#I'm still learning how to write better action scenes which is why this isn't as detailed as it maybe can be

[fantaatix]

a stolitz post? in the year of our lord??

warning this is genuinely a long ass post

okay so sometime last month i was watching 3bskyen’s JLMW reaction (really tells you how long i’ve actually been cooking this post), and he was talking about color theory or something but what caught my attention was that he was paused on THIS frame:

he said something about the red/blue contrast throughout the music video; red being symbolic of blitz (the moon) and blue being symbolic of stolas (the ocean (?)) and it got me thinking, i wonder what the gold might symbolize? because this definitely isn’t the first time we’ve seen the color gold in reference to stolitz. first think back to truth seekers, there’s gold in quite a few places

golden rails, golden feathers, golden shackles; this is why i say gold and not yellow. at first i thought it might be symbolic of the power imbalance, but that’d be too easy.

quite the selection of objects, isn’t it? rails imply safety but can also be restricting, the feathers seem harmless but then turn into shackles…possibly reminiscent of the nature the book deal and the role it actually played in blitz’s mind about his relationship with stolas.

but there’s one more thing i left out; the golden dust

...okay...don't laugh...

first time i saw this scene in truth seekers i was immediately reminded of shrek ever after

AND I’M NOT COMPARING BLITZ TO RUMPELSTILTSKIN, i’m not trying to imply they stole from shrek ever after, THAT'D be a stretch. if anything blitz is better compared to shrek himself, but i'm not gonna write about that because i Don't Want To

but if i’m remembering correctly, that movie revolved around the theme of taking good things for granted, like your partner and your friends, which aligns pretty well with how blitz’s bad trip ends:

“i believe your subconscious is trying to tell you that you simply cannot fathom proper intimacy, but also craves it as well. it’s rather unfortunate, sir, considering it’s often how you treat those who stand by you, such as myself. are you worried i may have enough of it one day, as well?”

"you cannot fathom proper intimacy."

blitz doesn’t know how to be close to other people–i don’t think he understands the relationship he has with any of the people in his life.

we still don’t truly know blitz’s full belief on love and we can only deduce it from his actions; he says monogamy is boring but then goes on to stalk his monogamous employees, on their anniversary no less, bringing along his own singular date...

he focuses on the sex in his relationships because that’s what he’s good at; he finds sex less complicated than romance... and then struggles to get his asmodean crystal to open a portal because he can’t get it off.

he has this recurring pattern where the title of “best friend” eventually turns into something else, often unrequited...

“...my first ever friend!”

he didn't expect stolas' intimate attraction to him. stolas made the connection and it succeeded in making blitz feel guilty about stealing the book; that was why he stayed the night. blitz isn't used to not being rejected, even though he has a record of relationships that stopped once the Evil Four Letter Word came up. when he goes into a relationship, blitz has learned to not expect it to evolve past sex. love has negative connotations to him.

the worst part is we don’t know for certain WHY any of this is, or if it can even be chalked down to a singular thing

yeah, his mom died in a fire blitz caused, his best friend/crush lost his limbs in a fire blitz caused, he’s been treated as property since a young age; you can makes all kinds of correlations between these events and how they might have affected him later in life but as it stands now, we have no concrete answers other than the conclusion that blitz hates himself and has commitment issues.

but back onto that “taking things for granted” tidbit–subconsciously, he knows relationships can be good, but he feels he has to give up a lot of freedom in order to maintain one of his own.

also note how blitz is desperately crawling up the staircase, feathers kind of just hitting him haphazardly as he does so, as opposed to trip!moxxie who takes a few steps up after picking up a feather of his own volition. he knows moxxie’s relationship is more stable than any relationship he’s ever had, and yet:

“stop fucking talking, all of you!”

cue the gold dust.

now, i'm not saying the book deal was a good thing. in fact, it kind of reinforced the power imbalance between blitz and stolas. i'm saying that from blitz's perspective, it was a safeguard. any feelings he might have had for stolas before could be dismissed, and he does exactly that one episode prior;

"it's a transactional fucking, you see..."

what i think he does take for granted is the advice “moxxie” gives to him, his attempts to reach out in a meaningful manner, kind of like stolas’ attempts to reach out. he ignores them both; he’s too deep into his own denial.

also, STAIRCASES IN THIS FUCKING SHOW.

why do these fruity little men think so low of themselves and so highly of others??

i guess that's a bit of a rhetorical question, we all know the answer, but. wait. hold on a sec

ohhhh.

OOOHHHH, that's what this post was gonna be about!

i fucking GOT all of you, you thought i could go a post without talking about him you're WRONG and should feel SILLY.

so this was the OTHER thing i realised when watching 3bskyen's JLMW reaction: it follows the same theme as moxxie's bad trip!

JLMW vs. moxxie's bad trip

in helluva boss, we're used to seeing staircases being symbolic of a difference in power or importance, or a staircase to heaven, or a highly anticipated event going wrong *cough cough ozzie's cough full moon cough cough*

however, i think in the context of moxxie’s bad trip and JLMW, it can also be attributed to emotional distance. like stolas, moxxie's also looking for an emotional intimacy/understanding between him and blitz (he spends his whole trip actively trying to get on the same level as him for crying out loud).

this could also fit into blitz's bad trip; he's trying to get on the same level as stolas, but feels like even if he ever did, he'd still be inherently worthless. a "play thing".

he doesn’t know why anyone would want him for anything else, but he’s clearly not all about the hierarchy.

they need to get on the same level as each other emotionally; they need to break the power dynamic, and thats why the book deal had to go.

the difference in the symbolism is that while blitz has a straight and narrow path to trip!stolas, moxxie’s path to trip!blitz is this winding, unguarded staircase. he almost falls off.

now, compared to both of those, stolas’ path is a fucking stroll. albeit an emotionally damaging stroll, but it takes less physical strength.

conclusion; stairs are symbolic of a difference in power, but gold is symbolic of something else.

and there is a power dynamic between moxxie and blitz. it's not like stolas and blitz's dynamic, it's an artificial imbalance; blitz is the boss, moxxie is the employee. and moxxie has his own inferiority complex, which i think plays a role in it too.

the imbalance between stolas and blitz is kind of, unfortunately, inherited. but it's not impossible to manage. of course, stolas doesn't care about where blitz is on the hierarchy, he doesn't care about the hierarchy period. but it's still there. blitz cares because it affects him.

"you will be technically under his jurisdiction, but..."

this was problem one. stolas unintentionally demonstrating his power over blitz. "surprise, i technically made you someone else's property! please love me!" i'm exaggerating but this is definitely not the kind of thing you spring on your partner; they needed to talk about this beforehand, but according to stolas:

"no need for an arrangement, it can just be him and me!"

sigh. the many different ways this night could've gone

this is enough to trigger blitz's fight or flight. he wants to be with stolas, but he doesn't want the freedom to choose to be with him, which is problem two:

because blitz's belief of love is so inherently fucked up,

what are the chances that the very thing stolas gave to blitz to reaffirm his free will was just interpreted as another shackle?

blitz doesn't do commitment; stolas doesn't say "i love you", he doesn't need to. if you love something, you let it go, and if it comes back then it's yours--which happens in the very next episode.

blitz is the first person to mention love.

but if they want to love each other, they have to be equals, which was why the book deal had to go. they can't hold each other to these super high standards because that'd just set themselves up for disappointment. they have to be on the same level.

tldr: they're two sides of the same coin. literally!

color theory for dummies, a brief intermission

fun fact: i actually didn’t learn color theory in an art class, but in a textiles class. we love american education. but anyways, i’m gonna ask you to draw your attention specifically to the complementary colors.

we start the chorus of JLMW in a purpley sort of place, which then shifts into gold, and then into the red/blue contrast.

except red and blue aren’t complete opposites, they’re both primary colors.

if they wanted complete opposites, they could’ve used red and green, or blue and orange, which are admittedly uglier combinations but the point is that stolitz aren’t complete opposites.

however, purple and yellow, or gold, ARE complete opposites; they’re complementary colors. if purple is implied to be symbolic of stolitz together, then could gold imply stolitz apart?

well…no. i think that’s the wrong angle. if they wanted that contrast, they could have left the gold out entirely, because red and blue separate is stolitz apart.

so how are we supposed to deduce what the gold is actually symbolic of? because no, i don’t actually think it’s an extended shrek 4 reference. that kind of exclusively pertains to blitz’s trip.

listening to the lyrics in the gold part;

This unspoken contract

A deed we forged for mutual gain

If that's all this was when you're not here

What is this rooted pain?

I don't care that you're of lower station

Or primed to sate my dark temptations

Why can't you understand? Let me explain

And I'm terrified as I cry

To make these feelings true

What's left for me and my broken heart

If I cannot have you?

a direct mention of the book deal…and another mention of the power imbalance…so i realize am starting to sound insane, but please hear me out.

i think the main theme of helluva boss IS learning to love in spite of damages and traumas and insecurities–not ignoring either of those, but learning to work around them or possibly heal those parts of yourself so you can love someone else effectively. learning from mistakes.

so what if the gold is symbolic of the simple desire of a mutual understanding? or a meaningful connection with someone else?

tying it all back together somehow

both moxxie and stolas want to connect with blitz (in different ways), but for stolas, that means severing possibly the only thing connecting them thus far (the book). for moxxie, that means climbing the staircase and possibly being pushed even further away.

moxxie also has this high opinion of blitz despite all his obvious (and not so obvious) flaws. i think it's partially because of his own inferiority complex, but to him, blitz is the phantom--his scar becomes the mask he hides behind. he knows blitz puts on this loud, crude personality to hide his cracks and keep others away, and has a scarily accurate portrayal of him in his mind.

moxxie wants to be on the same level as blitz, and he knows it's possible to get there, because he's a damaged character himself and he gets it. he's just yet to take the actual first step.

stolas, even in his own imagination, doesn't think it's possible to be emotionally intimate until the deal is broken. he could reach for blitz, but blitz wouldn't reach back. he's not looking. not to mention the literal celestial view he has of blitz in his head.

while stolas can see blitz's damage, he can't fully comprehend it yet, partially because blitz won't give him the chance and partially because stolas isn't damaged in the same way he is. they both had deadbeat dads, but they adapted in different ways.

that's just the way trauma works, you adapt to deal with it, and then have to unadapt those unhealthy coping mechanisms once you're finally safe. it just takes a while for people to realize they're actually safe, and these fruitcakes are no exception.

conclusion? uhh, i don't know, i guess i don't really have one. just. enough with the discourse about these bitches i guess??? just give them each some time, change takes more than two seasons.

i guess i could compare the way the songs are set up but this was supposed to be out like two days ago and it's already 11:45 so. maybe some other time, maybe in a post about moxxie's Interesting taste in musicals

was unfortunately unable to finish the mox vs. fizz masterpost this month but we'll see sometime in the coming months, maybe sometime after the next helluva short comes out. been a bit too busy with school and other social things to have time writing these long asf posts about my skrimblos

okay goodnight o/

[very-straight-blog]

This might sound funny and cringey, but I feel like I lost something I cared about and now it's just sadness and depression. Like it's a TV show, I get it, but we waited 2 years and for what? To get the two worst episodes imaginable. I'm really starting to believe that Sapochnik was responsible for everything good in s1, bcz Condal and Hess ruined this show. S1 wasn't perfect and I didn't like a lot of things in it, but it still managed to keep me invested so I hoped that in s2 everything would be improved. And yet, I'm so terribly disappointed. Alicent's characterization makes no sense anymore, like they want so badly to show her as a bad mother and a hypocrite and really - after ruining bnc with Alicole sex now it had to follow with her not being able to console her son but hoping on Criston is a must do?? What sort of degenerates write this??

Aemond is also ruined for me and I would love to erase that crappy brothel scene from my memory. What was it for? To show his mommy issues, vulnerability... Idc. The dialogue was bad and they did him dirty with the angles and the pose. And now he's apparently going to be there *again* in e3 and we'll get full frontal nudity. Idk why the actor agreed to this since they are obviously making a joke and meme material of his character. Not to mention that he straight up lied in the promos about being loyal (if the RR leaks are true and I'm almost 100% sure they are). I get that they are told what to say, but a more general answer would have been much better than a lie. In brief, one of my favourite s1 characters is also destroyed.

Then Cole. My god, I only waithig for him to look at the camera and say "do you hate me enough already hahah?" He's the writers punching bag atp.

Helaena barely exists.

Otto is Viserys' fanboy and ofc, appalled by his grandson. It's not as he just has lost a son and was forced to take the crown in the first place by him and his mother, no less.

Aegon got more screentime and I love Tom's performance, but I'm not fooled. He is still depicted as weak, politically inept and rash. And he'll still be a bully, apparently. Just to justify his brother's treason. F*ck you Condal, Hess and whoever else is responsible for this mess.

Anyway, sorry for the rant. I just don't get how anyone can seriously praise this shitshow anymore. It could have been great, but the creators are obviously not up to the task which is now painfully obvious. I wouldn't mind the greens as villains, but don't write them as a walking joke. I'm quitting the show and would like just to forget about it. This adaptation of the Dance was a huge mistake.

I feel you! By the way, I haven't participated in any fandom life, I think, for 10 years or more, but thanks to HOTD, I started this blog, I write some critical (well, kinda) reviews, and English isn't even my native language. I've been waiting for the second season for two years and now I just feel tired and empty. So far, the only thing I've liked about these two episodes is Aegon's storyline, that's all. Everything else is bad, very bad, and judging by the leaks, it'll be even worse.

Firstly, the series has a very strange pace of the narrative. We didn't get a bunch of important plot scenes, and even those that remained were shown in a hurry, but at the same time we have many scenes like "Rhaenyra stares at the dust for three minutes", unnecessary dialogues and PAUSES between lines.

Secondly, again, an insane amount of important plot details are left behind the scenes and this is absolutely wrong. Aemond's return home, the family's reaction to what he did. Aegon's reaction when he learned of his son's death. Aemond's reaction when he finds out what his actions have led to. And so on and so forth. Many of the characters' actions are shown without context. Alicent fucks with Criston - cool, but can I have some additional information? How long has this been going on, what feelings do they have for each other, how have they developed, like, anything? The same can be said about the scene in the brothel - no context.

Thirdly, it's unclear what's going on with the characters, as if the screenwriters decided to make the greens the most unpleasant people in the world. So far, I only like Aegon and Helaena. I can't even say anything about Aemond, because his only dialogue scene is built around Daemon and Luke, damn them. I just can't.

Everything annoys me except Aegon lol. So yes, I understand you.

[bainofjustice]

Kitty's Notes On Episode 2 Of The Payday Web Series

It is really funny to me that they made a “previously on” part for a web show and to recap a episode that clocks in at 6 minutes 

It's funny that Dallas & Houston have time for a very small argument. Also helps set up the insane amount of tension the web show portrays them having

The editing/camrea is so choppy like this isn't a review but omg I had to write that down

Okay it looks like Wolf keeps zip ties on his belt, makes sense both for the game stuff of tying up civis and also is probably helpful for his mechines

Chains and Houston demask INSIDE A FUCKING VAULT post running out of ammo and while they do tell the civis present to not look this is just such a bad idea especially because the vault is basically surrounded by cops 

But also the bromance between Houston & Chains is real, like they're in a bad situation and they plan it out

Also it seems like Dallas and Wolf are the main movers of goods within this heist, I'm not sure they're the best picks but with the limits the gang had at the time I suppose they aren't the worst, it just feels like in general the plan doesn't cater to the real talents of the gang. Which tbh is probably because the web show is meant to be a ad, so they wanted more action which required mostly gun fights and they didn't do fight scenes in a intelligental way 

Also I just realized for some reason Chains is using a damn hand gun meanwhile it's Houston with a assault rifle, which really doesn't seem catered to their skills

I just remembered a little later after writing the above that Chains mentioned being out of ammo for his own assault rifle so not as bad as I thought, still wonder why they didn't switch at any point, like it worked out but yeah

One thing I do like about the action scenes is that the gang uses more than juet guns and use melee attacks as well

Houston is able to flat out flip a guy over and steal his gun, I feel pretty confident in saying Houston has probably taken some hand to hand combat lessons.

Also it appears that both Dallas and Wolf are using assault rifles which makes sense given their roles in the heist.

WE GOT A WILHELM SCREAM!!!

In better lighting it seems Wolf actually has a shotgun which is even better for him actually 

We see the escape driver when Dallas and Wolf are ambushed at the escape van, he appears to be at most middle age, white, brown hair, slightly fatter build and wears a black hoodie with a band or event tee-shirt under the hoodie, grabbing a pic to see if I can locate the shirt later.

We see several of Vlad's men during the ambush including who we later learn seems to be his right hand / personal bodyguard

Vlad's intro is so funny to me, like he holds the gang at gunpoint and stalls their escape and this actually manages to end with him getting the gang to work with him, like I am sure that Bain or Vlad carefully planned this part but it could have easily gone wrong if for example Wolf shoot someone without thinking it through, or if a officer managed to follow them to the van, especially since everyone unmasks!

Houston Vc: Do you know these guys?.    Dallas, who is being held at gunpoint vc: does it look like I know these guys?

1. Vlad decides to shout “Bain” while explaining he is a ally, 2. He calls Bain in this instance “Mr Bain” which I find to be a fun detail of characterization and also to how at the time the only people sorta comfortable enough around Bain to be confident when saying his name and such is the core members of the Payday gan

Ah and then Dallas has to go back uncover which requires faking a injury, which he lets Houston do the honors of punching him, only adding to the family feud they seem to have in the web series. Also this one punch is enough to knock Dallas to the ground.

Also funnily Dallas or should I say, “Nathen Steele” is the one to call in the first world bank heist

Bain vapes! We see him vape, we also hear him in game talk about smoking cigars, so either he does both or in my opinion more likely he lies about the details of his smoking habits even to the gang.

We can see that Bain wears a leather jacket with a design on the back & front when in his lair, the design most looks like fire to me but it's very dark, I would love to someday see some behind the scenes footage or something with the costume.

[syneilesis]

Things I've learned and realized writing the fics for Inky's one-week challenge:

I'm a very slow writer; I genuinely struggle writing at least 500 words in one sitting. On good days, I can do 200 words. Inspired, maybe more. Ficlets like ekphrasis and others take me an entire day to finish. It's probably because I start writing with only a vague idea of how to go about it, or I only know the mood but not the details. I'm self-aware enough to be cognizant of my strengths and weaknesses, and I tend to stick to what works for me.

I've always wanted to write lengthy fics! But I never was the kind of writer who could hit more than 10k-word one-shots. My style doesn't lend to that kind of length. When I saw Inky's challenge and read that the max word count per entry is 500 words, I thought to myself, Ooh, I think I can do that. Regardless of the prompts -- though they help too; dialogue and AUs lend to a broadness that appeal to my rigid brain. A 500-word fic means in most cases a one-scene fic. Which frees my mind of context necessary to establish a setting. I don't have to come up with an elaborate backstory and/or explanation why this detail is like this, that detail is like that -- AUs as a trope can fill in the missing pieces to make your fic coherent.

My first fic entry was something that I plan on writing in the future, so it's easy to write it, but it still took me longer (but still within the range of my speed). My second, third, and fourth, I tried something a bit different: I used StimuWrite, an app that helps you focus on writing -- it's also known as a writing tool useful for people with ADHD.

It has a simple UI, with a word count goal and emojis that appear whenever you type words. I chose these settings: darker background (it doesn't hurt the eyes) and typewriter sfx for that legit typing feel. I may put in a bgm from youtube or something, but sometimes I just want to listen only to the sounds of typewriter keys.

I tried StimuWrite before, but it didn't work for me. I gave it another chance this time, and oh lord it's very effective???!???!!!!! I finished 3 fics in under a day. So last Sunday I wrote give or take 2,000 words, which truly blew my mind. As an aside, I recommend you try StimuWrite; it might be effective for you too.

Because of that surprising writing streak, I continued using the app for the rest of the fics. And that writing streak persists! I feel relieved, I feel elated, I feel like I can do this. It's as if my brain loosened up enough to let me do what I want. I'll definitely use StimuWrite in my other fics too --

-- with some conditions, of course. All I know right now is that it works for me if I have a target word count in mind (under 600) and that it's only concentrated on a single scene. So I could focus on one scene whenever I open up the app. But that means that I have an outline of my fic, which isn't a problem for me because I like the mental exercise of outlining. I hope that this would help me come November, as I'll participate in Nanowrimo with my original story project.

Another point I've realized is that limiting yourself with a word count improves your editing skills. I do edit and revise my fics -- but they're mostly in the sort of 'i'll delete this passage because it no longer fits' and 'i'll rephrase this because it sounds awkward'. But in the cases of my sixth and seventh event fics, I had to pare them down because I exceeded the word count requirement. Initially I was reluctant to remove passages but I had to. So I did. I removed some bits and details of the story but rephrased others to still fit them in. I have to shorten some scenes -- and this is revelatory to me somewhat -- which is actually effective for fast-paced action scenes that needed fewer words but with the largest possible impact. Sometimes, shorter is better. It made me productive, for one.

Anyway, this got long wtf? I don't even know if I was coherent about it. There are still a lot of things I'd like to improve on -- such as relying less on my crutch words and metaphors. I haven't the opportunity to read a lot lately, so I need to try at least one page a day. The book I'm currently reading has been sitting on my desk for months. Back then, when I said I wouldn't make a list of read books per year to stop pressuring myself, I didn't mean not to read books at all lmao.

I don't know how to end this post so here's a gif of a puppy on a bowl:

[a-force-dyad-in-space]

I'm still not allowing myself to be excited for the One Piece live action but after having seen the trailer a few more times I'll say that as long as the pacing is good (bad pacing trips me up so hard) and the show captures the essence and spirit of the story, I won't hate it.

I just hope the rest of the writing is better than that "Not a crew" scene, I'm still not very happy with that. Sure, a lot of the comedy from the manga and the anime doesn't translate very well into live action but they can still bring out the silly parts without relying on the same kind of 0815 quips that are used by every action adventure movie since the beginning of the MCU.

Something I didn't learn until today is that Oda himself was heavily involved in the adaptation, including greenlighting the cast, which I guess gives me a little more confidence that the show won't be a trashfire.

I really like the cast (and now that I know Oda gave his okay for Nami's and Sanji's actors I'm putting my earlier reservations to the side), I like their energy, I highly appreciate their love for the One Piece universe, so I have a feeling they may be my favorite part of the adaptation.

Something that's also been pointed out is that the characters are wearing a lot of outfits from color spreads from the manga, which is really cool, I like that a lot, it gives them realistic costume changes while still staying true to their designs.

As for some of the criticism I've seen float around the tag:

"WHY ISN'T LUFFY WEARING FLIP FLOPS????" I was a little put off by that at first, too, but I honestly doubt that we'll pay a whole lot of attention to his feet when we watch the actual show (and who knows, maybe they'll show up at some point)

"WHERE IS SANJI'S CURLY BROW??????" This is probably completely a Me thing but when I watched the trailer for the first time I didn't even notice that because I was honestly much more worried about his hair before the trailer was released; I totally get that him not having the curly brow is a little disappointing and leaves out some of the greatest bickering between him and Zoro, but it's still possible that they'll bring it into the show some other way, even if he doesn't have it all the time; same goes for the smoking (which, given that it's an American production that is aimed at kids, isn't really surprising, since smoking/tobacco is its own content warning on American TV), we might see him light a cigarette here and there but we were never gonna see him chainsmoke the way he does in the manga/anime

"WHAT ABOUT USOPP'S NOSE????" Okay, let's be real here, had they given Usopp his Pinocchio nose through either CGI or VFX make-up, everyone probably would have complained how stupid and cringe it looks translated into live action; Jacob has a very expressive face that more than makes up for the lack of the Pinocchio nose in my opinion, but maybe that's just me (Jacob was also the first cast member I was fully on board with from the start, so maybe I'm biased, but that's how I feel)

"BUGGY LOOKS TOO SCARY" Guys, we only got one shot of him and we don't know the context for it; maybe this is his introductory shot, maybe this is a special dramatic shot, maybe this is how other people describe him, we just don't know; just wait until the show is out

"THE FOOTAGE IS TOO YELLOW" While it is likely that this is the final color grading, it's also possible that the final color grading wasn't done by the time they put the trailer together (like, some of the shots look like the yellow isn't as strong), they still have more than two months until release, they could still be doing final tweaks until then; and maybe they wanted to emphasize Luffy's sunny personality, who knows, the cinematography probably looks different in emotional scenes

Also, and this is only of interest to my fellow Germans, the German anime voice cast is dubbing the show, so I might actually watch it both in the original version and with the German voices because the nostalgia is reaaaaaaaallll

Be still, my heart, so you won't be disappointed, but be hopeful, be so so hopeful 🥲

[nono-bunny]

Thoughts from watching the ATLA live action!

Episode 5:

An very fun fight scene to start the episode!

Genuinely love them confirming the fact that Katara is such an excellent bender because she's resourceful and takes inspiration from the other bendings, and it's such an early case of this train of thought too!! I love it! Her and Iroh would get along great, I really want to see a scene with the two of them just hanging out now haha

Lmao Sokka flirting with a Fire Nation soldier is genuinely so in character, my dude is just looking for a date everywhere he goes

Katara is pretty great in this episode so far! She seems much more open and communicative, it feels a bit like she's growing comfortable with Aang which is great to see.

My name is Sokka, rhymes with Okka! Oh? Pippinpaddleopsicopolis coming from Sokka this time? Oh wait is she the third, after Bonzu and June? Anyway, this is a very sweet scene

Are they... Perhaps going to do a parallel big brothers thing here with Shi-Yong and Sokka? That'd be fun!!

Angry, mean Zuko is fun too. Azula... Makes me sad.

Huh... Interesting- Sokka AND Katara get to be in the spirit world here?

Seedy Tavern... IS THIS THE JUNE EPISODE??? Maybe not, but oh my god this is so funny, just... Mentioning the exploits of the animated Gaang that are implied to happen off screen here hahaha. A bit heartbroken about no "I'll save you from the pirates" and mentioning them brought up that pain, but following it up immediately with The Great "worst episode in the series" Divide is fucking fantastic.

June baited me!!! Her and Nyla were outside the pub!! Oml that entire scene was fucking hilarious

Genuinely, why is Wan Shi Tong here, it's so fucking weird. A lot of the changes I can understand, but this dude's whole thing is that he and his library are interconnected- why is he just... Here, outside of it? Fuck, I actually hate this whole thing. I really liked how OG Sokka was kinda spiritually tuned against his will, here his reluctance is just a joke to uplift Katara- it feels bad, and them being unable to understand Wan Shi Tong fucking sucks. Literally why are they even here, genuinely I hate this change a lot. Literally the water siblings' only contribution to the scene is "hehe we can't understand what the magic spirit animal is saying" and it feels insulting, and cheapens everything they adapted here. Also, they literally couldn't even have him say "until we meet again"?? Are we just. Not gonna see him next season and/or ever learn his name? I hate that he appeared here, it was meaningless and didn't fit with ANY of the established lore. It literally was just a character cameo, it fucking sucked balls.

In other news, unhinged Azula!!! I love my girl. Every scene she's in is good and perfect and I love that she's in this season so much!!

I think I can pretty safely say at this point that they're finally getting into the groove of writing Iroh- he's much, MUCH better here!

I like the theme of both Sokka and Katara being in denial about something, and I think that's a fantastic plot thread to have here. That said, I still think having Wan Shi Tong introduce it was a wild choice that contributed nothing- he's literally just there for people who saw the original and would recognize him, and honestly? That makes it worse because you know it doesn't make sense that he's here. That role should've been filled by either another spirit, or someone new entirely. The whole scene with him was just SO bad, but I'm glad they seem to be recovering here.

Pretty funny to see Aang and Katara realize they can't bend only for Sokka to essentially be like "welcome to my world" and be the only useful one by paying attention because he isn't distracted by how weird everything is.

Sokka and foxes. It's a thing. Actually, I'm really happy that they're making sure that Sokka is vital here given that it's originally an episode that revolves around his journey in the spirit world- which it doesn't show too much, because ultimately the focus there is on Aang and the role and powers of the Avatar, so I'm happy to see a focus on Sokka here!

Dangerous fog gives me some P4 vibes ngl, my stress immediately shot up purely through association.

In general the vibes of this episode kinda feel like it can serve as a sort of precursor to The Swamp, which I desperately hope they don't cut because I feel like it could work really well with them having experienced something similar before already!!

Oh no. It's Katara backstory time, isn't it? Oh no. Fuck, literally making Katara relive this is brutal- having older Katara experience most of it somehow hurts more than if she just saw her younger self. Fuck, Katara bending to try and save Kya and having it directly lead to her death is devastating.

Koh?? Ah fuck, this whole thing is emotionally ruining me rn. Btw, Katara's face should 100% be gone, idk why they're once again breaking established rules here just to feature spirit world characters, but I hate it.

So... I hate this Hakoda? He sucks? Why would they make him suck so hard? This is a bad change. Hakoda was ALREADY a bit controversial, they didn't need to make him an asshole. Idk if these are like... Real things that happened or what Sokka is projecting went on behind the scenes, but I hope beyond hope Hakoda isn't actually like this.

Cool, Sokka's face is gone too! What the fuck are they even doing in this episode, I hate it so much, they're legit just alternating between good and bad scenes, it's wild!!

It feels really weird that Aang is automatically emotionless here when meeting with Koh. I don't like it, it feels off, like he was warned- but he wasn't, he has no way to know he should be emotionless, and it isn't exactly his neutral state, so... What the fuck. This episode is a mess. Showing the monkey face has no effect when we didn't see the faceless monkey, Koh has no reason to interfere here... It's all literally just so shoved in and feels so unnatural!!

I... Also can't believe it's really Gyatso, in fact, I don't think he is, and if he is, it feels like the wrong time and wrong way to make me believe it is him.

Still cried, and even though it makes no sense and he's done very little to prove it ig I am meant to belive this is Gyatso, so I'm just. Ignoring how poorly written that whole setup was and focusing on the meat of it- it was heartbreaking, and something I'm very glad Aang got to hear. Even though it wasn't executed super well, I am glad we got to see Gyatso again.

This episode REALLY struggles with it's plot and premise, but it hits all of the characters moments extremely well, and that kinda sucks- it could have been great if they just took out the pointless spirit cameos. Idk why Wan Shi Tong was here, and there's literally no reason to bump Koh up to here instead of later in the season- in fact, it weakens his connection to the plot and completely uproots Hei-Bai's because the focus on him is all but gone. It matters that Aang meets Koh while his physical body is in the Northern Water Tribe, where Kuruk- who faced him and lost- was from. Here his powers barely matter, he appears to just... Eat people? It's weak and doesn't work, and the impact is genuinely so much weaker than the original. I don't get the choice they made here at all, he doesn't even connect to Katara and Sokka in any meaningful way, and I wish the writers felt comfortable enough to just create a new spirit with powers that actually fit rather than just coopt and ruin Koh. Honestly? They could've just made Hei-Bai do it semi-accidentally out of grief and it would've worked better than inserting a being with known powers into a situation that necessitates changing them dramatically to tell the story they want. Koh and Wan Shi Tong should not be in this episode- the only theme connecting them is the spirit world, and by that logic you could put Zuko's banishment and the students' dance party in the same episode because they're both about kids from the Fire Nation. It sucks. As much as episode 3 didn't work, I at least got the idea they were going for- it only didn't work because it was a bad setting for it and because they cut integral character moments, not because it was doomed conceptually, y'know?

So Gyatso is obviously lying to Aang about being able to talk more later... Why? Why the fuck is he doing that? Is he trying to teach Aang a lesson about timing or something? It's weird and I don't get it.

I'm... Confused. Is Aang going to be captured trying to save his friends by going to the Fire Nation?? Are Sokka and Katara just gonna be completely absent next episode given that it's the Blue Spirit one and it'd be overly depressing to just cut to them in captivity on Koh's cave? I don't get it. Aang was literally already in the spirit world, so I don't really get why they wouldn't just have Fang ferry him to the temple and have him meet Roku as a Spirit. Is his physical presence there really so important? It feels weird. Literally how does he think he's going to get there solely on his glider??? Some wild decisions here in this episode, for real.

This episode had probably straight up just the worst adaptation of stuff from the original, while simultaneously having the best original stuff. It's... Disappointing to see that tends to generally be the vibe of this adaptation- they try too hard to bring over beloved stuff from the original, and it's to the detriment of this reimagining that has proven to be capable of some really great stuff. Koh and Wan Shi Tong had no place here, ans Sai and Jet both lost the appeal of their episodes for the sake of just... Having them both appear. For contrast- Bumi was wildly different, they took a pretty big swing with him that evidently not everyone was gonna like- and I thought it was a brilliant alternative depiction of a guy who lived for way too long meeting an important friend from his childhood that never had to face the same difficulties he had, and how they still reconcile at the end even if he's much more bitter about it here. And Bumi STILL struggled from sticking too close to the original- his original jokes don't work in live action, but they were still there, unfortunately lol. Anyway my point is that like? Genuinely this show is doing a good job, and it had a really tough fucking challenge, and I think by trying too hard to appeal to old fans rather than committing to telling the same overall story through a different lens using different methods... It really shot itself in the foot, because purists were never gonna be happy even if they stuck to a 1 to 1 adaptation, let alone when they change stuff- they should've just fucking went wild and created an alternate universe fix it fic that reimagines all the characters AND only uses stuff that works from the original. Here they're clearly forcing some stuff because fans love them, and it shows, because things stop making sense. I know I'm probably contradicting myself a bit: I've always liked Hakoda, so seeing him be a jerk here sucks- and yet, it's an alternative take on his character, what he could've been, and in fact, what some fans see him as! And yet, I still don't like this change. Everyone is gonna have opinions on every change, and I feel like they knew that going in and tried to do their best to mitigate that by including a lot of fan favorite stuff- even when it doesn't work- because isn't it fun to see your favorite thing come to life? You have people saying "At least we got ___" right alongside those that say "Wish we still had ___". This show had an insane amount of pressure on it right from the start, and the fact that it was coming from so many sides surely didn't help mitigate that, but. As much as I'm not pleased with what they did to some of my favorite stuff, it has also proven to me that this version of the story is worthwhile, and it's impossible not to see the care and thought put into it! It'd be a lot easier if I could just hate it or love it, but. Honestly it's so interesting in that each episode features choices that elicit both emotions from me. As much as I truly don't get the thought process behind the early inclusion of Koh and Wan Shi Tong, or why they dropped Sokka from Jet and Aang from The Northern Air Temple... They still did interesting things in these episodes! They have a lot of misses, but they also have a lot of hits, and at the end of the day... I'm genuinely enjoying watching this show! I think that for the most part it could stand on its own really well, and a lot of my gripes with it are stuff that would almost certainly not be an issue for people who haven't watched the original- and that's important too! Even if it disappoints veteran fans, it's important that things don't feel out of place for new ones, and honestly I can't imagine many things here that do! Frankly, it's actually mostly the occasional carry over joke from the original (The dramatic Cabbage Merchant moment is probably a wild thing for people not in the know, for example lmao)

Anyway this episode was. A real mixed bag, and I felt equally as strongly about the things I liked and the things I didn't. It's definitely more disappointing for it, I think- the fact that I really liked some of it while I really didn't like others- but. Overall I think it was probably a good one, and honestly I mostly just wish it was allowed to be more original- which is a great thing, actually! They're doing such a good job with the original/changed aspects of the show that I wish there was more of it, and trust that it could have worked better rather than the existing lore remixed to fit the occasion! Honestly I hope they get some breathing room from the announcement of two more seasons, and that they feel more comfortable with making this their own alternate version of the story rather than an adaptation. Don't get me wrong, they should still follow the general throughlines, but... If this episode has proven anything, it's that they shouldn't force themselves to remix and adapt parts of the original story that they don't think fit in theirs just to check a box.

[cherokeegal1975]

Article below is what I wrote on my post on DeviantART for this game idea that I very much know isn't going to happen. I thought it might if I could find the right game developer that would be willing to work with me, but I quickly discovered that game developers do not like outside ideas, especially unsolicited ones. I can't do it myself partly because I can't afford the classes or the resources needed to get it done...and I'd probably need a team, which I'll never get. Also, I look at myself and realize that even though I'd enjoy games and probably do well in them, I write stories okay, but I don't have it in me to create challenges, different outcomes or puzzles. I'm not talented that way. Even so, it was a fun idea to think about. I look forward to putting this artwork into my art journal when I can afford to get it made.

    I created a fake game play screen shot.  I can take credit for the horse and the dragon, both the full characters and the heads, but nothing else.  The rest I found online and made use of them like stickers.  I did add the text though.  Call me lazy if you will, but I just wanted to focus on drawing my characters and sharing my concept.  The game itself will never be made, I don't even know how to do such a thing, much less have the funds to buy the programs to make them.   The closest I can come is do a kind of writing game where I say "This thing is happening, if you choose to go left, click the #1 link, if you choose to go right choose the #2 link and keep reading."  I don't see myself doing that anytime soon...if at all.  It's an idea though.     Both the horse and the dragon are based on small plastic toys that I had as a child.  The drawings look a lot better than the original toys I lost so long ago.  Anyway, the basic game idea is that it's a story based, open world, lots of side quests, puzzles, useful collectibles, possibly a bit of a sandbox thing going on in it, with more than one possible ending.  Both animals can talk, both have abilities that compliment the other.  The main focus will be on content and though it doesn't have to be G-rated, it should not be focused mainly on violence or sexual themes.     So what do you think?  I know this isn't the most action packed scene in a game I've ever seen, but use your imagination, this is only one set in a huge world map.  I haven't thought too much on the story plot or anything, only the basic concepts of what I've learned from watching game playthroughs on YouTube.  I gradually learned what kinds of games I like and this one has everything I find fun and appealing in a video game...or so I imagine.     So, tell me what you think of my idea.  I really want to know.

    Update:   (This a journal entry from a few weeks ago, I've already figured out their names and I only added this on to help fill in some detail just in case someone actually wants to take my idea seriously...which I still know is about zero.) I know why a game developer wouldn't want to take my ideas and collaborate with me, they got too many of their own already and want nothing to do with outside help.  It's a shame too, I've got some good ones and just occurred to me that my pink dragon (I can't figure out a name and Rosie won't do because I've got a cat named Rosie here and I don't like to have more than one animal named the same thing even though my dragon isn't real.  Anyone have any suggestions?  Her name was Pink-yellow-blue, but that's a stupid name my child self came up with and I've long since out grown it.) might make a great avatar for a roll playing game in an open world kind of game.   Her abilities are human speech and intelligence, omnivorous, fire breathing, excellent senses of sight, smell and hearing. Very good at digging, powerful jumps, her tail is as prehensile as a monkey's so she can carry objects with it or help her to hang on to things like tree branches.  Her scales make her tough and fire resistant, excellent climbing capabilities, a really good swimmer and her fore feet work like hands.  She can also stand up and walk for short distances on her hind legs so she can use those hands.  She's the size of a large dog, so that means she can go into smaller places the bigger species of dragons can't.  Her only disadvantage is her lack of wings since her kind never had them in the first place.  Also, males have two small horns on their noses and her kind comes in all colors and patterns, so if they show up in the game, no two would look alike.  Her best friend is a black horse with four white socks, a white mark that starts on her forehead and runs all the way down her nose, a white mane and a white tail and silver eyes, who is just a sweet an intelligent horse in spite of her unusual coloring.  (Haven't drawn the horse yet, but I will.  I had almost forgotten that horse.  It's gone too, lost it long before I lost the dragon).  My character's home environment is a enchanted forest full of giant sentient trees that can change themselves to make hollows in their bases the dragons can use as homes.  The trees can also create mischief for the unwary traveler who disrespects them by shifting positions in such a way that the movement is never seen.  This movement can create false paths and get people hopelessly lost if they aren't careful.  This tendency can also aid my character in finding places if she asks them nicely to help her and most likely they will because their relationship with the tree dragons is a friendly one.   Maybe one of the game goals is to have my dragon go on an adventure to rescue her horse friend?  The game could have puzzles included as well as helpful companions that could come along as the game progresses.  I would like the game to have the best graphics.  I did down play the details on my dragon a bit because I wanted to hurry up and finish her.  I've been doing a lot of dragons lately and I've gotten tired of drawing more scales than I can count.  So I just did contours instead and only suggested that she's a scaled dragon.  She's got little lizard like scales except for the ones on her underside and I would love it if that would show up in the game when ever the camera got close enough to see them.   Well, anyway, I am aware that my chances of collaborating a gamer are slim to none, I'm still willing to try to put the suggestion out there just in case someone would take me up on my idea.  This dragon would do great as an avatar.  Not sure of the full plot, but those details could be worked out later by the developer. Also, I think the game controls should have the option to be made to work with a mouse so people on a tight budget don't have to buy a game controller so they can play the game on a laptop.

[coffee-with-mint-syrup]

@phoebester I hope you don't mind me replying to you like that, I kinda have a lot to say and I'm not good with conciseness to do that in comment section.

Just look what that damned netflix did to me:

This is what I'm doing with my time now.

So the guy in the video actually talks a lot about that specific quote you cited and the thing is - it's so condescending and vague and quite applicable to every single ship there is in the world. It just confirms that creators haven't really think about Zutara OR Kataang all that seriously. I don't know, maybe they just weren't that interested in any romance cause the only couple that actually works more or less is Sokka and Suki (in my personal opinion). The thing between Kataang and Zutara isn't just that one ship is canon and the other is not and some shippers got angry, it's that it was a series of misdirections the writing of the show took (specifically bryke and dimartino) and

and instead of acknowledge it or trying to fix it in, let's say, comics or at least respect fans that ship zutara - they openly mock them. I don't know if you know this - I learned it just today - there was a "joke video", made by bryke and dimartino, called "avatar book 4: air" about "forbidden love" between zuko and katara, showing how they wouldn't work as a pair and designed specifically to mock zutara fans (don't go there, it's really bad). Like - what type of creators would do that? What the actual hell?

That was news to me, so I'm kinda still enraged by it and almost lose all the respect I had for these guys (it's terrifying how one shitty joke crosses out all the actually great work they've done).

Point being they showed on multiple occasions how short their creative vision is when it comes to their own original endgame pairing.

They underdeveloped their endgame couple and they shipbaited Zutara so much that it accidentally made much more sense than canon and got mad at fans for it.

And there is just 3 options for netflix version to handle it - they can either fix Kataang so it wouldn't have same issues they had in the original or risk it and go in the completely opposite direction. And of course to abandon all ships at once. I don't think they know themselves what they're gonna do. I just hope they won't do something "just because it was in the original" cause contrary to the popular opinion - the original show is great but it is not perfect. Well, they kinda showed that they are able to male some bold changes - I think they were bold changes - for better or worse...

Back to the point, I've also noticed "the looks"TM but I actually didn't think of them that much. Aang and Katara always shared a special bond which is much more complex than being just romantic. She also calls him a family in the ocean godzilla scene so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. It wasn't filmed any more dramatically than any similar inspiring/"please consider your actions" speech from any other movie, series or even anime. Scene at the dinner too - no weird angles, slow motions, score changes, just a little bit prolonged sequence meant to establish the bond, I think. Unlike the certain scarf scene ;D

(I've been clowned by too many ships at this point to pay much attention to "the looks"TM)

I don't know why I'm keep doing it - it's like I'm deliberately setting my hopes high. The pure clownery I'll experience after it will turn out they were just shipbaiting will be devastating but here I am. Writing essays on how zutara still stands a chance and convincing myself and some innocent zutarians. To cite one zutara fan that reblogged my previous post: It's delulu time!

I agree with you that it was never Katara for Aang, It should have never been Katara. That's one of the biggest arguments that drew me to Zutara initially - that it made so much sense for Aang to let go of his feelings towards her like Guru said. Aang's not ending up with Katara would make as much sense as finishing Zuko and Katara's intertwined arcs as "yin and yang", "the moon and the sun" couple.

It's sucks that creators got too blinded with the initial idea they came up with and weren't able neither to let go of it nor to develope it properly. And that was the reason Katara and Aang got together - because they were just supposed to from the very start. Writers should be able to see their creation critically and unbiassedly to see the mistakes they're about to make and Bryke and DiMartino certainly failed to do that.

I thought the events of past, idk, 10 years taught us something about creators and writers being wrong about their own creations - but apparently that's not the case for those people.

But what do I - the delulu Zutara fan - know?

The case of live-action atla zutara.

First of all, the scarf scene. I won't be repeating myself, here are some main points - there was absolutely no reason for Zuko to act the way he did and for the scene to be shot this dramatically. Even if they did the shipbaiting in this scene - it means there's a ship which is much more than live-action kataang has at this point. Also I don't really think these guys are shipbaiting type but that's just the impression I got.

Then - the second obvious one - Oma and Shu's visuals. We have star-crossed lovers from two towns at war, basically the local equivalent of Romeo and Juliet (as in legendary lovers who are known above all for their love) wearing coincidentally colors that are primarily associated with two of our characters (who shared this dramatically shot scene in the previous episode).

And I know, it may seem so insignificant - but but but but! - you have to think about this. Of course there are creators, writers and showrunners that are unaware of some non-canon ships or don't care about them. But it's not the case for atla. No, creators of atla were so aware of zutara - they wrote a parody scene in a in-world trashy play to mock this fan pairing and it still proved absolutely nothing and just gave zutara more content. The creators and writers of this adaptation clearly had the discussion "what we should do with kataang" - because there is no trace of kataang in the 1st season. So it was a conscious decision to omit that - but where would the romantic subplot go? Well, I don't know, but they are showrunners, they most certainly discussed options. They are clearly very, very, very much aware of zutara. And they still do this? They still show us Oma and Shu wearing red and blue? All they had to do is to give at least one of them any different color. Any. But they didn't. (for fuck sake, it is the Earth Kingdom - yellow and green would do it)

There were zero, no, nada Kataang interactions, implications or those scenes that are filmed just a little bit too dramatically like the scarf one. I don't know, there's still a chance that they will wait for season 3 to make Aang's crush on Katara happen. I'm also not so sure what will happen to Aang failing to open seventh chakra, I mean - his love for Katara has a huge purpose in series, so it still doesn't look very good. But you can't even imagine how glad I am that they didn't do this secret tunnel thing. It was very uncomfortable.

So it was the more fact-based part of my case, let's get to the irrational, almost delusional part, tin foil hat probably needed.

Almost all the scenes Zuko and Katara shared in the first season kept reminding me of another famous enemies-to-lovers ship that actually became canon in the infamous final episode - Reylo, the way it was filmed in The Force Awakens. I mean - the first fight in the woods where she looses, the intensity of him staring at her, the final fight in snowy location where she kicks his ass and shows her mastering this superpower, him trying to talk to her during this fight and mentioning her learning/having to learn...Zuko calling Katara a peasant reminded me of this "Rey is no one" discourse. I don't know man, I haven't thought about The Force Awakens reylo for a very long time and it just kept popping in my head.

All of this - it's like a blueprint for enemies to lovers.

Also I actually think that the look they shared in the 2nd episode was also shot kinda weirdly and dramatically. It's not to the extent of the scarf scene but I do remember thinking that "why did they film it they way? it's too intense".

In the conclusion I'd like to say that as much as I like all the season 1 zutara stuff they left out in the adaptation - necklace subplot and implications, pirates and the famous "You rise with the moon, I rise with the sun" - I think I actually prefer the scarf scene. Yes, it would be so great to see those things in adaptation but in the end of the day they would still be just the things they kept from the original and probably noting more. Like the cabbages or the secret tunnel song or anything else, just things from the source material that implicate nothing. While the scarf scene, the Oma and Shu's clothes - it means they made a conscious decision to make it that way. It means they put some thought into that and some meaning. And this gives me hope there's a chance for Zutara in this adaptation.

P.S. I told about this my sister who hasn't watch the series yet and she said "I think people who made this show are just shipping zutara in secret". I do not necessarily imply she might be right - but creators of animated series (the very same people that made kataang canon, not zutara) DID leave because of some creative differences and because they couldn't control creative decision. Might as well be THAT kind of decision.

[xoteajays]

If I do decide to watch DTC again before the movie is removed, then I might just only watch the scenes with Rascals and Daruma because I prefer them over those Sannoh boys. That's the only why I'll watch.

But I might rewatch the movies again though.. Same. I do have lots of characters I understand, but some of them are a bit complicated so it would help if I had a better grasp on them when trying to write them.

~

Yes! Horror, thrillers, sometimes even action movies are so fact paced that it might be a bit difficult to watch and read at the same time. So.. Like as an example. Hospital scenes. If there is a character who is just dying in a hospital, surgery, something like that. Then I could say that scene is so fast paced that I can barely read the subtitles so I actually have to rewatch that scene a few times to see what was said.

~

Who knows? That could be a headcanon. Because Murayama seems like he might have some disability, like an attention disorder. But that might be because he never seems to pay attention in school though.

~

Mugen and Sannoh have the most backstory. And even the Amamiya brothers to some extent since their history is intertwined with Mugen and Sannoh. The criminal gangs - Kuryu, Warriors and Doubt - have a lot less background then the other SWORD gangs.

And exactly! More backstory for Rascals. Which we mentioned before too. So you already know what backstories I want for the Rascals.

Bratty Hyuga being babysat by Kato, causing trouble everywhere he's going. The violence. The crimes. How they meet their gang members. I mean.. You already know how Hyuga met Sakyo and Ukyo, but not a lot of their members either. Same with the White Rascals.

And Rude Boys. How did they perfect the parkour sport? Did they get injured trying this, did anyone die? Well.. Maybe. Depends. But still.

Even though there is enough story for Oya, you know more about the story after the events rather than before those events. So more story.

"Characters are there for me to go ‘yoink!’ and then make them my own." But isn't that every character in existence. Major and minor.

~

To be fair. The people of Nameless City were abused and abandoned by people who should have cared for them - their biological families - so I don't blame him for having an attitude with "outsiders" who really aren't their family. But, when Takeshi learns to trust the other SWORD gangs, I see being more nice when he's more comfortable around lots of those characters. Maybe that's just how I see his character though.

~

None of them knew the crystals were toxic chemicals formed into the stones. Like Eri for example. Do you think she was sick before or after she's wore that crystal necklace that Smoky gave her? The chemicals seeping into her every time she wore the necklace. Maybe my idea?

But yeah.. They only tried helping Smoky in their own way.

A little insane? He's completely insane. Hyuga's the most aggressive, the most violent, SWORD leader out of those five. Murayama is kinda unhinged, but in a childish way. And the most unhinged you would be seeing of Rocky was back in season one - which I might the unhinged violence they had back there (so I might be keeping that in my story).

But that's what is so funny. Hyuga has fought and killed people, then he owns a gambling business, and even smokes drugs (is it drugs) so many times. Yet they complain that he's sitting on his car. Seriously?

Though.. that's so funny.. They're being picky over the most attractive men in the SWORD district. Thinking this scene over made me think.. In the show. When Junko was upset that her friends went dating (and without her), he went to a bar where she met the Masaki brother. And he walked away from her for being way too aggressive towards him.

~

I'm an overthinker so I tend to overthink about everything in my mind all the time. An abstract thinker who finds a way to connect the dots.

I don't know why. But, with foreign fandoms (like Asian fandoms), I'm always liking the concept of the main original character being foreign for a few reasons. Well.. That could be open to interpretation. But still. If there character is foreign, they'd have absolutely no connections to any other characters in the plot. They are too removed from everyone and everything, so what would help if they were introduced as people who aren't involved. I don't know. I've always loved the thought to any characters being foreign - even if they're only American. So if or when I do write for foreign fandoms, you might see that frequently which is a repetitive theme people might hate. But I enjoy the concept to that. And besides, quite a few of the celebrities in H&L are mixed ethnicity. So why not have other interracial characters and relationships.

Well.. When it comes to gangs like Kuryu, Warriors and Doubt. I doubt that I'd give any depth to Doubt because I hate that gang for reasons. But maybe for Kuryu and Warriors. Watch Mighty Warriors videos; Dream Boys, Good Life and Warriors Anthem (especially the last two videos). Because those videos could tell a story about them as a part of Kuryu now, after the events of the original movies. That's an idea.

That's what I was not sure. Because four characters are a lot, which is why I wasn't even sure if four characters enough or not. But I wouldn't want to many characters either. So if I ever did have more characters, I'd have send one or two more but even that seems too much. Since I would have five or six characters, which also means I would have one or two other characters to figure out. I know, I know... I keep saying it.

~

Okay. So.. I'll start with the orange character since I have most of her personality figured out. I have some of the blue character figured out. But I'm still trying to figure out my red character though, so not much is known about her yet because I'm being fickle about her personality for some reason. Maybe because she's red character? I don't know.

Orange:

Astrology - November 1997, I'm leaning more toward Scorpio for her Western sign and Ox is her Eastern sign. Not sure about the day yet.

MBTI - ESFP-A. (Which is funny since Cobra's personality is ISFP, so I guess they're opposites attract? That was completely unintentional.)

Temperament - Sanguine-Choleric blend.

Enneagram - Type Seven, 7w8.

Archetype - Don't know yet.

Blue:

Astrology - April 1997, I'm leaning more toward Aries for Western sign and Ox is her Eastern sign. Not sure about the day yet.

MBTI - Possibly ISFP-A. I don't know what connect she might have to Murayama yet, but his personality is ESTP if you were curious.

Temperament - Sanguine-Phlegmatic or Phlegmatic-Sanguine blend, I might have to reread which one is more accurate for her personality. I'm still figuring this out.

Enneagram - I'm still figuring this out.

Archetype - Don't know yet.

Red:

Astrology - October 1990, I'm leaning more toward Libra for Western sign and Goat/Sheep is her Eastern sign. Not sure about the day yet.

MBTI - I'm still figuring this out.

Temperament - I'm still figuring this out.

Enneagram - I'm still figuring this out.

Archetype - Don't know yet.

Obviously those characters are the ones I'm more concerned about in this moment. Since I'm still figuring them out. I'm a broken record.

But those are some of the personalities I've thought about. I'm listing the more known personality types, since I know you don't really know much about typing. I think.. I confused myself by wording it like this.

~

Definitely! Without spoiling the show. I'll keep this vague.. With how it ends, there's one of two outcomes, either it ends the way it is (which I wouldn't complain about) or they could possibly make other seasons. Because there hasn't been a mention if the show is continuing or not, hasn't been cancelled, or anything like that. So watch the soon. But it only has eight episodes in the first season when you decide to watch.

And I might have another show. Maybe. But this is a thriller, not some action series. More like a crime drama? But Extracurricular. A Korean crime drama series. And, same with this series, there hasn't been any mention if and when they decide to continue the show yet either.

i definitely already clicked through dtc just to watch the smg and babys scenes. half because i love ‘em, half to figure out which characters were which and match their names to their faces.

i have no problem rewatching the movies, but i do wish someone had compiled the scenes into separate videos on yt. like for each gang so i can just binge the specific characters instead.

~

east asians horror/thrillers are so good, but you really need to be able to pay attention to everything. like little things in the bg and the spooks and then also be reading the subtitles. korean/japanese/thai horror and thrillers hit different.

~

bratty shortass chaotic teenage hyuga and kato who is just. exhausted. he loves hyuga, but he’s also like. please. just chill for like one minute. STOP BITING.

i love the aesthetic of parkour and freerunning but also it is. terrifying. i’d love a scene of the guys like recounting their pasts while teaching some of the younger kids some easy parkour tricks. flashbacks of smokey giving some wisdom that they give to the kids too. gimme scenes of takeshi learning to take over the leader role after smokey’s death.

i will always take more murayama scenes. i don’t care what it is. anything.

writers put their pretty canon characters on my screen and i go ‘thanks, i’ll be taking that’.

~

takeshi’ll be actually nice to them eventually, but he definitely starts off with thin-veiled attitude and vague politeness for the sake of the alliance. he’s half-way into an eyeroll when he remembers he’s a leader now and not off in the back with the rest of the boys.

~

i think wearing the crystal was what made eri sick. especially since it was right up against her skin and she likely never took it off since it was her ‘treasure’.

they didn’t even mention the amamiya brothers in the complaining, though they’d probably complain about hiroto being quiet and masaki being kind of a dork. masaki lost his bike, a girl he was flirting with, and hiroto all in the span of like two minutes. loserfail dork behaviour (affectionate).

~

i got a lil spiderweb brain, just weaving stuff together and then at some point going ‘oh shit a plot point/theme/idea that ties everything together!’.

opposite that, i really like weaving my ocs into the plot and with other characters. like ‘these ones are friends’ or ‘these ones have history with each other’ or ‘these ones hate each other’. some i like to make completely new, but i do enjoy intertwining them in like they’ve been there the whole time.

i watched the last one with the mighty warriors remeeting up with ryu and becoming the new kuryu and have some plans to weave it into ryuko’s story (since ryu is still chasing her even after the original kuryu fall).

~

as a late-90s-born scorpio, i approve! (im an october scorpio tho and i think? an infp?) i think an opposite’s attract relationship with cobra works. he needs the little push of someone bit less quiet.

i really should take a deeper read into personality types, i think it’d be interesting to try and figure them out but i also have. So Many ocs. mbti or enneagrams and archetypes i think would be cool to look into.

~

i hope they don’t cancel it because it does look good, but it is netflix and they love to just. get rid of stuff that people enjoy. doesnt look like a show about wlw tho so it’ll probably be fine, all the shade to netflix.

i think i’ve seen extracurricular while clicking through stuff but i don’t remember if i saved it onto any of my lists.

[kinnoth]

hiiiii!! ❤️ for the ask: 😈💌💔🤡🤯✅🛒

😈 Has there been a point in a story where you did something just to be playfully mean to your readers?

tbh i ....don't really think about my readers at all.... when i'm writing something. i do a ton of things to be mean to the canon; frequently i just straight up lift motifs and dialogue out of canon with the deliberate intention of recontextualising it in a sort of "fuck you, you made a thing, i made it better".

i think the most "haha cheeky :P" thing i've ever done to my readers is start a million fics and never finish them. bc i'm literally the worst.

💌 How do you feel about comments and feedback?

love comments and feedback, hate people who show up 2/3 of the way through class to throw bottles at the lecturer bc they didn't do the reading and now they're mad that they're confused. like damn, why are you here?? maybe this isn't for you??? get off my ceiling fan????

💔 Is there a fic of yours that broke your heart?

oooomg i also never published this so nobody but my wife knows it exists at all, but fucking, bloodborn marriage AU. it's all natural consequences, and everybody ends up in the worst possible scenario.

for publicly available fic "indirect" is a good sad time

🤡 What's a line, scene, or exchange you've written that made you laugh?

ok, i know i'm not funny, i've never claimed to be funny, and i think i'm too literal and suspicious of absurdity to ever learn how to be funny

that said, i wrote this to make myself laugh so i still think it's funny

🤯 What's a genre you struggle with as a writer (ex. romance, action, etc.)?

i can't do mystery? or horror which is just, mystery but spooky. i'm not good at plot and i'm doubly not good at disseminating information in a deliberate way and keeping answers to myself once i've already figured something out. it's the reason why i'm terrible at writing fic longer than 5k words and why all the fics i have written over 5k words have been the genre of "emotional intrigue".

✅ What's something that appears in your fics over and over and over again, even if you don't mean to?

the frankest answer to this is gay dudes. i never intended to be this fujoshi ass pornographer but it happened anyway. i think it's cos i grew up on media that universally wrote women in a kind of secondary, supportive, but ultimately uninteresting way (classic mainstream misogyny & 00s anime style) and so naturally i was like "the main dude and his dude friend are the best characters, let's go see what other people have to say about them", and thus i found fanfic, which was incredibly "THEY CAN DO WHAT?!??"

i'm getting better about it though. i've even written some women who i personally find interesting. but it was a weirdly difficult road to get here.

🛒 What are some common things you incorporate in your fics? Themes, feels, scenes, imagery, etc.

answered here!

[chicoriii]

Season 4, Episode 4 - Mr Pigeon 72

I have no idea where to start. This episode has some good things and some extremely stupid.

Marinette isn't still completely fine, but I prefer when she deals with it through being hyperactive than being a whining crybaby.

I know people don't agree with me, but personally I don't buy the whole revealing identity to Alya. It's not a problem with Alya herself, I would say the same about every single character who is not named Alix Kubdel at this point of the story. I haven't written anything in my post about Gang of Secrets, because I thought it would be undone in some way at the start of the next episode. The creators did nothing to explain why revealing identity of Ladybug to anyone was super dangerous and would result in a catastrophe in seasons 1-3 and the first two episodes of S4, but it's magically fine in episode 3. Only Alix made sense to me, as she will be the rabbit Miraculous holder, so she is destined to discover identities of everyone sooner or later and Marinette is aware of that. While it's not necessary to learn identity of anyone to other temporary Miraculous wielders, including Alya. Also that reveal hasn't been foreshadowed in season 3, while the show usually does it, especially if it's about something as important as that! More, in late S3, it's been shown that Alya still can't resist to not talking about Marinette's love life with Nino, despite she asked her to not do it. Now the girl, who is overly excited about superhero stuff, has no problems with even accidental revealing anything to Nino or someone else. She's even "stealing" Bunnix line that she's great at keeping secrets (sorry but you, the creators, haven't shown us that she's indeed is before!). This is why I think that reveal hasn't been planned before they started writing season 4.

But okay, I can deal with it, even if I don't buy it, but things these happened in Mr. Pigeon 72 are even more inconsistent with previous seasons. I have been worried about it, so it doesn't surprised me. For some reason Guardian related-things that have been kept in a secret before from everyone minus current Guardian and the future Guardian, are now fine being done in front of Kwamis (remember, they haven't been allowed to learn about making potions before!) and a civilian who is just a temporal Miraculous holder, not someone who is supposed to be trained to be a new Guardian. You can say - new Guardian, new rules, but why? Marinette has been portrayed as someone who respect authorities, she has never questioned any Fu's rules. It wasn't even said in the episode that she's going to change the rules. I hate that the writers don't even bother to explain us what's going on. Probably they don't bother about consistency, they think the audience is going to be too excited about Alya knowing Ladybug's identity and helping Marinette to question anything about it? How Alya could be allowed to learn the Guardian secrets? She is just best friend of the protagonist, she is not one of the main characters to get that special treatment. I makes zero sense to me. Especially since Su-Han will be introduced in episode 6 and he should help Marinette with understanding the Grimoire, Alya isn't necessary here for any other reason than fanservice.

In my opinion the way how they discovering how to make charms that protects from akumasitation was the most stupid thing that happened this season and one of the most in the whole show. Marinette who is the new Guardiand and portrayed as someone extreme intelligent and creative couldn't find the solution for days, but Alya with zero training magically discovered it in a few hours at worst. And when she told her the solution in not even very clear way, Ladybug did it immediately with no effort. That was so anticlimactic. At least the animation was fine, but other aspects of it was just a big disappointment, and I was looking forward for it. Thank goodness it's just the beginning of the season, I hope later important events of the season will be better written and portrayed.

Also I find it absurd that Rena Rough is walking with a page from the Grimoire like it's just an ordinary book and she's talking about it in front of a random civilian, like things that are written there are nothing special. She or Ladybug are not careful about Miraculous lore anymore. Not to mention that they are giving hints that Rena is very close to Ladybug in public, suspiciously close. And now with them being too careless, that's not hard to suspect that Rena Rouge is someone very close to Ladybug, maybe even as a civilian. Shadow Moth knows Rena Rouge's identity, and it's easy to him to learn who is Alya Cesaire's best friend if he doesn't know it yet, after all his son is in the class with her. Marinette has always been super careful and serious about her duties before, why that sudden change with zero explanation? It's just very out of character to her in my opinion.

I didn't like the akuma battle either, it's now the worst fight of the season in my opinion. It was so short and felt very lazy. I only liked that Plagg got some action and interaction with Ladybug (though it should be suspicious for her that he managed to reach to her that fast). He should be aware now that Alya knows Ladybug's identity but he acts like nothing happened. Not a word about it being unfair towards his kid or something, weird.

Thankfully the rest of the episode is generally more or less fun to me. It was nice to see Marinette and Kagami interacting again. I loved Kagami in the episode, although it was a bit weird to me that she isn't seemed to be affected by her breaking up with Adrien. Like her crush was very shallow, so she managed to recover herself from it very quickly. While it's been shown that Luka is hurt, despite Lukanette always seemed to be much more shallow than Adrigami in my opinion. But maybe it's because she's so down to earth, so being less emotional makes sense for her character. I liked how her attitude was opposite to Marinette's hyperactive: "No, I don't want to be in a relationship with Adrien again, he disappointed me, just let me live!!!". And she's another character who said that Marinette and Adrien are made for each other. I'm not surprised that Kagami sees it now when she tried to be with him and that didn't work. She's observant, sees more than many other characters. It seems she's an Adrienette shipper now. It's also good that her issue with Adrien wasn't resolved that easily and too fast. They need more time, but I'm sure they will be friends again.

So, we've gotten shirtless Adrien. I remember seeing a tweet of Thomas in which he answered to a question if there will be a beach episode and he said we will get something similar. I wonder if he meant this episode. Oh, they just remembered that Adrien is supposed to be allergic to feathers. It seems Adrien has allergic reactions only when it's somewhat related to the plot. When it's not, he's completely fine.

The reference to the famous Umbrella Scene™ out of nowhere in a random episode? It probably means something. I can see "reverse crush" supporters interpreting it as a proof to their theory, especially since this time Adrien did something clumsy and Marinette is laughing because of it (actually both of them). Or maybe because it's the first episode of season 4 with Marinette and Adrien interactions, they decided to be that much gracious for Adrienette fans, to compensate lack of it in the first three episodes. Oh wow, Marinette managed to propose spending more time together to Adrien without stuttering. Probably because she has done it spontaneously. Marinette is the most nervous when she's planning and thinking what could go wrong too much. This time she had no time to it, so it went more smoothly. It's like they building development of their relationship, but it didn't seem in Guiltrip (that's episode 11 chronologically) that something changed.

Seeing screenshot above, you can easily imagine how great friends they could be, being very comfortable around each other and laughing together, if not Marinette's anxiety. We need Adrienette development so much to get more moments like this.

Oh and I just realized that it's also one of the veeeeery few episodes with no real Ladynoir at all (the only other one I remember is Style Queen). So if there was no Adrienette it would be an episode without interactions of two main characters at all (although we almost got Ladrien). It could be another reason why this episode is that nice for Adrien and Marinette ship.

After seeing overly excited Marinette dancing in the rain, I can't believe she can manage completely give up on Adrien. It doesn't look like this at all.

Also we've seen three photos of Adrien wearing THAT scarf. It could not mean nothing different that foreshadowing that he's going to discover the truth about it somewhere this season. But I have no idea what Ladybug's mask with shining eyes could mean.

I don't know what to think about the episode. Despite absurd Guardian-related things, I still liked it much more than Gang of Secrets, but I have no idea if I generally enjoyed it more than other episodes of this season or not. At least it's an episode without stupid drama, which is amazing.

---------

I'm currently less active on social media, because my internet connection is very unstable, it often works very slowly to the point I'm not patient enough to visit Tumblr. Also I block spoiler tags again, because I don't want to see spoilers from the episodes those are going to be released very soon, as I feel that they reveal too much to me once more. We're currently in a marathon of the new episodes and since watching them is the more more enjoyable, the less I know about them, I decided to try avoid spoilers as much as I can. The only bad thing is that I can't be read discussions about the new episodes, reblog them and adding something from me until Optigami will be aired.

[gojira007]

Hey! Any tips for an artist who is new to writing? I've been itching to try my hand at writing stuff for my Sonic / Metroid AU, but I feel like I've been overthinking things and am not sure how to direct a plot.

I'm flattered you thought to ask me this, sincerely! Sorry I left it sitting in my inbox for a bit, but it's been a somewhat hectic month for me XD;  I also really wanted to make sure that I gave you the very best advice I could, so, all too fittingly, I turned to Queen of Pen and Paper herself, @sally-mun​, to help me nail it down just right!  I really appreciate her help.  And now, without further adieu….

 To start with, one of the most important questions you can ask yourself as a writer is "why".  Not just in a Logic sort of sense like World-Building, but in a "why THIS story with THESE characters?" sense.  “Why is X Character Taking Y Action?”  “Why this scene at this time?”  “Why do we care?”  Because the thing is, your READERS will end up asking these questions too, and asking yourself “why” throughout your process is how you help to craft a story that gives answers to those “why”s in a satisfying way.  To be clear, that doesn’t mean you have to get hung up on every last little detail; some things are better left unsaid or implied.  But the important stuff?  What motivates your characters, what shapes your story?  Those answers, you need to make sure are included in the story.

So this is a drum that @sally-mun beats a lot and which I myself have learned to advocate for: Outlines are your friends!  Do not be afraid to lay things out in a non-narrative format before you really start delving into the actual Writing of the story!  It is, in fact, a great way for you to achieve a lot of the goals/tips we’re talking about here without necessarily having to expend all the effort and energy that goes into Properly Writing A Story, with the added benefit of helping you keep your thoughts straight without having to simply rely on Memory.  That's not to say it's a no-effort short-cut, just that it is in fact a good way to really test out your ideas and give yourself the strongest guidelines for what the story itself will be before you commit to The Full Press, so to speak.  HOWEVER…   

…outlines can, do, and indeed should change over time!  Don't get too rigid in your planning.  Having some sense of where you're going is good, especially if there are any particular Themes or Emotions you're looking to tap into, but you can often surprise yourself with how a thing plays out once you write it VS. what it looked like when you conceptualized it in your head, and being willing to play off of the Actual Writing instead of holding too tightly to that original plan can often lead you to even better places     than you initially planned.  Keeping an outline can thus be a useful way for you to respond to those changes, a means of Going Back To The Drawing Board rather than having to Reset to Zero every time your story surprises you.

I've personally found a good way to pass the smell test of "is this     working?" is to try and look at it from an Audience Perspective. That is to say, if you were the person reading this story, how would you like this choice in how the story advances or the style in which it's been     rendered?  Getting outside of your own head like that, in my experience, can really help put things in perspective, and help you to re-evaluate     whether the story is shaking out in a way you like, even if it isn't necessarily in the way you planned. Admittedly, this can be a lot easier said than done, so a helpful way to get that Outside Your Head point of view is in reaching out to Test Readers to get their feedback, preferably one who doesn’t have a lot if any pre-existing information about your story so as to keep their viewpoint more objective.  Over time, you might learn to better take that role on for yourself, but even if you do, Test Readers can still be very helpful, and maybe more importantly, even if you don’t, there’s no shame in continuing to use Test Readers, ever.  

Lastly, especially if you're just starting out, don't be too harsh on yourself about things like, say, Word Repetition or Grammar.  Be mindful of those     things as best you know how, sure, but at least in terms of just getting     something down, I personally have found it more beneficial to just Do and then go back and see if you can clean it up on a Technical Level later, because something tangible and on the page is usually more helpful to making Forward Progress than The Idea In Your Head.  Indeed, something to keep in mind is that writing and editing are ultimately two distinct processes; it’s common among early writers to try and do both at once, but this can ultimately lead to things just getting locked up.  Editing is best remembered as the thing you do after writing.

[theemptyskies]

Real talk.

Note that this is all my own opinion.

In an Azula Redemption fic, in my opinion, she would not have to apologize for anything she did during the war to anyone. Not Aang for shooting him with lightning. Not Mai or Ty lee for imprisoning them. Not the Gaang for chasing them. The only one I might concede is targeting Katara during an Agni Kai.

What she probably should do, is apologize for the way she treated Mai, Ty lee and Zuko when they were children. If it takes place post smoke and shadow then she should apologize for what happened then as well.

She does not owe Ursa anything. While Ursa did love her, she very much neglected Azula which left her feeling that something was wrong with her. She has every right to never let Ursa in her life again. There is no argument that can be made against it. Azula's feelings are valid. She was neglected by her mother. Ursa's personal feelings don't matter. She may have loved her but I don't recall any instance where she actually told Azula that, or spent time with her, or showed even close to the same level of affection. Ursa did kiss her on the cheek the night she left, however I will point out that she woke up Zuko and made sure the last thing she said to him was basically I love you while she left Azula unconscious, unaware of the action. We never even see a scene where Ursa says "I love you" to her.

It's what makes the hallucinations so tragic at the end of season three. Those scenes can be read in a multitude of different ways. My reading of them, examining Ursa's relationship with Azula, noting that every interaction they had was shown to be confrontational, referencing "The Beach" where she did show that Ursa's relationship and abandonment did hurt her deeply, implying that she did want her affection, is this.

Ursa's neglect of Azula throughout her childhood caused Azula to develop feelings of inadequacy. This feeling pushed her to try as hard as possible to earn Ozai's affection, where she succeeded until he left her behind before the final attack in the Earth Kingdom. Coupled with Mai and Ty Lee's betrayal, this caused her feelings of inadequacy to resurface stronger than before. Everyone left her behind. Her mind conjured the image of Ursa, the origin of her feeling, saying "I love you Azula, I really do.", things we never saw her say.

I read these scenes as the hallucination saying things Azula always craved to hear. Affections that were always withheld from her, hammering away at her already fragile psyche. Reminding her repeatedly that she was never good enough for either of her parents.

So no. I don't think Azula ever needs to forgive Ursa or give her a chance and there isn't an argument that could be made to convince me. At most, I think Azula should confront her as the core of a majority of her trauma, similar to how Katara did with Yon Rah.

For me, an Azula redemption is about her coming to terms with her trauma. It's about her finding her place in a post war world. Her rebuilding her relationship with Zuko, the only family she was ever truly close with. It's about her seeing through the lies and manipulations implanted by Ozai from a young age. It's about her gaining a good, healthy support system that won't give up in her.

It's about her, in the end, finally finding peace, whatever that happens to mean for her in your particular fic. If it involves romance, that's great. A lot of people who make "shipping tier lists" rank almost every ship with Azula at the bottom, often saying things like "nobody deserves to deal with a relationship with Azula" which, as someone who grew up in an abusive household who also relates a lot to Azula, I gotta say it kind of hurts hearing people say those things. Everyone deserves love.

If your fic doesn't include romance and focuses on her familial relationships then that's also great. She definitely has a lot on her plate and building that healthy support system is an amazing route to take your fic, leading to a great heartfelt ending.

Please note, Azula's misdeeds should not be overlooked. Anyone you want to have her connect with, she will have to earn it. But I feel like it's important to understand why some people behave the way that they do. Not excuse thier actions, but to help map out how they can make up for them. That's why we were shown Zuko's tragic past while also seeing him burn down a village and threaten defenseless elderly people.

With the way she's portrayed, it easy to forget this powerful, intimidating character, is just a child. She's just 14 years old. It's something I think a lot of people who write off her character as irredeemable don't account for. Whenever I dig past her surface level "bad guy" traits with this in mind, admittedly, I'm often brought to tears. She's very much a product of her environment. It's because of that, that I think she can learn to be a better person.

To recap, an Azula redemption in no way shape or form NEEDS to include Azula trying to make the Gaang like her. It was war and every one of her actions during it have no bearing on her, from her perspective. If you want her to connect with them then you can, just don't be someone who talks bad about a redemption fic because she doesn't. 🙂

She did treat Zuko, Mai, and Ty lee very poorly as a friend and sibling. So she does owe them an apology and they are also under no obligation to give her another chance.

Ursa does not need to be forgiven, nor should it be portrayed that Ursa did nothing wrong. Azula's feelings are valid.

The core of a redemption fic (for me) is character growth, in this case for Azula.

Romance is ok in an Azula redemption fic. I personally enjoy Azutara fics where she helps Azula through her mental health recovery and trauma. Citadel is an interesting fic that takes place several years into Azula's stay in a mental institution. Here's a link if you wanna check it out. Keep in mind, it's nine years old so comic events aren't a thing 🙂 https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6939866/1/5

Not having romance is equally ok. There are a multitude of great fics both post canon and AU that follow this route. Here is a fic recommendations for it. This one is an AU taking place during the war.

Her actions should not be excused because her story is a tragedy. She still did bad things.

Hopefully you all enjoyed my little ramble that I also hope is understandable. I tend to go off on tangents a lot. Considering it's 6:30 am where I'm at and I still haven't slept, this probably has horrible grammar and is likely riddled with typos. So I'm sorry about that bit lol 😅

[kiingocreative]

The Structure of Story is now available! Check it out on Amazon, via the link in our bio, or at https://kiingo.co/book

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The More You Learn, The Less You Know

"I know nothing." That's what I say to myself when I'm stuck. It's my go-to Socratic writer's block motivational quote. Most writers usually have that critic inside trying to bait them into procrastinating or, worse, giving up when they hit a crossroads in their writing. It happens to me when I start overthinking and ask myself, "what happens next?" What a scary thought. If my character chooses door A, they might not complete the journey I started them on. If I choose door B, they might lose some of their uniqueness that makes them relatable. If I decide on door C, oh, screw it, I should just give up because I'm lost! And despite all the screenplays I've read, books I've obsessed over, and podcasts I've listened too I still don't know what to do next. If you're a writer, I know what you're thinking "Sounds like my Tuesday night breakdowns."

We all agonize over the choices our characters make. We all start to feel like we know nothing. We're just a bunch of aimless Jon Snows with our mighty ink swords roaming the backwoods of creativity in our minds looking for the perfect scene to write. But it doesn't have to be that hard. First, admit to yourself that you know nothing: "zero, zip, zilch, nada." If you know that you know nothing, then you're teachable. If you know nothing, there's an answer, and there's a tool out there somewhere that someone has created for you to learn and use ad nauseam until you get sick of it or learn to use it appropriately. Sounds too good to be true, right? That's just your inner critic at the wheel. Slap that judgmental procrastinator and get back in the driver's seat.

I know nothing, but I do know this...dun dun dunnnn! The more I learn about writing, the less I feel I know. Not because I forget tools or rules, even though sometimes I do, but because I understand that the world of writing and the ways to do it are endless. I can keep learning! It's ok to pick a writing book like "Save the Cat" and attempt to write a "paint by numbers" type of screenplay. I've done it, and I made a pretty funny, some would say, a decent little indie flick by just trying it out and learning from it. I find most screenwriting books to be equals because you can learn a new tool from any of them.

"Give us a tool already!" I feel you murmuring, reader, so here's some practical wisdom.

Marry Your Scenes

One of the biggest reasons we get stifled as writers is because we don't remember one fundamental guiding principle of storytelling: causality.

Causality? Yes, causality, the relationship between cause and effect. The principle that everything has a cause.

Every choice we force our characters to make should have a consequence, and therefore the consequence can help you set up your next scene. I don't want to over-simplify this, but let's see what happens if I do. If two people get married, what happens next? What comes to mind? Do they celebrate with their loved ones? Good? What else? What happens next? Do they go on their honeymoon? Great! What happens on their honeymoon? They make love? Excellent, or one of them gets too drunk, leaving the other to order room service and watch an overpriced movie. It's very much like a domino effect. Each one of those events happened because of the one preceding it. Marry your scenes to each other and understand why the choices are being made–and what consequences can occur because of them.

Where do you go from here? Well, if we use our newlyweds, maybe our sober character leaves the room to get some ice or puff a "J". This could lead to their getting arrested by island police without identification in her wedding dress. Or if it's the man, he runs into his high school girlfriend who's on a business trip on the same island and wants to go for a drink to catch up. All of this is just because one of our characters couldn't monitor their alcohol. Consequences to actions, to choices, are everywhere in your writing. Write a few and pick the most interesting ones. Which ones are those? The ones that make you smile, laugh, cry, or squirm. All of which will lead you to the next scene.

Background on These Thoughts

During the pandemic last year, I was fortunate to get a reduced price "writing scholarship" at the Jacob Kruger writing studio. On top of that, I started learning how to speed read so that I could consume as much written writing advice as possible, never to have an issue breaking a story or creating a helpful scene.

Consequently, I started writing more and more every day without fear of messing up or writing a bad scene. Could it be because I was reading and writing every day? Was I applying all the little things I was learning? Was it slowly becoming second nature? The answer's; yes. I read everything! My wife, an exceptional RN, was in the ER fighting off the plague. My industry was shut down, so as I stayed home with our kids trying to keep from going stir crazy, I read books and articles to them out loud until they started booing me or to myself, until my eyes needed a break. I read many things on Dan Harmon's story circle, the: "But & Therefore Rule" by Matt Stone and Trey Parker, listened to John August and Craig Mazin, and went on Kiingo's Instagram live discussion to participate, and see what else I could learn, watched old movies, new movies, read scripts I was a machine.

I have since written and co-written three feature-length screenplays, a handful of pilots, live-action and animation, and a couple of short films. Writing is HARD, but finding rules and tools to apply to your writing isn't.

Rule-Tools

Here are a few things I picked that were reinforced and to keep in mind when writing a scene. In every scene, you must know what your characters want and what they need; if you know their wants creating an obstacle that fuels causality is pretty straightforward.

So try the following:

1. If you know what they want, GIVE IT to them, and therefore what is the consequence? (There are many)

2. If you know what they want, but you DON'T GIVE IT to them, what is the consequence? (There are many)

3. If you know what they want, but GIVE THEM SOMETHING NEW instead and see if this stops them from wanting their original want. (How strong is their want? Strong enough to continue to pursue it? It better be if your movie is any good.) What is the consequence? (There are many)

4. If you know what they want, GIVE THEM a part of it but make them sacrifice something for it, and therefore what happens? (Maybe it's too expensive, maybe it's too embarrassing, perhaps it could hurt someone they love.) Consequences just start falling out of the sky once they MAKE A CHOICE!

Try applying one of these four rule-tools to your scenes and watch as your characters create their story and structure for you. I promise it works. Next time I'll show you how to combine these rule-tools to something like Dan Harmon's Story Circle.

Then again, I know nothing.

[a34trgv2]

Why It Worked: Steven Universe

Introduction: Steven Universe is an animated fantasy comedy drama about a little boy and 3 alien beings who protect the Earth from monsters and nefarious villains. Created by Rebecca Sugar, the show premiered on November 4, 2013 on Cartoon Network and ran for 5 seasons with a total of 160 episodes plus a made for tv movie and an epilogue series. The show has recieved great reviews with an average rating of 8.1/10 on Imdb and has recieved numerous of awards and nominations. When I first saw this show, I was immediately hooked and intrigued by it's concept and execution. I've made it no secret since that I wholeheartedly love this show. So to commemorate Rebecca Sugar's 34th birthday, I'm going to go into detail why this show resonated with me so well.

Premise and Execution: On a surface level, Steven Universe is a monster of the week/slice of life show with fantastical elements thrown in as well as musical numbers (more on that later). It's a unique set up but where the show soars is in the execution. Each episode is dedicated to Steven either interacting with the residents of Beach City or stopping the bad guys through his empathetic nature. If an episode isn't expanding the wonderful world of Steven Universe, it's just 11 minutes of Steven hanging out with his friends. This show also does a spectacular job handling its themes on love, empathy, sexuality, friendship and anxiety. One of the best episodes of the show, Mindful Education, is solely about dealing with anxiety. In addition to being very well written, the show is also really funny. While there are some jokes that are at best smirk worthy, more often than not they get a genuine laugh out of me. The funniest episode by far is Kindergarten Kid, which finds Steven Peridot and Amethyst try to catch a corrupted Gem. It's a straight up Looney Tunes homage and it had me in stitches by the end. What truly makes this show standout is its incredible animation brought to life by Summin Image Pictures and Rough Draft Korea. The character designs are a nice blend of different shapes and sizes allowing for various expressions. Steven's round body makes him look cuddly and cute, Pearl is slim and poised, Garnet has a box shaped head and is more intimidating and Amethyst is perfectly short yet has a flowing mane. The animation utilizes squash and stretch really well, particularly in the action and comedy scenes. The backgrounds are well detailed and lively, the colors are bright and beautiful and the effects really enhance the experience. From both a writing and visual standpoint, Steven Universe is a very well put together show that's made better with its characters.

Cast and Characters: I find it astonishing just how well rounded and lovable each of the main characters are. Starting with our titular hero, Steven is a happy go lucky kid with a big heart who slowly but sure learns to master his Gem powers. Above that though, he's a naturally kind kid who tries to see the good in others. The Crystal Gems each have defined personalities and act as role models for Steven. Pearl is motherly, punctual and elegant, Amethyst is carefree, funny and snarky and Garnet is stoic, wise and loving. Throughout the series they grow and develop as characters and their bonds grows stronger with each passing challenge. Steven's Dad, Greg, is without a doubt one of the best cartoon Dad's I've ever seen. He's fun, caring, smart, a talented musician and a really helpful ally. Even if he's not as familiar with Gem knowledge, he's still more than willing to help his son. Connie started off as the girl Steven saw once at a parade but with each subsequent appearance, she grows to be his best friend and a great ally. She's smart, resourceful, a great student and is generally kind and caring. What truly brings these characters to life is the amazing voice acting on display. Zach Callison was perfect as Steven, making him sound so innocent yet very brave and caring. Plus his voice depending due to puberty never felt jarring or awkward. Deedee Magno Hall perfectly captures the motherly nature of Pearl and makes her sound so elegant and proper. Michaela Dietz nails Amethyst's rambunctious personality and makes her sound like a natural tomboy. Estelle gives a beautiful performance as Garnet, making her sound so seasoned and full of wisdom. Tom Scharpling perfectly captures Greg's personality as this former musician who now lives his life as a full time Dad. Grace Rolek gave a great performance as Connie, making her sound so smart and brave, yet still maintaining that childlike innocence to her.

Super Supporting Players: The supporting cast deserves major props for not just making their mark on the show but actually growing as the show continues. Starting with Lars, he starts out as the typical teenager with teenager problems, yet as the show continues he becomes much more sympathy and likable even. Sadie starts out as someone who just wants to get by, but becomes much more open and well rounded as the show continues. Other residents of Beach City that make strong first impressions include Buck (the mayor's son), Sour Cream (a DJ), the Pizza family, Onion (Sour Cream's brother), Mr. Smiley, Jamie, and Ronaldo (yes really). On to the Gem side, most of them started off as antagonists but were later reformed and became very likable characters. Peridot started off as a calculated antagonist that was simply following orders, yet after she spends some time with Steven, she becomes a naive yet very funny character that's curious about what Earth is like. Lapis Lazuli started off resenting the Crystal Gems for imprisoning her in a mirror, but after a while she becomes a helpful ally who may not find Earth as interesting as Peridot, but they maintain a good relationship. Jasper is an antagonist through and through and relishes in harming the main characters. Then there are the Diamonds, the true antagonists of the show. While they're all distinct in personality, they all have the same goal: to see Earth be transformed into a Gem colony. Yellow Diamond is stern and commanding, Blue is generally sad, but can be menacing when she has to be and White is commited to have things be perfect and in order. They're set up throughout the show as the ruthless rulers of the Gem spieces and their reveals did not disappoint. The actors that portrayed these characters deserve just as much recognition as the main players. Shelby Rabara, Matthew Moy, Kate Micucci, Reagan Gomez-Preston, Zach Steel, Pattie LuPone, Lisa Hannigan, Christine Ebersole and everyone else did great jobs bringing the characters to life.

The Beauty Of Rose Quartz: Yes I'm dedicated an entire paragraph to Rose Quartz because not only is she a great character, but she's basically the back bone of the entire show. Rose was tasked with colonizing Earth, but once she discovered its true beauty, she made a different call. She then met Greg and gave up her physical form to give birth to Steven. The Gems and Greg talk about her all the time and she's seen in flashbacks and we learn more and more about her throughout the show. The general consensus is that she was a brave, kind, caring Gem who saw the beauty in all living things. That said, she wasn't without her flaws as she withheld information from others, particularly from Pearl. One thing that remained constant about her character though is that she wanted Steven to see the beauty of this world, even if she wouldn't be there to see it with him. One of the biggest reveals in the show (which I WON'T spoil) just made it all click and made me love the character even more. What truly makes Rose memorable though is the amazing vocal performance of Susan Egan. In contrast from the sassy Meg from Disney's Hercules, Egan portrays Rose as such a caring and kind figure who loved seeing the beauty in this world.

Songs and Music: Every other episode in this show has a musical number and they're all varying degrees of upbeat, lively and catchy. Some of my personal favorite songs include Cookie Cats for how upbeat and funny it is, Giant Woman for how livly and musical it is, Stronger Than You for being an amazing action song and Here Comes a Thought for it's great message. Of course, the theme song itself is amazing as it sounds like an announcement made by Steven himself introducing himself and the Crystal Gems ad they're about to enter a fight. There's also the entire episode of Mr. Greg which is essentially an 11 minute musical; it still astounds me how they managed to pull that off without making feel rushed or undercooked. Also gotta give credit to Aivi and Surasshu for provided an excellent score for each episode, making sure each character had distinct musical cues as well as making the background music feel natural and lively.

Where It Falters: I have but one gripe about the show and it's really a small bit of criticism: it's too Steven focused. What I mean by that is episodes such as The New Crystal Gems and 3 Gems and A Baby could've worked just fine if not better had Steven not be present to hear about it. Don't get me wrong, I love Steven and I respect that this show is told from his perspective. I'd just prefer an episode or 2 be soley focused on the other characters without him being present.

Conclusion: Steven Universe is hands down my personal favorite Cartoon Network show and one of the best animated shows I've had the pleasure to watch. With great writing, amazing animation, a stellar voice cast, lovable characters and catchy songs, it's no wonder this show has developed such a strong cult following. I intentionally didn't talk about all the big reveals of this show as I feel there as still many people who haven't seen it yet. If you're one of those people, feel free to give the show a watch on HBOMax when you get a chance. Trust me, you'll be in for a real treat. Thanks so much for reading and I'll see you in the next blog post ;)

[sweetescapeartist]

MY DBS MANGA CHAPTER 70 REVIEW

We learn in the last chapter that the Cerealian Dragon's name is Toronbo when Granolah speaks Namekian. Toronbo grants Granolah's wish but can't make Granolah stronger than the gods.

Here's the confusion I have... Goku is a mortal beyond GoDs so making Granolah the strongest mortal is making him stronger than gods. If you wanna say Beerus has been training and is now stronger than Goku, there's still a problem. It was said that Goku and Vegeta were stronger than some GoDs right before the ToP (but that might be anime only, so maybe it doesn't apply here). So Granolah is stronger than GoDs no matter what. If the gods that Toronbo is speaking of are the Angels, then that means Granolah is Ultra Instinct level of power since Goku is the lowest in Angel tier. But whatever. Bottom line is Granolah is temporarily stronger than Goku who may or may not be stronger than Beerus.

Granolah gets his wish granted and the cost is shortening his life... cool. Not much to say except let's see how its executed.

(I recently read that in DBXV2, during the Infinite History Saga, Videl is enchanted with Towa's Dark Magic spell by Dabura shaving off her life but granting her greater power. So granting power at the cost of lifespan has been done in DB before. Not in canon but in the games.)

Also, Granolah's life being shortened to 3 yrs got me thinking... Currently it's almost AGE 781 in the DBS manga timeline. Goku leaves to train Uub in AGE 784. We got 3 yrs left. The original manga shows Bulma said she hadn't seen Goku in 5 yrs. How I see DBS is that it is an alternate timeline that just happens to have a similar outcome to the EoZ.

So... why is Vegeta learing from Beerus again if Beerus isn't that strong now? Is Vegeta being like Krillin and continuing his learning from a master weaker than him, but gaining wisdom & knowledge? I-is Vegeta becoming Krillin 2.0?! (More like dollar-store Krillin)

I do think beerus got stronger tho. He seems very confident that Vegeta can get stronger from learning from him. Beerus probably saw Goku get UI then decide to train aftet the ToP

Anyways, Beerus is teaching us about hakai/destruction energy. Its erasing something from existence, not just destroying it (we already knew that). But, Vegeta quickly figures out how to do it anyways. By destroying a tiny pebble...

A tangent again but I personally think Piccolo is capable of easily learning Hakai energy. Think about it. Piccolo can create clothing out of nothing, why could he not do the reverse?

Goku is uninterested in what Beerus & Vegeta are doing. I dont know about you, but it sounds like Goku thinks that he's above Beerus in strength. Beerus & Vegeta aren't considered a challenge to him in any way. Goku sees UI as more important & better than anything Beerus has to teach, and Goku is right. Plus Goku learned Hakai on his own while Vegeta needs Beerus to teach him. It's a waste of Goku's time to learn it again.

(God Comics is funny. I imagine Toribot writes them)

Goku says "Let's see which one of us can be the strongest in the universe!" Really, Goku...? At present time, Goku is the strongest mortal in the universe already. He should know that. Then Vegeta for some reason thinks he will become the strongest in the universe. The last time manga Vegeta was the strongest mortal in the universe was... never. He's always behind Goku or whatever new opponent arises. This scene is meant to be comedic that they're arguing over who will be the greatest but it's not funny to me. And yet Vegeta fans still hold on for hope.

But why is Goku concerned about being the strongest between him & Vegeta? Goku is far above Vegeta. They're not rivals at this point. Also, Goku was the strongest in the universe until just a few moments ago. Goku should be saying "I knew bein' the strongest wouldn't last for too long. Roshi did tell me there will always be somebody stronger out there. Hehe! This is gettin' me excited! I can't wait to meet 'em!" (This would alsp parallel Monaito giving Granolah the same advice Goku already knows.)

Also, I guess Broly isn't that strong after all. Bye Broly, you served your purpose. And to think that Goku had said that he thinks Broly is stronger than Beerus...

Oh yeah. So Vegeta destroys a pebble. Impressive? Goku kinda gives a compliment or he is practically saying "Good job Vegeta! You're doing great following in my footsteps!" Seriously, this would be so much better and cooler if this seperate paths of training began right after the Universe 6 vs Universe 7 tournament. That would be the perfect spot to have them train under Beerus & Whis. [Vegeta using Hakai against Merged Zamasu, Goku able to fight Merged Zamasu temporarily because he is getting better at letting his body move on its own, Toppo & Vegeta using Hakai against each other as Goku & Jiren use power above GoDs. That would work so much better.]

Then Vegeta says he's gonna destroy bigger things soon... is that supposed to be more impressive? Its not. But this it to build up Vegeta even though there is nothing amazing about anything he is doing at the moment. Maybe later tho.

So Cerealians can't grow beards. Also I guess Granolah's race don't age? His hair grew when his lifespan was shortened but he has no wrinkles. It seems that they age more gracefully than Saiyans. If he has some wrinkles he would have looked cooler imo. Or those lines under the eyes at the very least. If the wish shortened his life & made his hair grow, it should have also showed that he aged. (Here's an edit I made of "Grampa Granolah." You're welcome)

And remember Vegeta destroying a pebble? Granolah can suddenly destroy big rocks! Cool right?! No? Its not cool? Showing Granolah destroy a much larger object right afterwards kinda belittles Vegeta's accomplishment.

Oatmil is surprised by a boulder exploding. This means one of 2 things. Oatmil is stupid & never saw an Granolah explode a boulder. Or it's implying that the boulder exploding is some technique Oatmil doesn't know of. Idk how he can tell its any different from just blowing up a rock with ki. I think it's supposed to be destruction energy. If it is then, ok. If getting his wish was so easy, then why can't he suddenly learn destruction as well?

Yay! Monaito! (This really should be a Namekian focused arc)

Granolah reminds me of Zamasu with his attitude a bit. Monaito tells him somebody stronger will definetly appear. Granolah has become like Vegeta and is over confident, so he is destined to get humbled. And think about this. Goku can probably train a bit and surpass Granolah within a week.

Granolah can now sense ki. Meaning he can have the destruction technique or UI, because why not?

Monaito blames himself for Granolah's actions. Its not your fault Monaito! You did nothing wrong! Dont be so hard on yourself.

Whis being a creep and peeping on people lol.

Granolah's hair growing was pointless because he cuts it off soon after. Nothing changed visually. This kinda reminds me of how Moro lost his arm. Goku gave him a senzu, Moro grew it back, & then Moro broke his arm when attacking Goku. Then Moro tore his arm off & reattached his old one. There was no need for Moro to grow his arm back then tear it off. Similarly, there is no need for Granolah to have grown long hair then cut it off.

Maki still brings a smile to my face. She & Gas stand out the most out of the Heeters. Maki's personality is kinda like Zangya combined with a teasing Bulma. Gas reminds me of a Krillin/Piccolo fusion with dreadlocks. I also ship Maki x Gas cause they're short and look cute together. (please don't be siblings so I can draw them together🤞)

Granolah fights Oil & Maki. I'm not impressed. They seem like they could be defeated by Chaoitzu (he's stronger than Raditz and probably Nappa now too). Granolah's movements could be seen as UI. If it is or isn't UI, it doesn't matter. Showing off that kind of power is like Goku using Ultra Instinct during a rematch with Nam or King Chappa. Its not effective storytelling. There had to be a better way of showing Granolah's new strength than making him fight opponents that give him zero challenge.

The art is good as usual and the panel flow is nice. Toyotaro is improving at creating the illusion of motion. The environment being used in the fight was smart and a good visual. Toyo still uses a ton of panels almost every page tho. But he's still a better artist than I am.

Granolah appears to have used Hakai again. Not the explosive variant but the sand variant (yes I think there are 2 ways of using Hakai).

The "Sand Variant" that Beerus & Goku (& maybe Granolah) have used.

The "Explosive Variant" Beerus & Vegeta (& maybe Granolah) have used.

Maki thinks the "Hakai" is magic so that's interesting. I would say I'd like for the next enemy to be a magic user but, we know how Moro turned out... 😓

Maki has "ki claws" & I like the idea but it would be better if she had used it against an enemy she can defeat. It doesn't make her look useful in this fight. Gas seems confident when he is about to fight Granolah, but Elec stops him. Gas would've gotten beaten but it make ya wonder what Gas can do.

Granolah appears to be a person that is easily manipulated and persuaded. He even gave information they weren't even asking for. He'll probably be easily convinced and manipulated by Freeza/the Hedters or quickly have a truce with Goku.

The Heeters plan to go to Planet Cereal to get the Dragon Balls. As I suspected, the Cerealian Dragon Balls were created so that it would be easy for wishes to be granted. Gathering 2 Dragon Balls on a nearby planet instead of gathering 7 on New Namek or Earth. Plus these new Dragon Balls ensures no interaction between Earthlings & Granolah/the Heeters. A perfect way to write Gohan & company out of the story... *sigh* 😔😒

We learn Cerealians live for 2 centuries. How's that compare to other races in Universe 7? Freeza & King Cold apparently can live more than 200 yrs, But that may be because they are mutants. Namekians can live for like 500 yrs & its possible for them to reincarnate themselves too. So in a way, Namekians can live forever. Saiyans stay youthful & live to be in their 80's, but rapidly age when they reach their 60's or 70's. Average Earthlings appear live to be in their 80's or 90's but some are over 100 yrs old (Dr. Briefs, Panchy, & Ox King are in their 90's in GT) and others can increase their lifespan through elixers or the Paradise Herb. Just some thoughts of mine.

Maki says "If he ices Freeza..." Ha, an ice pun. Elec wants to defeat Freeza so he can control his army. Its revealed they wanna kill Granolah & that they worked with Freeza to destroy his planet & race. Well... that more than likely means they're gonna die by Granolah's hand or Freeza's. This info is also an attempt to make the reader more sympathetic for Granolah. Granolah is too bland (pun intended) so I don't feel any more sympathy than I already had for him. Elec plans to make Goku & Vegeta fight Granolah since Granolah hates Saiyans. Smart but we all kinda expected it. Not bad writing tho.

The final panel talks about fate bringing the 3 (Goku, Vegeta, & Granolah) together. Sounds like a repeat of the Broly movie.

We've had 4 chapters in this arc & not 1 panel of Freeza... If Freeza doesnt appear & do something in the next chapter then I will be disappointed in the writing. Showing Freeza here and there would give tension and build up until we get the encounter with him. We also have no idea who Oatmil is. Is he an A.I. or a person? Not that big of a deal yet, but I would like to find out soon. Either show Freeza or tell us more about Oatmil next chapter pleaae

This chapter was like oatmeal (the food not the character) without butter, brown sugar, milk, & honey or raisins. Not bad, but not very good either. 

So here's my thoughts on the things that could or could not happen in this arc.

Goku vs Granolah. I don't care for the fight because the power is at a point that it doesnt make sense for enemies to get to without cheating somehow. The fight will look cool but I have no interest in it.

Vegeta vs Granolah will have Vegeta being stomped as always and Vegeta fans will make excuses & complain how it's not fair. A lot of Vegeta fans often make fun of Yamcha & Krillin for getting beat up even though those 2 bravely fight opponents leagues stronger than they are. Vegeta has gotten stomped by opponents more times than Krillin & Yamcha combined but the fans gotta deflect somehow. I don't care to hear or see the complaining again.

The interaction and dialogue between Granolah & Vegeta is going to be more interesting than their fight. But I worry because Toyo isn't the best at writing dialogue.

I have no reason to care about power growth, certain interactions, or Goku & Vegeta's training.

What I am curious about/want to see?

Monaito's well being. I want him to reunite with other Namekians. But I think he's been set up to die.

Lore about the dragon gods & Namekian lore we probably wont get.

I want Piccolo, Krillin, Gohan, & others will be involved. Piccolo because of the Namekian & wosh granting dragon lore. Gohan because his interaction with Granolah eould be interesting since Gohan is half Saiyan & views himself as an Earthling. Krillin & other Earthlings because they can bring tensions where characters like Goku & Vegeta can't. Those 2 are too strong for there to be any real tension. However Earthlings aren't all powerful so them using wits to survive is more exciting. But I doubt any of their involvement.

How long a Cerealian year is? Is it shorter than a Namekian year? How much time will pass for the Cerealian Dragon Balls to be active? How much stronger than Granolah will Goku get? Hopefully the answers aren't lazy...

Will Beerus finally fight somebody? There are 6 mortals that are near or above his power (Goku, Granolah, Vegeta, Broly, Freeza, Gohan).

Who's the villian of the next arc & what explanation is going to be given for them having power on the level of Angels? Angel tier fights don't sound interesting to me anymore. After those kinds of battles, Goku will have no challengers left.

Will Goku disappear to train or something so the story can TRY to match up with the EoZ?

Will Goten, Trunks, & Marron hit their growth spurts within 3 yrs?

Will we get spin-off manga about other characters? PLEASE!? 🙏

Also DBS moved too quickly when it comes to power. Now we're at the point that Goku & Vegeta need to stop being involved in fights for there to be any actual threat or tension. The Buu saga took place in AGE  774. After training for 4 years of peace, Goku thought SS3 & fusion was his limits as a Saiyan and he was right. Well, kinda... Goku was introduced to god ki near the end of AGE 778. Then in AGE 781, Goku masters Ultra Instinct... He mastered an Angel technique in 2 year or 2.5 yrs. That was waaaay too fast. As a result the storytelling & writing are suffering from this rushed progress. Now we're gonna have an Angel tier opponent? According to the pattern of DBS, Goku's gonna end up surpassing the Angels within 2 or 3 yrs after learning god ki. Thats not impressive for Goku, that's terrible writing. And no, Goku getting this strong so fast is not a benefit to Saiyans either. It just shows us that without god ki, Saiyans ain't all that powerful unless they're the legendary Saiyan like Broly. Saiyans didn't even have a concept of training until Goku was trained by Earthlings. Gohan, Freeza, 17, & I'm pretty sure Piccolo as well have all surpassed SS3 without the help of god ki. God ki makes Saiyans look like they have limits. With god ki, the writing is broken....

I got off topic again... Anyways that's the end of my review.