#I always look forward to your metas op

[itsclydebitches]

re: that ask you posted a couple days ago about the male and female representation in RWBY, part of what makes RWBY's whole 'girl power' thing ring exceptionally hollow to me is the fact that there are like... no women in positions of real power in remnant. like at all. except the big bad.

winter is second in command to james. glynda is second in command to ozpin. all of the headmasters are men (for no discernible reason, imo; why theodore and not dorothea?). the leader of the ace ops was a white man (and then winter seemed to take over clover's position instead of either of the women of color on the team, and she was still second to james). RWBY is an all girl team, but JNPR was led by a boy despite a girl arguably being far more qualified (pyrrha). the happy huntresses are all women, and robyn had no real power to speak of--she didn't even manage to win the election, because jacques rigged it, and then the council ceased to matter. there was one (1) woman on the council, but she was so inconsequential that i can't even remember her name. (i suppose we're lucky it was the guy and not her who james shot lol) jacques controls the SDC instead of willow, even though he's not even a schnee by blood and actually married into the family for power. (and we don't even know how he got it over his wife.)

and then there's the white fang, which ghira led and not kali--and it's ghira who leads menagerie itself, while kali seems to be a housewife. sienna had five minutes of screentime before being brutally killed and her position assumed by adam, a man. cordovin is basically a one off lackey we haven't even thought about before or since. neo was second to roman. you have cinder, sure, who is a second but to salem, a woman, and raven as the leader of the branwen tribe--but what does it really say about your 'girl power' narrative when the only women with genuine systemic power in your world are villains or antagonists with massive bodycounts??

atla has the same sort of problem--a couple great female characters, but all the leadership positions are men (except the kyoshi warriors, an all girls group, and even then the leader of their island is an old man) and the one female mentor figure also turns out to be evil--but it at least has some great writing to help overlook that fact, and it came out in the mid-00's and so has some sort of excuse of being a product of its time. but rwby didn't even start until 2013 and it's still going and still making these kinds of decisions well into 2021.

where is this supposed girl power, exactly? am i really supposed to overlook the very patriarchal worldbuilding just because the title characters are girls?

That's an excellent summary of the situation, anon, and as with so much in RWBY, it comes down to the full context. Any one of these examples isn't necessarily going to mean much on its own. It's when you look at the pattern that you can start making a case for those conclusions: Why is the show marketed on "girl power" set in a world where men hold the vast majority of that power? And, more importantly, why is that setup not the point? We could easily have a story where that lopsided gender dynamic is the problem that the girls are looking to fix, but... that story doesn't exist. Like the problems discussed with Jaune, the supposed point here exists only on the surface. Dig just the tinniest bit — the above — and you hit on a lot of structural problems with this "girl power" world.

To add just a few details to what you've already said:

Salem indeed has power, but she's never allowed to fully use it. Each volume the frustration with this grows as Salem accumulates more abilities and then just sits on them. From literally hiding out for a thousand years to worries that she won't use the Staff in Volumes 9-10, Salem really isn't allowed to be the threat she's presented as on the surface. And yes, this is absolutely due in part to the "She's too OP and the writers don't know how to let her be that powerful while still having the heroes win" issue, but again, context. That problem doesn't exclude others occurring simultaneously.

Same double explanation with Summer. Yes, dead moms are an incredibly common trauma to dump on a protagonist, but it still left Yang and Ruby with Tai as their primary influence. And Qrow. The uncle becomes the extended family influence while Raven is the absent one/eventual antagonist. It's personal power as opposed to political power, but Tai, Qrow, Ozpin, formerly James... most of the mentors are men. Maria, a key exception, has been ignored in that regard. The story announced that she was Qrow's inspiration, setup her being Ruby's new mentor, and then... nothing. Nothing has come of that. She disappeared for a volume and then went off to Amity and was literally forgotten by the story when evacuating everyone was the finale's whole point.

Like that Endgame moment I mentioned, the Happy Huntresses feel a little too forced to me. Yes, it's the same basic idea as in ATLA, but ATLA, as you say, has a lot more going for it. The Happy Huntresses feel... on the nose? Idk exactly how to explain it. Like, "Here they are! Another team of all women! Isn't this how progressive storytelling works? Just ignore how this is a one-off team of minor characters compared to the world building issues discussed above." And if you're not paying attention, you miss just how insignificant they are, with a side of Robyn being, well, Robyn. The Kyoshi Warriors, at least, are based off of Kyoshi. A woman avatar who is a significant part of their history. That is, presumably, why they're an all women warrior group (but who notably still teach Sokka). The Happy Huntresses are all huntresses because...? There's no reason except that meta "We want to look progressive" explanation. Just like having all the women superheroes team up for a hot second so people get excited and ignore the representation problems across, what? 21 films? Don't get me wrong, I love that May is among the Happy Huntresses. I think including her in the explicitly all-women group was one of the better things RWBY has done in a long time, but the rest is still a mess.

RWBY is arguably about these smaller groups as opposed to systematic power (despite the writers trying to work that in with things like the White Fang and the election. Not to mention the implication that everything in Atlas is fine now that evil Ironwood has died and taken the symbol of wealth (the city) with him. We saw a human holding hands with a faunus after all. Racism and corruption solved, I guess.) So yes, our group is dominated by women... but Whitley is the one saving Nora, helping to defeat the Hound (plus Willow), thinking of the airships, and providing the blueprints they need to escape. Salem is our Big Bad, except Ironwood is the one the volume focuses on. Ruby is our leader, but Jaune is the one leading the group into the whale and getting praised for how heroic he is. Ren does more to shake things up, even if he's painted as the one in the wrong. Oscar gets to confront Salem and destroys the whale threat. Ozpin provides the information they need to evacuate. Meanwhile, when the girls do things in Volume 8 it's almost always followed by a long-stint of passiveness. Nora opens the door so she can be unconscious for most of the volume. Penny keeps Amity up so she can also be unconscious for a good chunk of time. Ruby sends her message and then sits in a mansion. Blake fights so she can tearfully beg Ruby to save her. Weiss, as said, takes a backseat to Whitley (and Klein). They forward the plot, absolutely, but comparatively it doesn't feel like enough.

It's that pattern then, no one specific example. More and more the personal power, not just the systematic power already built into Remnant, seems to be coming from the men. Not all the time, but enough that scenes like the tea drinking moment feel like a part of a much larger problem. Pietro taking control, Watts hacking, and Ambrosius literally remaking her when Penny is supposed to already be in control of herself and her fate. Winter being presented as the active mentor to Weiss, only to turn around and claim that Ironwood was actually responsible for everything. Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and May straight up commenting on how awful things are out there while Yang, Jaune, Ren, and Oscar lead the charge against Salem — with the latter three doing the most to forward that mission (no fear, semblance, cane). As others have only half-joked, Yang's supposedly badass moment was bringing up a mother she's ignored for six volumes and briefly blowing up the immortal woman for a couple of seconds (with Ironwood's bombs). Even Marrow is arguably the most significant Ace Op after Clover. Vine isn't actually a character, Elm slightly less so, Harriet is there to go crazy and try to drop a bomb (notably before admitting to never-before-existed feelings for Clover), but Marrow? He's the one who breaks out. Who is meant to heroically stand up against Ironwood. Who comments on how awful it is that teenagers are fighting and, regardless of how messed up the moral messages are, is supposedly pushing for active change while all the women in his group, including Winter, insist on maintaining the status quo. Look at all these choices as a whole, it makes throwaway worldbuilding choices like "All the Maidens are women" feel pretty hollow. Why does it matter if Amber is a Maiden if she dies in a flashback so Ozpin can struggle to pass on the power? If Pyrrha dies before becoming one so Jaune can angst about it? If Raven is one and then disappears from the story entirely? If Winter has enough power to break Ironwood's aura, but supposedly had no power throughout every other choice she made getting here? If Penny is one, but is continually controlled by men and then asks another man to help her die? It's just really unconvincing, once you look past the surface excitement of a woman looking cool with magic powers.

When you do consider the whole of the story — both in terms of our world building and who is forwarding the plot in the latter volumes, getting the emotional focus, being proactive, etc. — there are a lot of problems that undermine the presumed message RT wants to write. They say, "girl power" by marketing RWBY with these four women, but too many of the storytelling decisions thoroughly undermine that, revealing what's likely a deeply ingrained, subconscious bias.

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 07 part two

(Masterpost)

Warning: Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

Lantern Lighting

Now we have the famous lantern scene, where everybody gets to express their character and have dates, ranging from disastrous to delightful, with the objects of their affection. 

Wei Wuxian continues to be ridiculously good at drawing. 

We’ve all seen Lan Wangji’s lovely first smile in the show a million times, so...let’s look at it again!

This scene is important not just because of the smile, but because there’s a distinct shift in the way they talk about their growing relationship. In the pond, it was “come visit me” and “never!” “I want to be your friend” “No need.” Basically Lan Wangji firmly saying no to Wei Wuxian’s offers of friendship.

This time, Wei Wuxian says “let’s do this together” and Lan Wangji says “I’m used to being alone,” which is not actually a No, just an explanation. And WWX says, you can change that. And then Lan Wangji DOES change it, sharing the lantern and the promise with Wei Wuxian.

Whoever painted this flower is even better than Wei Wuxian at plein air painting. 

(more after the cut!)

Everybody’s wishes

Nie Huasang makes a practical wish. Wen Qing prays for her brother and Jiang Cheng notices how she’s like Yanli. Jiang Cheng isn’t very intense about Wen Qing, which could be a sign of his shyness but could also be a sign of his gayness or aceness. After all, later in life he’s an apparently wealthy clan leader who is hot as fuck, and needs an heir, since his nephew is a Jin. But he’s still not married, 16 years after breaking up with and uh, helping to kill and cremate, the girl he liked in summer school.

The Promise We Made Together

Wei Wuxian makes an ultra-idealistic wish/promise while Lan Wangji watches and falls the rest of the way in love with him, and silently makes the same pledge inside his head. Later they will each refer to this as a promise they made together, which is a really super high level of face-reading by Wei Wuxian, to understand that he really is speaking for both of them here.  While making this promise, Lan Wangji brings out his Yin Iron Magic Bag and waves it around in front of everyone, but nobody notices. 

Let’s take a moment to consider *why* this moment is so powerful for Lan Wangji. Lan Wangji is a boy whose emotions are always on the boil. He’s 100% upset all the time, at this age, and he keeps it clamped down all the time. His cultivation level is probably as high as it is partly because of all the work he does in emotion regulation. (note: if you haven’t read all the meta at @howpeacefulislwj​ , go read it; it’s awesome and hilarious)

Wei Wuxian doesn’t GAF about emotion regulation; he just expresses what he feels, all the damn time. 

He is openly bored, lusty, playful, hungry, whiny. He straight up tells Lan Wangji “you’re boring and you have a stick up your ass” as part of saying he wants to be friends; no deference and also no falseness.  

And he can see right through Lan Wangji’s reserve, barging into his loneliness and isolation without any regard for all of his wards. Wards are made to be broken.

(Unrelated note: Young Lan Wangji's rare moments of contentment seem to come from looking at something beautiful--the moon, falling petals, these lanterns, his mirror.)

But Wei Wuxian is also good. Lan Wangji desperately wants to be good. And here’s Wei Wuxian embodying this awful, amazing, tempting alternative path, in which all the interesting things in life get explored thoroughly, all the sweetness and beauty gets consumed unreservedly, all the pain and ugliness gets confronted and endured without hesitation. 

In this moment, Wei Wuxian tells Lan Wangji “you can change,” and then offers up this prayer/promise that is just pure chivarly, speaking straight to Lan Wangji’s heart. Very simply, I want to spend my life doing right. Not 3500 rules; just one.

This infuriating boy, who breaks rules and who flirts indiscriminately and who pushes and pushes and pushes, reveals himself in this moment to be a hero at the beginning of his journey, and Lan Wangji sees it, and his heart goes right over the cliff.

The Girls’ Room

The girl cultivators all rush over to Yanli to get in her business about her betrothal, inspiring Jin Zixuan to act like a jerk to her and get even further onto Wei Wuxian’s bad side. 

Talk Shit, Get Hit

Yanli’s wish was that Wei Wuxian would grow up and be good. He promptly launches his own personal Sunshot campaign, punching her fiancee so hard that the sun falls out of the sky and the previously well-lit scene transitions to full night.

So, in English, “don’t mention it again” is really mild, akin to “I don’t want to talk about it.” Wei Wuxian’s reaction makes it seem like Jin Zixuan said something really shitty, like “don’t you dare mention that woman to me!” So I’m assuming something is being lost in translation. 

Lan Wangji tries to calm him down. He grabs Wei Wuxian’s sexy arm muscle and basically holds it until the Jiangs exit the scene. 

Nie Huaisang has placed himself between the opposing factions, which is unusually direct of him. In the future he’ll stick to being an unindicted co-conspirator when Wei Wuxian starts trouble. 

Ants in my Pants

Lan Wangji thinks kneeling can make Wei Wuxian cry, which is adorable of him. 

He really relishes this opportunity to be a pedantic tool to his new boyfriend that annoying boy he hardly ever touches, and it really doesn’t work out for him, poor lamb.

Jiang Fengmian stops by to show exactly how deep his affection for Wei Wuxian runs, and to give him whiplash from constantly changing parental expectations. In a couple of hours he’ll be laughing over WWX & JC’s hijinks.

Wei Wuxian takes this opportunity to fantasize about bad things happening to the other boy in the fight, which is in no way foreshadowing of anything.

Douche Dads Conference

We now convene this meeting of the douchebag council. Jiang Cheng is also invited even though he’s a prick, not a douche. <--important distinction

This is our first time meeting Clan Leader Jin Guangshan. He's actually the most sensible and best parent in this scene, but his smug self-satisfaction hints at his true nature. This actor, Shen Xiaohai, has been active in cdramas for a long while now. I wonder what he looked like 15 years ago?

...Holy mother of god.

Jiang Fengmian is the worst dad and the worst husband here. His clan believes in letting children do what they want - uhh YOUR child wants to marry Jin Zixuan. “I wrote a letter to her mother, who arranged this marriage.” Uhhh she arranged for her sickly, low-cultivation-level, sweet and vulnerable child to marry the heir of a rich and powerful clan, with a powerful mother-in-law who’s looking forward to loving and protecting her. Basically she’s guaranteed her daughter’s safety and comfort, and even potential happiness, since her husband may learn to appreciate her (and in fact, does, thanks to soup and repeated beatings from WWX).

Mom worked hard and probably spent a fair amount of social capital to achieve this. And you’re going to toss that aside because the boy thinks he’s too good for her? What the everloving fuck, how are you a clan leader in the first place? 

You can see that Jiang Cheng understands all of this and what a terrible choice his father is making here. 

So do the other adults in the room.

Jin Guangshen: our wives are going to kill us

Lan Qiren: I'm looking at a couple of dead men

Jiang Fengmian pointedly won’t listen to Jiang Cheng or let him speak, showing that all his talk about being free is actually bullshit, that only applies to other people’s children.

Jiang Chang vaults off of the deck to tell Wei Wuxian about it. Hottt

Sorry Sis

Wei Wuxian goes to Jiang Yanli to sorta-apologize and sorta ask to be let off the hook for fucking up her engagement, which he absolutely did. He knows it, which is presumably why he bows to her in paperman form while hiding outside.

At no time has Jiang Yanli indicated to anyone that she doesn’t want to marry Jin Zixuan, as far as I can see, or said she wanted to be defended from insults with punching. Look how good SHE is at defending a person from insults, for comparison.

Yin Iron Blah Blah Blah

The senior Lans meet with Jiang Fengmian  to talk about the Yawn Yin Iron. Yawn. 

Jiang Fengmian addresses Lan Xichen as Lan Gongzi, which is adorable, since he is a big boy to everyone else. His family calls him Xichen and other people call him Zewu-Jun.

Farewell and Fuck You

The three Jiang kids come to say goodbye.

Lan Quiren says goodbye with a heap of criticism for Wei Wuxian and the horse he rode in on, and Jiang Fengmian basically says, yep, that’s what he’s like, all right.  

Good thing Wei Ying gets so much verbal abuse at home he doesn’t take it very hard when he finds it in the field. 

Wangji doesn’t say goodbye properly, which will be a recurring theme for the two of them.

I don’t know if this is because he has a problem with goodbyes, or is just being a jerk, or because he’s so bad at lying he doesn’t dare talk to Wei Wuxian lest he reveal his travel plans. 

Indulgent Dad Continues to be the Worst

Jiang Cheng complains at Wei Wuxian for wanting to say goodbye to Lan Wangji, and WWX says he likes him because he is equal to WWX in fighting, whereas JC sucks. JC hits him tries to hit him--gosh, he DOES suck, comparatively. 

Yanli, who has been keeping these boys in line all summer, sighs deeply at her Dad’s tolerance for their hijinks. OP has five brothers and this sibling-hijinks behavior is 100% accurate, except for the part where it is happening at someone else’s house in front of the hosts. 

WWX pretending to be Lan Qiren where Lan Wangji can see him doing it, in front of Lan Qiren’s colleague and supposed friend, and just earning a laugh from the patriarch? Good lord.  Dad Jiang tolerating this is shocking, particularly in the in-show culture where corporal punishment is as common as tea. 

We’ve tried Nothing, and we’re all out of ideas!

Uggghh why are you like this?

Here in the real world, OP uses “positive discipline” with her child, and encourages other parents to consider it, particularly if your child is neuroatypical or asynchronous.  That said, JF should be punishing the crap out of both boys for this behavior every time it happens, or should quit being a clan leader.  He’s relying on Jiang Yanli to keep them in line while he gets to just be amused by them. And he’s letting Lan Qiren discipline Wei Wuxian instead of doing it himself. He suuuuuuucks. 

Lan Wangji watches all of this. Lan Xichen reminds Lan Wangji that without Wei Wuxian, he’s completely fucking miserable. Lan Wangji still doesn’t plan to bring him along on his trip, though.

Time to return to our lives of crushing loneliness

Rabbits

At this same moment when Lan Wangji is staring down the barrel of future loneliness, Wei Wuxian is already deciding to leave the (forbidden) rabbits in Cloud Recesses “In case Lan Zhan gets lonely.”  This small decision by Wei Wuxian - breaking the rules of Cloud Recesses for the millionth time - is kinder than he knows. Because what is the job of these rabbits? Let’s have a desaturated flashback. 

Lan Zhan spent 3 years in the ice cave. The rabbits kept Lan Yi company in the ice cave. So...did the rabbits sneak in to keep Lan Wangji company in the ice cave as well? I’m going to say yes. By ep 43 they are following him to the gate of Cloud Recesses so they are very attached to him.  Well done, Wei Ying.

Where my bitches at? Seriously, our warren needs bitches

(Is Watership Down still a thing people read? If not, just go ahead and assume all of OP’s rabbit jokes are about Watership Down because OP ain’t going to stop making them)

While Wei Wuxian annoys the bunny he has a flashback to the scene that happened 4 minutes earlier. The Untamed editors assume the viewership has the attention span of a goldfish, and I personally appreciate that they understand me so well.

Wei Wuxian figures out that Lan Wangji is going on the road alone, and tells the bunny immediately. The bunny is very concerned.

Writing Prompt: What do next-generation cultivators Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi wish for at lantern-lighting time?

[iturbide]

Is there any game you really like but never had the chance to talk about?

gosh I have a lot of very quiet game interests that just never come up because basically all the asks I get are about Fire Emblem (not that it's bad, because I certainly write a lot of it)

The big ones I've already talked about at least in brief. The main ones are Pokemon, which I keep doing crossovers for; and Ace Attorney, which I think I've been into longer than Fire Emblem (and I have at least a hundred thousand words of ancient fic to prove it). But I've also been a big fan of the Assassin's Creed series since the first game, and that's definitely not something that comes up all that often: I do have one crossover between Awakening and Assassin's Creed generally, taking a lot of elements that make the series what it is and weaving them into the Awakening setting, but that's about as close as I've come to really talking about it.

The really big one at this point has to be Dragalia Lost, though. It's another Nintendo mobile game that doesn't seem to get a lot of press, but it's somehow everything I really wanted in a mobile game I think?

There's actual meat to its story: it takes a while to play through even one chapter because there's so much to read and engage with, and it has an interesting plot that develops through both the main story chapters and the other events

The events are also amazing. They do some really interesting, really unexpected things with their events, including several that are basically Lovecraftian horror stories (lookin' at you Accursed Archives) -- and they're gradually making these old events available to all players at any time through the Event Compendium, rather than forcing newer players to wait for a re-run or just retiring them entirely

It doesn't do the dark is evil thing. The Shadow roster is incredible and I love the main Shadow Dragon so much I can't even also the main dragon pseudo-deity is handled in a way that seems like it was basically made for me

It gives out a lot of free characters, both through the story and through a specific class of event, and they hold up well in the game's meta

They also put in the effort to keep old characters relevant rather than just phasing them out: the power-ups from those upgrades have made some of the free and launch characters the best in the meta for certain content

Virtually every character has a unique story that you can read to get a better understanding of who they are as a person, and some of them are really intensely emotional

They also show their main story characters a lot of love. Not only do they feature in every chapter, giving attention to the bonds and interactions between their core cast, but most of those main story characters have multiple alts at this point (which is good for me, because I love Luca so much he's a character I will always go for broke on when I see a new alt)

It's primarily co-op rather than competitive, meaning you're working together with other players from around the world to achieve a common goal

The developers actually pay attention to the game's balance and address issues, up to and including boosting the power of all characters outside of the Shadow roster when they realized people were just using their Shadow teams to clear everything because they were so outrageously overpowered compared to every other element

The developers also pay attention to feedback and overhaul old systems to make them more streamlined, intuitive, and user-friendly (which they've done with both branches of the equipment system within the past two years)

The game is constantly updating with new challenging modes for high-level players to take on and newer ones to look forward to meeting once they progress

Those same modes also keep throwing new challenges at players that can cripple some of the main meta contenders, letting characters that might have fallen out of use to find a niche where they excel.

It's unbelievably generous when it comes to summoning, compared to other games I've seen. They set new players up with a 5-star character and give them challenges to earn guaranteed 5-star vouchers for dragons or adventurers to get them started on solid footing. On top of that, not only do they give out a free tenfold summon voucher with every major update and for pretty much every major event, they give players TONS of single summon vouchers, lots of wyrmite (including log-in bonuses, new quests on every difficulty level, returning events, adventurer and dragon stories, and endeavors), and not-infrequent free summon events -- there's one starting Monday where we basically get 250 free summons (14 days of free tenfold summons and one day of 100 free summons). AND THERE'S A SPARK SYSTEM.

There's no advantage for whales. No, seriously: when you summon a duplicate adventurer, you get Eldwater instead of the character, which is used to promote 3- and 4-star adventurers, enhance their abilities, or upgrade equipment. If you see someone with a strong character, you can rest assured that with enough effort, yours can be exactly as strong as theirs without paying a cent (which I know because that's literally how I did it).

I could go on for ages about Dragalia okay it's just a really enjoyable game and I engage with that more eagerly on a daily basis than I have with Heroes in several years.

[olderthannetfic]

I was going to wait on Stargate Atlantis since I just posted about SG1, but it turns out I have more bad news to share.

Wraithbait is gone.

Both Area 52 and Wraithbait. Jesus. So much for early Stargate fic!

SGA, as it is often abbreviated, followed SG1 in the Stargate franchise. Slash fandom’s focus was largely on John Sheppard and Rodney McKay. John is an ace pilot. Rodney is a hypochondriac scientist. They’re both total dorks.

As cheesy sci-fi, SG1 and SGA are pretty similar. As fandoms, however, there’s quite a difference:

SGA hit just enough later that it attracted tons of livejournal-based fans I knew who had never dipped a toe in SG1 fandom. It was a Fandom That Ate Fandom, draining the BNF writers from all over slash-dom.

Being a little later also meant that it has exponentially more good vids online. I always kind of resented SGA fandom for eclipsing my beloved SG1, but I sure do love the vids!

One of the more famous ones to show at Vividcon is Another Sunday by Jescaflowne. Youtube has it region-blocked all to hell, but it’s still up and probably viewable through the usual sketchy means.

And how could I not share the glorious crack of Soccer Practice by bironic, a rare slash vid showing off hottie Jason Momoa as Ronon Dex. On AO3 here.

For the juggernaut ship, no vid could be more in-character for melodramatic Rodney than Grace Kelly by Diana Williams:

SGA was squarely in the Livejournal era, and a lot of fans from back then have migrated to AO3. Its influence on modern AO3-ish fandom is tremendous, as I’m sure half of you reading this can attest better than I.

One effect on a more meta level was to make female fandom more irate than ever over TPTB being sexist little shits. Reportedly, SGA attracted too many female fans for the showrunners’ comfort, and they wanted to retool their franchise as SGU, a darker and edgier version designed to attract a more BSG reboot-like audience.

Needless to say, when you’re a franchise that’s good at putting aliens in gold lamé bikinis rather than at coherent writing, going darker and edgier does not work.

SGU was a miserable flop, the entire Stargate franchise stalled, and SGA slash fandom developed an enduring hateboner for TPTB.

At Escapade, SGA has had a steady presence from 2005 through to the present. Past panels include:

2006 - First Marriage of Classic and Postmodern Fandoms? (Are we writing fanfic for the show, or are most stories just meta versions of stories from older fandoms, and commenting on each other comments? Remember when people complained all we had was hummus? All SGA has is crack(fic).)

2007 - John Sheppard: Psychokiller or Pretty, Pretty Princess (From mild-mannered sci-fi geek to special-ops xenocide, John Sheppard is one of the prettiest psychopaths in two galaxies. Which is the 'real' Sheppard? Can these two personalities be reconciled? How does this dichotomy in canon affect how we choose to portray him in fanfic?)

2008 - Crackfic, AUs, and Characterization, Oh My! (SGA canon is full of AUs and crack. Do the show's wacky plot twists encourage us to boldly go further out than other fandoms have gone before? And what happens when we go AU: why are John, Rodney, Ronon, and Teyla so recognizable even when they're planted in Harlequin romance, NASCAR, a symphony orchestra, or a diner in Maine?)

2009 - On a Clear Day, I Can See the Pegasus Galaxy (How are you feeling about the end of SGA-relief or regret? Are you looking forward to the rumored film(s), or planning to be snuggled up with your favorite fic that night? Have you ever been part of an active fandom whose canon closed, and do you have any thoughts (or advice!) about how to keep the fannish energy going? Let's discuss our hopes, fears and fondest dreams for the future of the fandom.)

2011 - Stargate: The End? (We were charmed by the original movie concept, many of us were fannishly enslaved by the first television series, others were entranced by Atlantis and some of us even tuned in for Universe. Are we ready to let the Stargate concept go or are we sitting on the edges of our seats, anxiously awaiting the next incarnation?)

2012 - SGA: Rodney and John: What We See is Not What We Get (We know we're adding slash to whatever's on the screen. With McShep, we really know. John the MENSA/slacker who knows how to fit in chasing brilliant yet obnoxious Rodney? How the Hell did we ever think they wouldn't kill each other, John with his P-90 or Rodney with his brain? Come prepared to argue the pros and cons of Sheppard and McKay, support your favorite character, and argue why Ronon is/isn't damned hotter than either of them.)

2013 - The Cool Kid and the Geek (Rodney loves John because John is sexy-handsome, lithe-and-cat-like, athletic, brave, and ridiculously pretty. He's also one of the Cool Kids, so, yeah, Rodney might fall hard. But Rodney is not sexy-handsome, lithe-and-cat-like, athletic, brave, nor ridiculously pretty. He’s the Geek, so why is John drawn to him? Come argue your point!)

2017 - Stargate: Classic Fandom Flashback

2018 - Stargate: Ten Years On

SGA on Fanlore

SGA on AO3

SGA on FFN

[tricksterreformed-a]

✩  INTERVIEW WITH THE MUN  ✩

➊ How many ships do you have on this blog?

          I don’t know, let’s count! I’ve been writing some super fun GabrielxBobby stuff with @multimuse-rp, and that good (complicated) GabrielxDean shit with @awaywardboy-andhisangel and actually... that’s all the canonxcanon ship stuff I’m writing right now for some reason. But that’s not all the ships!  Fulfilling a years long dream (for me) @daedaluscried and I are writing GabrielxAri and she has also indulged some excellet (unrequited) GabrielxEve content, @thxwxlf and I have dabbled in some GabrielxKekipi, and @inferniangod has been kind enough to write GabrielxIfrit with me. 

          I’ve discussed, but not actually written GabrielxSam with @smmie, and I think @hellsmother and I are on track to write some GabrielxRowena (but if I’m not sure I should probably check, whoops).  So that’s six total, eight if you count these last two.  Plus a handful of others where Gabriel is just flirting at people and waiting to see what happens.  Nothing has to happen, he’s just like that.  But something could happen with any of them.

➋ Have you ever roleplayed with someone that just left an unforgettable impression on you?

          Of course!  I’ve been doing this for 10+ years and people have made all kinds of impressions, some amazingly good and others downright awful. I can roll through some nicknames/first names only and proably only Anti will know who I’m talking about because a lot of them are from our shared history on gaiaonline!  I could go on and on about every single one of these people but here’s a quick ‘n dirty list instead: Noir, Kathy, Mariah, Moose, Lyss, Berry, and @daedaluscried!  I’m still occasionally in touch with three of these people (one more often than the other two) which I think is kind of wild all things considered. There’s also some not so good impressions, like guy-who-started-nice-and-then-harassed-me-for-nude-pics and the-person-who-broke-my-trust-and-caused-me-to-stop-writing-smut, but i have put them far far behind me.

➌ Which of your ships on this blog is the fluffiest?

          The fluffiest is probaly Gabriel and Ari now that we’ve gotten into the emotional core of the relationship on both ends.  Which isn’t to say that it’s not a spicy ship with a helping of angst, but... I’ve written more hand-holding with them than with any of the others and I guess that’s my definition of fluff. Also I suspect the gratuitous hand-holding will continue even once they’re past the language barrier. So... FLUFF.

➍ Would you say you’re a decent role player or do you have any self doubts?

          I think I’m a decent writer but my roleplay skills vary depending on the day.  I understand how to set a mood and (usually) how to string a decent sentence together but sometimes the craft that goes into bouncing off of another writer and giving them something to bounce off of in return eludes me.

➎ Have you made lots of friends on this blog?

          More than I expected too. But when I set this blog up I thought ‘those days are behind me now’ so... one would be more than I expected.

➏ What’s the one thing you especially love about roleplaying your muse?

          WRITING THE JOKES!  And not just the verbal jokes he makes, I love writing jokes into my narration! Meta jokes! Dick jokes! Bad puns! All of it! I love it!! I also enjoy the way Gabriel interacts with the world around him.  He rarely just stands in a scene and talks, he’s always moving and gesturing and doing stuff. I also love writing his dialogue, even when the things I write make me squinch my face up with shame. He just says stuff sometimes. 

➐ Are there any people you’ve been to afraid of approaching?

          NOPE!  I’m not afraid to reach out. Approaching people is the easy part. You send a meme, you make an ooc comment, you tag them in something, you hit them with an ask or an IM or whatever.  And if they don’t answer that’s a-okay!  Their choice, I’m not hurt or personally offended. What I’m afraid of is what happens after that part if they do answer.  I can usually BS a thread until I find the point of the thing but IMs and asks? Y I K E S ! Now there’s an expectation for me to be cool and witty and have good ideas instead of just mediocre ones. Very scary. The reason I don’t send IMs.

➑ Give us a rough estimate: How much time have you spent on your graphics? (icons, theme, banners, promos, etc)

          My icons/graphics are a visual representation of me learning to use G.I.M.P. and I think you can... very clearly see the learning curve.  More effort went into those old fuzzy icons I have than the new, crisp ones. Plus moodboards and other stuff?   My guess is 40+ hours.

➒ Got any memorable threads on here? Care to mention a few?

          Well now I wish I had thread tags.  Thread tags would be a lifesaver right now.  Anyway, I am once again shouting out @awaywardboy-andhisangel and our original GabexDean thread that has since spiraled and gotten very, very interesting (it’s not over, I just like it).  And @divinitatemxsanguis who has allowed me to indulge in writing Gabriel with Loki post all the betrayl and murder. They have a special place in my heart so thanks for not judging me! I’m getting ready to write the conclusion/endcap to a sad thread with @isclcphobics involving Talia, Gabriel, and a grave. Plus the thread with @downwillow where Gabriel is human and Micheal has forgotten him. And a shoutout to @daedaluscried for our thread series that I have affectionately dubbed the ‘The Nanny’ series ft. October and Gabriel.  Every thread has been a delight.

          I also have some stuff I’m really looking forward to getting into, specifically with @hellsmother​, @cursebcund​, and @magaprima​.

➓ What were some of the most frustrating moments you had with your muse’s interaction with another muse?

          One that’s on me: sometimes I know that a moment in a thread calls for some emotional vunerability, and often when those times roll around the Gabriel voice I use to write dialogue goes all quiet and resistant and just wants to make jokes.  And either one of two things happens, either I write the joke and cringe because I know now the thread is going to go way off track because obviously the other character won’t be thrilled/is about to shut down and shut up. Or I force some emotional vunerability out of him and it never quite sounds right to me.  Sometimes it’s natural, but sometimes he just won’t do the thing and it frustrates me!

          One that I’ve encountered from someone else: sometimes people will try to force a certain motivation or trait on my Gabriel based on their perception of canon/a past interaction they’ve had with another Gabe as portrayed by another RPer. This really grinds my gears because if you want a Gabriel with that motivation to critique/praise/fight with then go find one! I garantee someone out there plays him that way! There are a lot of us out here doing this! I’m not going to change my portrayl for you!!

[stilloutofmyvulcanmind]

May Flowers Challenge Day 19

Prompt: “I’ve always been honest with you” requested by Anon

Pairing: Sherloque Wells x Reader

Word count: 1k

Warnings: Insecurities

The city looked peaceful from your spot on the balcony of the S.T.A.R Labs lounge, and since Barry had only recently returned for the night, it probably was for now. Any criminals that might still be lurking in the back alleys wasn’t what was on your mind right now, however. Your thoughts were far more occupied going over matters that directly impacted your life. In the last few hours, while the Team was helping Barry, you’d been busy learning some new information, and you were still trying to figure out what to make of it all.

“Y/N?” Ah, there was the main source of your dilemma, the one causing so much uncertainty.

Turning, you watched as Sherloque rounded the corner into the lab, his face lighting up when he spotted you. “There you are, ma chérie, I ‘ave been looking for you. Would you care for some tea?”

“No, thank you.”

Since starting to date Sherloque you’d learned quickly enough that it was pointless trying to mask how you were feeling from him, happy or sad, he always spotted it immediately, as was his way. So, now you didn’t even bother hiding your distress as you walked back inside to face him. 

“What’s wrong, ma aimée?” He asked, the smile fading away.

“What can’t deduce it?”

You could almost see the cogs in his brain whirl as he tried to figure it out, but you knew perfectly well that he’d find nothing amiss. Nothing had happened, there’d been no arguments, it had even been a quiet week meta-wise. By all right’s you should be content and looking forward to spending an evening with your boyfriend.

“I got a message earlier. From another universe. Only thing more surprising than that, was who it was from. Your first wife. Somehow word has gotten out that we’re dating, and she and the others wanted a little meeting with me. And that’s exactly what I did. While you were all busy, I got to have a face to face chat with your six wives. Imagine how informative that was for me. Meeting your six wives.”

For once in his life, Sherloque was clearly not following. “I do not understand. I’ve always been ‘onest with you.”

“Have you?”

“Of course! Ma chérie, I do not what they said about me, but-”

“It wasn’t what they said, it’s who said it.”

“I told you about them, non?”

“You told me you have multiple ex-wives. You never told me who they were!”

“I do not see why that would matter.”

“They were all the same woman, Sherloque!”

“I believed their identities irrelevant.”

“Irrelevant?! Can you truly not see why I would want to know a thing like that?”

Sherloque shook his head. “Y/N-”

“For a genius, you really are dense.” Sighing, you shook your head, suddenly feeling tired. “I’m going home. See you tomorrow.”

You left. Sherloque didn’t follow.

You really should’ve known better than to expect him to stay away though.

It was just after midnight when he was knocking on your door. You had yet to fall asleep, but you didn’t answer immediately either. It was a testament to Sherloque that he didn’t risk upsetting you further by picking the lock. 

“Let me in, Y/N. S’il vous plaît.”

Against your better judgement, you opened the door.    

“I couldn’t sleep, knowing that I’ve ‘urt you.”

Letting him in, you stepped into the living room, listening as he followed. “Do you understand yet why meeting them that way upset me?”

“Non. You ‘ave always said you were fine with my past.”

“I am.” That was the truth. It had taken some getting used to, but now Sherloque’s numerous marriages didn’t bother you. “And I don’t care about the list of accusations and flaws and everything else they rattled off. I’m not going to judge you based on their opinions.”

“Then what was it? Ma chérie, tell me.”

“You married the same woman seven times. They all have the same face. A face that doesn’t match mine at all. How do you think it felt learning that you fell in love with the same woman across all those different universes?”

Finally, you could see Sherloque understand. 

He stepped towards you, “They are in my past. You are my now, and I ‘ope my future.”

“Until you meet their doppelgänger of this Earth.” The look on his face said everything. “You already have.”

“Oui. While we were battling Cicada.”

“Did you marry her too?”

“Non. It did not work out.”

Nodding, you paced, hating how insecure you felt but unable to stop it at the same time. “And what happens when you get called to another universe for a case and meet yet another one? Will I get a note, or are you just gonna disappear never to be heard from?”

“I would never-”

“You can’t say that! You’ve fallen in love with the same woman seven, no, eight times! I’m not that woman! The odds aren’t in my favor here!” You were crying now, and you hated it, but you let them fall anyway. 

Sherloque closed what little distance was left between you and pulled you into an embrace. Clinging onto him, you buried your face in his chest. “I don’t want to be a placeholder until you find your next doppelgänger, or the second place trophy because you can’t win first,” you mumbled into his shirt.

“You are neither, ma bien-aimée, I swear,” Sherloque said, pulling back and tipping your head up to look at him. “There are a great many things I am certain about, but the one thing I am most certain of is my love for you.”

Those bright blue eyes dazzled as he spoke, singing of honesty. 

“You love me?” You whispered.

“Of course. In all of the multiverse, you are the star that shines most brightly. I would be a fool to ever let you go.”

You smiled, cheeks heating in a blush. “I love you too, Sherloque. I’m sorry for being so insecure like this.”

“Non, it is my fault. I should ‘ave told you. Forgive me?”

“Always.”

Sherloque smiled and drew you into a kiss. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Like what you read? Consider buying me a coffee! (I’ll love you forever!)

[syncogon]

[QZGS meta] what’s in an OP? dawning glory (pt 2)

(a continuation of part 1 here) (part 3 here)

{The King’s Avatar Season 2 premieres in less than 12 hours!}

Last time we covered just up to around the halfway point of this OP. We’re picking up again right at the start of the second verse, where a new singing voice kicks in.

After reminiscing on the past, we come to Ye Xiu again as he puts on his headphones - he’s smiling, he’s doing what he loves, he’s ready to go forward. His smile here is an act of defiance against those who tell him that he should be stopping in his tracks.

The change of singer here is very noticeable, as they have very different-sounding voices. However, this is something we’ll talk about more later. 

In this section, we cut smoothly between the real and the virtual worlds. Lord Grim, too, faces forward resolutely, despite the naysayers referenced in the lyrics - “they say I shouldn’t go forward, they say I should just say goodbye, they say there’s no tomorrow, only night.”

Again, we focus on his hands - his left hand positioning on the keyboard in the real world, his right hand in the game world hoisting his weapon. They both extend from the upper left side of the screen, which allows our brains to follow the visual connection easily without being too overt about the parallel. Ye Xiu’s preparations for his comeback help to build our anticipation for the action that’s to come.

The red palette used for these in-game shots in this segment is an interesting stylistic choice. It’s a more nuanced version of the red-palette style used for the entirety of the OVA OP. Red is the color most commonly associated with Ye Xiu, it’s the color of both Team Happy and Team Excellent Era, it’s Lord Grim’s main color due to his scarf, and of course it’s associated with things like passion, fire, blood, etc. The red is also a nice contrast to the darkened, navy-blue setting of the real-world internet cafe - the lighting makes it seem like it’s nighttime again - and the red of Ye Xiu’s hoodie serves as a nice visual bridge between worlds.

Because this segment of the OP cuts between the game and real worlds so quickly, I think it’s good that they distinguish the game world here with these colors, as it makes the jumps easier to follow and understand. 

“They say there is no tomorrow, only night,” as reflected light flashes across the umbrella. Maybe it’s night in the internet cafe right now, but certainly not for long. And even if it’s night for Su Muqiu, his creation will see the light of day.

“Crossing the frozen finish line” - Lord Grim steps out in a wide, battle-ready stance, emphasizing the sense of motion inherent to the word “crossing.” In the background of the music, you can hear the growing sound of what sounds like rushing wind, in time with the wind whipping Lord Grim’s scarf about, and it continues to build up the energy of this scene.

The “frozen finish line” here refers to his unwilling retirement on that snowy night; it’s an ending that he was forced into, not the goal that he was striving for. But the point that the lyrics make here is that this unwilling end merely becomes the new starting point for his dream. 

The animators are really milking his windswept bangs, but honestly the animation looks good, so I can’t complain.

As Lord Grim narrows his (vibrantly red) eyes and tenses in preparation, we fade to Ye Xiu making the same motion, once again emphasizing the real-virtual parallel. Just this small motion is enough to make us, too, brace ourselves in anticipation. And as we mentioned earlier, you can really see here how the red hood of his sweatshirt is a nice connection to Lord Grim’s scarf, standing out against the colors of the rest of the image. 

The music feels like it’s going to crest at its peak here, but it’s actually a fakeout - accompanied by a key change in the music, the intensity suddenly backs off. Instead of the climax we’re expecting, we’re instead shown a montage of mostly-still images.

This is actually a good demonstration of how this OP follows the effective “interest curve” fairly well. You can’t continuously build hype throughout a piece, because that quickly becomes exhausting and boring for the audience. Instead, you have to have your peaks and valleys. At the very beginning of the OP, we started off with a crescendo to the first peak where the beat kicks in. We had a fairly upbeat instrumental section, then we dropped off as we entered verse 1. The Happy player segment is relatively chill overall, with its own small ebbs and flows. Then when we enter verse 2 with the second voice, the excitement level is a step up from what it was before. The second half of this segment gradually builds up in intensity until suddenly, here, we drop off. We’ll come back to this curve later to see the fuller picture. 

So we have this montage of the major pros, Ye Xiu’s closest friends and toughest opponents (note the first half of the lyric here is “even if it’s dangerous”). Although these are just still images, they still efficiently reveal information about the characters and teams in question - both when you consider them individually, and when you look at the patterns as a whole. Let’s take a look.

In all of these shots, the captain is the largest figure, and always on the center-right side of the screen. Even the last shot of Ye Xiu’s face before this montage places him at the center-right, giving us the exact starting-off point we need. This means that our eyes don’t have to do much work - we naturally trace a path to follow the most prominent figure in every image. 

Tyranny’s Han Wenqing, of course, strikes the most intimidating pose. Just from how they’re positioned, you can get a sense of how the two of them work together as partners - Han Wenqing in front, aggressive, Zhang Xinjie only a step behind, more defensive. They appear to be the pair that’s second-closest to each other in terms of physical distance, as they have a fairly balanced partnership. They’re angled toward each other, implicitly acknowledging each other without actually overlapping. 

Blue Rain is famed for their dual-core, and this image makes it abundantly clear, with captain and vice-captain featured equally prominently, standing right next to each other, back to back, almost the same size on screen. Looking closely, you can see that the two of them are moving together in the same direction as a unit. This is in contrast to the other teams’ characters, who are all sliding across the screen at slightly different speeds and directions from each other. Yu Wenzhou holds his clipboard, an instant clue toward his tactician style. Huang Shaotian is at a side profile, reflecting his unconventional, opportunistic, assassin-like style. And with his casual gesture and a wide grin, you can immediately get a sense of his personality. 

In Tiny Herb, Wang Jiexi is king (pun intended). Out of all the team pictures, he is the largest figure. This reflects how he is the sole pillar of Tiny Herb as of now, and it hints at just how (unsustainably) deep the team’s reliance upon him runs. Behind Wang Jiexi, we see his successor Gao Yingjie. Although Gao Yingjie is smaller for now, the angle of the shot makes it seem as though he is rising above Wang Jiexi - and this, of course, is exactly what the captain is trying to make happen. 

Behind these two is a third figure. At first I’d assumed it was Liu Xiaobie, but he doesn’t have the trademark headphones, so I think it makes more sense that this is actually Qiao Yifan, still in the team. With how he’s half-hidden in Gao Yingjie’s shadow and not even looking at the camera, you get the sense that even in this little picture, he doesn’t quite have a place here.

Samsara features Zhou Zekai and Jiang Botao. When these images were initially previewed during the live ED performance, there was a lot of backlash because a) Jiang Botao’s design had changed, b) their jackets spelled “samsaea”, and c) there was a coloring error on the collar of Zhou Zekai’s shirt. Fortunately, it seems all of these flaws were addressed. 

Zhou Zekai is the second-largest out of all the featured characters, reflecting how Glory’s number one player always dominates the battlefield. Jiang Botao’s design here sweeps more hair out of his eyes, which suits his character well by giving him a more open, friendly, approachable appearance. Although he’s positioned far back from the camera relative to Zhou Zekai, he seems content where he is - he has a perfectly fine view of the camera and surroundings, and here he can serve as the tether connecting the powerful Zhou Zekai to the unseen rest of the team. 

Next we see Thunderclap - I was actually somewhat surprised to see them featured now, but I suppose we need to establish Xiao Shiqin early on. I’m also surprised that they have four members here… I don’t think I could name four Season 8 Thunderclap members off the top of my head, I’m sorry ahaha. We have Xiao Shiqin and Dai Yanqi obviously, I assume the third is Fang Xuecai, but I don’t know who the player with his back turned is supposed to be. Maybe they included a lot of team members to emphasize how, more so than any other team, Thunderclap’s strength is when they’re playing together as a team. You can also see this in how, unlike all the other teams except Blue Rain, all four of the characters are sliding across the screen in the same direction (right), although the parallax makes their speeds appear slightly different. 

That being said, with the hand adjusting his glasses and his thoughtful look to the side, Xiao Shiqin very much gives off the studious tactician vibe. Still, his smile is warm, not cold and calculating. Behind him, Dai Yanqi is just adorable.

Finally, we have Hundred Blossoms. Coming off of Xiao Shiqin’s smile, Zhang Jiale’s shadowed half-frown stands in sharp contrast, even though the viewer has only a fraction of a second to take it in. Angled at a full 90 degrees from the camera, Zhang Jiale stares at his right hand, a sort of frozen sadness on his face. What could he be thinking about? Reflecting on his continued inability to take the final step to the championship? Reflecting on the hand injury that tore his closest friend and partner away from him, leaving him to shoulder the burden alone? In this image, it seems as though it’s the Hundred Blossoms’ shining logo itself that is casting his face into shadow. He undoubtedly has many conflicted feelings about the team he gave six years of his life to, and ultimately abandoned. 

Visually, Zhang Jiale appears to be facing a deep blackness; the design places no decorative accents on that corner of the screen. Perhaps he sees no way forward. Perhaps he sees the way forward, through to the team with black as its color, and the betrayal that choice would mean. 

Behind him is Sun Zheping. Interestingly, he’s fully illuminated by the light of the Hundred Blossoms logo. In Zhang Jiale’s mind, perhaps he still is that light, a light now lost to him. Although Sun Zheping is also looking away, his body is angled more forward toward the camera, reflecting how he has a better sense than Zhang Jiale does of what it means to cast off doubts and charge forward into the future. 

In a sharp contrast to every other team picture, note that neither person in this image is looking at the camera. Whereas the other teams are unified and focused in their pursuit of the championship, both Zhang Jiale and Sun Zheping are lost. In fact, neither is even currently a member of this team that they founded together. And, of course, there’s a distance between them, as they look off in opposite directions, and this distance only grows as Zhang Jiale slides toward the right and Sun Zheping toward the left. Overall, the mood this final team image conveys is drastically different from the rest.

I also found it interesting to note here that, although all of the teams’ uniforms got redesigned in the donghua (for instance, official novel art always portrayed them with collared polos, not t-shirts), the Hundred Blossoms uniform here appears to be unchanged from the original.  

As a final thought, I do love the background designs in each of these shots, working in the team colors and the motifs of the logos. I wish they’d release these as desktop wallpapers, they’re really nice. 

So that’s enough words about these three seconds of the opening. Let’s (finally) keep going.

This is a good place in the OP to insert a reminder of the final goal we’re working toward - the championship. “As always we charge forward, we’ll ultimately be crowned,” here at the summit of glory. 

Something about the faded filter over these two shots gives it an almost mystical, imaginative quality. Or maybe it’s the feeling of a memory long past. This stage, this place of legends, it’s still a ways off for our protagonists for now. But they’ll find their way here in the end.

Team Happy! When it comes to illustrating Happy’s in-game characters in an action group picture, this sort of composition - side view, all of them leaping into action toward one direction - is fairly common, even just in official art. Still, it never gets old, and it’s nice to see it here, especially as the music crests. The lyric “we’ll be crowned,” which bridges us from verse 2 to the chorus, is timed with the very first large group picture we get in this OP. It’s a proud and triumphant declaration as we see our protagonists finally united for the first time, arrayed for battle.

With that, just before we enter the chorus section, we’ll pause here for now. Part 3, which will cover the last 20 seconds or so, will probably go up after the episode premieres. I’m also interested to see how they’ll work the credits into this OP; hopefully they do something interesting, or at least make it look nice. 

Thanks for reading! 

(part 1) (part 3)

[soundwavereporting]

2 & 20 for the writer meta ask? :D

2. Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project

I’m looking forward to writing the second half of the LL-visits-Sanctuary Station fic (a good portion of it is drafted/outlined, but I’m not vibing with it). I want to write the cassettes in the vents! I want to make a joke about Prowl and Soundwave’s...agents? peoples? both calling them ‘Boss’. I want to write Soundwave and Ravage. Cuddling.

20. Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)

Hmm...I've recently been thinking about Cosmos’ view on Optimus slowly getting changed. Like, in canon he wants to talk to Optimus and seems to look up to him. The brief exchange between him and Prowl re: Optimus always stuck with me (paraphrased - Cosmos: I never get to talk to him [Optimus]. Prowl: All I do is talk to him.) Cosmos is removed enough from Optimus/High Command that he sees Optimus probably how most Autobots see Optimus: heroic and idealized, comforting, caring, etc etc etc. At one point he actually goes and says something like ‘He [Optimus] didn’t forget about me...’.

Where Cosmos sees the sanitized, 4Kids version of Optimus, the version of Optimus that High Command probably spent so much time cultivating, Prowl and Soundwave (and a lot of the Decepticons, tbh) see another version of Optimus that isn’t the...the 4Kids version that’s presented to the Autobots, I guess. But as he gets to know Optimus more (both via second and firsthand experience), I think he’d become more and more disillusioned with the guy. I’ve got a headcanon that the illusion starts to be stripped away when they have that exchange about Soundwave in canon: Cosmos tells OP that he’s pretty sure Soundwave will agree to ally with them against Galvatron if literally anyone but Optimus goes to make the offer (because Soundwave hates Primes), and Optimus retorts that he doesn’t want Soundwave to kneel to anyone but Optimus. Yikes. But I think the tipping point comes in a fic that’s not yet written, where Cosmos retires but realizes the whole thing is getting turned into a chance for OP to (subtly) flex on Soundwave and Prowl.

[silver-wield]

I’m curious as to what you think about the friendship between Tifa & Aerith with the remake & if you have any (possibly in-depth) analysis of their friendship? Watching them interact during the remake really made me think about how much Tifa cares for Aerith & vise versa. I love how their friendship progresses over the game. I hope we get to see more of it in future games. I’m all about Cloti but I also love whatever Tifa & Aerith got going on for themselves, just the ladies lol

I gotchu, nonny!

About time we show everyone these girls can get along and hopefully people will stop trying to erase one of them!

Ok, spoiler warning for ppl who haven't played – do I still need to do this? Eh ok, (I tag FF7R spoilers as final fantasy 7 remake spoilers) and it's gonna be a VERY long one so prepare to scroll.

Also, this is one person's interpretation of the scene, so if you disagree that's cool and we'll agree to disagree.

You're also gonna have to excuse the janky quality on some of the screens, I'm grabbing them from Youtube and it's frustrating af trying to get the exact moment I want.

Other analyses if anyone's interested.

Shinra HQ vision scene (Cloti/plot analysis) 

Chapter 3 (Cloti reblog) 

Tifa character analysis 

Aerith Resolution (plot analysis/theory – I should probably update this since I've had other ideas since then) 

Train graveyard (not really an analysis, but I got some sweet screenshots of Cloti) 

Clotiscrew tunnel analysis 

Cloti reunion analysis 

The Promise Analysis 

Andrea's approval (Cloti ask response) 

Cloti action touching

Now, strap in and enjoy the ride.

Before the recap I'm just gonna say the vid I'm taking this from is over 20m of them being friends and they didn't even meet until late in chapter 9 and they weren't even together after chapter 12 and only reunited in chapter 17, so if they can manage to become bffs in such a short amount of time then yall warships can calm your chill too.

Oh and I'm also throwing in some Cloti asides since Cloud is in all of this too and I wanna lol. Maybe next disc we'll get more of the girls without the leading man.

Quick recap for anyone who's forgotten the series of events.

Tifa's gone to get info out of Don Corneo at Wall Market and asked Cloud to go back to Sector 7: “You've seen how much ass I can kick”

Aerith's decided that's a bad idea, so they head in and jump through a series of side quest hoops to get them inside Corneo's place.

After the goons knock them out and take them to the basement, Cloud wakes up and sees Tifa, who asks if he's ok. After his embarrassing moment where he remembers he's wearing a dress in front of his crush, Aerith wakes up.

Eugh, I've mentioned the utterly janky quality on some of my screenshots right? There's a split second after this where Aerith is beaming at Tifa that I'm trying to capture but it’s just not happening.

Okay, so Aerith has literally just woken up and the first thing she does is bounce over to Tifa and introduce herself, all smiles and cheer. Tifa for her part is confused but polite because who is this girl? This is pretty simple from Tifa's pov. She is just confused, but polite. There's no signs of “rawr that's my man over there you can't touch”.

Aerith is like that one kid who's always first to greet new people. She's very much the extrovert, compared to Tifa's introvert.

(Bonus: Grumpy Cloud is grumpy. It's like he expects Tifa to be more responsible when he hears her insane plan lol)

So, after hearing Tifa's story and hearing the obvious concern in her voice, Aerith jumps in to reassure her. You'll notice she's leaning forward with open arms. This is simplistic body language, she's being open and earnest. Tifa has her full attention on Aerith, so she's listening without any signs of dismissing her – even though they've literally just met and she has no idea what Aerith is like or what she might say.

(Bonus: Cloud rolling his eyes. He thinks they're both crazy lol)

Responsible Tifa makes a return here! After Aerith's done enthusiastically throwing all of them to the wolves, Tifa shows concern. She knows Cloud and she can fight, but she's worried Aerith will get hurt because of her. This is a girl she's just met and we've seen how she is with strangers (shinra middle manager), so going along with Aerith's idea with no reservations wouldn't be her. Both girls have semi-relaxed body language. Their poses are mirrored, so there's no one is better than the other here. They're meeting as equals.

(Bonus: Cloud appears to be looking at Tifa's butt in this screen lol)

So, we're out of the basement and dealing with rapists. Fuuuun. FF7 really went there back in the day huh? Tifa and Aerith are on the same page, you'll see. They're both disgusted. Aerith probably more so than Tifa, who I expect is a little more used to dealing with scumbags who don't take no for an answer. Semi mirrored body language – Aerith has her hands protectively in front of her while Tifa's are by her sides so that she can better strike a fighting pose.

(Bonus: Cloud at this moment in time is calling Corneo a depraved bastard lol)

Aerith's little eyebrow raise and knowing look here. Now, she doesn't actually know how much ass Tifa can kick, but it looks like she suspects anyone who knows Cloud has skills. Not to mention he told Aerith that Tifa can handle herself. (Or maybe it's meta!Aerith, who knows?) She's expectant, anyway and Tifa delivers. Not to mention the teasing dialogue the goons mistake for being sexy. But that's what douchebags get.

Vicious Aerith is vicious lol I just wanted to add this one because it's a great expression for her and actually shows a different emotion from her besides her typical mask of cheer. She actually looks convincingly dangerous here, unlike most of the time when she's about as threatening as a cupcake lol

So Aerith kicks the douchebag and Tifa follows up in a seamless display of co-op that showcases her fighting skills. She takes Aerith's lead and goes for it.

Then comes the fight scene. Massive co-op between the girls. Tifa protects Aerith at one point, who uses the opportunity to grab a makeshift weapon.

Tifa is the disciplined fighter using her Zangan martial arts and Aerith...uses a chair lol

I have to admit that's one of my favourite moments with her in the entire game. It also fits with the expression she pulled at the start of the fight – that vicious look showed just how far she'll go when she wants to win.

Both girls, all smiles, complimenting each other for a job well done! What else is there to say about this? Oh, yeah, neither of them needs a lesson in how to high five lol

Remember, they've just met like an hour ago, if that. They're already high fiving and getting along.

Ok, so we've moved on from Corneo's place and now we're in the sewers. Here's where we hit a change in behaviour from Aerith. She's no longer the bouncy puppy jollying everyone along to be cheerful and optimistic. She's now become very serious and grave. She could choose to reassure Tifa that the slums are safe, but instead she urges them to hurry. This is likely another instance of meta!Aerith knowing things before they happen.

Tifa is very in her own space during this section of the game; she's worried about her friends and her home, so there's a sense of urgency in all her dialogue. Worry is clear in her tone and Aerith empathises with that and reinforces the need to get back.

You'll notice in most of these moments between them that we're looking over Tifa's shoulder. That's her perspective we're getting, as opposed to when we get scenes with Cloud when we're standing in a third party location watching both. This is deliberate framing so that we relate to Tifa in this situation. We’re looking at Aerith with some distance, but a human perspective rather than an omniscient one.

(Bonus: Cloud still takes the time to flirt with Tifa by reminding her of their little “sayings” interaction from chapter 3)

About halfway through the sewers and the gang has to cross a manky water way. Cloud goes first, leaving Tifa and Aerith behind. Tifa is still worrying about what Corneo said. Her body language, expression and voice all convey a deep fear of what will happen.

Aerith, though probably meta!Aerith, again doesn't act how she did when they first met, which is to reassure her things will be ok. She's become very serious and quiet, unlike how she was in the beginning. Her face here clearly says she knows they won't stop the plate from falling, but I think she knows if she says anything it would just make things worse. She and Tifa are only just sort of friends at this point, so she probably believes it isn't right to confide in her when she's already worried about so many people.

You'll see again the perspective is Tifa's and she notices that something is wrong with Aerith. Despite having so many other concerns, she notices that Aerith looks down. Her question is that of someone wanting to have all the information about the worst case scenario, but before she can find out anything Cloud tells them to keep moving (nice timing)

And now we're at the crossing bit. Tifa's made her way over and waits with Cloud for Aerith. Tifa's very encouraging at this point, reassuring Aerith that she's almost across. Once the platform topples into the muck, she reaches out a hand and pulls her to safety. This is another example of Tifa being the protector.

(Bonus: Cloud grabs Tifa when she staggers.)

“Then it's a date.”

It's likely that by this point Aerith has realised Tifa is spiralling with worry. She offers words of comfort and says to think of something fun. They agree to go shopping, and Tifa suggests bringing Cloud along to carry their stuff (lol bf role)

What's interesting is their contrasting body language here. When Tifa lowers her guard she puts both hands behind her back, opening herself up. It's a vulnerable position for a fighter to be in.

Aerith does the opposite. She's put her hands in front of herself in a protective gesture. This makes me think that even though she's being genuine with Tifa, she's holding something back from her as well. This is likely another meta!Aerith moment because she's aware of her approaching death and doesn't want to make too deep a bond with any of the group.

(Bonus: flirty little lean forward and “nothing” from Tifa when Cloud asks what they said about him)

“I saved her, she saved me”

I know that's a line from Cloud, but it applies to Tifa and Aerith too. Tifa saved Aerith from the sludge and now Aerith grabs Tifa's hand to pull her to safety from the collapsing walkway.

Aerith knows she can rely on Tifa to help her and now Tifa knows the same.

Now, I've seen a theory floating that whenever Aerith touches someone she shows them a vision of OG canon. I'm taking this moment to point out that even though she grabs Tifa's hand, you can see she never touches her skin. Idk if this theory is right – I've not examined every time she touches someone – but it's an interesting idea.

(Bonus: Cloud pulling his “oh shit, Tifa in trouble I must rescue” face as the walkway caves in)

YAAS TEAMWORK!! They're more in sync than in the Don's place as they automatically work together to save Cloud, who looks annoyed that he didn't make it on his own lol

After that it's further into the sewers until we get to the waterpump minigame (I hated this).

Cloud is about to suggest he goes, but Tifa cuts him off, so she and Aerith head over to do it. Now, I was expecting some kind of chat between them or some kind of war hint, but it was literally just the minigame and nothing else. I guess the absence of something is something too?

And this is probably the only shipwar image in the entire game, so take it in, people.

I don't like it. I didn't like how it made me not like Aerith after everything she and the others have gone through until this point. Her dialogue towards Tifa is meaner than any other time and I feel like this is OG Aerith – the one yall expected. She mentions Cloud is “her” bodyguard – something Tifa wasn't even aware of since it's never been mentioned until this point and Tifa looks hurt by the way Aerith is talking to her. That's not jealousy on her face. She's dismayed this person she thought was a friend is acting not like a friend. The fact Cloud notices this and backs up Tifa's side by saying “Ghosts aren't my thing” is evidence he supports her and won't let anyone hurt her.

This is not a nice image. Hope the OG fans enjoyed it though and I hope it's the only shipwar reference Square makes. Tifa's worried/scared, which has more to do with the ghosts. Cloud is ambivalent; he's being SOLDIER Cloud. Aerith is enjoying the chaos she’s caused.

And the nasty shipwar moment is over and they're back to being friends again. Tifa's fear through this section of the game makes her cling to Aerith when the lights go out. Aerith, for her part, calls Tifa to her, so that she can look after her. It's a nice moment to rebalance their friendship after that earlier bullshit.

Tifa looks worried – although I've said before her default expression is pensive, which makes sense considering her personality.

Aerith doesn't look afraid at all. She looks curious. One of them wants to be there and the other very much doesn't lol

(Bonus: Cloud grabbing Tifa and protecting her is everything)

And we're past the bit with the ghosts stealing Aerith away and Cloud and Tifa rescue her.

Tifa crouches down and comforts Aerith. She's kind and sympathetic and you'll also notice that this is the first time we're seeing Tifa from Aerith's pov. This is what Aerith sees when she looks at Tifa. Someone kind who came to help her. A friend. Tifa smiles and offers her hand, reinforcing their friendship and that she'll be there to support Aerith.

(Bonus: Cloud and Tifa's complementary body language here towards Aerith really highlights how much in sync they are. They both touch the same shoulder and have similar poses. They really look like a couple whose goal is protecting their friend.)

And now in a reversal we have Aerith comforting Tifa. This is hollow comfort, however, since Aerith knows what's about to happen and they can't stop it. This is evidenced by the fact we can’t see Aerith’s eyes. Her expression is concealed. This doesn't stop her from reaching for Tifa because she sympathises with her struggle.

Tifa saves Aerith again, this time from falling pipes. Their friendship is growing, although at times it feels one sided. Tifa is the protector, looking after Aerith, while Aerith is the one who relies on Tifa. It goes towards Tifa's maturity, compared to Aerith's free-spirit. Tifa is the responsible protector, while Aerith doesn't have to be because she's got people who look after her.

This could be another instance of meta!Aerith, since she's very calm when she says this and doesn't try to stop Tifa. She might know that Tifa will be ok if she goes. Her word choice is....odd. It's not really her heart Tifa's following, it's her principles. She can't stand by and let people get hurt when she can do something about it. But the way Aerith says this line is pretty telling. There's actually a big difference when meta!Aerith is on the scene compared to OG Aerith – who is annoying af.

It's the mark of a fast friendship that Aerith can tell this about Tifa, that she needs to go help, but then again, it's also not that hard to figure Tifa out when she's so open. I can't think of a single instance in the game when Tifa isn't straight as an arrow.

So, we've had very few moments when we're looking at Tifa through Aerith's pov. And now we're back looking at Aerith through Tifa's pov. The look on Aerith's face is very serene and reminds me of the one in the bar when she saw the flower. That definitely suggests to me that this is meta!Aerith and that's who has been building friendships this time around and not OG Aerith – who is still annoying af.

I'm further convinced of this when Aerith mentions Marlene and the look on Tifa's face is all “What?” while Aerith's suggests she knows exactly where to find Marlene, what she looks like, how old she is, when her birthday is and what she had for breakfast.

An unspoken communication passes between them. Lots of micro expressions here and some quiet hums and nods. I mean, if we're at telepathy then they're definitely friends.

Despite being reserved, Tifa grabs Aerith's hands in gratitude. For someone who doesn't display physical affection a lot, this is meaningful for Tifa. She trusts Aerith and she's relying on her to save Marlene. She's grateful and doesn't have the words to express it. She just nods, once, and her eyes are damp like she's trying not to cry.

And one last teamwork shot because look, neither of these girls needed lessons how to high ten...Cloud lol

Ok, the last one is the most important – typical.

Tifa's asked Aerith if she's ok a lot over the course of the game – which is a lot a lot when you think how little time they had together. This is the first time Aerith asks after Tifa's wellbeing. It's probably one of the few times anyone asks how Tifa's doing and they don't mean physical condition. Sure, Cloud asks, but we know why. Everyone else assumes Tifa can handle it. Tifa says she can, so it must be true. Even when she's shaking from repressing her urge to cry. Even when she can't sleep at night.

I noticed this my first playthrough because it stood out, and it's meant to stand out. This concern from Aerith to Tifa and Tifa to Aerith is mirrored through their interactions. It's supposed to make you think better of the girl who isn't part of your ship. It's supposed to make you draw a line under OG Aerith and Tifa's jealous rivalry and start thinking of them as friends. Because they are friends.

Conclusion:

The devs tried to end the ship war by making the girls more friendly towards each other in hopes that yall would stop bashing the one you don't like. These girls clearly have little rivalry going on. They're supportive, kind, open and understanding towards each other. Their friendship is one of my favourite things in the game and did actually go a long way to making me like Aerith – did I mention I hate OG Aerith?

Instead of arguing who Cloud loves more, why not try appreciating each girl for the qualities she brings to the overall game and to each other's life? 

Aerith likes Tifa. Tifa likes Aerith.

[zer0desuu]

Dance of Flames Until Death

Note: Flamebringer x Unspecified Dokutah. My first completed work in a long time, so please be nice! I only recently got into Arknights cuz of my crazy friend @veedraws. I have yet to bring Flamebringer home, so I’m not super familiar with him, so all this is based on his files and Vee’s fangirling XD. Also, sucks that he’s terrible in the game meta, but he’s supposed to be super OP in the story :c

-------

Night has now fallen in the outskirts of Lungmen. The battle has gone on forever. The squad barely made a dent in the enemy army. Everyone was at their wits’ end.

I chew on my lip, frantically trying to come up with a strategy. The squad was exhausted and being pushed back by the enemy forces. 

“Doctor… It’s time.” Flamebringer’s low voice comes through the comms. “Send me out there. There’s no other choice. I’m the only one who can take down this many enemies.”

I hesitate, looking into Flamebringer’s eyes. Flamebringer is notorious for losing control of himself, at the cost of his health. But he was right - he was the only one capable of dealing with this many enemies and surviving.

“...Alright, prepare for deployment.” 

Flamebringer salutes me and exits the control room for the helipad. Moments later, Flamebringer drops down from the deployment copter right in the middle of the frontlines. 

“So…” Flamebringer draws his dual blades from his scabbard. He readies himself, pointing his katana at the hoard in front of him. The katana blade glows like a flame, illuminating the shadows with an orange glow. “Who will be my next opponent?”

Flamebringer lunges at the enemy front lines, blades reflecting the soft light from the full moon above. The glow from his katana and the strips of cloth hanging from his broadsword swirl in an entrancing dance of blades. Each and every swing and stab is meticulously accurate, something only a master of their art can do.

All the other operators on the field are frozen in their spot. Once Flamebringer starts, he cannot be stopped. He will cut down anyone who gets in their way, even allies. The air of the night is filled with Flamebringer’s howls, growing more and more wild with every enemy reduced to ashes. No matter how many times I see Flamebringer fight, I am always stunned by the beauty and carnage. 

Blinking to clear my head, I yell a command to everyone in the field, “Flamebringer, lead the charge. Snipers and mages continue supporting him from behind. Defenders, brace for any enemy charges that leak through!”

The squad puts their all in the fight, their morale renewed by the arrival of reinforcements. The hoard of enemies gradually dwindles. The enemy frontline begins to retreat. We were winning.

“Doctor! Flamebringer’s vitals are reaching dangerous levels! Heart rate is exceeding normal values, blood originium levels have increased sharply.” Ansel shouts from his post in front of the the medi-screens. 

As if on cue, Flamebringer collapses to the ground, one hand clutching his chest. His other grasps his blade, using it as support, struggling to keep himself upright. He gasps for breath, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. Perfumer rushes to his side, hands quickly reaching for him, ready to use her healing magic.

“Flamebringer!” I shout into my comm. “Retreat now!” 

“N-No…” Flamebringer swats Perfumer’s hands away. He pushes up off the ground using his sword, his body swaying. Flamebringer brings one hand up to his face, swiping the blood away. The black crystals embedded in his skin had spread further up his neck. “Not until you…”

“There’s no way you can continue in this state. Retreat immediately! This is a command!” 

“No…” Flamebringer’s voice trails off as his knees give way. He drops to the cement, unmoving. 

“Deployment choppers, retrieve Operator Flamebringer immediately!” 

“That idiot!” I hiss, slamming my fist into the desk, seething with anger. Flamebringer always pushed himself to the brink, as if he didn’t care whether he dies. But I cared. He is one of the most valuable Operators on the team.

I try to push thoughts of Flamebringer to the back of my mind while my squad finishes off the rest of the enemies. It goes smoothly due to Flamebringer greatly thinning the numbers. 

Once the rest of my squad boarded the choppers back to Rhodes Island, I run down to the medical centre. Flamebringer lay in a medical bay, with his eyes closed, not moving. A medic-droid removes the final electrode stuck onto Flamebringer’s bare chest. Another droid stands near his bed, tapping away at his medical log displayed on a holoscreen. My heart sinks, bracing for the worst of the news. 

There is some silence as the medic-droid finishes up filling in his information. Finally, it spoke, “We managed to stabilize him. His blood originium-crystal density has increased by 0.03 u/L and his cell-originium assimilation level has increased by 0.06%. Recommended actions include rest from battle to slow further increases. This concludes Operator Flamebringer’s medical report.” 

“Thank you.” I say to the medic-droid. It flashes its eyes in acknowledgement before gliding out of the medical bay. 

I slowly sit down on the stool next to the bed. Flamebringer’s face looks peaceful as he sleeps, different from the scowl or the smirk he usually has. The crystals have grown, some new growths emerging from his skin. 

Flamebringer stirs and slowly opens his eyes. He starts to sit upright, but I place a hand on his chest to stop him. “You need to rest, you idiot.” 

He lays back down, frowning at me in protest. 

I sighed. “You did it again. You pushed yourself way too far.” 

“It’s nothing new to me.” He gives a small shrug. 

“But the more you do this, the worse your health will get. What if you lose yourself again but the infection progresses too much for your body?!” I catch myself, realizing that I had raised my voice. I took a shaky breath, my throat unable to say the next words. “You’ll die…” 

“I don’t care. I already know what will happen to me. I don’t have anything left in this world anyway, so why not go doing what I love?” 

“But what about your plants? Who will take care of them if you’re not here?”

“I guess they’ll just die with me.”

“W-What…What about me…?” My trembling voice was barely a whisper, my heart pounding in my chest. The tears in my eyes threatened to fall. I look down at my hands clenching the hem of my jacket. “I don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t around, you idiot.” 

Flamebringer’s eyes instantly shot in my direction. His face was frozen in a state of shock as he processes what I just said. He slowly sits upright. “What…?”

"I can't imagine what it would be like without you!” Tears slide down my face as I look up into his eyes. I was always so irritated about how he treated life with such nonchalance. I knew it was dumb of me to feel this way for someone who was dying, but I couldn't help it. "Stop running towards death, you idiot."

Flamebringer's expressions change rapidly as he made sense of what I am saying. Finally, his face softened into a small, sad smile. He reaches for my face, brushing away a tear with his thumb. I lean into his hand, grateful that it's still warm, like a fire is still burning in him. 

He leans forward, pulling me closer to him. His lips brush against mine hesitantly, as if I would shove him away. It seemed like he had a bad relationship with me prior to my memory loss. When I don't protest, he kisses me with more strength. 

"Doctor…" Flamebringer pulls away and rests his forehead on mine. "I'm sorry for scaring you. I will always be by your side, even when I'm gone." 

"Idiot." 

[asoiaf-source]

Fighting Hate with more Hate. That always works, right?

“Sansa’s fans are so defensive of her because of the rest of the fandom demonize her and hate her for no reason.” - helenakey

So then the answer is to demonize the other women characters for no reason?

Of course there are going to be ‘fans’ that hate on a character for no reason, I’ve seen people post unnecessary and unreasonable hate on many of the characters, not just Sansa, and they can be as annoying, but they are not representative of the entire fandom. Not ALL fans are hating on her, and some are just looking at the character critically. I’m new to the tumblr metas (avoided for a long time due to the toxic reputation), but i’ve been on ASOIAF forums for a long time and there are plenty of Sansa supporters, even if she is still quite a polarizing character due to how people wish to interpret her... but Sansa stans on tumblr take it to the next level!

I’ve never seen this side of her fans before, or at least so much nearly every day, and subsequently the many rebuttals! And how often they like throwing other characters under the bus, often for hypocritical reasons. Like the OP yendany said, they ignore the trauma in other characters or dismiss it as not as bad, when it is often much, much worse. They criticize and attack other female characters to prop up Sansa ‘better’ survival skills, or attribute qualities to her she doesn’t possess (I see this a lot in fanfiction, before I realized the self-insert aspect), or use her age as excuse when all the main characters are young or even younger than her. The line porcelain to ivory to steel... can really apply to any character that has to grow up and face the harsh realities of the world... so it is really hypocritical to think Sansa is special in some way for overcoming her situation, all the characters are going through the same struggle, and many have it much worse. That is where I think so much of the anti-sansa stans come from, the hypocrisy and the tearing down of other just as deserving of sympathy/empathy characters, especially other women characters. It is a weird juxtaposition, that anyone with a reasonable sense of objectivity can pick up on and often do.

I mostly see it done against Arya and Dany, the two more prominent female characters in the books (thus the 2 who draw more focus than #3 Sansa?). The two female characters GRRM is telling a lot of his story through and spending a large amount of the text (right from book 1) to develop their growth as characters and showcase their strengths, intelligence, determination, fortitude, agency, cleverness, resilience and so much more. It’s as if because the other women are not ‘pure’ or see themselves that way and stronger in personality and character that somehow their suffering doesn’t affect them as much because they are tougher and didn’t let anything that happened to them stop them from growing stronger. They aren’t dwelling in victim-hood too long before they pick themselves back up and move forward.

And yet, they cheer when Sansa starts to grow stronger... Sansa’s growth has been much slower, we are moving into book 6 and she is just starting to gain a bit of agency, but she is still heavily under the tutelage of Baelish. We will see how far she gains in the next book and if she will break with Baelish by the end of it and be a fully independent player. But her development isn’t nearly on the same scale as Daenerys and Arya. That isn’t to imply that she isn’t going to be important, but it is clear from the text that she is not one of the main focuses for GRRM, or he would have developed her faster and given her more to do. We will see how much ground he can cover in 1-2 books, but there is only so much he will be able to accomplish and have it be believable, especially with so many POVs and story lines that he needs to develop.

I actually think their attempts to (over) defend her backfire, as so many feel the need to point out the falsehoods and misinterpretations, especially when they are wildly mean-spirited and completely refutable by the text. As I traverse through the ASOIAF metas I often come across fans metas writing rebuttals to other posts, to ‘correct’ their conclusion or ‘facts’. I’ve read so many of these they are starting to get repetitive, I also read some of the Sansa-stan posts they are rebutting and, yeah I can see why so many get upset. If you don’t like it when others tears down or dismisses Sansa, why do you think fans of the other characters wouldn’t comment when you go after their favs, especially so mean-spiritedly.

I don’t think I ever felt so much negativity towards the Sansa character until I had to read so many skewed and biased metas turning her into some kind of saintly YA Disney princess type that is just too good for this cruel world. That kind of character has no place in a series like this. You can’t help but want to point out the wild inaccuracies, and it makes me feel a negativity towards a character I didn’t feel negative to before. And I don’t want to feel negative towards her, she is a Stark and I root for the Starks, especially the kids. I often defended her against those who (I feel) just don’t understand what it is like to be a preteen girl, I relate to a lot of Sansa’s weaknesses and how she feels, especially at that age, and that is her appeal (to me) - the fact that she starts off very weak.

Sansa is weak both physically and mentally, she cares too much about rank, privilege, and what others think about her, her desire to conform, for everything to be proper, and properly in their place. She has the luxury to think that way because she is a rich, pretty, noble girl who ranks at the top of society, of course she sees life as great and never questions it... she is already at the top and winning from birth. This is why (I think) she is so hard on Arya, she messes with her idea of what is proper/good/right.  Arya isn’t pretty and doesn’t try to be, she acts more boy than girl, she plays with dirty, smelly, poor children, etc... Those are all an embarrassment to Sansa and go against what a proper lady of her rank should do and care about. Once they head south, all the things Arya gets away with at home will stand out even more and reflect badly on Sansa, by association. So, she criticizes and distances herself even more, because she wants to join the elite glamorous world of the nobility.

The other girls don’t have those weaknesses, that is why they are seen as better able to cope than Sansa does.  They grow quicker and stronger faster because they are not as inhibited by what the ‘rules’ are. This isn’t a criticism of Sansa, this is an observation and I think it is the entire point of including a character like her in the story. GRRM could have followed the original outline for her, but he wanted to ‘reform/rescue’ her character and give her (I hope) a better path back to her family and happiness. I think it is GRRMs way to show how young girls should NOT romanticize noble life or being pretty will lead to a ‘perfect’ life. That thinking of yourself as a lady or being a princess/queen isn’t what is important. That marring a ‘title’ (lord/prince) or a handsome face is not enough to lead to happiness. It is what you do with your life, and how you care about others and who cares about you - that is what is important. But some Sansa fans seem to miss that and want her to have all those thing and more... they want it both ways, her to learn all those things, and yet still get all those things... a beautiful princess life clear of the harsh actions to gain it and also a happy family married to the best, more heroic and honorable man - a fairy tale ending. And that is not ASOIAF.

They are reducing her entire arc to becoming a nicer, more pure, and pretty, prize for a man to love, marry and make their queen. If so, GRRM will botch the ending of his series and all the points he *seems* to be making thus far.

A major theme (to me) in Sansa arc is her lack of value in her home and family. Sansa (to me) is like the small town girl who can’t wait to leave her family / Winterfell behind and to move to the big glamorous city (King’s Landing) and become royalty. But once she got there wasn’t able to accumulate with its more complicated and corrupt realities of the court. Even setting the cruelty of Joffrey aside (he is an aberration, not a normal example), how everyone else ostracizes or ignores her (except the hound, and to some extent Tyrion - although he isn’t all that great). The way the Tyrells treat her before and after her wedding is much more representative of how typical court life and nobility behaves normally (I think). Sansa never saw the true value of being surrounded by people who love and care about YOU and whom you can trust and rely upon - until that is all taken from her. She slowly sees how the people at court are corrupt and deceitful under all the beauty and glamor she so aspired to only after being fooled more than once, and (to me) no longer wants any part of it, but is forced to play, thanks to Baelish.

This is a point I find many of her fan miss, they think Sansa is going to learn to play the game, destroy everyone with her cunning and beauty and rise to the top to be queen or a ruler - a path which will ultimately lead to down a very dark and cynical path... but somehow they think Sansa will be different, and her rise will be more like a Disney princess story, one where she will gain power without having to sink low to do it. That is NOT the kind of book GRRM is writing.

”I’ll make them love me.” - another childish statement, you can’t make people love you, you earn love and respect. And Sansa hasn’t done that once the entire series, she hasn’t made a single friend. No one is looking to follow or fight for/beside Sansa, save Baelish, and we all know that plan is doomed to fail, as he isn’t to be trusted or relied upon and wants to use her. I would even question her friendship with Jeyne Poole as it is clear she never saw them as equals, and that is not real friendship... more like Jeyne was a companion/lady-in-waiting type.

The few people who care about her (other than family) either are working on behalf of an oath to Catelyn, or have their own ambitions/sexual desires/pity for her and not necessarily care about her for herself because she was a good and loyal friend to them. Maybe this will change in the next book, but with Baelish keeping close tabs and guiding her, who knows how well she will be able to make any genuine relationships with others given all the secrets she has to keep.

Her only realistic path to leadership is through marriage and that is hardly giving her agency as a heroic rise to a leader of a men... more like sleeping her way to the top.  Not something I want for Sansa, and I hope her ‘marriage’ to Tyrion works as plot armor against her being used like that.

Besides GRRM has kinda stressed that ‘real’ leadership comes from understanding people, observation, and experience, and not just from strategics marriage (Margaery, Cersei) or inheritance (Joffrey, Tommen, Cersei - she could prove the point all on her own :). Every leader in the book so far has to make compromises, make hard decisions and even make harsh, sometimes very bad decisions and live with those consequences. None of the characters in the series have escaped this as much as Sansa has, since so much of her story thus far is about her lack of agency, and being a pawn used by others (and to some extent she still is with Baelish). For her to make it to the end w/o doing anything and staying ‘pure’ and that is how she ends up on top, by essentially not taking many large personal risks, allowing others to do all the heavy lifting morally, mentally and physically. If winning means standing on the sidelines watching everyone else do the WORK, and just giving suggestive nudges here and there to have things turn out in your favor so you can just coast to the top (that is the Baelish way)... well, that is kinda the worst message GRRM could leave us with.

If GRRM wants Sansa to become a leader, she will have to get her hands dirty too, she will have to take great personal risks to gain power and accept the consequences good or bad that result, learn from them and move forward... otherwise it defeats one of the main points of his series and turns her into a simplistic cliche version of a character.  Every character with a POV has gone through this, it is one of the major themes in ASOIAF, a more realistic, less easy way of looking at how you obtain power and learn by experience and a series of victories and defeats. Thus far Sansa has also avoided examining her actions and how they have affected her, she either never thinks about them, changes the facts to suit her better, or blames others without seeing the part she also played... I’m not blaming her, but her action did contribute to the situation... she never seems to realize this and I feel it is going to eventually hit her hard, she has to mature and grow out of her ‘unreliable narrator’ eventually, and it must lead to something for GRRM to make it such a large part of her narrative of coping with her trauma. I assume he wrote her this way for a reason and is going to do something with it.

I’m looking forward to a darker more realistic Sansa who has more agency and understanding, and I expect her to make her own mistakes and moral compromises (well she already has, but there was some coercion - but it also means she is capable of doing so) just like all the other POVs have had to do. I also look forward to her finally owning up to her past actions and how they also contributed to where she is now. If she can’t take some personal responsibility she will never grow. That is a part of having agency, understanding how your decisions and actions affect you and others.

I wish all the back and forth would stop, cause I’m tired of seeing it in my feeds, but I guess it has been going on for years - the same arguments/rebuttals - so I guess it will continue, even after we get the next book... I think only the completion of the entire series will end some of these arguments, but who knows - after some of the meta I’ve read, there will probably be even more, lol.

Well, I wanted to comment and give my two cents, but it ended up being longer and I guess for me all this is still new and offsetting.  I guess I had more to say that I thought, even though I edited A LOT out because I wanted to keep it focused. I’ve just started to dip my toes into this crazy platform, so I’m sure this is just the tip of the toxic metas that I heard can be found here... can’t wait to read the anti-dany metas... that is sure to fill me with a sad rage as well, i know the show did her no favors, sigh....

[writingonjorvik]

Can We Discuss Passive Cooperation?

Another topic I can mostly discuss before the interview. Y’all, I promise it’s coming out soon. We’ve got one more person to hear back from, but with the recent outbreak and work from home situations, things will continue to get backed up. I promise it will be out soon, hopefully within the next week or two so you can listen while you run around doing Soul Riding. With that said, let’s get into this actual topic.

So if you’ve been following WoJ for a while, you know that I think SSO is lacking in providing on that MMO experience. And I also know statistically that that isn’t necessarily a popular opinion that folks want to see more. However, I think a lot of folks think when I say I want more multiplayer experiences, they mean content that’s locked behind having to PUG, and that’s not it.

Again bringing up GW2, one of the reasons I love it is because of its passive cooperation. There are a lot of ways that game encourages you to interact with others without needing to be in a group. Did someone die? You get experience for rezzing them. Is there a big event going on? Everyone participating gets experience for jumping in and helping. Want to do a meta? Just follow the one commander willing to give instructions and you’re good. That doesn’t mean GW2 gets it perfectly. There are plenty of folks who can be standoffish in more difficult content, but overall, the game has a really solid passive cooperation built into its PvE and reward players for playing together, without locking off a lot of its content by forcing them to.

And that is what I want to see more of from SSO. Right now, the only really supported co-op mechanics are all PvP, which in a lot of ways goes against the laid back vibes of SSO. Other co-op activities, like picnics and the disco, have only gotten minimal updates over the years. By in large, the only other co-op scene is role plays, and that’s got its own can of worms. Not that it’s bad, but it can be a little bit to get into. There are very little incentives to interact with others, to include that a lot of players want a block all option, something I hope doesn’t get added outside of maybe a reduce players loaded bar of some kind. This is supposed to be an MMO after all. While it would be nice in photo mode, it’s supposed to be multiplayer.

So, what are some ways SSO could bring more cooperation without forcing people to interact? Well, here are just a few suggestions to get folks already in groups and out of groups to interact more:

1. Quest Support

I think while SSO’s story should always be soloable, I think having extra dialogue options for bringing a group with you, particularly for people who like SSO canons where there are multiple chosen ones, is fun. It also adds a much easier way to help other players find hidden objectives if you can actually see their quest goals too, even if you can’t complete it for them. Things like being able to catch hens with friends or help them get their fish for the day are all options that would make some more grindy options more tolerable. Also, with the new quests building in this “candidates” potential, I think there’s more room in the narrative for other powerful druids.

2. Championships

I know I just said we don’t need more PvP content, but championships really need an update. I’ve talked about this before and in the interview, but I really feel like these need an update to feel rewarding again to do, and also combat small groups of players dominating these races.

3. Kudos

Something else that got brought up in the interview, so here’s your little sneak peak for now. Was suggested there is some kind of system where you can give kudos to a player for being helpful. This would be particularly helpful for encouraging players to help out newer players, to host events, and generally be a chill person. Potentially could be linked to some kind of reward, like the team can review players who got a lot of kudos in a month and give them rewards, or as a recommendation for future ambassadors and moderators.

4. Dungeons

I am only going to talk about this very briefly, because I have a full post planned on this topic and it’s in the interview, but I think some kind of escape room dungeon system would be amazing, particularly if some kind of instruction pinging system were added to the game.

5. Team Competitions

Ok, again with a PvP suggestion, but I know folks had hella fun in the old SML meet-ups where we did team competitions or club competitions. Even if it’s just 2v2 to fit in the current group system, that would be great. And I imagine clubs would have so much fun with that system, or dressage teams if we could ever make our own courses in game.

6. Events

I already talked about this in events and I’m sure the system is catching up, but what if during the Yule Goats, everyone collecting the goats built towards closing a portal? Like, there are still the basic ones as there were before, but repeating the whole day, every 15 minutes, another group portal opens up and everyone in the area needs to bring 10 babies as a whole effort. There’s no talking required, and it adds another source for a relatively grindy currency.

7. Other systems I’ve already suggested

Imagine getting to collect crafting supplies as a group. Imagine running around with friends to find the things you need to finish your home. Imagine a neighborhood system in Jorvik City for housing and getting to go see your friends’ homes in game. Imagine a daily login rewards system where doing group races is an option. Imagine these systems in game.

8. Co-op collection

Combined with the pinging section mentioned above, I think there should be a collection you can only get with friends, like that one star near Forgotten Fields. I think it should be separate from the stars, so there are these soloable collections, but there’s also this one you can do with your friends. Maybe they’re a little more challenging, or precursors to a bigger system (like a dungeon system), but I just think it would be cool. Even better if it’s replayable, so you can play it again every day for a small reward, and also so you can go back and help new folks gather them too.

9. Club Collections

Riding clubs so desperately need an update. But like, what if there was something to do while you’re in them? What if there were club only collections to unlock and/or upgrade the club hall? What if there were tools for making club races? What if riding clubs just got an actual update after SIX years? Look, I think this is just an underloved feature and I want to see it updated.

10. Community Objectives

I loved the “get to this many races” social media thing SSO did. I think they should do that more often, though with a variety of challenges that can be measured in game and don’t require social media. If there was a bi-weekly or even monthly goal like that, to get the community to get on and engage on something frequently, it’s more likely then that people will connect. It is technically co-op, on the biggest scale and I just think that would be amazing to see more of. 

11. More Fox Hunts

Another topic I recently brought up, the fox hunt. Y’all, I loved this and doing this was the most engaged I felt with the community since the first batch of stars. I want to see more of this moving forward, with loads of hidden achievements put in to encourage the community to get out there and look for secrets and work as a team with different skill sets. Just, there’s something amazing about seeing the community come together for something like this, and I love it.

12. Incentivizing Co-op

I think another thing SSO doesn’t do well is actually encouraging people to play co-op. Doing races in a group doesn’t provide any reward outside of achievements and champ rewards. There’s no reason to go back and do races in a group outside of maybe getting pictures in the circus. I know this gets into balancing economy, but having some kind of reward for actually doing group races would be a great way to encourage people to actually do those over just soloing the races with a group, like how most people will do group training. Like double horse exp, or a shilling reward, or something that makes doing a race in a group worth it outside of...bragging rights? Even if these were like, temporary tonics you could buy, like lures in Pokemon Go, but for horse exp, that would be something. I guess this depends on how competitive you are, but there’s not really a reason mechanically to get you to do races this way.

13. New Race Modes

I know this is another big system one, but imagine the Cloud Kingdom race with friends. Imagine the chaos of everyone bringing Shires to block everyone’s view of the race. Imagine a very basic item system with like a knockback, a stop, and a speed boost (all things already in the Cloud Kingdom race) as magic items. I suggested a full on 5v5 magic training race in the finale of SSL’s map which I still think would be amazing to teamwork out closing the seals and getting out while the other team hunts you down to run out the clock. Just like, these things would be amazing.

14. PUG Menu

I think a PUG menu is vital to not only easily finding groups to say do collections with or get help with quests, but also to get club and role invites out of Global. Why advertise in Global when you can just open the PUG menu and find or make an open group? It just organizes it a lot better, and it would probably cut down on spam.

And I’m sure there are a dozen more, but until I think of them, what are some of the things that would encourage you to play with others? Do things like the Chaos Stampede encourage you to hang out with the community? Is there some kind of co-op content that would get you to engage more with new players? Be sure to let me know!

[dogcopter]

[novantinuum tumblr com post 611767607081713664/][novantinuum tumblr com post 611764379084636160/]

first link has: “she was on the road to redemption in my mind. I believe redemption is a journey with no endpoint. There’s no day where you wake up and are 100% redeemed. It’s something you work at every day, trying your hardest to be the best possible version of yourself you can be at every moment you exist. She cannot continue that journey now, because of her choice to make Steven- and in many ways, that’s pretty tragic.”

second link is that fanart w has a tag: “ i don't believe rose as a character is incapable of redemption theoretically but as she is DEAD- yeah she's unable to be redeemed. unable to continue that redemption i mean”

Ok this will be MUCH MUCH longer than you likely want but let’s take a minute to talk about this. Because this aspect of Rose meta is a huge part of the conclusion of Steven Universe, and the other half of Steven’s story I’m most excited for.

Responding to this question of Rose being unable to change is implicit to the Rose is Lion theory and it’s really at the heart of the story. I genuinely don’t read a better or more consistent explanation for the pieces right now, so I operate under the assumption Rose is Lion and we are headed for the legendary impossible Rose redemption arc - the conversation changes if she’s really gone, so we’ll get there if that’s the case, but I also think that tragedy was honored quite beautifully in Steven Universe. I think the note Future will end on is instead, it’s never too late to change (Rose), it’s ok to not be sure what’s next (Steven), but you will be ok if you have love in your life and work towards the future. Unfridging the absent mom character is a big cartoon trope flip too.

I agree with the OP regarding SU’s idea of redemption. An SU “redemption arc” means the character reaching some kind of catalyst to choosing a change. They change some behavior that has caused them and/or others pain. They want to more fully express themselves and to be connected to those around them, and through some process or journey have understood no one is all-bad or all-good, but each action is a choice and each of us has impact on others. 

This is what my url and the “Rosedemption” 2020 tag refers to as I anticipate it - not “redemption” in the sense that she’s bad and becomes good or that her mistakes are overwritten or we get a perfect everything’s OK happy ending. SU does hope and does cartoon anime fanservice and the power of love, but it doesn’t do that. Agree or disagree with whichever individual story choices and character decisions you feel a way about, but I think we can all acknowledge that SU doesn’t try to simplify interpersonal relationships to black-and-white.

So rosedemption is redemption only in the sense that she is understood and chooses to take a step forward. Like how “Peridemption” describes the process of Peridot trying to learn, coming to love the Earth and embrace her personality. At the end of Steven’s story, Rose, like the others in the cast who have a place in his life, will join them in having the potential to be herself, have her innate capacity to be good recognized like everyone else, and have the chance to break a pattern of behavior she has become trapped in as well. She won’t be absolved of all her mistakes.

When pursuing the theory it was like a daisy chain of if-then. The explanation for Lion’s behavior and knowledge that makes the most sense is Lion being Rose. Fact. The next question is then: -> Is that possible given the mechanics of the universe? Yes - Steven demonstrates every power necessary, including going into other people’s bodies. Next question. -> If Rose is in fact astral projecting into Lion’s body, it’s possible she’s also responsible for the dream weirdness, is it also possible she’s in other bodies (melons)? Yes - all still in Steven’s moveset. (The thing that turned me on to the idea was that scene in Escapism, so I worked backwards a bit - but it makes sense, because we only get certain information later that illuminates pieces from earlier) -> But if Rose isn’t dead, where is the story going? 

IMO this is why people don’t entertain the idea so much, things have changed a lot, and it upends things we thought were settled. In theory terms I expect her to come forward because it’s the logical conclusion to her arc - she gets to choose to stop running and hiding, which was borne of her past, and if she’s back she can lift responsibility for her legacy from Steven’s shoulders.

It doesn’t erase what happened, though; Steven and Rose may be able to say they love each other, but maybe he’s not ready for a relationship after this void in the shape of her characterized his upbringing. Having her today doesn’t change the childhood he spent without her, and often, very lonely. Knowing she was looking over him in the way she thought would hurt him the least, doesn’t make finding out she was by his side caring for him as Lion & co. any less painful a truth to learn after childhood has already ended. Those feelings are going to come out on Steven’s end, but all they have to reach by the end of the series is a hopeful starting point that maybe someday they’ll both be in a better place. And maybe some things will never heal, you know - that’s OK - and not all of this will necessarily be explicit onscreen, we will have fanwork and meta to cover many of those infinite possibilities.

The whole first series was devoted to the CGs dealing with her death and growing after the loss of her. Does Rose coming back cheapen that? I don’t think so - what happened happened. Those things the first series went through were real. In fact, giving up her physical form and then being Lion are additional decisions made with best of intentions but enormous fallout for others, the crux of Rose’s struggle to be better when continuously she hurt people too. SU is always committed to showing how people are people and in part respond to their circumstances and the systems of society and family they were born into. As far as condemning or glorifying her actions, I don’t think SU asks either of us because of this very framing, but of course any viewer has the right to. Will I ever forgive her for what she did to Bismuth? I don’t have to - Bismuth doesn’t have to - Steven doesn’t have to. All we’ll be asked is to understand her, which is all we’ve been asked all along. Each character has this aspect to them. 

That’s not to say any story is perfect, it’s told by people as imperfect as the characters they create. And different perspectives are not only valid but expected. Some folks will always hate Rose, or Lapis, or Pearl, or the Diamonds, some will love all of the above. Sometimes your favorite character is your favorite because something they felt spoke to something you’ve felt, sometimes you hate a character because of their actions or just because you wouldn’t get along with them socially. The people who respond to things that they think SU fell short on, will make more art and cartoons that continue that conversation. Can you weigh the good influences she had on Steven’s life against the bad and come out with a mathematical judgment of binary goodness/badness, or is it more like real life where they have to accept what’s happened and move forward from there? Do you reject that and write the fic of the story you prefer? 

So to me the Rose redemption arc raises all the hard questions Steven Universe has been porting over. Who are you to others and yourself? How do you know? Where do you go after you aren’t playing a role to someone else? When do you take responsibility for your actions? What’s the point at which you’re too late? Is there? How do you face the family who harmed you, when you’re so frightened you’d rather stop existing to escape them? How do you face the people you’ve harmed, even after they understand you? When you didn’t intend to? When you did? How do you move forward when a paradigm shift upends the narrative of your life, as Steven has been forced to do wrt Rose repeatedly? Does everyone get a chance to change? And why do you do what you do? Why fear? How to face it? Can you love yourself and love others? Does love win?

That’s something I find so exciting about this possibility. It changes the entire conversation, because both those who adore Rose and those who despise her have their reasoning, but the conversation is so oriented around her inability to change like everyone else. The conversation I’m most looking forward to goes past that stopgap. When it’s not the case that she can’t change, how do we see her now? After living through the consequences of her choices and coming to understand her better alongside Steven and the family, the thought is very personal, as it will be for Steven. That’s what enchants me about the signs pointing to Rose’s return. It’s complicated and messy, but ultimately hopeful! 

If the signs were not pointing to that but something else, I’m excited for that meta too, but we’ll talk as the month unfolds and destroys us.

[thesevenseraphs]

SEASONS IN DESTINY 2'S THIRD YEAR

Hey everyone,

A couple of weeks ago, I did a (too?) many-word retrospective [Part I, Part II, Part III] on the last six months or so of Destiny 2. This covered what we think worked well, what didn’t work as well as we’d hoped, and some of our thinking on where Destiny 2 is heading. You’ll see some of this manifesting in what’s coming this fall:

A Rise of Iron–sized expansion, Shadowkeep, where we’ll explore how the Moon has evolved since we were there last. (See how vague I’m being? It’s because I don’t want to SPOIL. There are many, many sleeps to go.)

Overhauls to key game systems such as armor that give you more choices on how you play and look.

Evolution of game difficulty systems, starting with changes to Nightfall strikes. (You may have seen a preview last week at gamescom; more on that down the road.)

Features that make it easier to play with friends, such as New Light* (more below) and Cross Save. (I see all of you new-to-PC players. Thanks to the PC community for welcoming them!)

We’re simultaneously deepening the parts of Destiny 2 we know and love, but also removing the prohibitive stuff from before that made Destiny 2 hard to play with your friends.

This is a real high-wire act. We want Destiny to be a game where every blueberry could become someone who calls the Tower home.

My hands have had a week off from typing, so let’s talk about seasonal philosophy and how Seasons are shifting to fit with how we tell stories and move the world forward in the vision of Destiny 2 as a single, evolving world.

I mentioned in the Director’s Cut, Part III that we want Destiny to be a world that has narrative momentum, and a key part of that will be how Seasons support Year 3. Back in June, we mentioned that one of the ways we’re making it easier for friends to play together is to offer everything à la carte. We’re going to do just that with each Season. You and your friends can choose what you want to play, and the world will change every Season.

Year 3 will have four fully supported Seasons of content (last year’s Annual Pass had only three!), but this year, you can opt in to each Season for 10 bucks—you won’t have to pay up front for an entire year of content, like with the Forsaken Annual Pass. (FYI, the first season in this new vision, Season of the Undying, is included with Shadowkeep, but if you just want to experience Season of the Undying, you can grab that à la carte without needing Shadowkeep.)

THE WORLD OF DESTINY 2 CHANGES EVERY SEASON With each new Season in Destiny, we want players to feel like they—as a community—are contributing to Destiny’s evolving world. Each Season in Destiny has to ride the line between delivering self-contained, Season-long world arcs and making the handoff to the next season. Together, Seasons move the Destiny universe forward.

In Season of the Undying, the portal to the Black Garden that was opened as a part of JacketQuest has awoken the Vex, and they are now pouring out across the surface of the Moon. Working with Ikora, players will [Do Some Stuff, Go Somewhere, Fight Some Things, and Solve a Problem aka REDACTED]. By the end of the Season, the portals will close, the world state will change, and the Seasonal activity connected to it will go away.

Yet something remains. This will be just in time for [REDACTED] to kick off the start of Season Nine—Season of Dawn.

Everyone who plays Destiny will be able to see how the world is different and changing during the Season. Those with the Season Pass will be able to play a seasonal matchmade activity within the Black Garden for that extra level of sweet gear (this is similar to the old Annual Pass access), but the goal is that everyone will be involved in how the world changes.

And at the end of the Season, your collective actions will have caused the world state to change and the Seasonal Activity connected to those events will also go away.

Doing this allows us to evolve the world—narratively, but potentially physically as well. It is not possible to keep Destiny frozen in place to allow all activities to live forever while also changing the world in meaningful ways. This strategy lets our team be agile and innovative. We believe that Destiny will grow even better when the world state can change, and that the best Destiny stories are the ones where “you had to be there when….”

But while events and activities in the world will come and go as the world evolves, weapons critical to the meta will not be locked in each Season for new players or for players who missed that Season. Legendaries and Exotics you need to stay competitive will be re-earnable in the future, although not always immediately after the Season ends. We’ll be talking more about that later—this is one area where, with the new seasonal model, we expect our plans to evolve across the Seasons to meet the needs of the Destiny community.

And while we’re on the subject of gear and weapons, I want to talk about some other additions we’re making to your chase to create whatever-your-perfect-Guardian-is.

Reward Philosophy in D2Y3 As we dug into how to deepen the customization of your Guardians, we wanted a reward system that could: standardize some of the reward mechanisms each Season, provide clear value in its rewards, make the value of a paid Season super clear, and allow players predictable progression via XP.

We all love the chase—that perfect roll!—but we all play differently. Year 3 will add more transparency and predictability while still giving you the RNG option for the unexpected gear or roll you didn’t know you loved until you got it.

We’re adding two new predictable reward pursuits in Season of the Undying.

Seasonal Artifact Our first addition is the new Seasonal Artifact, which is free to all players. This will allow you to further customize your Guardian’s build every Season by unlocking additional mods to socket in your Armor 2.0 gear. Earning XP just by playing will level up your Artifact, letting you unlock the next mod you want for your characters.

While leveling up and unlocking mods, you will also increase the Power of the Artifact, which will continue increasing until the end of the Season (yes, it is uncapped). Artifact Power adds directly to your overall Power and is account-wide. We are both excited, and a little terrified, to see how high players will manage to raise their Artifact Power during the Season.

We want the Artifact to let us experiment more freely with our sandbox. During the last five years of Destiny, we’ve really wrestled with (and continue to wrestle with) obsolescence and permanence in player Power. So, when we were coming up with something new in the Seasonal Artifact, we wanted to figure out how we could have a system that allowed players to create build-altering powers yet not need to commit indefinitely to whatever they made and have it live on forever.

We want to date new builds, not get them hitched into the forever combat ecosystem.

It doesn’t have to be forever anymore. The Artifact can spotlight some different ways to play each Season and introduce new types of perks, while we (and you!) can experiment more boldly with new combinations and expressions of Power. We want to use the Artifact as a mechanic to allow the game to shift some each Season. In an action game like Destiny, part of the fun can be discovering new ways to play.

Here’s an example from my own play: I earned Wendigo this season. I did it naturally, by grinding a ton of strikes (although I was pretty tempted to go farm Blind Well with a group to make it go faster). I ended up using Fighting Lion a bunch in these strikes to get my grenade kills (omg why don’t the guys at the end of “The Hollowed Lair” count?!). What I found was that I really liked using Grenade Launchers, but I hadn’t really given them a spot in my routine PvE loadout (I don’t have Mountaintop). But as I was playing with Fighting Lion, I was getting better at using breech-loaded Grenade Launchers and at timing my detonations, et cetera.

So, while I was on WendigoQuest, I ended up developing an appreciation for an archetype I’d largely overlooked, and I developed some new skills (OK, “skills”) while earning Wendigo.

Seasonal Artifacts and Seasonal mods will go away at the end of each Season. And the new Season will bring a new Artifact, new mods, and a new pursuit for Power. This way, we can try bolder balance choices each Season with the sandbox, and if we get it a little wrong, we’ll be more likely to let it ride for the whole Season without nerfing your new favorite OP build.

Seasonal XP Progression The second predictable reward chase we’re adding to Seasons are Season Pass Ranks. Some of you might have spotted this on the August 14 armor stream, but we didn’t provide any context. Without context, it’s really easy to find yourself on the jumping-to-conclusions mat. (This is totally human; we all do it. I certainly do. It’s OK.)

Let’s talk about these ranks.

We want to make sure that each Season has multiple, complementary reward sources, because we all play Destiny differently, and we want to be able to customize our Guardians the way we want to. We will continue to have RNG rewards as a part of our activities, and we also want to add a direct track of rewards each Season that you can progress every evening. The best weapons and armor will still live in the treasure chests of our toughest monsters and villains, but we hope now there will be fewer nights where players feel like they logged into Destiny and got nothing done.

The Internet is talking a lot about different builds in games. Season Ranks are kind of like a build for playing a season of Destiny. Grabbing bounties, doing strikes, completing weekly challenges—these are straightforward ways to unlock Season Pass Ranks when you don’t have the time to arrange a raid group, or check Google for the right strategies to solve a problem, or gamble against RNG (where it feels like the house always wins). The ranks help our friends in the community who have families and/or full time jobs, or who are deep in finals territory at college. Sometimes you just want to log in, grab some bounties, shoot some aliens (or Guardians), earn XP, and chill with your friends.

That’s why we’ve added 100 ranks to earn each Season, with Free and Premium track rewards, plus a UX design that’s intuitive and familiar if you play other games. Unlike those other games, you’ll make progress by earning XP doing the things you’re already doing in Destiny—defeating monsters and completing bounties and activities. This is about a new additive layer of predictable rewards for just playing the game.

Here’s a look at the Season Pass UI:

It’s All Part of the Season

With every Season Pass, you will get everything you’d expect from a Destiny Season (new activities, rewards, a storyline, et cetera), not just the new Season Rank UI and the reward tracks. Like I alluded to way back in the first Director’s Cut, we need more sustainable ways to deliver rewards, and the Season Rank UI is a big step in us getting there.

So now, with all this context, let’s look at what you Season Pass owners get in Season of the Undying (which, again, is included with Shadowkeep):

Season Pass owners get access to a new seasonal activity, the Vex Offensive, which includes:

Four Legendary Weapon drops

Additional weekly and daily bounties

Additional weekly challenges with powerful rewards

A new weapon quest for an Exotic Bow, Leviathan’s Breath

Exclusive to Season Pass owners

A new Exotic Hand Cannon, Eriana’s Vow

Awarded on Rank 35 of the free track

Awarded on Rank 1 of the premium track

Three seasonal Legendary armor sets (one for each class)

Collect a complete set during the first 25 ranks of the free track

NOTE: This is a change from the Annual Pass, where you were required to purchase gear from the Season.

On the premium track you get all three sets on Rank 1

These also drop within the Vex Offensive seasonal activity

If you want versions with higher stat tiers, you’ll need to play Vex Offensive to earn them

Some additional premium track rewards:

Three universal ornament armor sets (one for each class)

An Exotic weapon ornament for Eriana’s Vow

Two Legendary weapon ornaments

A new finisher

An Exotic emote

An Exotic ship

Progression, or How Differently You All Play Destiny For many of us, Destiny 2 is a regular hobby, but how that hobby fits in with our lives is different. We have players who play every day, we have players who have 10–15 hours a week, and we have players who log in for whatever time they can spare. Every season, Destiny 2 will change, and the community working on changing the world together means that we want all of our community to be able to be a part of it.

Some other games let players buy every rank when a new Season begins. In Destiny, we want your time spent playing the game to matter; we want the first players who unlock a bunch of the sweet stuff to have unlocked it through play, not pay. Some players are going to work super hard trying reach rank 100 as quickly as possible. We think that’s great.

But again, all of you play Destiny 2 differently, and when we say we want the whole community to be part of how the world changes every season, we keep coming back to giving players the choice of how they want to spend their time. Based on how a lot of you play, 100 ranks is going to be cleared in the season, but not all of you will have the time.

To solve for how our community plays Destiny, we’re planning to allow Season Ranks to be purchased as a catch-up mechanic late in the season. We’re going to wait to see how players engage with Season Ranks and make sure it’s tuned well before determining exactly when we unlock the ability.

Season of the Undying runs for 10 weeks, and we’re currently thinking of enabling this somewhere in the last 2–4 weeks of the Season. We know that sometimes life gets in the way, and you just want to get the last few rewards before the season ends and everything resets. In the same way that we’ve been doing seasonal catch-up for Power, we think providing a late-in-the-season rank catch up makes sense. This initial version is our starting point, and the way we’ve designed Seasons moving forward means that we’re going to be able to have the flexibility to tune how this works once we see how Season of the Undying goes.

I see you: “Did Bungie just raise the XP needed to get a rank to some ridiculous level so that players have to buy ranks at the end of the season?” The answer to that question is NO. For example, in our internal team tests, playing strikes in a fairly relaxed manner (18 minutes per strike play time) with full stacks of bounties can get a Seasonal Rank in less than one hour. Every week, Guardians also get rest XP bonuses (per account), where their first three ranks are at triple XP. Playing strikes with full stacks of bounties and rest XP should get 10 ranks in around 8 hours. And knowing you, we’ll all see even better ways you’ll min-max your time to clear your ranks.

Our goal in tuning this is for our most committed Destiny players, who start on week 1, to reach Rank 100 simply by doing the things they already love spending their time on. If that’s not happening, we have the freedom and ability to adjust. We want Destiny to be your home however you want to play and hit 100. You may never want or need to buy a rank. We just want our community to be able to play together as easily as possible and narratively be part of the Destiny world as it changes.

Your Seasonal Rank also goes away at the end of the Season—a new Season of ranks and rewards will take its place. And like our Seasonal Activities, we don’t want important gameplay-focused rewards to be inaccessible to players who missed a season, so any Legendary or Exotic weapons introduced in a Season Pass will be attainable in future Seasons. Those coveted rewards won’t be available immediately, but it won’t take longer than six months either. More details on that soon.

*New Light, Removing Barriers for Friends, and $0 We’ve talked a lot about what you get if you buy the Season Pass, but let’s talk about what you get with Destiny 2 for spending nothing. This fall, new friends playing Destiny 2 for the first time are coming, and we’re going to make Destiny a great experience for everyone. At its core, what makes Destiny 2 special and a place we all come back to is the community, the friendships, and the memories made along the way. Destiny is best if you can convince your friends to play, and we think a $0 price tag is another way to make that easier. The default version of Destiny 2 this fall will be New Light, and on top of all of D2Y1 available for free with New Light, we’re going to make sure there’s plenty of new, free content in Season of the Undying. Here’s some of what all players (even without the season pass) can access on October 1:

Alt: All Destiny 2 players, whether you’re coming in with New Light or are all-in on Shadowkeep and Season of the Undying, will have access to the following:

Patrolling the Moon destination

The opening mission of Shadowkeep  

Two new strikes

Crucible Updates

Two returning PvP maps from the D1 era—Widow’s Court and Twilight Gap

Elimination in Crucible Labs

Armor 2.0 build customization

Eye of the Gate Lord Seasonal Artifact

New finishers

Two new pinnacle weapons: one for Gambit and one for Crucible

Free Seasonal Rank rewards, which include:

New Exotic weapon—Eriana’s Vow

Three Legendary armor sets (1 per class)

Two Legendary weapons

Best of Year 2 Bright Engrams

Glimmer and upgrade modules

The Legendary armor and weapons that come with the free Seasonal Ranks are like sampler platters for the Season Pass. If you want to find the best stat rolls for that armor, you will need to play the Seasonal activity and get the drops. But players who just want to collect all of the armor can earn the base version from the free track.

Eriana’s Vow, the new Exotic on our Seasonal track also drops on the free track (but you get it earlier if you have the Season Pass). We have also added a lot of rewards on the free track that are nice quality-of-life rewards for players, like upgrade modules, which are free Infusions.

How This Could’ve Worked Last Year This has been a pretty dense dump of information (thankfully it has more pictures than the Director’s Cuts did). I wanted to wrap this up by looking at how a season of content done in the style of Year 3 might’ve worked with some Year 2 content we all remember.

Let’s re-imagine the Season of the Forge in Year X of Bizzaro-Destiny

(begin Wayne’s World do-loo-loo-loo)

A week before the Season begins, all players receive a note in their mailbox. It simply reads: “I have returned from the stars. Meet me on Dec. 4 at 10:15 AM PST. —Ada” Once this note has been given out, a small countdown timer appears on the Traveler. When the timer reaches 0, players in the Tower see a ship unlike any they’ve ever seen land between Zavala and Lord Shaxx. A figure transmats out and walks through the Tower, opening a door that had long been shut. Players follow the character through the Tower and the figure lowers her hood and greets players, “I am Ada, and we have work to do.”

The Season Pass in the Director is updated, the rewards are revealed, and now Ada and players begin a Season-long experience of refining forges in the world, completing bounties, finding materials, working on Black Armory armor sets, and taking on the new raid, Scourge of the Past. In a twist, Datto and his group are the first to finish.

As players work together to forge weapons early in the track, smithing and building new ones, the room around Ada begins to change. The schematic data from players’ work is resulting in new weapons and mods for players to create. These weapons and mods don’t all require playing the Seasonal activity—some of them are found in new encounters within strikes, some of them are forged in Last Wish (like the Alchemy Lab in Blackwing Lair).

As the player community plays, meta objectives are revealed. Once a certain number of players have unlocked ranks on the Pass, cinematics unlock for everyone to watch. We see the Drifter and Ada arguing over something pitting the two against each other, the scene ends with Drifter raising an eyebrow at a set of gun schematics behind Ada.

As the Season winds to a close, the Drifter begins to summon players to him. He’s having a new space built in the Tower, and the first people he asks for help are those who’ve earned the title of Dredgen. Now players begin to gather materials and donate them to fund the Drifter’s new scam. The Drifter won’t stop talking about the gun schematics he saw behind Ada.

Very late in the Season, players notice Ada’s room looks like it’s being packed up. She’s leaving. The schematics that sat behind her are missing. Over the course of a few weeks, she packs her equipment and, in an event similar to her arrival, she vanishes. Ada, her wares, and her forges are gone.

Banshee-44 reminds players that even though Ada is gone, she left him the schematics for her weapons and armor, and he’ll be rotating them through over time.

And the Drifter asks you to visit him, saying he’s got a surprise…

(end Wayne’s World do-loo-loo-loo)

And while today, the “Let’s Pretend” section above is very much a work of fiction, we are working to build the technology that would make something like this possible and help make our Season Pass feel uniquely Destiny.

Wrap-Up Season Passes in Year 3 will in some ways feel very new and in other ways feel pretty similar to the Forsaken Annual Pass experience. Our intent is that the Season Pass mechanics—as we’re aligning everything with a single, evolving world and how we’re moving the Destiny story meaningfully forward—are additive to the core Destiny experience (we’re still going to have things like Holiday events, dungeons and secret missions, and all kinds of stuff that we hope surprises you!). It’s an evolution and an experiment, and hopefully what you’ve seen lately is that we’re going to keep being agile and continuing to make the best decisions for the game along with you. We’re excited to see where our unified seasonal philosophy will let us take the Destiny universe over the next year.

(Also, thanks for all of the comments and responses to the Director’s Cuts—I have some deleted scenes and ideas on how the format could evolve when it returns next year!)

See you soon, Luke Smith

[sulfurousdreamscapes]

What: NSA agent who spies on people is chosen for a special duty.

How long: 1,000 words

Genre: Weird fiction

CW: None

— 

Night shifts at the National Security Agency have an unmistakeable clamminess to them. Maybe it's your body telling you that if you clicked just a few pixels away, you'd be classifying this woman as a terrorist and locking her up in some lightless cell, far away in a place no one's ever heard of.

Maybe it's just the AC. Could be both, really.

"Angela, you've been summoned." The whisper coalesced into an order. I spun around and stood at attention. It was the Co-ordinator, a man who looked like he belonged in a snake's scales more so than his lanky suit.

"Yes sir." I nodded. The Co-ordinator's glasses were bright blue, reflecting my own computer screen, its private conversations staring at me in the eyes. I licked my lips. "It's been an honour, sir."

While he said nothing, I contemplated how slick his skin looked, like an amphibian's. Then he clicked his tongue. "Likewise, agent."

The NSA's inner clergy met in a boardroom with enough pencils to build a substitute bed of nails. Blue suits, black suits, grey suits, colourful military decorations, and white skins. They sat me at the end of the table, but the priests at the other end brought their seats nearer to me.

"At ease," the Director ordered. He could raise his eyebrow so high, I could swear he plucked it off before going to sleep. "Angela, the incantations are almost complete, so we've lifted your security clearance. If you have any questions, now is the time."

I opened my mouth, which immediately got every man in the room to hunch forward in expectation. "I just wanted to say that it's been an honour serving with all of you."

The Director turned to the other men. "Gentlemen, if you have any questions, now is—"

General Bennett cleared his throat to interrupt. His eyes were like glass balls, but they had a fire to them.

"Agent," he said as he closed his fist tight, like for a blood pressure test. "I'm terribly sorry about your family. You understand, don't you? After the mark appeared on your forehead, you couldn't be allowed home."

I nodded, smiling. "Of course. They were always a liability."

He nodded, faltering at his gaze. "It's for this braveness that I'm sure you were—"

"Excuse me, sir, time is short, and I have to ask this," CMS Morris of the Air Force butted in, more brusquely than his words would suggest. "You mentioned in your report that the mark appeared after you had a... revelatory experience." He sat forward, at the edge of his seat. "I need to know what that is."

This almost caused a commotion in the room, but the Director silenced it within seconds, shushing the men like children. It gave me enough time to collect my thoughts.

"I've conducted surveillance ops on at least six-hundred and sixty-five individuals so far, sir," I began. "In my work, I've extensively trawled through these individuals' Internet histories. Like, if you were to take... I don't know, Liam Norman, for instance, I knew what he ate, what his meal looked like, where he got it from, how much it cost him... I knew what he feared, who he was cheating, how he looked, how he wanted to look."

"This is pointless," the Chief of Staff threw his hands up.

"Let her finish," the Director insisted, eyebrows working overtime.

I sighed. "And I saw all this from his own expression. Everything he had said, to people, to friends, family, to strangers. Pictures and videos that he had taken, words he had written." I shook my head as I tried to find the words. "When all that expression comes together... it forms a meta-expression. An overarching expression of the human soul."

The men looked into my eyes, not a sound escaping their throats.

"Cave paintings. Oldest kind of expression there is, right? But they're so limited, so sparse. We don't know anything about their creators, other than that they saw bisons and spears, other than that they had hands to print on cave walls. But I know everything there is to know about Liam Norman, and with the technology that's being researched right now, I'll know even more about Liam Norman than he knows about himself."

"That's when the mark appeared?" CMS Morris asked.

"That's when I realised that the whole of Liam Norman's life has coalesced into an artistic expression." I grinned with glee at the men. Sacred, uplifting glee. "He is art. Just by living as he does, he is art, and we, gentlemen, are his private audience."

After a few moments, on realising that I had nothing more to say, the men looked at each other, asking questions without words.

"But if individuals have reached artistic singularity," the Chief of Staff asked, his voice a lot more cautious now. "Then that means that an aspect of... Them has been revealed to us."

"Okay gentlemen," the Director tapped his wristwatch and hurried towards me. "Time's short. The chants are coming to a close, and we need our medium to interface in T minus thirty."

Poor General Bennett wanted to shake my hand, but I was almost pushed out of the boardroom by the Director.

The interface room was small. I'd seen equipment closets bigger than it. At one end was the yawning maw of thirteen computer screens, all of different sizes, their bright blue static hiding the forest of power and display cables behind them.

The pentagram in the centre of the room was lit by candles, freshly replanted for my arrival. My other brothers and sisters joined hands in a near-circle around it, their chanting voices having dimmed to a drone.

I stepped into the middle of the circle and knelt. Once the last voice fell silent, the candles went out and the screens began to flicker.

When the NSA's deity spoke to me, it was through an incision They had made into my forehead. When They held my hand, the pain seared through my skin, muscles, and bones, through every inch of flesh, until I could feel myself leaving it behind and accepting the embrace of the Internet.

[jzeeeeeeeee]

Game of Thrones 8.06 Series Finale Recap and Review

THE NIGHT IS DARK AND FULL OF SPOILERS

This should be kind of obvious but I'll be discussing the final episode of Game of Thrones here so if you're not caught up don't read this unless you want to be spoiled!

CITY OF ASHES

Tyrion walks us into the episode, literally, walking through the ashes of King's Landing, closely followed by Jon and Davos. Ash is everywhere, still raining down, floating in the air like snow. I can only imagine the smell, if the scent from piles of burning dead outside Winterfell was bad this must be a thousand times worse considering they've always said how bad the city smelled to begin with... The horror on Tyrion's face is evident and surely echoes our own, as he walks by dead children and a near-naked burnt man stumbling out of the ruined city looking truly shellshocked. Tyrion tells Jon he wants to go on alone and heads for the destroyed Red Keep. Jon and co. run into Grey Worm and the Unsullied sentencing some Lannister soldiers to death in Dani's name and under her orders. Jon tries to tell Grey Worm that the war is over and the enemy soldiers are prisoners now, pleading for their lives. But the overwhelming loss must have had a hollowing effect on Grey Worm, emptying him of every last fuck he had to give. It almost comes to blood between Grey Worm/the Unsullied and Jon/random Northmen but Davos intercedes, quickly urging Jon to go speak with Dani directly. As Jon walks away, Grey Worm goes back to slitting throats of Lannister men like it's nothing, as if to show Jon how truly empty his fuck-tank was.

Back to Tyrion, walking around the remains of the Red Keep. He follows the steps down just like he told Jaime and sees the gigantic mountain of rubble covering the exit he had described. He starts digging through the rubble and finds jaime's gold hand. Digging further he uncovers both his siblings, dead on each other's arms. The music is haunting, a slow violin rendition of Rains of Castamere. This scene was picture perfect in it's tragedy, the bricks washing all color out of the scene save for the Lannisters. I might not have liked the way Cersei's end came or Jaime's middle finger to his redemption arc but seeing Tyrion kneeling there crying over them definitely gave me the feels.

PLAZA OF PRIDE

Arya walks past dead bodies and ruins out into the square in front of the Red Keep where the mysterious remaining half of the Dothraki are riding around on their horses, cheering and raising their arakhs in the air. We switch to follow Jon who's walking past the Dothraki and Unsullied towards massive, imposing steps of what is apparently left of the Red Keep. It makes me think of the Mayan Temple of the Sun, draped with a truly ginormous Targaryen banner. Jon looks at Grey Worm when he gets to the top of the stairs like "this is not handicap accessible". Just kidding, Jon looks at Grey Worm like he's gone as bonkers as his Queen. Dani and Drogon come flying in overhead and land somewhere behind the ruined Keep. Drogon's wings behind Dani stretch out and fold as she comes walking into the foreground. The sight is truly amazing and I've watched that part alone a hundred times. This is a powerful leader with men fiercely loyal to her returning victorious, no longer that little girl in Essos constantly on the run from assassins. There's a nice juxtaposition of the Unsullied lined up with precision thumping their spears in perfect unison, while the Dothraki are in a frenzy behind their orderly rows, practically doing wheelies on their horses as Dani delivers her victory speech.

Ok let's just stop and appreciate this character for a minute. Let's just imagine going through what she went through, it truly must feel like destiny, step by step bringer her closer to madness, all that power she has. She has a huge dragon that is closely bonded to her, she's the Unburnt not just a Khaleesi, not just a Queen. She's conquered before, and liberated before. When a character is too OP you just know they can't last... Remember the speech she gave when she named the entire khalasar her bloodriders? These men watched her walk out of fire, TWICE, unharmed. Who wouldn't kneel? They must think her a goddess! Grey Worm is devoted utterly because he was freed by Dani and he controls the Unsullied. The naming as Master of War, a great boon to him I'm sure, leader of ALL her forces now. He's still covered in the blood of dead Lannister soldiers as he steps forward to accept the nomination.

Danaerys speaks passionately, fervently as any champion of fire would. I could practically see flames dancing in her eyes as she talks of liberating the people of King's Landing. The show told me she's going crazy so I guess she must be. Jon's eyes when she starts talking about liberating the entire world... But it seems Tyrion agrees with me and in a fit of pique and anguish he casts off his Hand of the Queen pin to the ground. Dani commands the guards to take Tyrion and he locks eyes with Jon as he's walked off, with this "Your girl done gone nuts bro" face.

Arya catches up with Jon on the steps, urging him to see that Dani is a killer and he's in danger from her since she knows his true heritage. I like how he's surprised to see her, asking for its the audience what she's doing there in the first place. He doesn't even question the fact she came to kill Cersei and walks off to go find Tyrion's cell.

BROKEN THINGS

Jon and Tyrion discuss what happened and Jon can't deny what Dani did was wrong but he's trying to justify it by naming all the things she lost along the way to madness. Tyrion reiterates what Arya was saying, that Jon's life is at risk because of his claim to the throne. Jon actually rolls his eyes before sitting down to take it all in. It seems like Tyron admits he had feelings for Dani here, saying he loved her though not as successfully as Jon did. He walks Jon by the hand to the idea that she's the biggest threat to the people, especially his sisters. He lays a choice at Jon's feet, knowing that only Jon has the chance to bring this to an end.

Jon leaves to go find Dani in the Keep. Drogon is stretched outside like the largest cat ever, briefly getting up to see who's disturbing his rest but let's Jon go by without even a puff of smoke. Dani's walking through the ruined throne room, stretching out her hand to the Iron Throne she's sought after for all these years, touching the arm briefly. The ruins of the throne room and the snow-like ash in the air are the payoff from the vision she had in Qaarth's House of the Undying. She's contemplative, making a meta comment about the throne being made of a thousand blades from Aegon's fallen enemies. This is a sort of dig because the throne GRRM had described and imagined was more like the one she does here. Jon comes in to rain on her parade, angry about the Unsullied executing Lannister soldiers along with the thousands of dead and burned children outside. He seems to be giving her one last chance, begging with her to see reason. As she says her final words about building a new world and breaking the wheel I'm heartbroken because I know what's coming next without anyone telling me. "Be with me. Build the new world with me. This is our reason, since you were a little boy with a bastard's name and I was a little girl that couldn't count to 20. We do it together. We break the wheel together." He kisses her passionately this time, "You are my Queen, now and always", not breaking away like he did at Winterfell and Dragonstone, and I know the instant the knife goes in her heart he's sobbing and so am I. It's like she had plot armor her entire life... until today.

THE IRON THRONE

Jon lays Dani's body down on the ground and suddenly Drogon's there, sensing something wrong with his mother. He nudges her with his head but she's gone, and the sadness that pours out of him is an echo of my own seeing her tragic story at an end. This girl had been on this path since her birth, freeing slaves, serving justice to those who deserved it and I'm supposed to believe right at the end she decides to kill all the innocent people she came to save. Ok fine I'll go along with it for now since we're on mega fast forward this season and maybe I just missed all the subtle steps on the way to Dani's madness. Back to Drogon... He's so full of anguish he let's out a few huge bursts of fire, melting the Iron Throne down to slag. The scene was awesome in the true meaning of the word but I'm a little confused why Drogon would understand the meaning of such an act. And why didn't Jon move out of the way more? He has a weird thing with facing dragons I guess, maybe he planned on yelling at Drogon like he did to his brother. The scene ends after Drogon snatches up Dani's body in one claw and flies away, never to be seen again.

Tyrion awakes, finding his buddy Grey Worm at the door. He's led out to the Dragonpit where the Lords and Ladies of Westeros (🤷) are waiting. I have no idea what kind of time has passed but guessing from Tyrion's hair it's been a few weeks since Dani's death. Sansa demands to know where Jon is but Grey Worm insists they are in control of the city and it's prisoners. Sansa doubles down letting him know King's Landing is surrounded by Northmen. Yara makes some threat about Jon getting killed by the Unsullied but Arya comes right back at her saying she'll slit her throat lol. I think it's right around here everything becomes a bit hokey to me. After some back and forth with Grey Worm about the fate of Jon Snow, Tyrion suggests they choose a king or queen (who will ultimately be in charge of that fate). That Tully dude, Lord of the Riverlands gets up to make a speech (maybe to make a play as king?) but Sansa shoots him down by asking him to just sit, be a good boy, and drink his bottled water. Sam suggests a type of democracy system where everyone gets a say and they all just laugh at him. Just like everyone imagined, Tyrion reveals Jon is the heir to the Throne and they all live happily ever after. Wait no, actually he walks around and talks about how stories hold the world together and Bran should be King. What in the ever-loving fuck? Who has a better story than a man who came back from the dead only to find he was not a bastard at all but the heir to the Iron Throne????!!! Ok I get that he killed Dani so that's a stain on his honor but he did it to save the whole damn world. He didn't want to rule but neither did Bran! Tyrion proposes kingship to Bran in a way that sounds like a marriage proposal from the realm. Then Bran shows more emotion than he has in the past 2 seasons, he smiled a little and says "Why do you think I came all this way?" Huh? Well I had thought it was to help defeat the Night King and the White Walkers but fine I'll go along with that too I guess... I thought for a hot second he'd say "I am Groot". Sansa declares independence for the North after we get a round of "ayes" from all the other Westerosi Lords and Ladies in favor of Bran the Broken as king. I face palm but on my 3rd or 4th rewatch I see that Tyrion's cleverness did shine through one last time. He knew that giving Jon to the Unsullied would mean more war, knew Jon didn't want the throne anyway, knew that the puzzle needed solving and I suppose he did it. Jon would go to the Wall and serve a life sentence in the Night's Watch as a compromise, apparently to keep everyone from getting what they want. We see Tyrion meet briefly with Jon to explain this and he's as baffled as I am there's even a Night's Watch left. What are they watching? Season one?

A DREAM OF SPRING

Another time jump of unknown proportions and Jon is getting on a boat, headed for the Wall. He sees Grey Worm on another ship about to set sail for Naath where I can only assume he'll die from butterfly poison trying to protect Missandei's people. As Jon rounds a corner he sees Bran, Arya and Sansa are there to see him off. Hugs all around, Sansa apologizes to Jon and I can't help but think it's forced, Arya will sail West of Westeros. When Jon kneels in front of Bran saying, "Your Grace" I'm still wondering what his Targ ancestry had to do with anything and why Bran thought it was so important for him to know. The last of the Starks are going to go on their separate paths again, but hey they won the Game.

We next get a cute scene of Brienne writing Jaime's deeds in the White Book, meaning she's the Lord Commander now. This part is uber meme-able, particularly when she makes faces trying to think of good deeds to write. After a few creative truths she closes the book without writing anything about how he saved the people of King's Landing from being burned alive with wildfire. This scene also shows us Bran the Broken has taken a raven for his sigil, it's now prominent on Brienne's Kingsguard armor.

We go next back to Tyrion, the Keep mended enough to have a small council meeting in the old spot he's meticulously rearranging the chairs. Sam, now Grandmaester, brings in a book called a Song of Ice and Fire, very Hobbit of him, setting it in front of Tyrion. The rest of the small council files in, Bronn as Lord of Highgarden and Master of Coin, Davos as Master of Ships, and Brienne the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard. Bran is wheeled in just for a minute so we can hear they're missing a few officers and see Sir Podrick is in charge of pushing his chair around now, making an ambiguous comment about finding Drogon just before leaving the running of the kingdom to the council (please give me a sequel of just that!). The scene ends with Tyrion starting his famous jackass/brothel joke but we never get the punchline.

NORTH OF THE WALL

Jon arrives at the Wall, which has been repaired with wooden gates. Then the most well-done cutting of scenes together happens as we bounce between Arya getting ready for her journey west, Jon's arrival and subsequent leaving of the Wall, and Sansa's coronation as Queen of the North. We see Jon moving through the wildlings and finally, FINALLY, he pets Ghost. Arya's on a ship with a huge Stark wolf on the sails. Sansa is at Winterfell newly crowned. It all ends kind of how it started, with Jon on his horse walking north into the woods, wildlings on foot following him into the future. The scene evokes a sense of adventure unknown and reminds me of the first scenes from the pilot where we first saw the wights and Walkers in action but instead of death it's life moving through these woods now.

UPS AND DOWNS

So my main reason for breaking this all down was because I've been asked over and over what I thought of this episode. Many of you know I'm passionate about this show and even now that's it's over I'm sure I'll rewatch it many, many times again, season by season. In fact, this will probably be the first blog entry I have in "Watching Thrones Backwards; maybe it makes more sense this way?"

That being said I feel like this ending was really perfect for what they set out to do. A show based on a book series is always difficult, and Thrones lost access to the written word once the show moved past the books. I've read every single book and felt that more character development could've been done here in Seasons 7 and 8, both of which would've been better with more episodes. It felt rushed without those extra moments this story deserved but instead we got what we got. And what we got in the last episode was amazing for this series, beautifully produced, imagery leaps and bounds ahead of anything else on television, well-acted, even if not always well-written.

The biggest criticism I have was that the dive into Dani's madness was too abrupt, and such a huge deviation from her character. But her last words will haunt me for all of time. "We will break the wheel together." And they did. Jon's act was a sacrifice for both of them and gave rise to the new system of electing leaders.

Time was also my enemy in this episode, I know that it opens pretty soon after the last one because there's still fires burning but as we go through it I felt less and less certain where we were on the timeline. At the Dragonpit scene Robin Aryn was much taller, does that mean years have gone by or mere weeks? Years of Unsullied occupancy in King's Landing doesn't make sense to me but ok whatever. And at the end stuff was kind of fixed like in the Red Keep and at the wall so that must've been years certainly! But Sansa was just getting crowned so did they really wait all that time to do it? I guess I'll need to wait for GRRM to help me clear that up, hopefully in my lifetime.

My other problem was that everything was getting tied up with pretty little bows, basically going down the list and checking off all the weird bets people were making online. I could've easily told you Arya would head west of Westeros, Sam would name that book a Song of Ice and Fire, and that Tyrion would never finish his joke on screen. I say "was" though because I'd rather have all these things tied up neatly than a lot of wtf moments. We had enough of those watching this series, and this being the last episode it truly was "bittersweet" so seeing storylines get sewn shut was much nicer after I had time to really think about it all. I'm over a dozen times through this episode now and it's held up amazingly well to rewatch.

Even with all the negative criticism I absolutely loved this episode. Each scene in this final episode looked incredible, Jaime and Cersei dead in each other's arms, the dragon wings behind Dani at the Keep, Drogon melting the Throne, even Jon walking off into the woods at the end. Cinematically it was successful, thematically maybe a little less so. But it made sense in a way the Dexter or Lost finales never will. Dany succeeded in the end with breaking the wheel - Shakespearean tragedy at its finest, Tyrion is for all intents and purposes ruling as Hand, Arya stopped killing everyone, Sansa's a queen in her own right, Bran is probably warging into Drogon somewhere off screen flying about and Jon pet Ghost. Team Stark FTW I give it a solid 9 out of 10!

*Picture credits to HBO Game of Thrones*