#Star vs did so many characters

[pedanticat]

While the breakup was inevitable (especially if you read the comics), I think the show handled it phenomenally with it being even better than how it was done in the comics. Steven Yeun and Zazie Beetz absolutely killed it in this scene with you really being able to hear the heartbreak in both of their voices as Mark and Amber realize that for as much as they love each other, they can't make this relationship work. Then you have the "I can't live in your world, I want to, but I can't." which👏👏👏. That is some absolute peak writing. I haven't consumed many stories that actually treat the breakup as a heartbreaking moment for both characters involved since it's usually just treated as a minor obstacle to prevent the main romance from happening sooner. While I'm fine with that in some cases, I feel like it's a disservice when the main character's temporary love interest is a genuinely interesting and fun character who has a good rapport with them. In that same regard, it has been a nice change of pace to see characters who do care for each other attempt to make things work and talk about the issues before accepting that what they have just isn't going to work.

It's also a good commentary on the nature of superhero/civilian relationships since while someone like Debbie was able to handle the stress of it, Amber isn't able to do so. And that doesn't make her weak or a pushover, it makes her human because not everyone is built to handle that kind of life and it's totally understandable.

[sassy-cass-16]

look man. look

essek saying "bren" out loud, claiming a position on caleb's side as the mouthpiece of his regards to astrid, did something to me. i can't tell if it opened a wound or punched me or gave me a hug. all i know is that i am feeling so many emotions right now

more under the cut because i'm about to get rambly:

"bren aldric ermendrud" is a separate character from caleb widogast. he's a young boy learning how to make magic. he's a deeply traumatized and indoctrinated teenager. he's the boy who curled up with astrid and eadwulf in a freezing tower for warmth all night.

essek never met bren. he met caleb and he's never known him as anyone else. if i'm remembering correctly, caleb never even said the name "bren" to him during the campaign, and neither did any of the nein.

essek knows caleb widogast. he knows the man who held up the object of his worst crime and then kissed him in the bowels of a ship and made a floor of infinite stars for them to walk through together. he knows the person who healed over bren's wounds—thinly, but enough. he knows the man that the boy has become.

astrid knows bren. she barely knows who caleb is. she still calls him bren after hearing him referred to as caleb repeatedly. she can't know him as the man he is, she only knows the boy. there's some of bren in caleb, but there is no caleb in bren.

essek saying "bren sends his regards" is him gauging astrid's reaction, on one level—if she freaks out, which she did, she's in opposition to caleb's cause and thus a threat. on another level, it's essek delivering a very different subtextual message from caleb: "the boy who loved you is giving you one final warning."

because essek is a threat to astrid. their last meaningful interaction was slinging spells at each other in the blooming grove. and that's funny in a "current boyfriend vs ex girlfriend exclusively fight each other" kind of way, but it's also deeply tied to caleb's recurring theme of transformation. "bren sends his regards" also means "i have healed enough to love enough for someone else to know this name and use it with my consent. and this someone else is your enemy. what does that make you think i've become?"

it also does a fantastic job of communicating subtle offscreen discussions that have happened over the years since the end of c2. we don't have the details of when or how caleb told essek his birth name, but we know that he did, and we know from all of c2 that the name bren occupies a place of immense emotional weight for caleb. it functions similarly to a deadname in terms of who uses it and for what purpose. trent exclusively calls caleb bren to wound him and place himself in a position of power. astrid calls him bren to remind both him and herself of who they used to be—same with eadwulf, though obviously he's not here.

the first time we hear essek say "bren" is on caleb's behalf and confronting one of the narrative representations of caleb's trauma. it's four words that manage to communicate "i, your enemy on a hundred levels, can speak for both the man i love and the boy who loved you, because i know him in his entirety."

astrid knows bren and essek knows caleb, but only essek can speak for both. because at some point, caleb gave bren to essek. and we know this from four words. four IMPROVISED words.

god. this moment is just so fucking good

[billiewena]

FOUR YEARS SINCE NOV 5TH, 2020, as summed up by Supernatural

past recaps: year one / year two / year three / year four

full context and sources below:

various explanations + resources/sources/extra reading on this year's recap:

balls deep: misha collins says the quiet part out loud at Cross Roads 8 Supernatural Convention, saying "if the CW wasn't so homophobic dean and cas would've been balls deep for sure" at a con (x) (x) (x)

garthbenny canon: supernatural actors DJ Qualls (who played hunter-turned-werewolf Garth Fitzgerald) and Ty Olsson (who played the vampire Benny Lafitte) reveal they're married, delighting crack shippers like myself everywhere (x)

spn spooky picture book: official supernatural children's picture book is released, retconning things like john winchester as a happy father figure and castiel being their cowardly childhood friend who sorta hangs around (x) (x)

boop button: tumblr introduces a feature people enjoy for once for april fool's day and halloween and allows users to boop each other, spn bloggers re-awake like sleeper agents to use it in full force (x) (x)

bedlund speaks on destiel: former spn writer ben edlund goes on a tweet fest replying to fans, talking about destiel multiple times including this profound tweet (x)

clear text, not subtext: jensen speaks out again on the confession at Purcon 8, this time taking a more open stance on how the relationship was textual, his take on dean's feelings about cas's feelings, and how the scene with cas deserved a resolution (x)

bury your gays: famed author chuck tingle (known for his plethora of highly specific and delightfully inclusive, if strange, indie erotica novels) publishes his second mainstream horror novel, inspired by TV network studios' infamous history of censoring LGBT relationships and openly killing off queer characters. In a non-subtle nod to supernatural fans, the main character is named misha. (sidenote: did end up reading this and this book is actually really good commentary on the industry in general and really good, 10/10 recommend) (x) also someone got the book signed by misha, to further break the fourth wall (x)

tracker: jensen ackles begins starring in a CBS show where he is basically csoplaying dean winchester, with the show featuring many non-subtle spn references (i.e. him pretending to almost get in an impala before going to his truck, characters wearing spn necklaces, etc.) (x) (x) (x) (special shout-out to clarice @youre-only-gay-once for expertly tracking the tracker show and these easter eggs, highly recommend their tag for their show)

cw's walker cancelled: fans rejoiced upon hearing the cancellation news for jared's post-supernatural show, walker, a remake of "walker texas ranger." in addition to generally being a copaganda show for the notoriously racist texas rangers, jared's inspiration for the show's direction caused much concern. the actor himself said the show was inspired by the US border crisis, not by the immigrant families affected by the separation and internment, but instead wanting exploring the POV of the law enforcement agents working at the border and the moral dilemmas they had to face (x)

pro-destiel Wonder Woman: Lynda Carter (aka the iconic and beloved original actress for Wonder Woman, not the z*onist one) says she could "go for some Destiel" when promoting #GeeksandNerdsforHarrisWalz and Misha's involvement (x) the rest of the spn cast and original Showrunner Kripke were also a big part of this event

chili's backfire: the chain restaurant chili's drags destiel while interacting with 9-1-1 bucktommy shippers on twitter, immediately gets backfire. notably, their stock takes a dip the next day. coincidence? maybe so, maybe not (x) (x)

samgirl voting fraud: "who is the gayest spn character" tumblr poll surprisingly gets heated, with a blogger straight-up admitting they used a bot on the "castiel vs. sam" poll to rig the poll in sam's favor, which they apparently also did for w*ncest in another poll in the past, and posting a guide on how anyone could do the same. luckily democracy wins in this one instance and castiel prevails anyways, leading to an also contested "castiel vs. charlie bradbury" round (x) (x)

pink pony jarpad: jared is spotted at lesbian pop star chappell roan's set at a festival, un-likely place for him to be (x) also may have been one of the "boring" people called out by chappell? (x)

pro-kamala castiel: in a last-ditch effort to get out the vote, misha uses the power of castiel photo ops to campaign for harris-walz and even shouts-out destiel. I feel depressed writing this sentence, if you've made it this long in your read and you're in the states I hope you're doing alright! maybe by the time I wake up things will be a little different though. (x)

[vintagetvstars]

Nichelle Nichols Vs. Eartha Kitt

Final

Propaganda

Eartha Kitt - (Batman) - No text propaganda

Nichelle Nichols - (Star Trek) - She speaks for herself. Legendary, iconic, at the forefront of feminism and civil rights in the 60s, she is a triple threat who did so much more. She volunteered from 1977 to promote recruitment diversity within NASA, including some of the first female and ethnic minority astronauts. Martin Luther King Jr. compared her work on Star Trek as a 'vital role model' to the civil rights marches. She refused to be dismissed, fought for visibility and shone whilst doing so. As a woman in stem, and simply a woman she means the world and stars above to me.

Master Poll List of the Hot Vintage TV Ladies Bracket

Additional propaganda below the cut

Nichelle Nichols:

She is the original badass babe. She was a black woman in a leading role on TV in the 60s, a trailblazer for black actresses for years to come. She is so beautiful and so awesome.

she's fantastic. have you seen her? paved the way for black actresses on TV even while her lines and scenes were being cut and improvised the most iconic uhura line in the series. (sulu: "I'll save you, fair maiden!" uhura, pushing him away: "sorry, neither!") she's incredibly talented and it's a crime the show didn't give her more screen time (or make her sing more often because she also has a beautiful voice!)

“Sorry, neither” in response to “fair maiden” was ad libbed by her. There’s a lot more I could say but what else do you need??

A sci-fi icon!

She was such a trailblazer, and Uhura was such an important character for so many people to be able to see on TV. Apparently Mae Jemison (the first African American woman to go into space) cited her as a reason she wanted to become an astronaut. She was just an absolute legend!

The story of Martin Luther King telling her not to quit Star Trek gives me chills. Representation matters. “Thank you so much, Dr. King. I’m really going to miss my co-stars.” Dr. King's smile, Nichols recalled, vanished from his face. "He said, 'What are you talking about?'" the actress explained. "I told him. He said, 'You cannot,' and so help me, this man practically repeated verbatim what Gene said. He said, 'Don’t you see what this man is doing, who has written this? This is the future. He has established us as we should be seen. 300 years from now, we are here. We are marching. And this is the first step. When we see you, we see ourselves, and we see ourselves as intelligent and beautiful and proud.' He goes on and I’m looking at him and my knees are buckling. I said, 'I…, I…' And he said, 'You turn on your television and the news comes on and you see us marching and peaceful, you see the peaceful civil disobedience, and you see the dogs and see the fire hoses, and we all know they cannot destroy us because we are there in the 23rd Century.'"

She shared the first interracial kiss on Star Trek, helped propel real life African American women into space-related careers, and looks divine in a mini skirt.

HOW DID UHURA WALK BACKWARDS SO FAR??? WOW!

[o-sunny-day]

@forgettable-au Babybones Fancomic ✨

“Keep Reading” for the rest :3 (10 Pages)

*deep breath*

you hear that?

thats the sound of AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

ok. I spent. 31 Hours of my life on this. And i dont regret. a GODAMN thing.

i will go on, but first, A N A L Y S I S

PAGE 1

The title “Radio Star” comes from the song “Video Killed The Radio Star” by The Buggles. Its lyrics I believe are absolutely perfect for this AU, Examples being “Rewritten by machine and new technology” , “We hear the playback and it seemed so long ago” , and “We cant rewind we’ve gone too far”

The title also refers to how…1, they build a radio-

and 2, Sans calls Papyrus a Star at Grillbys if you call him “uncool”

PAGE 2

Nothing to note

PAGE 3

This is the first real scene I had in mind. The entire concept came from me imagining how Sans’ memories of Wingdings got overwritten, so where in memories he’d call Wingdings by his name, he calls him Papyrus.

In an animation with audio, itd be like “Aw cmon, P A P Y R U S” and be a silly little jumpscare.

Buttttt then ofc the idea turned into a thing where I couldn’t shape it into a “fake” memory.

I wanted to play with their characters as they WERE not how they remember them being.

PAGE 4

Nothing

PAGE 5

As they travel to the barrier, Wingdings is leading, and COMPLETELY focused on his goal. Ignoring Gerson (social interaction) while Sans takes his time and looks around getting “distracted”. This exemplifies the nature of their relationship.

Them in Hotland, they’re actually right next to the lab. Taking the elevator the guards were…guarding. So Sans is looking at the lab like “hey. Hey wingdings, look, look at that building, thats so cool”

PAGE 6

At the bottom is just another example of Wingdings being deadset on his goal, while Sans is helping out but still stopping to smell the flowers

PAGE 7

This panel makes me so happy-

It works??? vs It works!!!

Wingdings doesn’t come across as the kind of guy to doubt himself, I just think he’d be shocked at himself regardless that he pulled this off. Meanwhile Sans is just thrilled 😭

PAGE 8

N/A

PAGE 9

Oh boy this is the finale of explanation.

This conversation that Asgore and Sans have. Is REALLY important to me

Asgore/everyone that isnt sans, cannot understand Wingdings. So, Sans is talking for him. It may come across as him taking all the glory or whatever, but NO. look at his dialogue boxes! they’re not blocking out WD, and he’s like “YEAH 😊 MY BROTHERS SO FUCKING COOL”

Meanwhile Asgores boxes are completely blocking WD out. He thinks Sans built it cause hes doing all the explaining, and Sans isnt getting the hint that Asgore THINKS THAT HE MADE IT its a whole thing

Wingdings appreciates Sans, but he doesn’t appreciate people thinking he did all the work-

Asgores dialogue box when asking “How did you build such a thing??” is covering Wingdings, and he’s looking at SANS. he’s asking Sans how he built it, meanwhile Sans, still not getting the clue, is looking at wingdings like “:) cmon bro, tell him, you know ill translate for you!”

PAGE 10

Sans then understands at least that Wingdings does not want to indulge this- and goes into explaining mode, as hes done it so many times before-

Sans saying “You cant understand him” instead of something like “his font is hard to understand” is important because he is putting the “blame” on you. He’s fully aware this is something Wingdings WISHES he could change about himself so badly, so he just kinda naturally changes his tone which I find really fun when writing dialogue :3

This comic, I feel is an example of how much this AU/comic series means to me-

As much as I obsess over and LOVE comics as a medium, this is the first ever I have ever properly finished. ofc there have been like 2 page ones, but YEAH this is the first BIG one i have ever finished in my entire life.

These characters- as much as they’re Tobys, they are also Sunsestarts in my opinion. The situation they are put in of JUST the font trouble alone is something i’m SO fascinated by and clearly- had the time of my LIFE writing and playing with. And thats ignoring all the other shit that happens BECAUSE of that.

Undertale is special, The Forgettable AU is SPECIAL- THESE SKELETONS ARE SPECIAL

Im on the edge of my seat waiting to see what happens next because I know whatever it is, its gonna be special

also, I made this while listening to Slipping Through My Fingers on repeat. I regret nothing

((ALSO I HIGHLY RECOMMEND TIME/SPACE BY ALEX G, ITS A GREAT SONG IM DEFINITELY GONNA STORYBOARD A FORGETTABLE AMV TO CAUSE ITS REALLY REALLY GOOD, ID TOTALLY TIE IT TO THIS COMIC- BUT ITS MORE FOR PAPYRUS AND GASTER INTERACTIONS RATHER THAN BABYBONES???)

[kingdom-of-sins]

Okay but imagine Fourth Wing characters as F1 drivers...

Xaden: Son of a very talented but disgraced driver, and by disgraced I mean Fen Riorson discovered some kind of corruption and race fixing but FIA somehow put all the blame on him and boycotted him from everywhere. And now Xaden is the best driver and has multiple championships, exposing FIA at every step without even trying. Break rules but all within the "law" so no one can kick him out. The sponsors are crazy about him. If the sport loses him then they will lose more than half the funding and sponsors. He even won races with very poorly built cars.

Violet: One of the nepo drivers who everyone thought would fail and tarnish the Sorrengail name. Her older brother is a retired two time champion turned strategist, her sister Mira one time champion and now more focused on F1 Academy for female drivers, her mother Lilith is the legend, multiple championships and the first woman champion, her father a F1 legendary reporter. Everyone was expecting her to fail just because she didn't look much confident and looked a bit fragile, everyone talked about how she is in the sport because of her family name. Her first half of her debut season went terrible, multiple DNFs and car damages, but the second half was complete opposite. She went from P18 in the championship to P4. She even went wheel to wheel with Xaden in a few races and shared podiums, proving everyone wrong.

Liam: He is the guy who treats this sport as his hobby which he is really good at. A born racer with a heart of gold. Multiple race winner, finished second in championships twice. Everyone takes him as a competition but he takes everyone as play dates. He was seen with Xaden outside of racing many many times, a strong pure bromance. If you hate him then there is something seriously wrong with you

Bodhi: Cousin of Xaden so sometimes gets overshadowed, but if anyone is going to shine in the darkness aka a very wet race or chaotic race, it's him. People try to push the Xaden vs Bodhi narrative but it always fails. Most people underestimate him and then are left with shocked Pikachu face when he comes out as the star of the race.

Garrick: He is the type of driver who either starts working out or takes a long nap when a race is delayed. Multiple race winners. Has a lots of fans, owner of a gym chain. Got a couple of race bans and penalty points but could care less. Has a mechanic background so knows a lot about cars.

Imogen: No one does it like her. The risk taker, the badass winner. You think you hate her but you actually realize you love her. She is the reason there is a sea of pink at the grandstands. Hated Violet when she first joined but a year later both were seen go karting together kicking Garrick and Xaden's ass. Calls out bullshit and whenever she has the mic the FIA drowning in their own sweat

Rhiannon: Got into F1 with pure talent and least funding. Had to struggle a lot in the junior series because of the lack of sponsors and funding, but her talent put her on the map and got just enough sponsor for a team to pick her. Then her talent did the rest of it. Now she has multiple year contract and multiple sponsors. Best friend of Violet but they always race wheel to wheel, even crashed into one another but absolutely no bad feelings. Rhiannon even abandoned her race once after Violet crashed just to see if her best friend is okay

Ridoc: He is the reason FIA had to come up with "no cursing or use of bad language" in the team radio. He gives names to his cars. Listens to the most obnoxious music and makes everyone else listen to it as well. Master in wet races. Talks to his car while racing. Friends with everyone. He is the guy you love to interview. Got fined for calling the stewards "babes"

Sawyer: The polite guy who is a beast on track. Everyone thought he would be quiet and barely manage to win but soon became a fan favorite. A true gentleman, with a hint of mischief. Ridoc often gets him in trouble during interviews. He is the type of guy your mom and sisters would trust to drive and drop them at home safely

Cat: Another nepo baby. She started off with lots of haters because of her aggressive racing style and superiority complex but no one can deny that she is an excellent driver. Can go wheel to wheel with all the star drivers. There is a rivalry between her and Violet, but they are currently frienemis, rivals on track, complementing each other's outfit off track.

Jack Fucking Barlowe: If he doesn't crash and DNF then he finish below P15. Somehow FIA always pardons him and he just gets much worse. There is not a single driver on the grid who likes him. Got punched by both Violet and Cat and that says a lot

Aaric: The breakout star of the year. Came in as a rookie and finished P5 in the championship. Somehow he can always predict other drivers' strategies. If he has a better car he would always be on the podium. Pure talent but lot to learn. Garrick's new gym partner

Sloane: She and her brother's childhood dream was to drive for the same team, be teammates, and race each other. And they both made it happen. Has the record of scoring the highest points by a rookie on their first race.

Dain: His dad was a former one time champion and he dreams to be just like his father. Has been raised to be a champ. He has won races but never got close to winning a championship. Everyone knew he had a huge crush on Violet but after a "incident" on track which involved him, Violet and Xaden, his friendship with Violet had been hanging by a thread. His father is very critical of him but worse on the other drivers, even tried to sue Xaden when Dain lost a race due to time penalty for track incident between him and X

[independent-variables]

Pulling this out of the tags of this post and making my own post because turns out I have More To Say:

As much as Lucas and his successors took from many real world cultures to mix-and-match their space cultures, it's really... disingenuous? not helpful? to analyze and discuss any space culture as a one-to-one with any real world culture. There are parallels. There are racist tropes. There is straight up appropriation! But saying the Mandos were meant to be space Maaori? 1) not the intent of any of their creators, and 2) ties any analysis of Mando culture to a discussion of Maaori culture. Which makes it a lot harder to just like. Discuss Mando culture, to say “hey this element of their culture is kinda fucked up” or “hey this element of their culture is really interesting and I want to expand on that with my own experiences and opinions via meta and/or fic.”

And it's like, ok. This equating and entwining of a space culture with a real culture is kinda the same thing as a fan projecting onto their particular favorite character and kinda erasing their canon characterization in favor of using them more or less as a self-insert. On it’s own there is absolutely nothing wrong with this. We are all, to some degree, writing about ourselves when we write anything: writing about what we believe, and what intrigues us, and what we love, which for many people includes their own culture. But this makes it really easy to take it personal when another fan dislikes something about the character. Or about the space culture, or whatever. This makes it really hard to have an actual discussion about intent vs. outcome, and the history of racism in SFF, and the particular space culture as it’s own thing.

And yeah, it is personal. Star Wars is straight up racist. Lucas used racist stereotypes of minority cultures as visual and narrative shorthand for a lot of his characters and cultures, and so did the creators who worked with him and came after him. It’s all there. But I think it’s important to make that distinction between “the depiction of this character/culture incorporates racist stereotypes of --- real world culture” and “this character/culture was intended to be the space equivalent of --- real world culture.” One allows the stereotypes and the way they were developed and have been used to be discussed separate from the actual culture.

I will always remember that one blog series about GRRM and his Dothraki worldbuilding, and some of the conclusions reached there encapsulate my feelings on this topic. What damned GRRM to criticism was not the holes in his worldbuilding, but his assertion that the Dothraki were based on/intended to stand in for specific historic peoples, because that assertion gave anybody actually familiar with those peoples free reign to tear his novels to shreds for the lack of research and respect. Incorporating elements of Maaori culture into Mando culture in the context of fic and meta and headcanons can be really interesting and meaningful. Analyzing Mando culture and its development with an eye for stereotypes of indigenous peoples can be educational and infuriating. Insisting these cultures are meant to be one-to-one and should be approached as such in analysis of canon and in fandom creation is low key racist, and also very limiting.

[omegalomania]

ok listen obviously like everyone else i am Fucking Devastated but the fucking sHRIMPLICATIONS here are KILLING me.

the two last "new" songs we got before the hiatus were alpha dog and from now on we are enemies (equally fucked up song btw) and pete namedrops alpha dog as the last song they wrote before the hiatus and it's such a. it's SUCH a fucking. augh.

like it's so painfully and clearly a farewell. the lyrics all telegraph it. your time has passed. never means forever. walk off into the sunset. the discussion of how much effort is required to maintain this life and how they already feel burned out, past their prime when they were all in their mid-twenties and early thirties. and the sheer fucking POETRY of the way it was the last song they recorded - tell rock and roll i'm alone again - until they announced their triumphant return with save rock and roll in 2013. welcome to the new déjà vu.

and oh yeah the last word issued in the song's studio version is the word "abracadabra," which pete cites as the word that christian bales character in the film “the prestige” says he will utter before he disappears from prison. "abracadabra" was a key word in the viral ARG-esque marketing campaign leading up to the release of believers never die...right before fall out boy seemingly vanished off the very face of the earth.

and, OH YEAH, the first shows they played after reuniting involved a multi-song medley spanning all the stages of their career, with one of those songs being the first time they ever played alpha dog, albeit partially.

the notion of the wizard through the curtain speaking to a sense of bitterness (at least if pete's ten year old genius annotation is anything to go by) which is the exact same phrasing to the way joe would later talk about the band's fraught, strained feelings leading up to the hiatus in a podcast with kerrang while promoting his book.

many people have pointed out the parallels between flu game and alpha dog - the way they both discuss the exhaustion of being so visible and constantly putting yourself out there and how taxing that is, especially when you're simultaneously trying to cover up how hard it is. how isolating it is, when the whole world is squinting against the starlight feathering off you. it's worth noting that these parallels are not merely implicit, either. "flu game" is in and of itself an explicit reference to a famous game michael jordan played while sick in which he claimed that he didn't want to give up, no matter how sick and tired he was. and how did pete annotate a specific couplet, ten years ago?

we must make it hard to look so easy doing something so hard

another explicit reference to michael jordan, years and years prior.

and this is the first time they've ever played alpha dog in full. nearly 15 full years after the hiatus started. by now, fall out boy have been together for far longer than they've ever been apart. by now, fall out boy has been in their "posthiatus" era for longer than they have their "prehiatus" one.

i dont really have a conclusion to this. just, i dunno man. something about the repeated lyric "never means forever" on a greatest hits compilation titled "believers never die." something about i'm a star vs. so much for stardust vs. no more stardust. something about motifs that span decades, that span years of hurt and cracked-open wounds that have now been poured over with liquid gold, mending them anew. something about reclaiming old scars and ugly histories and reforging them into something filled with streaming starlight and sun-drenched smiles.

abracadabra.

[the-oracle-of-the-lost]

ST DIALOGUE ANALYSIS – GENDER

for the whole project see my tag #star trek dialogue analysis and my spreadsheet data here

other related links: overview // TOS overview // TNG overview // DS9 overview // Voyager overview // Enterprise overview // race analysis

this post will be diving to explore the differences in amount of dialogue male vs female characters received in TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise. i also have data on TOS but am not including it here because it aired over 20 years before TNG in a much different social climate with a different style of show and just isn't that useful for a comparative analysis in my opinion.

also a note/disclaimer that this project only looks at amount of dialogue, not necessarily the quality of women's roles in each show or the misogyny present in the content of the shows. here i'm just trying to do a statistical analysis with quantitative data, not looking at qualitative elements as many people have already written about Star Trek's various misogyny & sexism problems more coherently than i can. (though please feel free to use this data in any qualitative analyses!)

and one last note – i use the words "woman" and "female" (and "man" and "male") interchangably here. this is mostly because in English "female/male characters" is grammatically correct and is a more used term than "woman/man characters". i'm not trying to pull any bullshit terfy sex vs gender shit. and while some characters do have trans/genderqueer subtext to their characters (especially alien characters), i am just looking at this through the gender of the actor portraying them (all of whom are cis).

so without further ado – read the results under the cut!

cast composition by gender

it goes without saying that all four of these shows had less female characters than male characters overall – TNG, DS9, and Voyager all had ten regular cast members at various points. in TNG – 4 of the characters are women but only had 2 female regulars for six of its seven seasons (with 3 in season 1). in DS9 – there are 3 female characters with 2 at any given point. in Voyager – there are 4 female characters with 3 at any given point. and in Enterprise – there are 2 female characters out of the 7 person cast.

this means that TNG's cast is comprised of 40% women overall and with 33.3% women in s1 and 25% women in s2-3 and 28.6% in s4-7. DS9 is comprised of 30% women overall with 25% women in s1-3 and 22.2% in s4-7. Voyager is made of 40% women overall and 33.3% in each season. And Enterprise has 20% women overall and in each season.

it should also be noted that the only people removed & replaced from the 90s Star Trek shows are women with Denise Crosby leaving because of frustration with the writing for her character & the general management of the show (though she later came back for guest appearances), Gates McFadden being fired for voicing her complaints with sexist writing (and eventually rehired), Terry Farrell leaving because of sexism, harassment, and unequal treatment from execs, and Jennifer Lien being replaced due to personal reasons. it goes without saying that this is a pretty bad history with 30% of actresses having been fired, forced to leave, or quit because of behind the scenes issues. (note that Diana Muldaur also left TNG but from my knowledge, she left because her contract was up & because Gates McFadden was rehired, not because of any particular issues around sexism or harassment so i did not include her in that 30% statistic.)

how much of the show's dialogue is from women vs men?

in TNG, women had 7,430 lines of dialogue from regulars across the show while men had 35,718 lines. this means that women had 17.22% of the dialogue across the seven season run.

(% of female character lines in blue and % of male character lines in red)

in DS9, women had a somewhat better 10,460 lines compared to the men's 32,698 lines. meaning women had 24.24% of the dialogue.

(% of female character lines in blue and % of male character lines in red)

in Voyager, women had a much improved 21,582 lines compared to the men's 29,549 lines. in other words, women had 42.21% of the dialogue.

(% of female character lines in blue and % of male character lines in red)

and while it seemed things were on an upward trend for women's representation, Enterprise only had 5,941 lines from female characters compared to the males' 19,077 lines. meaning women had 23.75% of the dialogue.

(% of female character lines in blue and % of male character lines in red)

in total across all four shows, women had 27.95% of the dialogue compared to men having 72.05%. (interestingly this is a similar ratio to the amount of dialogue from characters of color vs white characters.) the next time someone brings up that they preferred how women were written on older trek compared to new trek, be sure to remind them that women on average had only 28% of the dialogue despite the fact that women make up around half of the global population.

(% of female character lines in blue and % of male character lines in red)

average female characters' # of lines compared to male characters

this measure ignores the fact that men make up the majority of all the shows' cast and is now just focused on how many lines per episode on average female characters have compared to male characters.

in TNG, the average female characters' line count is 20.68 per episode compared to the males' 34.55.

in DS9, the average female characters' line count is 32.78 to the males' 28.18.

in Voyager, the average female characters' line count is 36.1 to the males' 29.32.

in Enterprise, the average female characters' line count is 30.01 to the males' 38.54.

out of all of the shows, the average female characters' line count is 29.65 and the males' is 32.21.

i would highlight that in both DS9 and Voyager, women typically have more lines than the men on the show, especially on Voyager given that the lead character is a woman. but there's a pretty large gender gap in both TNG and Enterprise which leaves male characters with slightly more lines overall.

most to least lines

female characters with the most to least lines per episode are as follows: Janeway (69.51), T'Pol (44.02), Seven (40.88), Ezri (39.84), Kira (32.24), Torres (26.3), Jadzia (26.26), Pulaski (23.95), Crusher (20.79), Yar (19), Kes (18.18), Troi (18.11), Sato (15.99).

it's also worth noting that out of the 13 female characters from this era of Trek, only 2 of them are characters of color (B'Elanna Torres and Hoshi Sato) who both have a below average amount of dialogue compared to other female characters. (Torres – 26.3 average lines per episode, Sato – 15.99 average lines per episode). obviously race is a highly significant factor when considering amount of lines/screentime and i will have a similar post dedicated to it here (link will be posted shortly).

[midnight1nk]

So, WOTFI 2024...

[Spoilers below cut]

I'm so excited! Got my bingo card ready and my popcorn, we gotta manifest good things here.

(the following is my live reaction:)

3... 2... 1... HAPPY NEW YEAR Oh wait, wrong thing oops

happy to be here, Leggy (WE'LL SAVE YOU GUYS DON'T WORRY)

TENDER TUNNEL?! ...oh nevermind then. it's so over guys

OH Four, Mario!

this would've been such a Mar4 moment if it was still the Tender Tunnel cuz this reminds me a lot of the SMG34 tiktok kiss challenge

...wait is that... OMG IT'S TV TIME ARRANGEMENT OMG LET'S GOOOOOOOO marking this on the bingo card

the FNAF models....

"...a portrayal of my life." YES PLEASE give us more

the fact that Puzzles made a puppet of his child self just for this reenactment (i don't think he's ok guys)

oop, Leggy don't drop the child!

"Papa" gives so many flashbacks to other characters who call their abusive father "papa" (me, an Ace Attorney fan)

hold up, I need to talk about this for a bit. I know it may seem like random graffiti, but because it has gears and such, his future might've been set in stone. To become TV.

"I locked myself in my room and watched TV all day!" and no one checked up on him? Did he stay in that room all the way to adulthood?! Okay, the SMG4 universe has a different way of how time and body necessities work. But hunger and time are still things. The implications are kinda of messed up if you think about it: Mr Puzzles stayed in his room for YEARS without food or even sleep, watching everything on TV. He would've been a CORPSE by adulthood. No wonder Mr Puzzles has a thin waist.

"And the rest is history." No, Puzzles, you can leave us like this! I need more! What happened after he cut off his head, did he replace every limb of himself? What happened to his dad?

Well, we got more of his backstory ig, marking that for the bingo card

WOAH I knew Mr Puzzles swore before but DAMN

I might have to mark "Grudge against Four" box but we'll see

NEW OUTFITS OMG THAT GETS A MARKER

"We'll just have to go along with his twisted games for now." Hell yeah, you gotta be part of WOTFI, boys :)

AY SPECTACULAR TITLE CARD, LOVE THE ART

Blast-off Fire

this reminds me of Toy Story for some reason

C'mon guys, you can do it!

What's your idea, Mario? NO FOUR let him talk

WOW I LOVE [*ragdolls*]

OH IT WORKED

Insult-2-Dunk

OH the frame of what the challenge says has the 5 stars, I'm going to mark that

This is giving the hallway scene in IGBP, where Four has his thoughts on display

Yeah I'm going to count that as an IGBP reference

they really are boyfriends 💙💜 gay people do be sitting

really tempted to mark the "You Saved Me" box but I'll wait

That's... actually sad if all the negative thoughts SMG4 had in IGBP came from the YT comments. Not surprising but it makes sense why he would try to keep everyone happy.

"This is nothing." OH THAT'S EVEN WORSE SOMEHOW, SMG4. THE AUDIENCE IS ONE THING BUT KAREN, A CLOSE FRIEND, TOLD YOU TO KYS

idk I could just imagine Four saying a lot of horrible things to himself

DAMN MARIO

but also Four's been flirting with Three, you already know that Mario /hj

Slap Box

TARI WE'RE SORRY BUT WE HAVE TO SAVE YOU GUYS

well you did get a bit of karma for what you said earlier to Four, sorry Mario

HOLY SHIT YOU KILLED HER DUDE oop Four said it for me nvm

Ferris Wheel Frenzy

I got jump scared and thought it was my minigame lmao

"Survive"? OH, are they going to get stuck on the Wheel ride?

please 34 please 34 nooooooooooo fuck

Missed opportunity man, still pretty funny

Fire Bonanza

Wow, Bob, that trick was pretty good ngl

Did somebody say arson? :)

even I'm clapping!

Marware shippers, how are y'all feeling?

Tightrope Terror

OH just like in the trailer, right?

OOH THREE VS FOUR

...yeah, Three would win, I'm not even surprised

That's so sweet, like actually

This feels familiar... oh that's right

:)

Hey, I did say "love wins, love always wins"

And that didn't work for Leggy... but it worked on Four back then so that's nice :)

Sword Showdown

poster reference!

Can Mario even defeat Bob? and also, reference to the poster?

Oh shit Mario did the Sephiroth shot from the Smash announcement

Knife Throw

boyfriends throwing knives :)

also poster reference

"...avoid hitting our volunteers" IS IT THREE?! oh no it's just Boopkins and Tari

I WANTED A "YOU SAVED ME" MOMENT NOOOO

....blindfolded?!

FOUR DOESN'T WANT TO HURT HIS FRIENDS

So uh yeah definitely a grudge

Four, that's Gmod. THIS IS NOT THE SAME

Three's the one throwing the knives at Tari right? ...yep *sigh /aff*

Balloon Blast

*looks at Luigi's creations* ....say what now?

"Supper Mario Balloon" I... shouldn't be surprised

He kinda looks like Pedro ngl

Pie-a-Ton

HI KAREN

NOOOO MARIO'S FIRST LOVE *prowler music*

...wait, "Mario Die"? OH well, the universe is doomed lol

Touch Grass

alright then *goes outside and touches grass* we did guys!

Clowns Clowns Everywhere

Puzzles, Four has boots on and Bob has no shoes at all. Does it look like we have time to put running shoes on?

ACE ATTORNEY? IN MY SMG4 WOTFI? :D

"King of Clowns" PFFT That never gets old

What did you expect Four? You make memes for a living, become the clown

Bomb Ski Ball

What type of SAW trap is this?

OH RIGHT Karen is still a cat

Yeah Mario, you celebrated too early

Ducky Mania

poster reference(???)

Well, thanks Luigi, we're dead

BELLS (ok, it might not count cuz they used this before)

YAY FOUR GOT ONE

Free-Fall Frenzy

And of course, Three and Karen and Saiko are all using the things they are skilled at

OH SHOOT MELONY'S SWORD

GO ON MARIO DO YOUR THING! MEGGY'S BACK!! IT WORKED

NO PUZZLES WHYYYYY

Whack a Leggy

Oh I love that Mario screen reference

SWORD FIGHT SWORD FIGHT SWORD FIGHT

...goop!4..?

oh nvm, cameras. that should've been obvious *slaps face*

SMART THINKING FOUR

OH hi Puzzles

LET'S GOOOOOOOOO

DUDE I'M GONNA CRY STOPP THIS IS SO SWEET OMG

"YOU'RE RUINING EVERYTHING", welp Mario Ruins the Show confirmed, checking that off

I just love how this scene was animated (edit: it turns out that this is a scene Anaidon animated, no wonder this was so good!)

THE KEYBOARD MONSTER FROM IGBP!!! IT'S BACKKKKK

AND EYES IN GENERAL

Marker for the bingo :)

AND PARK (kinda) DESTROYED, another mark (yes it counts)

Superhero landing!

Wait... what is it, Four?

...oh I hate this *IGBP flashbacks*

AND PEACH nooooooooo

I get that it's supposed to be Didney stuff but like that's past trauma right there for Four , seeing the castle and Peach costume again *checks off the bingo*

and we're seeing it through Four's right eye *head in hands* eye of horus

It's Rap Time? IT'S RAP TIME

Carnival-themed too! Another one for bingo

"Pay for what you've done" KARMA "We'll make him pay" KARMA

(edit: it turns out Shadow animated this scene, it looks great dude great job :D)

[*points at background at 22:31*] BELL THERE IT FUCKIN IS

MORE BELLS AT 22:55

and also I realized that there was a lot of "death", huh

Doomed Yaoi(TM)

Yeah, we can count this as the Freak Show

"Puzzlevision+" ...puzzlevision 2...?

hold up, what the hell is that? NO NO WE CAN'T JUST PASS BY THAT

Huh, how interesting is that Mr Puzzles, being controlled by wires, looks like a puppet when he's the only usually puppeteering hmmm

MEGGY CONFRONTS also she tried to give Puzzles a chance when she couldn't do it for Wren

"That child is gone... Six feet under right where you and your stupid friends belong." Oh, shit. That got me somehow.

There is something in philosophy called "Ship of Theseus" that basically is: what if, gradually over time, we replace every part of a person and the question would be, are they the same person anymore. It could apply to Mr Puzzles here. Bring back to my corpse question, his child self and his current self are not the same. Not anymore. Metaphorically and perhaps literally, the real man before Mr Puzzles came to be is already dead.

Some people do say that they can be "reborn" so.... *shrugs*

SACRIFICE! No one dies but they're risking their lives here!

Meggy going into Puzzles' mind reminds me a lot of Melony getting into Zero's, except for the meeting younger self stuff

Interesting, why did Little Puzzles cower from the woman shadow figure? They could've just put Meggy there but they didn't until a few seconds later... hmmm......

Well Meggy confronts Little Puzzles but it's more like her demanding him to set her friends free, which is understandable

THE CLUB PENGUIN DANCE IS BACK!! :D

ONCE AGAIN Little Puzzles gets scared of someone coming towards him. jesus what happened for you to react like that, dude?

THIS IS ACTUALLY MAKING ME FEEL THINGS DUDE. IF MR PUZZLES DIES AND THIS IS THE LAST THING HE THINKS ABOUT.... *head in hands* THIS IS SO SAD

And more of the Engine Room gets broken down

silly little goobers :)

MR PUZZLES LIVES

and I oop [Mr Puzzles will remember that.]

....oh, this might be a fate worse than death. I don't blame the Crew for not trusting him and after what he did to Meggy but damn I don't think this is the right choice, gang

But it is probably the best ending the Team could've given him.

Yes, painting is nice. Oh, a puppy too!

"...OR we could assassinate our enemies and anyone who's ever double-crossed us!" OH NO IT'S MAKING HIM WORSE

To destroy Four and the others, yeah that makes sense. But he must've taken Meggy's confrontation as a double-cross. He's going for everyone!

Dynamic Change, everyone!

but also.... puzzlevision 2 maybe....

OH HEY CHRIS AND SWAG HI

well, the park isn't completely destroyed but some of it did so....

"Hopefully Mr Puzzles will change for the better." HMMMM I don't think so, Meggy. Actually, are they aware of where he is now?

Aw, Mario checking up on Meggy is very sweet, the M&M siblings

YOU ALL NEED THERAPY

"Turning into Leggy was really taxing on my body but...I think that version of me has escaped off to a better place." Meggy, you must've inherited Phoenix Wright's invincibility when you were a lawyer because you were literally SCREAMING IN PAIN when you were forced back into Leggy, and all you get is just a bit of a sore back?! Girl, you must've broken something. I do hope they bring this back so that she can't do sudden maneuvers or fancy tricks due to what happened to her. There has to be some consequences here.

And now, Leggy's not coming back (I'm sure that's great news for the people who find her annoying, not me tho)

and I oop 2: electric bagaloo

MORE RIDES FOR THE SHOWGROUNDS HELL YEAH

Happy ending and all but hold up... Why is this the last shot of WOTFI? They could've had the Ferris Wheel, the entrance, or any of the other rides. WHY?! *shakes the crew* ANSWER MEEEEE

Well we didn't get a challenge relating to Tender Tunnel but since it appeared in the final shot, I'll count it just for appearing (and also because it might be important later but we don't talk about that now)

Of course, MERCH

"And, who knows? Next year, there might be even more things to come..." WHEN I GET YOU

Hoodie, poster, keychain I CALLED IT

baby leggy :3

"You'll just have to wait and see." Oh I'll be waiting *wiggles fingers together like a cartoon villain*

the great milk heist of 1899 :)

.・-: ✧ :--: ✧ :-・.

Here's my bingo card:

I think it's all of it, let me know if I miss or need to change anything. Can we count all the Four & Three soulmate parallels to the "You Save Me" box? Please? *sneaks a marker on there* To those who participated, I hope you guys had fun with my bingo card!

I'm still going to cherish that Ferris Wheel chase scene from the "Welcome to Puzzle Park" episode

Well, Ben, Shadow, you got anything to say?

Ben: Well that was fun We should really do this again sometime…

GOD DAMMIT BEN NOT AGAIN/affectionate

Shadow, in voice clip: "Hello once more, Twitter and SMG4 community! As always, I'm The Inverted Shadow and yeah, War of the Fat Italians 2024 has come and gone... and uh, as it is customary with a lot of these big events with SMG4, I have things to say but this time, I'm actually not going to make a big show out of it this time like what I did for Puzzlevision and..." *clear throat* "The things that came before because I'm going to be completely honest, guys, I was really fucking nervous for this one because, um, to be completely honest, this rap battle for this WOTFI is, I can safely say, one of the hardest things I had to do when animating for SMG4 thus far. And I was really really scared and nervous about (one) if it would actually come out good and (two) if people would actually like it. But just based on the reactions from the watch party with the SMG4 team and also just seeing everybody's reactions to WOTFI this year, um.... Yeah, you guys surely showed me I still must be doing something right." *laugh* "But, no no no. In all honesty, once more, thank you all genuinely. Genuinely, thank you all once again to the SMG4 community, to Luke, to Kevin, the SMG4 team. Everybody. Thank you all so much for showing me that I apparently still got it and I can still do the thing as it were." *chuckle* "Um, I do really hope you all enjoyed WOTFI this year. For now, I need to go get me that new Mr Puzzles plushie 'cause I need it. So, genuinely thank you all again and uh, peace!

Oh, we enjoyed this year's WOTFI, SMG4 Team! As Mario would say, that was-a loads of fun! The animation, the art, the music, everything was really really good. There are a few plot tweaks here and there that need a bit of work, but otherwise, it was great! Props to everyone on the Team! I can't wait to see what you guys do next.

"Silly little meme show" Right, and it's the same people who gave us horror, I'm on to you guys. please puzzlevision 2 please goop!4

Make sure you all support them bc they deserve it :) As for what will happen to the SMG4 crew, Mr Puzzles, and the Showgrounds, we will just have to wait and see.

;)

ink, it's not even a theory what are you talking about?

[pencileraser1]

things i noticed/thoughts about most recent rewatches of dps (plus laserdisk deleted scenes):

whenever theres a group scene i've started watching the characters that the story isn't focusing on to see what they do and i've been having a fun time with that. pitts and cameron specifically seem to almost always be doing something interesting in the background.

hopkins!!!! my favorite minor character who somehow got character development despite having like 2 lines!!!! the last guy to stand on the desk but he did it!!!

sometimes i do like to think about what the rest of the students thought about the dead poets society, esp in alternate timeline neil lives dps keeps meeting universe. like yeah theres this guy in their class whose one of the most credited students in the school and we think he maybe started a cult. idk though. but that group runs out into the woods every few days to do god knows what and one of them keeps talking about "dead poets honor" whatever that means and holy shit welton star student neil perry started a cult.

i watched the movie with headphones. and maybe it's because ive seen this movie Far too many times and mabe i'm listening too hard but it was Really obvious sometimes when audio was added in post production. llke in the sweaty toothed madman scene when you can hear laughing and to be fair the camera is behind their heads. but it does Not look like anyone's laughing. my favorite is at the end of the phone call to chris scene where knox is like i'm gonna seize the day!! and runs up the stairs and the poets are cheering him on and neil is sort of yelling "carpe!!!!" and i could be wrong but i'm like 75% certain that the person singing is Also rsl so now neil is just speaking two times at once somehow. anyways it didn't ruin the experience for me or anything it was maybe just a little bit funny to notice but very sorry if this did ruin anyone's viewing.

people talk a lot about how rsl and ethan hawke really made their characters what they are but i have to add dylan kussman to that list. I get the impression that older versions of the movie didn't really give as much depth to cameron and watching dylan kussmans performance is like. he Knew who his character was so fucking well and it shows!! like the deleted scene of them getting clubs assigned. like i could tell So Much about cameron from that scene

for how little she actually appeared, there is an emphasis put on the fact that neil's mom smokes pretty frequently. and i think that's interesting considering neil is one of two poets shown actively smoking. neil's mom doesn't appear for very long in the movie but during that time it definitely seems like the movie is intentionally making parallels between the two, particularly in the last argument with neil's father. neil and his mother are both sitting for almost the whole time, which contrasts with his father who is standing. they are both almost powerless in this scene. they stand up at almost the same time. anyways there's a couple different possibilities for what this could mean? that i've though of? 1. to show that neil's mother is in a similar situation to the one neil is in in regards to neil's father and 2. maybe a stretch here but the theory that neil inherited his mental illness at least partially from his mother. i'm pretty sure 1 was fully intentional on the directors part, not entirely sure about 2 though

unmanned flying desket scene: it's probably cause he and ethan wrote the scene themselves but the way rsl talks in this scene feels more like the way he talks in general than the rest of the script. like briefly neil perry is talking in rsl's voice. one of my absolute favorite scenes though the sarcastic dialogue is so good.

the light of knowledge at the first shot of the film vs. todd standing on his desk at the last shot of the film paralel

[ruins-of-tragedy]

Began season three with episode one to four of RWBY... This is already scaring me. And nothing really bad has happened yet.

Season 03, Episode 01: Round One

- Good Gods. The animation and art has improved SO MUCH!!! THE LANDSCAPE LOOKS AMAZING!!!

- Ruby is at her mum's memorial plaque. Their father is here too?!

- "Being on a team with Yang helps. I keep her in line." 😂

- This is a good and wholesome way of summarising the events from before. I will give them that.

- Ozpin sounds like Uncle Qrow. Huh.

- Ruby's dad and ZWEI!!! Father be looking like a surfer dude.

- Tournament is about to begin... Team RWBY is already fighting!

- Professor Peter and Professor, no, Doctor Oobleck are the commentators! Be still, my shipper heart. 😆

- Vytal Festival, Team RWBY's on a close call with the team they be fighting against.

- The arena looks so gooooooood! Fire and ice.

- Amity Colosseum. I am aware that couldn't have been a reference to The Owl House. But this information is not going to stop me!!! 😂

- The arena is airing live! Pun intended. 😆

- Character design for the people watching from anywhere not in the flying UFO like thing... SO NOICE!

- Team RWBY of Beacon vs Team ABRN of Haven...

- Haven's team lady has a hover board!!! And is using it to fight?! 👏🏻

- Blake and Hoverboard lady. And of course the hoverboard can turn into guns. ✨

- Am glad they show someone falling on their arse while doing something cool. It happens more often in real life. Hopefully hoverboard lady can live it down.

- Yang vs Close Combat Person. The tremors from their battle can be felt throughout!

- The team has one another's back! So CUTTTTTEEEE!!!

- Ruby and Weiss are now BFFs!!! 💖. No matter how much Weiss may deny it.

- New song alert! It's GOOOOOOOOD!

- Weiss' glyphs can be used as trampolines?!?!! AGHHHHHHHHH!!! 🤯

- The hoverboard can absorb elements. Team ABRN is also a good team. Of course.

- One member of theirs down! Blake has big brain. But we already knew that.

- Team RWBY worked together to get the rest and won!!! 🥳. They did it!!!!

- And now hunnngyyy. Scratch that. Blake's stomach has turned into a lion. 😆

- Yang knows a place. Weiss' father was hung up on. Emerald stole Ruby's wallet.

- "Gahh, girl pockets are the worst!" Much agreement.

- Emerald is "Em." They are doing a great job of infiltration apparently.

- Emerald has other teammates?! Ahhh. It's just Cinder and Neo. They too have advanced.

- Mercury smelling the shoe at the appropriate moment. Things just work out sometimes. 😆

- Doubles round, Mercury and Emerald. Weiss and Yang from Team RWBY. Ooooooh!

- Emerald is having trouble being someone she is not. Team RWBY is happy all the time. The heiress and the bimbo... The fuck. You fucker. Fight me!!!

- Food time. From Dust to Dawn. And now a noodle shop owner. It's that guy!!!

- No, listen. Yang has a regular. And Blake nods at the guy and he brings her a bowl of fish that results in stars for her eyes, plus some very loud heartbeats over it... This means they have been here before. Considering how they are part of the same team, it's not too much of a leap to assume they would come... together. AGHHHHHHHHH!!!! 💖🫶🏻❤️‍🔥. Don't mind me. About to dive into AO3 for this now...

- It's Weiss' treat! Declined... Blake is planning to run away with her food. 😂. Such mood!

- Pyrrha, Blake's savoir!!! Team RWBY is fed and happy, while Weiss may be entering a food coma. Team JNPR has many varying reactions. Jaune might burst from the overload. Pyrrha is polite and full. Nora is happy and healthy, while Ren is asking if they should have eaten before a fight. No more Monty Oum's voice. 🥺

- Nora advises Jaune to aim his barf at the enemy. Ren thinks it's disgusting but if it does happen... I get why they are friends now. 😆✨

- Team JNPR is questioning their chances. Nora is providing valid defence about their shot at winning. Being Jaune is it's own quality. 😂. And now Nora is playing an even better devil's advocate... Ren and her are orphans? ...Whoa. Nora is hyperventilating so bad, she has literally lost all colour. Oooooof. Been there.

- Pyrrha has a good point; now they can fight with real guidelines and not murderers. 😂

- Ruby wants more when they graduate. Weiss is depressed about not being able to pay. Team JNPR receives an official invitation for their battle, because they late. 😆

- Nora is emotionally done. Jaune is physically done. Good Gods. What have they done to Team JNPR?!!?!

- Team RWBY has entered the arena. So have Emerald and Mercury. Yang saw them.

- Pan to the bad guy team. And they already know who will win?! Of course.

- Oh my Gods. Cinder's popcorn kernel popping in her fingers... Hot. Pun intended. 😆

- Team JNPR of Beacon vs Team BRNZ of Shade... There's a school called Shade?!? What do they teach them there? How to throw their school? 😂

- Ooooooh! The arena randomises it's elemental attributes and division after each match. For some reason this reminds me of Pokemon.

- Forest and mountains for this battle.

- Holy hell. I cannot stop focusing on the great work they have done. The end credits are beginning and holy shirtballs. It looks so GOOOOOOOOD!

- OH MY GODS. This song goes hard... "Maybe it's the pool of blood the innocents will lay in, when in the end you have failed to save them..." 😳

- Is Ren voiced by a relative of Monty Oum from now? Neath Oum is written among the names of voice actors for Team JNPR. That's amazing. 🫶🏻✨

- Beacon's going to get attacked?!?! There's monsters taking the school by storm...

- "Mirrors will shatter. Crushed by the weight of the world." As Ozpin and Glynda stare at said mirrors. Ironwood and his army is the world. OH MY GODS.

- Fucking Adam.

- New characters! Weiss is looking up to a lady. Is this Winter? She is her older sister, if I remember right.

- Yang and Ruby are with a man. This must be Qrow.

- Huh. Winter and Qrow are not on good terms. OOOOOOoooooooof.

- Qrow has red eyes?! And is that a picture of his team floating by? It has him, Ruby and Yang's father, Yang's mother and another lady with a white cape. Almost hidden. Huh. That must be Ruby's mum? She wore a similar thing back in season one's openings.

- Team RWBY and JNPR are holding hands while falling together. And then the latter's members stumble away in the air, leaving only RWBY. Oh no.

Season 03, Episode 02: New Challengers

- "Their dying eyes... are wide and white like snow."

- This season is going to kill me. ✨

- Team JNPR's match has begun. One of their opponents' team members ran in the opposite direction of them. Hmmm.

- Ooooooh! Sniper person. Jaune has good instincts. Retreat!

- Ren down. Nora is one of Port's favourite students. She can use charge to power her semblance. Truly Thor.

- LoLLL! The guy electrocuting her has been informed by Doctor Oobleck that Nora will now channel it against him to send him flying.

- Jaune truly is a good leader.

- This opponent team member is sending discs flying at Pyrrha and Jaune. That's a good tactic. Reminds me of a God I am aware of.

- Weiss is noting how far Jaune has come. Ugh. Being platonic friends suits them well!

- I agree with Yang though. He has got nothing on Pyrrha. Who is now taking on two guys at once. ❤️‍🔥

- Ren doing the Naruto ninja run is a prophecy fulfilled. ✨😆

- Oh my Gods. Team JNPR working together so Nora remains unarmed and can use the thunder on top of a mountain... 🫶🏻🥹🤌🏻. Such coordination and support.

- Jaune wants to use team attacks. His team don't know what Flower Power is.

- Ren being the flower and Nora being the power. Okie, that's cooool, not going to lie.

- "So, what are we?" / "Sorry! I just want to make sure it's clearly defined." -Pyrrha Nikos. HOLY SHIRTBALLS. 👏🏻😂❤️‍🔥💯

- Jaune and Pyrrha are Arkos. Awwwwwwwww! Now am just imagining Jaune scribbling their names together to come up with it. CUTTTE! 💖

- Pyrrha may not like the shipname, but I am sure she likes the person who created it.

- The opponent team has gotten up and seems flabbergasted over how JNPR is bantering now. Good Gods... These idiots. I love them so much. 🫶🏻

- "Trying to have a team meeting. Thank you very little!" 😂

- Jaune wants to see it through. He has gotten them crazy eyes. Awwwwww!!! Doesn't want their conversation interrupted. 💖

- One hit of Nora's hammer is all they need. Team JNPR has won! "By knockout. Literally." 😆

- Now we see a Crow Bar. Where lies Qrow. Drinking and perhaps in his natural habitat?

- He don't care for tournaments?

- Team NDGO vs SSSN. The latter is Sun's team. And yup. They are the boyband version of RWBY, it seems. One girl literally has a picture of just Sun's abs and has drawn a heart over them.

- Weiss is rooting for Neptune from the stands. Neptune tries to turn on the charm for the team in front, Weiss has changed sides. YASSSSSSSS!!! 😂

- Oh my Gods. Neptune really thinks he is ALL THAT. I want his unwarranted confidence.

- Desert and the ocean arena. Neptune's afraid of water. Ooooooof.

- He ran off to the barren lands. His teammates are confused. LoLLL.

- Listen. I am rooting for NDGO. I can't not. They look like Disney Princesses. And dress so COOOL. Go ladies!!!

- One SSSN member down. YAYYYYYY!

- Ugh. Three on three now.

- This girl with the hair I want is dressed like a pirate and has a crossbow that can turn into a sword. ✨🤯

- Scarlet got hit in the nuts by some projectile of coconuts. I cannot make this up. 😂.

- Sun, in reaction, said, "Ah, nuts." 👏🏻

- Neptune is extremely afraid. Trying to help from afar his only teammate left. But now needs to get to Sun.

- Salt water is a good conductor of electricity. Bromance be real. Team SSSN wins.

- I am a little sad. But at least this was entertaining.

- Doctor Oobleck called that victory shocking. 😂

- Peter dubs it well earned. Of course. I feel like punching a man-child right now.

- "What you said is stupid." Port should declare that to himself. Not someone like Oobleck. Forker.

- Qrow called this a mess. Inclined to agree.

- He be also here for a fight. Which involves a flying machine.

- The bartender's "Aww. Gee, darn it," got me. Not going to lie. Such serious music in the background and he says that. 😆

- "...the dorks made it to the next round." -Yang

- They are still dancing in the arena. Really a boy band.

- Sun shot some finger guns at Blake. She blushed.

- Yang wants to go congratulate them. Such a good wingwoman. Sun should return the favour. 😉

- Big ship Qrow needs to fight has Weiss' sister? Weiss looks so happy about the particular machine being there though! Love that!

- Team JNPR'S opponent team members' character art. Looks so GOOOOOOOOODDDDDDD!!!

- The arena as well. NOICE sketches! Music makes me want to move along and rock!

Season 03, Episode 03: It's Brawl in the Family

- "And now they know the cost of trusting you's obliteration."

- Weiss and Ruby are running. For a change, Weiss is the one with more energy. CUTTTTTEEEE!

- "Winter is coming." -Jon Snow, and probably Weiss at one point in her life. 😂

- Did she curtsy? Oh my Gods. Ruby is in her natural state, Weiss just punched her dolt.

- And I thought Weiss was tightly wound... Team RWBY's victory could have been better according to Winter, who be a regal queen it looks like, and Weiss wants to impress her so bad. 🥺

- "Silence, you boob." -Winter, after smacking Weiss on the head.

- Awwwwwwwww! Winter does care. Me like her. Weiss considers Ruby her friend. Ruby is grinning about Weiss being called boob.

- Winter Schnee doesn't seem impressed.

- "I wish to thank you for taking an interest in my sister." -Winter. Why does this sound like Ruby asked if she could court Weiss?!?!?

- I have a feeling Team RWBY's living "quarters" might not be up to Winter's "personal standards."

- "...the bunk beds only look unstable." -Weiss. 😂. I actually needed the clarification too, not going to lie. So thanks for that!

- Oh my Gods. Blake and Yang's bunk beds are held up by books. What if Blake wants to read one of them that's being used?!?!?!!! Holy hell. I hope they have eBook facilities in their scrolls.

- Ruby is trying her best to be fancy. Awwwwwww!

- Is Qrow following Winter and Weiss? The camera movements look drunk... Yup.

- Commendable though. He was able to take out the robos even while inebriated.

- Weiss has become so used to people calling her the Ice Queen, she assumes Qrow is referring to her... 😆

- From Qrow to crow. The camera movements in here are cracking me up. 😂

- Winter and this guy definitely have old baggage to take care of... Good Gods. They are about to fight in the streets. I can already see the PR team rampaging around to keep this one in.

- WHOA. Winter be fast. Qrow is good. Did the entire Schnee family practice gymnastics as kids?

- They are equally matched. Ruby is here. Weiss is telling her about the crazy guy, and the former screams it's her uncle... The fruity version of Romeo and Juliet anyone? ✨

- "KICK HER BUTT, UNCLE QROW!" / "Teach him respect, Winter!" Just fall in love already WhiteRose.

- Mercury has now entered the chat. And left as soon as he got there.

- Winter landed a hit! Qrow smiled like crazy over it. (That rhymes!) They are giving the world a great show. I am enjoying this more than you can know. 😁

- Winter's sword can turn into two different ones?!?!?? ✨🤯🤌🏻

- Aura doves? NOICE!

- Holy hell. Qrow really be taunting Winter by not even bothering to use his weapon for her upcoming special move...

- Ohhhhhh. I guess he saw Ironwood coming. Winter has excellent control though. She stopped mere inches away from Qrow's throat. This man also seems to have nerves of steel. 👏🏻

- Ironwood has Penny behind him?!

- Qrow really got Ironwood beginning to fumble and make excuses. Huh.

- Enter Ozpin and Glynda.

- Awwwwwwwww! Penny waved at Ruby and Weiss. CUTTTTTEEEE!!!

- Ruby getting to be a kid with Qrow. AGHHHHHH!!!! Adorable.

- I wonder how many times Glynda has had to repair the entire city now... She is the antidote to Theseus' ship. 😂

- Ozpin wants to talk to Qrow. Ruby makes better sense to Weiss now. Am glad they are not letting it all come between them!

- Grown up talking. At least Qrow is fun. Even Ozpin can't with him. I love this guy.

- Qrow don't want Winter around. She has now left. Ironwood is her boss?!?! Fucking hell.

- I like Winter.

- Who is Autumn?

- Oh my Gods. The headmasters of the main four lands, and this dumb General. They are fighting something bigger. Hmmm. Makes sense.

- Ironwood is still young. And a little too dense somehow. His heart may be in the right place, but... Showmanship ain't going to win wars, according to Qrow. I am bound to agree. Time and place.

- Oh no. The queen chess symbol on Ironwood's scroll. Things are about to get much worse.

- They need to find a guardian. It's Ruby, isn't it.

- Cinder has been informed of Qrow.

- "...smelled like my dad after a long day." -Mercury. Good Gods.

- Cinder shouldn't look so good. Penny is in the doubles round!

- Oh no. Cinder is now controlling who will fight who. Yup. This will be so bad.

- Emerald and Mercury vs two members of Team CFVY. The handbag lady from it is called Coco... With a name like that, being a part of her team was destiny. 😆

- Coco Adel and Yatsuhashi Daichi. Hmmm. Need to figure out their allusions. I only know one Diachi. He was part of Haikyuu!!!

- Cinder smirked. I died.

- GOOOOOOOD GOLLLY. Winter's sketch looks so freaking fantastic. So does the ship. The music is making me want to chase down my fate. Oooooh! Qrow sketches are here as well. And Ironwood sketch. Now Cinder... This seems like a personal attack to me. Oh my Gods.

Season 03, Episode 04: Lessons Learned

- "The pillars collapse in shame..."

- Emerald and Mercury of Haven vs Coco and Yatsuhashi of Beacon.

- OOOOOOooooooooh! Four arenas now.

- Plateau, city, river body with rocks and forest. Much banter.

- Coco is also a trendsetter. I can see it.

- The voice acting for Scarlet sounds like someone is trying to be extremely pretentious. Me likey! What accent is that?

- Mercury can shoot light blasts with his feet?! Cooool.

- This fight is getting so GOOOOOOOOODDDDDDD!!! But going bad for Coco and Daichi.

- Coco's glasses broke. She don't like Emerald anymore. 😆

- Emerald lady is not only Aladdin, but also Abu. 👏🏻

- Her semblance allows her to shapeshift?! Oh no.

- Truly an upset. Team CFVY's members lost.

- Winter is already leaving? She has a way of making Weiss feeling bad about herself, but then good by actually caring and meaning it. Doesn't mince words. I like her. She good. And extremely beautiful.

- So Weiss came to Beacon against their father's will. Hmmm.

- The Schnee family is hereditary? And the rest don't share similar talents? Ooooooh!

- Time dilation and summoning. I still can't make sense of the former. Winter is a good sister though.

- Good GODS. Did this woman just make a light Grimm??!?!!?!! I am in love, mayhaps.

- Not only is Winter good at fighting, she looks amazing in general, means what she says, genuinely cares not only about her sibling's development but also her, gives great advise without being over bearing and is trying her best. 💖

- From Weiss and Winter to Ruby and Qrow. The latter pair is playing video games. The juxtaposition of it all... 👏🏻😆

- Ruby lost. Yang's turn now!

- Oh my GODS. The art they are using for Qrow's story about his last mission... 🤯🤌🏻

- Qrow defeated Yang while also telling a funny anecdote. LoLLL! Nice. Yang isn't impressed though.

- "But they don't give out medals for almost." -Qrow.

- "They do and they are called silver!" -Ruby. Her having silver eyes... Am probably reading too much into it. Point though! Especially since it's honouring an attempt. Those are important too.

- Qrow raises some good issues as well. No crime at all... Alarm bells a ringing.

- Team STRQ. Yang was looking at her mother until her uncle covered her head with his thumb. Intentional?

- Wait. Did Yang know about her mum being a part of her dad and uncle's team?

- It's pretty sweet though, that he has the picture on him and still carries it around.

- Warning about the real world vs school. Much ominous caution, with encouragement and hope. Keep it real, essentially.

- Schnee training session! ...Winter really knows what buttons to push for Weiss.

- I love Winter. She is good.

- "It was really good to see you Winter." -Weiss Schnee. I agree. I agree. I agree.

- This song... I like the almost soothing quality of it. Awwwwwwwww! Winter looked back for a second at Weiss as they parted.

- OOOOOOooooooooh! Weiss is getting there. A small sword projection! CUTTTTTE!

- IT'S MIRROR MIRROR'S ACOUSTIC VERSION!!! 🫶🏻

- So basically this was the learning from our elders, who don't get along but are actually good at their jobs and in general too, episode. Team RWBY has the best of both worlds, in a way. YAYYYYYY!

- End credits song is making me want to headbang along! Ooooooh! The arena sketch. Nice.

- Mercury's character design! He could have had different hair? Emerald's turn! Somehow they look better in the initial sketches. Or maybe I just have a weakness for this particular style. Light Grimm.

(You spoil me, I spoil your day with unnecessary emotional unloading. Au Revoir!)

[diodellet]

try wishing for it: magical girl au ~author's note~

warning for: Puella Magi Madoka Magica spoilers and more yandere headcanoning

Read the fanfic first before you spoil yourself on my rambling 😇

I did not expect to be able to transition from draft to posting that quickly for a fic of this length (or maybe it just felt faster because the stars aligned for my motivation and brainworms to work together? who knows)

Will I ever continue this AU? Maybe if I get clubbed in the head by more Scarabia brainworms, I might write oneshots/short scenes, but I don’t see myself writing for any of the other twst charas.

Anyways onto the ramblings galore:

Inspirations:

The verse that the fic’s title is ripped from goes: “Saying, ‘it’s like magic!’ / immersed in this sensation, even if I try wishing for it, / I know it’s nothing but playing with dolls //” (tl credits to Releska).

Tbh, analyzing poetry/song lyrics isn’t my biggest strength, but I know that Mahou Shoujo, as a genre, tends to touch on themes of adolescence like innocence vs. jadedness in the face of the real world and its many issues, just stepping into and growing out of adolescence as one of those uncomfortable transitions in life.

Stepping into young adulthood is scary, and most people my age don’t even know what the hell they’re doing. So for Reader, I gave them that highschooler-trying-to-be-capable-and-mature persona, with a tinge of anxieties that a young person would have.

*I’ll elaborate more on the Puella Magi inspirations in a later section, but yes, that was also a major inspiration for this fic

Vagueness:

Compared to my usual long-winded writing style, this fic ended up a bit more short and ambiugous in its prose. Partially because I didn’t want to procrastinate on writing this by rewatching my favorite Mahou Shoujo franchises.

(but also mainly because partial aphantasia lets gooo, detailed visuals are not my strong suit, I’m leaving Reader’s outfit and weapon blank for people to insert anything they’d like)

I mainly wanted to emphasize the character moments between Reader and Kyubey!Scarabia, which ended up becoming more conflicting and interesting than I initially drafted.

(It helps that Jamil is a shady guy, he set up the foreshadowing on his own. Kalim on the other hand, my god, maybe it's just me but I had a harder time characterizing. Why is he so loud and friendly, it makes his manipulation so much more covert grr)

Gold (and Red, I guess):

I lied, there was one visual aspect I wanted to highlight throughout the story, which were Scarabia’s trademark colors of gold and red. Anything gold mentioned in the fic is traced back to them. So every moment of Kalim and Jamil using magic, Reader’s magic, the bangle that Jamil gifts them, the wraith in the beginning having a (formerly) gold collar. (I would've added a description of something gold on each wraith, but I didn't want to be too heavy-handed with the repetition.)

(yes i had thoughts of jamil just giving them a golden collar…but ooo…held off on that instead, it could be a standalone what-if scenario…a corruption arc premise…ooo…someone remind me about this, i might forget)

I also mention jamil++the color red in this fic because I had to put Snake Whisper in, I can’t not 🙈

(that bit of kalim’s healing magic was me trying to make a reference to Oasis Maker, it feels a bit scuffed to me, but i don't think he’d ever get the urge to drown the world. truly sunshine boy's such a covert yandere it almost made me tear my hair out)

Kyubey!Scarabia, Some Difficulties and Omissions:

In Puella Magi, the little satanspawn named Kyubey is actually short for “Incubator,” who hails from an alien civilization tasked with preventing the heat death of the universe. Turns out the emotions of teenage girls is a very potent energy source. So he turns girls into magical girls to fight Witches and when those magical girls succumb to despair, they become the very thing that they fight against, producing vast amounts of energy for them to use.

(Though I changed it from ‘Witches’ to ‘Wraiths’ for this fanfic. I also did away with the Witches’ Labyrinth to lessen the amount of exposition. I jus think Witches work better in a visual medium.)

Another standout characteristic of Kyubey is his eerie sense of apathy to the characters’ suffering, which was Difficult to incorporate into Kalim since that guy’s got buckets of empathy. Until I realized that i could spin this into a kind of “warped” love.

Kalim loved each and every magical girl that he’s worked with, and of course he gets sad that they eventually become a wraith. But as an Incubator, his grieving is more akin to a rich person feeling sad over the death of a pet. He’s very quick to turn his attention to the next shiny thing (that’s you/Reader! Ain’t that great!🥴)

Also @jessamine-rose gave me this hc of Kalim amassing little trinkets from every magical fighter, like a ribbon accessory or a piece of their wand, collecting these little charms. Just, the idea of him saying that he’ll cherish Reader’s own treasure, and the way that could go from reassuring to chilling. (now i’m spreading that hc to yall instead of pingponging it in my brain😇)

On the idea of Jamil and love, I think he just loves holding power over magical girls #MegalomaniacThingz (ignore that growing fondness in the fever scene, he was just playing the part of helpful familiar or sumn /shrug)

There's definitely room for some kind of intense fascination to reader, knowing that they surprised him with their resilience. Yeah sorta like Tokyo Mew Mew's Ichigo and Quiche...

(i was crying so hard at having to axe forehead kissies for the second time, but it was a necessary omission😔)

Misc. Extras:

As a palate cleanser, just imagine plush ball!jamil carrying a plastic bag twice his size… (i was struggling with the dialogue during that fever scene, this was how i kept myself from spiraling too far)

In line with the genie of the lamp story, Kyubey!Scarabia gets the three wishes for their magical girls, with the third wish eventually corrupting the magical girl into a wraith.

I guess the other dorms would have something unique for the magical girls that they create? (not having wi-fi for the past few days gave me some half-baked ideas)

Like Heartslabyul imposing a rigid set of rules on their magical girls, which are of course rigged against the inherently flawed nature of humans and their emotions.

Savanaclaw and Pomefiore are similar, you fight until you can’t. Or in Pome’s case, you fight until you become an unrecognizable monster.

I imagine that Octavinelle and Ignihyde are the most similar to the original Kyubey of Puella Magi. You make a wish, fight the wraiths, reap the consequences of a wish, and eventually succumb to the vicious system they have laid out. Only Octavinelle’s version is Sayaka Miki-core, while Ignihyde’s plays out like a video game-ified version of Hercules’ trials. (Also, Ignihyde deffo keeps a compendium of each magical girl and wraith).

For Diasomnia, it could kinda follow Sleeping Beauty's plot, where there's a curse that the magical girl has to work against, while being aided with blessings from the fairies/Malleus' retinue (tho in this case, i guess Malleus ends up being revealed as the one creating the wraiths?)

tl;dr: This fic was so fun to write, I can almost forgive the usual agonies that plague me. I'm a writer who heavily prefers soft worldbuilding. Scarabia makes me so ill.

tagging: @viperwhispered @twstgo

[queen0fm0nsterz]

I said this many times before but I will say it again:

I find the conflict between Six and the Lady to be so much more interesting when viewed through the lens of them not being the same person, but rather being a metaphor for each other -- someone who is like the person you used to be vs the threat of the person you could become.

Them having a similar past and reacting to it in completely different ways makes the dynamic incredibly interesting. The reason why I am so deeply attached to the theory that the Lady is the girl in the paintings who wears a yellow raincoat is because, narratively, it would make her the perfect foe to Six.

The coat itself is not really important: what matters is what it signifies. It means freedom, hope, light, but most importantly it means not losing yourself. When Six finds the coat, she finds herself. She finds her True Colors, as the OST itself will tell you.

And Six sticks to it.

In spite of everything pointing her to the Maw, Six categorically refuses to go there. Shadow Six points her to it, but the comics let us know that Six did not go to the Maw as she was pushed to do: the Ferryman had to drag her on it. He had to tie her up to take her there -- which, when considering the Ferryman's usual methods, really points just how hard Six fought to avoid the Maw.

Six does not want to be on the Maw. She rebukes it. Exactly the opposite of the Lady, who instead sticks in it for dear life.

The Lady is a deeply fascinating villain through many lens, but what makes her the most interesting to me is the fact that, when picking her arguments apart barebones, she reasons exactly like the children of the Maw do. In the Refugee Boy's story, it is explained why he prefers being on the Maw rather than being left to the outside world.

Safety.

With this in mind, here is an extract from the Lady's official character description:

"Amidst the chaos of the world outside, The Maw is the only place that makes sense. (...) The guests must eat. The Maw must survive."

The Lady sticks to the Maw because it's beneficial to her. Because it is the only place whose (horrific) structure she can comprehend. The world outside is chaos, we have seen it ourselves. The Maw, as terrible as it is, has a clear routine that repeats every year. It has dangers that can be avoided as they become more and more known.

The children would rather stay here, rather than face the unknown outside. And the Lady would rather uphold a system that kills and takes advantage of innocents if it means she can live in peace and safely just one more day.

The Maw is the lesser evil. And the Lady lost herself to it. Or rather, it would be more correct to say that whoever she used to be when she got on the Maw is gone... and all the Lady is, is nothing if not the Lady of the Maw.

((Which is why she can't bear to look in the mirror. Would you stare in it, knowing that the person starring back is someone you don't know?))

But Six is not like the Lady. Six is Six.

She does not want to be safe, she wants to leave. The institution of the Maw means nothing to her, no matter how many outside factors push her towards it. Even if strategically speaking staying the Maw would be the safe option, by leaving, Six chooses her true self. It's an act of defiance to a generational cycle that has been upheld for who knows how long by simply taking a leap of faith.

One stayed. The other left.

Ironically, the two of them are not a mirror of each other, like the Thin Man and Mono are. They instead walk on two parallel lines.

The Lady turns right, and Six turns left. The Lady turns down the stairs that lead back inside the Maw. She lets the raincoat fall off her shoulders. Six turns up the stairs, outside of the submarine. She clings to her raincoat as hard as she can.

They are two strangers who happen to be just a little similar, but so incredibly different that they end up going different places. And that's what gives them nuance.

[vintagetvstars]

Leonard Nimoy Vs. Avery Brooks

Propaganda

Leonard Nimoy - (Star Trek, Mission: Impossible) - actor, director, musician, writer, photographer and mensch whose hotness as spock CHANGED THE WORLD

Avery Brooks - (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Spenser: For Hire) - ben sisko absolute all time tv dilf and have you heard him SPEAK... the stage background absolutely shows and it truly makes him a standout in a legacy franchise *full* of incredibly talented people. also frankly top 3 all time sexy bald guy

- No Negative Propaganda Please -

Master Poll List | How to submit propaganda | What is vintage? (FAQ)

Additional propaganda below the cut

Leonard Nimoy:

This is the Spock website, come on

its leonard nimoy......

Avery Brooks:

Avery is a certified TV sci-fi hottie as Benjamin Sisko in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The first black star trek Captain, he also negotiated his signature look - the bald head and goatee - against haters who thought a Captain should always be clean-shaven. Thank God for that, because he looks devastatingly hot in a a goatee (a phrase never before uttered). He went on to direct several episodes of DS9, use his pleasant voice to record music and multiple host documentaries, and mostly retire from acting to teach as a professor.

TW: Flashing Lights

with that wonderful stentorian baritone voice he could move from intimidating commander to gentle and compassionate space dad...benjamin sisko is a man of many qualities, thoughtful, morally complex, understatedly hilarious, a lil unhinged, really really excited about baseball, and avery brooks never fails to breathe life, depth and dimension into the character and also did i mention his voice. fun fact he was a professor of theater arts at rutgers while filming deep space nine and would occasionally teach classes via vhs tapes recorded on set, complete with starfleet uniform. he also directed a number of ds9 episodes including notable ones like "rejoined" and "far beyond the stars", and performed many of his own stunts as sisko. stunt coordinator dennis madalone said, "of all the stars that I've worked with on all the Star Treks, and all the other shows that I've been on other than Star Trek, I've never seen an actor so physically capable of just doing everything...every time I'd bring in a stunt double, he'd be angry, sitting on a bench, because Avery was doing so great." he's also a distinguished stage actor and an accomplished musician and singer who's performed everything from jazz to opera. science has yet to discover whether there's anything this man can't do.

[blade-liger-4ever]

Unique vs Uniform: How Smokescreen Breaks the Standard Kid-Appeal Character Mold Cheetor Was Trapped In

Worry not, despite the fact that I am not fond of him, this is not me tearing down Cheetor. Rather, it's me explaining how Smokescreen was written better in contrast to the beast-former. I only do this to explain to people how and why Smokescreen works better as a "Kid-Appeal Character" in a fresh and fantastic way, and to (hopefully) guide people onto a more solid path should they wish to add a similar character to their cast.

Now, onto the post!

From the beginning, Smokescreen appears to be the standard issue kid friendly character. He's eager, he looks up to Optimus like the rest of us, and wants to do his part for the mission.

However, his approach to the crew and life in the War makes it clear he's anything but stock.

In his debut, Smokescreen is quick to follow orders without being inflexible. He does what he's told by Optimus before learning of Starscream's appearance with the Apex Armor. Unlike so many others before him, Smokescreen does a quick analysis of the situation, draws on his knowledge of the Iacon relics, and grabs the item he needs to take down Starscream. If you rewatch that episode, it's clear Smokescreen knew from the start what he was doing. He came up with a plan for dealing with the Decepticon second-in-command in less than three minutes and it worked perfectly. This shows us the "rookie" is quite smart despite his eagerness, and it only increases from here.

After these episodes, Smokescreen continues to show his chops for initiative and righteous anger. The whole reason he messes with Vince, as I've covered before, is in Jack's defense and to boost his nonexistent self-confidence; he did not do it for himself, but for the guy who was clearly a target and who he understood was to be protected. After all, even Cybertronian kids have to deal with bullying and jerks like humans do. Furthermore, in the two moments of the episode where he "blows it" by revealing himself to a human and bringing Jack on a mission, they are both the result of Team Prime's lack of attention to their newcomer's inexperience with Earth. As proven, Smokescreen owns up to his mistakes (when it's explained at base for the first goof up) and wouldn't have brought Jack along if they'd actually sat him down and told him all he needed to know about humans and their squishy-ness. And don't forget, Smokescreen actually delayed the Decepticons by at least two hours with his distraction and attack when the whole team was on a wild goose chase and Megatron was seconds away from hauling a mountain out of the Earth and toting it around the globe like the world's deadliest Sword of Damocles.

Smokescreen always goes in with a plan or at least a rough outline of one, as evidenced by the sheer speed and awareness of his initial attack and grab for the Star Saber. He knew what his goal was, knew he couldn't slow down for the rest of the 'Cons, and dispatched them quickly while aiming to snatch the Saber. The only reason it failed was because Alph Trion failed to tell Smokescreen only a Prime could pull out the Star Saber from the "lockdown" mode it initiates (which is a convenient thing to forget to tell your protégé, but that's a separate ball of wax.)

And after he's gotten the first Omega Key and saved Optimus, Smokescreen isn't acting like, "look at me, I'm the greatest thing since sliced bread", or "I'm on the same level as the team now, and I can rub this in their faces". Notably Arcee thinks this is what he's doing, but that's her narrow-minded perspective on it. Rather, Smokescreen is ecstatic that's he's been able to get two (and a half, since he did most of the footwork until Optimus arrived for the Star Saber) relics for the team. Not even a month on Earth, and he's been able to help his hero and his team get an edge on the Decepticons. How is that not a cause for joy? And while he's disappointed that Optimus didn't pick him for the first mission, it's more akin to a child feeling left out of something they want to partake in. And even then, Smokescreen doesn't throw a fit; he accepts it and waits for the next mission.

When he's griping about the hit Arcee took and the loss of the Key, he's not doing it to make himself out to be more. He's understandably upset that she and Bee were taken out, and is only wishing he'd been there to help. Arcee brutishly cuts him off because she's gotten it into her head that he's self-absorbed, but Smokescreen makes it clear in his followup sentence that he only wants them all (himself included, which is made clear by his mature stance toward the War effort) on their A-game. Yes, he adds at the end that he "has a good track record so far", but he's completely justified with that thought. I mean seriously, Smokescreen's been in the series for under 6 episodes at this point and already won the above achievements. Why shouldn't he, at the very end, admit that he specifically might have been able to turn the tide in the lost mission?

Later, when he kicks himself after letting his guard down, it's simply because he wants to bring his best to the team, and he feels that even one mistake - a mistake as critical as losing an Omega Key, showing how seriously he takes the War - is cause for complete failure. It's why he's so hard on himself, why he won't accept Bulkhead's attempt to lift the burden from his shoulders, and why Arcee is the final nail in the coffin. Because the fembot refuses to see him as anything but a brat, she snaps at him to, basically, "grow up and stop acting like it's all about you". Smokescreen knows that's not what it is that's the problem, but when no one, not even Optimus Prime, his hero, stands up for him, it causes him to leave in the hopes that he won't continue to be a failure for his heroes.

Because of this, Smokescreen is soon captured by the Decepticons and gets an Omega Key unceremoniously yanked out of him. However, rather than wait for a rescue, Smokescreen gets Knock Out to let his guard down, tussles with him for the Phase Shifter, and escapes the medical bay. Having quickly realized where he is and what that means, Smokescreen comes up with a plan to get the remaining Omega Keys and executes it as he goes. And when the only means of actual escape proves to be jumping off the ship, Smokescreen does so without a second thought. He manages to kill some Vehicons, radio for a Ground Bridge, and evens survives a fall that would have killed him if not for the Phase Shifter letting him survive a drop from the upper atmosphere.

The second season of TFP wonderfully breaks the mold of "kid appeal" characters with Smokescreen. He's likable but in need of maturing, and he matures on the fly. Because of this, Smokescreen stands apart from every other take on this trope - including his Beast Wars predecessor, Cheetor.

From what I've seen of Cheetor, he was painfully a stock "audience surrogate" character. The moment the crew of the Axalon lands on prehistoric Earth, he wastes no time preening over his new alt-mode, its abilities, and practically shoots out of the ship to run rampant on the world. Then he leaps into a battle with the Predacon leader Megatron and nearly gets himself killed, while obviously disobeying Primal before the large ape has to rescue him.

Not only is this a stark contrast to Smokescreen, it remains Cheetor's staple characterization. He's egotistical, cocky, and his desire to be seen as the equal of his peers causes him to blindly run in and prove himself to the others time and time again. Furthermore, Cheetor, unlike Smokescreen, needs to be rescued by his team so often, it's embarrassing. He jumps in with no plan and gets caught, and when he's not doing that, he's being an immature kid who either goofs off or props himself up, which is when the others rightly give him a reality check for his antics or the episode's moral story does it for them.

Mind you, I do not say this is bad for Cheetor. Rather, it's the usual mold of a "Kid-Appeal Character". As such, he does not do much in the way of standing out, nor does Cheetor undergo as much growth as Smokescreen does. While you could say it was because Smokescreen was fighting in the Great War, Cheetor had an arguably worse war because it was somewhere in space and time that was always on the brink of disaster with one wrong move. Therefore, Cheetor does not have much of an excuse.

This is why I believe Smokescreen's handling was better than Cheetor's, and why I personally feel younger writers - or writers who want to break away from old standbys that run the risk of becoming stale - should look to Transformers: Prime's Smokescreen instead of a cult classic like Beast Wars' Cheetor.

See you around!