#I have some plot ideas for this but I doubt I’m gonna expand on it much

[beans-and-shet]

Life goddess and death god au concept cause I can and their personalities suit it

[latteenightss]

Hii! Just another rant about obx. I wanna share my predictions about season 5 and what I think they’re gonna do

Chase Stokes (John B) mentioned that season 5 will be their best one, which it could be but I think for a lot of viewers just the fact that JJ won’t be there at all might ruin the season if yk what I mean.

And now to my predictions

1. I think season 5 will be Kiara’s season, with the way season 4 ended it’s obvious she’s gonna lash out and go through a lot. She’s gonna need to deal with grief and her revenge era might be a bit brutal 😊

Also maybe she will be somehow related to the treasure? Or just connected slightly. Like season 1 we had John B, season 2 it was Pope. Season 3 now- idk I guess Sarah but Kie also had a bigger role, like when that dude kidnapped her and then she got sent off to that camp but that’s it, then her plot line was about Jiara, and season 4 was obv JJ.

And since we’re talking about JJ, y’all.. ik it’s hard but he’s not coming back 😭 obx is not supernatural, a wish won’t bring him back to life. Like I don’t think JJ will crawl out of sand.

I generally love the idea of Kie finally having her main character moments and just making her more important to the story.

2. We will get Riara. And I definitely don’t mean that in a romantic way because that’s not happening! Madison (the actress of Kie) hates Riara 😭 but I think we will see them as duo and just get more of those tension scenes that we got so far. I feel like that might be a way the writers will try to “replace” Jiara. Jiara was a huge ad for the show and lately so has been Riara.

I feel like almost eveyone loves the tension between those two and the writers know that. Also Rafe breaking up with Sofia- yea they’re definitely building up to some sort of storyline with Kiara and Rafe. The amount of people obsessed with Riara is insane and obv they have to give us something so..

Riara s5 is pretty much guaranteed.

3. I wanna talk about Sarah and John B- obviously a huge plot line will be their child. I don’t know if the child will be born at the end or during season 5. How I see it, I’m leaning more toward the end but we’ll see.

There’s not much else that can really happen with them. John b will also be in a revenge era since his best friend was killed and Sarah will definitely get closer with Rafe, that hug they shared was so cute and needed but otherwise I really don’t know! I doubt they’ll kill them off. I was thinking that the way John B narrates obx maybe that’s him in the future telling his child about their story? That would make sense honestly.

4. Pope and Cleo umm so. I honestly am not as interested in their story line and it’s interesting because I have no idea what they will do with them.

I think Pope might be kind of more cold in season 5- as we know he shot a person right in the head, and he was so scared about that. Also he lost JJ- his best friend and they want to send him to the military. Dude is not doing the best! 💀

Cleo.. I don’t know she’s such a complicated character, she went through a lot in her life but I doubt they’ll really expand her character in season 5.

5. Rafe!!!! His character development this season was insane. In my opinion he should stick with the pogues but I wouldn’t be surprised if he somehow betrayed them. That’s Rafe- he’s not a good person but I wouldn’t say he’s necessarily bad..

Like I already said in obx 5 there will be Rafe and Kie duo, and more of Sarah and Rafe for sure. But maybe he will connect with the other pogues too.

I just don’t want the development to be thrown away, I hope they make him stick with the pogues.

6. And now finally the ending/possible deaths.

The characters who in my opinions are most in danger are: Kiara and Rafe

Especially Kiara.. here’s the thing, since JJ is dead and she already went through the whole group 😭 what can her ending actually be? Like ok she could just end up alone with her friends, her family but in my opinion her death would make sense. She would be with JJ and I think in general it is a good end for her.

Rafe like i mentioned is a complicated character, it would be so easy for the writers to just kill him off at the end. But I would be honestly so mad!!! Like no JJ and no Rafe 😭. Yeah I don’t want them to do that but at the same time, I think there’s definitely a possibility.

Sarah and John B definitely safe in my opinion.

Cleo and Pope- now I don’t know, I think they’re safe. Maybe Cleo.. but still I don’t think so.

Groff- definitely done for! ❤️ I hope Kiara tortures him to death 🥰

[changeishard]

Some writing updates

Nothing serious, I just feel like talking (and I talk a lot so it's under a read more lol)

My next chaptered fic is almost done!! I have two chapters left to finish (one of those I only need to finish one scene; the other one is a bit more barren but I know what needs to be in it) and I was considering posting it after I was done with the more complete one, but I’m gonna hold off on that for now. I’m gonna be posting a lot because of the epistolary fic, and I feel kinda weird when I post too much, I’m always scared it’s gonna come off as spammy to the people who subscribe to me.

If you want a hint about the content of this next fic, I mentioned in the author’s notes of a one-shot this year that I had three fics that started out as funny dialogue but went into totally different directions. This is the third fic lol The funny dialogue in question was something I wrote in July of 2022. It sat there with less than 1k words until this year, when I finally had an idea on how to expand it. And I expanded it too much maybe, because it’s going to be at least 90k words long. I’m unsure yet if it will surpass 100k, we’ll see lmao

As for other stuff, I have two one-shots that I’m actively working on. One is an idea that I always told myself I didn’t want to do for reasons, but I had a sudden flash of inspiration after rereading some of my old original stories so yeah. It’s close to being finished, and it will get posted as soon as I do.

The other one I’m struggling with a little because I don’t know yet the best way to do the exposition part of the story. There’s a lot of backstory needed for it to make sense, but also lowkey I just loved exploring said backstory and coming up with things to happen in it so idk. Hopefully I’ll finish it someday, because I really like this idea lol

I have another chaptered fic, but I’m taking my time with it. It was an idea that actually came to me in a dream (I wish I was joking lol) and I changed up the details to make it more fun for me to write, and now it’s kinda plot heavy lol Unsure if I will ever finish it, but I’m liking the way it’s coming out so far.

There are also two more chaptered fics, but they’re both indefinitely on hold; plus a one-shot that I’ll probably get to once I’m not as burnt out of one specific series of mine. I wish I could have written it before Halloween, but it was absolutely not gonna happen lol There are also a bunch of half-baked ideas that are probably not going anywhere but I’ll keep them around just in case.

Also, I do have a one-shot for a different fandom that I desperately want to finish since I’ve had it half-written since 2021, but I’m not into it much right now. Maybe someday lol

That’s pretty much it. This year was weird writing-wise because I feel like I completely drained myself in the first half of the year, and I basically spent about two months not even opening any documents because I had no words coming out of my brain, and a long time before that hating every single thing I wrote (wonder why I reedited cykas? This is why lmao).

I’m honestly floundering a little bit, but I still want to finish the things I started before the hyperfixation runs out. I don’t want it to, to be completely honest, but I feel like it might not survive the next year? Idk, it’s already lasted much longer than previous hyperfixations of mine so I feel like it’s about to end anytime soon.

BUT I’m still enjoying it? Like, I’m still thinking about it and having ideas? Maybe I just feel like the best is already over because my three favorites are pretty solidified and I doubt anything will change that. Or maybe I’m still feeling the writer’s block a little because I just don’t know if what I’m writing now lives up to the three untouchables and that’s bumming me out too.

Anyways, that last part was a ramble lol but that’s what this tumblr should be for, in theory. I always think I like talking about my writing and then I do talk and realize huh that was a bit much maybe I don’t want people to know me at all ever so yeah. This post will be up for a while, but don’t be surprised if it randomly disappears in the future lol

[felassan]

Some DA trivia and dev commentary from Twitter

There’s a lot of different tweets, so I’m just pasting and linking to the source rather than screencapping them all or making several different posts or something. Post under cut for length.

User: Was dragon age 2 your favourite in the franchise?

David Gaider: DA2 was the project where my writing team was firing on all cylinders, and they wrote like the wind- because they had to! Second draft? Pfft. Plot reviews? Pfft. I was so proud of what we all accomplished in such a brief time. I didn't think it was possible. [source] DA2 is, however, also where the goal posts kept moving. Things kept getting cut, even while we worked. I had to write that dialogue where Orsino turned even if you sided with him, because his boss battle had been cut and there was no time to fix the plot. A real WTF moment. >:( [source]

Mike Rousseau: I remember bugging that! And then being told it wasn't a bug, and being so confused. Doing QA for DA2 was an experience. Trial by fire. [source]

DG: So I think it's safe to say DA2 is my favorite entry in the DA franchise and also the sort of thing I never want to live through ever again. Mixed feelings galore. [source]

User: (I personally blame whoever it was for ruining most romance arcs in other games for me; they don't live up to Fenris's romance storyline)

DG: I wrote Fenris, so uh - me, I guess? Or maybe his cinematic designer, who put in the puppy dog eyes. [source]

User: If DA2 had just been an expansion, do you think it would have been better received? There was a lot of great stuff in there, and I think my initial dislike of it was because of the zone reuse. If it hadn't needed to be a full game, would that issue not have arisen?

DG: Hard to say. It was either going to be an over-scoped expansion or an under-scoped sequel. If it had stayed an expansion, it might never have received the resources/push it DID get. [source]

User: I'd love to visit the universe where you had an extra year or so to work on it. You did a very good job as it stands, but it definitely had rough edges. Not just the writing team either. The whole game had hit and miss moments, that just a little more dev time could have fixed.

DG: On one hand, DA2 existed to fill a hole in the release schedule. More time was never in the cards. DA2 was originally planned as an expansion! On the other, if we had more time, would we have started doing that thing where we second guess/iterate ourselves into mediocrity? [shrug emoji] [source] 

Jennifer Hepler: This is what I love about DA2. Personally, I greatly prefer something that's rough and raw and sincere to something that's had all the soul polished out of it. Extra time would have helped for art and levels, but it would have lost something too. [source]

DG: Right? I think we could have used some time for peer reviews (and fewer cuts), but I think the rawness of the writing lent a certain spark that we usually polished out. [source]

JH: Definitely. I think the structure (more character-driven) and the tightness of the timeframe let each individual writer's voice really come through. Polish can be very homogenizing. [source]

DG: I should add I'm not, by any means, against iteration. Some iteration is good and necessary. The problem that BioWare often had is that we never knew when to stop. Like a goldfish, we would fill the space given to us by constantly re-iterating on things that were "good enough". [source]

Patrick Weekes: I appreciate your incredibly diplomatic use of the past tense on "had". :D [source]

User: DA2 was my gateway into the series and I’m so happy it is. I love the game the way that it is. It’s one of my favorites of all time. But I am also aware of everything that was said here. If it were remastered, do you think it would change?

DG: I'd be surprised if it was ever remastered. If it was, do you really think they'd change things? Do remasters do that? No idea. [source]

User: Both sides got undercut as I recall. Didn't that whole sequence also end with the mage leader embracing blood magic? It was very much "a plague on both your houses" moment, at least for me.

DG: Yep. Orsino was supposed to have his own version of Meredith's end battle, which only happened if you sided with the templars. That got cut, but the team still wanted to use the model we'd made for him. So... that happened. [source]

DG: I would personally say that DA2 is a fantastic game hidden under a mountain of compromises, cut corners, and tight deadlines. If you can see past all that, you'll see a fantastic game. I don't doubt, however, that it's very difficult for most to do that. [source]

PW: I love DAI with all my selfish "I worked on this" heart, but DA2's follower arcs and relationships are probably my favorite in the series. [source]

User: As I've expressed many times, I love the game, especially it's writing and characters but, for me, the most impressive aspect of it, in consideration of it's lack of time for drafts and revisions, is the 2nd act with Arishok.  What amazingly complex character and fantastic duel

User: Just played it again and I have to agree. Though he is bound by the harsher tenants of the Qun, he makes valid points about free marcher society. Though it is obvious that he and Hawke will come to blows eventually, the tension builds gradually and understandably

DG: Luke did such a fantastic job with the Arishok I found myself sometimes wishing the Qunari plot had just been THE plot. [source]

User: What do you think would have changed, story wise, if you had more time for DA2?

DG: I would have taken out that thing where Meredith gets the idol. It was forced on me because she needed to be "super-powered" with red lyrium for her final battle. Being "crazy", however, robbed her side of the mage/templar argument of any legitimacy. I hated hated hated that. [source]

User: I deeply lament that there wasn't/couldn't be some sort of DA2 equivalent of Throne of Bhaal's Ascension mod.

DG: I'd have done it, if DA2 had allowed for anything but the most rudimentary of modding. ;) [source]

User: I mean, and I think I understand where you were trying, but how much legitimacy did the Templars and her as top Templar have after they're keeping the mages locked up against their will in the old slave quarters? Feel free to not reply.

DG: I think it's the kind of discussion which requires nuance, and which discussions on the Internet are not prone to. [source]

User: Was a compromise that the quest lines don’t branch? It felt like it was supposed to be that way but then you end up in the same place later regardless of what you pick. Like I hoodwinked the templars so good to help the apostates escape but in Act II they were caught anyway.

DG: I remember us having a lot more branching in the initial planning yes. Most of this got trimmed out in the first or second wave of cuts, in an effort to not cut the plots altogether. [source]

DG: "If you could Zack Snyder DA2, what would you change?" Wow. I'm willing to bet Mark or Mike (or anyone else on the team) would give very different answers than me, but it's enough to give a sober man pause, because that was THE Project of Multiple Regrets. [source] I mean, it's the most hypothetical of hypotheticals. It's never gonna happen. I wouldn't be surprised if EA considered DA2 its embarrassing red-headed stepchild. We'd also need to ignore that in many ways DA2 was as good as it was bad BECAUSE of how it was made. But that aside? [source] First, either restore the progressive changes to Kirkwall we'd planned over the passing of in-game years or reduce the time between acts to months instead of years... which, in hindsight, probably should have been done as soon as the progressive stuff was cut. [source] I'm sure you're like "get rid of repeated levels!" ...but I don't care about that. All I wanted was for Kirkwall to feel like a bigger city. Way more crowded. More alive! Fewer blood mages. [source] I'd want to restore the plot where a mage Hawke came THIS close to becoming an abomination. An entire story spent trapped in one's own head while trapped on the edge of possession. Why? Because Hawke is the only mage who apparently never struggles with this. It was a hard cut. [source]

User: I would LOVE to hear more details about this! I don’t suppose there’s any chance of a short story?

DG: I don't even remember the details of the story, sorry. There was a fight, and you caught the bad guy and then realized none of it was real and woke up idk [source]

DG: I'd want to restore all those alternate lines we cut, meaning people forget they'd met you. Or that they knew you were a mage. Or, oh god, that maybe they'd romanced you in DAO. So much carnage. [source] I'd want to restore the Act 3 plots we cut only because they were worked on too late, but which would have made the buildup to the mage/templar clash less sudden. Though I don't remember what they were, now. Some never got beyond being index cards posted on the wall. [grimace emoji] [source] As I mentioned elsewhere, I'd want to restore Orsino's end battle so he wouldn't need to turn on you even if you sided with him. And I'd want an end fight with the templars that didn't require Meredith to have red lyrium and go full Tetsuo. [source] Heck, maybe an end decision where you sided with neither the mages nor the templars. Because it certainly ended up feeling like you could brand both sides as batshit pretty legitimately, no? That was never planned, tho. No idea how to make that feel like an actual path atm. [source] Maybe an option to go "umm, Anders... what are you DOING?" 👀 [source] And, of course, a Varric romance, because Mary took that "slimy car salesman" character we'd planned and did the impossible with him. I can feel Mary glaring at me for even suggesting this, tho. [source] Lastly, the original expanded opening to the game which allowed you to spend time with Bethany and Carver BEFORE the darkspawn attacked. And, um, that's about it off the top of my head. Zack Snyder, WHAT PANDORA'S BOX HAVE YOU OPENED. [source] Shit, I remembered two more things: 1) Restore the "Varric exaggerates the heck out of the story" at the beginning of every Act, until Cassandra calls him on it. Yes, that was a thing. 2) Make DA: Exodus. Yes, I am still bitter. [source] God damn it, I meant "Make DA: Exalted March". The DA2 expansion, NOT Exodus since that was DA2's original name and makes no sense. Because the expansion ended with Varric dying, and that will always be on my "things left undone" list. [source]

User: Whaaaat?

DG: Well, you know that scene in Wrath of Khan where Spock goes into the dilithium chamber because he's a Vulcan? Well, imagine that but with Varric and red lyrium and because he's a dwarf. ;) [source]

John Epler: I distinctly remember referencing the bit from MGS4 where you crawl through the microwave corridor in the split screen, while cinematic battle rages on the other half. [source]

DG: It would have been glorious, John. Glorious. [source]

JE: I don't think I've ever been so certain what a shot should look like as I did Hawke coming in and finding Varric in the broken throne, just like when he was telling Cassandra his story. [source]

DG: It would have come full circle! Auggghh, it still kills me. [source]

User: Lord, you folks are a little too good at this.

JE: The true secret behind videogame narrative is knowing how to make yourself seem a lot more clever than you actually are. [source] 'Oh, we TOTALLY planned that.' [source]

User: Ok, this thread [the DA2 regrets thread, which is the big chunks above] but Inquisition.

DG: My regrets about Inquisition are, more or less, the normal kind. Nothing so dramatic, I'm afraid. [source]

User: You can keep your Varric romance, I want a Flemeth romance goddamnit!

DG: I would allow for one flirt option, and then a recording of Kate Mulgrew laughing for three minutes straight. [source]

User: I had a hypothesis about the repetitive caves in DA2. They're repetitive because it's Varric telling the story and he didn't consider them important.  They're like sets in a play.  (Okay, I really suspect it was a time/money/resources thing but I like my fake explanation better.)

DG: Hang a lampshade on it, maybe? Cassandra: "But that's the exact cave you were in last time?" Varric: "Whatever. They all look the same, I'm not THAT kind of dwarf. Can we move on?" [source]

User: that makes sense, hypothetically to make Varric romanceable and keep his arc—that had to happen for the main plot—I imagine you would have to make double the content (or more)? which would've been a tall order given the time/budget constraints the game was under

DG: Right. When it comes to "romance arc" vs. "follower story arc", we generally only had time to do one or the other. Never both. Romancing Varric would have meant not getting the story of his that you did. [source]

Mary Kirby: The one exaggeration I really, REALLY wanted, that we never got to do was Varric narrating his own death scene with Hawke weeping over him, then cutting to Cassandra's pissed off glaring at him. [source]

DG: Haha! The one I wanted was Varric's plot where he takes on the baddies single-handedly, sliding across the floor like Jet Lee, action movie-style, until finally Cassandra gets irritated and he has to admit Hawke & the rest of the party showed up to help. [source]

MK: We did that one! (He didn't do any Jet Lee moves, though.) Jepler gave him letterboxing to get The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly showdown vibes while he shot a ton of mooks single-handed. [source]

DG: Wow. Shows how much I remember. [source]

JE: I found it! I remember seeing this sequence as my treat for doing a bunch of much more challenging work. It was fun to see how far I could push our limited library of animations. [link] [source]

DG: Heh awesome. I could have sworn it was cut, honestly. I think I was even in that meeting. [source]

User: no disrespect but that’s surprising and rich of Mary “Hard in Hightown” Kirby to think DA2 shouldn’t have had a Varric romance when she wrote an entire book of Varric’s self-insert character pining over his Hawke insert character… HIH is the reason we had VHawke Summer 2018

DG: I can't *really* speak for Mary, or how she feels about it now compared to back then. I only know how she felt about it back then, and I'm not sure it was as much the concept of the romance but that Varric's entire story would be bent to "romance arc" ...a very different thing. [source]

JH: I remember pushing to have the first DLC start with Hawke having an option to ask Varric, "Did you tell Cassandra about us?" and if you picked it, Varric would answer, "Of course not, baby. I told her you were sleeping with X..." and then proceed as if you had had a full romance. [source]

DG: I still wonder how that would have gone over. x) [source]

JE: Okay, one more DA2 thing. Putting together the cinematics for this scene was a blast. [link] [source]

MK: These lines are my greatest legacy. I want "Make sure the world knows I died... at Chateau Haine!" inscribed on my tombstone. [source]

JE: I was so glad no one said 'no' to the crane shot. [source]

MK: It needs that crane shot. It's the perfect icing on that cake made from solid cheese. [source]

DG: The designers were all "we need more combat" and I think we were all "I think you underestimate just HOW interesting we can make this dinner party". [source]

JE: And finally. I think @SherylChee wrote the one-liner. I think we had a collection of like, 20. [link] [source]

Sheryl Chee: Yeah! Something like that! I remember submitted a whole bunch and Frank said you only needed one. Wish I'd kept the other fifteen. [source]

JE: A random chooser where, each time through the scene, you get a different one-liner. [source]

JE: DA2 is the project I'm the proudest of. I also absolutely get that it didn't land for a lot of people. But I don't think it's inaccurate to say that, in a lot of ways, DA2 defined my career. [source]  Everyone spent a year working at their maximum ability. I was a fresh cinematic designer and was given all of Varric's content, as well as the Act 1 Finale mission. It was a lot for someone who had been doing the Cinematics thing for literally 6 months. [source]  There's some stuff in there I can't look at without wincing. And there's some stuff I'm genuinely proud of. Not to mention, it was my introduction to most of the writing team. Several of whom I'm still working with today! Albeit in a different capacity [source] Also, weirdly, one of my most enduring memories of Dragon Age 2 is how much Bad Company 2 we'd play at lunch. It was a LOT. [source] Every game I've worked on has a game I played attached to it. ME2 is Borderlands. DA2 is Bad Company 2. DAI is DayZ. I, hmm. There's a progression there. I don't know how I feel about it. [source]

User: Is DA4 going to be tarkov then?

JE: I've kind of churned out of Tarkov for now. Probably Hunt Showdown, at least right now. [source]

User: I think people also don't take nuance into consideration -- like I FULLY acknowledge the flaws in my favorite games and will openly criticize them, but that doesn't mean they're not my favorite games anymore??? You can like and thing and still be critical of it.

JE: A lot of my favourite shit is deeply flawed! I acknowledge it and I think it's interesting to dissect the flaws. [source]

User: I still wish Justice was an actual character in DA2 rather than a plot point.

DG: There was a moment during DAI where we *almost* put in you running into Justice with the Grey Wardens, and he's all "Kirkwall? I never went to Kirkwall" [source]

User: Does that imply that Justice was shoehorned in to DA2?

DG: Nah, it was an in-joke where we thought it'd be fun to suggest that "Justice" was simply some demon that tricked Anders in DA2. Wooo those tricky demons! We didn't do it, though. [source]

User: [about templars]  except, I don't think it had very much legitimacy to begin with. keep in mind, we interact with other characters with the same argument. The one that comes to mind is Cullen, a sane templar in power. The templar's side of the argument is inherently flawed.

DG: I don't doubt that many people agree with you, and yet people can and do argue on behalf of the templars as well. My place isn't to pick a side, but to provide evidence that players can interpret for themselves [source]

User: Can you shed some light for us on how DA was able to do multiple same-sex romance options for different genders but the Mass Effect team treated them like the plague? What process existed for your team that just wasn't their for the other tentpole franchise?

DG: Different people making the decisions, almost different cultures. I don't know what it's like now, but for many years the Mass Effect team and the Dragon Age team were almost like two different studios working within the same building. [source]

User: It truly boggles the mind. Kudos for doing demonstrably better on consistent queer representation than the ME teams. Y'all never needed us to make petitions to try to get the studio's attention and ask them to do better by us. That's the fight we're once again embroiled in now.

DG: Honestly, I don't feel like tut-tutting the Mass Effect team. They did their part, and if they were a bit later to the show than the DA team they certainly did more than almost every other game out there -- and willingly. [source]

Updates begin here

User: So what was the reason for naming Dragon age 2 "Dragon age II" and not using a subtitle?

DG: As I recall, that was purely a publisher decision. I think they wanted to avoid the impression it was an expansion. [source]

User: Is there no chance of ever remaking DA2 under better circumstances? -Somehow remove the repetitiveness of gameplay by making changes and updating the tech and adding much more to the storyline. It could almost be a new very exciting game.

DG: I'd say there's zero chance of that. Let's keep our hopes up for the next DA title instead. [source]

User: I am a little confused here, help me out here please! How exactly was the cut boss battle with Orsino supposed to work out? How it would've kept him from turning against the player?

DG: It means that, if you sided with the templars, the entire boss bottle at the end would have been against Orsino and the mages. No fight against Meredith. The end decision would have been more divergent. [source]

User: I do remember that one of the reasons going around for that, was that resources were going to the transition to Frostbite. I'm still not fully sold on that having been a good choice. I felt that more time should have been given for that transition considering it was made for FPSs

DG: We didn't transition to Frostbite until DAI. Given our time frame for DA2, I don't think we *could* have transitioned to a new engine. [source]

User: Since your talking about the what could have been for DA2. Could you say what your script was for Anthem? Cause I remember reading that you wrote the plot on that game.

DG: I created a setting for Anthem and scripted out a plot - but, as I understand it, almost none of that ended up being used. So it's a bit pointless to talk about what I'd planned, as that'd be for some completely different type of game. [source]

User: [in reference to the exchange above where DG said “Being "crazy", however, robbed her side of the mage/templar argument of any legitimacy. I hated hated hated that.” re: Meredith] except, I don't think it had very much legitimacy to begin with. keep in mind, we interact with other characters with the same argument. The one that comes to mind is Cullen, a sane templar in power. The templar's side of the argument is inherently flawed.

DG: I don't doubt that many people agree with you, and yet people can and do argue on behalf of the templars as well. My place isn't to pick a side, but to provide evidence that players can interpret for themselves. [source]

If I missed a tweet, got the wrong source link or included a tweet twice, feel free to let me know and I’ll correct.

Edit / Update: Post update 22nd April

[guynamedultimax]

What if Kirby had a traditional fighting game?

Listen, I know I should’ve done more “FNF fighting game characters” but i doubt anyone cared for that, and even then I lost a bit of interest, so if you actually cared sorry about that, you can still come up with whatever you want for the characters I didn’t talk about!

That being said, I think all Kirby fans here know Kirby Fighters 2. Personally speaking most of it was just the same as Kirby Fighters Deluxe BUT there were five playable Dream Friends. FIVE. Priority to the Copy Abilities a bit too high, isn’t it HAL? Sometimes it feels a bit barebones if you ask me. So I’m here to discuss what would a non-platform Kirby fighting game be.

THE GAMEPLAY

It’s the same as any basic fighting game, there isn’t really that much that the Kirby franchise can offer to make the genre a bit more varied, and that’s mostly due to the fact that Kirby makes friends wherever he goes and combat is pretty much straightforward in these platforming games, the crazy stuff comes from learning specific moves with each copy ability/character in the games and that’s also true for this game.

THE PLOT

I have quite a few ideas for how this can go:

-It’s a “what if” re-telling of Kirby Star Allies where Hyness’ ritual (somehow) also causes space-time rifts across the entire universe to be generated, pulling in Kirby villains from previous games but also allies, which would ALSO explain Dream Friends in the game’s canon a bit more properly.

-It happens in an AU. Plot would basically be Kirby Battle Royale’s but instead of shooting a loadshit of Kirbies onto Kirby, Dedede would just call upon all of their friends to fight for that cake before things escalate and Dedede loses control of the tournament to greater evils, forcing him to work with Kirby to stop the threat, be it old or new.

-Another AU idea but this time it’s original/based on Milky Way Wishes. Galactic NOVA appears every thousand years above Pop Star’s skies, and everyone tries to fight for the right to get the wish. Villain wouldn’t necessarily be ONLY Marx though, most of the Kirby villains could easily win against him if they get to NOVA and get their wish granted. Which means yes, all plots happen at once and Kirby has to deal with everyone at once.

-The least interesting idea: it’s Kirby Fighters 2′s plot but without tag team duos and with all Kirbies replaced with the roster.

THE ROSTER

Now we’re about to have some fun.

RETURNING CHARACTERS: The Dream Friends (and Kirby, of course)

-First up, all Dream Friends are coming back. You don’t even need to change their movesets that much, just add/tweak things, but just for funsies (and for a specific reason too) we’ll also give them specific copy abilities or more than one to categorize them.

-Kirby is the specific reason. He has the same moveset as his Smash Bros incarnation, although he incorporates more copy abilities (and also super powerful stuff like the Star Rod that he usually uses in endgame fights) in it now due to being a traditional fighting game. And yes, he still has his inhale. Using it will have the inhale be replaced by another move in-game, the closest one to a “neutral special” in the opponent’s arsenal. His copy ability is therefore, Smash Bros. And since the game has multiple super moves, we can make his gimmicks from the Kumazaki games the super moves: his level 1 would be a random Super Copy Ability from Return to Dreamland (cutscene is random everytime but damage is always the same), his level 2 would be using the Robobot Armor to stomp foes around, ending with a giant ground pound/fist to the ground and his level 3 is Hypernova Kirby due to the inhale being one of his most unique properties.

-Meta Knight and Dedede will also have heavy Smash influences but they’ll also use techniques from most of their boss fights, such as Meta Knight splitting himself in four clones temporarily for an attack or Dedede actually pulling out an axe instead of his hammer for some attacks based on his Triple Deluxe incarnation. Their copy abilities would formally be Sword and Hammer but with heavy Smash Bros inspiration. Meta can also call in for the Meta Knights to help him in one of his unique super moves. They’d all be there except for Sailor Dee and Captain Vul (one’s an alternate costume and the other is never seen outside of dialogue text).

-Bandana Waddle Dee’s moveset incorporates both Spear and Parasol, but due to the Spear being his most used tool he’ll be categorized with that.

-Marx is the first character with Unique as its own copy ability due to his arsenal being entirely based on his boss fight. Inhaling Unique characters doesn’t always allow Kirby to get copy abilities but when it happens he usually has their most basic move replacing the inhale. Gooey is in the same situation, but i have no idea what would Kirby get from him as an ability since he’s technically player 2 in the Dark Matter trilogy’s first 2 games. Rick, Kine and Coo would technically be categorized as Unique only because they have Fire, Water and Wind in their moveset. You could say they’d be stance characters while Marx is a zoner and Gooey a rushdown character.

-Dark Meta Knight is categorized as Mirror, and Adeleine (with Ribbon as an assist of course) is Artist. Daroach would be Animal, which is missing since its debut in Squeak Squad, as far as I can remember, but he naturally still retains his moveset of calling the Squeaks to help him.

-It’s pretty easy to categorize Magolor as ESP, and Taranza as Spider, while I have no idea what would Susie’s ability be even. Spark? She is mostly around in the Robobot Armor to be fair. The Three Mage-Sisters would be treated equally to the Animal Friends

THE NEWCOMERS

-NAGO, CHUCHU & PITCH: The other set of Animal Friends. I theorize a moveset revolving around the Cleaning ability like in Star Allies would be easy to make, although it can also incorporate moves from other abilities that have been in Dream Land 3.

-CHEF KAWASAKI: I think it’s safe to say this one is pretty easy to do just like the returning Dream Friends. He has a unique moveset in comparison to Chef Kirby that also has him use Kirby’s Final Smash from Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

-LOLOLO & LALALA: Aside from pushing boxes and Gordos they can be the Ice Climbers of the game, and most importantly one of their super moves could have them fuse into their original form in the anime to reference that further.

-SHADOW KIRBY: A clone (in terms of moveset) for Kirby that lacks the inhale ability and has more attacks based on his appearances in Amazing Mirror (and also on Kirby’s unique ability to split in four in these games) and the Kirby Fighters spinoffs. Simple as it is.

-THE MIDBOSSES: They all play the same as their fights too, so doing a paragraph for each of them would be a bit redundant. I chose to add minibosses in because most of them are pretty iconic among Kirby enemies and some of them are also technically friends of Kirby’s. I picked Bonkers (whose coconut throwing and some special moves could make him different enough from Dedede if you ask me), Mr. Frosty (also because we don’t have an Ice-based character in the game), Buggzy (which I can see being the ultimate grappler), King Doo (because we don’t actually have a Waddle Doo in the roster and he’s technically not only their king but also the most unique of them) and Grand Wheelie (look, I like Wheel as an ability ok? it’s like playing as Sonic in a Kirby game)

-KNUCKLE JOE: Taking stuff from both his Star Allies moveset and his Assist Trophy from Ultimate PLUS a few references to the anime and you have the ultimate Shoto character in the Kirby franchise. Ryu mains, this is the character for you.

-GIM: Look, my three favorite abilities are Yo-Yo, Wheel and ESP, in no particular order, so I HAD to include him and the Grand Wheelie. Magolor covers for ESP enough. This lil fella looks more unique than most of the generic Kirby enemies and even among the copy ability ones he’s always been a bit of an oddball due to being a robot. The trickshots you can do with this copy ability make Gim perfect to camp, so he’d be a pretty good zoner as well.

-TAC: He’s been a Helper in Super Star where he also has an unique moveset. Expanding on it and on Tac being generally a copy ability thief could mean more copy abilities can be implemented in a moveset, probably even more than what Kirby can do. Also his design just screams potential to me.

DLC FIGHTERS

WAVE 1: Spinoff Dream Friends

Cuz these guys have been done dirty by Star Allies’ devs. Elline would be the other Artist character in the game and call for Claycia’s assistance in specific attacks. Prince Fluff would play mostly just like Kirby himself did in Kirby’s Epic Yarn and implement specific transformations in some attacks, ending with the tank one from the end of that game. Then we have Gryll. If you know how to make a Tetris/Puyo Puyo based character in a fighting game then good for you, I absolutely don’t know how. What I KNOW however is that she has a float like Peach’s in Smash Bros and I-No’s in Guilty Gear.

WAVE 2: Dream Villains

These guys would all play exactly like their boss fights. Hyness and Sectonia would remain mostly unchanged while Haltmann in terms of moveset is the same as Susie, just without every non-Robobot move that she has.

WAVE 3: Clash of Blades

THAT’S RIGHT, IT’S ALL ANIME SWORDFIGHTERS. They all pull from their boss fights, but Morpho Knight is gonna be a bit more unique compared to Galacta, Dark Meta and Meta Knight, having in the swordfighter equivalent of Akuma’s Raging Demon. Meanwhile, Dark Matter Swordsman and Galacta Knight are completely faithful to the source material, but they’d probably be a bit nerfed due to Galacta’s universe-breaking powers. (you can bet that if we get the remaining legendary heroes who sealed Void Termina in future games they’d be their own separate Wave 5 DLC pack)

WAVE 4: Revival of Old Faces

Nightmare and Drawcia are back and they’re here to stay! Their movesets don’t really need that much changes. Void however is an entirely different beast. He’d be a mix of Kirby, both Zero incarnations and Dark Matter. His design wouldn’t just be giant orb that switches between Kirby and Dark Matter faces, he’d be Kirby-sized and with legs and stubby lil arms like the pink puffball. And you can bet your ass he’d be broken as fuck.

SKINS

If a character’s appearance changed across the series’ history (like Marx Soul, Girl Blob Gooey, Shoppe Magolor, Mecha Knight, Dark Taranza/Taranza in the Super Kirby Clash games, Masked/Shadow Dedede, Anime!Knuckle Joe, Parallel/Pres. Parallel Susie, EX versions and so on) they’d just be an alternate skin/palette swap for the specific character. Multiple characters of the same species with little changes (like a normal Waddle Dee or Sailor Dee, or literally all Kirby colors including Keeby) are the same. I’m also debating on how Dark Mind would be a skin for Nightmare or if there’d be a skin inspired by him for the Dark Matter Swordsman. Zero and Zero Two would probably be turned into palette swaps/outfits for Void (imagine a white Kirby cosplaying as Zero Two that’d be so cute lol).

ATTACKING ASSIST CHARACTERS

Characters who appear in other characters’ attacks. Like the aforementioned Squeaks, Meta Knights and Claycia. Normal Dark Matter would appear in DM Swordsman’s attacks in some capacity outside of the eye laser and the Gordo Throw would return from Dedede’s previous Smash incarnations alongside the Waddle Dee Throw from Brawl. And naturally Magolor can call in the Lor Starcutter for one of his super moves. I am actually considering giving Tac the ability to throw random items/enemies at opponents, with the Bomber being one of these. It’d be a very RNG attack with the Bomber being the best outcome, blowing on the opponent’s face.

HELPERS

All characters in the game can be called on for an Helper attack, that can help you in some form against the opponent by either damaging or tampering with the opponent or by having you get healed or with some buff. Outside from the playable roster enemies that give you copy abilities would also be Helpers, but the specific ones I’m not so sure on.

BOSSES

Characters you can fight in Arcade mode, in Story mode or in a specific Boss mode. There’d also be a Ganon’s Fury (Hyrule Warriors) inspired mode where you’d play as the bosses pitting them against each other. I specifically picked Dyna Blade, Whispy Woods, Landia, Star Dream, Kracko, Great Edge, Pyribbit, Ice Dragon, Fire Lion, Masher, Grand Mam, Metal General, Kibble Blade and Pon & Con.

STAGES

There’d be quite a lot of stages, but I haven’t thought out specific ones except for Green Greens, Butter Building, a Ripple Star stage, one for Dedede’s castle with stage cameos by Tiff, Tuff and Escargoon from the anime and every final boss’s fighting arena.

THE MUSIC

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is gonna be nothing compared to this one. We’re getting all the important music from all pre-Kumazaki games, all music from Kumazaki games and spinoffs, and online arrangements with focus on orchestral (Desolo Zantas), metal (GaMetal, of course) and EDM (Acid Notation, Qumu and various others), including stuff like Itoki Hana’s vocal arrangements. We’re going all out on this one.

Aaaaand that’s it. Thanks for coming to my TED talk. Stay hydrated.

[showtunesdream]

Ok, so I have seen almost every English version of Cinderella made since 1950 and it is my favorite fairy tale. So I saw the new Amazon version and I have a LOT OF THOUGHTS: (Spoilers)

I am here for Cinderella remakes, and I really hoped this one would enchant me. But...it didn't. I've read several reviews to help me specify just what didn't work for me, and I think it ultimately comes down to discord in nearly every element. Discord: too many notes at the same time; no unity, no connection. I'm all for pulling popular tunes, but they have to fit the character's emotion. I'm all for powerful female choreography, but having a chorus of women violently pelvic thrusting in ball gowns was...just weird. The artistic choices have to fit the narrative. 

All the women in the story are trying to assert some authority and agency in a world we are consistently told is exclusively patriarchal "because tradition." But it feels like that tone clashed with the producers' desire to include all the fairytale elements they felt audiences would expect. I think they could've done it, but they didn't get it right. It would be a fine line to tread, bc on the one hand you are talking about female disenfranchisement and lack of agency/rights, and on the other you’re trying to do fairytale love--the subject matter is really quite a heavy burden for that storyline.

 I've also seen comments that the cinematography and pacing were a mess, but I didn't get past my "do I like this?" vibe enough to notice. 

A few other assorted critiques: There was no chemistry between the prince and Ella, there was a lot of tell and not show (you can have a chorus sing it multiple times but I'm not gonna buy it unless you back it up with acting), and also the prince was not appealing in the least. Like, maybe that was the point, but if so, forget the romance plot altogether bc if I'm not falling for the guy, why would our heroine? There was more chemistry between the prince and his manservant (braid guy) than between Ella and him. There was nearly more depth of character in the manservant than in the prince as well, which is saying something.

One of the most annoying instances of tell and not show was Ella’s appearance. They kept talking about how dirty she was, and the stepmother even says “you would be so pretty if…” but the only real difference in Ella’s appearance is that she has a darker complexion… So what are we saying here, that she is unappealing bc she isn’t white enough? Admittedly that is reading into it a bit much, but just put some damn ash on her face and it’s a non-issue!

Moments of magic included the original songs (why did they not do the whole score this way???), and the performances from the sterling cast members as you'd expect. Also, I loved the building they chose for Ella's family estate/basement. (Oh, and also if you are going to turn the stepmother into Mrs. Bennett, then you have to show the financial difficulties in some wayyyy...) 

Overall, I could see what could've been a homerun concept in the script. I wanted to love it. I really did. But the execution fell woefully short for me.

**If I could, like Fab G, wave my wand and fix some things:**

-All original songs, not poorly fitting pop covers. The worst offenders in my eyes were “Material Girl,” “What A Man,” and “Find Me Somebody to Love.” The ball song should be about the princesses/stepsisters’

/Gwen/Ella’s aspirations, and maybe the prince’s too, if this fix version means he gets character development, like, say, a superobjective. 

-We open as before, with the narrator telling us how tradition has ruled everyone’s lives for years. As the townsfolk sing, we get the feeling that Ella isn’t the only one who is not so happy with the status quo. Ultimately everyone will learn through Ella that they don’t have to be struck in the same old ways. 

-As she works in the house we see Ella using her flair for fashion, her gift for making women feel beautiful to act a modiste/lady's maid to her stepmother and stepsisters. We see her transform an outfit/hairdo with a clever and fresh idea noone would have thought of. We get that speech about “it doesn’t matter if I think you’re beautiful. What matters is how you feel...etc.” Insert song about fashion and how amazing women are just in general, with makeover magic. (She didn’t feel like a fashion designer to me, I didn’t feel that creative spark/passion. I needed them to amp this up.)

-Ella’s personal appearance reflects her gift for inventive style as well.  (I really struggled with her being on one hand a fashion designer and on the other hand having no color in her dress, AND having everyone talk about how untidy her appearance was (which again, it wasn’t. Also, were she really covered in cinders and ash, she wouldn’t be able to handle fabric without making it dirty….)

-Ella’s dresses are made of found and reused materials, cleverly crafted. Like a set of old drapes a la Sound of Music, or forgotten antique dresses harvested for their fabric. After the prince buys her dress she can afford to buy new fabric and make her pink dress (that then gets ruined by Vivian.)

-If we *are* going to keep the idea of borrowed pop songs, then at some point all of the women sing No Doubt’s “I’m Just A Girl,” illustrating how their gender in this society makes them second class citizens: the stepsisters, Vivian, and princesses have to marry to gain opportunity/privilege, Gwen can’t get a word in on state matters, the queen is constantly shut down by her husband, etc. However, better for them to sing an original song that reflects this--maybe have “Dream Girl” come in earlier and get expanded/reprised.

-We needed to see the hardship that Vivian spoke of, bc I never saw it. Why remarry when you are clearly a wealthy widow?

-I still haven’t figured out how to give the prince a character that Ella could fall in love with. Show his kindness separate from supporting Ella? Give him an “I want” song that isn’t about his father wanting him to get married? Give him some kind of point? We’ve seen the “I don’t want to be king and am lost until this amazing girl inspired me” trope work before, but your boy has to have more to him than this guy did. 

-I also would like to find some way to extend the insta-love a bit. I’m a huge fan of meeting as commoners, as in the 1997 Cinderella, and there, they make a connection that properly works. Maybe it all boils down to a lack of chemistry between the actors? And/or give me better lyrics? Hmm. 

Anywho, I'm just rambling. So sad to see this fall so short of its potential.

[pixelwisp-archive]

Itadakimasu!! | Part 5: I Didn’ Ask (Written Chapter)

word count: 1.7k

Atsumu Miya was handsome, that was an undeniable truth. So naturally it would make sense that his identical twin brother would be, well, identical - and yet, you couldn't help the state of shock you found yourself in as you stood before him, your once buckling knees relieved of their pressure as his very large arms grab the box from your hands with a grunt ('lemme take that, looks heavy'). In all honesty, the fact that he was that good looking pissed you off, and watching him be kind, albeit taciturn, to you after bullying you for a month straight on Twitter (okay, fine, it was a mutual bullying, but he definitely started it) only made your scowl deepen. Your eyes narrowed at his back and you turned toward the van with a huff, finding another, perhaps lighter box to take inside.

  "This place has been collecting dust for years, ya sure you guys can make it work?" Miya's voice was deep and rich, every syllable dripped with his Kansai accent. The unfamiliar sound made your chest bubble and you had to stop yourself from outwardly groaning in frustration. You crossed the threshold of the new place and your mouth fell open as you took in the shops current state.

The shop was- well, let's just say there was a reason it was so cheap. Even still, your eyes glittered at the potential you saw. The exposed beams looked in near mint condition as the sun filtered through the windows and soaked the unstained wood in a warm morning glow. It was empty, save for some appliances that definitely looked antique (the thought of being able to restore them made you drool), but the space had more than enough room for café style seating, and maybe even a section for a corner library or a stage for live music. The stairs to the two bedroom apartment that resided directly above the shop space, where you would be living, was tucked away in a hallway off to the side. You made a mental note to make sure it was a bit more livable than the current shop situation downstairs, and motioned for him to settle the boxes along the main counter.

"We're planning on restoring the kitchen within a few weeks, then setting up a pop up stand out front to make revenue while we renovate the rest. Hoping to be fully open come summer." He merely hummed in response as he brushed off the dust left on his hands. You were caught up in your own world, detailing in your brain every minute detail you planned on changing when Kuguri stumbled in through the front door, giant box obscuring his vision as he tripped over the step. "Ah, careful, looks fragile." Miya rushed over to help, taking the box and allowing Kuguri to steady himself. Kuguri blinked, warmth hitting his cheeks as he mumbled a small thank you.

“Don’ mention it,” came Miya’s slightly strained reply as he set the box down next to the others. The room fell into a less than comfortable silence and you tried to look anywhere other than at the man currently standing in your dining area. Kuguri cleared his throat and tightened the grip on his suitcase as he made his way over the stairs. "I'm gonna go check out the apartment. I'll be back in a bit." You shot him a pleading look but he mouthed a quick 'sorry' and scurried off, leaving you alone with the Other Twin.

More uncomfortable silence. You felt warmth rush to your face as you grew more flustered with each beat, neither of you willing to break the tension that had been slowly pervading the air around you like a dense fog. The suffocation ended up winning out over your stubbornness and you turned your head to look at him, embarrassment flooding at the sight of his eyes already on you.

"Uh, thanks, you know, for the help." He gave you a tight, forced smile, uttered a quick 'yer welcome', and began to make his way towards the side entrance. Arms crossed in front of you as you watched him open the door, the tiny alleyway and side entrance to his own shop coming into view. Miya paused at the open door and turned his head to look over at you, a smirk settling on his face.

"By the way, little creepy of ya to stalk us and rent out the space next to us. What are ya lookin' for here? I hope you know this new development doesn't change anythin' between us." Your eyes widened at the sudden change, your brain working overtime to try to process what he said. Once you had caught up to the moment, you scoffed.

"Oh please, Miya, as if. The world doesn't revolve around you. We bought this place over a month ago." His eyes shone with something you couldn't quite place and he let out a small chuckle, one that sounded far too innocent in comparison to his hard gaze. "Whatever you say, Paradis." You scrunched your nose at the familiar nickname, shaking your head.

"Don't call me that; I have a name, you know." Miya turned around to face you fully then, the smirk ever present as he leaned against the frame, his hand still grasping the handle to the shop door. "Ah yeah? You guys don' mention names on your Twitter, and I was always too (again, petty) lazy to bother lookin' it up," he drawled, deepening your frown in response.

"It's L/n Y/n." Miya's lazy smile upturned ever so slightly.

"Ah, I didn' ask, but thanks." 

Embarrassment crashed over you once again and you felt the heat creep up your neck and ears. Your glare seemed to be filled to the brim with hellfire as you bore holes into his back. He turned to leave, and you followed after him, taking hold of the doorknob and watching him make the short distance back to Onigiri Miya's side entrance.

"I noticed you call me Miya, it's quite formal of you,” he noted, now at his own door. You let out a less-than-ladylike snort and waved your hand. "I wasn't being formal - coincidentally, I just also didn't bother looking it up." He laughed then, and it was a nice laugh, and you hated how nice it was with every fiber of your being.

"Osamu," he said, the smugness oozing off him, as if you were just dying to know his name and he decided to humor you. You stepped backward to make room for the door.

"Ah, I didn' ask, but thanks," you mocked, accent and all. You threw a shit eating grin and a quick wave his way before promptly shutting the door. When you saw what seemed like the five stages of grief cross his face in a span of a few seconds, you knew that putting Osamu Miya in his place was going to become your favorite past time.

Based on the way you two had tweeted each other over the last month, Osamu had deduced that you were probably a woman. What he wasn't expecting, however, was just how cute you ended up being. If you had been anyone else he probably would have been nothing short of a perfect gentleman; carrying all the boxes, smooth talking his way through conversation, and working himself up to asking you out. Unfortunately for him, though, there was just something about you that got under his skin, and he genuinely couldn't figure out what it was.

Osamu stood alone in the alleyway, giving himself a moment to process the last forty-five minutes of his life. Paradis Bakery, the company he's been openly beefing with on Twitter for the world to see, not only opened a second location in Osaka, but moved directly beside Onigiri Miya, in the place he had been looking into purchasing for at least six months now. The abandoned café was supposed to be a plan B in case Tokyo had to be pushed off for a few more years - being able to expand Onigiri Miya would have been huge for them if they couldn't swing the Tokyo location, and Kita had been more than open to the idea of expanding. When you said you purchased the café over a month ago, he remembered inquiring about the place at least two weeks prior to Atsumu's visit to your bakery, and the owner mentioning that someone had put in an offer. The sheer coincidence honestly creeped him out more than anything; he didn't like the feeling that fate was behind this because if it was - why?

Osamu shook off the goosebumps and decided he'd worry about fate intervening when it actually decided to do so. Turning toward his own shop, he hustled into the store with tense shoulders and a furrowed brow. Why was he so worked up? He's well aware that he's the one who started the whole social media war between you, and it's not like you guys actually had any reason to hate each other - you were just doing it for the attention. So why does he have this familiar feeling of contempt coursing through him at the mere thought of you?

"Osamu, are you okay? Ya sleep well?" Osamu snapped his attention to Kita, who was standing in the kitchen, already beginning food prep for the day. Kita's knife paused its assault on the spring onions as he waited for an answer.

"Ah, yeah, I slept fine Kita. Ya meet the new neighbors?" Kita nodded, resuming his ministrations. If you didn't know Kita, you would have just assumed the polite smile was just that - Osamu knew better though, and the slight upturn had a hint of what looked like mischief behind it. He gulped at the thought of Kita plotting.

"I met L/n. She's very nice." Osamu face scrunched at the mention of your name, which didn't go unnoticed by Kita, who's eyebrow shot up in surprise.

 "You don't like her?"

"She's...fine." Osamu walked into the kitchen, putting on his apron as he washed his knife in preparation for the salmon.

"Honestly, I'm surprised, I thought you'dve taken a likin' to her if anything." Osamu grunted in response. "I dunno what it is, but there's just somethin' that rubs me the wrong way."

"Give it time, she may warm up to ya."

Osamu doubted that.

Prev | Masterlist | Next

Fun Facts - 

Tendou got an earful when you called him that day, and he bit back a laugh every time you angrily mentioned how hot Osamu was (’Oh my god his face??? his arms??? Why’s the universe gotta have favoritism for the worst people’) 

After hours, Kita also got an earful from Osamu - and he also had to cover his smile with his hand whenever Osamu angrily mentioned how cute you looked when you scrunched your face up. (’-and then she snorted, actually /snorted/, at me and while it was adorable it was rude as hell. She’s rude as hell, Kita.)

Kuguri rushed upstairs partly because he couldn’t stand the tension, but mainly because he wanted first dibs on bedrooms. 

A/N: ahhh I’m SO sorry for such a long wait, I never intended to take nearly a whole ass week to post - I started a new job this week with weird hours so I had to adjust, plus this chapter actually gave me a little bit of grief haha (thank you lark for pulling my head out of my ass multiple times). But exciting things happen!! Y/n finally meets osamu and its awkward and annoying and they’re both so hot what do we do oh no~ I’m very excited to see how their relationship progresses through the next few chapters lol. Anyways I hope you guys enjoy, feel free to pop into my asks if you want to talk about the fic, or your day, or would like to be added to the taglist!! As always, thank you so much for reading, I love you guys!

Taglist -

@larkspyrr @oikawaandkuroostan @fucktheworlddude @doctorspencereid @keiarma @cherriechurros @halesandy @k3nma-fairy @jewlmin @tabipleats​ @kaleidoscopekai​

[irishseeeker]

Since you’re answering asks about the show—how do you think they’re going to handle Bridgerton house in season 2 and going forward? When Anthony and Kate move in and the rest of them move to number 5, most of the Bridgerton kids still live with Violet (idk where Colin and Benedict live in the show…?) And since Bridgerton house was one of the main sets in season one, it would be jarring to suddenly have the main characters of future seasons be living in a house other than Bridgerton house.

So…do Anthony and Kate move in with the rest of the family? Do they allow Violet to stay there until the kids grow up? (side note the scenes between Violet and Kate about passing down the title of viscountess is gonna make me so emo) Will they decide to break my heart and have kathony live off screen at Aubrey hall during all future seasons so it’s not a problem? Am I thinking about this way too much? 🤣

Hi Anon! Hope you’re having a good day! That's such a good question and something I've thought a lot about.

Bridgerton House is definitely the most important set and the main place where they all have dinner and congregate and later this will be No.5 from S3. I think they’re going to increase the amount of scenes all the Bridgertons have together as those scenes are so popular from S1 and the show is about the Bridgertons after all! Plus Ben and Colin will be focused on big time this season to build up for their seasons.  Bridgerton is such an expensive show they’ll want to use the same sets as much as possible and they’re already expanding a lot for S2 with Aubrey Hall, the Sharmas and probably a few more sets. A lot of Anthony’s scenes take place in his father’s office in the books and S1 and they definitely will in S2, so Bridgerton House is very important. I reckon we’ll see Kate, Edwina and Mary in Bridgerton House for tea or dinner with all the Bridgertons at some point as well pre and post engagement. Bridgerton House is where we’ll  mainly see all the unmarried Bridgertons together, especially Hyacinth, Greg, Eloise and Francesca as that’s where we saw them most in S1 (excluding parties and balls) and there’s not a whole lot going on for them unless the smaller ones get more of a plot but I doubt that. We’ll definitely see more of Eloise everywhere like we did in S1 anyway as her plot will be her debut to society! 

I’m kind of curious if they’ll show any of Eloise’s suitors and possibly one she actually likes? As she does get a few proposals over the years in her book but she has 0 interest in any of them. I reckon we’ll see her just being the worst, funniest debutant in the history of London haha.

I think they’ll definitely do the move to No.5 but not properly until S3. It definitely will be jarring but I’m thinking they’ll make it a plot line for sure to show the transition and sort of the emotional impact of it, leaving behind Edmund and their family home. I could see Kate and Anthony moving into Bridgerton House in the last episode in the final scene of S2 like a year later with Kate recovered from her leg injury and pregnant, to set the scene for S3 as most of that will take place in No.5 with Sophie and the Bridgertons. No.5 is important for S3. I also think we'll see Violet and the Bridgertons having a moment together before they leave their childhood home either at the end of S2 or at the beginning of S3, as that's going to be emotional for them, particularly Violet as she’s leaving the place she lived with Edmund behind.  

 TVWLM ends in 1814 and AOFAG begins in 1815, which is when Edmund II is born. I’m thinking Kate and Anthony's role in the first 2 episodes could be Kate's struggles to adapting to motherhood or as Viscountess now they're living in Bridgerton House or something like that. Anthony struggles too possibly? Moving in with the family is actually a really good idea as that would definitely result in some humour as they all could get very sick of each other? Or it would just make it easier for the writers and the show to have everyone together. They could move in with the Bridgertons first and then they could leave just before the time skip in AOFAG. I really don’t see them all living together as that’s not how the books do it but who knows! I just really hope Anthony and Kate have a good sub-plot in S3. I'm thinking the first episode of S3 will be mainly about Sophie's childhood and life (or they could do it in flashbacks but for Sophie it would make more sense to just tell her story at once to understand why she runs away) and it will end with the ball scene, so Edmund’s birth fits in perfectly around then before the 2 year time skip. The ball scene could even be episode 2! 

This also will be the year Francesca enters society and marries John so John courting Franny & their engagement will definitely be a sub-plot in S3, maybe only for an episode or two or we might only get an introduction and then we see them married. This will happen before the time skip which I can’t see them avoiding as it just throws the entire time line off. Anthony will be relatively involved in that plot as well and so will Violet. 

Daphne's role in S2 intrigues me as she won't have Simon so to see where she fits in and if she has a plot herself will indicate what's in store for Anthony, Ben etc when they're married after their seasons and if their spouses stay on. Although, they will have a bigger role than Daphne regardless as the brothers always have scenes together and are relatively involved in their brother’s love lives. I can see Phoebe leaving after S2 but I would like if they focused on motherhood for Daphne in S2 and possibly helping Anthony out with courting and his love life if she does end up going. It would be sad but hopefully she stays! She might not really be in S2 we won’t know for ages anyway! 

The show is so expensive that I think they’ll minimize the amount of sets they have to set up or locations they shoot on and for S2, I’d be surprised if Ben and Colin aren’t nearly always in Bridgerton House. Benedict and Colin seem to be living in Bridgerton House in the show from what we've seen so far, they're always at the house and they return from balls to Bridgerton House. Anthony is the only one who doesn't live there but we never see his bachelor lodgings and I don't think we will until their wedding night, unless we seem some scenes of him brooding on his own and pining over Kate haha. I can see Anthony gifting Benedict My Cottage at some point in S2 to set him up for season 3 and to help him escape London, but in his book Ben has his own bachelor lodgings which I don’t think we’ll see until S3. I don't think we'll see Colin's bachelor lodgings until S4 as that's when he gets a place in RMB after returning from his travels. I think they'll want to keep Colin in the show as much as possible so any time skips that's when he'll be traveling like when they ended S1 with him going off to travel and then flash forward to a year and Daphne and Simon have their baby. So when he’s in London, he’ll always be at Bridgerton House or No.5.

Going by the first season, I presume there's going to be 8 episodes in season 2. I think Kate and Anthony will be married by episode 5 like Simon and Daphne were. That leaves 3 episodes of Anthony's 'I won't love my wife idiot' stage. I would love for us to get a full episode of their honeymoon in Aubrey Hall but I don't think we will considering the book didn't have it and we're going to get at least 2 episodes in Aubrey Hall anyway. I do think one of the post-marriage episodes will be focused on Kate adjusting to the role of Viscountess and her bonding and having some very sweet moments with Violet and the Bridgertons. I hope they'll focus on her insecurities and her struggles with how Anthony is behaving and just how society has been treating her.  Especially when Anthony ran off to Aubrey Hall after their engagement and left Kate all alone to deal with the whispers? I hope they address that and he gets some slack for it. I think there’s going to be a good few scenes in S2 at the Sharma residence as well and a few balls, definitely one at Lady Danburys, so we’re in for an amazing season! 

Who knows what will happen but I could see them using very similar sets for Bridgerton House & No.5 in future seasons so it wouldn’t be a big change. No. 5 will still be a big household if it has the 4 youngest and Violet and occasioanlly Colin and Ben. I’m still not so sure about Eloise’s book and on, I think the strongest and most popular books plot wise are Anthonys, Benedicts and Colins and everyone is hyped for them. Daphne’s did extremely well though with a weaker book (that was still good just not a favourite of mine) so I have high hopes for them to do all the Bridgerton’s books. What I think they could do is possibly combine Eloise and Francescas for S5? As they’re both taking place at the same time in 1824. Gregory’s book was okay but it could be a good adaption as there’s so much going on. Who knows! They’ve already included Marina and Philip so that seems like an indication they would love to do them all and plan to?

I really went on here (again, do I ever stop talking). I don’t know what anyone else thinks but I’d love to hear! I could talk about Bridgerton forever tbh and I really do need to get back to the many invoices waiting for me <3 hope you’re having a good day anon!

[bokunoheroanalysisforthefuture]

Yeah, forget side content, just gonna steam on ahead with the Sports Festival and onwards. I might not actually stop and start trying to do overarching plot stuff until ~chapter 100 (more specifically, post ch 97, the last chapter of the Kamino Arc) because then there will be enough material to actually like. Do stuff. Might also have something smaller after the Sports Festival since that’s ~chapter 50. Shrugs.

Anyways, onwards. Don’t you miss the days when the main trio of the series was Izuku, Tenya, and Ochako? Man, don’t I. :(

[No. 22 - That’s the Idea, Ochako!]

Character sheet! I am honestly laughing super hard at everything because just. ‘Very Ochako.’ Thank you, Horikoshi. A few things about the sheet:

1) god I love that her fingerpads are called soft. Like. Actual cat paw pad fingers going on here. just imagine if you like pressed one of them like you do with cat paw pads and like, she had cat claws that would extend. cute but also menacing.

2) strong legs. leg day squad. her, izuku, and iida all doing leg day workouts together tho... katsuki wishes he had the leg strength of those three y'all

3) That quirk description… that’s not quite how centrifugal forces work, but I mean. Superhero comic physics. At least he made an attempt at explaining her quirk. 

Anyways, onto the actual chapter.

We open up in a staff meeting in a conference room at UA, with Tsukauchi presenting the results of the police investigations. He states that the one called Shigaraki has a quirk that allows him to disintegrate anything he touches. They (the police) have been through the list of men in their twenties and thirties in the quirk registry with no luck - and nothing turned up on the ‘warp gate’ user Kurogiri either. With neither registered, both using aliases, and no quirk records, they’re pretty much confirmed to be members of the underworld.

God sorry, I’m just distracted with the sheer size difference between Toshinori and Nedzu here.

What the fuck. Why did you put the largest person in the room next to the smallest?

Whatever. Snipe surmises that they know next to nothing, but they need to learn fast, or the leader of the villains, Shigaraki, will heal up and be back again. Toshinori is thoughtful as he mulls over the use of ‘leader’, which Nedzu catches quickly and inquires into. Probably still heavily banking on Toshinori’s instincts here since he was technically right about his bad feeling about the USJ just two days before.

I mean, how it has to sting Nedzu that all his state of the art systems meant to keep out intruders and alert UA to situations on campus failed at the critical moment, while Toshinori’s instincts on something being wrong had been absolutely on point and, if Nedzu had let him go, might have solved the situation that much sooner.

(I mean, there’s arguments for what could have happened if All Might did arrive early, so. Shrugs.)

And so we get into the segment I like to fondly consider a prime example of the fact that yes, Toshinori does in fact have a 6/6 intelligence score for a reason. 

He brings up how nothing about the situation feels normal. It was an especially daring attack - and not just in the meticulous planning! Shigaraki had started going on about some ridiculous ideology… and though he didn’t say anything about his own quirk, he couldn’t keep himself from bragging about the nomu’s quirk. And when things didn’t go his way? He threw a tantrum. Toshinori then admits with grit teeth and clenched fist that the business about quirks was meant to provoke him, and that it did hurt.

Nedzu says that even so, it’s foolish for villains to reveal quirks in a battle against heroes and so waste the element of surprise. 

Toshinori surmises his previous observations about Shigaraki - spouting a plausible yet deluded ideology, bragging about the toy he brought along, simple-mindedly assuming all would go his way. If they thought about how the attack was carried out, it seems clear that Shigaraki couldn’t hide his childish nature, the sense that he does what he wants, and then flat-out calls him a man-child.

Vlad King sums up Toshinori’s words as Shigaraki being a kid with too much power. Midnight adds on how Shigaraki might never have received general quirk counseling in elementary school; Vlad wonders whether that even matters. 

Tsukauchi steps back into the conversation to give the rest of the arrest results - a total of 72 villains were apprehended at the USJ. He states that all of them were just back-alley thugs, but the question is why so many of them would agree to follow this ‘man-child.’ He points out that modern society is saturated with heroes, so small-time villains like them, who always get kicked around, might have been drawn in by that sort of pure, unaffected evil. 

Toshinori having a flashback here, though his expression… I wonder if he’s having doubts already. And honestly, that flashback bit has me wonder just how common ‘uncontrollable’ quirks really are… and what COUNTS as ‘uncontrollable’ in their society. 

To avoid a longer derail, Tsukauchi finishes up by saying that thanks to the heroes, the police can focus on their investigation. They’ll expand their search and devote efforts to apprehending the perpetrators. 

Nedzu finishes out the scene by musing over the use of ‘man-child,’ stating that in one way, Shigaraki is a lot like their students. He has potential to grow, if only he had a proper mentor to follow. It’s difficult to think about these things.

And so we shift scenes back over to 1a. I doubt this sports festival talk is happening at the same time as the staff meeting, if only because Aizawa should have been at said staff meeting. Or maybe he wasn’t supposed to be there at all and the homerooms were meant to handle themselves that morning? Wait, hold on-

That clock reads 8:25. This is happening during the homeroom period, which means that the other classes are having independant homeroom. Which also means it’s no surprise that Aizawa isn’t at that meeting, because he’s busy hobbling to his class to announce the sports festival. He probably had to be caught up on the meeting stuff later. 

Anyways. The class is surprised over the announcement of the sports festival, someone calling it ‘totally ordinary’ while another (I think Mineta) questions whether Aizawa’s sure about this, since they just had that villain attack. Aizawa states that it’s necessary to demonstrate that UA’s crisis management protocols are sound - or that’s the thinking, anyways. There will be five times the police presence of previous years. Oh, and also the sports festival is the greatest opportunity the class will get. It’s not something that can be cancelled over a few villains. 

Mineta (again?) asks if he’s sure about that, muttering about how it’s ‘just a stupid sports festival.’ Izuku seems completely horrified at the idea that Mineta might have never seen UA’s sports festival, which Mineta hastens to correct - he has, that’s not what he meant. 

I’m sorry just. That face. I can’t with this kid. Jdsjlgkd.

Also, we finally get to the page that had me double-take when I got to it because, well.

So yeah, apparently the BNHA timeline didn’t have certain current events happened that would force the cancellation of the Olympics. (I mean, obviously Hori had no way of knowing the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo would be cancelled, but it’s still like a huge sign of how long this series has been running that this is here.)

Moving on, basically the above surmises for readers that the sports festival is as big an event to them as the Olympics are to us. So basically, super hype. Momo notes that all the nation’s top heroes will be watching and scouting. Kaminari adds on how the heroes will be looking to hire the hero students as sidekicks after they graduate. Jirou makes a cutting retort how a lot of those sidekicks never manage to go solo, stuck as sidekicks forever, before telling Kaminari that’ll be him. 

Shot through the heart.

(Also a total aside I just realized: current manga events likely mean there will be no sports festival for 2a. I mean, I would say the events happening there are large enough in scope that UA just doesn’t have the inclination or interest in broadcasting vital information the villains could use. And like, no scouting, no internships, no purpose for it.

And I mean, even if they did, would any of the kids even be able to focus on doing their best? God knows how stressed and nervous they all must be with how society is basically collapsing outside the school.)

Aizawa tells the class that they’ll gain valuable experience and popularity if they’re picked up by a big-name hero. However, their time is limited. They need to show the pros what they’re made of to make futures for themselves. This happens once a year, so they have three shots. If they want to be heroes, this is an event they can’t miss.

The whole class seems to be taking this seriously, but Izuku…

Well, he doesn’t seem as enthused as expected.

Anyways, I’ll cut it there and leave the rest for next time, since there’s a time break in here anyways. It’s not quite halfway, but eh.

[achillestiel]

the parent trap only works if you’re identical | part four

Tag List: @littlerachelbee @imthedoctorlove @deancas-handprint @castiel-loves-dean @wanderermatthews @thelahatiel @priscillahc @mridzyp @multi-fandom-dark-lord @thefantasyfiend @harmonyhelms @imlivingliferightnow ​ @kara-merlin @still-clowning-in-this-house @never-forever-more @continuezmesfilserrants @2musiclover2 @castiels-bitch 

Ok Winchester, you can do this. Just be cool, calm and collected. Dean said to himself as he drove towards Foxhall Village, the area that Cas and Jack lived in. Jack had fallen fast asleep about an hour before and every now and then Dean would glance over, marvelling at how much Jack looked like Sammy when he slept. They would both zonk out instantly, mouth slightly open without a care in the world. As much as Dean missed Claire, because that pint sized tearaway was his whole damn world, he couldn’t help but wish that he’d been able to get to know Jack more. 

"Hey kid we're here." Dean said as they drove up the street Cas now lived on. "Nice place, what's your dad doing now here in DC?"

"Oh, he's the head of the council of economic advisers." Jack said. "Which sounds cool but it just means he talks about economic policy a lot. It’s cool when he goes to the White House, last time he stole a pen for me. Don’t tell anyone because I’m not sure if that illegal or not." 

Dean just sat there for a moment because of course Cas now had a great job within the government. When they'd first met Dean had made endless jokes about how Cas would be president one day. Cas had always rolled his eyes but smiled whenever Dean jokingly called him Mr President. 

"What's wrong?" Jack asked. 

"Nothing kid, come on. Let's get you back to your dad. No doubt Claire has driven him insane by now so getting her back will be easy." Dean said, getting out the car when all he wanted to do was clamber back into the impala and hightail it back to Kansas. Yes, he was being a coward but the idea of seeing Cas after all this time was doing things to his brain. 

"Doubt it, he's put up with Uncle Gabriel for all these years." Jack said. 

"Yeah, I remember your uncle alright. Ruined our damn couch." Dean muttered darkly. 

"That doesn't surprise me." Jack said as the pair walked up the driveway towards a large Tudor style house. Huh working in government definitely pays well Dean thought. Swallowing down his fear, Dean rang the doorbell. He prayed to whoever was up there that he didn't throw up on the tasteful doormat. The door opened and Dean braced himself to see Cas. Instead, he came face to face with-

"Uncle Gabriel!" Jack said happily. Dean suppressed a groan as he looked down at the short, cheerful-looking man. How was it possible that Gabriel looked almost exactly the same after twelve goddamn years?  

"Well if it isn't my favourite nephew." Gabriel said happily as he pulled Jack in for a hug. "And you brought Winchester! Never brought he'd leave Kansas. Is your brother still an Adonis of a man?"

"Was he ever?" Dean asked as he held out his hand for Gabriel to shake. Sure the guy might have wreaked Dean's brand new couch fourteen years prior but he was trying to be polite. 

"Oh he was and I let him know all the time. Shame he was so happy with Eileen." Gabriel said, looking wistfully as he shook Dean's hand. 

"Yeah well...not that it isn't nice to see you again Gabriel but I kind of need to grab my daughter." Dean said. Maybe he could do this whole thing without having to even see Cas. Part of him was relieved but that idea and the other part of him was just a swirl of emotions.  

"Of course, follow me to the kitchen." Gabriel said, stepping back inside the house and motioning for Dean to follow him. Dean obliged, looking around the pristine hallway for any sign of Cas. Jack was hot on their heels as they walked into the kitchen. Dean stopped and just glared at the sight in front of him. 

Claire, wearing one of Dean's flannel shirts that was definitely three sizes too big for her, was cheerfully stirring the contents of a large saucepan. Loudly humming along to a song on the radio, which after a second Dean placed as Queen. When Dean coughed loudly she looked up and grinned. 

"Dad! Come on in, we're making chilli for dinner." Claire said, looking far too happy for her own good. "Jack, grab some chips and gauc out the fridge." 

"We?" Dean asked while Jack sauntered past him towards the huge sub zero refrigerator. 

"Hello Dean." And damn if that didn't make Dean want to sprint out the house. He braced himself and looked over to where Cas was standing. All the breath in Dean’s body left him as his eyes fell onto Cas. He looked almost exactly the same apart from a few wrinkles around the startlingly blue eyes that Dean had always adored. His hair was still a complete mess and...son of a bitch, he was even wearing the blue sweater Dean had brought him for Christmas fifteen years prior. Seriously, was he doing this on purpose? 

“Um...hey Cas...long time.” Dean managed to stammer out. 

“Dork.” He heard Claire mutter under her breath. 

“Hey.” Dean said, rounding on Claire. “You got any idea how much trouble you’re in of this little stunt? This ain’t gonna be like the time you blew up the shed, you’re gonna be grounded until the day you graduate high school. Maybe even college.” Dean said. 

“You blew up a shed?” Cas, Gabriel and Jack all asked, staring at Claire mix of horror (Cas) and awe (Jack and Gabriel). 

“Ok, I didn’t blow up the shed. I started a small fire in the shed by accident.” Claire retorted. Dean and Cas both groaned as Jack walked over to give Claire a high five. 

“I really love this kid.” Gabriel announced. 

“Oh Jesus.” Dean muttered at the same as Cas. They both glanced at one another for a moment before Dean turned his attention back to Claire. “You. Car. Now.”

-

I should have stayed hiding upstairs. Cas thought as he stared, yes he was staring, at Dean. How was it possible that Dean looked even better after twelve years? Dean in his early twenties had been a sight to behold but Dean in his late thirties was a thing of beauty. His boyish good looks had turned into handsome roguishness.  

“Dad, I can’t leave yet. We’ve just laid the table.” Claire said to Dean.

"We thought you'd be hungry after driving all day so Claire and I made dinner." Cas said. In reality Gabriel had dragged him into the kitchen wherein he’d found Claire already making chilli. Cas wasn’t going to tell Dean that.

"That's a nice thought but-"

"Dad, I know all you've eaten today was gas store jerky.” Claire said, rolling her eyes. “Am I right?” she asked Jack who just nodded. “See? Now wash your hands, sit down and eat this damn chilli because I’m Aunt Eileen’s recipe and I know that’s your favourite.” Claire said, pointing a chilli covered wooden spoon at Dean. Cas simply could not fight the smile that spread across his face when he saw Dean’s terrified expression.

“Fine, just chill out. God you sound like Ellen when you do that.” Dean said, going over the sink to wash his hands before grabbing a seat and sitting down. Cas rolled his eyes, not even realising he was doing it until Dean looked over and glared. Dean was nearly forty and he was pouting like a small child.     

“Well while you all enjoy this little family reunion I’m going to grab some wine...maybe a enough for a vineyard.” Gabriel said as he sauntered out the room. 

“Does Gabriel live here?” Dean asked Jack.

“No, he was getting his condo renovated so he stayed here for a while. He’s back home now.”

“Longest eight weeks of my entire life.” Cas said quietly. “Jack, can you help Claire dish up?”

“Sure thing, let me run my bags upstairs and I’ll be right back.” Jack said.

“Oh I’ll help you!” Claire said as they both ran out the room. 

“Nice to know subtly isn’t their strong point.” Dean said with a nervous laugh. Cas just let out a long sigh and sat down across from Dean. 

“Yes, I’m starting to think they might be plotting something.” Cas said. “If Claire is anything like Jack in the determination department then we might be in trouble.”

“Oh believe me, Claire does not need any help when it comes to determination. She can wrap anyone round her finger. You know I still have a scar on my forehead from when she made me go rollerblading?”

“You went rollerblading?” Cas asked, utterly baffled by the idea of Dean Winchester going rollerblading. 

“Not voluntarily.” Dean said. Cas laughed and was shocked to see Dean’s face light up. “Um...I’m sorry to crash your evening like this. I didn’t think that I’d be here tonight.”

“No, when I went to the train station to pick up Jack I didn’t expect to see my twelve year old daughter.” Cas said. “You don’t have to apologise, I’ve enjoyed having Claire here.”

“Yeah, I really liked spending time with Jack, he’s a good kid.” Dean said. “Listen Cas-”

“Got the wine!” Gabriel said, strolling back into the kitchen holding two bottles of red wine. “Where’s Thing One and Thing Two.”

“Here!” Jack and Claire said in unison. Cas had a feeling the two had just been waiting outside the door for at least a minute. His suspicions were confirmed when he saw the smug look Jack gave Claire as they were dishing up dinner. Gabriel kept himself busy by pouring all the adults generous glasses of wine. Dean tried to protest because he still needed to drive back to Kansas but Gabriel laughed him off. 

“So Deano, what have you been up to all these years?” Gabriel asked after nearly ten minutes of awkward silence while they ate. 

“Oh...um...not much…” Dean said, staring down at his chilli. 

“You have!” Claire intoned. She turned to Gabriel and Cas with a proud look on her face. “When Uncle Bobby decided to retire five years ago Dad brought his share of the garage. It’s expanded so much over the past few years that last year Dad brought the empty lot next door. He’s restoring a 1957 Chevy Bel Air at the moment and it’s awesome.” Claire said with so much pride in her voice that it made Cas smile fondly. Dean had always had a love for classic cars and he was happy to see that he had made his passion a profession. 

“That’s amazing Dean, you should be proud.” Cas said.

“He is, he’s just awful at saying it.” Claire said. “We’ve got this old Firebird in the garage back home that Dad’s slowly been restoring. It’s really cool.”

“Are you planning on selling it once it’s restored?”

“Um...no...I mean, I was thinkin’ bout it but Claire loves the car so much that I’m planning on giving it to her as a graduation present.” Dean said, looking away from his plate of chilli to give Claire a quick, but loving, smile. “That’s if she gets good grades and promises to take care of it.” he added and Claire laughed. 

“Me and Jack could take a twin road trip when we both graduate.” Claire said excitedly. “See the grand canyon or hike Yosemite!”

“And Yellowstone! We could see the geothermal pools.” Jack said with as much excitement as Claire. 

“You know most teenagers would want to go to Tijuana.” Gabriel said. 

“Does Tijuana have cool rock formations like Antelope Canyon? If not I don’t care about it.” Jack said and once again he and Claire high fived. It was at that moment Cas realised this wasn’t going to be easy. Claire and Jack knew about each other now. They’d bonded while at camp and separating them again would not only break their hearts but Cas’ as well.

“Yeah well, we’ll see.” Dean said in a small voice, catching Cas’ eye. This isn’t going to end well he said with his eyes. Cas nodded in agreement. While Claire and Jack began to plan a road trip that was several years away, Cas coughed to get Dean’s attention.  

“I’m glad you’re doing something you love, with the garage I mean.”

“Oh...yeah, well you always knew it was a dream of mine to have my own garage.”

“I did and if I remember rightly I said that it would become a reality.” Cas said. 

“Yeah well, it’s not as big as working in the white house but…”

“Dean, I think we both know that your job is far more interesting than mine. I talk about budgets all day while you-”

“Are stuck in the guts of a car and come home covered in axle grease? Seriously, Claire hoses me down some days.” Dean said letting out a small laugh as, once again, he glanced fondly at Claire. 

“She’s amazing, I have to say. You’ve done an amazing job in raising her.” Cas said and he really meant it. True, most of the time he’d spent with a teenage Claire included Cas ‘spiralling’ but he’d enjoyed it. 

“You say that now because she’s on her best behaviour...sort of. You do remember she set fire to the shed right? You’ve got the real winner with Jack. That kid, he’s just awesome. Really smart, kind of reminds me of Sam.”

“Can we both agree that our kids are amazing and leave it at that?” Cas asked. Dean chuckled and Cas was flooded with memories at the sound. His stomach ached with longing to make Dean laugh like that again and again. This really wasn’t going to end well at all.

[bard-llama]

Nilfgaard and International Relations

I’m in a rambling kind of mood, so I’ve decided I want to talk about Nilfgaard and part of why I think Emhyr did what he does. So, first off: this post will DEFINITELY have some spoilers for, in particular, How to Fluster an Elf, but it’s also my general canon for what’s up on the continent (except when it’s convenient for the plot that it be different lol)

So, first off, here is a map of the continent. I’m sharing this both because I’ll probably talk about some details with borders, but also because, as you can see, even before the Third Nilfgaardian War (the one that starts at the end of W2 and ends at the end of W3), the Nilfgaardian Empire is MASSIVE. And that’s important, because the more land and people you manage, the more work you gotta do to ensure that they can eat and prosper. (Like, seriously, I would NOT want Emhyr or Ciri’s jobs.) Additionally, every part of the Empire has its own culture and potentially language (I’m not sure who speaks Nilfgaardian vs ‘Common’ vs their own regional languages. Not every author can be Tolkien and develop an entire thesis on the history of language in their world lol).

Now, this part is just a headcanon, but I LOVE the idea that the warming and cooling cycles of the globe are triggered by events like the Conjunction of the Spheres and the White Frost (and, to a lesser extent, Ciri using her powers). Now, what am I talking about re: warming and cooling periods? Specifically, I am talking about glacial and interglacial periods (not the same as ice ages, which might happen within those periods), which are basically two parts of a cycle that changes over thousands of years. On Earth, we are in an interglacial period (which literally means that the glaciers are retreating) and the last glacial period (aka glaciers expanding and covering more land) ended 15000 years ago. So like, we are very much talking about change over time.

Why is any of this important? For two reasons:

The transition between periods is marked by climate extremes. As we’re discovering in reality, this can be really damaging - too much rain kills crops, too little kills crops. Unstable weather conditions tend to lead to storms, which can do a great deal of damage. Both temperature extremes can do their own damage as well. People can dye of exposure, but on a larger scale, crops and water access very much depend on consistent weather patterns. Additionally, these conditions are ripe for the spread of disease, which can devastate kingdoms and populations. tldr: the climate gets very unpredictable over the course of many years (like decades, not like centuries or millenia) and this leads to extreme weather events, famine, plague, drought, etc.

Once the changes settle, then, generally speaking (and pls note: i am not a scientist, this is stuff I learned from research and interpreted myself) - warming/interglacial periods can lead to population booms and expansion, because the glaciers withdraw, which means new land is available and habitable. When a society has a surplus of resources, it expands. When it doesn’t, when there are limited supplies and everyone has to fight over them, population decreases, because there isn’t enough to go around and because birth rates tend to be lower (at least, in a world with accessible birth control where people can choose if they want to have a child or not). Warmer temperatures also means that more diseases can thrive, so it’s not like interglacial periods are automatically paradise. But, typically speaking, interglacial periods are associated with more land and more food, which leads more people. 

On the flipside, a glacial period (i.e. glaciers expand across the land) is associated with more limited resources and less habitable land (because it’s covered by glaciers). 

Now here’s the really important thing. These periods (interglacial and glacial) are correlated with the earth’s tilt and orbit. Which means that while the northern hemisphere (i.e. Cintra and north thereabouts) is experiencing one thing, the southern hemisphere (i.e. Nilfgaard and all it’s conquered lands) is experiencing the opposite. 

So how does any of this connect back to my headcanons for the Witcher? Well, I like the idea that the Conjunction of the Spheres triggered a glacial period in the north and an interglacial period in the south. I’ll go into more details under the cut, but the follow up to this is that the White Frost that Ciri defeats in the game triggers the change over again. And what did we say happens when one period transitions into another? Weather instability and all of its effects.

What does this mean broadly? Well, really it means two major things:

The actual transition from glacial to interglacial (for the north) and interglacial to glacial (for the south) would be marked by extreme climate changes, which leads to political unrest because crops are ruined and people starve. For both the north and south, this is bad news, but probably the north would be affected worse, simply because there’s already famine.

After the transition, the north would theoretically prosper as new land becomes available and more resources are found. The south, on the other hand, would lose land and resources as glaciers extend.

Now, all of this is significant because we KNOW that Nilfgaard studies science differently than the north. They know that the earth revolves around the sun. Do they also know that the orbit affects the climate? Maybe. If they don’t their elven ancestors probably did, simply because they live long enough to experience these changes (in my canon. Sapko’s elves only live a few hundred years, I think). The point is - Emhyr appears to be pretty well-studied (despite spending his formative years as a hedgehog), so when he starts seeing the extreme weather affecting the south, he could put two and two together and decide that he has to conquer the north, because the north has resources! And if a HUGE portion of his empire is experiencing extreme weather that destroys their crops, then he NEEDS the North’s resources! Which, yes, is ironic, because his invasion causes famine, but he probably dismisses that as the ‘casualties of war’.

Another factor is that Nilfgaard drafted pretty much every able-bodied man in the empire to serve in the war. Which is great, because numbers do make a huge difference in war, buuuuut it’s also bad, because now... who’s gonna harvest all the crops? Who’s gonna sow the fields for next year?

I feel like I was gonna say more, something about supply lines and Nilfgaard’s expansion plans, but I don’t really remember. The point is - Emhyr acts like he’s working on a deadline. Some of that is probably because of the political enemies he has back home (you know, those he didn’t murder and dance over their graves), but I wonder if some of it might not be because he sees the change coming and he wants to set up Nilfgaard to survive. And to do that, he needs the resources the north has.

Okay, here’s the part that’s a spoiler for How to Fluster an Elf - okay, so Ciri is Empress and Nilfgaard now owns 80% of the continent east of the Blue Mountains. But even with the resources from the war-torn north, I doubt it’s enough to keep things from getting... difficult. But here’s the important thing - Ciri is not Emhyr. So when Ciri sees what’s coming and worries about how to feed her people, her response isn’t “let’s conquer others who have food”, it’s “let’s ask for help and work together”. A novel idea, isn’t it? Actually ASKING for HELP. But you know what? Once that ask is out there, the rest is diplomacy. And diplomacy isn’t easy, but it’s sure as hell less costly than war (though ultimately may lead to war itself). I don’t know if Ciri would make a good war commander. But I do know that she could make an excellent diplomat if she tried. Because she’s been exposed to a LOT in her life and has learned how to accept people without trying to change them and how to see the world from their point of view. And honestly, that’s all diplomacy really is - figuring out what drives each actor and working on a compromise that meets as many of those needs as possible.

Anyway, this is a really long post basically saying that global change is on the horizon for the continent and it has and will continue to affect the decisions rulers make. Because a good ruler looks after their land and their people - which means feeding their people.

Plus, you know, armies also gotta eat. 

[kidofthekat]

Salty Outcasts (part 3)

Part 2:

Part 3:

- Juleka, Luka, Adrien, Alix, Kagami and Chloé went to school the next day with a plan.

- Adrien had finally confessed to how uncomfortable he was with Lila (Chloé immediately apologised for hanging onto him just as much) so Alix was on lie duty, hearing and writing down everything Lie-la said. She also was hoping to plant little seeds of doubt in the rest of he classes minds.

- Juleka stuck by Marinette, both were now social outcasts but we’re able to find a better friendship in each other.

- Adrien and Chloé worked on getting in contact with as many people as they could that the Liar had lied about.

- After school, The couffaine siblings and Kagami went Bach to their houseboat to plot some more, the three were scarily good and coming up with plans to topple kingdoms.

- The blondes went with Marinette to the bakery to keep her company, Adrien also wanted to apologise for his advice.

- Alix, much to her dismay, had to go with the rest of the class on a picnic in the park, it would have been suspicious if she turned it down and this was another chance to find more of Lila’s lies to debunk.

- A week later of the same routine and Juleka and Marinette were better friends than ever. Anarka had claimed Kagami as her child and Adrien and Chloé were on their ways to becoming honorary Dupain-Chengs.

- They tried, they tried so hard to call out the Liar. But their mindless sheep of classmates just blamed Marinette despite that fact that she HAD NO IDEA and there was A PILE OF LAWSUITS on Lila’s desk.

- In the process, Alix and Adrien had outed themselves as on Marinette’s side so were given the same treatment as Juleka and Marinette.

- The whole day Marinette was in pure shock, they had tried to out Lila and failed even though they obviously planned it, her crush on Adrien was actually stopping, she was friends with Chloé! and her class had proven themselves as mindless sheep.

- She soon found herself on the Liberty surrounded by six people who had just explained what had been going on. Marinette, having been used to kindness only from her parents recently, just burst into tears sniffing about friends and outcasts and loyalty.

- Luka immediately jumped to her side to comfort her (much to Juleka’s amusement) and after she had calmed down the teens fell into easy chatter.

- They may be outcasts, but that class were so brainless they were gonna be as salty as they could (I know, cheesy, but I wanted to put it there so it is).

So yeah, the formation of the Salty Outacsts (credit to @flufflepuffle296 for the name). I am going to write this out as a fic and probably expand it but I’m behind on school work so it may take a while. Thank you for reading, there definitely will be more!

HERE IT IS WRITTEN OUT: (chapter 1, part1)

[rev3rb]

Hi! It’s me again, here to ask you how you felt about the most recent chp. I genuinely appreciated the background info given/refreshed by reading it. However, I am SOOO bitter about them switching from what’s going on with the main crew + MikaYuu. Waiting another month to maybe get back to the demon world/fight is gonna kill me after being excited to see it in this release. Also the feeling that I can’t pin Rigr’s motive. Idk if I just missed it somewhere, but I’m still pretty confused on the goal for our main antagonists (if he’s considered one). Ik it’s somewhat purposeful with the 1st to keep it under wraps but at this point my brain just sums it up as them wanting power for power’s sake?? I’d like a lil more info in order to be engaged with that plot line so I’m hoping Rigr does reveal stuff.

Welcome back anon! So yes, let me start off by saying that the fact that we're swapping focus in this chapter is SUPER annoying. I was trying to recall if this had happened once before, and I realized that the exact same thing happened when Ferid and Crowley actually caught Rigr. That chapter came right after Mika exploded.

The way I see it, this is an important perspective and Kagami likely needs us to know what's happening here with the vampires simultaneously as whatever is going on with the rest of the cast. I can't imagine that what happens here won't hold any significance to what's happening over there. After all, Rigr seems to be one of the only characters that actually has an inkling as to what Sika Madu's plan actually is. HOWEVER. God, does it feel like they pick bad times to swap perspectives. It's like every time we hit a climax and are going to get some juicy content, the perspective swaps on us. I wish it flowed better.

Enough complaining though. It's not like it'll change anything, so let's just focus on what we got.

Rigr's motive. It's another thing that's super in the air. If memory serves, he's stated he wants to stop Sika Madu, but beyond that, we have no idea. Rigr has been a very mysterious character and still is. I haven't the slightest clue what he's actually trying to do past what I already said. Hell, the Resurrection at 19 novels show that Rigr had some influence on Guren picking up Yuu from Sanguinem. It was his plan in the first place. However, it didn't work out the way Rigr planned it since Guren didn't get Mika as well. It brings into question just how involved Rigr is in Ferid and Guren's plans. It doesn't seem like they're working together, but who the hell knows how this all works. So many questions. So few answers.

I really enjoyed getting some back story. I don't quite want to call Urd and Rigr flat characters, but unlike a lot of characters, they really haven't had a ton of time in the spotlight, so it's nice to see their characters get expanded upon, even if just a little. This chapter gave Urd some good emotion. Yes, I know vampires aren't supposed to have emotion, but you can't tell me that Urd and Rigr weren't feeling things in that scene. Where are all my angsty Urd/Rigr fics now? I mean come on.

"I liked the face you made when you won, so I always let you win." "I'm sorry. I didn't intend to hurt you." "I didn't care if you hurt me, but if you leave, what do I have to live for?" "If hating me gives you a reason to live, then go ahead and hate me."

LIKE?? What kind of fanfiction bullshit is this. Maybe I'm just a sap, but that scene did play with the heartstrings a little. Not too much mind you as I was pretty neutral about them prior to this scene, but this is the exact kind of angst I love to see. It was good stuff. I can't wait to see what it's like when Rigr and Urd properly confront each other.

As this is getting long, I'll try and wrap up the rest of my thoughts succinctly. 1. I was always wondering if Kiseki-o and Noya were 3rd progenitors since they have that young appearance going on, but brushed it off as I thought there were only 3 3rd progenitors. I can't remember whether it was stated that each progenitor level only had that many progenitors (so like there are only 2 2nd progenitors), or I made that up in my mind. Either way, it's wild to find out that Byakkomaru, Reimeiki, Gekkouin, Noya, and Kiseki-o are all 3rd progenitors. 2. Nice to see Lest Karr and Ky Luc back. Doubt Rigr will kill them as he probably already would have if he wanted to, but I hope they don't die. Also where’s my art of tiny but powerful Lest Karr physically holding back a Ky Luc that is doing his damnedest to take a swing at Rigr? 3. I'm not surprised the prison didn't hold. It's no fun if it did huh?

Overall, it was a pretty good chapter.

[stranger-who-writes-fiction]

Gonna make full use of my ‘comic rant’ tag and roast Future State: Superwoman.

Spoilers! And yelling! Of the disgruntled kind!

So a few things at the start here: 1.) I wanted to love this book. I wanted it to be great. I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt, in spite of some iffy stuff in the solicit text. So this rant is not coming from a place of having decided this was going to be awful ahead of time. 2.) My tolerance for bad Supergirl comics is pretty high! Takes a lot for me to actually come out and say that a particular issue is trash. Reader: This story is trash.

It’s not ‘middle-aged white guys writing/drawing a story about sending a minor to a potentially hostile planet fully nude’ trash, mind you. It’s the compost bin, rather than the landfill. Slightly nicer trash, but it still stinks to high heaven. Allow me to expand!

PROLOGUE - SUMMARY: ...I actually can’t summarize this comic b/c it would devolve into a lot of senseless yelling. We’ll just have to tease out this terrible plot as we go along. 

PART I - DEAD DOGS TELL BAD TALES: The comic opens with Kara standing at Krypto’s grave. That’s not why this comic is trash, but it bears mentioning. Because why. Why would you do this. 

PART II - IN WHICH IT ONLY GETS WORSE: So, Kara has a running inner monologue, and the main thing we gather from Kara’s thoughts is that it was Krypto who taught her to be a hero. On paper, that sounds very sweet! In practice, it reads as Kara having no moral center whatsoever—whatever good qualities she might possess, she did not learn from her parents, or her foster parents, or friends, or fellow heroes. Nor do they come from within Kara herself. Nope, t’was Krypto who taught Kara not to be a jealous rage monster. That is not hyperbole--Kara’s walking around angry about her cousin all the time and she’s like, ‘It was you, Krypto, who taught me not to judge, and to let go of anger.’ Listen, I love Krypto, but this? This is, as the youth would say, a bad look.

PART III - THOSE CERTAINLY ARE...SOME THEMES: The set-up here is that Kara is on the moon, and has established a sanctuary for alien refugees. That’s a dynamite idea! I love that! Buuuuut Kara didn’t look at the plight of alien refugees and say, ‘I want to help!’ Really, she didn’t even look at herself and say, ‘I don’t want others to feel like I’ve felt.’ No, she said, ‘Earth won’t accept me as a hero, and Clark didn’t name me protector of Earth, so. I’m out!’ (Honestly, if your moral compass is so whack that you need a dog to walk you back from Hulk-Smashing...can’t say I blame Clark for not picking you, Kara!) But apparently, the people on the moon don’t really like her either. And it is literally never explained why. There’s a whole montage of Kara fixing stuff and saving lives and all the moon folk just glare at her. This makes both the moon people AND Kara look like a**holes, because they come across as ungrateful, and she comes across as a glory hound. Thanks! I hate it! So the ‘peace’ Kara’s found on the moon isn’t really peaceful at all, cause she still resents her cousin, and people still don’t like her, in spite of the fact that she’s constantly performing acts of service for them. 

Also, side note, I’m just now realizing this is an entire population of alien refugees...and Kara is somehow still the odd one out. Like, Earth I get, because everyone else is a human and maybe freaked out by the super powers. But a bunch of aliens? WHY. Why did you do this. Why did this need to be set on the moon with alien refugees if you’re not going to interrogate Kara’s identity as an alien refugee herself AND all of the aliens are inexplicably humanoid in appearance and utterly ordinary in terms of power levels.  

Like. This is not the CW show, where they have a budget, and a huge ensemble cast to serve. YOU HAVE NO EXCUSE. AAARRRRRGHHHH.

PART III CONT’D: There’s also this weird ‘birthright’ element introduced...like, Clark and Jon stole Kara’s ‘right’ to be earth’s defender which is...a terrible reading of Kara’s modern origin. It brings in the idea that Kara is a ‘chosen one’ and because she didn’t get to be that chosen one, all of her hero work is for nothing. Never mind the whole central conceit of what makes Clark and Kara heroic...that they have this incredible power, and choose to do good with it. Nah...it’s all about her ‘right’ to protect the people of Earth! And mean ol’ Clark took that away! THANKS. I HATE IT. 

PART IV - A POOR USE OF SPACE: So, all of the Future State books kind of struggle with the issue of too much exposition, which is understandable. They have to introduce an entirely new status quo in a very limited amount of literal page space, so you *really* have to have a handle on how you allocate your time and focus.  

Introducing a brand new, lore-heavy heroic character who gets all of the development and dynamic art and pulls focus away from the character you’re meant to be writing is a bad use of a two issue limited series.

Like, this is a crappy Supergirl comic but it’s a great backdoor pilot for a Lynari ongoing, I guess. 

Imagine if in the Jon Superman book, they introduced a random, brand new best friend for Jon, and he got the big character arc instead of Jon. That’s something you save for an arc in an ongoing title, NOT A TWO ISSUE EVENT COMIC.  

Back to said new character, there’s a lot of forced attempts to parallel Kara and Lynari, but Lynari’s backstory is so confusing, rushed, and poorly explained that it’s like: okay, they’re both...angry? And the moon jerks hate them? ...uh. Okay.

(I’m gonna bring back my ‘why is this set on the moon, even’ question so that my ‘poor use of space’ header becomes a better joke.) 

PART V - I'M HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO...B/C THERE SURE AIN’T ONE HERE: I’ve already mentioned that Krypto was apparently Kara’s conscience so when Lynari’s aunt arrives to...kill them? (again, everything about Lynari’s backstory is rushed and poorly explained) Kara gets real mad and basically pulls a Gothel: ‘You want me to be the bad guy? Fine! Now I’m the bad guy.’ But thank goodness Lynari is there to tell Kara no! Don’t murder the giant aunt eel! Lynari then steals Kara’s powers and gives up the swamp jewel that’s been hidden inside their body and now their aunt is less murder-y!

WOW. Couldn’t even give the big damn hero moment to Kara in her own book, huh?

So the day is saved. It takes Kara a while to regain her powers, and it’s only then, when she’s no longer ‘above’ the moon jerks, that they’re like, ‘oh, we like her!’ There is a bit of narration about how that attitude is awful. But that narration is provided by Lynari. See, the inner monologue is no longer Kara’s thoughts, but rather it has switched to Lynari’s point of view. They’re telling us this story. And do you know why?

PART VI - WHY THIS COMIC *SUCKS*: KARA DIES. SHE’S THE FRIGGIN’ ‘SECOND GRAVE’ OF THE TITULAR ‘TWO GRAVES’

Fudge this comic to heck.

See, Kara dies on the moon, presumably of old age. She’s buried next to Krypto. And this random character who we’re suddenly supposed to care about tells us her story. Not Clark. Not the Danvers. Not Brainy. Not even one of the supporting cast members from her solo title. No one from Kara’s life is mentioned at all, save for Jon and Clark, and they’re pretty much relegated to flashbacks of Kara punching them. 

PART VII - TIME TO COMPARE DEATHS, I GUESS: First and foremost can I just say that I hate that’s a sentence that I’m typing about Kara in the year of our lord, 2021. But okay: Kara’s big famous death in Crisis stopped the entire DC universe cold. Everyone paused in the middle of the destruction of the multiverse to mourn her loss and honor her (GENUINELY HEROIC) sacrifice. Clark and Barbara--two established characters with a strong connection/relationship to Kara--offered lovely eulogies. 

This one: Kara gets to die of old age in obscurity after a lifetime of striving to be recognized and only achieving it by de-powering and serving a population of jerks. 

Not the warm and fuzzy ending you think it is!

(Meanwhile, Clark lives for millennia and spawns an entire dynasty of Els, all of ‘em out there, protecting the cosmos. I was looking forward to House of El in the hopes of maybe seeing some Kara stuff but NOPE. Thanks to Superwoman, we’re probably not gonna see any future Kara stuff beyond this! G R E A T)

And like, the argument could be made that this ending makes Kara happy. This is the life she chooses! She wants to be alone and garden on the moon! Except, we get zero insight from Kara regarding the remainder of her life. We only have Lynari’s narration and some montage shots...nearly all of which focus on other characters. But honestly, even if we did get Kara’s side of things, I doubt it would shed much light on her feelings, bEEECAUSE...

PART VIII - SUPER BLAND: This Kara really has no personality outside of ‘detached and vaguely bitter.’ I like Sauvage, I think she’s an incredibly talented artist, but here, Kara is stiff and her expression often reads as aloof. She’s very pretty, but it comes at the expense of being expressive. (And I know Sauvage can do expressive stuff...because Lyanari gets to be expressive.) Like...I love that shojo manga vibe but this is a Kara devoid of spark and warmth. 

...Like...Melissa Benoist’s portrayal of Kara is right there... 

I’ve already sort of touched on this but her inner monologue doesn’t have much personality either. She’s just parroting the same, ‘I need to do as Krypto taught me!’ nonsense for both issues. Until, of course, we shift to Lynari’s narration, and lose Kara’s thread entirely. 

PART IX - LET’S WRAP THIS UP: This book frustrates me to no end because it had a lot of stuff going for it. It’s got a female writer and artist--still a rarity for the Supergirl book--it’s a limited series mostly free of continuity and character baggage, and it’s not tied down to the grimdark cyberpunk stuff happening in the Gotham books. YOU COULD’VE DONE ANYTHING. And, once again, DC goes with a pitch that’s: Kara is angry, Kara resents Clark...and Kara dies.

It’s also happening...right as Kara has no dedicated ongoing title, the movie’s been shelved, the TV show is entering its sixth and final season, and all promotion has shifted to new CW and HBO shows. 

*screams into the void* 

MAAAAAAN I hate this book. I hate that it retroactively makes me hate the Andreyko run a little bit--a run that I took to be about a traumatized young woman forced to confront her grief, and who leans on a beloved animal companion for comfort. Here, Krypto is L I T E R A L L Y the reason Kara’s not constantly frying folks with her heat vision. 

I hate that this book has made me use the word ‘literally’ so much in this rant.

I hate that this could possibly be more in continuity than Millennium.

Remember Millennium? Where Kara was in like...five pages? And she was warm, and kind, and promised to help Rose because it was the right thing to do, and oh yes, WAS PRESIDENT OF EARTH?!??! AND A CLASSY OLD LADY!?!?!?!?! WHO WAS STILL ALIVE AND KICKIN’ IN THE FAR FLUNG FUTURE!?!?!?!?!

I hate that I’m using my lunch hour to rant about how much I hate this comic.  

I hate that DC editorial seems hell-bent on erasing the interesting aspects of Kara’s character to sand her down to ‘the angry one’ or ‘Batman 2.0′

PART X - LET’S END ON SOME (?) POSITIVES: Don’t read this book! Don’t do it! Don’t waste your time and money!

Instead, check out ANYTHING ELSE. If you want mom!Kara, read Tom Taylor’s ‘Last Daughters of Krypton’ in the DC Nuclear Winter special. If you want heroic oldlady!Kara, read Millennium. Honestly? Pick up anything by Bendis that has Supergirl in it. It is miles away better than this. You want angry Kara working through her grief? Andreyko, Red Lantern, even Infected. ANYTHING BUT THIS. HECK, grab Superman of Metropolis instead! That has bad Kara characterization but at least she doesn’t end up dead. 

Anyways. This comic is bad. I wish it wasn’t! And this is now the SECOND TIME IN A ROW that Kara’s book ends on a terrible note before the character disappears from monthly comics for an unknown period of time.  

*screams into the void again*

[aerialflight]

So I was talking to @adelmortescryche about how I've recently gotten into the Untamed. And since my mind is mad hellspace, it spawned out this.

This is a transcript of my conversation with her. Morty, my friend, what have I done.

-

im fucking screwed

you know how i know im screwed?

cause im thinking of fic ideas of ichigo being in the untamed world

that is the first sign of madness

because i only put ichigo in fandoms that im really, really into

it is a sign that all is lost

it is a sign, that im a dead man walking

fudge me

and here's the best part, the worst part, whatever

i have two running fic ideas and they're both terrible

for my health

idea 1: ichigo comes in like a wrecking ball and basically fucks everyone over and hates the lans (to hell with those guys) and hates meng yao and just, hates everything

cause he'd like to go home, he did not sign up for this shit

or idea 2: ichigo wakes up as a kid after dying, reincarnated, but here's the thing

he's just a street kid at the age of 8 and has no fucking idea where the hell he is

so he books it. he goes fucking feral. he runs to the woods and becomes a woodland creature. he is one with nature.

and he avoids everything. except the nice wen doctor and her brother. he adopts children along the way and takes care of them because of course he does

and he somehow adopts meng yao because meng yao sometimes feeds him, or ichigo feeds him. and he Approves how meng yao takes care of his very nice mother.

and he finds wei wuxian. wei wuxian follows him around ironically like a dog and the jiangs never find him. cause ichigo is too competent and will not lose this child to political bullshit, he will not

when in doubt, run to the woods. follow the ASL brothers route.

and ichigo teaches them how to fight, all of them. ichigo learns how to read and speak chinese cause language barrier. sign language. it only increases his reputation as a child who grew up ferals in the wilderness and beyond

and ichigo is waiting for the day zangetsu appears, he can feel the bastard vibrating in his soul, reaching for his partner in his inner world and finding it murky. typical of the hollow to want to make a dramatic entrance

fuck me morty i hate this

i'm screwed

omg, dude

what if ichigo accidentally creates a new sect without even knowing he's doing it

all these children willing to die for him, wen qing thinking he's a fucking riot and appreciates how ichigo wants to protect his own, and ichigo respects her for how much she wants to protect her very kind sibling that reminds ichigo way too much of yuzu (god he misses her)

wen qing and ichigo helping each other out and ichigo knows her position and offers, hey, if you're ever in trouble, call for me. i'll be there. no conditions, no deals.

and ichigo wins her loyalty right then and there.

she sends info to him where the wens are moving, ichigo saving wens left and right and basically being a Decent Human Being.

he has a reputation now. anyone who are outsiders and need protection, go to kurosaki ichigo, he will help you.

and his sect keeps fucking growing

and by the time he hits 12-13, he's the head of a gang and other sects are beginning to take notice. and the plot thickens and just omg dude why

why

the more im writing this the most it keeps expanding in my head fuck me

i hate this

god what if renji and rukia somehow appear in this world also as children

they were born street rats too, they could be ichigo's seconds. or something. rukia insisting they should be near society. renji is just where the party is at and resigns himself to wherever his friends will take him cause hell if he's getting involved with the decision process

he's just rolling with it

what a guy

ichigo points to the lans and says "3000 rules rukia, 3000 rules. like hell im gonna be anywhere near a civilization where they actually think that's humanly possible to follow and are exalted instead of deemed as fucking weirdos"

"even byakuya would die swallowing that kind of bullshit*

"we're strong, we can survive here."

"think of the kids rukia"

"fuck you ichigo. you're just an antisocial punk who hates dealing with people"

ichigo points to society

"can you blame me?"

rukia sighs

rukia relents

renji is just glad that everyone has stopped screaming

what if one day, in a newly topsy turvy world that ichigo created, somewhat, ish, grimmjow just pops out of a garganta and is like FIGHT ME

AND ICHIGO IS DONE

FUCK YOU GRIMMJOW I THOUGHT I'D AT LEAST GET SOME PEACE AND QUIET AND I HATE THIS. I HATE YOU.

WHY ARE YOU HERE

FIGHT ME grimmjow roars

sighs

thats how i picture this fic ending.

thats how i picture this fic ending

i can imagine an ending scene stop me now

also, it is a given fact that ichigo and nie mingjue gets along like a house on fire. this whole fic idea wouldn't have started without that already established.

BONDING OVER THE FACT THEY'RE OLDER BROTHERS. BONDING OVER DEALING WITH OTHER PEOPLE'S BULLSHIT. BOTH WAY TOO FUCKING HONEST, BLUNT, AND RIGHTEOUS TO HANDLE. THIS WORLD CAN'T HANDLE TWO OF THEM

BOTH HAVING FIERY TEMPERS AND HAVE SCREAMING MATCHES OVER THE WENS AND WHAT HAPPENS TO THEM ICHIGO IS READY TO FUCKING GO YESTERDAY

ichigo thinking xichen is an ineffectual nice guy and would like to yell at him to stop sitting around doing nothing chop chop move it.

and wangji is just, the definition of repressed and ichigo yells at him to stop being repressed

and wei wuxian has a crush. ichigo is willing to voodoo doll the two of them and smush their mouths together, or open their mouths so they can fucking communicate omg i hate all of this

jiang cheng. ichigo likes.

this kid. he likes this kid

ichigo straight up murders the head of the jins. yup.

f that guy

[kateis-cakeis]

A Perspective Makes The Hero and The Villain

Disclaimer: I’m not calling any fans out here, I believe we’re all right :) Just read the full post to understand!

---

So, I think it’s well established that we all watch different perspectives when it comes to the plot of the Dream SMP. Some people may watch many, some people may only watch one. This is what determines everything for us as individuals watching this plot unfold.

It’s like we’re all watching one TV show, with the same plotlines, story, themes... but each and every one of us choses a different character to follow.

I’ve said this very briefly before, it’s what makes us biased, but I want to expand here. It’s also changes our entire perception of the Dream SMP’s story.

I’ve seen the posts on here, I’ve watched them go by, I’ve read them. There’s a lot of people who watch Fundy and they are hardcore on his side, I mean if you hang out in the tag, you’ve probably see them here and there.

They, especially right now with the family drama, see Fundy as the hero, this mistreated guy who tried everything, risked everything to get dirt on Schlatt, and in his moment, when he presented the evidence, his father told him he despised him for what he’d done, and said that he thought he was the only one on Schlatt’s side - to which Fundy said no, that was never it.

Except still, Wilbur didn’t trust Fundy, or anybody for that matter. And Fundy had to stand by and watch as his dad blew up the nation he’d built to keep Fundy safe. And then left him in the dust as he went off and died, leaving Fundy with a dead dad that can barely remember what’s happened.

If anything, to people who watch Fundy, Wilbur was (and is) the villain. (Schlatt too but I’ll get onto him later)

I get it, I do, I understand their perspective, but because I haven’t watched Fundy first, I don’t agree. AND THAT’S what’s so fascinating, even though I understand because I’ve seen the story play out, because I’ve seen it first from a different POV, I have an entirely different view to them!

More shall be under the cut!

Oh, and don’t think I’m not biased. You’re biased, I’m biased, everyone in this fandom is biased. 

I don’t understand why Wilbur calling Fundy his “little champion”, calling him cute, giving him affection, is bad? But I’m sure Fundy watchers could come in and tell me exactly why, and still, because I’ve seen things from Wilbur’s POV first, it would be a lot harder for me to see anything but a loving father.

Do you see? When there’s posts talking about... let’s say Ghostbur, and how we shouldn’t see him as this good guy and whatnot because he’s just hurting Fundy, that’s bias. 

We got Wilbur actually streaming as Ghostbur rather than hopping onto someone else’s call on Tuesday, and that allowed us to see into Ghostbur’s soul more.

People who don’t realise Ghostbur’s inner workings because they’ve just seen one POV, or haven’t listened to his words, are of course gonna think Ghostbur is this guy who blew his chance by running away rather than listening to his son, but if you know how Ghostbur works, then you don’t think that. You see an innocent instead, who just doesn’t remember and doesn’t understand.

But let’s leave Fundy and Wilbur behind for a second and turn our attention to Tommy. Now, a lot of people watch Tommy. He’s like the protag, right?! Everyone talks about how he’s the protag! He’s the hero! He’s the one! You know? All that?

But that’s just one view. Because a lot, a lot of people watch Tommy, of course they’re gonna think that. Especially people who only watch his POV. Because to them he is the hero, he is the protag, just like for the ones who mainly watch Fundy. We’ve all got our protagonist, we’ve all got our hero.

Tommy in the definition of the story is a lot like the hero, but he’s done his fair share of bad things. Like, oh, I don’t know... burning down the new flag and proceeding to burn down the forest, where Wilbur told him to stop because they as a nation once cared about nature, and Schlatt wanted to burn it all down.

People who watch Tommy, I’ve noticed, are very for L’Manberg, they never wanted it blown up, and they believed Schlatt to be the big enemy, even with Wilbur in the background saying he was going to destroy L’Manberg every 5 seconds.

Yet, I don’t see them talk as much about Wilbur being this bad guy. I mean they do, no doubt, but not as much as other people who watch another POV. They’re a lot more sympathetic, and that reflects on how Tommy feels in the story. He stood by Wilbur no matter what, and he paid for it. (The same goes for Techno.)

The villains for the Tommy viewers change considerably because the boy can’t help but get himself into trouble, but, there’s Dream, Schlatt, Techno, Wilbur as well. It’s a lot of people. Oh, and Quackity for a time too. There’s so many people to point villainy at when it comes to watching Tommy mainly, seeing him as the hero.

And this is honestly where the opinions come from. People making posts about how Techno being the traitor makes so much sense, or posts about how Techno was never the traitor because he was betrayed instead, because Tommy and Tubbo formed a government.

Who we see as good, who we see as evil, who is our hero, and who is our villain, all depends on this.

I mean some of us love the chaos, yeah? Some of us cheered when L’Manberg was blown up, some of us were joyful, some of us were ecstatic when Techno spawned in those withers!

Because that’s me. That’s how I see it. I bundled up all that chaos and revelled in it, with a grin on my face. 

See, I mainly watch from Wilbur’s POV, and his POV would come first over anyone else, but I would also watch Techno’s streams. That’s where my bias comes from, you’ve probably seen a lot of it if you’ve read my analyses.

Wilbur is my hero in this story. The villain was Dream, then Schlatt. I think people who watch Wilbur tend to only see those people as villains. I mean for a long time as well, I thought Fundy was firmly on Schlatt’s side. I had heard of him being a spy (I think through an animatic?) but when I heard no more about it (I didn’t look in the tag at the time), I thought he had just switched sides and was with Schlatt.

I mean what else was I to think? He denounced Wilbur as his dad, someone, from what I saw, had only been good to Fundy. Watching Wilbur mainly has never made me think that he was a bad father, at every stage Fundy rejected him, and that’s all I saw. So, yeah, I saw Fundy as someone who had betrayed Wilbur and, like Wilbur, I had a hard time imagining that he was being truthful with his intentions.

And because I watched Wilbur, every mention of L’Manberg exploding made me more excited. The festival was stressful because I was so ready to see that place explode, I wanted it to, so Wilbur could win. And when it finally did, after the war (the coup) was won, I was so happy, so excited, I think I banged my table I was so damn happy.

While I’m sure the people watching from POVs that had no idea where Wilbur was, were shocked to their core, possibly devastated that it blew up, just like the streamer they were watching. (I’m basing this off their chats when it exploded.)

And because I watched Techno’s streams too, I was cheering for him when he got those withers down and spawned. When I watched from his POV after Wilbur’s stream ended, I was so happy for him. Because it was a coup, because a government shouldn’t form due to corruption, because he was less a traitor and more someone who had always made his intentions clear!!

You see?

We’re all biased.

I wanted chaos, while others want peace. I’m sure those who watch Tubbo want peace because he talks about it so often.

And now, onto Schlatt. There’s a good reason why we all see Schlatt as a villain, THE villain. No matter who we watch, no matter who else we see as a villain, Schlatt was always gonna be the big baddie for all of us.

Why?

Because we never got to see into his soul. He never streamed, so we could never understand what he was thinking, who he really was... We only saw what others saw. Perhaps there are variations in opinion due to different POVs, but it’ll only be minor variation. So, no matter what, Schlatt is the only one who can’t be seen as a hero, because we’ve never seen him.

In conclusion, we’re all biased, and we all have different heroes and villains in this story. Even when it comes down to traitors, who we watch greatly affects how we see that too.

I hope you enjoyed reading, and do add on!! I haven’t talked about all the other POVs because I didn’t want to be here all day, and I didn’t want this to be too long! So if you have opinions about what fans of, let’s say, Quackity, would think, pleaseeee add on!!