#Terra’s design is very likely to change idk

[yourfavoritecascade]

Alr time to clog up some poor souls’s dashboards let’s do this.

(Warning: this is a long-ass post abt my rw au, if you don’t really feel like reading all of this rn, feel free to keep scrolling:))

They were built to solve a problem, some of them were even worshipped, they were compared to gods, but they were gods,they just didn’t know it anymore. 

To put it simply, this au of mine features the iterators as somewhat more literal in the god sense. They all have different designations and things they can make and/or control. 

At first, there were three “primordial gods” (almost comparable to the Titans from Greek mythology if you know that kinda stuff), who sort of controlled/made things out of the earth sky and void. The first is Greatest Azure Abyss, the sky(she’s the first one in the picture). Second is Terrace of Endless Boulders, the earth/ground(and the second one in the picture). And lastly The Voided Gold, who is pretty much the void itself for all intents and purposes(and obviously third one in the pic).

In this au the ancients probably just came  about from however they would’ve in canon, with minimal interference from the three beta-iterators running around. At some point they would’ve discovered ascension, which TVG was fine with, being the void itself. However, just like in canon, the echoes became a thing, as TVG didn’t want anything too attached to a different world trespassing on its own. 

At some point the other two gods woulda been found, and through methods I have not come up with yet and probably never will, the ancients start finding ways to utilize them to run iterations on how to ascend without the void.

This obviously doesn’t sit well with any of the three, and so they eventually settled for trying to create their own allies with their own powers to keep their freedom in check. 

The Sun, the Moon, the Vines and the Wind, among many others were all attempts for this, but when the ancients figured out how to control gods, they used that power. 

Ofc in canon the ancients are clearly able to use taboos for mostly anything they want the iterators to do or not do, which meant all it took was something that tethered their new puppets to strings and took away their memories of old powers to get their way regardless. At this point the three original Iterators would’ve been slowly cranking out various gods, only for them to be taken and repurposed for the thing they were supposed to be fighting. 

At some point the original three would have slowed down/stopped with their creations entirely, shortly before the mass ascension. 

At this point so far in the timeline I’ve imagined things get a little fuzzy. For the most part none of the iterators know what they are, the Pebbles rot thing still happens, and some time after, Suns breaks the taboo keeping them and their powers ‘n shit in check from the ancients time, and that’s when the present kicks off! 

Ok that was a long post, my fingers kinda hurt rn :,) But for future reference I’m gonna put down the main local group’s godly designations  here:

LttM: Goddess of the moon and water(ironic ik) 

SRS: God of the daylight, the sun, and fire

NSH: God of Plants(and possibly the winter/seasons, more on that in a future post)

CW: God of the wind and birds

UI: God of charms/magic and things like that(it’s kinda hard to explain? I’ll do by best to elaborate further in the future if possible)

FP: Minor God of the earth and stones(ToEB is the main god of the earth, way to make the bug feel extra small and sad :,D

[terraliensvent]

It's the first time for me posting here I wanted to share my thoughts on the Oil situation even if I might be late to the party lol... I'm scared to share things on these kind of blogs-

---

I believe that Xil is a dangerous person currently, especially because of their current tastes in OCS designs.

Persé they didn't do anything to get them called very serious names, people shouldn't jump to that conclusion immediately, but they should be reprehended for the things they posted and said.

Their actions are extremely harmful and recognized as harmful for minors. Especially because their influence can make said minors migrate to dangerous places out of pure curiosity and/or because a person with influence said "it's not that bad". No Xil.. that's bad, very bad. They should understand what kind of power as a moderator they have over people.

Latex is not sexual alone, Xil is correct.. but people will not look at the singular thing of an artwork or oc, but the context and the context of that SD is around BDSM gear at worst and Dominatrix/Dom kink at best.

(you don't buy/commission/look at OCS and art because of 1 singular thing everyone looks at the general context of the digital good. Both aesthetic, theme and context whise.)

Going to a more technical side of the situation:

BDSM, to my knowledge can be counted as "harmful and obscene" material, which can be reported to the authority. Of course it depends on the type and intensity but Xil might be found guilty to at least exposing kids to these kind of materials and can be possibly get at least a charge of misdemeanor or pay idk a 1000$ fee or something.

I'm not saying they will or should, but they should be mindful to what they share as it can be technically reported to the authorities.

Not only that but they can encourage others to take harmful actions on minors, such as showing more contents of that nature at best and actual enabling grooming at the very wrost from third party people out of their knowledge and control.

They can also encourage minors to do these kind of actions towards other minors which is illegal.

I'm not saying Xil will do so, but it can happen! We can't just brush it off because "eh there's the 1% of it happening" as adults it's our responsibility to not let things happen especially mods and staff or to brush it under the rug.

(this is according to my current knowledge, please don't take it as legal advice or anything to attack them do not harass anyone.)

I leave these sites in case someone wants to educate themselves on the matters, please do, as these things are very serious and dangerous. Protect yourself and know your rights especially you kids! The internet in dangerous and 2024 should be the wakeup call for how many are getting exposed for these kind of things.

https://www.patitucelaw.com/blog/2024/april/furnishing-harmful-or-obscene-materials-to-minor/

https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=9.68A

More general things for minors here:

https://www.vic.gov.au/sexting

https://www.roanokecriminalattorney.com/sexting-child-pornography-laws-united-states/

---

Going to Smile Demons.

Them not wishing/wanting for the species to be turned to a 18+ species can enable and create a very concerning and unsafe environment for minors.

Popularity online it's not an excuse to enable harmful and dangerous behavior as it's not only Xil the sole member part the terra/SD species. Xil should be more then aware as a moderator or staff member in general that third party people can have and will have bad intents!

Toyhouse does have people like that, never forget the reality of the world we live in, and on the internet everyone can be a monster under the sheep's clothing.

Never, never sacrifice who's most vulnerable safety's for your personal interest.

Smile Demons are quite visibly a species aimed for 18+ audiences.

Xil not wishing or suggest such change just because of frivolous reasons are very red flaggy behaviors and Xil should be quite ashamed of themselves ngl.

I give them the benefit of the doubt because Xil is 18 and they probably don't know any better yet. But 18 it's a serious age now and people will use it to judge how they behave. But I believe they can do better as anyone can, they aren't horrible for what they believe currently, their brain is still developing.

----

My final general thoughts:

Please, please PLEASE adults.. stop sharing things with minors. They are not developed enough to handle things, please find people your age. Don't vent to minors, don't share kinks with minors, don't expose them to harmful topics.

For minors, please don't engage in harmful behavior and do not migrate in dangerous places because of pure curiosity or because you think you're mature for your age. No you're not, stay in safe circles and educate yourselves on your country laws! Not only for personal knowledge but so you know the consequences and actions you must take if something happens. Also please stop sharing things between yourselves is illegal.

Stay safe everyone and God forbid people keep your preferences to yourselves smh.

I care to repeat though, to not harass anyone, spread knowledge yes but don't aggressively go to people with it or they will never learn or accept it.

If they refuse: report, block and move on.

I'm sorry blog owner, if this was a heavy topic but I wanted to let go of this thoughts of mine from the start i got knowledge of the situation.

links provided:

https://www.patitucelaw.com/blog/2024/april/furnishing-harmful-or-obscene-materials-to-minor/

https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=9.68A

https://www.vic.gov.au/sexting

https://www.roanokecriminalattorney.com/sexting-child-pornography-laws-united-states/

this is a very good post anon, and i agree with a lot of what youve said here

this isnt saying Xil is actively a groomer or targeting minors, thats a very serious claim to make with no evidence

BUT their talking points and insistence on ride or die-ing for smile demons (like other terra mods in the species do) has the potential to be dangerous!

based off the red flags we have already seen, i think xil should be demoted or fired. its better to take preventative measures rather than retroactively scratching your head and saying "what could we have done" in the event something ever DID happen.

thank you for the links as well anon, its really important for people to know that this isnt fun and games and you should not be dancing around what is and isnt ok to have around minors.

[drbtinglecannon]

NEW OFFICIAL TRAILER FOR "FOR THE FUTURE"

(I haven't watched the leaked episode, if you did, please do not post any spoilers. You will be blocked if you do.)

King!!! King is back!!! Unfortunately it comes at the cost of him obviously being the Collector's servant basically. At least he still has François.

King also reads a book about the Collector, similar to how the end of S1 he read a book about Belos. It's an easy way to add lore to the show, and it calls back to another time he did so

Not only do we get curly redhead Lilith, but she has a pixie cut now too!!! Her glasses are gone tho :(

All of the Coven Heads (but Terra?) got turned to puppets ;___; as have most other citizens including Hooty, Principal Bump & the other Hexside teachers, and some of the other student body like the grudgby players

Also Eda does not seem to have a prosthetic like most people predicted, which makes me wonder what happened to Alador

ALSO ALSO SHORT HAIR EDA 💖

Mattholomule grew the worst facial hair lol (I am certain the 😑 expressions everyone made in that last promo image was at Mattholomule). Skara is there too!!!! And Barkus (maybe we'll get a gustholomule moment)

Eda can still lose control of the Owl Beast in Harpy mode -- and I can't blame her considering the circumstances. Her eyes turn fully black in that inky drop motion like back in s1

I wonder if her short hair affects the look

Huntlow moment 💚💛

Dana was right, sparkly is a good word to describe this episode.

I'm not sure how I feel by the idea that almost all adults got captured, it does feel specifically like The Collector (a child like God) did it on purpose, but it still is kinda :/ to know most of my fav supporting cast are puppets now to conveniently write them all out of the episode so as to keep the cast from bloating. Like I get why it was done but I'm still salty about it

The Coven Heads (again except maybe Terra?? Idk why she wasn't there? Did she pledge loyalty well enough to not need to be puppetfied? Did she escape? Die? Lol could you imagine) all have slight whimsical features added to their designs, as with everyone who got puppetfied, but for once they're all moving & working in tandem haha. Raine's close up not only killed me, but gave a good callback to when they got captured by Kikimora then "brainwashed" for weeks afterwards. The parallels of Raine pretending to be an enemy vs now they are but completely against their will. Bah. I'm dying, I'm afraid to see Eda's face in that scene. ;__; I'm really unhappy to have any Raeda fluff or bonding during this special (or suggested to have happened in between KT & FTF) robbed from us, but angst is classic Raeda vibes so I'm not surprised

I did also notice we didn't see any hints of Amity, Gus, or Willow's families at all. All we know is Eda & Lilith seem to have escaped puppetfication. I have a feeling Hooty took the puppetfication blast for Lilith in that moment

I'm stoked about Lilith having red hair again, and I was not expecting her & Eda to both cut their hair short! Everyone's getting hair style changes!

This will definitely be a Collector lore heavy episode, if only for the fact King was reading that book about them. I wonder if there used to be more children of the stars, and where the others went/are if there were

And lastly I'm at the photo cap but Belos is there too. He is using glyphs to burrow into some area, and he's killing the wildlife as he goes. Y'know, classic Belos behavior. I wonder if he's trying to get to where Caleb's mangled remains are, and if so what the plan is from there. I doubt Belos will play a large part in this episode as it seems very heavily focused on The Collector instead, which I'm fine with as I figured the final confrontation with Belos was gonna be the last special, what with him being the main villain of the show.

Despite any hangups I have I'm very excited to see the special! I know Dana & the crew worked hard on it

[salicarus]

so this is gonna be a different kind of post but it's a bit personal and i kinda just wanna get it off my chest, but i just realized i have basically forgotten about all my ocs (other than my self-sona). i've been hit with a pang of sadness realizing this because i genuinely love my ocs so much and i have no idea how i forgot about them for over a year. i think part of the reason is because i had to switch to drawing with a mouse on aseprite as opposed to drawing with a stylus on clip studio paint (for personal reasons, i don't wanna get into this), and because i'm drawing with a mouse, i feel less comfortable to draw generally. i really miss my ocs so i want to dedicate this post to talk about them a bit.

my comfort ocs: serena, sally, denise and saria are some of the first ocs i've created that i still think about and love so much, the reason they're my comfort ocs is because they're so personal to me and i love them so much i can't bear to put them in any type of story where i could see them get hurt (lol). they're just like this group of gals who love each other so much. serena and sally are dating, and so are denise and saria. they've gone through so many changes over the years and honeslty i'm happy with where serena is, but i need to redesign the rest. it's been like a year since i last drew serena, and gosh i miss her so much. i really would love to take the time to make some redesigns adjustments to them, but idk i don't feel comfortable drawing with a mouse agshdkjhegwbfh </3.

tabby: taby and feli are like anthropomorphized-ish ocs that are inspired from sonic the hedgehog. originally, tabby was inspired by a shape that i saw in a chair and i thought to myself i could make that a character. so i did agshdkjhwebifk. i always want to draw tabby lookin cool and stuff just like how i always see sonic. feli is supposed to be tabby's guardian, and is just like ten years-ish older than tabby. i wanted to make the world of tabby into a bigger thing, but i decided to work on something smaller for the time being (i won't mention it later in this post because that's also a personal thing sorry </3).

pop: originally deigned to be pop stars, these set of characters are kinda super hero-ish. bora won, mania and romeo valentine are all themed after the colors purple, orange and pink respectivley. bora won is supposed to be like a modern witch who fights kinda bayonetta style with superhuman abilities, and also does summoning and brewery. mania is crazy and all about explosives. she loves to blow things up and can pull out any kind of explosives out of thin air. her deal was supposed to be like an anti-hero, but i kinda decided she should be a hero just really unhinged. romeo valentine is probs what you expect him to be lol. he fights with his charm by flexing his muscles and releasing energy beams that way. he's also a hopeless romantic on purpose.

terra belle: my most unhinged oc who loves to murder men <3. originally she was just a cool oc that i had that loved knives, but after watching arcane, i got a surge of inspiration and fleshed her out a bit more, giving her a backstory and some ideas on how she likes to act and fight. terra is def superhuman and can bend the law of physics to her will to play with her victim. she loves getting gory and torturous with her methods.

squiggle and poof: a simple scribble designs that turned into ocs!!! they're very easy to draw and that's what i really like about them. i don't really have anything else fleshed out about them, other than they're both besties and love to hang out and think about butts.

talking about my ocs made me feel a bit better (so thank you if you read all this agshdkjlhwbeif), but also i noticed while typing all this down that i forgot so much about my ocs. it's been a really long time since i thought about them so i guess that's natural. i really hope that i get the motivation and confidence to draw them once again <3

[plotbunny-bundle]

skipped ahead in Young Justice cause I didn’t like the Episode I was on.

Things I like. The action.  Getting to hear Black Canary and Zatanna in action. I wish I had subtitles so I could read what she was doing. And Canary’s cry sound so cool and like it rings.

I liked how they characters gave up their secrets to the team. That was a good sequences. I liked that characters have lives. In Downtime we see every in their homes. Wally and Robin go to school. Artemis lives in Gotham with her mom.

What I didn’t like: For some reason every character had an assigned heterosexual romance to be in.  Why was that necessary? I don’t really like Robin and Zatanna. She’s Bruce’s age now in the comics and Dick is like 13.  She was in the Justice league when he was Robin in the 80s. But they did drop her and her dad a generation down.  Yeah I don’t like it.

This is one this Teen Titans did better. There were two couple. One worked out, one didn’t. Starfire and Robin, and Terra and Beast boy.  Whatever was with Raven and Beast Boy went over my aro ace head and that’s how I like it.

Was amused when I checked out season 2 and all the couples had broken up.

Checked out Season 2. It was off putting to me. The time skip and sudden expansion of the cast was jarring. I was very excited to see Cassie-Wonder Girl but it felt like a lot of cameos. Something that annoys me with Disney’s stuff.

I feel like you need DC knowledge to understand this show. This wasn’t the case for Teen Titans. Idk if that’s for good or bad.

The new designs for the characters are great. They show something changed and the characters are still recognizable.

I’m amused by how tall Robin/Nightwing got. That kid went from being the shortest on the team to the tallest. he grew like 2 feet in 5 years. RIP his balance. I wonder if there’s any fanart of Robin outgrowing his friends

I think it will take some work to get me into season 2. I’ll finish up 1 and hope it makes me want more.

[createandconstruct]

can i ask about amarant coral? the monk in red himself~

Can you ask about Amarant Coral? *cracks fingers* Oh I insist that you do. Welcome to my Amarant Appreciation Post:

favorite thing about them: First off best thing about Amarant? His theme. The percussion and the guitar. It’s great and it captures him so well. People out here like “take Amarant out of the game he adds nothing.” EXCUSE ME? You remove the Amarant you remove the Amarant Theme my friend and that is something I do NOT vibe with. 

least favorite thing about them: I wanna know more about him. Now Amarant doesn’t need a backstory or history in the game. In a sense, he already has one that connects him to Zidane and explains his motives and actions and eventual arc. But my issue is, Square never gave him anything else. If you look at Ultimania there’s additional lore about other characters, like Steiner for instance. You learn Steiner was a war orphan who was saved by the Pluto Knights - explaining his devotion to them. Amarant though? Square was like “uh... yeah he was born....? And then he uh got famous...? Idk then he met Zidane. You figure it out.” Square. I hate you. 18 years from his birth until he became “well known”. WHAT WAS HE DOING. WHY’D HE BECOME A SECURITY GUARD. WHAT WAS ON HIS RESUME. TELL MEEEE. Like, okay, what the actual in-game canon gives us on Amarant is sort of enough. He’s a purposely written mysterious “cool-guy” character so we’re given scraps to make him unknown but come on. In the published after-game canon, like Ultimania, we could have been given a bit more. He says he doesn’t remember anything about his origins or parents, but why. Was he another victim of Gaia’s wars? Probably. Was he born on a battlefield? Fighting for his life, living without comrades, taking scraps whenever he could? Was he betrayed when he was young? Is he a supposed to be a version of Zidane had he not been adopted into Tantalus by Baku??? These are questions I deserve answers to, Square.

favorite line: “’I can't just walk away. It goes against my nature...’ You're a real simpleton. Forget it, guys. There's no stopping this fool." I love this. Amarant figures Zidane out pretty quickly after Ipsen’s Castle. Zidane is hardheaded and also an actor. He acts cool and pretends his reasons for doing things are loose but when he’s decided something it’s always for a reason. You don’t need a reason to help people, but Zidane has his reasons for helping Kuja and while Amarant doesn’t give two shits what they are he knows Zidane won’t be stopped because, despite everything, Zidane saved a loser like him. Also this line “Tell me! Why didn't you kill me!?" Because I quote it all the time and it makes myself laugh. Amarant is such a drama queen and Zidane knows it. Zidane’s like “dude... what is your damage, it’s 5 pm on Tuesday in Madain Sari. I ain’t getting blood on my gloves cause you’re having a temper tantrum.” And then Amarant runs away to have an existential crisis. He’s 26 but compared to Zidane, he’s the real teenager with angst.  

brOTP: I could talk about Zidane or Freya with Amarant but instead I’m gonna say the underrated dynamic of Amarant and Eiko (and also Vivi).  Amarant with the kids is truly the greatest gift given by his presence in the game. Amarant has never known true suffering until he became a designated legal guardian of a group of minors. It also kills me how he’s the one to volunteer to carry Eiko and Vivi up the Iifa tree. He looks at Zidane and is like “you have seriously been the ‘adult’ of this group???”

OTP: Gotta say the Freya and Amarant dynamic. I really enjoyed their unlikely friendship in the game but then the content. The fan content. The Freya x Amarant fans out there, you win. Ya got me. You captured me and I am now imprisoned by their banter and begruntled allies to lovers story. Even if they’re not romantic I love them together and really wish the game gave us more of them. But even Lani and Amarant together are valid, though I prefer them as butting head bros. Not much content for my girl Lani out there either, she deserves more.

nOTP: Nothing I can think of. I tend to like platonic pairings for Amarant. The dude needs friends because he can barely define the word friendship.

random headcanon: Before Zidane returns at the end of the game Amarant wanders around a bit, unsure of what to do. He doesn’t feel any place with the others in Alexandria, Burmecia, or Lindblum. I imagine he goes off on his own for a bit like before but this time he’s not after Zidane or a fight. Instead he’s got no particular destination. Yet he somehow always finds himself running into people just like him - or the old him - friendless lonely people who are looking for a fight. He doesn’t go out his way to find these folks he simply runs into them and decides he might as well knock some sense into them. He does however make it his business to go after any murmur of people hatching any ideas of going after the far off little village on the Lost Continent. The home of the genomes and black mages. They were so helpless, so weak that anyone who’d want to mess with them is pathetic in Amarant’s book. Until Zidane returns, no one has the chance to even look at the Black Mage Village the wrong way because in the shadows Amarant lurks, making damn well sure of that.

unpopular opinion: I kinda love that he’s just there for most of the game? While I agree he gets the short end of the stick in the same way as Freya, not receiving additional individual character spotlight (which could have very well been supplied through discoverable lore in the world/npcs or through sidequests) I never considered his “standing off to the side” as a detriment to his character. 

Many would probably agree that Amarant always felt like a bit of a parody of the loner character, or at least the stereotype of the loner character. Amarant is so easily paralleled with Squall and Cloud’s surface-level attitudes because his dialogue always felt like something to poke fun at. As the player we’re supposed to align with Zidane’s way of thinking and how he views Amarant. When Amarant loses to Zidane and pretty much grits his teeth and goes “KILL ME,” along with Zidane we’re supposed to kinda raise our brow at him and go “...really, dude?”

 Amarant’s a character introduced as an antagonist who has more in common with the power hungry villains of the game. Like many of the characters in FFIX, Amarant is in search of purpose in life, which he has never found, because he was always looking in the wrong places - in places of violence and power. Very toxic-masculinity of him. Amarant is “cool” on an aesthetic level but in reality he’s the polar opposite of cool in terms of what FFIX states about the need for others to be intertwined in your experiences so that you can live a full life. 

I sort of love that he’s like a grumpy pitball following a 16 year old and his friends around. Then he sits in the corner when they all meet up and discuss current events acting like he doesn’t care (not to mention he casually walks as everyone is running as fast as they can to escape Terra - made me laugh cry on my first playthrough) He is “just there” but that’s because he has no where else to be, no where else to go, he’s a man without a home. And until Zidane offers his hand, at the point where Amarant is most willing to take it at Ipsen’s Castle, he’s not truly a party member. He IS an outsider for almost the entire game but at Ipsen Castle he joins the party, becomes a comrade, and decides he’ll allow himself to change paths and start a life where he has friends and lives, as well as fights for them. Which is why after that moment, Amarant finally has a victory pose.

song i associate with them: I was scratching my head for so long trying to think of a song or track that had Amarant vibes until it hit me. Outskirt Stand by Tsukasa Tawada (from Pokemon Colosseum). Amarant is so chill, he’s not a bombastic guy, so he needs a theme that drops me in the rocky open desert of the Lost Continent like I’m just lumbering around looking for a monkey-tailed menace. Some other Amarant tunes:  Pyrite Town, The Under, Snagem Hideout tracks from Pokemon Colosseum. This post is just an elaborate call to action for everyone to listen to the Pokemon Colosseum soundtrack. Tsukasa Tawada is so great and he has a YouTube. Check him out.

favorite picture of them:

Yoshitaka Amano’s Salamander Coral. I love him. He had too much power. 

Also everything drawn by @crispy-ghee. Everything. I will think of this Comic forever until I die. Tattoo it on my flesh. The banter, the dynamics, the post-game content, the Zidane prince-consort outfit, the new Amarant outfit, the stuck-in-the-same-place relationship him and Freya have. Perfect. Go read it and consume Crisipy’s stuff. And also check them and their current art out, they just consistently get better and better. Here’s a first panel preview of my fav comic. Read it.

 @hannahlady​‘s Amarant art and their Freya/Amarant art is just ugh. *Chef’s Kiss* Here is another preview because you should go look at it.

Here’s a piece that deserves so much more love by @snackage. I LOVE how they drew Amarant. Here’s a little preview. It’s SO GOOD

Anyway TL;DR: Amarant is love and life and you’ll have to pull him from my little gremlin hands.

[all-the-heart-you-cannot-see]

Just me, reviewing yet another teen drama, Fate: the winx saga edition.

The highlights of the season for me were Musa and Riven, Flora finally making an appearence and the friendship between Stella a Beatrix.

Now onto the plot, i think it was a solid idea, it carried on from season one with the Aster Dell thing and i can kinda see the point of Sebastian, he's just too much of a caricature evil to inspire anything else. I did thought it was weird at the end the rest of the blood witches just....left, like, what the fuck lol, felt like a lazy way to tie up loose ends, like yeah their leader is gone but surely those people still want their loved oned back. Also i have beef with however is tasked with designing their transformations, theres no outfit change, the wings look werid once the montage is over and i hate that its probably because they want to give it "realism" ITS A SHOW ABOUT MAGICAL FARIES RICHARD, GIVE THEM SPARKLY OUTFITS.

Into the characters!

Bloom is not my favorite, she's okay, not bad for a main character, just a bit repetitive. It did bother me at the end when she told sky he was the most important person in her life when i think through out the season she had more meaningul scenes with her friends than with him. And their relationship is kind of not it, they have awful comunkcation and when she confromts him about it he says he doesnt tell her about his problems because she is the answer which, ok cute honey but you need comunication for a relationship to work. Idk, they are very vanilla but, they could be written better.

Sky's struggles made for an interesting arc this season, he went through some pretty fucked up shit and it sucks that the season ended for him with his girlfriend basically unaliving herself as far as he is concerned. One thing i like about this show is that no character has as a motivation only his love interest which is why i appreciate they gave Sky something to do this season besides Bloom. Im interested to see how he handles his loss next season.

I cannot stress enough how much i liked Musa this season, i love how they handle her relationship with her powers and she and Riven finally interacting made my freaking week. I hope they let her keep training to be an Specialist next season and i hope somebody gets the idea of giving a combat magic class, its kind of ridiculous a room full of fairies with different types of magic couldnt come up with a plan to try an scape and instead waited patiently to be rescued while being drained one by one.

Riven, Riven, Riven. His fallout with Beatrix and Dane was kind of inevitable, i do love myself some badass female grey character but relationships without affective responsability are doomed from the begining, it was definitely something while it lasted. I like the little moments when you realize he isnt a complete asshole, like when he brought each girl a drink that suited their taste or when he explained to Musa that it wasnt that he didnt want to train her because she was a woman, but because they were on the brink of war and it was dangerous for her. He cares, and i care about him, i just want him a Musa to be a happy couple.

Terra's personality annoys me so much lol, i know a girl just like her in really life and it annoys the shit out of me when i know something is right and she comes acting like she knows best and everybody elses work is mediocre, this is unrelated to the writing of her character really, is just an unfortunate coincidence. Her coming out arc was nice and her scenes with the specialist were kind of sweet but i dont think they have chemestry with each other. There's not much more to say about her, she isnt my favorite character and i doubt she'll grow on me but thats nobody's fault.

AISHAAAAAA, i like her a lot, i think they could've given her more scenes with Grey. Like at the end she tells him he lied to her for months and....i dont think we even got a scene of them just...hanging out besides the one where they kissed, i would've loved to see more of their relationship on screen and i would like for them to explore what he told her the day they left the pub about her not having to carry the weight of her friends, she is the smartest but she should allow herself to be a teen (this goes for every one of those poor girls, if Sebastian had any good point, it was the fact that they should be enjoying their lives as teenagers).

Stella, i know we all miss the og cartoon Stella, but if they were going to change her character i dont think this is that bad of a change. I mean the image of her back covered in blood because she was trying to get rid of the gem was heartbreaking and she has had good progress with letting people in and forming genuine bonds with the girls, i enjoyed her friendship with Beatrix, hope they bring her back.

Flora is a 10/10 would recomend, badass bitch all the way, i dont think the show gave her all the praise that she needed, she literally took on dozens of magic sucking thingies to save everybody without a second thought, Bloom was ready to risk it all for 17 y/o boy next door but Flora was out here bringing the brains AND the muscle, they need to thank her appropietly. I also like that she is between nerdy and an extrovert, i feel like we only get those types of characters as a popular girl is secretly smart, Flora is just smart and outgoing and confident and its refreshing.

I support womens rights, but most importantly, i support Beatrix's wrongs. She was raised by Rosalind and Andreas and their dubious morals, she lost her father, her emotional suport boytoys and got pushed aside by the woman she thought would helo her discover more things about herself, i cant imagine feeling that alone and i 100% understand her actions. Hope they bring her back next season.

Thats all, ill watch next season, its a shame we were depruved of sparkly fairy outfits, but i doubt that'll change.

[fitztragedy]

Things I Want Changed in Fate S02

Better Costumes

Like, seriously, wth happened there? They were dressed awfully, and that's not news. The costumes were like straight out of a 90's teens movies, it was so obvious there was an adult trying do find out what teens used and maybe saw that 90s fashion was trending and thought that was the hype. Costume designer Catherine Adair has been a costume designer in 29 projects, none of them was a teen TV show (except her most recent project, after Fate, which is a disney kids mystery series) and 16 of wich were in the 90s. She has dressed TV shows before Fate but things like Desperate Housewives and The Man in the High Castle- Definitely not even close to the vibe Fate has. Hopefully she'll either do more research or they'll hire another costume designer since she's aparently working on this new Disney series. IMDb says we have a new Art Director in S02 (Justin Warburton-Brown, who apparently done The Witcher S02!!) so my hopes are very high!

New locations and sets!

I loved Alfea and the Winx Suite but I feel like we need more sets. That's not the fault of the art direction or set decoration (which were done by Karl Clifford -who isn't credited for anything but Fate- and Jil Turner who has a very good resume, having worked on Vikings and a lot of other fantasy movies and tv shows), I feel like they did a pretty good job with what they were given. Having the entire season be basically that got very repetitive and because of the number of views I'm hoping they have a bigger budged in S02 to be able to have different sets. I wanna see Magix! The cartoon did a wonderful job with the city near Alrea, it was super cool to see the futuristic town in a fairy show, which was a contrast to what me, as a kid, imagines what a magical town would look like. I don't think they'll to this for Fate but it'd be cool to see like magic being used in day to day lives. Also if Alfea is in the middle of nowhere where do the girls get like stuff? Where do they buy tampons if they need it? I MUST know!! Also it'd be pretty cool to see Solaria sometime. IMDb also told me we got a new set decorator in S02 and he's been the set decorator of Shadow and Bone (Kevin Downey) so I'M EXCITED.

More plot and Backstory for the characters

Let's skip Bloom and Sky because I think @lilshitwayne would do a better job talking about them and then focus on the others.

Aisha

WHERE IS AISHA'S PLOT??? They done my girl wrong, so wrong. Seriously, what is her backstory? What are her goals and dreams? What are her insecurities and challenges? What is her personal arc? What is her role in the series arc? I wish I could answer all these questions but I just can't. I saw @lilshitwayne and @rivusa dms about her yesterday and I want to give them the floor to talk about it so I'm not gonna say what they said, but I do want more from Aisha's character next season and I want her role to not be as suporting as she was in S01. I do think that the fact that she's a poc character had to do with her lack of development and I will HATE it if they make her also LGBTQ+ and continue with Netflix's trend of shoving all the minorities into one character. Hopefully because of the backlash they'll listen. Precious is a beautiful and great actress and she deservers better.

Musa

Musa had a pretty big part in S02 I'd say. She was basically the second most important character after Bloom, BUT she did not have a plot, let's be real. Her whole arch was basically "I hate my powers, they are useless and just make me suffer and I try to ignore them" and then she met Sam and was like "Oh he basically feels nothing so it's nice to spend time with him" and then she found out Sam was Terra's brother and wanted to keep their relationship a secret, then she told Terra and there was like too much drama for a non-dramatic revelation. Then she had to face her powers when Sam was dying but then he lived so she went back to being the same as she was but with a boring boyfriend now (I know people like Sam and that's okay because people have different tastes but I just don't see the appeal, okay? he's boring in my opinion). So like her whole development and plot was based around a guy. No internet struggle solved, no character development. Yes Musa is my favorite character but I still don't like her "plot".

Stella and Terra

idk what I'd say about them. I think one of the other girls in the fate fandom might have takes and stuff. Terra had the self-steem and body issues that basically went no where and Stella has mommy issues and issues in general that are probably gonna get more developed already so I'm not too worries about them.

I know people didn't like that they made Stella have a very different personality than the cartoons and (hot take) I kinda like it. Don't @ me. Stella was hella annoying in the cartoons and I like this very messed up Stella we got, yes she's a bitch but she's got layers and I can't wait to see them Explored.

Terra was not a cartoon character and I have no fucking idea why they didn't just put Flora. Flora in the cartoon had also a very different personality so maybe they thought she didn't fit, but then why not keep her and just change the personality like they did with Stella? Also if they had made Terra latina it wouldn't have changed anything in Terra's plot. Idk what happened behind the scenes but that's what we got. I do want Flora to appear and be this cute cinnamon roll but also badass (and latina) so *fingers crossed*

Riven

ah, Riven... He has so much potential and I can't wait to see his character development throughout the series. I can see a lot of troubles at home and internalized homophobia and fuck he's just so god damn Bi. Hopefully that little interaction with Dane about just liking whoever depending on the gender will make Riven be okay with his sexuality and I really like this plot okay?

Also, yes, as a Rivusa shipper I want that to happen and I've already done two huge post about Riven and Rivusa in Fate so if u wanna read more go and do it (here and here).

The rest idgaf about them (I do but i'm too lazy to type)

Future characters

I wanna see Brandon. They call even make Stella bi and change Brandon to like Brenda or something, I've done that in fics and I think that'd be interesting.

Flora, of course, as said above.

Helia if they bring Flora along. They should pair him with Terra, he's Flora's.

I don't wanna see Tecna and Timmy tbh, might be a controversial opinion but I didn't really care for them in the OG and with all the normal technology in Fate I don't really see a reason for them. Unless they change Tecna's powers like they did with Musa, but we don't need another white basic bitch character.

I think that's it!

If yall want to answer and discuss Fate feel free to reblog! I'd love to talk about how we could improve the show!

[frenchfriesoverguys]

‘fate: the winx saga’ review

im very late to this trend but i finally watched this show all the way through.

if you watch the first episode alone, you probably hated this series, as you should. the first episode’s dialogue is awkward and stiff. the fatphobia was heavily present. and the outfits sucked. so did i hate the series? not even a little bit. 

first, and most importantly, lets talk about terra. i saw the most talk around her character and the fatphobia the show exuded. having watched all of it, i can safely say that terra was being bullied. not by her friends, or at least not her real ones, but the classic mean popular clique. any issues she faced with this bullying, her friends stuck up for her but didn’t get involved. they knew she could handle it and she did. she was shown sticking up for herself repeatedly. her friends have issues with her at first and i’ve seen a lot of people pointing that out as fatphobia. it’s really not as their annoyance of her was from her oversharing and inability to stop talking (relatable). saying that the girls disliked her because she’s fat is reducing her character to her dress size, something only the audience is seeming to do. she is a fully developed character and so lovable by the end of the first season. but i would love to get into her love life a little more or more into her powers as she is the only one who doesn’t struggle with her powers.

musa’s character is well written and fun. her mind powers are interesting and i loved seeing them develop as she learns control. the issues with musa in this series comes from the casting. the actress, elisha applebaum, is white passing but is half-Singaporean. the cartoon design from the original was fully asian. applebaum plays the character so well and is an amazing actress but many say that casting a white passing asian woman to play a fully asian character takes away from the diversity the original show had. as a white self-claimed film critic, i don’t think it’s appropriate for me to have an opinion. i did however want to bring it up as it’s being discussed in the criticism of the show. 

**** this is an edit: it’s been brought to my attention that the actress who plays Musa is fully white and that singapore is not an ethnicity. i saw a few articles say that she was half singaporean and didn’t question it (definitely should have researched that) now that i know she is fully white and not mixed, i do have an opinion. what the fuck. the actual fuck. that is so messed up. why would they take a show that was full of diversity in 2005 and make it whiter in 2021??? when i thought she was mixed i didn’t want to say anything bc mixed poc constantly get torn between the 1 drop rule where if they have any poc ancestor then they are poc or a minimum percentage of that ethnicity to be considered a “real” poc even if they grew up in that culture. i didn’t want to tell a half asian girl that she wasn’t asian enough but knowing she’s fully white? yeah that changes a lot of things. in doing more research, she is of middle eastern descent (as am i, still very much white) and if she was cast as stella or even bloom who were classically western europe in the original design, i would be so happy to see extra representation. but not when she took away a part from an asian actress - ESPECIALLY in a time when asian hate crimes are escalating. i don’t care if she’s a great actress and person…..recast her.

idk how many people watched the cartoons but i always hated sky and riven. sky was a much better character in this series. he still struggles with treating the fairies as damsels in distress, which bloom calls him out on. he has more depth and seems like genuinely good guy. riven was....lashing out alot. i liked him in the series because he does acknowledge his fatphobic remarks and ends up admitting to terra that she was a badass while he was struggling with fighting. he begins to work out some of his issues and i loved the dynamic that he has with sky where they get emotional with each other, both more than willing to point out the toxic traits the other has. i look forward to more riven character development. while i like sam, there was way more chemistry in one scene with musa and him. im hoping they keep the enemies to lovers idea that the cartoon had. 

NOW i need to talk about what i thought could improved. the wings. i loved them, like a lot, but i want at least one more of the girls to get them next season, if not all. it was a fun reveal but wings were such a staple fairy ability in the cartoon that i was nervous they wrote it out. they have the perfect opportunity to fix the outfits with the transformation scene. as we know in the cartoons they girls get new outfits when they transform. they’re fighting outfits could be so fun or maybe as they develop as fairies they develop different wardrobes. the outfits weren’t awful and at 16, most girls aren’t wearing skimpy bright colored clothing 24/7 while training. they don’t have to be the same as the cartoons but i would love to see terra in vintage 70′s clothing that works with her curves, stella in at least one glittery outfit, musa in a more pastel grunge look, aisha in matching sweats or some sort of updated street-style look, and bloom is actually fine but maybe  more flirty dresses with leather jackets and sneakers, mixing the tough and flirty look more consistently.

also, if you’re new to the fandom, you might not know things like what sky and riven can do, specifically who the specialists are and how they contribute to the fairy world. they struggled slightly with world building as i believe they expected most, if not all, people watching to have an idea of the world already. the show could have done a better job setting up these concepts.

i truly recommend watching the show before you write it off completely.

[hoefette]

All the petty things I hate about fate!winx and their shitty universe/world building because

I'd added most if these in tags of other posts but I'm still so mad lmao

The way characters, Aisha and Mrs Dowling specifically make references to explicitly human or American things like instagram and Harry Potter

These people are from a different dimension for ffs why are they concerned with or are even aware of this very earth-specific shit? Do they teach earth classes at school over there?

I understand not wanting to have them be oblivious so Bloom wouldn't have to explain it to them, but it simply could be ✨omitted✨

Why would you go out of your way to date your work like this lmao ew

Ms. Dowling calling Tinkerbell an air fairy.. I cannot breeve with the stupidity why did they keep that in there

Why is Ms. Dowling.. the headmistress.. teaching classes? Where are the other teachers?

We ended up with a trio of antagonists (I guess you could call them that?) by the end of the season anyway so why not give us the trix, why have the characters play double roles as friends of our protagonists and also the villains/bullies? They clearly wanted a delinquent trio, in which case they could've gender bent the trix if they wanted to keep all the unnecessary sexual tension.

It just feels like the production team was lazy, they didn't want to hire more actors, they didn't want to bother with making the world immersive or lived in or believable at best, they just didn't give enough of a fuck

They wanted to make this show and attatch Winx to it for.. what? Like did you even google the main plot points? The abridged version or sparknotes to get details on the very literal, basic characteristics of our main characters or their roles or the world they inhabit????

It lacks wonder and intrigue.. I mean Bloom moves to another dimension, a school for fairies and we don't see her marvel once at anything.. and that's because she might as well have been in Switzerland because she's in exactly the same environment she would've been in over there anyway.

They could've said Alfea was in Europe and I'd believe it because nothing about the setting makes it feel otherworldly. I'm sorry but I'm not impressed.

Why do the teachers and graduated specialists communicate via facetime ?? In the magic dimension. ??? Why do they text each other and those texts then appear on screen like .. oh look, like a bad netflix teen movie ????? HELLO ??? it's the way technology and magic could've blended in so seamless into the world THE WAY IT WAS ALREADY DONE/SHOWN. Missed opportunity. it just takes you out of it imo every time you see the ugly, bland, gray text bar. Some fucking flavour pls I'm begging

How stupid the specialist must feel clonking around with the skinniest shreds of armor, plastic swords on their backs and battery powered flashlights and cellphones in their bags. R we larping?? I know I'd be laughing and asking why we hadn't already come up with something more effective .. idk like guns. I'm surprised I ain't see one gun in there.

In the beginning Ms. Dowling says some nonsense about fairies having lost the ability to transform to explain why there are no wings, which means they could've transformed before. So are we to assume that this supposed to be set in the time proceeding the original then?? Because something is not adding up with where they should be as a magical society technologically if that's the case

How does the production team want to keep the dark academia vibes with torches lining the walls and also want them to be face timing each other, presumably from miles and miles away in the dark forest???

Pls pick an aesthetic and stick to it everything was so unnecessarily dark. Where do they charge their phones since it's the only device we see that is the slightest bit modern and dont fucking tell me they charge it with magic I will punch you in the face

Why is there only one major monarchy that we are shown? Why are Solaria the only ones contributing to the efforts to defend the school and where is this mysterious battalion we never see lmaoo it's all so bad its laughable.

Is this set in the kingdom of Solaria? And why does the queen of an alleged interdimensional superpower monarchy pull up in black SUVs??????????? Why does she pull up with Andreas?? Is he not the king of Erakleon?? Where are his soldiers and his battalion and just?? Huh!? The world just feels empty like nobody lives here fr

Are we supposed to believe that the specialists get paired up with fairies just as a normal occurence and that they have to 'trust each other' and not because the plot demands it suddenly half way through when all we've seen so far are the fairies doing normalish school and homework, and the specialists outside, being physical everyday all day. This was never even implied that they'd have to work together apart from when we see the faculty as youngins with Rosalind. But even then.. it's like well why are they even together lmao? Is this a special team formed from Rosalind’s protégées? Were they formed after graduating from Alfea or what is this?? Are they the ONLY team of specialist/fairies hunting every single burned one?? What?

Are we now supposed to buy that Musa is being switched to 'support' because that's where her strengths lie and not in combat?? Are we supposed to believe that these girls know hand to hand combat?? When was this established? We see Terra wrapping some baby vines around a dude and I'm sorry is that the practical application of her power? Is this what the fairies are supposed to do once they graduate? Or is it just a switch in curriculum because of the threats outside the barrier?? This is never made clear.

Because if not then what's the point of this?? Why do they suddenly have endless classes together when the expectation was never set for the fairies to be like soldiers or out in the field fighting ?

Where exactly are they supposed to be what was the purpose of including Aster Dell and why is it a joy ride away from Alfea lmao?? Where Bloom is from and also not from?? Plot pls make it make sense

Why are fairies from another dimension vaping or smoking weed?? They are not human so why are they engaging in specifically human vices, yol couldn't come up with anything else to characterize 'delinquents'?? Very lazy very como se dices.. no effort. Nothing a little more spicy yol could invent, at least change the name and some properties holy shit did yol even try ??

So its fairies everywhere, having a lil party in the east wing of a phat castle.. and they are playing beer pong and dressed in t shirts and jeans..

Can you hear me screaming? Can you hear me vibrating with rage?

Not one floating decoration or magical anything in sight. Just purple lights and subpar vibes

Stella's costume design: tragic. I won't discuss further because we don't have the space or time but just know that it was absolutely atrocious and I hated it. Giving very debutante vibes

The entire budget going to that lame transformation sequence that was not a transformation sequence and those horrible, barely-there fire wings

Edgelord bloom and all her fucking leather jackets. Why do 30 yo, white cis men think girls exist in a binary? They could keep her earlier characterization and make her a hothead.. Bloom literally screamed herself into a couple power upgrades in the original come ooonnnn

Let girls be feminine without it being a character flaw what is wrong with yol its 2021. They could make her more mature, more angsty or whatever the hell else and not style her like that

The way Aisha's abilities flipflop between episodes and scenes. Very inconsistent. One minute she's struggling with a drop of water and the next she is moving an entire body of water for her bestie Bloom to fake transform because the plot demands it. Why even add in her struggles at all if you're just going to ignore it?

Why was Stella with them in that scene? She didn't do anything literally.. Aisha pulled the water and she did .. nothing.

Who the fuck is Rosalind? Why would they add her in,, to add nothing to story? The company of light was a thing, they could've plucked one of them hoes to be the antagonist. Why did the winx club need their own Delores Umbridge? Valtor was right there if you wanted an evil educator type character.

The camera work was so bland during the down beats, stagnant and fixed during a fairy party and erratic and ugly and disorienting during the fight scenes

I'm not getting over the fairy party because it was a good opportunity for the production and everyone else to show the differences between where Bloom was and where she is now but instead it just looks like a regular teen high school party?? This could have been set in Switzerland fr.

Everyone's just kind of standing?? You mean to tell me these people are from all different places in the magical dimension and their customs are all the same? They all throw parties like this ??

White and flavorless I am very bored

I guess the main question or takeaway I have is just.. who is this for? Because everyone, including the showrunners keep saying that it's for us, the fans of the original. But apart from the characters sharing some names, there are really no other similarities. So again, who was this supposed to appease or placate or satisfy? Because it sure as hell wasn't the winx club fans.

Overall, this feels very much like something I wrote and probably published on ff.net when I was 13 because I thought girls couldn't be taken seriously if they liked pink, and injected angst into everything that didn't need it and had no idea how to structure scenes or dialogue. It's just bad, objectively and N*tflix will keep making shit like this because apparently some people have bad taste??? Idk yol, be easy

[spicyicymeloncat]

My thoughts on the Netflix winx (am I late to the complain train?) part 3

In my humble opinion. Ick.

Now I’m gonna talk about the general appearance of the show, from cinematic shots, aesthetic choices and yes… the fashion.

Now it’s important to keep in mind that this is Netflix, this is probably low budget and I’m assuming they just wanted to churn out another riverdale clone, so perhaps my criticism might be too harsh, and they’re limited by money and time. But I’m gonna share some thoughts and suggestions anyways because yes. Also side note: again like the last post, bad design choices isn’t problematic, it’s a matter of taste, and this is post is definitely more of my opinion than anything. As well as this, I’m not claiming to be a professional designer of any sorts, again these are just my thoughts.

With out further ado, here’s my thoughts

Okay tbh I would’ve been fine with an edgy winx remake. I’d prefer if we went in a direction that was very light and fun and campy, so that when we do have zombies biting the faces off of people, we feel something. But we didn’t go down that route, we tried to do dark academia. Which yknow it could work. It didn’t though, in my opinion. There was just not a lot of particularly memorable scenes that screamed gothic to me. They kinda just put them in a kinda old building, and then desaturated every colour ever. I mean there are some scenes where the lighting is okay, but it really doesn’t feel like we’re in a magic school. I’m gonna make another post talking about what I’d propose for potential reworking of the show, and I’m thinking just a lot more focus on aesthetics.

Very much linked to the last point but magic where?? Please like you could make such a pretty and unique image of the show. Like I’m thinking a gothic school green house where all the structures are some muted beige and black colour scheme and the greenery is kinda dark BUT the roses are unnaturally bright and vivid, because they are magic, and it makes them pop. What about when Stella’s mum, the QUEEN OF LIGHT enters the school talk and she’s decked in fancy golden jewellery and light magic bounces around her and she floats down from the air like the setting sun and the windows. Like I could probably list all the times we see magic and they’re just really generic. Idk bloom sets her hands on fire and a bunch of people change their eye colour. I wish we saw the queen use Stella’s rainbow magic on a larger scale just to flex. Ig the magic finger print dust was ok. If you talk to me about bloom’s fairy transformation though, I will simply die because it looked so weird. Like they don’t do magic they just do fire fx, and the purple lighting was also weird. Idk am I too critical?

Also gonna talk about the music, idk I think it was probably alright (not my taste, but all power to the song writers and artists) and they’re their own songs but what was weird to me was the lyrics to some songs and why they were picked. Kids in the corner is pretty boppy but in the context of the show with lines like “lady of the flies” it just sounds like pandering to an edgy gen z audience with what the writers thought was woke. “We’re a product of a system” feels way too on the nose especially as this is how we’re introduced to Bloom. Also I didn’t really understand why Adeline played at the end. Maybe it’s supposed to add a nonsensical vibe to the end of ep 1 but this is like the music that Musa’s listening to. And so I expected it to tell us and Terra something about her character. Maybe there was meaning to it and I’m dumb but I don’t get it.

Just saying, winx was a show that combined fairies and sci fi technology and it was really unique and creative and a break away from the traditionally medieval setting we see a lot of magic fantasy or even girls shows take place. And sci fi was also just a key element in the show. It’s as if they removed one of the main characters from the cast. Oh wait… But yeah, fate the winx would’ve been cooler and more iconic if we got our sci fi fairies back, thanks

Is it time to talk outfits? Yes? Okay first of all, can we stop putting bloom in red. We’ve got too many red fire characters. FIRE ISNT EVEN RED! It’s more orange! Or yellow? Also winx fate could’ve been the show to tell it’s story through its clothes, like if Bloom wore a lot of blues in order to blend in and not stand out, if Stella dressed really modern and not like she was dressed by her nan, because she’s expected to keep up with the times etc. Also Terra deserved colour. Just saying, she’s dress loud and floral print because she’s quirky and has her own sense in style. Not liking her grey dress thing in the promo images. I don’t think someone with her personality would own dark clothes. Also this kinda feels like the costume designers just didn’t want to put plus sized people in pretty clothes. Idk. Someone’s gonna say that her wearing the most bland clothes represents how she feels as an underdog but Terra has never muted her personality, like we’re introduced to her by her being too much, and her being ferocious enough to strangle someone on the first ep. Like she’s outcasted and lonely but for gods sake she is not muted and bland now give her floral print. Musa, idk I find her promo outfit really clashy, and she doesn’t really have like a memorable style, but there isn’t like any glaring issues. I don’t really like her hair, idk why, because she’s a great actress (other than the fact that she’s not Chinese, when Musa is supposed to be), I think I’m just missing the bangs. I don’t think the twin buns work without bangs. Anyways idk why they gave Aisha a rain coat. If she can control water can’t she just bend rain away from her? It’s just very on the nose and it doesn’t match her skirt. She has a cute turtle neck at some point, but it clashes with this kinda ugly red jacket she also wears. Also the blue braids are a nice effort but like again it’s really on the nose and they really said #0000FF. I like her hair tho. Either way the outfits are either bad or underwhelming at best and like the outfits is what made winx. Also the original winx outfits were inspired by y2k fashion which became trendy at the same time fate was released and if you remake winx and do not dress them well especially when they’re original outfits are back in season, then you did it wrong. But I understand that crop tops and miniskirts probably don’t match the vibes of this show but neither did bright blue raincoats combined with long skirts and yet here we are.

Okay that’s kinda it, but I’m making a post with suggestions and redesigns on what I think would’ve been cool, but that’s later, and I’m gonna draw for that so yes. Again these were my hot takes. Every post I make I remember something I should’ve said in the last one, like how removing Tecna kind looks like removing women from stem (a thought I stole from my classmates lol). Anyways good bye

Part 1 - social issues

Part 2 - Writing

Part 4a - rewrite idea

Part 4b - rewrites continued

[dystopiandilfs]

My ideas to "fix" issues with MCC. This isn't a criticism of MCC or Noxcrew but rather ideas of how I'd try to "fix" and "improve" games if I was a developer and coder.

Changing the word puzzle in Sands of Time to be randomised so people don't have an advantage. Basically the first person to complete it will have a disadvantage compared to everyone else who just has their chat telling them the answers so making it random will prevent that. Obviously larger viewer counts can be considered an advantage but you can't make things perfect and smaller viewer people have way less pressure so it kind of events out.

Having Ace Race be less reliant on Tridents. In my opinion Ace Race's issues all are because of Tridents. I don't want them to be completely removed because then it's pretty much foot race again but it shouldn't be heavily Trident required. I enjoy the big wall with 5 tunnels and the water wall but the small tunnels just cause too much collision. The issue was that Tridents and player collision ruined most people but it's hard to fix as it's a vanilla issue so I'd personally add more checkpoints so the punishment for colliding isn't as bad.

Similar to Ace Race the Trident level in TGTTOSAWAF is too small and doesn't have enough space for people to spread out. Like most players spend half of the round smacking into eachother because there's not enough room. Personally I'd make the first bit 3 long river trident jumps instead of the cloud hopping so people have room.

Another TGTTOSAWAF is the Rocket boost target map. Personally I don't think the timer is long enough so I'd add 15 seconds. Like half of the people don't finish which doesn't make sense because almost every other level is done by almost everyone.

My final TGTTOSAWAF thing is that I think Terra Swoop Force should have a checkpoint in the middle or a longer time extension. Obviously the collision is a vanilla issue so it's hard to fix however a lot of people always crash right near the end and have no chance of making it again. Basically you have 1 chance at the level if you die over half way through.

I said this before about Parkour Warrior but instead of changing the start of the map and fucking it up for everyone but Dream they should have tried a alternative route. So after the fish bones the first 10 people to pass it have to go into a harder section which is the next two level but longer and slightly harder to give people the opportunity to catch up then they get put back on the normal path after the harder section. I just thought it was a good idea to try.

For Build Mart I'd add the option of switching a build out for another one. So say someone is struggling with a build they can essentially pass it and have it re rotate around later to another team member. So say there's a build that has something you don't know how to craft on it you have the option to switch out the build to a completely new one so you don't waste time trying to figure it out. Idk I just thought it'd add a fun alternative option.

Also for buildmart I don't know if they've done it (I struggled with the new buildmart sensory wise so I haven't watched it since I saw it on stream during MCC 14) I thought they could have builds that are harder but are worth way more points so even if you don't complete it you can still get a load of points for half completion.

I think they need to remove bows from Battle Box or lower the arrow amount because personally it still seems like it becomes who is better at using a bow. I like the Depth strider boots I think that for the lava map they could switch it out for a small fire resistant potion.

For Bingo I thought they could add random chest scattered around or do a few loot chest drops that contain materials needed to complete the map like diamonds, string or leather. Like you could search for the chests or you could craft a compass and it'd point to the nearest chest and once you used it you have to craft another one for another chest. Like not a super good chest but like a chest could have 2 diamonds or 4 string or 5 gold or a bow etc like small helpful items but not necessary.

I still think the Parkour Tag point system needs to be changed even more. Like you should be getting more points if you hunt, kill all 3 and do it first rather than surviving 60 seconds. I saw some people saying you should get 1 point every second you survive and a bonus 15 if it's for the whole 60 seconds so 75 for survival and you get 25 for every person you tag and a bonus 10 for tagging all 3 and a bonus 25 if you're the first to tag all 3 meaning you get 100 for tagging all 3 and being the fastest or 80 for tagging all 3. Which I think gives more people the urge to hunt and try to get at least 1 person and get 25 if they think they can't survive 25 seconds to get the same amount. Also I saw people saying that the Parkour Tag points got combined like Sands of Time and if that's the case I'd change that instantly I hate that. I like it for Sands as it's very team oriented but Parkour Tag to me doesn't require teamwork to win like it helps but not like Sands teamwork does.

Speaking of Sands of Time another thing I would change is the timer increase. Only by 30 seconds but it seems like most people won't travel very far in fear of running out of sand and losing which just means that most people don't explore the map that much like the sand person is too scared to go underneath and everyone else is too scared to adventure too far.

Actually another idea I had for sands of time was instead of it being one sand deposit there's multiple inside like vaults and near the vault keys so people are more likely to explore because if they get a vault they can deposit 2 sand and add some time to run back. I'd also change it so the exp number was how much time was left so the "sand person" can go explore the underneath without worrying about fucking over their team. I would try to make it specific to the sand person by doing a role assignment but I think that might be too complicated. But like the designated sand person can move away from the timer but know how much is left by looking at their hotbar but it's still difficult because they're the one who has to keep an eye of time.

[ijoinedtoomanyfandomsilosttrack]

i have decided to live blog my reactions to the new netflix winx saga bc i heard it's apparently bad?? currently all i know abt it was they replaced techna and flora and also theres white-washing and fatphobia?? idk anyway i'm starting with ep 1

thoughts:

its definitely not 'colorful magical girls' like the original cartoon was

"feckin' sheep"

OH ITS DEFINITELY NOT COLORFUL MAGICAL GIRLS WHAT THE HELL THAT WAS A FULL ON SHEEP (?) CORPSE YOOOO I WAS NOT EXPECTING THAT???? MAN IM NOT SCARED OF GORE BUT THAT CAUGHT ME OFF GUARD

big scary beast pog?

yeah,,, theres gore in there. rip farmer/shepherd dude

okay i have to give them credit for that pretty dope intro. its not the winx club theme but hey i kinda like it

ooooh this music is dope. time to add it to my spotify playlist

hmmm im assuming redhead girl is bloom?

girl with the plants is definitely flora (or whoever she is now)

blonde is deffo stella or smthin

girl with the headphones is musa i think

who's the dude?? i dont remember the names of the dudes in the original winx

Are they still using Bloom's backstory as like the princess (?) of a kingdom??

wAIT DO THEY STILL HAVE THEIR PETS?? LIKE BLOOM'S BUNNY??

"Wow. You are so lost. I'm impressed by your confidence in the face of complete ignorance. Issue is, you're overcommitted. I mean, you're essentially running." Did I somehow miss some backstory?? What is up with this dude what is going on??

man i dont like the blond dude?? what is going on?? i am confused??

i don't remember bloom's whole backstory but i think the show's still using it??

dude did a full 180

"Sorry, I'd be happy to--" "Mansplain it?" i would've loved this line more if bloom was a bit more petty than smiley

NEVERMIND SHE IS A LITTLE BIT PETTY HDJWKKEJG (edit: nope she's tryna flirt)

oh they have british accents but bloom is american

"Oh how very american of you." HSJDJKFKG

MAGIC RING WITH A PRETTY DESIGN POG

HAJDJFKKEKWJE OKAY SO FAR I REALLY LIKE STELLA???

transformation magic has been lost as they evolved?? thats definitely not foreshadowing for the winx's abilities /s

Hhhhh bloom probably committed arson /hj

Yeah she definitely committed arson (albeit accidentally)

can we get more characters in here? like ik bloom's the protag but please i need more characters

oop all the girls are dorm mates

"Lady of the Flies, don't be sexist" IK THIS WAS A JOKE BUT WHAT THE

OHHHHHHH AISHA POG!! Yeah yeah i remember her, her name back in the cartoon seemed to alternate(?) from Aisha and Layla!! She had the bubble powers!!

BLOOM'S A RAVENCLAW/SLYTHERIN POG

ah yes the classic magic is linked to emotion trope i love that!!

Oh flora's name is terra now okay. Not quite a fan of the name change, but hey

OH HER COUSIN'S NAME IS FLORA JGJFKKGKH

she's so chatty bc of nerves and yeah,, i can relate

headphone girl's eyes turned pinkish purple what?? she used magic??

Terra is me when talking to people

man headphone girl wasn't even talking to me and I got hit with that rsd

Okay i got the confirmation that headphone girl's name is musa alrighty

specialists?? what are those??

i dont like how this riv guy acts

i dont like how all of the guys act so far

yeah no i dislike most of the men who have had lines in the past 12 minutes

OHHHH BLOND DUDE'S NAME IS SKY

wait isn't he supposed to have long hair??

The teacher man is kinda scary

Oh so specialties are like soldiers or smthn

burned ones?? oh??

riv literally left the barrier to smoke?? bruh

the burned ones sounds so scary but man are the hollows from miss peregrines home for peculiar children are scarier

RIP riv this mf is gonna die

eeeeehh gross gore

mmmmm heres the fatphobia

beatrix doesn't give me good vibes

mmmmmm mom of the year award goes to bloom's mom. like ik ik youre worried but you didnt have to call your child a weird loner??? that shit hurts man (am i speaking from personal experience? mayhaps)

oh yay another sky and bloom interaction /s

i am begging this show to make one of the winx gay pleaseee

or bi

please just don't make all of them cishet

(who am i kidding,, they're all gonna end up in cishet relationships)

Are sky and stella exes??

bloom really found out that there aren't any people outside the barrier and dipped from the party even though it might be dangerous. mood

ooh pretty firefly thingies

yeah bloom deffo committed arson

arson pog

she's gonna straight up cause a forest fire

UH OH SHE CANT CONTROL IT

WATER FAIRY AISHA POG

Mmmm i dont like blooms parents

OH CHANGELING BLOOMS A CHANGELING

MMMMM MS DOWLING SUS VOTE HER OUT

I DONT LIKE RIV FUCK THAT GUY

FUCK OUTTA HERE WITH YOUR FATPHOBIA BITCH

yeah get his ass terra gET HIS ASS

Man alfea got that sweet cell signal

stella doesn't want bloom in alfea alrighty

musA IS A MIND FAIRY?? I THOUGHT SHE WAS A MUSIC ONE??

bruh stella i take whatever nice thing i said about you

man i miss my girl techna

give me my tech fairy back

"y'know you don't have to be okay." bitCH YOU CALLED HER A WEIRD LONER AND TOOK HER DOOR

mmmmm okay bloom's mom im giving you one more chance do not fuck it up

weird creepy building ew

oh its where she slept in

oop she gonna get jumped by burned ones

OOP SHE LOST THE RING

yeah fuck this im skipping i hate scenes like these

FUCK THE BURNED ONE TOOK THE RING

yeah sky and stella were exes

yeah no stella you gotta live the consequences of ur actions

Beatrix and riv are a duo that i do not need

terra is tryna reach out aw

oooh musa's an empath

oh okay ms. dowling isnt as sus anymore okay

who the hell is this rosalind character??

lmao watch her be bloom's bio mom

hooded character???? who are you???

OH GOD SHE'S A TRIX (?) like the one with the lightning powers

WAIT BEATRIX

FUCK

me: i've connected the dots

also me: you didn't connect them

FUCK SHES FREEIN THE BURNED ONE DAMNIT

FUCK I CALLED IT

final conclusion: so far i hate like half of all the characters in this show. the literal only people i trust is ms. dowling, terra, aisha, and the kid that riv picked on. everyone else i mildly dislike (stella) or can go fuck themselves (riv)

[talinexa]

Eye Color in Kingdom Hearts

So, I had a major freak-out a while back because Baby Saïx’s (Isa’s) eyes in BbS are green and his ears are rounded but in KH2 and Days and beyond his ears are pointed and his eyes are orange.

I discussed this with my best friend, Phoenix, in a very lengthy all-caps text message complete with pictures and we determined that the change was the consequence of getting Norted

Which probably isn’t a surprise to anyone else in the fandom but A) This is my first time through and I went in fairly blind to tiny details like character design changes and B) She never noticed

BUT she also pointed out that blue eyes, in this series, are an indication of “good” characters and yellow eyes are an indication of “bad” characters.

Which got me thinking about Axel/Lea. And Isa. But also (and perhaps more importantly) Riku and Terra

Axel/Lea and Isa’s eyes are green. Riku’s are blue-green (turquoise? IDK) and Terra’s are, of course, blue.

I think that green is an indication of ambiguousness. A mixture of darkness and light.

Because, of course, green is a mixture of blue and yellow.

It kinda reminds me of how in the OG Star Wars trilogy everyone knew blue meant good and red meant bad so Luke’s new green lightsaber meant ??? Which left it mysterious through RotJ whether or not Luke was going to go Dark Side

It fits thematically with Axel’s original characterization as the “Assassin With Motives of His Own” to have green eyes and a mix of darkness and light within his heart.

Riku’s eyes are a blue-green because he’s mostly good but with more darkness in his heart than, say, Sora or Kairi.

In that same vein, I feel like Terra should have had the same eye color as Riku.

Which also would have shown off the connection between the two when Terra passed the power of the Keyblade on to Riku but IDK

[fenrir-drifter]

Inktober and projects updates

Edit: I dont know how to put a cut in a post on mobile. Sorry for the wall of text.

I'm getting super behind. Sometimes I can sketch stuff out, but I dont feel like inking it. Idk. I got the time, can't go back to work still, still looking for something new and better.

Shadow, Cyan, and Gau are all ready to be inked. Terra, Locke, Edgar, Sabin, and Celes are all done. I'm debating about when to post them here. Maybe do two batches of six drawings. I won't be drawing Umaro or Gogo until the very end, and that's also a big maybe. Maybe add General Leo and Kefka to that list too. After I get Setzer, Strago, Relm, and Mog inked, I'll start working on the Chrono Trigger cast.

As far as personal projects go, I've kind of taking a break from all of them. Between Inktober, stressing about bills and when I can go back to work, finding another/new job, and painting, it's hard to find time. Especially when you lump anxiety, depression, and RL chores and surprises into all of that.

The Witch's son - I had originally planned for this to be a webcomic and I have the plot outline more or less finished. I just got hung up on environment art and character designs. That being said though, I also have to rewrite the entire outline because I changed one key character for another. But really, those changes will be minimal. The biggest issue holding me back is probably a lack of confidence of my drawing ability for comics. After the character art and reference sheets are done, I need to thumbnail the entire outline, and work on paneling. I think I can do it, I'm just too nervous. On top of that I also keep thinking about prequel and sequel ideas, but I know I need to focus on this one project. My ultimate goal right now is to just get the prologue done. If it looks good and it gets some attention, then I'll keep working on it, if not then I'll come back later when I feel better about my drawing ability and work on it some more.

The Dirigible - I haven't worked on this project in years, and I don't know what I want it to be. I had thought about setting it in the same world as the witch's son, just to cut down world-building, locations, and all that, but I'm not 100% sure yet. I don't know if I want this to be a comic, or a short story, or a novel, or something else.

Fenrir Drifter - I've been doing some world building for this for quite a bit, but I'm getting hung up on key details that may or may not be relevant, I'm not sure yet. Things like race, origin stories, and deities. I had originally planned for there to be four races: human, dwarf, elf, and a winged race (like from Breath of Fire), but then I wanted to add an ancestor race to give the world more depth. My four main races would have evolved from these races and these four races were created by four Guardian deities who were in turn created by the Divine Beings (Gods) of the world. The ancestor races we're going to be more animalistic than normal, but I was having issues with that. The elves were going to evolve from a race of deer-men that I had called Wakiti, the winged race (which I have called the Wyn race) was going to evolve from a race of birds who live on floating islands (called the Seva), and I was going to have humans evolved from a race of wolfmen, and dwarves evolved from a race of black bears.

But I'm not really sure about any of this now.

I also had a magic system in place that would mimic some ideas from Saga Frontier 2, where magic is a natural life force that's in everything and sometimes condensed in physical objects called quells. These quells could be anything from a necklace to an axe, a suit of armor, or a ring. I would have divine quells that are direct blessings from the four Guardian deities. On top of this I would have a champion of each deity who would wield a quell.

I was also working on a world map, but I got bogged down in that too because I wasn't sure, everything looks too perfect, too clean. On top of this I had issues determining history, I don't like the idea of any race being evil, that just parallels racism in the real world imo. But I know it's not true because you could make a race of monsters and they would just be that, literal monsters. But I had issues with their creation, because every diving bring (god and guardian) is good. I didn't want to corrupt any of them either. I'll figure it out though, in due time, I'm sure.

Castlevania 1 hand drawn guide - My main goal is to just get stage 1 complete. A fully rendered map with every item and secret marked, custom art for monsters and bosses, tips for bosses, a splash art for the stage, and some other things. It's basically a glorified Players Guide/Manual. I got the idea from a guy that made guides like this for Contra, Ninja Gaiden, and is working on a Legend of Zelda guide. Really cool and inspiring stuff, imo.

I also have some ideas for altering some FF6 stuff and making it a custom story. After I read Seven Blades in Black, I felt really inspired to write again, and take my own twists on things. Along with that, I'm reading the Witcher books and replaying Witcher 3, and I want to write some fanfic with my own OC Witcher of the Griffin School.

Aside from that, watercolor landscapes still happen, but not very often. I haven't posted any of them anywhere yet though. I kind of want to build a backlog, I'm also feeling kind of both gunshy and disheartened about posting stuff anymore. Trying to power through that for Inktober.

Idk, felt good to ramble for a bit like that. I don't do it anymore and can't really do it on Twitter without feeling guilty for spamming people. Health's okay, still healing from surgery. Mostly just mental and social issues at this point. There might even be a chance that my student loan will be completely wiped out. If I could just fix my car (hit a deer), find my cat, and seek therapy, things would be too good to be true, lol.

One step at a time.

[alewyren]

final fantasy!

I wasn’t sure if I should include Bravely Default or not because ohhh man I have some fuckin Thoughts, so I’ll just do one for mainline FF and one for Bravely Default.

The first character I first fell in love with: 

Tidus left a strong impression on me as a kid due to the way FFX ended, and I still really like him, but I wouldn’t say I was ever in love with him. On the other hand, Fang from FFXIII turned me gay.

The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: 

Kuja, I think? As much as I will maintain that he is the objective best FF villain until the day I die, and as much as that outfit is IC for him, it’s still, uh. Not good. It’s not even that it’s too feminine, it’s just fucking ugly, lmao. Doesn’t make for a great first impression. But god fucking damn, he is very, very good. Maybe at some point I’ll whip up a meta about him, but I’m not sure what to say that hasn’t been covered already.

The character everyone else loves that I don’t: 

Sephiroth. He’s got a cool design, a great theme song (those chosen by the planet, not one winged angel), and a phenomenally intimidating presence. But the thing is, as far as FF7 itself is concerned, he’s barely a character. He’s long dead by the time of the game and exists only as an echo of the past and a manifestation of Cloud’s psychological problems. By the end, he’s more Jenova (who herself is more a force of nature than a character) than himself imo. He works because of what he represents, and the mystery surrounding him, not because of who he is. Hailing him as the “best FF villain” misses the point. I feel like Squeenix themselves don’t get what was great about Sephiroth, since we keep getting these immensely fucking bland villains like Vayne, Caius, and Ardyn that are clearly trying to recapture the Sephiroth magic by focusing on the cool factor or the relationship with the protag or whatever when none of that is why Sephiroth worked in FF7 to begin with.

The character I love that everyone else hates: 

Vanille. Yeah the English voice direction was awful, yeah the noises she makes when riding her eidolon are immensely fucking uncomfortable, but she’s actually a really interesting character who deserved more time to shine, and I maintain that she should have been the protag of FF13 rather than Pink Squall. Since she has like, y’know, a much more direct hand in the entire plot of the goddamn game.

The character I used to love but don’t any longer: 

uuuuuuuhhh I really don’t know. Maybe Kain. I used to think he was the shit but now I’m just like “haha, mr. friendzone at it again.” Or maybe Cloud, thanks to Advent Children taking a steaming dump on his personality in the name of fanservice.

The character I would totally smooch: 

FANG. SHE IS SO FUCKING HOT GOOD LORD I’M GAY. Also Rydia. Uh, adult Rydia, that is.

The character I’d want to be like: 

Fang is pretty goals, but she’s a bit more butch than I personally see myself, haha. Maybe Celes, sans heterosexuality and poor taste in dudes. She’s very cool, strong, and sexy.

The character I’d slap: 

Squall I guess? Cheer Up Emo Kid!

A pairing that I love: 

Kuja/Terra! I’d toyed with the idea before thanks to Dissidia 012, but NT sold me forever. There are a lot of reasons these two work so well, the most important being that their interactions are absolutely fucking precious. The reason he freed her from Kefka’s control in the first place, apart from wanting to stick it to the asshole clown, was because he empathized with her, but when she thanked him later he downplayed the hell out of it. Terra genuinely tries to reach out to him, and he’s receptive, but aloof, and acts so theatrical about it (”If that is what Her Highness wishes.”) It’s… cute? Like, they’re both pretty damn emotionally stunted due to their, uh, irregular upbringings, and there’s so much potential there! *slams fists on table* GIVE ME MORE

A pairing that I despise: 

Come to think of it, I don’t think I have a single genuine notp in the entire Final Fantasy franchise. Even ships I don’t really care for, like Cecil/Rosa, Locke/Celes or Wakka/Lulu, I wouldn’t say I hate them, just think they’re lame and poorly written. I guess Kuja/Zidane? Yeah, yeah, I know, rich as fuck coming from me, but I just don’t like them romantically at all. The most important reason being that they’re ugly as sin together.

and now, the bravely default hot takes nobody asked for but that I will rant about at literally any given opportunity.

The first character I first fell in love with: 

EDEA!!! I love her SO MUCH! She’s an adorable, precious ENTJ child who’s so headstrong, but naive, and so endearing. Her design (in the first game–blue is not her color) is great, and she has some of the best class outfit designs as well. She’s also the main melee bulk of the party, which I find immensely refreshing in a franchise where the girls are usually mages or rogues. 

Her character arc is pretty basic, sure, but it works. For starters, she’s the best handled rebellious princess I’ve seen, in that she just flat out turns on Eternia–everything she’s ever known–with scarcely a second thought. Not because she feels trapped by the burdens of being royalty or whatever, she’s just stubborn and willful and has an iron sense of right and wrong that she’s willing to fight for above all else. Which, I mean, yeah, evil empire, but it’s not that simple. Which is why her arc is about reconciling with the fact that it isn’t all black and white, and embracing her role as eventual queen of Eternia. 

The writing is pretty hamfisted, what with her literally calling things “black and white,” but she’s 15, so I’ll give it a pass. Yeah, I know the American version aged her up to make the fanservice shit less gross, but it doesn’t really work when her character is about overcoming her childish worldview, lol. Like, she’s a babbu. You can’t just change a number and make her less babbu. Her theme song is literally called “Baby Bird.” Maybe just don’t fucking sexualize characters who are meant to be read as childish in the first place? She deserved so much better than the writing she got in Bravely Second, which I’ll… get to later, but she was still an absolute delight. Did I mention she’s also hilarious? “Oops, my foot slipped.” “You just DROPKICKED ME!”

The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: 

Yew. I mean, I don’t love him as much as Edea, but Bravely Second was kind of a hot mess, if fun, and his arc pleasantly surprised me. He kind of had a similar arc as Edea in the first game, but in the opposite direction. Over the course of the game he gradually overcame his rich, upper class nerd privilege worldview and became Woke ™, and then used his privilege to help people. By contrast, Edea still had to go through the journey of getting past her simplistic worldview, but whereas she was quick to recognize the fact that her world was wrong and had to learn not to see things in extremes, Yew had to work to claw his way outside of that box in the first place. The plot twist about his brother was obvious as hell but like, whatever, it was fun. His mask didn’t even cover that much of his face, how did he not know,

The character everyone else loves that I don’t: 

Tiz. He’s boring, not much else to say there. Except, his design in Bravely Second had me excited as hell because he looks so emo and ow the edge and I was really excited to see what they were gonna do with him, but his personality is… exactly the same as the first game? Why bring him back at all? For that matter, why kill him off in the first place? I know they were going for some meta shit, but like… why?

The character I love that everyone else hates: 

Airy, but idk if that counts because I love her for precisely the reasons everyone else hates her. Even if I think the good end should have been obtained by seeing through her ruse and blowing up the crystals rather than just going along with what she says and repeating the same fucking sequence of bosses over and over…

The character I used to love but don’t any longer: 

Ringabel. Mainly for shipping reasons and because I’m increasingly exhausted with the whole chivalrous pervert trope, especially when Edea was very much underage in the first game, lmao. He’s a good character objectively speaking, but a lot of his potential wasn’t capitalized on and I still don’t get how Alternis did a complete 180 from his brooding initial personality, to… that. Or why there were AU Ringabels in the ending sequence of the first game when I thought the whole point was that he was a spanner in the works who shouldn’t have been part of the party in the first place, and that’s how they managed to foil Airy? Or, it should have been, if they didn’t literally just go along with what she said until the end despite his very clear warnings that she was up to some shady shit. The final stretch of Bravely was a fucking trainwreck, nothing new there.

The character I would totally smooch: 

Edea. But like, a forehead smooch, because she’s a babbu. Though she is 18 for real this time in Second, isn’t she? And she’s matured considerably by then too… hrm.

The character I’d want to be like: 

Edea post-character development. She’s got her shit together, and she’s still strong-willed, outgoing, and adorable as all hecke.

The character I’d slap: 

Yulyana. Fuck the quirky pervert trope, seriously. It’s not funny, it’s never been funny, and it never will be funny.

A pairing that I love: 

Well, Agnes/Olivia is the only pairing that I straightforwardly ship, and I’ll never not be mad that they just, like. Forgot about Olivia in the final stretch of the game. Like they really just killed her off for shock value, huh? Okay Sure.

I like Edea/Alternis a lot too, but it’s complicated. Reading through D’s Journal during a blind playthrough left way more of an impact on me than Ringabel’s dumb flirting, but they definitely have a lot of shit to work through before they get together. They obviously both genuinely care about each other, though Edea’s got other shit on her plate to worry about rather than Alternis being a lovelorn, emo weirdo. But like, he’s not only so emotionally distant from her despite his feelings that she doesn’t even know what his face looks like, but he’s got a weird possessive streak towards her? It might be a translation thing but the phrasing “I would have taken you as my wife” is a bit. Iffy. Especially considering a. the age gap and b. she outranks him. Of course she’s having none of this shit, but I do like the idea of them both maturing, actually bonding like human beings, and getting together when they’re older, ie: when Edea is queen and Alternis has learned to accept his fate as a permabottom. Childhood friend loyalty kink is my passion, and like, while Edea is very much a take charge no nonsense lady, she struggles with personal relationships and emotions. They both do, and that’s why their relationship is so complicated and interesting. I’d love to read slowburn of them.

A pairing that I despise: 

Rindea. But wait, you say! Didn’t you just write a whole paragraph on how you like Altdea? Well, yes. I do stand by that, and I enjoy the ship because of its problems rather than in spite of them. Rindea is. Not that. While Altdea is  a flawed relationship that I’d love to see mature into something functional along with the characters themselves, Rindea is a disgustingly written trainwreck that shits on all that potential, as well as Edea’s entire fucking character, constantly.

I don’t hate the very idea of these two as an item. The problem is how badly said item is written. Even though Rindea has the same problematic base as Altdea, which is treated as flawed, it just completely fucking glosses over all of that, everything that actually makes their relationship interesting, in favor of generic hetero pervy slap slap kiss tsundere bullshit. Yes, Ringabel’s feelings for her run deeper than that, but that’s basically all that their dynamic, their actual interactions, amount to. And for some reason she’s into it? Like, I’m sorry, but fucking when and why did she develop feelings for him? Was it before or after she learned about his true identity? Is it because he’s Alternis or in spite of it? Hell, how did she feel about that revelation in the first place? All of that is very much worth addressing, but they LITERALLY NEVER DO.

Did she just secretly like his annoying flirting all along because no obviously means yes? Like, Ringabel still fucking carries all the baggage associated with being Alternis but the game doesn’t give a fuck! It’s overbearing and weird when Alternis comes onto Edea, but when Ringabel does it it’s peak romance! He loves her so it’s okay! And we don’t know anything about Edea’s feelings for him because the game just never fucking goes into it! It’s just assumed that she must like him back! Hey, here’s a thought! Maybe if Ringabel actually loves her so much he could respect her feelings and lay the fuck off! Oh wait, no means yes, right. And don’t even get me started on Bravely Second, jesus fucking christ. You seriously mean to tell me that, according to Yoko, my girl’s only personal damage is being tfw no bf? Nothing about the stress of ruling a nation or any of her other relationships? Nothing even about how her feelings for Ringabel might actually be more fucking complicated than dokidoki take me with you ringabel kun? Absolutely Fucking Disgusting.

Listen. I like problematic ships, but Rindea is just fucking bad, and it’s made worse by the fact that canon thinks it’s good. At this point they’ve missed so many opportunities to actually expand meaningfully on Edea’s side of the relationship that it’s a lost fucking cause and I want it to die in a fire. Good lord I hate this ship and it’s exhausting being an Edea main when it’s the entire fandom’s OTP. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

I ranted more about this ship as well as the other canon Bravely ships in this post and will probably do so again when presented the opportunity.