#I just want the devotions and eclipse arcs

[leafatlaw]

Okay okay gonna go watch s4 vods so I can finally get it.

[ecoterrorist-katara]

Why I feel like Ka/taang is one-sided, despite textual evidence 

ATLA does try to convince us that Katara has romantic feelings for Aang. For example: she seems thoughtful when she realizes that Aang is a powerful bender; she’s offended that he didn’t want to kiss her in the Cave of Two Lovers; she gets jealous when Sokka says On Ji and Aang look good together.

So…what’s wrong with anti-Kataangers? Do we just lack media comprehension? 

To be clear, on their own, these gestures can indicate romantic interest. But at the same time, we have stuff like “Aang is a sweet little guy, like Momo.” We have her ambivalent facial expression after he kisses her before the eclipse, and her hedging during Ember Island Players, and her anger when he kisses her anyway. In the context of these conflicting cues, Katara’s possibly romantic reactions can absolutely be interpreted in a different way, because: 

Acknowledging a friend as a potential romantic interest is not the same as actually being romantically interested in them. (Imo this is something young women struggle with, due to a combination of romance-centrism and heteronormativity that make women feel like they should be in romantic relationships, and that boys and girls who share intimate and deep feelings for one another must be romantically into each other) 

Wanting someone to find you desirable is not the same as desiring that person. (Which is something a lot of women, especially young women, struggle with. Remember all the discourse around Cat Person back in 2017?) 

Being jealous when someone flirts with your friend is not the same as wanting to be with your friend. (Especially when you see your friends as family, or if you’re accustomed to a specific type of devotion from that friend. It is jealousy, and it is possessiveness, but it doesn’t always arise from romantic feelings) 

Growing up in a patriarchal society means that your desires are always filtered through what men want from you, sometimes in an abstract male gaze-y way, and sometimes in a very visceral and interpersonal way when a boy wants you specifically. And Katara’s reactions are just that — reactions. Reactions to what other people — including Aunt Wu, Sokka, Aang himself — have insinuated about her and Aang. She’s not really proactive in her interest in Aang: we don’t really see Aang, romantically, from Katara’s POV. Under the framework of “Katara is reacting to a romantic prospect she’s kind of uncertain about,” it is completely plausible — and indeed likely — that she would sometimes act in ways that indicate romantic interest, in addition to moments where she indicates the opposite. 

Ka/taang shippers often bring up other evidence, like Katara’s despair when Azula hits Aang with lightning, or how protective she is of him when Zuko joins the Gaang. The thing is, these pieces of evidence aren’t necessarily indicative of romantic love. The fact that Katara genuinely loves Aang makes the whole thing more complicated, not less, because — especially at that age, especially when Aang is twelve years old and grew up in a sex-segregated society of monks — it is really difficult to tell the difference between platonic love and romantic love. Their mutual devotion is layered and complex yet straightforward in its sincerity. What was not straightforward, until the last five minutes of the show, is whether this devotion on Katara’s end is romantic. The romantic arc for Katara and Aang is not really an arc, as Sneezy discusses in this classic ZK video. Katara actually becomes more conflicted over time and we never see an event that clarifies her feelings. She seems more interested in him in The Headband than on the Day of the Black Sun, and she has never been more hostile to his romantic overtures than in the penultimate episode. 

And in light of this, it’s pretty easy for fans to fill in the blanks with a different interpretation: maybe Katara’s weird expression after their kiss at the invasion means she didn’t enjoy it; maybe the kiss made her realize that she doesn’t actually feel that way about Aang; maybe against her will and her better judgement, she’s developing feelings for another person, a person who hurt her and whom she fervently tried to hate until he pulled off what is in my opinion the greatest grovel of all time in the form of a life-changing field trip. Maybe. Am I saying that Zutara has more romantic interactions than Ka/taang? Of course not. But ironically, the lack of romantic interactions means that it’s not inherently one-sided, the way Ka/taang became in the latter half of season 3.

I’m not arguing that Katara’s unequivocally not into Aang. Obviously the text declares that she is, because they get married and have kids. But I am saying that there’s a very good reason that so many people, especially women, see Katara’s interest in Aang as ambiguous. It’s not because we can’t pick up “subtle” hints of growing affection. It’s because we know not all affection is romantic, and it’s really easy for someone else’s insistent romantic intentions to muddle what you want.

P.S. I first started thinking about these topics (platonic vs romantic love, desiring someone vs wanting to be desired, etc) in the context of compulsory heterosexuality, a term describing how queer women contort themselves into relationships with men even if they’re not really into men. I saw a post a few days ago joking about why so many queer women seem to be into Zutara. I wonder if part of the reason is because as queer women, we are very sensitive to the ways in which we can talk ourselves into wanting things we don’t actually want, and Katara’s romantic interest in Aang can be easily seen that way. 

[coffeegnomee]

Wrote this after Flame tried to get his fight the first time but before the whole spawn destroying thing went down.  (I was vodwatching so I paused to contemplate devotions.) And then everything exploded and I never posted it. 

Mapicc, all session, was SO happy whenever Zam mentioned he would fight. He reminded me so much of that one character in an action movie that just Loves the battlefield, loves fighting, loves the thrill of testing your skill, goes around swinging his sword, big smile on his face, just waiting to go out and fight those enemies. 

He embodies everything that is Good about fighting. And none of the evil. None of the evil that princezam is so afraid of. None of the bloodlust, none of the blowing up builds, none of the being unable to stop. 

Mapicc has his evil tendencies, for sure, but when you take everything away, he just wants his friend back so they can have fun together. Every season. Castle arc, eclipse, taking zam back for the wormhole without hesitation. Getting zam on the abyss, (getting him back to streaming with the chat poll), counting it a betrayal when zam gave his blessing to minute. 

All through season 5 mapicc had so much more confidence when Zam was by his side. Every fight they took with Minute and Jumper, Mapicc was wildly positive about EVEN when they had half an inventory and two stacks of xp. He never once considered how much they could be out geared. Zam gave him the confidence. 

He’s the complete opposite of everything Zam is afraid of. Everything he’s hiding behind to cling to the pacifism. That’s why he’s always capable of getting Zam to fight with him in previous seasons. Zam is lulled in by the friendship and the joy of the fight. Mapicc got Zam to fight on his side during the Pagi/Red v Clown fight and on the 100k yt stream, and, jumping ahead, during eclipse he got Zam to lay down the castle arc beef and fight on his side against Pangi in the crown battle, and embraced him back when zam joined wormhole.

Which is another thing, Zam has this beautiful need to always balance fights. He will throw away all his lore just to make sure both sides have enough players to make it even. That’s lowkey why he joined the wormhole too, not the only reason by far, but it was a contributing factor. 

And then on that Saturday, realizing Flame needed more people to even the fight out, he was willing to fight. He almost did it. His “I wouldn’t hit him” after when he was reflecting on what his did to chat was equal parts “I planned not to hit him” and “I wouldn't have hit him, right?” 

And to follow it up with “main goal [of pacifism] is to just work in the server’s best interests [...] Despite it normally being the wrong answer, violence was kind of the answer to fixing that problem there” (~2:13:00) 

Is such a large shift from his earlier main goal of limiting himself, and then the 8/22/24 stream where he started doubting himself and “I did it so that I could, I dunno, just avoid repeating prior mistakes.” (~48:00)

And Mapicc is right there to support that claim. Violence was the answer, it was the fun thing, it was the video idea, the event. It was positive. Good. And Mapicc was sooooo excited. I wrote down that Mapicc came over while Zam was messaging Pangi to get back on and said  “Zaaaaaam” in a ‘lets fucking win this basketball game’ type voice.  (~1:57:00) 

Because pvp can be so much closer to a sport than to being a psychotic maniac. 

[nitewcat]

Castle Arc Devotions - Ravenous

With all the Eclipse bases compromised, Zam had resorted to temporarily using his castle again to trade and grind, to be of some use to his teammates who had taken him when he had nothing at all. The rooms were haunted by memories of Mapicc. The stray cobwebs around the forest and the markings on the wall that told of countless fights. He ignored the sinking feeling in his stomach when he realised that along with him and his teammates, Mapicc was still online. He couldn’t stop himself from checking the tablist over and over again, waiting in fear for something to happen. That’s when he saw the death message.

Mapicc was slain by ItzSubz

Then Mapicc’s layer turned on. Then off. And Zam,in his paranoid and vigilant state, had already noticed the name tag appear  above him before it disappeared. Mapicc was in his base. Mapicc had been sleeping here. Mapicc’s spawn was set here.

Zam silently climbed up the stairs, up to the room hidden away at the top of the castle and hid behind the door, scanning the room until he saw Mapicc, crouched in a corner, trying to make as little noise as possible as he inched towards the ender chest. 

A defenceless, gearless Mapicc, and a fully geared, prepared PrinceZam.

The desire for vengeance consumed him. Strength. Fire res. Swiftness. Three crits. Mapicc looked up, realising he wasn't alone and yelled out, “Zam wait-” but it was too late and Mapicc was dead and his bed was right in front of Zam. Just as he had seen Mapicc do to him countless times, Zam covered the bed in obsidian. Months spent running in fear always looking behind his back before eventually being safe, secure, loved and then he’d feel the blade against his back and the red of Mapicc’s cold eyes. The red was always the last thing he saw. Over and over again.

Vitalasy whispers to you : coords

It would be the Leviathans worst mistake to revive him and keep him alive that day. “Respawn, let’s talk.” Zam said as he lowered his sword. A few seconds later Mapicc appeared before him, an annoyed look on his face. He opened his mouth to speak but Zam's blade had already descended upon him once again. Zam absorbed another heart. He was on 15. Did he want to reach 20? Or did he want revenge? Did he want Mapicc banned? He had the chance. Roshambo was still offline. Vitalasy and Subz were still spamming him for coordinates.

“I swore you would regret not banning me that day, Mapicc.” Zam said quietly. 

He finally had the upper hand.

“Am I still merely a minor inconvenience to you now? Are you scared? Respawn Mapicc. Respawn and face me.” Zam laughed bitterly and waited, axe drawn in front of the bed. He was filled with anger and hatred and delightful satisfaction.

And fear. He was still fucking scared of an armourless Mapicc, spawn trapped with nowhere to go. No matter how satisfying it was, it still left Zam nervous and with a bitter taste in his mouth. Because what was he doing? Stooping down to the Leviathans level.

That’s when Vitalasy’s second layer turned on. Vitalasy would not spare Mapicc today. Not when he stood defenseless here. Maybe it was the fear, maybe his morals, maybe it was longing that made Zam break the bed. Maybe a bit of everything. But when Mapicc respawned and Vitalasy entered the room and Roshambo finally logged on, all Zam could bring himself to tell Vitalasy was that Mapicc had escaped. He didn’t look him in the eye, he couldn’t explain what he had just done when he didn’t even know the reason himself. Vitalasy stared at him with disappointment and then a resigned understanding.

“I guess we’ll have to try harder next time.” He said as he turned his back to Zam and left.

Zam knew letting Mapicc go would never justify to them the hearts Mapicc had lost being spawn killed. Zam would be hunted for this. Killed ten times over for the ounce of fear he had produced within Mapicc. Maybe they would ban him at long last…

He couldn’t bring himself to regret any of it. Killing Mapicc so dishonourably, spawn trapping him and even letting him go. He was still angry at himself for failing his teammates. If it had been any of the other Eclipse members who had found Mapicc today he would be banned. Lucky Mapicc, Zam thought bitterly, the coward had found him instead. Because the reason Zam failed today was because he was a coward. Nothing more nothing less.

[theoneandonlygothicrainbow]

H.E.A.L: How The Owl House uses the Hexsquad for Hunter’s Arc

One thing I love about Hunter’s arc is that he is a foil to all members of the Hexsquad in each and every step of his arc, and when he meets each of them, he changes his view bit by bit.

In Hunting Palismen, Luz is struggling to decide what she wants for her future. She has a big responsibility to choose the path that’s right for her.

Hunter, on the other hand, is shown to have a future set in stone. He has very little agency in his life.

Both of them are left with the same frustration: they don’t know what they want. One is overwhelmed with possibilities and the other is underwhelmed with their current and chosen life. They end on an unclear dynamic and both make progress in finding the right future for them.

In Eclipse Lake, both Amity and Hunter have a strong devotion to someone (Luz and Belos respectively). But Luz is very supportive of Amity and wants her to be safe at all costs, whereas Belos doesn’t care about Hunter except for the results he gives him.

While this episode still ends with Hunter being an antagonist, his perspective is slightly shifted because he gets to be more devoted to someone that cares about him: Flapjack.

In Any Sport in a Storm, Willow and Hunter are both trying to prove their worth to themselves. Willow believes in change and second chances, as she has dealt with them before, whereas Hunter has been conditioned to believe that chances can’t be given and that people can’t change. Hunter proves his own worth when he stands up for the team against Darius. Willow also helps change Hunter’s perspective by offering him forgiveness. He then learns that second chances can be given, even during growing pains. This episode is also the real start of serious doubt over Belos, as Willow’s perspective makes Hunter think that Belos might not be as upstanding as he thought he was.

In Labyrinth Runners, Hunter is struggling to trust people, whereas Gus is naive and trusts too much. Gus ends up spiraling to Hunter’s old mindset and Hunter, having the trust of Willow and the rest of Hexside, is able to help Gus trust again, just like Gus helped Hunter trust. The episode ends with a compromise of trust. Hunter doesn’t tell his friends about the grimwalker situation, but he’s able to open up about the Day of Unity, as he knows that he has a new family he can trust, even if he’s not ready to share everything.

I don’t know if it was intentional or a coincidence that these episodes spell “HEAL”, but I like that it reflects Hunter’s process throughout these episodes. Hunter goes along the start of healing in the three episodes I mentioned until he truly began healing in Labyrinth Runners.

Hunter’s experiences and different perspectives allows for the rest of the Hexsquad to grow as well when Hunter puts the effort to help them, on top of Hunter growing based off of them. It’s such a genius way to make the characters grow effectively and quickly.

[arkus-rhapsode]

So playing through the Fell Xenologue a strange thought sorta dawned on me... I kinda wish the Four Winds were the lords of the game instead of Alfred, Diamant, Ivy, and Timerra.

Okay, look I know I’ve talked about it before, I like the four lords for the most part. I think they’re charming and have some good supports. But I found my issue with them was sorta a reverse issue I had with the Three Houses lords. In 3H the main lords had so much contribution to the plot and practically moved it all on their own and focused on their arcs while the player character was basically a non entity, but in Engage, Alear has an arc and lives up to being the main character, while the four lords don’t contribute that much to the main campaign in terms of ongoing character arcs or plot relevance. Not helped by Veyle who ultimately eclipses them. 

Now obviously, the Fell Xenologue is a short DLC episode with chapters that get devoted primarily to one member of the Four Winds plus Nel and Nil. So it would be hard for me to say with certainty what a game staring Zelestia, Gregory, Madeline, and Mauvier would be like instead of the four lords. However, what I think stood out to me the most is the willingness to write the Four Winds as an actual group. Like they all clearly have a history and a dynamic and play off of each other. I think that was something missing from the Engage lords. They mostly focus on the relationship with Alear and the Emblem as this is really their first time all being together, but there isn’t like any real witty banter or characters bouncing off one another in a way the makes the lords feel like a unit. Which is sad because you spend time with them for so long and yet all four will just huddle together by the end of the game and usually exposits or make observations while the real dynamic of the game is Alear and Veyle.

Again, I don’t think these were bad characters, but with the time I spent with the Four Winds, I could tell that with was a group. That they all benefit as characters when you have them all together. Maybe InSys writers didn’t want to make supports seem less important if you put in characters interacting in the main campaign, but I feel like when you’re juggling four characters who are all essentially in the deuteragonist for most the game and don’t really act have any real interaction in the story it feels like a missed opportunity.

But yeah, Four Winds fun. 

[zylian]

Omg body swap aus!!!! I totally forgot about them but there so fun!

Based on meeps tweet saying devotion duo body swap au in eclipse fed arc-

Hear me out, Imagine Mapicc and Subz swap during eclipse fed instead

Mapicc & Subz fkn suffering would be so funny

Like the chaos would be crazy and Mapicc has to act like Subz and hear Zam rant and cling to him in a huge red base and Subz is in a tiny base with 4 ppl and has to handle Ro’s humour.

Mapicc wanting to die everytime Vitalasy casually flirts with him that he starts to stay near Zam

Subz being stuck alone walking around at spawn being followed by Spoke and is thinking “this MF-“

Mapicc calls Subz and Subz immediately blames everything on Spoke and so he gets dragged into the call and they both scream at him. Spoke adds Ashswag to the call and Ashswag just fkn laughs at everything

They find a solution but it takes WEEKS and they all have to agree to hide it while Mapiccs hatred for Vitalasy sky rockets cause he has to bare Vitalasy flirting with him (he and Subz call to complain often)

Bonus: Zam figures it out after a week when “Subz” builds something off, he doesn’t mention it until 2 days after that Mapicc folds and tells Zam to just keep Vitalasy away from him (Zam is dumbfounded instead of panicking now)

Bonus 2: Just like Zam, Ro finds out when “Mapicc” doesn’t laugh at a joke and gasps, Vortex finds out to help hide it from Parrot & he ends up asking Subz to renovate their base

[sanversandfriends]

Dear Writers,

@Worddancer21/Kelinswriter on A03, is not only an amazing finisher of fics, but to loosely paraphrase Jackie Cooper in Superman('78), she can also spin gorgeous prose while crafting cinematic, edge-of-your-seat stories at near Kryptonian speed.

To start off the event, she's been gracious enough to share some advice and insights on the writing process, which we hope you'll find helpful as well as inspiring.

We certainly do.

Could you share a little bit about your process? How much of the ending do you have worked out when you start a story?

I can’t write the story without knowing the ending. I have to know where I’m headed to be able to really commit to it as a story. With fic it’s kind of a given that the ending is the pairing together and in a relatively good place, having grown from the experience. The tricky part – and the fun -- is figuring out how they can overcome the obstacles I’ve created for them so that they can reach that place.

What are some of your strategies for getting through the final stretch of a longform story? What are some stumbling blocks writers should avoid?

Well, I still haven’t finished Eclipse, so I may not be the best person to talk to about this. But just in general, it’s about self-discipline. For some people, that’s a weekly word count. For me, it’s about staying on a regular writing schedule. I devote most Saturdays to writing, from the time I get up until I’ve finished a reasonable amount of work for the day.  I aim for 3000 words a day on a writing day, and the edit of a full chapter (or chapter section, if a long chapter), on an editing day. I try not to cross points of view on a given writing or editing day, as I think that makes it harder to stay in character. But sometimes, it’s unavoidable.

Just in general, I would say it’s important to not overthink it. Focus on writing the story you intended to write, as best you can write it at this point in time. Is it possible if you wait that the story will be better later? Sure. That’s called growth. But the only way that growth will happen is if you write, so you might as well write the story you’re writing now.

What are some elements you consider essential for a satisfying ending?

Have the characters grown in some way, and particularly, has the point of view character grown (if a single pov). How is that demonstrated? Also, the reader walking away with the feeling that they’ve been on a journey and grown from the experience, too. I want them to feel like the story both made sense within its internal logic and that it was worth their time. If I’ve done my job right, they should be able to imagine the characters continuing forward in their lives, without feeling like they haven’t seen enough of this particular journey. It should feel like a full meal.

What are some of your favorite endings in fics (alternately books or films or series)? What do you think makes those endings satisfying?

My favorite ending of all time was Buffy’s. Even though I wasn’t crazy about some things in the last season, that last shot of her standing with a smile of pure relief on her face brought the character’s arc full circle in a way I don’t think I’ve ever seen replicated. I actually liked the cut to black ending of The Sopranos, too, because it fit the chaos and uncertainty of that world.

As for what makes those endings satisfying – they’re true to the characters and the world. Readers/viewers know when an ending is false or is manipulated in a way that sacrifices character growth for a “gotcha” ending. The frustrations many viewers felt with how GoT wrapped, and particularly with how Cersei, Jaimie, and Dany’s arcs ended, is a good example of this.

What is some advice you would give to people struggling with the endings of their stories?

A long work is exhausting, and by the end, it’s hard to see it clearly. Trust the characters and the world you built. If you need to take breaks, that’s okay, but try to do something to keep inching the story forward every week.

If on deadline, it’s also helpful to create a work map. Sit down with a calendar and determine how many writing sessions you have between now and deadline. Work out the story beats you need to hit to make that deadline and assign each one to a writing session. It’s important to allow time for editing and upload too. Assume that you’re going to be working on it almost every day for at least a few hours a day that last week or two.

What is your favorite ending to one of your own stories? Add the link here if you like.

In my own work, I’m proudest of the flash forward at the end of “Deep in the Heart of the Storm.” It subverted the happy ever after of the end of the main story by showing that there were consequences to what the characters had experienced, while also assuring the reader that they’d done the work to earn their reunion. To make that feel real to me, I purposely did not write the flash-forward until the rest of the fic had been fully edited. That helped me create a sense of space from where they were when the main story ended, and where they were six months down the road.

Any last words of advice?

Stop thinking and start writing. Also, listen to the characters. They’ll tell you where they want to go.

Thank you for this @worddancer21, and for your stories. If you haven't already, go check out her work on AO3!

[derww]

TL;DR: 2.6k words gen, post-Abyss arc, Devotion Duo-centric + Bacon, Roshambo, Jumper and Minute. Zam's origin makes it so he adopts small physical traits from people he trusts and considers his teammates. It backfires after Jumper's betrayal. Very poorly.

TW: Violence, blood, killings, temporary death, lethal poisoning, swearing, maybe spoilers

Disclamer: Not everything are stream-reliable, I have no real knowledge of biology, I actually like Jumper.

First of all, he is so, so angry. Because how dare she. How dare she betray them. How dare she leak all their plans, how dare she dismiss all their beliefs, how dare she never be on their side.

He wants to kill her. He wants her to die. He wants her to suffer. And, with it, he feels so much fucking pain. Because he trusted her, and she betrayed them. Three months. Three fucking months. And he is so fucking angry and furious, and pained and-

And then another kind of pain comes to him, and for one second, he actually thinks he'll just die in the place. He clings to the wall, feeling terribly dizzy and nauseous, and something is very, very fucking wrong-

His hearts drops from 12 to 10. 

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees a message about Jumper's death. He hysterically laughs. It still hurts so much, and people are so fucking loud. He disconnects from the general chat.

You whisper to Mapicc: i'm gonna fucking die

Mapicc calls him. He answers.

– Were you attacked? – Mapicc asks him; It seems like he's running.

– No, I, – he starts terribly coughing, – where are you?

– Killed Jumper and blew up her base, – Mapicc reports with a smirk, – im trying to leave, but here is Minute and fucking Clownpierce. 

Good shit. Now Mapicc just has to survive. He laughs.

– Good. I'll add Bacon? I don't know if i believe Pentar now. 

– Sure.

Bacon picks up immediately.

– What's the situation right now? – he asks, – it seems like we all are kill on sight, because there are two people who want me dead. Fortunately, I managed to escape.

– I'm fucking dying, – he shares.

– Are you losing hearts? 

– Yes, and it hurts like fuck. Its like- like- eyesight is blurry, and head is spinning, and im like going to throw up, and, and, – he loses words.

– Did something happen that– wait, before all of this, go and eat a golden apple.

– An apple? – he clarifies, perplexed and angry, and with great effort takes out a stack of golden apples from an enderchest. He takes a bite, and his vision partially clears. – oh, you are right. It's much better. I still feel terrible, but at least now I can stand on my feet.

– The fuck is this? – asks Mapicc. He's breathing heavily, still running.

– Actually, i have no idea. – Bacon says, – but it sounds like some kind of heavy poisoning.

– The fuck? – Mapicc asks again, – did fucking Jumper bit you?

– No??? – he answers, still alarmed, – when would she? 

– She's not a fucking black widow, – Bacon pointed, – you should remember, when Zam got her trai-i-i-, – he stops, dumbfounded, – oh, fuck.

– What? – Zam asks. His head is still spinning. He bites the golden apple again.

– Zam, – Bacon says, seems angry and uncomfortable at the same time, – its your Jumper's trait. This shit can be fucking lethal.

He freezes in place.

– Fuck.

– Be right back, gotta kill her again, – says Mapicc and deafens.

***

Team Awesome Zam had gray hair and red horns. Eclipse Federation Zam had black horns and fox ears. Solar Union Zam had the halo and the wings – and, still, the horns. Pirate Zam had pangolin scales on his arms and legs. Abyss Zam had red horns and spider's fangs with a weak poison. Wormhole Zam had nothing.

After leaving Team Awesome he was getting very dizzy while being in Nether for another month. After leaving Eclipse being in the End were making him throw up. leaving Solar Union made him weak to the sunlight. Pangolin scales fell off, but it never caused him any pain or discomfort.

He forgot. He forgot. He fucking forgot.

He packs up his kit, adds more golden apples, drinks regen and swaps chestplate with an elytra. It hurts like death, but he's been placing pistons around the clock for the last week, what's it to him. 

He knows where to fly, and he's dropping into the fight like a fish jumps into the water. Its not good – people are here, and Mapicc struggles, and with Zam it only becomes bearable. They fight, and fight, and he coughs blood and stares at the Jumper and only now does she actually look at least a little scared. 

They can't win this in the long run, it's just a few minutes before they have to go or die, and all that's left is a small window of opportunities and unlikely options.

It's just a split second. Blink of the eye. Jumper reaches for the golden apples, Clown attacks Mapicc, Minute switches to him. Zam places rail, tnt minecart, shouts "Escape!" (because, of course, who even says "Charge" if the enemy hears them) and Mapicc shoots it with a flame bow.

He doesn't have time to cover himself with a shield – he forgets that he even has a shield – but he survives, being further out, and Jumper doesn't, and that's the only thing he cares about. He's shell-shocked, but he can still walk, and they run, and then they walk, and then they hide, because he's bleeding from both nose and ears and suffocating and god knows what else. Mapicc tells him how they'll ban Jumper from the server, like he's telling a bedtime story, and for a moment Zam really believes him.

They need Bacon's help for it, but eventually succeed in outrunning them. All of their bases are unsafe, so they mine very deep into a wall and make themself some beds and chests. Zam drinks too many regen pots and ends up passing out–

– Do you remember? – asks Bacon to Mapicc, – like, closer to the end of the fourth season, he still had this stupid Subz's horns. 

– Oh, yeah, that shit, – Mapicc understandingly nods, – he looked so stupid, fucking Planet's halo, Jaron's wings, and these shitty horns.

– You got it, – Bacon nods, – he still had them after all Eclipse stuff because he still deemed him his ally and trusted him and all this stuff. 

– How does this even relate to our problem? 

– Don't interrupt me. – he frowns, easily irritated, – After Subz banned himself, the horns just fell off. Because there was no one to cling to anymore, i guess- i don't fucking know, it's Zam's shit and i dont think even he knows how this all works.

– So-o we have to ban Jumper. – Mapicc catches up. – good, – he approves. – I was just about to.

He wakes up from pain and coughing. Mapicc gives him his Jumper heart and he applies both, with one he got from her. They lie too heavy in his chest, but he has no actual choice. It'll get worse, he knows. The poison is everywhere in him, and he can slow down the process, but he can't stop it. He'll die, and he'll respawn, and he'll still be dying, because its a part of him.

***

Seeing Mapicc, Ro, of course, gets ready for a fight. He heard about the destruction of Jumper's base, he knows that Mapicc is angry and wants more blood – but something is very, very wrong, and Mapicc unperturbedly parries his preventive blow, and instead of actually fighting, he goes close and puts his hand on Ro's shoulder.

Despite them being enemies for the last several months, he freezes on the place.

– Zam is fucking dying, – Mapicc says, – we have to ban Jumper for him to survive. 

Ro stares Mapicc right in the eyes. Something inside him clicks.

– Then why the fuck did you blow up her base, dumbass, – he hisses, pushing Mapicc's hand off his shoulder, – we could've just spawnkill her and now she's on the run.

– Fuck no, we could not, – Mapicc rolls his eyes up, – she knew we know where her base is. She is not that stupid. 

– We still could've used it! – he disappointedly waves his arms, – doesn't matter. Too late. Kill me, I'll try to get info.

Mapicc nods. Before making a blow, he speaks with composure: 

– Welcome back, Ro.

– We will have a proper reunion when Zam will be okay, – he shrugs it off, and Mapicc strikes him. And then again. And again.

***

He dies on the second day. Its fucking painful. His insides curl into a knot, everything goes wrong, and he fucking hates the taste of the golden apples, and he still dies and respawns, and he is still dying. He did not drop a heart.

Instead of crying and lying to himself, he gathers his shit and goes to spawn to finish voiding spawn because fuck Jumper and fuck the Foundation, he doesn't have to obey an agreement in which the other party has never played fair. 

Mapicc goes with him, and it's not even a fucking question, and it angers him, but not being completely alone is also cool i guess.

And the spawn is so fucking empty because the war ended yesterday, but not actually. Even with a dizzy head and sloppy movements, he repairs Freakinator at the record pace and then just watches void to unveil while sitting right on the edge.

It's beautiful. It's so, so beautiful. He thinks of a world where he would never have seen it, and it makes him sad. And then he thinks that he would like to watch it with all the Abyss members and starts getting angry again. 

– Maybe I'll get rid of Jumper's trait before losing all of my hearts, – he says to Mapicc almost optimistically, – I don't remember how long it took after leaving Team Awesome when i stopped throwing up and overheating in Nether. At some point it became just too usual to pay attention to this, and then it just stopped.

He feels Mapicc's gaze burning into the back of his head. Pistons keep falling into the void.

– Do you like the void? – he asks Mapicc.

– Yea.

– Why?

– It creates a challenge, a reason, and it gives me an opportunity to kill people and make them lose everything that they had on them. And it's just fun.

– Does it really explain why you were okay to die if it meant that someone else fell into the void?

– It really does.

They don't have time to finish voiding: Ro blows up Mapicc's communicator with warnings. Zam reads them carefully, looking over Mapicc's shoulder, and still stays in place. After a couple more minutes, someone comes at the spawn. Three minutes later, Minute carefully lands next to them on his black armored cicada wings. 

The first thing he does is break Freakinator – three lines; she didn't finish just three lines. After that, he says:

– I thought we agreed to never touch the bedrock again.

Zam laughs back at him.

– What's so funny? – Minute asks. It doesnt seems like he wants to fight, but maybe he's just waiting for the teammates.

– We gave you a chance to stop us as a sign of respect, recognition of equal play. Because we thought the steaks were real, that we had achieved our goal. But you've never tried to play fair. You sent a mole to us, and all the bets were never real. So why should I stick to the deal, then? Jumper might as well have just sent you a link.

– So we're going back in our words, – says Minute, but it doesn't seem like he really wants to defend himself here, – what's fun.

– You know what? I don't even care. Think what you want. – he coughs and spits blood and eats gapple. He thinks about how he will be tearing Jumper apart. It's the only thing that keeps him stable. Maybe Minute will call her and he'll be able to fight her again – killing her now, regrouped, calmed down and for sure on twenty hearts will be much more difficult than last time, but he is ready try and try and try until it breaks him into a bloody mess.

He's staring into the abyss. It's really beautiful. He can't imagine a world where they would have stopped at that moment, and the last layer was never broken. That's what they really started all this for. But not really. That's a lie.

Minutes, in the end, actually calls for help, but the Jumper is not among them, and they escape. He plans to blow up the spawn so as to expose the entire void. At least he now knows how to build TNT dupers with his eyes closed.

***

By nightfall, he stops regenerating health above eight hearts. With a hundred precautions, Ro goes into their bunker and casts a hex on him that temporarily stops the pain and slows down the spread of the poison a little. He asks several times if they need him more here or there. Zam repeats as many times that he must remain a double agent. Then Ro jokes about shit for the next half an hour, and only then leaves.

They grab reluctant Bacon with them, divide the world into three, and spend the whole night flying across the sky on elytras with the piechart turned on. They are unlucky for a long time – they find lonely enderchestes, barely touched villages, and abandoned bases. Then they find what, according to the Ro, is the base of the Foundation – and fly on, because the Jumper is not here and she should be at least somewhere. And, once again finding the enderchest and going to explore it, Mapicc triangulates its location for half an hour, and then, having dug through one block more, stumbles upon the amethyst wall. 

He hides in the walls for another 30 minutes. He sees the name tag. He writes the coordinates in the chat.

They jump on her from the ceiling together, and she's so fucking terrified, but for some reason she finds an almost complete battle kit in her inventory, and she's holding up really well, but there is only so much you can actually do in such a bad situation. She dies, and they find her bed, but she breaks it before and dies only one more time.

– This is not enough,– Bacon says distantly, hiding the sword, staring at her disappearing body, – She has Vi's hearts. She's still at 20.

– Yes, but she just died inside her own base twice, – Mapicc points, – we'll blow up it. When she builds a new one, we'll find it too. If she hides in someone else's base, we'll find that, and when she shows up on spawn, we'll kill her. It will affect her. She won't be able to hold on forever.

– We should have told Ro to wait for her at spawn, – Bacon shakes his head.

– She just wouldn't respawn and wait for a Minute to save her, – Mapicc rolls his eyes, – she won't let us just kill her. It's a long war. But we'll make it. She will break before Zam gets banned.

Bacon shakes his head. They blow up the base, fight the Foundation and leave.

Zam applies both of her hearts to himself and dies fourteen hours later, suffocating for the last two. It's an ugly death, but at some point, he comes to terms with it.

Maybe one day I'll be able to hate her a little less, he thinks, and for a single moment the pain recedes.

[mdhwrites]

First I just want to say accurate and I appreciate the fact that the shortening actually makes this more rage inducing for you, much like how anyone who defends The Collector needs to re-evaluate their argument since he did not have to be a part of the show. Not when before S2B, he'd only been a part of a single dream sequence... That doesn't even feel in character to any other part of him.

I wanted to bounce on the last bit though about saying if you'd write something about Lumity and say... You don't really need to. As someone who has written a 300k+ Lumischa story, who has Lumity dynamics in his original works, etc. like that, I should be their greatest defender. I clearly have a deep love for them after all. But... No, especially post S1, and a lot of the points here just transfer over to Lumity. Amity's arc is about getting away from devoting her life to her parent's expectations and then devotes her entire existence to Luz. Their relationship is WAY better when they're not together and once they're together, the only development that happens to it is "What if Luz lied constantly?" We get one episode that's theoretically good but it's still about Amity's devotion to Luz so go back to the first issue. Amity as a character could be cut from the entire series and literally nothing would happen to the plot because the fandom meme of Amity meaning nothing important can happen literally never changed. Luz treats Amity like all of her friends. She even categorically treats Amity worse than Eda or King despite having spent more on screen time with Amity than literally either of the other two. That's not a joke even and it's part of why the Found Family angle of the show blows. Hell, Amity never seems to ever register that they're actually dating since during their first kiss, she literally has the same reaction she does to when she kissed Luz on the cheek because these writers can literally only write one romance. Eda and Raine are even pretty damn close to acting just like the fucking teenagers.

The one thing I want to add to this that I think you missed is one basic question: Why do they get together? Lumity's version of this is why they stay together since S2 Amity just becomes S1 Willow and Luz isn't dating Willow. By that same token though... The argument for Hunter getting with Willow is that Willow connected to him through shared pain and through an act of kindness. A moment of vulnerability he's not used to so now he's interested in her. It's a fine way to write a romance.

The problem is that that's also what happens with Luz in Hunting Palisman to some extent and explicitly the same sort of thing that happens with AMITY. THE LESBIAN. It's one of the worst parts of Hunter's writing. The dude's arc restarts THREE TIMES so that by the logic of the show, he can be shipped with three different girls. Willow isn't even the one that actually matters. Luz is. She's the one who knows his secrets. She's the one who he confides in. She's the one to save his life, multiple times, and be the one there for his character climax during Hollow Mind. Willow barely is even in Labyrinth Runners, especially not with Hunter, which is the closest she could have come to a second appearance that would have affected his arc.

I'm not even a Lunter shipper and I'm DEFINITELY not an Amiter shipper but like... If the moment of Willow opening up about being half a witch (which as someone with a mental disability, I would have smacked her for thinking her being a late bloomer was the same as straight up not having magic) is supposed to be when he starts falling in love, this moment of kindness, what about Amity holding her hand out during Eclipse Lake? Or the bonding moment about wild magic and Luz saying she thought better of him in Escaping Palisman?

Unless you want to say he just likes them thick, which is kind of shallow and shitty for a kid's show romance, there isn't a reason he chose Willow above the other two besides the fact that the other two were taken. That's not compelling, that's just shit.

Then again, none of the romances are compelling. They're all shit once they're together.

Huntl0w isn't good and that's why

A general compilation of all the problems that do not allow me to treat Huntl0w at least neutrally:

1. Distortion of characters. Do you remember Hunter from the beginning of season 2? And that's it, he is no longer with you. Now he is not a soldier who has been training all his life, he is a cute awkward blushing boy who can't do anything without his boss girlfriend. And do you remember Willow, a kind soul who uses her powers only against enemies? Forget, she'll drive a new acquaintance into the ground and won't let him go. They are trying to forcibly fit them into the girlboss x malewife dynamic, and for this they have to change their characters.

2. Lack of chemistry. The same problem as Lumity: all romantic interactions are embarrassments and red cheeks. But if the girls had a Grom dance and more time together, then Huntl0w has nothing.

3. Willow's attitude. She treats him the same way she treats all her other friends right up to the moment when he saved her with the help of the power of the Flapjack. I'm sure the writers didn't do it on purpose, but it turned out that way - Willow fell in love with Hunter only after he stopped being magically disabled. Or in gratitude for the rescue. One is no better than the other.

4. Hunter's awkwardness. The guy has known her for the fourth year, three of which they are clearly together, but still confused as the first time. He's obviously uncomfortable with her. But who is he comfortable with? With Luz and Gus! It is with Luz that he shares secrets, she understands him like no one else. With Gus, Hunter found the best common language, common interests, and in general they are on the same wavelength. Willow and Hunter don't have either. They were able to prescribe normal interaction with everyone except the love interest, and it's so fucked up.

5. The uselessness for the plot. They don't bring anything, even the very parallel with Caleb and Evelyn is ignored. It feels like they got together just to "pair every character" (except for Gus, of course, Gus is our black best friend, he doesn't deserve our attention).

6. Willow is Hunter's authority figure. There is nothing wrong with the fact that a girl can be a leader in a relationship. But when a guy just starts separating from his uncle, whom he considered an authority all his life, and immediately falls in love with a girl who commands him... This is a very bad parallel. Hunter just changed his boss. TOH is not so deep to develop this topic, and it don’t have enough time, so this is definitely a minus for them.

7. Lack of development. Yes, the series was cut. And now you say that this justifies everything. And I will say that it only makes it worse. Already knowing that the series would be shortened, Dana and co pushed a new love line, which "developed" behind the scenes, did nothing for the plot, but spoiled the characters' characters (as if Amity alone was not enough for us).

8. Hunter is the second Caleb. Yes, Hunter's arc has come to the same place where it began. This applies to a lesser extent to Huntlow, it is rather a sin of the plot itself, but in total with the rest of the problems it becomes no less infuriating.

In conclusion, I can say that this ship is definitely not problematic, it's just bad. No one is forbidden to love them, but they should understend why people may not like Huntl0w.

Maybe I'll write the same thing with Lumity, but I'm not sure.

[dprcailimait]

Iridescence (WIP)

I've been getting my ramblings together and as thus far. I have a solid idea of where to take my ideas.

TL;DR

Currently outlining a Berserk retelling spanning from the Golden Age Arc to Fantasia, focused on an AU where Griffith forcefully turns Guts into an immortal (Apostle).

For a frame of reference, I read the first chapter of the golden age arc, and this quote just summarizes perfectly what I want out of a Griffith/Guts post-Eclipse retelling. When I say retelling, I really mean a twisted, dark romance. They're fucked up courtship, where with every exchange, they mend a little piece of themselves they never dared bring up to anyone else.

Exploring Griffith’s psyche fascinates him, I’m debating where exactly in the Golden Age arc to start because I want to drill in the dread of loneliness into him. It’s gonna be subtle at first, but nonetheless there. I think it’d add on to the angst sandwich I want to make with this fic. Not just that but making Guts and Griffith blossoming lovers, not outwardly either to themselves or others but a blurred mix of the two.

I fleshed out my idea a little more clearly. Some plot points are very much lost in the word soup that is this fic lol.

Main Idea:

The turning point, where Griffith will turn Guts into an immortal, will be after they have fought.

Guts' primary motivation— his dream, and life’s purpose is Casca. He does not lose her, but he's trying to be a man worthy of Casca’s devotion. He needs to control his urge to chase Griffith, to not give into temptation but his inner demon coaxes his psyche into passivity— making him fall prey into thoughts, nightmare. Estranged lucid fantasies of his former commander.

It whispers of possibilities that ring bloody and sour to his sanity, but with the rusted aches comes an emotion rivaling even the sweetest kiss from his lover. And that terrifies him beyond all reason.

Guts dies while fighting Griffith, an entity he should know better than to challenge.

He knows defeat but the bitterness of an impending death comfortably sits on his tongue, soothing a pavlovian response in him to tear and thrash and glaze, endlessly enamored as a quick, seamless slash breaks his skin, muscles and bone.

The horrid, white-sear leaves him breathless— without the strength nor mind to scream or is it the sight before him. One of Griffith, his face ghosted with a smile he’s only known in far-off memories of a time long before his maturity. He’d be a fool to be scared of death but he’d be a liar to say it doesn’t cause him fright, losing Casca and the potential of being with her scares him,

But for now, for this singular moment of agony, he smiles. His mind wonders, fruitful in its fantasies and nightmares and for once, aimless in his struggle, he finds peace— as if being nurtured by the embrace of a mother, he’s satisfied. Seeing a glimpse, a crack in Griffith’s armor, lulls him.

While clashing, the past's excitement rekindles inside Griffith. His heart beats at his ears, singing of a long tattered wound. A scar left known in a far-off time beyond his conscious psyche, a deep seeded loneliness remembrance only pray tell him. The very one that clung to the man stumbling before him.

Then and there in the brief moment of their swords play, Griffith's blood runs cold as he watches the man he once grew to love and hate smile at him. His composure collapses with Guts’ dying breath, and, for the first time, in his immortal life, he processes the depths of his solitude.

In that moment, Griffith ruins his former friend once more by giving him the very thing he swore to take, his life.

[carvedcardiac]

𝗌𝗂𝗇𝗌 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝗌𝗒𝗆𝗉𝖺𝗍𝗁𝗒 ─ 𝗏𝗈𝗅𝗎𝗆𝖾 𝗈𝗇𝖾.

𝗌𝗂𝗇𝗌 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝗌𝗒𝗆𝗉𝖺𝗍𝗁𝗒 ─ 𝗉𝗈𝖾𝗍𝗋𝗒 𝖻𝗒 𝖼𝖺𝗋𝗏𝖾𝖽𝖼𝖺𝗋𝖽𝗂𝖺𝖼. 𝗏𝗈𝗅𝗎𝗆𝖾 𝗈𝗇𝖾.    ─  𝗍𝖾𝖺𝗋𝗌𝗍𝖺𝗂𝗇𝖾𝖽 𝗐𝗂𝗇𝖽𝗈𝗐𝗌𝗂𝗅𝗅𝗌.

𝗈𝗇𝖾. stained tombs.

one who has never seen light, will never be afraid of eternal night child of nyx wearing death as perfume, over gleaming enamels, staining tombs, phantom songs of overcast skies, lingering touch and veiled demise.

𝗍𝗐𝗈. tartarean moons.

of glinting blades and foggy dreams, and blocked visions of tragic skins, of tartarean moons and spilled ink, obscurantic eclipses and tempests sink. escaped prisoners with hollowed skin, rotten bones and perishing children, midnight blankets all this sin, envelopes the planet in shadows of glee.

𝗍𝗁𝗋𝖾𝖾. child of eclipses.

child of the eclipses, you were born to the dark, lungs filled with stardust, you breathe in a venom, nothing could stop how unshakeable you are. midnight carved into a child of eternal night, footsteps into fate's silent rays of hearth. a spark in your heart, you are an awaiting blaze, a nightmare of a world, you stay strong still. even if your soul is asleep in this night, you glow with the stars just as captivating tonight.

𝖿𝗈𝗎𝗋. violin’s string.

sleepless nights on a violin's string, fingertips carved a woman out of stone. sculpted nebula and galaxies in our kins, a burning utopia with planetary pins, subtle lies that adorn the cremated skies, woven with wisps of november winds.

𝖿𝗂𝗏𝖾. chained to the anchor.

parted friends no longer entwined hands, we are cold soldiers of a mournful battle. villainous efforts to bring her back, the storm clouds had already turned black. no use in struggling, chained to the anchor, withering tulips as fragments of torment. in the end of time, eras of the night will follow, we were no lovers, we were hellfires hidden, the only fighters left standing, survivors of war.

𝗌𝗂𝗑. icarcus and atlas.

i am not atlas, built to bear the sky on my shoulders, i am meant fly too close to the sun, burn my wings like icarcus, awaiting my inevitable downfall.

𝗌𝖾𝗏𝖾𝗇. seek ground in quicksand.

i will drown in the vastness of humanity, seeking for ground in quicksand, never ends well for anyone in perdition. archives of the cries of children in cradles, absentmindedly sung lullabies of mothers, anklets and chains that tie will never go, alas, i will not expend over the sins of my past.

𝖾𝗂𝗀𝗁𝗍. rome built on ruins.

i will sink like atlantis, breathe in, then i will recall, all hope is not gone, for rome was built on ruins. i have believed in every lie i was served, on a silver platter encrusted with jewels, was being numb to distress, forgetting to breathe not enough? and i want to drown in this abyss, i want to inhale the poison, i want to burn for you if it means you will witness my devotion.

𝗇𝗂𝗇𝖾. touch starved wings.

nocturnal burns of heartache, distant pieces of vintage harmonies, mystical whispers of utopian affairs, blazing hearts of touch-starved wings, the glamour of a prison of darling's sins. a fallen warrior is none but a fallen angel, the one who became the devil is every soul.

𝗍𝖾𝗇. creation and cremation.

creation and cremation, in the end of it all, we are made of earth, we become the earth, we are made of so little, in this tiny ripple in time, what significance do we have? in the vastness of the infinite, will our stories be worth the heartache?

𝖾𝗅𝖾𝗏𝖾𝗇. dreary eyelids.

dreary eyelids that cover, the poison in our hearts, phantom flowers in our soul, haunting of blades against skin, all the teardrops we keep hidden, stain our lungs in aching arcs. oh the tragedies we repress, the human mind is not the simplest.

𝗍𝗐𝖾𝗅𝗏𝖾. illusions of beauty.

some wounds will cause the sorrow to flow out in rivers of poetry in mystical abodes of mist. some wounds will cause the venom to drift out of us in languages of heaven. illusions of beauty to conceal the hideousness of our minds. maybe it was beauty that we needed to ignore how ugly we know we can be.

𝗍𝗁𝗂𝗋𝗍𝖾𝖾𝗇. realms of ink.

If i wither into nothing and become a part of earth's subterranean realm, my bones will bleed in coals and ink, for all the colours and life from me were already long gone.

𝖿𝗈𝗎𝗋𝗍𝖾𝖾𝗇. the love i carve.  

do you know what i mean when i said 'i love you'? i meant that I would rather lose myself to keep loving you than ever let you go. if i could carve out parts of me to make you happy, darling, i would never hesitate to. so obsessive, you say, but at the end of the day, can anyone love you more?

𝖿𝗂𝖿𝗍𝖾𝖾𝗇. wilted flowers.

i am yet another rotten flower, i wilt under the sun's radiance, for all life has been emptied from me. yet i applaud him, for this once impossible feat, my envy burns my soul to ashes, unlovable, i stand here half-dead: life may have gone from me, but i will not give up. though how much i know that i can never be loved and of use, i will put myself through all the pain just to see you beam in bliss.

𝗌𝗂𝗑𝗍𝖾𝖾𝗇. wings.

if i am meant to fly, where are my wings, are they on my ribs or are they on my tombstone? if i am meant to be free why am i anchored down to the depths of the ocean with thoughts like slow poison? if we aren't meant to be why do you feel like home? is life just a string of regrets fate provides us with?

𝗌𝖾𝗏𝖾𝗇𝗍𝖾𝖾𝗇. songs of death and life.

chords of the spine i decorate with songs of death and life, we sing in melodies of storms and dance barefoot on the blade of perdition and paradise. together we stand on this earth our purpose is to make this our hearth.

𝖾𝗂𝗀𝗁𝗍𝖾𝖾𝗇. giver.

you tell me to keep more love for myself instead of pouring it out to the giver. but have i ever been a taker? no, for you deserve more love than i, so much love it flows the edges of the sky. who am i to take it away when i can pluck out a flower of hope from the horizon and give it you instead of keeping it for myself?

𝗇𝗂𝗇𝖾𝗍𝖾𝖾𝗇. untrue to yourself.

along the way, all of us have become unpunished murderers. oh if only killing away parts of ourselves was a crime in law's eyes, maybe, it would cause us to live for once. do you not call being untrue to yourself the biggest lie one can ever utter?

𝗍𝗐𝖾𝗇𝗍𝗒. porcelain dolls.

i cry prettier than i could ever smile, maybe that is why i feel sadness more than love and care. if i am destined to this hurt, who am I to defy fate? i am human, i march towards death, every second is a blessing and a curse and who am i to defy what is meant to be? i am a mere porcelain marionette doll, prone to breaking yet beautiful i cry, if i was meant to die why do I try to fly?

𝗍𝗐𝖾𝗇𝗍𝗒 𝗈𝗇𝖾. fearless.

a palette of colours, you paint away the world used to be so dull a grey. the darkness didn't disappear; it became a fatal blue. a sip on venom, i knew it yet continued, fearless. epiphany hits; you didn't poison a thing, you made it a beautiful lie. too good to last it was snatched away. you didn't poison a thing, my dearest, your absence became the poison that i knew i could be served, yet i continued, fearless. like a moth to a flame, i knew you could burn me, yet i seeked your warmth, aware i would regret it.

𝗍𝗐𝖾𝗇𝗍𝗒 𝗍𝗐𝗈. graveyards and gardens.

i take up too much space, i yearn to be small as dust and sleep eternally in peace for in this universe, can we ever be fully painless? i want to paint myself, just once before i fade into the canvas, you tell me i can be happy, that peace is after the fight ends, but i will be a graveyard by then, though i was a garden before. now, death blooms in my dreams, dear. death blooms in my dreams.

𝗍𝗐𝖾𝗇𝗍𝗒 𝗍𝗁𝗋𝖾𝖾. beloved sunflower.

darling sunflower, do you know how loved you are? the sun burns for you every day just to lend you warmth. the gardener waters you every day just to see you smile bright. the children visit you to see you dance in happiness and joy. now tell me, how does it feel like to be loved? is it effortless or is it wishful thinking?

𝗍𝗐𝖾𝗇𝗍𝗒 𝖿𝗈𝗎𝗋. an angel you are.

blades and burns, beautiful scars pretty little glinting stars. we see them so pretty, yet they see us even prettier, we are far, far away yet teach each other so much. you deserve the stars on a silver plate, not half broken hearts nor hate. an angel you are, you say i am under a spell, but do you not see how utterly beautiful you are inside?

𝗍𝗐𝖾𝗇𝗍𝗒 𝖿𝗂𝗏𝖾. broken mirrors.

monsoon paints the pieces of broken mirrors, mesh and mist, endangered throats are meant to enclose voices of gale and storm. a sound that cracks the lungs are a mere reflections of rotting tongues. caged phrases of cynical origins must slip from our lips to find closure.

𝗍𝗐𝖾𝗇𝗍𝗒 𝗌𝗂𝗑. maps of youth.

twisted tales of youth take us to the complexity of our minds. why must a map be drawn of our destinations and definition? some are fading flowers, others a blooming ghost lily worthy of gods, concluding, all the lovesick rivers unite at the garden of fools.

𝗍𝗐𝖾𝗇𝗍𝗒 𝗌𝖾𝗏𝖾𝗇. defy the divine.

altered art and morphed minds dare we dip a foot in this pool of desire, destiny, diverse & death? devoted diagrams of danger we paint, we are not meant to defy the divine. there are sufficient saviours yet just not enough to help us up when we burn by thoughts; a fatal quicksand.

𝗍𝗐𝖾𝗇𝗍𝗒 𝖾𝗂𝗀𝗁𝗍. the empty, heavy chest.

an empty chest that feels heavy; i expected treasure, i found hate. malicious, burning hate that made all that was sweet and sane to burn, ashes of them, a faint phoenix, it all arises for mere moments and it dies with all duties left undone. not of use to anyone, i found an empty chest that feels heavy; i expected treasure, i found myself.

𝗍𝗐𝖾𝗇𝗍𝗒 𝗇𝗂𝗇𝖾. chase a butterfly. 

would you recognize a butterfly if it's wings weren't visible, or would you just see the ugliness and hate it? it stays just the same to itself for the poor thing, it just can't see it's wings. but could you ever chase it after knowing the truth?

𝗍𝗁𝗂𝗋𝗍𝗒. shards of stained glass.

so now that all we had is gone i will wish you the best, all the lovely memories we had are now a pile of ash, and i am truly sorry for all the times I made a flower like you wither by staying beside my flame. push me away before i burn you, for i won't burn myself. though i deserve your hatred, why are we still trying to fix what is already gone? it's a broken stained glass, beautiful to look through yet the edges will make both of us bleed.

𝗍𝗁𝗂𝗋𝗍𝗒 𝗈𝗇𝖾. too lovelorn.

this feeling, i am homesick of being lovelorn like i used to be. when did the pain feel like home, when did the yearning for love become a part of me? all this love you give me, it's so, so unfamiliar. is it me that is unlovable, or am i fated to be undeserving of love? destiny must have lied to me when it said love is a happy ending, it is nothing but an open door, all i want is to close it and be lovesick again.

𝗍𝗁𝗂𝗋𝗍𝗒 𝗍𝗐𝗈. songbirds.

songbirds, so sweet their melodies yet all they sing of is an antique tragedy. so harmonious their voice, a fragment of our evenings spent as riverside lilies. they sing and sing sleepless, sent from paradise, they sing for ones who fear sleep and terrors that crawl amidst their dreams. songbirds, they are sad as you, yet they sing and sing and sing till their throats rot.

© 𝖼𝖺𝗋𝗏𝖾𝖽𝖼𝖺𝗋𝖽𝗂𝖺𝖼.  𝖺𝗅𝗅 𝗋𝗂𝗀𝗁𝗍𝗌 𝗋𝖾𝗌𝖾𝗋𝗏𝖾𝖽. 𝖽𝗈 𝗇𝗈𝗍 𝗌𝗍𝖾𝖺𝗅. 𝗇𝖾𝗐 𝗎𝗉𝖽𝖺𝗍𝖾𝗌 𝖾𝗏𝖾𝗋𝗒 𝗆𝗈𝗇𝗍𝗁.

[dateamonster]

back at it again babes!! gonna try and finish up the season

witchful thinking

autumn patch! oh i love her!!! doll WHEN

draculaura does not give me a dj vibe lol

frankies crafts 😭 you are my angelllllllll

i get why, but it does seem like a disproportionate amount of eps about draculauras secret witchy habits. i want more clawdeen eps tbh :( also if drac does get into witch camp does that mean shed be going to camp with a bunch of humans? that seems like itd cause more problems than its worth.

love toralei covering for her. thats GROWTH

frankie is so cute and funny this ep

puzzle study group!!!

freud brain!! get that shit outta their precious head!!

i feel like the craft camp thing is so ominous.. especially if her spellcasting is like uniquely tied to her being a monster, i rly wonder how thats gonna play out..

monster match

AW IRIS im glad shes getting romanced. and with skulls! goalsss!

cleos enthusiasm is so cute.

THAT SHAPESHIFTERS JOKE MAKES ME NERVOUS

OMG HEATHHHHHHH 💖 the whole school stanning habbey is soo sweet and also very funny to me considering so much of the dynamic in g1 was like. abbey please leave your cringefail boyfriend at home for once. lol

gay background monsters lets goooo. also i think its kinda sweet the monster match gesture thing includes platonic love

frankie is so unbelievably cute but also it keeps throwing me that them and cleo arent like an established couple yet? i guess it makes sense but i literally had just assumed it had happened off screen and that they were already going out.

SCREAMING the draculaura/clawd promposal was rly good too. and like very much taps into that confused-but-highly-devoted himbo bf energy that was so good in g1. all the ships this ep are so incredibly adorable i am NOT going to make it thru in one piece i swear.

i like that frankie addresses each of deuces snakes by name. very polite! also very cute that deuce wants frankie to be his frienddate. i rly love their dynamic so even tho its just to like complicate and add drama to the plot it feels very natural. tbqh i wouldve even been down for a genuine love triangle thing if only because i think frankie being romanced by two exes is very funny AND because ive been a poly frankie truther since g1 lol

i wanna eat that cookie stack.. actually frankie if u wanted to turn deuce down u probably should not have let ur friends eat all the cookies first that just seems kinda rude in retrospect

fhdhdnf the way i was like oh wow that resolved itself surprisingly easiWAIT NOW HES GOING TO ASK CLEO GODDDAMIT lmao genuinely good little plot twist. they got me!

its so funny i literally forgot abt lagoona and gill in all of this. glad she got to do her fun treasure hunt themed monster match. thats very lagoona.

more background gay monsters!! we love to see it!! also spectra and finnegan? kuma and nefera?????? i guess theyre kinda just pairing off all the side characters now to fill out this bit. i dont dislike it i guess, and its not like going to a school dance together means these characters are together forever or anything, but some of the pairing choices are.. curious.

tbh poor deuce getting turned down for his frienddates twice but at the same time dont ask ur ex to be ur frienddate lol just feels a bit taboo.

cleo planning to ask frankie out on tiktok is suuuch a cleo move that i genuinely love it. girl u are a 1000 yr old ipad baby.

BOSSMUMMY they were so right abt that

the monster way

yall are so rivals-to-lovers gay its unreal

BLOODGOODS LIKE HATE EACH OTHER UNTIL U DIE <3 THE MONSTER WAY <3

seriously wtf is this class

oh fuck the bloodmoon eclipse?? that kinda came out of nowhere. pacing pacing you know how it is. i like that its timed with the end of the semester tho. end of the semester, end of the season, end of the big main arc. it just has a nice symmetry i guess.

aw and spectra finally got a good grade in hauntonomics <3 its all coming together

OH toraleis come full circle too! i feel like. honestly proud of her telling her mom straight up that theyre friends now. shes rly unpacked some stuff and worked on herself! good for her!

moms and daughters rly are just like that huh

aa the makeover montage!! show me everyones fits!!!!!

ok i could do without them filling space just by using literal screencaps from previous episodes come on guys

GASP is abbey wearing a throwback to her g1 main doll outfit?? the cut of the dress at least looks verrrry similar.

ok quick outfit review time. manny looks very dapper. would wear. abbey of course is stunning. heaths outfit is.. very heath lol. not necessarily a bad thing. ill say its a step up from a tuxedo tee. gill looks fine. lagoona: STUNNING wish her hair was curlier like it seems to be on the doll but still. deuce: very nice! love this style for his hairsnakes. draculaura looks great of course but.. not rly as nice as her doll outfit? was it just an issue with modeling/animating it? still great just not as good as i expected from her. cleo is slaying as expected. frankies outfit is everything, just eclectic enough that i def believe they picked it out for themselves but it rly works for them!! very fun and unique silhouette with a kinda glamrock androgyny vibe. love it! CLAWDEEN THO!!! FAV!!!! her outfit is def my favorite i love the color i love that its a SUIT clawd is getting massively shown up in his mismatched suit and sneakers lol sorry bro you are criminally swagless this ep

lol at the return of the camera spider and GHJHGF the way they are just like yea we might die tonight fucking around with mysterious magics :) lets party :)

OUTFITS REVIEW CONT. i like twylas dress its not super flashy or anything but it rly feels like her style and i appreciate that. i keep trying to get a look at ghoulias fit but shes always off screen too fast. toraleis fit is a little busy color wise but i do like it. its giving theatre kid who got rly into six the musical for a few months and the purple hair and makeup looks good on her.

anymeow :3 MR WOLF!!!!!!!! always so good to see him.

yeah i coulda called that plot twist. time to push catarina in a hole. the all-monster talisman kinda rules tho its so funky looking.

human talisman???? ok i actually didnt see that coming tho i feel like i shouldve. the implications.....

clawdeen and toralei: having a touching moment. lagoona: BITING BITING BITING BITING BITING

the human talisman design is so basic lmao that feels fitting.

clawds spine is. shattered.

HUGE AUTISM WIN LOVE U TWYLA aw wish she stuck around but shes got better stuff to do i respect it lol

GAY ASS KITTY GAY ASS KITTY GAY ASS KITTY

kind of spicy of them to have catarina do a whole "return to tradition" type speech. catgirl fascism is crazy shit.

damn this is just like pokemon the first movie

that was a fucking Lot but MAMA WOLF IS HERE AND SHES SERVING all as it should be

actually the half fur trim on that jacket is kinda wack but otherwise shes milfing it up for sure. oh and i guess clawdeens the fucking queen of werecreatures now. pretty good for ur first semester girl!

aw manny/twyla.. <3

for all the drama surrounding draculauras arc that got wrapped up p neatly, but i guess u could say the same for clawdeen and her mom. well! good for her!

OH hold on actually i love her friends being like no fuck exceptions to the rules the rules need to change completely thats actually rly good. every once in a while mh pulls out these moments where im like damn! you stuck to your guns and didnt just take the easy happily-ever-after no questions asked route! pretty impressive!

TORALEI AT CLAWDEENS HOUSE OUHHH !!!!

WELL DAMN that was the season finale i guess! overall rly fun! the series pretty consistently struggles with packing a Lot of content in very short time frames but they did everything they could with it and im happy with how it turned out. it wrapped up the important stuff while leaving a lot of interesting little threads for me to pick at, and for them to hopefully explore next season. im hype!

catching up on monster high notes!

spell the beans

looooove clawdeens dad joining the parents association he is involved in his childrens education :3 he is making cookies and making friends :3

momdusa is so milfy i could die the gays stay winning once again

dracula is soooo silly hes winning me over i fear

!! momdusa never moved on from high school and falls over so much and loves her wife wow she is the perfect woman actually

its not my dream dad its YOURS

obsessed w everyone wanting to eat clawdeens dad

THANK YOU for explaining the camera/mirror thing with vampires i was wondering abt that

mr wolf and dracula friendship moment 🥺

EXPELBEAST!! i love when they do something fun and goofy with the mh lore

idk if those were lagoonas parents in the mpa but i wish we got more of them there looked so cute

growing up ghoulia

mothman!!!!!!!!!!!

some of these side characters have such interesting designs the purple dragon girl sitting in front of ghoulia was soo cute

MONSTER GSA LETS GOOO

i loove when mh does some classic monster movie stuff. ghoulia clone zombie attack rules.

not to be a broken record but i feel like ghoulias ep here would be more meaningful if she was still more noticeably zombie-like. like she says she moves slower than other monsters but i dont like. see that. let her lurch!

casketball jinx

im so happy to see howleen!!

kaiju girlie is such a queen we love to see it

tbqh i think howleen was right for this one

clawdeen both being on the team and being a cheerleader seems like soo much take a rest bestie 😭

do u think clawdeen had a wolf fursona before she found out she was a werewolf? i think so.

[talkingtea]

Something that also bugged me about Eric's interview: Dani used her friendship with that disgusting predator to get a whole stupid plot and arc about and devoted to Cecile's irrelevant pregnancy. Which was the last thing the show needed because they now have a ghost baby they've all but wiped from existence bc they don't know what to do with her. But per Eric, we will likely never get to see the trajectory of Iris’s very canon-relevant pregnancy because he thinks it's an end of show thing. That is not fair. Not just because she births speedsters who contribute to Flash lore, but also because she's the wife of the lead. Like wtf? We had this whole episode chunk devoted to them trying for kids. They can't just brush off this development til the end! And as leading lady, that's a pivotal plot point that CP should be getting a full arc on and viewers should see. She should get her own pregnancy arc complete with the sickness that comes with it, gestational powers, Barry fretting over her and being overprotective, a baby shower, and the actual birth too. It's that kind of trifling shit that gets on my nerves. The first and only pregnancy on the show should have been Iris's, and yet, as per usual snake ass decides to try to eclipse leading lady and interject herself into more prominent roles on the show. With Dani's shadiness bts, and Cecile badgering Joe about wanting a wedding, and Eric's wacky ass thinking Dani deserves an Emmy for her garbage performance (😂😂😂), I have a bad feeling next season is going to feature some fucking Joe/Cecile wedding that shouldn't get more than a minute or 2 of attention. And yet, I can already feel they're going to waste significant screentime on it when it shouldn't be equal to the screentime WA has gotten for their much more important nuptials. It's annoying. If they can spend multiple episodes focusing on Cecile's pregnancy and powers from it, they surely can and SHOULD do the same and should do more for Iris, especially considering how important the WA kids are to the show. They need to stop pushing Cecile in our faces with plots or screentime that should be Iris's. And they need to stop sidelining CP for that can't act for shit snake bitch.

Eric’s answer about a possible pregnancy for Iris was such a cop-out. Realistically speaking with the way time moves on the show Iris could be pregnant the entire season (and only showing for part of it) and they could still put off the birth of the baby for another season. It’s not as if they make her pregnant now a baby has to show up an episode later. 🙄

Also, like you said, there is so many new and different stories to tell for Barry and Iris with a pregnancy. Stories that could raise the stakes which is something that desperately needs to happen on the show.

Barry and Iris knowing they have kids one day shouldn’t bring the baby talk to a screeching halt, one, because Bart and Nora are still being squirrelly about the future. Two, what in the hell was the point of the pregnancy storyline to begin with? Three, why start making Iris do all this weird shit right when she’s actively trying to get knocked up by a speedster? All that buildup and for what? Just to drop it because Eric lacks the imagination or creativity to make it work? It doesn’t make sense.

[spell-cleaver]

Meta asks! 1, 3, 8, 14, 20, 25?

1. Tell us about your current project(s)  – what’s it about, how’s progress, what do you love most about it?

Ohhh boy. Current project is in the pre-writing research stage where I'm still planning it out and doing some research. I'll be writing a few unrelated oneshots while I finish research, but. Next longfic is one based on a prompt I received here nearly two years ago (anon if you see this I'm sorryyyyy) about Senator Luke Naberrie arrived at the court of Empress Padmé Amidala. It... snowballed. Now it's basically Luke trying to be a good, honest senator while every one of his relatives is extremely cutthroat and fighting over his allegiance. Padmé is evil/pro-Empire. Some other good people are evil. Vader is as much of a mess as usual. Leia is even more intense, more devoted to democracy, and scarier than usual. Padmé and Sabé have a breakup scene. I'm so excited to throw Luke into a court full of vipers politicians he is related to. I'm currently rereading Queen's Shadow and about to read Queen's Peril while I nail down how to characterise an Empress Padmé, but I have the character arcs, central themes down. And I have the first five chapters planned out, with five acts planned, so it'll hopefully be about 25 chapters. If all goes well. *crosses fingers and grimaces*

!!! I'm very excited about this project, if you can't tell :D WIP title is The Protégé.

3. What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway)

I answered this here, but bonus other scene from another WIP:

Fantasy AU where Luke is a prince and has been "assassinated" (everyone thinks he's dead and they're about to go to war over it). Vader, who has been a pretty shitty dad since Padmé died but is feeling all his sins catch up to him, breaks down apologising in front of Luke's grave (I have all the dialogue planned out for this and Will Not Spoil it) and Luke comes in at the right moment for an emotional reunion.

I don't want to say anymore because this has been keeping me going for 4 years and I swear, I will write this, I will. I need to completely revise the plot since someone about it just dried up all inspiration, but i know how to figure out what's causing that and it will happen. There's always another fantasy AU coming for SpellCleaver's AO3 page XD

8. Is what you like to write the same as what you like to read?

By and large, yes! I'm actually a lot angstier in what I write recently than what I read, it has to be a specific type of angst to hold my interest. I think I accidentally vaccinated myself against angst. But generally what I read is more varied than what I write, and I crawled out of a years-long reading slump last summer so I'm expanding my reading tastes even further the more original fiction I read.

14. At what point in writing do you come up with a title?

Usually as soon as I get the idea. Every story needs a heading to go into my ideas folder, so I think of one that fits a little bit and slap it on. Later on they sometimes get replaced (The Seafarer -> No Heroes on the High Seas) or refined (The Free, Ordered Record and Codex of Everywhere (FORCE) -> The Codex of Everywhere). But I have a pretty good instinct for titles, so usually they get assigned early on to fit the plot and themes I want to develop, often with a double or triple meaning (The Heir). Or they get named something, I get attached, and I have to spin the motifs and themes to match the title (Eclipse, Sparks).

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

I rambled about something before here, but I'm gonna take the chance to ramble about something else:

Communication. It's a core theme in a lot of my fics, without me ever really intending it??? It's not something I'm particularly fascinated by (okay, maybe a little bit - but you take my point.) I always think I'm writing about something else and then it loops back to communication. Sparks is about secret-keeping and a coming of age story, yes, but it's also about trusting your loved ones and telling them about your fears/reasons for doing things to prevent misunderstandings that lead to people getting hurt (...in an extreme way.) Reality and Other Constructs is on the surface about how we all only ever see one point of view of the world, but the entire solution (and strength of the Jedi) is that they talk to people, connect with other people, compare beliefs and points of view, to discover the truth and broaden their horizons. It's about how communication leads to a better world (and understanding of the world). Same with Eclipse, where Luke and Leia's main strength is their honesty and trust in each other, and they mainly lose when they don't know all the facts or someone is keeping secrets. And a bunch more of my fics fall into this! I think it's necessitated by the characters I'm writing about - Vader? Communicating healthily first try? Nah - but it is a fun thing to examine. So this isn't really information about specific symbolism or development I put into a fic, mainly bc I have too many to choose from (if anyone wants a ramble about a specific fic, shoot me an ask and I'll go off) but just... an observation I've had across fics. I don't know why it keeps happening, but it fascinates me.

25. What part of writing is the most fun?

I love most of it, but especially the first draft. Typing at 50 words per minutes, poetic bullshit spilling onto the page, jumping from rung to rung on a plan ladder I built previously. It's the most exciting part!

That said, I love love love planning, even if it's harder (logistics and all that) it's got all the feeling of potential. And I do like editing... I just like editing other people's stuff more than my own :D

Thank you so much for the ask!!! Sorry I went off a bit XD I think this is the longest ask-reply I've ever written (that isn't prose) but I got very excited.

Send me some fun meta asks for writers!

[gainaxvel3o]

Berserk Redux is awesome and here’s why

If you already like Berserk or you want an interesting way to get into it, Berserk Redux is one of the best fanedits you could ever find!

Made by ApostleBob, the edit started off as an attempt to mix the 1997 Berserk anime with the Golden Age movies. The first four “movies” are devoted exclusively to this storyline, and for my money, the editor succeeded at using the best of both sources to craft their project. My biggest issues with the Golden Age movies was that in condensing the manga the pacing felt off and important bits of character development were lost. Well, Redux adds plenty of scenes from the anime that solves that problem. However, plenty of Golden Age movie material was kept as well, certain well done key scenes and plenty of battles were used so that the Chapters still feel properly paced as movies. It can be jarring to sit through since the aspect ratio and the sources are from different eras, but the audio mixing is so fantastic that I got used to it pretty quickly, especially since many of the voice actors are the same between the dubs. The extra space and the added scenes help complete the story.

My favorite piece of editing is during the 100 man battle. ApostleBob used well timed and executed edits to add characters back into the fight and make these battles longer, allowing Guts and Casca to come across as more badass when they’re tearing down Adon’s forces. You feel the struggle Guts is going through when he’s killing these guys, since we hear his thought process from the anime as well. The sources compliment each other so well that it felt coherent in spite of the differences in presentation. Another thing I like in terms of structure is that the first Chapter, covering Guts getting recruited into the Band of the Hawk right up until Guts and Casca overhearing Griffith at the fountain, gives you little bread crumbs of Guts’ backstory throughout the movie instead of handing it over right away. You see the hazy flashbacks from the Golden Age films before we see the deeper flashbacks from the 97 anime, each positioned at exactly the right points in the narrative to make an impact. It’s incredible.

Redux doesn’t just cover the Golden Age arc however. Eventually, the scope expanded to include the story after that, using Berserk 2016 while adding some bits of 97 Berserk and the Band of the Hawk game to plug in plot holes 2016 created with the material it cut. The chapter that covers the Black Swordsman for example includes a scene Casca giving birth to the Demon Child (which was never explained in 2016), the Snake Baron subplot and redubbed lines from Puck to establish he can heal people, while cutting out the evil tree to avoid upstaging the Snake Baron fight. Later chapters continue doing this, and it’s this effort that makes it one of the most impressive fanedits out there.

Do I have problems? Well, yeah. Some of these come down to personal preference, such as preferring the anime’s version of the Eclipse while Redux mostly used the movie version with added bits. Redux makes the best use of the material possible and makes various tweaks across to the board to make it more bearable, but it doesn’t change the fact that a good chunk of it is still Berserk 2016. If you hated that series, then there’s no real way around the bad animation and different dub actors. In terms of editing, the first Nosferatu Zodd fight is my least favorite part of Redux. Neither version of the fight was all that great, ApostleBob did the best they could with it, but the mixing doesn’t work due to the different environments and animation styles clashing harder than normal, resulting in a harsher tone whiplash during the encounter. It’s an unavoidable blemish on an otherwise great edit but it’s there.

Berserk 1997 is a great anime, perfect for the Golden Age storyline, but if you want to see more or less what the rest of the story looks like, and you don’t feel the need to read the manga, then Berserk Redux is perfect. For casual fans, this can serve as a good entry point and for old fans this is a new way to experience the story. I recommend it.