#Weird core arc

[mushroom-anon]

Looking for a good void

[ruporas]

i killed. i murdered. i'm nothing like these sleepy people here… nevertheless, you can actually be grateful? bastard… i’m saying… thank you. because you spilled blood, you saved all of these people’s lives. i couldn’t have done it without you. (ID in alt)

[ghstgirl]

[tanadrin]

I'm watching season 5 of discovery while I work on this map, and I think my verdict of DIS is that conceptually it is solid Star Trek. It gets Star Trek, like in the abstract. Obviously the last 3 seasons are a lot better than the first two, both because they escape prequel territory and because it just takes a ton of Trek shows two seasons to find the sweet spot. But the writing never really lives up to the ideas. So, so many of the character beats feel completely paint-by-numbers, with painfully generic dialogue, and I find myself mostly skipping over those scenes to get to the high concept SF or the action sequences. The actors really are doing the best they can, and visually it's gorgeous, and it throws out a ton of fun ideas into the Trek universe (though IMO it relies too much on overt callbacks to old Trek, it's not unique in this regard--SNW does this too, it might just be the curse of a long-running franchise). But man. The character writing is frequently not good! The emotional dialogue is frequently not good! And I don't know why; it's not like Star Trek doesn't have this stuff, rich character interaction has been there since TOS and the Bones/Kirk/Spock triad. But even back when you would have, like, Random Character Never Mentioned Before From Someone's Past showing up in an episode only to die horribly, from the older and more episodic Treks, the dialogue around these characters was still more believable and more compelling. And you'd think the more serialized nature of modern Trek would give you more room to build on and use these character dynamics.

I wonder if in part it's the decline of writers' rooms and the spec script market. Maybe something about that shift makes developing good scripts for television, and for genre TV in particular, harder. Part of me thinks it may well be the serialized format, because just like a good high concept sci fi plot often relies on a "hey-wouldn't-it-be-fucked-up-if-this-happened-randomly" idea, so too do a lot of the good character stories in older Trek--when everything has to be tied back in to an ongoing plot and significant character development has to be spread out over 10 episodes, maybe that's harder to do.

I think ultimately I feel about DIS like I feel about Enterprise--don't like prequels, do like some of the ideas, some of the characters are pretty interesting, the character arcs are kind of weak, is too bogged down in referencing other installments in the franchise, needs more Jeffrey Coombs.

[shitpostingkats]

The real win for women in Arc-V is Yoko Sakaki.

She's really into pinterest recipes. She has six houspets. She makes fried pork pancake sandwiches. She has a fireman pole in her living room. She took in a mysterious ten year old because he looked too much like a stray dog. She married a circus performer.

[literaryspinster]

Pet peeve of mine...

when a show establishes an incredible dynamic between two or more characters, then proceeds to give them no screentime together for multiple seasons. It really grinds my gears.

[mushroom-anon]

Bit big...

close up :3

[kitsunabi]

While I’m thinking of it, traveler mc doesn’t need to be in the drivers seat, they can be supportive and it can still be good

[the-weeping-dawn]

/////

[laggs-cringe-corner]

okay cool thank you for sharing

[anghraine]

I was re-reading some of my PC!Gwen recaps-meet-headcanons for the original GW2 game, for reasons, and was kind of amused at how extremely predictable I am:

Ihan was also there and pointedly reminded Gwen that the Whispers agents are “Our agents, my friend. You’re a member of the Order of Whispers now. We all work as one.” Aww, Gwen and Ihan are friends! And look, I love the Order of Whispers so much. I seem to remember the Whispers arc going rather quickly, but I’d happily wander around scheming and sneaking with them for a long time. My people! Logan wanted an assurance that they’d keep Jennah safe and Ihan promised “on the honor of our Order.” They have honor in their own way, which I also love. The combination of skulduggery and dedication to a purely noble goal is just … they could not be more catered to appeal to me (their vibe actually reminds me a little of my beloved Rogue One).

Everything can be about Rogue One if you have the vision, okay.

[valtsv]

can you pitch tsv to me fandom propaganda style… like sell it to me. hook me in. what is it about

the silt verses is a folk horror/political satire/weird fiction podcast set in an alternate ambiguously modern-day reality that asks the question "what if gods (and their saints, and angels, and miracles) were real? what if they formed the core infrastructure of the society you lived in? what if they were sustained by human belief and sacrifice? what if this was just the accepted Way Things Are?" and then introduces you to a cast of characters for whom this is their normal daily routine, and shakes them up through a series of intersecting arcs and plotlines. it deals with a lot of compelling themes - including identity and personhood, how institutions of power are formed and maintained and the potential for abuses of that power even by the most well-intentioned who wield it, action vs. rhetoric and the power of words; whose story is worth telling and whose is erased or adulterated by those privileged enough to write the version that becomes the widely accepted canon, and how struggles for control of something as conceptual as narrative can become very real and legitimate fights for the right to have one's autonomy and personhood recognised, human connection and why it's both so valuable and so destructive, etc. - but the central question it unceasingly begs is "why do we continue to live like this? why do we accept that this is all there is? what will it take for us to care about what's happening all around us, every day, right before our very eyes? what will you do when you realise you've spent your whole life drowning, and every option for relief comes at a cost? how long can you keep telling yourself that you're not really drowning before the water closes in over your head and swallows you like all those before you?"

tsv takes a magnifying glass to the horrifying exploitation and cruelty that so much of our own society runs on, and literalises it, leading to what is often rather heavy-handed satire bordering on the parodic - but it does so with such grace and unflinching, grounded honesty, without preaching to its audience but without letting them off the hook, either. it recognises that we are all both complicit in and victims of our own collective slow grind towards annihilation, and it asks us "isn't this absurd? isn't this horrifying? is this really all there is? is there nothing we can do in the face of this seemingly insurmountable, inescapable self-defeating routine-turned-ritual? why should we, or shouldn't we, care? why should we, or shouldn't we, try to make a difference?" and it's brave enough to admit that it doesn't have all the answers. but it still tries. because the silt verses is, fundamentally, a story about hope - real hope; the difficult, unglorious, unrelentingly in need of maintenance kind that is, nevertheless, still worth every effort to inspire it. the silt verses is a story about why we get up in the morning and try again, even though it might never be enough.

it's also a very character-driven story, and the character writing is truly second to none. every character is a person, in all their infinite messy, human complexity. every character has the capacity for abject cruelty and incredible kindness; to be a significant influence on their reality and to be utterly meaningless in the wider context of things; every character has the potential to be both the hand that pulls someone to their feet in their hour of need, and the boot that grinds them further into the dirt, and every character is both of these things, at some point or another, to someone. every character is both the martyr and the one holding the knife. no character is a saint - not even the actual, literal saints. and while this isn't necessarily something that should be used as a selling point, the way this podcast handles the diversity of identity is fantastic, and never used tokenistically, or as a character's sole defining trait (though not all aspects of identity get equal consideration; the creator has acknowledged that he didn't tackle race as a topic much beyond examining the developmental factors of broad strokes "us vs. them" nationalistic identities, and the arbitrary nature of patriotic loyalty to one's nation when it runs on the same oppressive systems as that which is painted the aggressor, and some fans have pointed out that while diversity of gender and one's lived experiences according to one's gender identity gets plenty of focus, some things are left to implication and inference in a way that doesn't necessarily strengthen the story's themes).

anyway. not sure this is the "fandom propaganda style" pitch you asked for, but listen to the silt verses. it's a brilliant work of fiction and to my mind deserves to be considered a landmark piece of art (even if that does mean that some of my more fandombrained takes would likely come to be seen as unflattering misconstrusions of the source material that betray my personal deficiencies. well whatever it was fun i had fun.)

[ctwinsduo]

woe cwilbur be upon ye. as promised here are my designs for every cwil era/stage/what have you + my reasons behind each design. design breakdown will be under the read more :>

as a disclaimer going forward: these designs are heavily informed by my own headcanons (namely the nature spirit headcanon, which i will only briefly explain here- if you want more of a background on that here's where I first shared the hc and explained it a bit) i'll be honest idk how much of these hcs/analysis abides by canon? so if you prefer to closely abide by canon this may not be for you. having said that, let's get into this. So one question that may initially come to mind when looking over this is "Why a nature spirit?" which is a reasonable question all things considered. I've already gone over the Watsonian explanation in the past, so instead I'll cover the Doylist take- which is more interesting as it pertains to these designs. Wilbur, as I see her, is a character that has many faces- she warps and changes to embody the view of herself she sees as necessary for the situation, whether that be the revolutionary or the villain. Simultaneously he has this core that's deeply eccentric and often difficult for the characters around him to grasp- this can come in the form of benign weirdness to the struggles with mental illness we see him go through throughout his various arcs. There's this push and pull between the person they want to portray and who they are fundamentally that's always at play.

Them being a nature spirit embodies this to an extreme. As a nature spirit their physical form is informed by their self perception (the one that's warped by the role they feel they need to take) and their own mental state, both aspects of the character that are foundational.

Another question that may arise upon reading all of this is "Why not just make him a shapeshifter?" which is also a valid question. Truthfully this one is rooted heavily in my own ideas of the character, so you'll have to take that with a grain of salt. I am, unfortunately, prone to making shit up /lh With that in mind however, the reason I choose nature spirit over shapeshifter is that, the way I interpret it, it's much more... animalistic? Let me explain: the way I tend to see shapeshifters portrayed is either a. having a base form that's relatively humanoid and then multiple other forms or b. having no base form but still presenting as generally humanoid. As a nature spirit Wilbur has a natural (ba-dum-tsss) tie to well... nature, and all that lives within it.

She's this manifestation of the wilderness whose form isn't even naturally human, yet she shapes herself into something presenting as such. As a nature spirit Wilbur occupies this weird nebulous space between human and beast, never fully embodying either. I find this incredibly interesting for a character that wants to feel and to be treated as human so badly, one that also clearly resents being seen as monstrous (despite leaning into that perception of themselves)

TLDR; Wilbur's 50 contradictions in a trenchcoat (literally) and being a nature spirit gives these contradictions/masks/ect. a physical manfiestation Now that we're 500+ words of analysis in, let me breakdown each individual stage :3 /lh

Pre-SMP + L'manburg

The most "human" Wilbur ever gets here- technically these two are different designs/eras but they have similar design notes so I'm lumping them together here

During this stage of his life Wilbur has a fairly good handle on his shapeshifting and is consciously choosing to look more human

Small details like the fangs, pointed ears, claws, and pupils allude to an inhuman nature. I like to think there's something uncanny valley about them- they look human but the longer you look at them the more small discrepancies you notice

Both look relatively generic appearance wise, if you can't tell this was Wilbur's "I am a Normal Human Man era" but with slightly more gender /lh

Decided to stick Wilbur in a different outfit Pre-SMP than the actual skin most people reference, mostly because I thought it'd be fun. The trenchcoat follows her throughout her development

Lots of goofy ass patches and pins on the coat

I personally hc that Wilbur always has some sort of oversized clothes on because it's a bit like a security blanket for him, very grounding and all that- anyways that's what the trenchcoat is here

Limited notes on L'manburg era- main thing is the glasses; they got cracked in conflict and they just never bothered to fix em

Pogtopia

As a result of stress (and personal perception) Wilbur lost control over his shifting entirely

Wilbur views their nature as inherently monstrous, thus when they think of themselves as monstrous or evil they lose most of their human appearance

Much taller in this form than usual, this reflects both how she feels she's perceived and how she perceives herself (monstrous, scary, inhuman, ect. ect.)

Their height also serves to emphasis the claustrophobic nature of the ravine and especially the button room

Eye color changes from brown to red, yet again another thing which reflects his self loathing

Coat is the same one worn pre-smp, just with some adjustments

Pins & patches removed from the jacket (my friend suggested it saying that he "ripped them out because they were too happy" and I find that mental image particularly silly so it stays)

Covered in stains, partially because the ravine is just. awful. and partially because this thing is not taking care of herself even a little bit

Lenses are even more cracked than they were during the revolution

Ghostbur

This section has a lot less points then the others on account of Ghostbur being fairly self explanatory, but shhhhhh

Reverted to "base form" post death, form is extremely fluid as a ghost- she tends to shift depending on the topic of conversation or the person she's speaking with (Explain being: whenever she talks about "alivebur" she becomes more human)

Less of a note and more rambling: fox ghostbur is especially fun to me given the hatred Wilbur has for Ghostbur. Ghostbur physically reflecting the parts of Wilbur that they hate the most in themselves

For Wilbur their base form- just a normal widdle fox- represents vulnerability. It is quite literally a small, fuzzy animal with little means to defend itself and it is also the culmination of everything Wilbur is running from. Ghostbur embraces this form fully yet is seen as more palatable by the people around her than Wilbur ever was

Constantly leaking a jammy, blue substance from his eyes and the cut in his chest, yucky

Especially long sections of "fur" like their tail and the back of their neck are constantly "dripping" little wisps like rain

Post-Revival

Post-revival his shifting is still fucked up (thank the mental illness for that) but he's got a slightly better handle on it, enough to look semi-human

Eyes have reverted back to brown but their lenses are tinted red anyways (often looks red)

The coat makes a comeback, edges are all fucked up from the explosion

That funky little overcoat/cloak/ect. got yoinked by Niki

Disheveled appearance meant to reflect her rancid ass mental state- namely the hair and the facial hair. Hair is grown out because she can't be bothered to cut it (you bet that shit is full of knots)

Nasty awful smeared eyeshadow as a treat <3 (I just think he deserves to be a little cunty yk?)

Got a little tired near the end here which is why the points got a bit sloppy, maybe I'll add more at a later date who knows. If you made it this far I hope you at least enjoyed reading all of this :>

[mushroom-anon]

Fucking shit nope fuck that-

why do you do this?????

[krchar]

See I really love 3rd arc now, cause what the whole story is basically about, is that everyone, really everyone, acts like a complete idiot, but unlike some later arcs, it actually makes sense, it is understandable, brings a moral - it is really difficult to accept sometimes that your beloved guys do this, but I have to acknowledge, it is so cool

[comradekarin]

denji is one of the best *written* shounen characters, and I don’t even think it’s ridiculous to say that. I don’t care how relatively “new” csm is. there is a level of care and attention fujimoto is giving to denji’s character arc that other shounen writers just do not. all while dealing with themes like isolation, sexual grooming, coercion, manipulation and so forth. fujimoto is not afraid to have his mc be “weird”. he isn’t afraid to make denji off putting, coming across too strong, being abrasive and ignorant (yet keeping his core true, a child that doesn’t know how to connect his childhood with his present day internal conflicting feelings). I don’t think I’m reading too much into this either when I say it feels very intentional to have denji have a sort of revulsion to men touching him or making him do things he doesn’t want to do (all while acting like putty in the female characters’ hands, who take advantage of him more often than the male main characters do). just thinking about how he tries to keep makima in his memory even after all the things she did to him.

I’ve read almost 150 chapters of csm already and the progress and development is slow (and at some points there’s regression), but denji is one of the rare shounen characters where I truly care about him growing and living a good life and unlearning all of the things he’s been indoctrinated into believing. and he’s learning by himself! his relationship with asa is also my favorite things about part two. it’s also the rare instance of the main character being the best character. I’ll never give fujimoto a ten, but he gets a clean 9.8! I love my shayla denji so much…….