#I meant to write spoilers obvs

[theoneandonlycowboyofthesea]

actually idc I’m fucking pissed about redlyn breaking up just so they could end up in same sex relationships as a bi person I LOVED seeing these two realize that they’re bi but they loved each other and were in a m/f relationship and they just immediately stripped that away again and it just leaves such a bad taste in my mouth

[yanderepuck]

@lulu-the-smol-floof and I spent like 2 hours talking about the religions the guys were, so we looked it all up just to be sure. There are so many more arguments happening

Napoleon: was baptized into the Catholic faith as a child, however, he never became engrossed in the faith

Mozart: Catholic (and fairly religious)

Leonardo: more than likely Catholic. He referred to God as a supreme being. Could also be called a spiritual metaphysician.

Vincent: Protestant (father was priest, also nearly was a priest)

Theo: Protestant (father was priest)

Arthur: Catholic turned atheist(after studying medicine) then got interested in the occult.

Isaac: Born into an Anglican family, by his thirties held a Christian faith. Saw worshipping Christ as God was idolatry, to him the fundamental sin.

Jean: Catholic

Will: Protestant

Dazai: Christian but in the way that God is a punisher (in game possibly more Shinto since we see him in shrines)

Comte: He believes...in something

Sebastian: atheist but superstitious

Vlad: Eastern Roman Orthodox Catholic (going off Vlad in Impaler)

Faust: Protestant (was banned from churches tho)

Charles: Catholic

Drake: Protestant

Galileo: Roman Catholic (supported the church and hoped the church would support him, spoiler alert: they didn't)

~~

Fun lil thoughts now

Jean and Mozart are the only ones who go to church every Sunday.

Because here Leonardo is a pureblood, I think that maybe for a hot moment he was religious but very quickly turned his back on that.

Theo is SOOOOO mad that the three he hates the most are the only other Protestants. He's stuck with Will Faust and Drake.

Will actually grew up in the Church of England, which was possibly more Roman Catholic but when you look at his writing it reflects Protestant more.

Best part is that Faust is Protestant but Vlad has him working in a Catholic church. Vlad doesn't know the difference. Faust gives all his sermons in German and they aren't even sermons. He just bitches about this and gives out recipes, but Mozart is literally the only one who knows

Faust: I fucking hate this city. It's so dirty

Mozart: he's so right

Now bc they lean into Drake being more of a pirate, I don't think this man has much religion to him. He sticks to the pirate code. But I feel like if you showed him a sign of God he'd believe you.

Okay so Dazai. When we first talked about this we couldn't really find anything (I was honestly doing a quick Google search, not a deep dive), so we said he's probably Shinto, at least in game since we see him in shrines in some cgs. @tako-cafe informed me that he was first communist (when growing up) and then Christian, but int he way that God is here to punish/torture us bc humans themselves are sin and cannot escape it.

Arthur went atheist once he discovered science basically.

Isaac is actually right with the idolizing thing. It's actually blasphemous to have depictions of Jesus on a cross, or having a place dedicated to God. But that part sort of got lost bc obvs churches don't want you to know that. Also, he's just a god fearing man.

Isaac: going to church is a sin

Jean, across the room: ITS WHAT

That being said, Christmas Day, aka Isaac's birthday, Isaac and Arthur are the only ones at the mansion in the morning.

Dazai is going bc they have snacks. Sebastian is going because ..well.. we shouldn't trust them all to behave.

Back to Dazai. If we stick with him being Shinto, everyone in the mansion finds it weird as hell. Sebastian has to tell them that "no. This is actually the religion, not just weird things Dazai does"

Meanwhile Dazai is like "I need to go feed the frogs goldfish so that we have good weather"

Oh? Comte? Yeah. He believes. In what? He believes

Also, keep in mind that even tho that most of them are Catholic, they are all from different countries and time periods where being Catholic meant different things.

[seeingivy]

method acting asks!!!

first of all, thank you anon!!! you're so so kind - i'm so excited you're here in my little universe with me. I THINK I ACTUALLY SAID THIS TO SOMEONE BEFORE about francesca and work song by hozier

I think hozier has really raw and love songs that depict a very sheer devotion, which is something I think eren as a character generally possesses - which is why I think the hozier comparison is spot on. he would go through hell to hold her again, no grave will hold him down he WILL crawl back home to her

first things first, I LOVE YOU!!!!! y/n healing era makes my heart warm AND I totally agree regarding venice bitch. speaking of norman fucking rockwell (MY FAVORITE LANA ALBUM), i also think that she would write the song normal fucking rockwell about eren (back in the day, obv)

@itzmeme always spot on. chefs kiss songs from you, always.

ARGGGGGG ANON I COULD YAP FOR DAYS. I imagine edits about them are basically like the edits that people make about taylor/joe and joshua/olivia. the one that's been trending recently is the lyrics from wrecking ball that's like "I never meant to start a war, I just wanted you to let me in" lIKE PEOPLE WOULD MAKE THOSE OF THEM SO BAD.

I feel like after the documentary is released, people would also make edits of eren and y/n to that audio that transitions from midnight rain to daylight - the first clips being of like eren/hyla to eren and y/n - and you can visibly see that he's just so much happier with her.

also think that people made cunt edits of y/ns because I liked a boy performance and her look what you made me do. y/n also getting edits of her and clips of her w/ sukuna and eren to maneater like.

I love edits. you are amazing and I love your mind.

LIKE. LIKE ITS A NEED. I also think of them doing silver springs sometimes during their beef era....LIKE YOU WILL NEVER GET AWAY FROM THE SOUND OF A WOMAN THAT LOVES YOU.

@najaemism HI!!!! hi, I love you. second, I leave little hints like people like this that are perceptive about this type of thing (and I have promises to reveal all my hints when the fic is well and over) BUT EEK MY HEART GETS SO WARM WHEN PEOPLE CATCH THEM. I literally think scott street is probably what she felt so bad during that era of the fic, like the nostalgia of losing eren and realizing like all of her childhood memories will be tainted with him now

LMFAOFJDIOSFJIODSF STFU. this is so funny LIKE HE'S SO CORNY HE WOULD

another ask about necklaces BUT REAL. I also think that on their car keys they remake lego figurines of each other so that they're always with each other whenever they aren't 😁

@astroswift HARD ON THE AGREE. i've got a moment on this chapter i've been itching to write since this bitch character got introduced. and my love, you are spot on. champagne problems, is in fact, in the method acting playlist (I LOVE WHEN PEOPLE PICK UP THE CRUMBS MY HEART GETS SO WARM)

@elliesbabygirl do it. I wrote a stupid fic about gojo to speak now by taylor swift and now i'm here. yolo swag.

I WAS AT GUTS TOUR LAST NIGHT. the second she crawled on the fucking moon it was all I could think about. and seeing the grudge live just killed me thinking about the awards show that I started crying (I am in general a concert crier I had already cried at that point but it was crazy) and seeing all american bitch and REDACTED that are involved in the story too EEK I WAS GOING CRAZY she's so hot im in love with her

random last tidbit:

here's some method acting spoilers with no context for the next chapter:

a double whammy of a slap and a punch to the face

what am I to you?

the sister to lady gaga's meat dress

l/n-jaegers

matching tattoos

WHATEVER THAT ALL MEANS!!!

[catholic-character-tournament]

Round 3 - Catholic Character Tournament

Propaganda below ⬇️

Gabriel

Well he's an angel so I'm taking him being catholic as canon. There are a lot of themes in the game that point to catholisism specifically.

He's so fucking funny. he listens to nine inch nails and quotes one of the songs in a fight basically "fight me like an animal". he and v1 kind of have this yuri thing going on. he has an official bodypillow. hes a metaphor for being excommunicated and no one gets him like me and my friends do

The *true* Catholic experience is leaving the church and having a gay awakening, ask anyone

its debatable if Gabriel truly believes he's "the one true savior" or is mocking the idea of it

ok im actually gonna write some gabe propaganda bc despite what you may expect from a game called ULTRAKILL theres a lot to be said about his character and how catholicism is represented

Gabriel is a genuinely caring person who struggles to square his desire to help people with his duty as an archangel. He's the only one in Heaven trying to make things better for those in Hell, but his faith is used to manipulate him into committing atrocities against the people he used to protect (see the "TRAITOR" mural in 4-2)

he only realizes his mistakes after losing everything and being sentenced to death, but he still decides with only a little time remaining to try and make things right. for the sake of spoilers i will just say that the measures he takes are... extremely drastic and very enjoyable. i just really like the idea that even facing the end of all living things, no matter how steep your crimes, it is never too late to fix your mistakes. you are never unworthy forgiveness.

hes also SO FUCKING GAY for this dumb little robot. it mauled him so hard he tasted his own blood and he fell in love right there. theres no way this guy has a normal healthy relationship to pain he is soooooooooo fucked. i love him. please vote for Gabriel "patron saint of gay lapsed catholics" Ultrakill !!!!!!!!

Shadow

In sonic destruction (the AI generated fan thing snapcube made a while ago) shadow was catholic or something which I think is reallyyyyyyy funny

Ok listen. I know this is a stretch but hear me out. He says “oh my God” in the Twitter takeovers so we know this is a possibility. I see him as a Christ-like figure because I saw his whole confrontation with Mephiles and was like “this is a thing that happened in the Bible??” and the pose Mephiles shows him in is literally like a crucifixion and Mephiles is meant to be a demon / false prophet reference. And also he’s called a demon in Shadow The Hedgehog 2005 then the guy who calls him that is like “I was wrong I’m sorry” and that also reminds me of a thing with Jesus in The Bible. But the biggest reason is his whole thing with Maria cause I think he’d come to earth and hear Ave Maria once and convert to Catholicism idk he’s like we’re comforted by a female familial figure named Mary sometimes called Maria?? And her color is blue????? Heck yeah I’m in because I Will Cry. Also feel free to share this as propaganda obv even if he doesn’t get in the bracket just. It’s funny.

I feel like he’d battle a lot with being seen or portrayed as a demon and how the aliens he’s related to very much look and act like demons idk lmao- and also I feel like confession would just be good for him I think he needs it for his mental health

There is a debate on the lovely website tunblr that Shadow T. Hedgehog is an allegory for Jesus Christ.

He is Jesus, idk what to tell you. He lived, he was sealed away, he was awakened again and deemed the ultimate lifeforms, he’s angry but not evil, does what he believes is best for people and the world at any given time. Total loser.

[johnslittlespoon]

this is pure thinking out loud lol but i saw another clip for the bikeriders the other day, and it made me do some thinking about my leaving!bikeriders au because it gave me some info i wasn't aware of (in my unsuccessful. fuck u random instagram commenter attempts to avoid movie spoilers.) no spoilers ahead tho, just what's been made available in trailers/interviews!

in a promo clip, austin's character benny is referred to as "some kid", and he's apparently meant to be 19 (i think a good chunk of time passes throughout the movie, but i'm just going on little things i've heard lol so we'll see when it drops!)

so i was thinking it would be interesting to view the events of the movie as stuff that happens in gale's past in this au, since i'm thinking he's maybe mid to late 30s in it. obv depends on what actually takes place in the movie, because like i said in this post, i don't think i'm gonna focus too hard on violence or some super elaborate action–packed backstory, it's not really my strength/vibe when writing.

but along the lines of gale being vague when john tries to pry into his past/how he got into the whole biking thing, and maybe some sort of event where his past catches up to him in some way, it would be fun to pull inspiration from the film and use something from it as a thing that might've happened to gale when he was younger.

it threw me for a loop finding out how young he's meant to be in the movie (i really was trying to avoid watching clips and stuff for a bit so i could go in blind minus the main trailers but i am a weak man LOL) but being able to possibly play off the events/timeline in the film to worldbuild for this au could actually be kinda sick and also make my life a lot easier because action is not my strong suit :') inch resting!

*oo eta: that clip we see in all the trailers where benny gets his shit rocked at the bar? gale in this au having a time–faded scar over his cheekbone or smth from that incident? john always tracing his finger over it when they're cuddling and wanting to ask but knowing gale clams up whenever he tries to learn about his past?

[leoremin]

I just finished watching the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen...and I have...thoughts (along with some bad grammar)

This is an overall negative post, so if you don't like that keep scrolling. If you like this movie, go ahead and scroll on past if you don't want to read this. If you want to debate me, then hell, go ahead, I might be wrong in some areas and I'm fully willing to admit that. I'd love to see anyone's take on this movie.

To say real quick, I haven't finished reading Dracula (over 1/2 through tho), Sherlock Holmes, 4 billion leagues under the sea, and a few others.

Also...spoilers...obv

(last note: I am not against retellings or that stuff, I'm just rating it on MY OPINION of these little guys and all that stuff. This is depending on how much I like them from just a writers sense.)

Tbh I really love the idea of crossovers, I love so much seeing the babies all together (I am working on a crossover myself so...) but I feel like this one was just...mediocre

First up Jekyll!

Number one, assuming this takes place after the novella, that is not how HJ7 works. Jekyll turning back into Hyde is not right then. At that point, Henry would be living on a timer rather than Hyde.

Also, little pet peeve...THE POTION SHOULD BE GREEN!!!! THE POTION'S FINAL COLOUR IS GREEN AND THEY MADE IT CLEAR!!!

Also Jekyll is a doctor, he acts like the fucking wimpy Swiss man from Frankenstein. Jekyll is meant to be a (mentally) strong man who experimented on himself and kept good notes during the whole thing. He is a doctor; he is used to seeing some shit.

Also...why would you make Hyde look like that? One of the few clear physical descriptions in the book is that Hyde is much shorter than Jekyll, but he's...hulkish. I don't like that because it takes the monstrosity away, pinning it all on looks and not on action.

Also why Paris? Why did Hyde run to Paris? There wasn't really a reason for him to do that in a writing sense.

Upside: At least he continues to run on rooftops. All Hydes run on rooftops; it is not optional.

Next on the Chopping block is Dorian.

For a moment there, I really thought they ruined Dorian, but hell yeah! They kinda did it!

I wish they'd had another actor to play him, since the dark hair makes him look a little malicious, which is quite the opposite of what he's supposed to look like. He's supposed to be a child-like and innocent; deceiving.

Also...what the fuck was his ending?? Like he doesn't perish if he looks at the portrait. It literally says earlier that "the last time [he] looked at the picture" which literally contradicts what happens later. He can look at the picture, but chooses not to.

I am glad they decided to not have him redeem himself. That fits a little closer to the book.

For Mina!

Quick thing: I have not yet finished reading Dracula, so I have no clue what's happening there or why she's the vampire (please don't spoil it) so I won't say anything on that (cough cough...should've been Carmilla)

I don't like making women the sole love interest. It feels weird. Literally three people liked her (well only 2, Dorian was pretending) out of five. Make it interesting, make it something someone would ship...there is literally no chemistry between any of them (except Dorian, and we don't even get a proper "oh yeah I hooked up with him" moment. It's only implied. When did that happen???). Also, Mina isn't that kind of person. She's (in book) not looking for romance in that sense, she had a husband, and I'm pretty sure she'd probably stay faithful to him even after death.

Speaking of Chemistry, why tf is she a chemist? Jekyll should've been the chemist. Mina is literally known for being able to write in shorthand, and they could've used that to her advantage. Again, please excuse this if somehow Mina does become a scientist after Dracula, but considering people's views on women in that time period, it's unlikely.

Skinner:

I think that's his name...idk. I have not read the Invisible Man, but why would they kill off Griffin? Like Jekyll dies, but he doesn't have a replacement. I can't say much since I haven't read the book.

I think that's all.

Thank you coming to my Little Leo lecture, and I hope anyone reading agrees, or can hopefully handle this as a mature adult. If you have other thoughts on this movie (whether they agree with mine or not) go ahead and share them, I'd be thrilled.

I may update this as I have things to say, but idk.

[rmbunnie]

Watched GOTG3 on friday! Here are some of my personal thoughts (spoilers obvs):

- I really liked it, first of all. To be honest, Rocket is my fave of the group alongside Nebula. I just think they’re neat, and I like characters that cause drama. If there’s no personality traits that are a little abrasive and offputting, then i’m not saying that’s a flaw, but perhaps i am saying its a bit of a missed opportunity. This is probably one of the reasons I am still interested in GOTG when most of the mcu is a bit worn out to me, there’s this neat focus on why they’re acting the way they are and letting their reasoning steer the story to a good extent rather than using it like an add-on (especially if the way they’re acting is flat out dickish,) and I think that’s a fun approach. All this to say, Rocket is one of my faves, and so a movie largely focused around his character is pretty interesting to me by default.

- The hallway fight was great. Loved it no notes a plus.

- I really liked the tardigrade suits on the tech planet-meteor-lab thing! They looked weird and offputting, don’t get me wrong, but space suits that are visually inspired by the creature that can naturally survive the void of space, boiling temperatures, and so much else are REALLY well-suited (haha) to the organic planet founded by the man who uses existing creatures as the bases of his "creations.” I can absolutely picture the High Evolutionary learning about a tardigrade and being like “hell yeah i just came up with a GREAT and original idea”

- I also liked the organic planet. Very cool the meat was so gross and the eye motif was fun.

- I have mixed thoughts on Adam Warlock, but mainly positive. I think that with the amount of things that were happening in the movie some of the scenes that were necessary for his development made the runtime drag a little and lose some momentum, but I’d rather have them than not have them. He was funny, and the creation of Adam posing at the end was both fun, cool to look at, and kinda something to think about, seeing as he was the one taking the place of god, but he is also the one named Adam. Maybe the idea there was that the first good act he does is the birth of his own humanity, as in existence as a person or as anything more than a passive invention? Or maybe they just thought it would be fun haha. Regardless, the idea of the divine being the one who can gain something through contact with the human is a sentiment that fits in the movie about the dude who plays god via animal cruelty but lacks what his "lesser” creations have and can never get it due to his failure to recognize their personhood idk.

-The ending is how it should have been imo. I know it’s so so sad to see a found family leave each other and it bums us out, and I am bummed out best believe but particularly in the case of Peter, Drax, and Mantis, it seems like what the movie was going for (if you’re taking the latter two’s writing as anything past comic relief which, like, of course I am) is that being in the Guardians was keeping them from evolving into the people that they were meant to grow into, and stunting their potential. Again, very relevant with the High Evolutionary, evolving people against their will isn’t right but remaining frozen in time isn’t natural. It was nice to see them get unstuck.

- Speaking of evolution and the characters, Gamora seemed like she had a little divergent character evolution thing going on, with 2014 as her sorta common ancestor. The ravagers seemed a little out of nowhere but not the the extent that it was unbelievable. “I bet we were fun” was really sweet. It’s nice to see her gain some of the things that she had before the time travel death bullshit personality-wise, the idea that she would always end up kinder and happier when she was free of Thanos (who i hate btw, not even as a character although that too, there was just NOTHING interesting done with him the whole goddamn franchise) than when she was with him is not something it takes a genius to figure out, but it’s still good to see. It’s also worth considering that original Gamora had to choose to be free of Thanos everyday and work with the consequences of his actions while 2014 Gamora was brought into a world where Thanos was gone regardless of her feelings or actions. This is kinda explored in the movie, and neither Gamora is bad, but I feel like its very important characterization-wise to understand that she didn’t fight to leave and struggle in doing so the same way original Gamora did, and so their worldviews are different, too, not only their experiences. To original Gamora the Guardians were fundamental to her indepence, without Peter she wouldn’t have gotten the orb so easily and without Rocket and Groot she might not have survived the Kyln. To 2014 Gamora, Thanos is out of the way and now these other people are kinda just here.

- Gamora dying in Infinity War or Endgame or whichever it fucking was was bullshit and i won’t debate on that but it is funny to see the directors of the mcu doing the exact same thing comic writers have been doing forever coordination-wise. Trying to work with the absolute trash that’s going on in the concurrently-running title is a comic struggle that transcends medium. GOTG did pretty well with it.

- I loved the High Evolutionary! Of course, not as a person, he’s the worst, but he was consistently really interesting to watch and his actor did a really really good job with him! The religious-type traits were really interesting, and specifically his bit with the opera song and music and how he valued literature and art was really interesting and not to be too jojo in marvel but it kinda gave me Dio or Pucci vibes. That’s the type of weirdass tangent one of them would say (specifically their convos with each other or the Pucci Hallelujah moment.) Everyone has already said more than i could say about his weird evolution-genetics shit but it remains weird. 

- “There is no god, thats why i stepped in!!1!” and the bit wheres he’s scrambling to the cage where Rocket is to find out how he knew the filtration system thing were two particular highlights of his character for me. He is messy and emotional and all over the place, and he thinks he is perfection incarnate. His emotional outbursts add humor and are a big part of what makes him interesting and fun to watch, but he would ridicule them in any other being. This is proof that the High Evolutionary is a hypocrite with poor taste.

- Ayesha dead. She was a bitch but she slayed. she will be missed, for the comedy of those fucking gold lenses was a highlight of GOTG2 for me.

- Rocket is a creep. Rocket is a weirdo. What the hell is he doing here. The Radiohead singalong in the beginning was so fun. I loved it so much, genuinely. 

- Lylla, Teefs and Floor were. so much. Everyone says they’re sad, and of course they are, but the whole thing was offputting too. Not as in like “oh they’re so gross” the vibe was just horrifying and sorta nightmarish because it’s not like you think they’re gonna make it out, you see Rocket in GOTG the first and you know there’s absolutely nobody with him but Groot. The scream was, a lot, and very well voiced, I guess? It seems weird to say, it’s not like, oh wow cinema i loved the part where his friends died and he screamed as he watched them get shot in his face but i felt my stomach drop in that theater even though i fully knew it was coming so i guess what i’m saying is mission accomplished you did the thing the way the thing was meant to be and it gave me bone nausea.

- Also it has been pointed out before it is not original thought of mine but the cage death scream vs the dance party scream. I’m thinking about that. Similarly in the sense that i’ve seen it mentioned but I keep thinking about it, the Dog Days are Over was quite a choice, seeing the zune scroll to the most recent decade it has was, bittersweet, or cathartic i guess? They can finally just move through time, they get to be growing people again now. I love the Dog Days are Over. I love Florence.

- On the Lylla topic, everyone’s been saying this sad quote made them sad or that sad quote bummed them out but the thing that got me most was “We were right. The sky is beautiful, and it is forever.” in the final dream sequence. Idk why that one particularly got me like that, heaven and the sky as a pair is a pretty common concept, eternity is just hefty I guess. Compared to the cage though, I’m glad they get such a nice place to be.

- We got “vocabulistics” and now we have “emotionallistic problems.” In GOTG 1 I could give him the plausible deniability of smushing together “linguistics” and “vocabulary” but no, Rocket just likes putting “ballistics” inside words. As is his prerogative. 

- I like how weird and retro some of the sci-fi elements are. The movie isn’t just a rehashing of older sci-fi concepts of course, it implements the retro elements interestingly and makes them fresh, but mad scientist experiments and unnatural experiment beings in a slightly more horror/negative approach is like RETRO retro sci-fi, like heavy book Frankenstein original first-ever sci-fi, so it was interesting to see past sci-fi incorporated into story elements in addition to world aesthetics and soundtracks like we’ve already seen. It’s nothing new to say GOTG has a bit of a 70s vibe just as a franchise, which I absolutely adore, but particularly counter-earth has a kinda “wouldn’t it be fucked up if that happened” vibe to it that I think is really fun. We got meat planet. We got animal planet. Lets go. This is peak fiction.

- Speaking of GOTG being retro-esque this trilogy LOOOVES that fucking yellow slime. Every movie there is a prominent yellow slime feature, it’s the most consistent character in the mcu. Did they accidentally order too much on movie 1 and save the rest for later? It kills me. 

-Speaking of, it’s very funny to me that they end up living on Knowhere. Like in the grand scheme of things. They did well with it, they have lovely homes with nice tables and blankets and lamps and such but like. Imagine you break out of jail and you go to kill time at some shady weirdo planet because the guy who wants to buy your orb is there, and the guy who wants to buy your orb is also Spongebob. You call up the guy who killed your family while you’re there and he stabs you and throws you into the yellow goo to die. The weird guy you’re stuck with breaks down and gets in a fight with you and threatens to shoot you in the face after doing this weird venty monologue that you don’t get at all. This is all one night. Nine years pass and you’re besties and you live there. The goo vat you got thrown in is probably like two blocks away because the planet is kinda small. Idk it just doesn’t seem like that would give homey vibes to me but they made it work and i commend that!

- Overall it was a good movie. I definitely have some thoughts that I’m missing but the thing about situations like that is that I can’t remember them. I will be bummed that the trilogy has ended but things end and this is life. Oh well. It ended well.

- Oh one more thing but the High Evolutionary ultimately lacking creativity was really interesting. All he can ever do is use bits and pieces of things that already exist so he can’t ever achieve what he would consider true perfection, because he can’t appreciate anything that exists due to its inherent and unavoidable flawed nature, and since his “inventions” are based only on preexisting stuff the flaws aren’t going anywhere. When he does come up with something worthwhile he effectively discards it because he doesn’t understand what makes it special, he just knows that it has something that he doesn’t and he’ll destroy it and eventually ruin what was good about it in the first place in the pursuit of replication, so if he ever did achieve perfection he wouldn’t even be able to do anything with it. The one thing he makes that he values, the only thing he can think to do is copy it and ruin it. His mindset won’t allow ingenuity because his pursuit of something without flaws can only ever be informed of traits he’s already seen in flawed beings. He owes everything he ever did accomplish to the flawed. If he wants something perfect so bad he should have at least tried to start from scratch (it would have been a move of immense hubris but obviously he’s not above that) but he can’t, because not only is he uncreative but like Rocket points out, he doesn’t even want perfection, he just hates everything the way it is. 

[discet]

Hi, ❤️ for the ask game?

Fanfic Writing Ask Meme

❤️ What is your favorite line that you’ve written in a fic?

Ugh this one stumped me for a bit! I have a lot that I really enjoyed writing, been spending over an hour just looking through old writing. Gonna just do a few with different characters

Spoilers obv.

awiw19: Sprig: "Don't worry Marcy," Sprig said, coming to stand next to her in solidarity, "Us girl-likers can stick together."

aAA03: Polly: "So the plan is arson?" Polly asked. “Sweet! Can I hold the torch?"

awiw10 Hop Pop: "But even if you hadn't done all that," Hop Pop added, "We would still want you around. You know why?" Marcy looked up, waiting for an answer. Hop Pop’s voice became gentle, fatherly, "because you are a sweet, earnest, and kind girl; who finds wonder in everything around her." He rubbed at her back in comfort.

aAA04 Sasha: Sasha could see it in his eyes. He wasn't lying. He was willing to die a martyr if it meant rallying the toads against her and her friends. However, there was one slight miscalculation he had made.  You needed witnesses to be a martyr.

awiw15 Anne: "That it was a phase and we'd soon go back to... to playing games and watching movies like we used to... but then you asked me to take the music box and..." her lip quivered, "and I thought, 'Oh... this is just what we do now...'" Anne's athletic frame, that always seemed so strong to Marcy, shook as she looked down to the ground. "This is what I was for now..." 

Marcy obviously has a lot but I don't think any were as important to her characterization in the AU than the following

awiw12 Marcy: "I'm sorry for what's about to happen."

[eunchancorner]

EDWORL BOY HCS

OKI OKI SO HERE WE GO

REGULAR HCS

-Tord isn't JUST a bacon lover. He's a meat lover in general. FAR opposite of vegan, this man is

-Matt is pan. I don't make the rules

-Tom talks to the house on a daily basis. We already knew this boi could communicate with inanimate objects including whole buildings so yea-

-ALSO Matt got so pissed when he realized vampirism meant no mirrors so he forced Edd and Tom to come with him to find a way to put an end to it which led to them using the necronomicon on the off chance it might work.

-Spoiler alert: It did.

-They can't die. You can kill them, but they don't die. Kind of a Percy Jackson situation, yk?

-The tank is a very common substitute for the car just bc, well, it's a TANK

-Edd is a screamy memey boi

-*casually shoves TomMatt in here* Matt prefers Tom over almost everyone. We see in canon how Matt doesn't like Edd that much but kinda admires Tom? Yea, that, but make them dating.

-Snuggle piles. All the time.

-Did I mention Edd and Matt are very affectionate and drag Tom into the snuggle piles? Bc that's what usually happens

TICKLE HCS

-Tord's worst spots are his hips and armpits

-Try to tickle him and you're gonna be the one laughing

-But if you're a close friend, he might go easy on you and let him. If not, you have to catch him by surprise

-EVIL ler, but the squirmiest lee, bro's yet another glass cannon

-Sometimes forgets how to English when being tickled and starts speaking Norwegian

-Tom's worst spot is his armpits (He hates that he shares a worst spot with Tord so don't bring it up)

-VERY scrunchy boi

-SUPER embarrassed about being ticklish, denies it despite the amount of tickle fights he's had with his friends

-Does, in fact, have a favorite lee (it's Matt ofc)

-Totally took advantage of the hole Edd cut in Matt's hoodie in the National Quilt Day art-

-Smallest = easy to pick up = lifting him up and wiggling fingers under his arms = DEATH BC HE CAN'T FIGHT BACK

-Matt's worst spot is his ribs (I mean have you read what I write lmao)

-Also scrunchy, he can't help it, he doesn't wanna push the ler away but also it TICKLESSSSS

-Unapologetic tickle lover

-Also the sweetest but most flustering ler my godddddddd

-Basically compliments you the whole time bc that's what he wants

-Snuggles after tickles are MANDATORY with this man

-He snorts when tickled enough it's beautiful

-Has a favorite ler (Tom obv)

-Absolutely uses the fact that he used to be a vampire against you, nibbles are his personal favorite

-And, finally, the man you've all been waiting forrrrrr,

-Edd's worst spot is his tum

-The BIGGEST ler in the household, starts all the tickle fights, typically wins them too, and launches the most random attacks

-Also usually the target of revenge for such reasons

-Will often use dumb excuses to tickle someone or just straight up draw on them

-Take the last cola and you WILL face his ticklish wrath

-Matt and Tom can attest to how terrifying he is when that happens so just... probably don't unless you're in the mood to get utterly wrecked.

That's all I got so far, y'all feel free to reblog with some of your own

[corellianhounds]

Go on. Be free. Give us the commentary ⭐️

So I decided to go with a self-contained one-shot and chose Nightfall

(Summary for the story is a revised look at how Grogu was rescued during Order 66, and those events being what spurred him to heal somebody for the first time)

Spoilers below!

To begin with, the title Nightfall is a play on Operation Knightfall, the attack on the Jedi Temple during Order 66, giving the audience the setting. Order 66 happens in the evening, and one of the things I look for when writing any character (but here especially children) is what they’re afraid of; kids aren’t just afraid of the dark, but the danger they believe is lurking in the dark.

So the idea for the story came from the question “What would have compelled the child to display a rarely-found Force power like healing for the first time?” Healing another person’s injury is already a step beyond the child’s typical developmental years; children his age don’t typically know how to successfully help an injured person because they wouldn’t have the means, life experience, or awareness to do so. Children are meant to be taken care of. The fact the child is fifty in The Mandalorian means he would have been about twenty during Order 66; if we estimate by Yoda being 900 when he dies to mean he’s the equivalent of about ninety in human years, it would mean their species ages one-tenth of the rate we do— The child is about toddler-aged in the show but even if we round his fifty years up to about five years old, it still puts him at about two years old at the Temple. We know Force-sensitive children were found at very young ages and brought to the temple for training, but those formative years were going to be largely spent simply raising them. The child would have been taken care of and unlikely to be subjected to any rigorous training or even beginner’s combat

Which means it’s incredibly unlikely he would have been around anybody who sustained significant injuries of their own. Taking care of somebody else is a developmental stage that only comes after we’ve grown to the point of being able to take care of ourselves, and then developed the understanding that there are other people younger/less able than us who could use our help. The most he would have seen would have been initiates and padawans scuffed from training, or adults in passing who were already on their way to the infirmaries or healing halls. Neither of those are dire enough scenarios to prompt that level of effort from him

So naturally, what significant event could have happened in Grogu’s young life that would have not only exposed him to gravely injured people, but compelled him to help them?

One of the reasons for changing the child’s escape from what’s seen in TBoBF and Mando Season 3 is that I’ve always thought the depictions of the attack on the temple don’t really get into the viciousness of the attack, especially regarding the children. Obvs Lucas didn’t want RotS to have an R-rating and Disney+ isn’t going to focus on a bunch of kids getting gunned down, but I was dissatisfied in how the attack was shot in the Kenobi show especially since its depiction there was focused on the kids. Between Kenobi, RotS, and S3 of Mando I think the scenes of the Temple could have done a better job showing the urgency, chaos, and danger of what was happening on ground level. The Jedi are completely caught off guard and it’s utter chaos as they try and fail to escape. Part of writing Nightfall was to make the danger less of a bird’s eye view and more of a first person POV so the danger is a lot closer and more visceral. I toned down the initial scene of Grogu being carried by the older boy as the children try to flee because I do try to keep within the tone of whatever source material I’m writing from, but it could have honestly been a lot darker. I may go back and add to it at some point.

Grogu noticing and recognizing Anakin comes from a longer criticism I have of the flashback being used in TBoBF and how it was done with Luke: there doesn’t seem like there’s a reason to make the kid relive that memory if Luke wasn’t also going to see it. It has no bearing on the rest of Grogu’s training or Luke making him choose between two parts of his life, identity, and who he considers to be his family.

What would it have been like if Luke “Famously Not Attached to His Own Father” Skywalker had seen Knightfall, led by his own father, from the perspective of a child that night? How would Luke have been affected seeing Anakin himself killing dozens of children? What conflict does that introduce in Luke? How does it affect his relationship with Ahsoka and what she says about Anakin? What story elements could have been explored if the writers had actually thought about the implications of what they included in the show?

That story couldn’t be told in The Book of Boba Fett not only because there wasn’t time, but because Luke shouldn’t have been included in the first place because he draws too much attention away from the main characters of the shows he shows up in. I already don’t think Luke should have been included at all, and I think the way he was was done poorly. At that point just cut him out and streamline your story without tying it to a pillar of the original source material because you’re not even including him in a meaningful way when you do

I had Grogu seeing Anakin as more wraith-like and less like a man, alluding to the descriptions I’ve seen of Sith being more like creatures once they’ve lost that humanity, and when I initially wrote the first draft of it I had written Anakin with a red saber. The exact wording I had was “a bloodshine blade,” which I really like the sound of, and for a moment I considered keeping it red anyway since it was already an AU of canon, completely forgetting the entire part of the original trilogy where Luke was given Anakin’s lightsaber 😆😅 My compromise to keeping it blue was that I was able to describe it as “a sky-blue blade,” instead, the description a nod to Anakin’s last name, which I still find narratively satisfying in a different way

(It also left room for me to note the color of Grogu’s blanket being red like it is in the show, something I think ties him to the flashbacks Din has of his childhood where he and his people are wearing red robes)

I really did and do love Kelleran Beq’s character. His entrance and actions were so strong and heroic and I knew I was going to keep him as the one who rescued Grogu from the temple, and I wanted to focus more on him as a person and cut out the speeder chase to the rendezvous because I didn’t feel like those were necessary. I wanted to strike the balance between somebody lethally efficient with a blade and still careful and capable enough he could fight one-handed while cradling a child. He and Din are mirrors of each other in that way, and I wanted Beq’s steadiness and resolve under incredible duress to be the haven Grogu clung to in the storm. It’s a dichotomy I really admire in the warrior hero types and I enjoyed getting the chance to write it

(This may seem like a crass thing to note, but I found as I was writing that “Master Beq” didn’t… sound right 😅 I changed it to Master Kelleran and used Beq or his title on its own in other areas to keep it from being repetitive. Pro tip for writers: See what your writing sounds like when read out loud and you’ll find the edits to make your story read and sound smoother as a result.)

I also wanted to change the first thing Kelleran says to the boy because the line “Everything’s gonna be alright, kid,” is… patently false, given the circumstances. Even if he and Grogu escape unharmed, Grogu knows objectively that everything is not okay and will never be the same again. Having Kelleran say “I’ve got you, child. We’re going to get out of here.” is confident, truthful, reassuring, and gives Grogu an understanding of their objective. Kelleran isn’t staying to continue fighting the clones— He’s there to get Grogu to safety.

Following that with the brief moment he has mourning the fallen padawan who’d carried Grogu that far was important to show that dichotomy again, the sorrow and tenderness of a master seeing another life cut short but still owed the acknowledgement of their death paired with the understanding and clear mind of someone who keeps their cool in the heat of battle and unforeseen betrayal. I wanted to be sure to capture how adaptable and adept Kelleran was; Grogu needed a sense of hope in the most chaotic and heartbreaking time of his young life

I’d had the visual of a Jedi master or student choosing to leap from the temple towers out and down to the Coruscant cityscape below for a while, and I figured there was no time like the present. It stands out to me for a number of reasons, and I like the contrast of Grogu being held to his protector’s shoulder as they escape in a controlled fall, versus Din as a child being held to his protector’s shoulder as they fly upward to safety. I specifically had Beq tell Grogu “Hold onto me,” because I also imagine that to be the second thing Din’s rescuer said to him as he picked him up and they flew away.

When referencing the Force I tend to use terms that refer to the ocean because I write it as a force of nature. No one can command the depth and breadth of the ocean no matter how hard they try; staying near land and near others on the shore is the light side of the Force since you are in a place where your ventures into the sea are still able to remain under your control, provided you have the right understanding and techniques, and it means you are capable of seeing the bottom and reaching those who are drowning or lost at sea. To me the dark side of the Force is the temptation of more power the farther out you go. The dark side promises immense power, but it’s easy to be swept up in the current and pulled out far beyond your reach and understanding. By the time you realize you’ve succumbed to temptation by taking small steps further and further out into the water, it may be too late to escape (Unless somebody is able to reach you with a lifeline and pull you back in). The phrases “a tidal wave of force,” “waves of sorrow and grief ebbing like the tide,” a hurricane, “a harbor in the storm,” and describing Grogu’s instinct to heal like “a fish knowing how to swim” were all done purposefully in the scenes where Beq and Grogu use the Force (even in the background).

Beq having a laceration on his arm is meant to parallel the one Din has in Season 1, episode 2 when the child tries to heal him for the first time.

The phrasing “fate’s design changed just enough” is a nod to the song Rapunzel sings in Tangled when she heals somebody:

“Heal what has been hurt;

Change the Fates’ design;

Save what has been lost;

Bring back what once was mine.”

And I think that’s all the big points! Thanks for letting me ramble! 💕

Director’s Cut Ask Game

[ywrbwgwn]

P3-P4 spoilers!!!!!!

A while ago I used to joke about them getting together if they were in the same game because they're both 'cels, however

The more I think about it the more I realize how similar Toriumi & Adachi are past the surface level, it's like the two were unironically meant for each other. Both are around their late twenties and don't have much going on in their lives past social pressure to find a husband/wife and end up befriending the protagonist on their free time as somebody to complain to about how boring being an adult is. They both develop stalker crushes they have pretty unsavory intentions towards that make them abuse their positions to get to (Toriumi never does obv but she was thinking about it) thinking they'll finally find the one to fix them in P3MC for Toriumi and Mayumi for Adachi, and it doesn't end well either way. It all sounds like a funny coincidence with the cringefailwoman who sucks at grooming as a side character and the whole ass villain who has some funny moments anyway, but it's not a coincidence to me. I just KNOW someone on that writing board felt they were kinda close in personality.

[the-al-chemist]

Unusual writer asks: BTS on the Hexley Saga!

[ellie-e-marcovitz ☺️]

Thanks for asking! 💛 Choosing just one scene from the entirety of THS is impossible, so I’m going with the prologue AND the epilogue for the sake of completeness! (They go hand in hand anyway…)

Unusual Writers Asks are Here!

Prologue - November, 1981

It started with the fireworks.

And so it begins, 5 words down, 500,000 to go. Though these are the first words of the Saga, they weren’t the first that were written; the prologue was actually the last chapter I wrote for Mystery at Hogwarts! In fact, I didn’t write this chapter until I’d written the first drafts for the first four instalments of the Saga and gone back and rewritten the whole of MaH (literally, scrapped most of it because it was rubbish and started over). Once I had done that, I felt like I needed a framing device, and so this scene was added.

“Where are you going?”

A small voice called out through the darkness. Jacob turned around, and saw the outline of a small girl sitting on the windowsill, her face illuminated by the flashes that still came from the sky outside.

Here is our first glimpse of our protagonist. This was another reason I wanted a Jacob perspective prologue, as well as setting the scene, it meant that Artemis was introduced in the story through the eyes of someone else. Having Artemis visually described for the first time in another character’s deep 3rd person narration seemed much more organic than having her describe herself that way, especially as she is a character that doesn’t take much interest in her own appearance.

Since the day she had been born the two of them had been so close that they could tell what the other was thinking.

Oop, foreshadowing.

“Will there be a Niffler in the story, or a dragon?”

More foreshadowing, this time it gets meta.

“Please don’t cry, Missy, you’re making this harder than it already is,” said Jacob, and he walked out of the house before his sister could start to cry or scream. He couldn’t change his mind now.

The front door clicked shut behind him, and he walked down the pale grey steps to the pavement outside the house. Turning back, he saw that Artemis’ little damp face was pressed against the windowpane, her breath fogging up the glass. Jacob pressed his fingers to his lips, and raised his hand to her, before he turned away and walked down Lovelace Crescent, past the terraced houses, and paused at the corner of the road.

Not so much foreshadowing as backshadowing - these are the same words Jacob says to Artemis after she finds and loses him again in PotV. Her reaction this time is different, though, showing how much she has developed in the time he was missing. The path Jacob takes through Hexley family’s house is also echoed in PotV, as Artemis takes the exact same route and pauses at the exact same places as she prepares to leave to spend the summer with the Weasleys, symbolising how she is now following in Jacob’s footsteps. She even apparates away from the same place, though she does so via side-along apparation with Bill. Again, this is deliberate, showing how Bill has started to take Jacob’s role in Artemis’ life, though whereas Jacob left Artemis behind, Bill is taking her with him.

Epilogue - December, 1999

Below the cut, bc spoilers, obv.

It was almost midnight.

As soon as I wrote the prologue, I knew exactly what I wanted for my epilogue - the whole Saga bookended by two scenes that each reflected the other. The countdown to the millennium seemed like an ideal time; 18 years after the prologue so long enough for someone to grow from an infant to an adult in the time in between, and at the end of an era with the promise of a new start. And fireworks. Artemis loves fireworks.

“Did you find your rowan tree alright?”

“Yeah.”

“How was it?”

“Peaceful.”

Rowan’s birthday in my canon was placed on NYE because of this epilogue, so that she would be remembered right until the very end. I can’t remember when I decided on Artemis’ tradition of visiting the tree at sundown each year (it might have been at the same time as deciding on Rowan’s birthday, it might have come later), but the idea of her returning to a tree annually just to be with Rowan for a little while was inspired by the bench in the botanic garden on midsummer’s day in The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman (from whom I expect to receive a lawsuit any day now).

Artemis swallowed hard as she turned away from the boy who looked like Tonks and saw George Weasley setting up the fireworks by himself.

Canon compliance is tough. This hurt me.

Someone asked for the time, and Artemis’ eyes immediately went to her ankle, despite her having not worn a watch on it for years.

I couldn’t not reference the watch. Artemis has come so far and has cut ties with her family by this point, but still her heart pulls towards the history she once had.

Artemis felt a soft pressure on her right cheek, and turned to see Charlie at her side, a small smile playing on his freckled face.

“Happy New Year,” he said quietly, his eyes fixed on the darkened horizon, where more fireworks had started to appear in the distance, some sooner, some later, as other groups of wizards, witches, and Muggles waved goodbye to the previous century and ushered in the new one.

Again, I couldn’t not put this small detail in. I think the majority of my readers have at some point asked me if/when these two will ever get together, and so this little kiss on the cheek is for the Charlie/Artemis shippers. It’s friendly, but if you wanted it to hint at something more, you can read more into it (I know lots of people did). Avid fans of His Dark Materials will pick up on the fact that pattern of the prose in the second paragraph mimics that of the ending of the Amber Spyglass, which is a final nod to the the story that has inspired my writing and my soul more than any other (aside from HP, which is a given).

All alone now, Artemis watched the fireworks and listened to the crackles and whizzes and bangs that were the only noises echoing through the January night. The grass at her feet was damp, the air around her was cold and laced with the scents of pine trees and gunpowder, and her lips still tasted faintly of sloe gin. Her fingers tingled, and her toes were numb, and her pulse coursed through her veins as her heart continued to beat in her chest, reminding her how very alive she was in this moment. Not that she needed the reminder. Right now, standing on Stoatshead Hill at the start of a new year, a new century, a new millennium, she felt more alive and more free than ever.

I didn’t want an “all was well” ending for Artemis. I’m all for nuclear families with 2.5 children born nicely in wedlock with the person you fell in love with as a teen, but that’s not the ending my wild child wanted or deserved. She deserved this: to have her found family around her and have the strength and confidence in them to tell them that she is happy for them to leave her for a little while, in contrast to the prologue in which she begged Jacob to stay. She deserves this moment to just be herself, without the expectations of anyone else around her - and she gets that. The pine, the marzipan/sloe gin, and the gunpowder are all the scents that one would smell in Amortentia if they loved Artemis. She is surrounded only by the very essence of herself in this moment. Everything from “the grass” in this paragraph to “the end” a few later came to me on a run and I stopped to write it all down because I couldn’t bear to forget even a word of it.

And as the last firework disappeared into the night sky, so did Artemis Hexley.

It started with the fireworks, it ended with them, too.

[roxannarambles]

(Discussion of the Sar/Vio DLCs, very minor spoilers for Indigo Disk mentioned)

Somebody on ao3 left a comment on my Teal Mask fic and I had to delete it because it read, "Just so you know, [gives a whole paragraph of spoilers for Part 2 DLC]"

Honestly I found it kind of funny, I mean c'mon, who posts unsolicited spoilers in fanfic comments? Like jeez. Maaaaaybe the author doesn't want spoilers, not to mention the readers seeing the comments might not want them either. 🙄

Anyway they were an unregistered user so I couldn't message them and tell em why their comment got deleted, so if they're readin' here, you know who you are, lol. You probably meant well, it's cool, just show a little restraint next time. Some of us like surprises.

Obvs. I did not read the entire comment but I gathered enough to understand their argument was "part 1 of the DLC didn't have the Paldean pals because they wanted to have the time/space to establish the new characters in Part 1." (And yes, by now I do know that Part 2 will have the Paldean pals) And yeah, I understand the logic there. It does make sense they wanted the chance to establish their new characters. I also understand that in RPGs they want the player character being the center of the plot and the center of the action, so it's just easier to work with fewer characters sometimes.

The thing is, I don't care. I'm going to be salty about our friends being excluded from Part 1 anyway. If I was in charge, I wouldn't have spent the time making new *main* characters for the DLC at all. I would have doubled down on the main characters and the story themes already established in the main game. And any new characters in the DLC would have been purely supportive roles.

Now, the writing for the DLC so far has been good, and I'm not saying the new main characters (the Blueberry siblings) suck. They don't. I'm simply saying that I would still rather have the full DLC story with the Paldean Pals than getting brand-new stars, in an ideal world. Pokemon loves to make up tonnnnns of characters but they have a hard time actually fleshing those characters out. It was so nice to see them focusing on fleshing stuff out a little in S/V's main game, so I just wanna see that continue, ya know?

Enough rambling from me tho. Part 2 may be good enough that I'll forgive everything anyway. :D

(Probably not, my standards are waaay too high and I accept this fact)

[digimonandpokemon]

YESS we can, I've never seen anything but good reviews for this book, and by reviews I meant a bunch of tropes listed that don't actually tell me nothing about the plot so, please, please share with us about your reading experience thank <3

Aksjdmdkzkjdd alright alright I shall share my reading experience of this book through the lense of an asexual person who really likes fantasy novels because I think world building is really cool and could only read like a few chapters before getting so frustrated with it, it is hiding in the back of my book shelves :)

Spoilers obvs ajdhkdkd

Number one, there is very little world building. The author kind of explains things but it is obviously not the authors main focus cause most of the world building we get is "There's elves :) and they have magic :0 and won't you know it, they hate humans !!!" We also learn that all of elves are cursed to wear masquerade masks for their entire lives which is explained to us with the emotional depth of that one scene in trolls.

Number two, the elves hate the humans except this very mysterious handsome elven prince that has taken an interest in this one main character because he just "see something in her 😊" we learn that the elves live excluded from the rest of the world, divided off by a giant wall. The book obviously makes you feel like the main character is going to be the key to making the elves and the humans live in harmony again. Because duh.

Number three, do not take this as a stab towards the main character. I personally think she's a great main character who's head strong and does what she needs to to survive. She's make the perfect main character for any fantasy novel but since I personally don't like romance novels and I always see romance as "pulling the main character down into a love interest" it just doesn't do it for me. I mean she was a little a bland but I think that's just how the writing is. Which leads me into

Number 4, the writing is very one dimensional. I feel like the author was trying to make the writing interesting and powerful but they fell short and it was just kinda meh. For example after the main character kills a wolf and sells the hide we are lead to belive its a fay. So the author brings in this bad ass huntress who is covered in battle scars and has seen horrors beyond the compression of our mortal minds. The main character sells the wolf hide to her and asks if its a fey after the huntress gives some ominous warning that the elves were beginning to grow a lot more brave, getting closer and closer to towns. She's like "hmm it doesn't look like to be a fey hide but it is an impressive game :]" and you're like great! No author would purposefully mislead us like that after bringing in a clearly experienced character that seems to know what their talking about. Because if they did that would just be a waste of a scene a waste of a character and a waste of my time because that is just sloppy writing. I mean come on hahahaha

Oh fucking wait it was an elf this entire time! Haha! The author sure did trick you! Hahaha! And there other small details that are super inconsistent that I do not want to get into.

I was recommended this book multiple times and it's really popular so obviously there must be a reason and I personally didn't get very far into the book. My judgment just might not be fully flushed out and I may eventually go back and try to read more. It just doesn't do it for me.

However, if you want a YA fantasy series that I 100% recommend you should definitely give Odin's Child a try!!

I read the book in 2 days I couldn't put it down. It's got a good female protagonist with a a really well written out slow burn in it (so good that I even vibe with it which is hard for me to do) and this series kind of pulls a reverse on you. The world its describing is considered normal, yet OUR world is considered strange and hell like. There a three books in total and I'm only the second, but if the other two are like the first one I have no doubts it'll be good. The writing is really well thought out, the world building is so so good. It builds off of classic troupes and flips it right on its head.

I won't spoil anything just in case lmaoo

Anyways I'm done ranting and it is time for me to sleep :) gn

[d0d0-b0i]

ohohohoho !!! watched a playthrough. game good :) more thoughts below (spoilers obv)

AUGH. AUUGHAUGHHGAGHHH. eugh. oof. i am biting you i am biting steam i am biting sega fuck that noise of wanting to be serene and calm abt not getting to play it blindly I WANT TO HAVE PLAYED THIS BLINDLY SO BAD. i wish it did not have to have happened this way. regardless, i am going to talk about frontiers and my opinions :)

i really liked the story! loved the characters, although eggman becoming a dad was a biit too fast for my tastes. sage is fun, i like her as well and hope she shows up in later material (idw please add her in PLEASE i am begging give eggman 5 kids and only two that he actually cares for that is SO FUCKING FUNNY ahfhsdfoia)

ian flynn wrote the story, and it is quite clear that he did! in love with how he consistently gets brought on by sega to fix the messes they caused in their storytelling due to not paying enough attention (or too much) on what was going on in the writing room. love how this game confronts at least a bit what happened in forces, and how it has affected the main characters, and if they are this intent on not scrubbing forces out of the timeline, i hope they manage to adjust the characters properly down the line so that its clear that sega are willing to admit fault and try to make things better.

my little guys, my little creachers. the voice direction was so good eugh. sonic. he. i. he is in my head now. my little guy :>. i loved his character in this game, and i also loved the interactions he had with his friends!!!! MAN. i casually ship sonknux now. you telling me sonamy is meant to be reciprocated when sonic looks at knuckles LIKE THAT? sonamy is kinda cute in this too, but i still do not see it? i tried, sorry lmao. was definitely not expecting tails addressing explicitly how he sees himself and his self-worth. little man you are EIGHT chill THE FUCK OUT!!!! him and sonic had so many good moments i am going to die from how well-fed i am istg

also, tangle and sticks being canon to the main timeline now? i vibe w/ it! i wanna see how they pull off integrating them properly, but either way im excited!

also seems like the next few games might be a bit empty from the main characters besides sonic, in a good way? amy, knuckles, and tails are all gonna sightsee or whatever, so maybe that might be the time where other characters can shine, like the rest of the gigantic sonic cast that already exists (3000 sonic characters my beloveds....) i wonder if sega will try to change any character designs because of this, i think it would be neat! maybe since they removed the ages, they might even age some characters up from being perpetually 6-8, although maybe not! (brand recognition and all that)

soundtrack is stellar, although i will probably appreciate it more when i can hear it on spotify or something.

all-in-all, i get the 7.5-8/10 reviews. the game really is that, no lower or higher, which is very good in my opinion! ending was a bit weak compared to the beginning, but i feel as if that is a small price to pay for paving the way to sonic games in the future that get to be handled with the love and care they deserve. maybe sega will realize that they should be adventurous again, and be willing to take risks. wish i could play this game 😔.

[ranger-kellyn]

i said i wasn't going to write an essay, but i ended up writing an essay anyway

so, here, my official review of scarlet and violet. obv major spoilers below. also, unfortunately, it's mostly negative, so be mindful of that. at the end of the day, the only thing i can say i loved about the games were the characters-

and even then, my love of the characters doesn't feel...idk if genuine is the word i'm looking for, but something along that vein. like. the story i was writing in my head during my second playthrough was more enjoyable than the actual playthrough itself. i love the version of the characters who live in my head -- but i really have to ask myself, am I just doing that whole "OC committing identity fraud" thing...?

open world full of fucking nothing. my favorite thing to do in BoTW was get up somewhere high, look around, admire the view, and then just take me wherever my stamina could get me to. in this game, you get up high and there's...not really anything of note to look at. the textures are awful and stretched, and so many of the mountains are at a needle point. i have no motivation to actually go out and search for all 999 gimmighoul coins just to evolve one ugly pokemon into an even more ugly pokemon.

there's a distinct lack of Sense Of Place throughout the game, and in the wildes it's in how sparce the landscapes are. Hardly any trees or unique landmarks. the towns and cities are even worse in this regard. like. apart from the occasional spanish tossed in here and there, and the general shape of the region, and names of the towns, how in the fuck would I have known the region is inspired by spain?? like. how did we go from Galar which is very in-your-face-obnoxious-English to Paldea which is like..........spanish i guess

As a tangent to the above, the distinct lack of like. culture??? there are so many wonderful foods that come out of spain-- and sandwhiches??????? i remember thinking curry was weird for galar, but was satisfied with the answer of "it's a current trendy food". sure, fine, i can deal. sandwhiches????? how the fuck is me throwing three pickles and some olive oil on a footlong supposed to lure out pokemon

anyways,

the game feels wildly directionless. if you look up a list of the "least to most strong" encounters for each three storylines, there is no way in FUCK it makes sense from an exploratory standpoint. it's made worse by the fact that the battles don't scale. one of the best things about BoTW is how, in my experience, no matter what order you do things in, no matter when you decide to finally take on ganon-- it always felt satisfying. finishing up these three storylines didn't feel satisfying in either of my runs, and looking at it from an objective standpoint-- i can't find a way to write this and have it make sense without scaling things. it the battles simply scaled this would be a non issue for me. Not to mention the classes you're also supposed to be taking at the academy during all of this. I completely skipped over them during my first playthrough, but made sure to go and take the classes every other gym or so. yes, they added to the lore here and there, and it was a neat attempt at the whole free time events to bond with characters and whatnot. but it still kinda fell flat for me. (also if i have to read "apro-pros of nothing" one more time i Will gouge my eyes out) (ALSO yes i had to look up what in the fuck chugey meant when the director asked like bitch me the fuck too no clue what it meant)

related to directionless, the game's final arc in the great crater feels...too slow, then on the immediate flip side, too fucking fast. like. for the longest time, i couldn't have told you what the plot of the game was. the treasure hunt feels vague at best. for the longest time, the three storylines just felt like "things you can do" rather than like genuine plot. like. finding out the professor is long dead and essentially the "bad guy" of the region feels...eh? like. i guess it was emotional, but the painfully slow build up only to have the end of the game take like...less than half an hour? Arven's neglect from his parents feels rushed and not really handled with much care. Penny's whole story line with Team Star also feels...unsatisfying? I think her final battle would have been better had all the star leaders ended up revealing themselves when she was down to just Sylveon, about to lose, basically giving way to phase two where their cheering her on gives a huge power boost to Sylveon, like how the crowd cheering can give you boosts in other battles. As much as I love Nemona. like. i ADORE this kid. she feels...inconsistent at times. (which like-- in plenty of ways i'll give her a pass bc like. Teenager lmao. but also. :\) I think I really just don't understand her role as student council president. she doesn't read student council president to me. maybe a club president, but not of the whole student council. always ready to rush into things without thinking them through-- not exactly qualities you would want from SCP.

dont even get me started on the performance issues and distance rendering. like....good fucking god. like. even the fact that the in-game timer is dependent on the frames--- my game for scarlet says i have 37:07 hours in the game. my switch profile says i have over 40 hours. 3 hours of game time lost to lag. on youtube, smallant's violet video showed the same thing. his in game timer was at like 14 and the profile timer was at like 16 and so.....Bad Some of the glitches and bugs were funny for a bit, but i really just...can only laugh for so long before getting overwhelmed with "these wouldn't be here if they had just given the game an extra year or two of work". The fact that the very first mod I saw for the game was a 60FPS mod-- it's sad.

ALSO ALSO. i fucking HATE the lack of a visual or audio cue for shiny pokemon. the models are already too fucking small for me to see, and then the colors aren't stark enough for me to notice-- i will literally never find a shiny pokemon if they don't patch that in. i will not see them. i am missing out on a whole section of the game because gamers hate disabled people so fucking much.

but i guess to end i'll try to talk more about the things i did like.

the genders in this game??????

fucking IMMACULATE. catch me grinning like a dork every time i catch a glimpse of rika-- i want what she has so fucking bad i cant sEE STRAIGHT

my faves of the game are Nemona, Rika, Atticus, and Grusha, but there's really no characters other than Iono who i actively dislike. the only thing i like about Iono has been watching actual streamers get to her and visibly cringe and dsfhljk. good joke But i fucking ADORE Nemona. she's a little one dimensional, sure, and sometimes i felt like her characterization wasn't exactly. consistent?? but i love how all about the player character she is. i love the "lets be rivals for life" cheesiness. i love that she thought you were just picking fights with randos when you first meet Team Star and was like, "you can have all the battles you'll ever want with me!" i ESPECIALLY loved playing it as the girl bc it all just reads like "i have the biggest fucking crush on you and it's also my first huge crush so i have no clue how to even act around you" I love how absolutely kind and wonderful she is. My favorite rival since Cheren and Bianca back in BW. I will not forgive the fandom for at first making her sound like this huge creepy stalker. that's my "cinnamon roll who could probably kill you" your honor. Rika is just...my own personal "life goals or wife goals????????" bc fucking CHRIST i look at her and have my own little gay meltdown every time. i wanna look like her sO BAD i'm literally buying clothes to dress like her Atticus i love bc the fandom seems to find him annoying, but i just adore this little theater nerd. really, i ended up adoring all of Team Star. at the end i was looking at all of them and laughing to myself, saying, "yeah i know why these kids were getting bulled. same reason i was getting bullied. we ALL are running around with undiagnosed autism aren't we". i also just love that atticus has the most gorgeous face hiding under that goofy ass hood. goofy theater boy let me love you Grusha i found really compelling my second playthrough, where i actually talked to more NPCs and realized that like...oh. grusha got fucked up on the slopes, didn't he? that little cetoddle you see him with is probably like...a disability aid pokemon of some kind. his line that's like, "this is a bad day to challenge me, are you sure?" is probably more like. you essentially went to challenge him on the day that is also the anniversary of his big injury. (unfortunately i also one-shot his entire team in both playthroughs so like....for gym 8 he wasn't that strong :( ) but he's def a character i'd love to dig into one of these days.

so, i loved the characters. i even loved the dynamic of the Elite 4. While i hate the idea of a like....4 year old...being on the e4, i like to think it's more like...Poppy's parent is on the e4, but they're in and out of the region a ton and Poppy has just memorized how to order her parent's pokemon and -- idk. it sounds funnier in my head.

and as many gripes i have about the new pokemon, i do think there was a good balance of new to old pokemon. i wish i liked some of the evos more (looking at all the nightmare bugs) but i do think the balance was pretty good. My first team was: Skeledirge, Klawf, Tauros (water), Tinkaton, Kilowattrel, and Baxcalibur My second team was: Quaquaval, Pawmot, Tauros (fire), Tinkaton, Farigiraf, and an EV trained Sunflora bc it made me laugh Clearly Tinkaton is a favorite, but as I've said before, Quaquaval absolutely snuck its way into my heart. I also loved the Tauros variants, which I also thought was a simple but great way to get more out of less.

but so i guess the big question is: do I think Scarlet and Violet are worth $60+????

honestly...i don't think i can say yes. the negatives outweigh the positives for me, but on the same hand, i don't exactly regret spending the $120 for both games. but i am a story writer and it's given me enough plot bunnies to be worthwhile to me. i don't like that most of what i'm already brainstorming feels like nothing but fix it fics... but i digress.

tl;dr: good characters, great genders. performance and graphical errors out the ass. an open world full of nothing and no life. a generous 5/10