#I love a family moment <3< /div>
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
Text
Rahul hosted this year's Harvestfest feast. He's not nearly the cook his mother is, but she appreciated his vegetarian-friendly salad.
#ts3#the sims 3#not so berry#ts3 nsb#legacy: sterling#rosie sterling#rahul sterling#reid sterling#melanie sterling#mithun sterling#susanna byrd#I love a family moment <3
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
Prompt 261
“So is no one going to talk about the eldritch space child or…”
“I mean, do you want to get between a child and Batman? I think the only one who could even get close right now is Superman…”
“No you’re right, I think- oh my god the eldritch space child is playing with batman’s bat-ears and he’s not doing anything about it what the fuck I thought only Robins could get away with that-”
#DCxDP#DPxDC#Prompts#Alfred is Clockwork#AndCW having adopted Danny means Danny gets to meet his new big brother from another timeline#Bruce (Once Alfred confirms) is absolutely attached within moments#Autistic bois unite & talk for hours about hyperfixations#Clark has had time to make an entire homemade pie at this point#No Danny isn’t ghost king nor is Clockwork Cronus#Bruce: I have only had a baby brother for 5 hours but if anything happens to him I will let my kids break all the rules & kill everyone her#Signal: Yeah definitely Alfred’s he glows like him and everything#The rest of the bats: Alfred does what now-#Danny with dozens of big star eyes to Bruce: How would you feel about sisters#Bruce holding 3 children & 1 young adult: I am big brother now#Alfred scathingly says that Someone in the family *cough Jazz cough* will at least finish college & get their degree#Sometimes CW enjoys turning off his future-vision and vibing as a mostly-mortal#And Gotham is an old war buddy of his (Yes Gotham is the city equivalent of an Ancient) from the [Redacted] era of the Realms#And xer son & daughter are adorable- Bludhaven & Arkham love the vigilantes lots
2K notes
·
View notes
Text
older designs for my specialest guy
#you actually could pay me to watch boruto the payment is reviving any of madara-obito-itachi in a cheap fan service moment. itd work on me 👍#neji hyuga#hyuga neji#art#fanart#naruto#2024#i think konoha would love to project the will of fire shit onto neji after what he did. ya know. trying to give your life 'for the village'#in that way hed probs have a lot of respect from others but respect has never been enough when your life still isnt yours 😛#the pessimism would likely take a bit to return to him but it Would return hes just like. less interpersonally volatile#the realization you had two whole very public meltdowns and no one that matters cared will do that to you#anywayfor the happy ending one. i think while neji is always going to be a little bit bitchy hes bound to soften up a lot when he's not#under constant stress and has to micromanage his every thought#i like to think that if he were allowed to hed grow into a very outwardly warm person. sunflower :)#and my general opinions of neji and boruto are:#1. yes it is a blessing to not be made to be straight married#2. however consider: what if i wanted to see neji be a dad. i dont care for romantic njten but i do not hate it. it would be acceptable#when i think abt this guy in boruto hes chronically single but still.talking about what CANON could be. it would be acceptable#3. yes hiashi shouldve gotten his ass killed in the war but i would be lying if i said the awful family reunions#are not fun as a concept#are they fun on purpose? no#but the rule is: A situation can suck if it sucks on purpose#and 4. i know about the time travel episode i have mixed feelings on it.#anyway no hate if you like boruto i like being hyperbolic for fun but its just anime. the kids seem cute#but if any other hyuga-brained person ever wants to get unimaginably angry you should also watch the hiashi birthday episode of boruto#thats my special recommendation from me to you
259 notes
·
View notes
Text
tfone au where OP is created as the last of the primes but way after them, a sparkling born at what were thought to be the last days of the war against the quintessons, the beginning of a new generation of peace after eons of war. a child meant to be loved and raised knowing nothing of war nor sacrifice.
he's kept mostly out of the spotlight by his siblings, who don't wish to expose him to everyone's optics so young, and want to wait until the war is done and over to properly introduce him to their people.
except of course the primes are betrayed and murdered by sentinel, the war is lost and everyone who knows and cared for the truth is either banished or outright killed in order to suppress it.
and the high guard, the ones the primes trusted the most, the ones that were supposed to protect them, the ones who failed in their most important duty, have to make a choice. to take the last prime, their last hope, with them to the surface, a hostile environment where there's little to no supplies and where they'll be hunted down by both sentinel and the quintessons as the biggest threat to their regimen.
or hide him in plain sight. place him where sentinel won't think to look for him. one more sparkling among many. and hope it will be enough to keep him alive. pray to primus that he'll protect his last child long enough for them to come back for him when it's safer (even if most of them have already lost their faith on him when he allowed the rest of his children to be massacred like that)
they almost lose their resolve when they realize they will have to take the little one's cog away in order to make him blend in with the rest of the newborns (and oh do they burn with murderous intent when they see what sentinel has done to their people but it's not the time yet-) but in the end they decide an impaired little prime is better than a dead one.
and so in the chaos of thirteen dead primes and a sudden energon crisis, a little sparkling who very few mechs really knew about and even fewer had seen completely vanishes. and in the depths of iacon a mech in charge of a new batch of newborns scratches their helm in confusion as they realize they must have miscounted the first time.
optimus prime is quietly erased from any official records by sentinel, written off as dead when they find a sparkling's frame mangled beyond recognition after an attack on the base of those rebels that insist on being a thorn on his side. killing the sparkling hadn't been precisely in his plans, he probably could've found some use for it after all, but he's not particularly upset about it either.
and orion pax grows up with an ache on his spark that tells him he's missing something far more important than a t-cog and dreams of gentle and loving hands, cradling him against the frames of mechs he cannot recall the faces of.
#i talk a lot <3#transformers#transformers one#tfone#optimus prime#orion pax#baby prime orion au#this is mostly an excuse for me to draw the primes and baby OP later on. just to be clear.#i WILL be drawing this at some point lmao#tbh i'm a little uncertain how i want things to progress#because on one hand it would be very tasty and tense if sentinel recognized optimus during the race#but that means a lot of changes very early on in the plot and i would have to do a lot of Thinking on how to justify getting the gang#to still pick up bee and elita. cause i love them <3#i do think it'd be very funny if the high guard's plan worked like a charm except for the very tiny fact that they didn't count#on orion being an absolute hellion. like. this kid is Not Going Unnoticed and it's completely his own fault lmao#in this version maybe a member of the high guard stayed behind to keep an eye on orion and is able to get them out before they're killed#but instead of taking them to where the primes fell they take them directly to the high guard#which is very awkward because it's a very moving and emotional moment for the high guard who are finally reunited with their little prime#all grown up and healthy and blessedly *alive*. except orion doesn't fucking remember any of them and is very confused as to why#the legendary warriors of cybertron are getting all weepy over him. they finally explain the truth to him which is a Fucking Bomb#to drop on anyone but especially a group of kids who almost got killed by the person they all thought the world of just hours ago#they also return orion's t-cog to him which would create some tension between him and the rest of the gang because this time#he's the only one getting his cog back. add to it that they were just told he's the equivalent of a demi-god and... well.#there's a gap between him and them that wasn't there before#on the other version of events that follows canon more closely everything goes the same up until the gang finds the primes in the cave#and wake up alpha trion who now not only has to deal with the fact the rest of his siblings are dead but that he missed fifty cycles#of his baby brother's life. that the only sibling he has left does not remember him or his true identity at all.#he has to choose between telling him the truth which has the risk of unbalancing him in a critical moment where he cannot afford to#be distracted because they're being hunted down. or let him remain unaware. let him forget their family and the love they had for him#but letting him remain free of the knowledge of what he lost and the heartbreak it would bring.
305 notes
·
View notes
Text
things TeSTAR has canonically done that drives me nuts (spoilers!!)
Kim Raebin was accused of plagiarizing... himself.
Park Moondae arranged a concert with someone who kidnapped and attempted to murder him. UNPROMPTED.
Cha Eugene ran away from his hotel room in the middle of a massive problem that he caused with only a single note. He also didn't bring his cell phone OR wallet.
Seon Ahyeon tried to put Moondae in a psychiatric hospital (DESERVE)
Keun Sejin believed Moondae when he said he was a transmigrator with basically zero proof. Hello???
Ryu Chungwoo got into a serious car accident that destroyed his whole life and career and immediately was like. Haha what if I join this idol survival show. AND DEBUTED AS LEADER.
Park Moondae caused an entire company to dissolve
Bae Sejin: [started IdolCo with 0 basic skill] "I think the most important part of being an idol is basic skill"
Keun Sejin was the first person to surpass the System's potential limitation (!!!)
#debut or die#clutching manhwa readers by the pant legs begging them to read the novel it's so good#these boys drive me crazy and i love them#i know there are only like 3 people in this fandom but. please please please.#WHAT IF YOU WERE A RANDO FAILED CIVIL SERVANT WANNABE WHO WAS TRANSMIGRATED INTO SOME RANDO'S BODY#WITH A SYSTEM WINDOW FORCING YOU TO DEBUT AS AN IDOL OR DIE#BUT ALONG THE WAY YOU DISCOVERED THAT YOU REALLY LOVED BEING AN IDOL#AND YOUR LONELY LIFE IS TRANSFORMED BY THIS TEAM OF 20-SOMETHINGS YOU DEBUTED WITH SO YOU'RE LIKE FAMILY#WHAT THEN#there are also so many cool plot twists and touching moments and clever schemes pleaseeee#if you're an idol fan or a transmigration fan or just like good stories i think you should get into debut or die#i know y'all followed me for genshin but. haha. what if.
439 notes
·
View notes
Text
"Jason just needs to see things from his family's perspective and understand how much they love him (despite them never actually communicating or showing him through their actions)" is out. "The batfamily putting a single bit of effort into understanding Jason and reconciling with him on his own terms" is in.
#my dc posting#jason todd#dc#like genuinely i am sooo tired of the first#like yes yes jason is a stupid unstable idiot who misunderstands everything and somehow comes to the most stupid#wrong conclusions ever and he just needs to see things from his family's perspective#and learn how much they loved and missed him when he was dead WHATEVERRR can you shut uppp#cus yknow how many times i've read fic of any of the batfam actually holding jason's opinion as valid or even doing silly lil small things#like 'not horribly invading his privacy' and 'actually respecting his very reasonable boundaries'? VERY rarely.#when will i get to read a fic where jason's extremely valid&understandable complaints and critiques are actually taken to heart and#anyone puts any effort into actually improving themselves and finding a middle ground#but no sorry i forgot. jason's just a fucking idiot who misreads and misunderstands everything his family does bc he's not a goddamn mind#reader who can somehow understand every miniscule twitch of batman's cape#if my dad prioritized my abuser over me i'd be very valid in concluding he might not care for me that much actually </3#i stop being sympathetic to bruce's issues the moment they're used as an excuse for him to mistreat his kids sorryyy#sorry i'm in a pissy mood rn. this isn't directed at any one specific person i'm just annoyed how common this is. it's a whole pattern.#its own genre of jason fic with no warning for it
215 notes
·
View notes
Text
I love so many relationships in these movies but these two just hit different
#they're so cute#i want to die 😭#i wanted to die before but never like this#i love how dm movies give me the relationships i want no angst or shit they just give us cute family moments#lucy wilde#agnes#despicable me 2#despicable me 3#despicable me 4#despicable me
210 notes
·
View notes
Text
i love how twilight and yor complement each other so well and the two of them don't even realize it.
yor constantly telling loid to chill tf out (affectionate) and rely on her a little + loid reassuring her every time she feels insecure for not being "normal" enough is peak marriage behavior.
reading the chapter and looking at these panels, you'll see they're a very cute and normal fake couple. to a bystander, they probably look like adorable newlyweds. and to the readers, well, they look canon as hell🤭
#post was sitting on my drafts for two days. my apologies </3#this chapter was a breath of fresh air. i loved it so much#the twiyor especially aaahhh#it's their small moments that make me go ಥ‿ಥ♡#spy x family#spy x family spoilers#spy x family manga#sxf spoilers#sxf chapter 103#sxf thoughts#twiyor#mine
245 notes
·
View notes
Text
Bucky Barnes // The Winter Soldier Captain America: Civil War (2016)
the way he looks at steve (part 1, part 2, part 3)
(steve vers.)
#dailymarvelgifs#dailymarveledits#buckybarnesedit#bucky barnes#captain america#captain america: civil war#cacw#my gifs#sebastian stan#me: trying to make these gifs#the three lines on sebastian stans forehead: 👁️👁️#in case you dont remember the bottom left one is when steve and tony are watching footage of bucky killing tonys family <3#we love the drama we love the heartbreak we love the terrible fear in buckys eyes#worried about tonys reaction but no doubt worried about steves as well#if the footage is gonna make steve feel or think about him differently#we love it we love to see it#i will come back to these later when i need to#for reasons#anyways im posting these at a weird time and all of these moments have been giffed to death already#but i had to do it myself. i had to spend several hours staring at these men being vaguely gay in each others direction#to Heal. you know how it is
238 notes
·
View notes
Note
I love Tighnari and Cyno's relationship sooo much man. They clearly care about each other so much and love each other. I love them just. Being them. I honestly find friendships to be so much more compelling than romantic ones. Not that I don't like romantic relationships- but the platonic ones just...hit different.
Right right ?! There is this authentic friendship when you can trust each other. Also the comfort of knowing there is someone on your back, always here for you,,, of course, you also find this in romance trope.
But it is also a common trope in friendship that we tend to forget. What true friends are ! A choosen home, a found family. With who you can spend hours without noticing time passing, with who you don't talk for months but you know it doesn't shutter your friendship and when you meet again, it becomes an euphoric moment. There is something more deep between Tighnari and Cyno than just "romance"
Tbh I see in them my dynamic with my friends or with my brothers, and I love my friends so much <3 when everything was difficult, and I didn't trust myself enough to save me, I trust my friends. And I was right to trust them ! And that's it, if one them start to doubt themself, they can trust their friend. That's how authentic and meaningful their friendship are !! And.. the found family trope is make it more important too
I already talk about how family is important for Cyno (did I?? I don't remember if I talk about this in public), morever than his family are not related by blood (Cyrus, Lisa... Tighnari is as much as important for Cyno). Maybe it is because I have brothers and lucky of us we are united, but I believe that for man, having a brother is as deepful as a romance story (not saying that romance is bad i'm sorry !! I love romance) (maybe I'm also biased because I am in aromantic spectrum <//3) (and maybe not only for men ??)
Anyway !! I feel like we tend to prioritized romance than friendship, as a pyramidical system. But for me, their intensity in love are similar, it is just a different kind of love. It is like.. two differents pillars than a pyramide !
#conclusion : i love platonic tighnari&cyno#wish their romance wouldn't make me so uncomfortable so I can enjoy all fanart... <<//3#i am so glad to met platonic tighnari cyno enjoyer 😭😭#that's also why I love collei being seens as a sister#parents kinda have this hierarchy place in family#tighnari is already a teacher for collei ; so a authority figure#but if you consider them as brother#it is not abt hierarchy ; it is just sillies siblings moments#you can tell something to your bro that you can't tell to your parents#i project a lot since I am also the 3rd child in my family - so i have 2 big bros#reply#hERE I AM YAPPING AGAIN#sorry for my english again... 😭😭😭
58 notes
·
View notes
Text
Eclipse' Strong Guardian!!!
#sonknux eclipse#eclipse#sonknux#sonic#sonic the hedgehog#knuckles the echidna#sonic au#sonic fanchild#sonic fankid#fanart#my doodle#i really love happy moments :3#i drew the happi family hoorayyy#this is a very silly idea#i just thought OH Knux is strong. he has to hold his husband and kid#here we have it :3#eclipse is veey enthusiast about this
57 notes
·
View notes
Text
Prompt in Memes 6
Let's make it some in-world memes this time :)
#prompts#memes#meme#cryptid batman#cryptid batfam#cryptid batfamily#battinson#They somehow travel back in time & makes it everyone elses problem#They do not communicate with anyone else besides each other lol#give battinson a robin#but it's time travel and he has all of the robins at once#except Damian but they're going to grab him the moment he exists#Jason: wait does this mean I still have my all-blades#bruce is a good dad#but also so very done with his kids but in a of love and exasperation way#8 year old Dick & 5 year old Jason & 3 year old Tim showing up at the manor: B let us in it cold out here#3 year old Steph kicking down the door: Hope u missed my presence#5 year old Cass crawling in through the window: :) hello family#The kids: Wow Bruce u wear makeup that heavy that's funny lol#But can u imagine battinson with several tiny children following like ducklings#They're perfectly behaved in public but go back to being their lil shit selves when they get home#Gotham: aw the Waynes are like lil angels#Also Gotham: Oh my gosh did you SEE Robin Bite that poor person I hope they don't also turn into an undead cryptid
622 notes
·
View notes
Text
...lately I've been thinking a lot about Susan Sto Helit. Specifically her introduction and farewell in the Discworld series.
About how her introduction in Soul Music is through the eyes of Miss Butts who goes on describing this recently orphaned girl as:
"something frankly unloveable about the child. Academically brilliant in the things she liked doing, of course. But that was just it. She was brilliant in the same way that a diamond is brilliant, all edges and chilliness." *
And then the very last we see of Susan within the Discworld series, is in Thief of Time, ending with... well no matter one's personal opinion of Susan and Lobsang Ludd... the Death series ends with love. ( I could go on a tangent about how each Death book is about some version of Love but thats for another time)
ANYWAY the last we read of Susan is:
"She put the chocolate in her mouth, and shut her eyes. A faint cardboard-y sound made her open them. The lids were lifting on the boxes of stars. They spilled out, and whirled up into the shadows of the cupboard, brilliant against the darkness, a galaxy in miniature. Susan watched them for a while, and then said: "Alright, you have my full attention, whoever you are." At least, that is what she meant to say. The peculiar stickiness of the nougat caused it to come out as: "au-rite ou av my full at-em-ntion." Damn. The stars spiraled around her head, and the cupboard's interior darkened into interstellar black. "If this is you Death of Rats," she began. "It's me," said Lobsang. Tick! Even with nougat, you can have a perfect moment."
It ends with love!! Love for a girl who was described as "something frankly unlovable" we bid farewell to Susan in the series with a Perfect Moment!!
Does this mean anything? Do you see the glimpses of what I'm feeling and barely managing to articulate?!
*Please forgive me if the quotes aren't entirely accurate in terms of punctuation etc, I only have the audio form and transcribed it while listening.
#it might not mean much... but it does to me... especially when having moments of feeling unloveable. idk#I love the Death series so MUCH#obsessed with the Sto Helits#Death Discworld series is about LOVE damnit!#Tune in next time where I get very emotional over how Mort and Ysabell's presence is still felt within the series even after their passing#Soul Music#Thief of Time#Susan Sto Helit#Lobsang Ludd#Discworld#nico blabs into the void#I know not many people enjoy this pairing - but it tickles me with joy ;0; <3#Also a part of Lubsang originally called Newgate and the pun about having a perfect moment with nougat! I just- OUGH!#The Sto Helit Family
55 notes
·
View notes
Text
chat i think im gonna be sick
(Powers of X #6)
#xmen#xmen comics#powers of x#charles xavier#snap scans#snap chats#moira stronger than me like ik why we here we're gonna die if not and so that is why she is stronger than me she is committing#i woulda kissed him in this moment too tho she and i are family on that front im afraid i do find him very cute#also. SIDE TANGENT. i loved the art before this of charles slowly processing the horrors of moiras mind ...#EXCELLENT art i must eat it at once#the most devious part of this is after i finished reading i went to go to my brother to talk about What I Read#and the second i pulled up like 'his sad eyes Brother im gonna be sick' he immediately quoted this page I HATE IT HERE#thats why they had to put that dome over charles' eyes so no one could look at his sad eyes anymore#this is in fact something i love and always love seeing but it still hurts i will not LIIIEEE#cant wait to read bout how this all goes horribly wrong ....#while my bro and i were talkin we were talkin bout other in-between stories an i wanna check those out at some point ...#maybe ill check my comic shop sometime in the future idk. for now im gonna throw up !!!!!!!!!!#i will simply spend tomorrow watching the rest of 92 im almost done with it. relatively speaking i will feel healed then probably#i got like two seasons left which is basically the same length as season 3 and then its onto 97#thats just one season for now so ... should finish that quick ..#ok bye i have Being Sick to be
58 notes
·
View notes
Text
Madagascar Party Theme 1 - Penguins
Skipper, Rico, Kowalski and Private are the best family group
@madagascarparty
#tpom#tpom skipper#tpom rico#tpom kowalski#tpom private#madagascar 3#madagascar 2#madagascar#madagascar movie#dreamworks animation#madaparty#the penguins of madagascar#they are funny#they are amazing#family#family dynamics#iconic#i miss them so much#nostalgic#nostalgia#👌 👌👌 👌 💯 👌 👀 👀 👀 👌👌good shit#dreamworks#Madagascar DreamWorks#fuck i love them#always together#i want them back#cute#i love them#good moments#2024madagascarparty
35 notes
·
View notes
Note
oooh please someday tell us what you think of GOT
oh, no, it's my fatal weakness! it's [checks notes] literally just the bare modicum of temptation! okay you got me.
SO. in order to tell what's wrong with game of thrones you kind of have to have read the books, because the books are the reason the show goes off the rails. i actually blame the showrunners relatively little in proportion to GRRM for how bad the show was (which I'm not gonna rehash here because if you're interested in GOT in any capacity you've already seen that horse flogged to death). people debate when GOT "got bad" in terms of writing, but regardless of when you think it dropped off, everyone agrees the quality declined sharply in season 8, and to a certain extent, season 7. these are the seasons that are more or less entirely spun from whole cloth, because season 7 marks the beginning of what will, if we ever see it, be the Winds of Winter storyline. it's the first part that isn't based on a book by George R.R. Martin. it's said that he gave the showrunners plot outlines, but we don't know how detailed they were, or how much the writers diverged from the blueprint — and honestly, considering the cumulative changes made to the story by that point, some stark divergence would have been required. (there's a reason for this. i'll get there in a sec.)
so far, i'm not saying anything all that original. a lot of people recognized how bad the show got as soon as they ran out of Book to adapt. (I think it's kind of weird that they agreed to make a show about an unfinished series in the first place — did GRRM figure that this was his one shot at a really good HBO adaptation, and forego misgivings about his ability to write two full books in however many years it took to adapt? did he think they would wait for him? did he not care that the series would eventually spoil his magnum opus, which he's spent the last three decades of his life writing? perplexing.) but the more interesting question is why the show got bad once it ran out of Book, because in my mind, that's not a given. a lot of great shows depart from the books they were based on. fanfiction does exactly that, all the time! if you have good writers who understand the characters they're working with, departure means a different story, not a worse one. now, the natural reply would be to say that the writers of GOT just aren't good, or at least aren't good at the things that make for great television, and that's why they needed the books as a structure, but I don't think that's true or fair, either. books and television are very different things. the pacing of a book is totally different from the pacing of a television show, and even an episodic book like ASOIAF is going to need a lot of work before it's remotely watchable as a series. bad writers cannot make great series of television, regardless of how good their source material is. sure, they didn't invent the characters of tyrion lannister and daenerys targaryen, but they sure as hell understood story structure well enough to write a damn compelling season of TV about them!
so but then: what gives? i actually do think it's a problem with the books! the show starts out as very faithful to the early books (namely, A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings) to the point that most plotlines are copied beat-for-beat. the story is constructed a little differently, and it's definitely condensed, but the meat is still there. and not surprisingly, the early books in ASOIAF are very tightly written. for how long they are, you wouldn't expect it, but on every page of those books, the plot is racing. you can practically watch george trying to beat the fucking clock. and he does! useful context here is that he originally thought GOT was going to be a trilogy, and so the scope of most threads in the first book or two would have been much smaller. it also helps that the first three books are in some respects self-contained stories. the first book is a mystery, the second and third are espionage and war dramas — and they're kept tight in order to serve those respective plots.
the trouble begins with A Feast for Crows, and arguably A Storm of Swords, because GRRM starts multiplying plotlines and treating the series as a story, rather than each individual book. he also massively underestimated the number of pages it would take him to get through certain plot beats — an assumption whose foundation is unclear, because from a reader's standpoint, there is a fucke tonne of shit in Feast and Dance that's spurious. I'm not talking about Brienne's Riverlands storyline (which I adore thematically but speaking honestly should have been its own novella, not a part of Feast proper). I'm talking about whole chapters where Tyrion is sitting on his ass in the river, just talking to people. (will I eat crow about this if these pay off in hugely satisfying ways in Winds or Dream? oh, totally. my brothers, i will gorge myself on sweet sweet corvid. i will wear a dunce cap in the square, and gleefully, if these turn out to not have been wastes of time. the fact that i am writing this means i am willing to stake a non-negligible amount of pride on the prediction that that will not happen). I'm talking about scenes where the characters stare at each other and talk idly about things that have already happened while the author describes things we already have seen in excruciating detail. i'm talking about threads that, while forgivable in a different novel, are unforgivable in this one, because you are neglecting your main characters and their story. and don't tell me you think that a day-by-day account tyrion's river cruise is necessary to telling his story, because in the count of monte cristo, the main guy disappears for nine years and comes hurtling back into the story as a vengeful aristocrat! and while time jumps like that don't work for everything, they certainly do work if what you're talking about isn't a major story thread!
now put aside whether or not all these meandering, unconcluded threads are enjoyable to read (as, in fairness, they often are!). think about them as if you're a tv showrunner. these bad boys are your worst nightmare. because while you know the author put them in for a reason, you haven't read the conclusion to the arc, so you don't know what that reason is. and even if the author tells you in broad strokes how things are going to end for any particular character (and this is a big "if," because GRRM's whole style is that he lets plots "develop as he goes," so I'm not actually convinced that he does have endings written out for most major characters), that still doesn't help you get them from point A (meandering storyline) to point B (actual conclusion). oh, and by the way, you have under a year to write this full season of television, while GRRM has been thinking about how to end the books for at least 10. all of this means you have to basically call an audible on whether or not certain arcs are going to pay off, and, if they are, whether they make for good television, and hence are worth writing. and you have to do that for every. single. unfinished. story. in the books.
here's an example: in the books, Quentin Martell goes on a quest to marry Daenerys and gain a dragon. many chapters are spent detailing this quest. spoiler alert: he fails, and he gets charbroiled by dragons. GRRM includes this plot to set up the actions of House Martell in Winds, but the problem is that we don't know what House Martell does in Winds, because (see above) the book DNE. So, although we can reliably bet that the showrunners understand (1) Daenerys is coming to Westeros with her 3 fantasy nukes, and (2) at some point they're gonna have to deal with the invasion of frozombies from Canada, that DOESN'T mean they necessarily know exactly what's going to happen to Dorne, or House Martell. i mean, fuck! we don't even know if Martin knows what's going to happen to Dorne or House Martell, because he's said he's the kind of writer who doesn't set shit out beforehand! so for every "Cersei defaults on millions of dragons in loans from the notorious Bank of Nobody Fucks With Us, assumes this will have no repercussions for her reign or Westerosi politics in general" plotline — which might as well have a big glaring THIS WILL BE IMPORTANT stamp on top of the chapter heading — you have Arianne Martell trying to do a coup/parent trap switcheroo with Myrcella, or Euron the Goffick Antichrist, or Faegon Targaryen and JonCon preparing a Blackfyre restoration, or anything else that might pan out — but might not! And while that uncertainty about what's important to the "overall story" might be a realistic way of depicting human beings in a world ruled by chance and not Destiny, it makes for much better reading than viewing, because Game of Thrones as a fantasy television series was based on the first three books, which are much more traditional "there is a plot and main characters and you can generally tell who they are" kind of book. I see Feast and Dance as a kind of soft reboot for the series in this respect, because they recenter the story around a much larger cast and cast a much broader net in terms of which characters "deserve" narrative attention.
but if you're making a season of television, you can't do that, because you've already set up the basic premise and pacing of your story, and you can't suddenly pivot into a long-form tone poem about the horrors of war. so you have to cut something. but what are you gonna cut? bear in mind that you can't just Forget About Dorne, or the Iron Islands, or the Vale, or the North, or pretty much any region of the story, because it's all interconnected, but to fit in everything from the books would require pacing of the sort that no reasonable audience would ever tolerate. and bear in mind that the later books sprout a lot more of these baby-plots that could go somewhere, but also might end up being secondary or tertiary to the "main story," which, at the end of the day, is about dragons and ice zombies and the rot at the heart of the feudal power system glorified in classical fantasy. that's the story that you as the showrunner absolutely must give them an end to, and that's the story that should be your priority 1.
so you do a hack and slash job, and you mortar over whatever you cut out with storylines that you cook up yourself, but you can't go too far afield, because you still need all the characters more or less in place for the final showdown. so you pinch here and push credulity there, and you do your best to put the characters in more or less the same place they would have been if you kept the original, but on a shorter timeframe. and is it as good as the first seasons? of course not! because the material that you have is not suited to TV like the first seasons are. and not only that, but you are now working with source material that is actively fighting your attempt to constrain a linear and well-paced narrative on it. the text that you're working with changed structure when you weren't looking, and now you have to find some way to shanghai this new sprawling behemoth of a Thing into a television show. oh, and by the way, don't think that the (living) author of the source material will be any help with this, because even though he's got years of experience working in television writing, he doesn't actually know how all of these threads will tie together, which is possibly the reason that the next book has taken over 8 years (now 13 and counting) to write. oh and also, your showrunners are sick of this (in fairness, very difficult) job and they want to go write for star wars instead, so they've refused the extra time the studio offered them for pre-production and pushed through a bunch of first-draft scripts, creating a crunch culture of the type that spawns entirely avoidable mistakes, like, say, some poor set designer leaving a starbucks cup in frame.
anyway, that's what I think went wrong with game of thrones.
#using the tags as a footnote system here but in order:#1. quentin MAY not be dead according to some theories but in the text he is a charred corpse#2. arianne is great and i love her but to be honest. my girl is kinda dumb. just 2 b real.#3. faegon is totally a blackfyre i think it's so obvious it may well be text at this point#it's almost r+l = j level man like it's kind of just reading comprehension at this point#4. relatedly there are some characters i think GRRM has endings picked out for and some i think he specifically does NOT#i think stannis melisandre jon and daenerys all will end up the same. jon and dany war crimes => murder/banishment arc is just classic GRRM#but i think jon's reasoning will be different and it'll be better-written.#im sorry but babygirl shireen IS getting flambeed. in response stannis will commit epic battle suicide killing all boltons i hope#brienne will live but in some tragic 'stay awhile horatio' capacity. likely she will try to die defending her liege and fail#faegon will die there's zero chance blackfyres win ever#now jaime/cersei I do NOT think he knows. my brothers in christ i don't think this motherfucker knows who the valonqar is!!#same with tyrion i think that the author in GRRM wants to do a nasty corruption arc + kill him off but the person in him loves him too much#sansa i have no goddamn idea what's going to happen. we just don't know enough about the northern conspiracy to tell#w/ arya i think he has... ideas. i don't think she's going to sail off to Explore i am almost certain that the show doing that was a cover#because the actual idea he gave them was unsavory or nonviable for some reason. bc like.#why would arya leave bran and jon and sansa? the family she's just spent her whole life fighting to come back to and avenge?#this is suspicious this does not feel like arya this does not feel right#bran will not be king or if he is it'll be in a VERY different way not the dumbfuck 'let's vote' bullshit#i personally think bran is going to go full corruption arc and become possessed by the 3 eyed raven. but that could be a pipe dream#the thing is he's way too OP in the show so the books have to nerf him and i think GRRM is still trying to work out#a way to actually do that.#i don't think he told them what happened with littlefinger or sansa. i think sansa's story is vaguely similar#(stark restoration through the female line etc)#but the queen in the north shit is way too contrived frankly. and selfishly i hope she gets something different#being a monarch in ASOIAF is not a happy ending. we know this from the moment we meet robert baratheon in AGOT#and we learn exactly what GRRM thinks of the people who 'win' these endless wars of succession#and they are not heroes#they are not celebrated#and they are neither safe nor happy
41 notes
·
View notes