started out as what can be described as two separate stories. Myself and Narrow wrote our own stories and every so often we swapped over ideas or combined them together with each other. One day I said to ourselves ‘You know what? This could work quite well as a game rather than just a story’ so eventually Ressurflection was conceived, around the idea of a mythical mirror capable ‘Ressurflection’ the title of the game. We’ve gone through quite a few iterations of the story before it came to its current form and to be honest if we even showed or compared them side by side they’d be pretty unrecognizable as the same thing except for certain characters, locations and the mirror itself to identify its primordial form having any kind of ancestral relevance to how it is today. As for what Ressurflection is about, I think our synopsis can get that across quite nicely! ‘Horizon Bluff has always annually held its ‘Legend of the Wyvern Glass’ festivities. The Wyvern glass was a long lost mythical mirror, once fabled for its power of ‘Ressurflection’ and coveted by a kingdom now all but gone. That is quick to change however with the arrival of the Roulette Runner’s circus to the coastal city of Horizon Bluff. Trouble is soon to set in motion not just the kingdom’s sudden reappearance but the entrapment of one of their own acrobats within the mirror silver. Yet things are soon to worsen...with the spread of a purple ‘corruption’ across the city and the fact that our most unfortunate trouper is far from alone within the mirror, finding himself at the mercy of its ‘Mirror Maiden’. > The apparent all powerful manipulator of its realm…’

How long have you been working on your project? *charlottezxz: Conceptually we have been working on it for 4 years which is hard to even fathom, however that’s more tinkering around the idea for the story and conceiving it as we learnt the engine. The blog itself is hitting its 4th birthday in February! Ressuflection’s development went on as i attended university, so its always been a side lined hobby of ours.Steam says 108 days worth of hours in the engine and most of the game progress other than concepts has been done in 2019. So I could say 4 years for the ideas/stories and concepts and a year of that for actual game making!

Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project? *charlottezxz: We each have our own inspirations, Lost Odyssey, Final Fantasy 9, Xenoblade Chronicles, Monster hunter and many older PSX titles such as Medievil, Tomba and Heart of darkness are great influences and inspirations to me personally. The dark, dangerous environments of Heart of darkness contrasted by some innocent characters, the monster designs in capcom’s franchise and the storytelling and themes with a cinematic approach to cut scenes found in some of FF9, Xenoblade and Lost odyssey, a lost game stuck in the recess of the xbox 360. There are many more but these spring to mind first and foremost. Narrow himself draws inspiration from games such as Earthbound, the Persona series and FF10!

Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them? *charlottezxz: We started the project in VX ace to begin with, until MV released. It was in Ace that I experimented learning RPG maker and in the early days of MV too. Although before Ressurflection’s time i also dabbled a bit in XP. MV seemed more in line for what we wanted, as i really wanted to try animating beyond SV sheets and do more, with Java being a bit more flexible and the scope of it being able to allow dragon bones later. However it hasn’t been without its hiccups! Part of that is the sheer amount of time you underestimate games and certain elements to take in their development. That and everything that comes with it, streamlining, trimming the fat...in the past week alone i spent days optimizing pictures, sounds and music in the game to cut down the staggering file sizes they were. So far they have retained their form without being as costly on the MB! Since I do the vast majority of the game development myself, everything takes a lot longer to develop. You underestimate all the little things to consider and that you may need later. By the end of development, I hope to have the vast majority of the game consist of custom assets and be able to truly call it something that is ours. Though that path is long ahead we won’t stray too far from it.

Have any aspects of your project changed over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept? *charlottezxz: The game itself has always been a story-driven RPG at its heart, although certain game mechanics have been scaled down or developed further from puzzles to battle flow. As mentioned previously, the story has changed considerably which changed the direction of the overall narrative and gameplay as a whole. Certain characters and scenarios have been culled completely too. At its start the story wasn’t as heartfelt nor was the scope of the story all that big - Oh and the game had a time limit, a bit like Majora’s Mask! But it is a lot more meaningful now and we hope that you will enjoy it when the time comes.

What was your team like at the beginning? How did people join the team? If you don’t have a team, do you wish you had one or do you prefer working alone? *charlottezxz: It has been just myself and Narrow for the majority of the development but we reached a point where we wanted to reach out to find a musician for our game. We eventually came across Geoff who has done the majority of our music up until recently. However we have had friends help and contribute along the way such as Harry helping sprite some NPCs for me, Bart helping formulate and do some math balancing, Vaijack has also contributed to music making him our second musical boi and more on the way, our preliminary demo testers( it would take a little to list them all) and more peeps i’ll be sure to credit!

What is the best part of developing a game? *charlottezxz: For me it has to be conceptualising all the little ideas we have and bringing them all into being. This is especially so for any monster and character bois! I spend a lot of time visualizing and planning the design of areas, locales and creatures. Would this thing live here? Why would it be this way? If this is a historical town wouldn’t it have x and x? Then when we ultimately put it together, and all the pieces of the puzzle line into place and then you can just...experience, the final thing, that for me is the best part in developing our game for me.

Do you find yourself playing other RPG Maker games to see what you can do with the engine, or do you prefer to do your own thing? *charlottezxz: I learn best by doing, so more often than not I just dive into things, including the engine blind and tussle around with it. It’s a silly way of doing it, but I've often found myself learning more that way than following tutorials. Although in any game I've played, RPG maker or not, i do like to ponder and deconstruct scenes within them. The Witch's house, Pocket Mirror, Dreaming Mary, Mad fathers and Ib are all wonderful games that are great to learn from, dissect and understand what makes and made them tick. This applies across any game I've played or intend to play! I look at game making as one giant puzzle with lots of intricate little details that need to be solved, it’s more fun and engaging that way!

Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?) *charlottezxz: There’s some characters I like a great deal, but i can’t talk about as it would be spoilers to the plot, that and it’s hard to pick any overall favorites. Charm comes across as a fun character to write for as she’s quite witty and sarcastic, the kind of dialogue that comes a bit too naturally to me. She’s a budding magical prodigy of the circus under the tutelage of Jerine. She bigs herself up a lot but isn’t quite ready to deal with the problems of the adult world just yet, as much as she strives to get into it. Then there’s the likes of Ashley as well, she’s the loudest circus member and a close friend to Zakai, its ringmaster. She’s a super hard working down to earth country girl who isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty and jump into the thick of things. Honestly I love all the cast, but there’s those two for now!

Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *charlottezxz: I would say ideally we should have had all our ducks in a row before we dove into development. My development style is very messy, especially since when we started development we had a lot of learning ahead of us. That combined with focusing on a lot of coursework and real life things meant I often forgot how we made things for consistency. This has improved considerably since i started getting more organised now, keeping lists and things tabbed for reference. My desk has bits of paper kept with it with information I need to retain. I forget far too many things for my own good, but now I'm taking better count measures! I would advise anyone to keep tabs of important information about your game such as consistent sprite style sizes, resolution size, x and y positions of certain things and important variables and switches.

Do you plan to explore the game’s universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is? *charlottezxz: There’s a few ideas bounced about to do side stories for some of the cast of characters in the circus, such as before they became one and the origins of how certain members joined the circus essentially the ‘First Stringers’ and ‘Second stringers’, these being those that joined afterwards. These would be great to do as small little episodes added onto the game post development, but currently they are just ideas and won’t be given too much thought until the game is either done or close to fruition.

What do you most look forward to upon finishing the game? *charlottezxz: My most hopeful thought is for people to enjoy the game and have as much fun and interest in it as myself and Narrow have had in creating it. It’s the kind of game we want to make and hope that the characters and story chime with people enough for people to see the journey through to its end! It’s a big scope of a project but i have endless enthusiasm for it, no matter how long it takes it will get out there at some point!

Is there something you’re afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game? *charlottezxz: That the games story and overall feel doesn’t quite hit the right notes, it's always a little back concern. From a technical perspective I would say that the game might have some oversighted bugs or critical crashes that slip under the radar or not run as smoothly on other PCs on release. We will do our best to optimise the game as much as possible for MV and squash those pesky bugs during testing, but it is on our minds often as a niggling fear.

Do you have any advice for upcoming devs? *charlottezxz: Gut everything from the base project that you know you most definitely will not be needing and give all your files smart tags and naming conventions. It would be great if MV allowed for sub folders, but it does not so naming your files smartly is key to finding what you need. Any of these files you know you will use often in certain ways, make them common events and call for those in events and cut scenes. This saves you mass editing them later. With naming conventions this could be Actor_1_Hurt or Chapter_1_NPC. Anything you want at the top of the list name it with _ to begin with. The bigger our project gets, the more important this has become for us and we hope it serves other inspiring devs well all the same.

Question from last month's featured dev @rojisroomrpg: How do you keep yourself happy and healthy when making your game? *charlottezxz: I’m normally a happy-go-lucky person, so I'm rarely not happy when working on Ressurflection. It's the happy little hobby I devote most of my spare time to. However, recently i would say my hands, wrists and neck have been hurting from spending a little too much time drawing assets and pieces for the game. Taking more breaks and spreading that time with other activities in between has helped to ease that pain and i would like to advise any dev to do so for their own health, including always having one or two bottles of juice, water or whatever beverage always at hand to sip at as you dev away!

We mods would like to thank charlottezxz for agreeing to our interview! We believe that featuring the developer and their creative process is just as important as featuring the final product. Hopefully this Q&A segment has been an entertaining and insightful experience for everyone involved!

Remember to check out Ressurflection if you haven’t already! See you next month! 

- Mods Gold & Platinum

[mittensmorgul]

I wrote this post about 4.22 back on June 21, 2019, about two months after 14.20 aired, and before we began getting any real information about s15 other than our own headcanons:

https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/185754144990/422-lucifer-rising-kinda-says-it-all-right

Go read that. It’s not very long.

*sigh* fine if you don’t wanna take five whole minutes, here’s the tl;dr:

But really, do we believe that anything they did could’ve altered the result of this season? Just as Dean had been confined to Hell until he broke that first seal, I don’t believe that anything could’ve prevented Sam from breaking that final seal. Because this is just another one of those scenarios where if Chuck wanted it to happen, it would’ve happened, no matter what they did to prevent it.

Aah, 14.20, you are a beautiful thing… Chuck likes everyone to think they’re entirely relying on their own will to succeed or fail, but when push comes to shove, he’s perfectly willing to snap his fingers and make the universe what he wants… and heck, isn’t that both terrifying and incredible? Because in the face of that unimaginable power, TFW still stands up and fights. Go team!

I just watched 4.21 and 4.22 again, with an additional 10 episodes of s15 for fuller context, and I’ve come to an even grander conclusion.

To Chuck, the Author™ of this whole story, s4 was his Moment Of Perfection. This was the one and only time his story, in his eyes, worked perfectly. He got everything he wanted, even with the last minute attempt by Dean and Cas to fight against the story they were apparently destined to fulfill, because it’s what Chuck had written. It was a super close thing, though. It nearly failed. If Cas had broken a few minutes sooner, if Sam had responded to Dean banging on the door of the chapel rather than giving in to Lilith’s taunts and Ruby’s goading, Chuck’s apocalypse never would’ve gotten off the ground.

All because Dean (and Cas...) had learned just enough to show them the TRUE choice they hadn’t realized they even had all season long. They could’ve chosen not to play the game. They could’ve chosen to stick together instead of fighting amongst themselves. They could’ve chosen... not to act. But they’d been so busy fighting amongst themselves over which one of them was right and which was wrong, thinking they actually understood the big picture at play here when they’d all been hopelessly led into the weeds for exactly this purpose, that they failed to realize just how badly they’d been manipulated.

In s5, they were still distracted by that manipulation. Chuck just... never let up on them. He zapped them from the Lucifer Rising spot onto an airplane, Dean angry at Sam for all of it-- letting himself buy into the poisoned narrative of s4, drinking demon blood and hiding it from him, lying about his powers and his plots with Ruby, freeing Lucifer and starting the apocalypse... all of it--, Sam feeling guilty like he has to atone for that failure, demons and angels both continuing to mess with them, Cas exiled from heaven for having rebelled... and then they start having to face Revelation come to life and Sam and Dean are nothing more than the destined meatsuits for Lucifer and Michael to wear to do the Big Armageddon Tango, and there’s no time to sit down and consider what’s actually going on, what the reason for all this mess is, and who might actually want it all to happen.

From 5.01 on, though... Chuck’s narrative began falling apart. Mostly in little ways, at first. And he still got the bittersweet “one brother sacrificed to save the world while the other endures while bearing the weight of the sacrifice alone” ending he thinks is actually satisfying in any way (what a fucking dumbass edgelord, amirite?)... until he didn’t because Cas refused to let Sam’s sacrifice stand as-is. So Chuck kept writing, kept interfering, kept pushing for endless retellings of his favored narrative in a vain attempt to finally “get it right,” to either wear down TFW until they capitulated and let his ending stand, or until they stumbled hard enough to tumble headfirst into his ending anyway. 

But there’s one thing Chuck NEVER factored into his favored narrative. The fact that he couldn’t un-ring the bell, couldn’t un-teach the lesson they all learned in s4. Namely, that Destiny™ is a great big pile of shit, and they aren’t completely powerless against it as long as they understand the truth of it. They know now, the full extent of Chuck’s manipulation, and they’re so shaken at the midseason point of 15 that they don’t know what to believe anymore.

Were they ever the heroes? Was everything they’ve achieved up to this point just “luck?” or worse, Chuck’s direct involvement in their lives making them into the heroes? Because down that road, along that sort of train of thought, lies madness. Hopelessness. Because how do you ever stand a chance of winning your way free from a story you have very little control over, and zero real power to resist? It drives them to make desperate choices, or to believe they have no other choice.

And for YEARS, literal actual years, I’ve been saying there’s no worse phrase on this show... we didn’t have a choice.

And in 15.10, they resorted to that old chestnut several times...

I think this manipulation goes back even further in the narrative, too. The terrible ultimatum Dean was given by John’s dying wish in 2,01. John, the consummate Chuck mirror, his last words to Dean have honestly shaped the rest of the narrative that’s come after--

You either have to Save Sammy, or you’ll have to kill him...

Because that’s what Chuck has been trying to force them to do since the start.

One brother kills the other.

That’s his story.

That’s his self-defense argument he’s been attempting to justify over and over again, through every iteration of the universe, both because he needs to feel “Big,” that he needs to feel powerful, but also because he needs to feel that HE did the “right thing,” locking up Amara so that he could create unhindered by her very existence in creation nullifying his perceived place in it.

As above, so below, and by gum he’s gonna keep forcing his narrative until he gets the ending he wants, even if he has to break all of reality to get it for himself. He will NOT be defied in this.

God was really, honestly, never on their side.

Only, Chuck refuses to accept that Sam and Dean (and Cas...) have never, ever, been on his side, either.

Through each new attempt to manipulate his desired ending out of them, TFW have endured. They’ve learned a little bit more. They’ve progressively made it harder and harder for Chuck to get the ending he wants from them, to the point he’s now entirely laser-focused on forcing them to capitulate to his will, directly, using the full force of his creative power to bring it about. And I think that will ultimately prove to be Chuck’s downfall... breaking himself because puny human free will and LOVE will prove a more powerful cosmic force than his own self-obsessive narrative.