#Wonky timeline but the storyline is the same

[rogunetocentral]

Rogue Origin Tidbits #3

Although there have been references here and there over the years to Rogue's upbringing, a majority of her origins remain relative cohesive.

-Rogue was born to Owen & Priscilla, partially raised by her aunt Carrie until running away as a young child. [Rogue vol 3.]

-Rogue meets Mystique and is adopted by her prior* to the activation of Rogue's mutant abilities. She is raised by Mystique and Destiny together. [X-Men Unlimited #4]

-Rogue's powers eventually activate and Rogue decides to join Mystique's brotherhood as a young teenager and remains with Mystique until she's 18 and joins Professor Xavier for help with her powers.

Over the years, there have been little stories and scenes to fill in the gap of Rogue's childhood some things have minor conflicts of timing, but nothing that directly contradicts her origin overall.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Do you think Rollo, Fellow and Gidel could be in the main story? And if that's possible, could the events where they appear be canon? Or maybe they have an entire chapter giving them more development?

As much as I would love for the Halloweenies (yes, that's what I'm going to call Rollo, Fellow, Gidel, and any other subsequent new character introduced for TWST's Halloween season event) to show up in the main story and get further development, I don't think it's feasible within the current "canon" timeline. There's a good reason why Yana said that vignettes and story events don't always fit within the main story: it's because most of them would make zero sense if they happened within the single school year where all the OB stuff pans out. This is, of course, also true of Glorious Masquerade and Stage in Playful Land.

The main issue is that important details would automatically become continuity errors. Both GloMasq and Playful Land occur around Halloween, with Playful Land happening during the holiday prep and the conflict of GloMasq taking place on Halloween Night itself. But... this can't be the case for the main story because that creates faults in logic. Yuu does not learn who Malleus is until book 5, which occurs all the way in mid to late winter--yet if GloMasq were canon in the main story, then Yuu would have already have knowledge of his true identity (since Malleus's peers are all addressing him by name). Furthermore, Yuu should only know the first few dorms' members by mid/late autumn in the main story, yet they act like they're already acquainted with all of the students in the Halloween events. Why, then, would Yuu/the boys act confused or as if they don't know these people/Yuu when meeting them later in the main story?

This goes even deeper than just making issues surrounding Yuu. GloMasq and Playful Land becoming "main story canon" disrupts the storylines in place for other characters in the main story. Deuce's UM, for example, is integral to Rollo's defeat. However, Deuce does not actually develop said UM until book 5, which, again, takes place in the mid to late winter time. It's not possible for Deuce to have his UM in autumn, when GloMasq happens. Additionally, Ortho is shown in his College Gear for the Playful Land event, which he does not canonically get until the end of book 6. Book 6 takes place shortly after book 5, meaning probably late winter or early spring, which is way after Halloween.

We cannot say that GloMasq and Playful Land occur in the year after Yuu's first. While this could explain away Yuu's wonky relationships with everyone, Deuce's UM, and Ortho being a full student, this doesn't explain why the third years are still present or why everyone is in the same grade level they'd still be in for the year that Yuu joins NRC. The first years would be second years, second years would be third years, and third years wouldn't even be around anymore; they'd be away on their internships, most of which are not on Sage's Island.

Another potential problem is that the Halloweenies showing up in their own dedicated main story chapters spoils the people who didn't play their respective events. (This is assuming that TWST would give a recap of the events Rollo, Fellow, and Gidel came from; it robs the original event stories of their impact because the truth is that a summary can never do the full event justice. However, there is no avoiding this because otherwise not everyone would have context for the Halloweenies.) It's either that, or the players get no context whatsoever for who these characters are or what their relevance is, which interferes with trying to tell a story about their development and getting the out-of-the-loop players to care about their growth. It's not like you can go back and read the original events whenever you want either, you had to have played through the events in full when they were originally running (or rerunning) in order to see the stories in your albums.

Anyway 💀 as you can see, there would be a multitude of issues in trying to squeeze Rollo, Fellow, and Gidel into the main story. Not saying that it's completely out of the question, but it seems very unlikely to me unless TWST does a rug pull and introduces canonical diverging timelines within the game's main story narrative or something. Right now, I definitely do not see the Halloweenies being incorporated in that way. At best, maybe we'd get more official content of them if they ever got more card releases or something.

[clownrosary]

going to ramble a little abt my thoughts on betsy kelso (finally!) being introduced in pt 3 :P cause i have many thoughts, and i need to get them out!

overall i do have to say im pretty excited- i always found it kinda strange that kelso + brooke was a pretty big storyline in t70s, but betsy wasn't mentioned at all in earlier apisodes of t90s. i do think it'll be rly cool to see the kelso siblings interact though, and i've rly been hoping she would come along!

i have seen a few ppl saying that it's weird that jay like... hasn't mentioned having a sister at all until now, and while i agree that it is strange, i do think the writers will find a way around that. half-sibling relationships can be complicated (i would know), and there's no one correct way to have a relationship with your siblings. especially when keeping in mind that betsy + jay share a dad (not just any dad, but kelso), and not a mom.

there's a stereotype that half-siblings that share a mom tend to be closer than half-siblings that share a dad. while i definitely dont think this is always true, i do believe the writers will probably end up using this to their advantage; i could see nate + gwen (who share a mom, and are definitely pretty close) being seen as the opposites of betsy + jay.

not only that, but betsy probably grew up in chicago! it's safe to assume that the kelsos grew up hours apart, and naturally wouldn't be as close as siblings who grew up in the same home. honestly, i think there'd be more of a chance of leia + betsy being close, seeing as how donna and brooke were friends before brooke had even met kelso. i could totally see them as having been childhood friends :)

but at the end of the day, t70s has never been known for having superb, accurate timelines, and that's okay! to see t90s following in those wonky footsteps isn't a bad thing- at the end of the day, it's just a sitcom. and i'm excited to see how this all plays out!!

[gwenllian-in-the-abbey]

Why they have tried to cut Daeron?

Hi anon! Assuming Daeron is cut (and I do think there's a good chance he is because at this point it's all but certain he's not in S2, and Condal has got to know it would be goofy as hell to introduce a 3rd Targtower brother randomly in S3), my only guess is that they're cutting him because they want to give other characters more to do in the Dance.

My best guess would be Aemond takes some of Daeron's storyline. And like, I don't love it, but we'll see how they handle it if they go that way. Aemond being a major flop who pretty much costs his side the win by going rogue is a big part of the story, and it's also hard to see how the greens don't win outright if he's in the Reach with Vhagar and Vhagar doesn't die there (and we know she can't, she has to die in the epic anime battle with Daemon). However, if they're planning on at least 4 seasons (and I'd not be surprised if it goes to 5 what with how they've paced this season), they can't have Aemond just flying around burning the Riverlands and banging Alys Rivers for the better part of at least 2 seasons. He's got to have something to do, and they could give some meat to his war crimes arc by having him be the one to go nuts after Maelor dies, maybe even tying him getting word of Helaena's death into that (the timelines around all of this are super wonky in the book, so they could fudge it a bit).

The other option is that they could just cut the Reach arc altogether. It's super messy, kind of confusing, involves multiple sacks of the same city, and ultimately ends with the army just sort of dispersing. I do think they'll do the betrayal of the Dragonseeds, but they could move that anywhere, it doesn't have to happen in the Reach. Perhaps they'll do some fanservice and bring the Ironborn in for season three and do the Dalton Greyjoy storyline instead. So far the show seems to want to capitalize on known houses when it can, and the Greyjoys will mean more to a casual audience than a bunch of random Footlys, Roxtons and Peakes. Dalton Greyjoy "The Red Kraken" could also make a great villain. My feeling is that they'll do one or the other but not both.

But we'll see! Maybe Daeron will still show up. All of this stuff is S3 at the earliest so they could still name drop Daeron in S2 and have him show up in S3. I think it would be a mistake, but maybe they could pull it off. It's too early to say for sure, but if they do cut him, I think it's going to be so that they can spend more time with the existing characters and give expanded storylines to characters that would otherwise be kind of idle.

[tzigone]

What age first comes to mind when you think of each of the original NTT?

I've asked this previously with the JLI. It's not about how canonically old they are or you think they should be (absent de-agings, universe reboots, etc.). But when you first think of each of these characters, how old do you think of them as? So much depends on the eras you read with them, and what of that sticks with you, and which eras and aspects and relationships you most value. Not to mention how fast in-universe time was moving in your favorite eras.

Wally, of course, got married and had kids. They never let Dick do so in main timeline, but he has associations with younger Batfam members that make me think of him as older. Poor Raven and Gar were deaged and kept on younger teams even before the universe reboot. And we have Vic and Kory after.

For me, so much depends on the era I read them in. All have eras I just don't read them in, either because I don't like what's going on with them or because of general disinterest in what's going on with DC at the time (that especially covers recent times, as I kept waiting for continuity to settle, then the constant Events, which aren't my thing).

Speed-aging Wally's kids throws him off to me, too, as I'm not fond of speed-aging kids at all (or skip-timing as with Jon Kent). So in my head he ends up a new dad in his mid twenties.

Dick ends up late 20s in my head. Relative ages of other Bats play in, but I sort of cut off for him before New 52 (and I honestly never think of him as Batman) because I've never really gotten into anything of his after that (hate the de-aging). He should be older, of course, but I don't first think of him that way, again probably due to not reading later stuff much.

The others haven't had the same degree of solo work after the team, and I abandoned NTT shortly after Titans Hunt. I've read stuff with them here and there since, but never consistently read a Titans title since.

Raven and Kory pretty much stop for me then. It's hugely important from a storytelling perspective, but I simply dislike the whole concept of Dark Raven or Rachel Roth or the goth-y influences from the cartoon (which I liked when I watched it, but didn't want to influence the comics I didn't read comics then and now resent character being largely remade from it), and even though I know they exist, they don't enter my headspace. So Raven ends up in her early twenties.

Kory, as I said, is in a similar headspace to me. I know other storylines happened, but I'm even vaguer on those than Raven's. Another dead husband, more pain for Tamaran - sounds like basically story on repeat to me, though I didn't read it, so can't speak authoritatively. Don't get me started on having her and Jason (or Roy as Jason) as a team or even worse on putting her on Damian's Teen Titans. Anyway, I always think of her as early twenties, too.

Gar, interestingly enough, I tend to think of in his slightly older, more mature fashion. Not making his obnoxious jokes and sexually harassing female teammates. And operating in a time when Dayton simply isn't around (and Rita is dead). I'm not at all sure it isn't some not just amalgamated, but constructed version of him built out from what I wanted him to grow up to be. Anyway, he sits in his early twenties for me.

Now Vic - I kinda feel in some aspects like I do with Gar and in some aspects like Raven and Kory. Certainly the post Titans Hunt events don't factor in at all (I didn't like storyline even a bit before like, quit reading a few issues after, and forget a lot of what happened after that era with Vic even happened). More like Raven and Kory and less like like Gar, he was older and more mature. I think of him early or mid twenties and having found peace with himself and belief in his own humanity (which happened a couple times before he'd reset on it), but don't think of that as having just happened, so ending up adding a couple years.

Donna is the wonky one. I tend to stick her in two categories - recently married early twenties or recently separated mid twenties. While I think motherhood and her son were extremely important to her in-universe, I didn't read that era, so it doesn't stick with me. I have the before, when I was reading NTT. And I have some of the time during the separation (when she showed up in other comics I was reading) and cutoff before Robert dying, as that was really part of a soft reboot of the character/origins that didn't work for me. I mean, her origin has always been a mess, and moreso since COIE, but another changeup was not the solution.

[captain-hen]

no the timeline in the finale was soooo wonky. like, it seemed like eddie called marisol a few days max after the hardware store, but his broken ribs were healed and that takes 6 weeks minimum. the buck and natalia balcony scene seemed like it happened like a day or two after bc of the blood on the couch, but his face was mostly healed so it must've been a week, give or take a few days, after the bridge collapse. and chimney seemed like he was mostly healed after being, y'know, IMPALED. so 8-10 weeks? more? idk. same with hen, it must've been weeks there too. the way those lil fire fam cut scenes were edited/placed in that scene made it seem like each happened around the same time, but there's literally no way, y'know? and the whole thing just comes off as rushed and sloppy bc of that. like. i shouldn't feel and look like the math lady meme after watching trying to parse out a basic ass timeline lol

the screwed-up timeline itself wouldn't be as annoying if the storylines themselves had actually made sense, imo

[theonethinginlife]

Just sharing my idea here: Instead of the Nicole storyline, they should of instead brought in an attractive female law enforcement officer (either FBI, CIA, US Marshals or Interpol) working on a joint case with SVU. And said woman flirts and makes moves on Carisi throughout the case and he's completely dense and unaware of her motives cause he's not paying attention to her, but focused on the case. But everyone else can see it, especially Rollins and we REALLY get to see her be jealous.

Hey anon!

I think something like that was definitely the plan before COVID derailed season 21. Instead of someone new, though, I think they were going with Dara Miglani (the attorney who represented Monica Russo in "She Paints for Vengance").

It was definitely supposed to run at the same time as the Khaldun storyline--we got the setup for the Khaldun half, and then the Sonny x Dara bit would've happened in the next few episodes and we definitely would've seen jealous Amanda, which I would've loved to see.

They made the timeline wonky with COVID, and I wished they wouldn't have shoehorned in the Nicole plotline (I think they had it planned out w/ Dara and had to rework it) and would've just let them come together without giving Nicole's character not the greatest treatment.

Everything worked out though, at least!

[yuuana]

Music Monday #214: ATEEZ - Paradigm  release: November 2022 genre: Jpop cw: bright flashing throughout, potential seasickness warning

You know you've missed me and my Kpop nonsense. ;) November was too full of everything and then some, so sure, I have a backlog a mile high, but like I was going to wait on my boys.

This MV is pretty bad for anyone with photosensitivities, so if you just want to hear the song, here's a Spotify link or search on your preferred streaming platform. As a performance version, the video doesn't have the same level of lore clues as more story-driven MVs like Guerrilla or Turbulence, so if you can't watch it, it'll be fine. Theorytiny will be filling in gaps for awhile. ;) The thing with ATEEZ is when they say they're doing something new this next release, we know by now they mean it. Considering that first minute was in all the previews for the album, it wasn't really a surprise when Paradigm opens with that whistling. If Guerrilla was the mating of hard rock with EDM, Paradigm dropped the rock elements to play with blending EDM and lyrical pop elements. So if you're looking for dance-pop with post-apocalyptic pirate vibes, definitely consider adding this to your collection. As much as I'm actually an opponent of the whole "anything but even line distribution is unfair!" brigade and while Jongho definitely gets the most, the distribution feels a lot more even than some other title tracks (in the end, it isn't, but the only line distribution analysis I've seen so far counts seconds a little wonky, counting some "ad libs" but not others). If I didn't know odds were Edenary (of which Hongjoong and Mingi are both a part) initially wrote this no less than six months ago (and probably more like 8-10+), I'd be tempted to look at some of those lyrics and try to apply them to the ongoing BS with Vata/SMF. If this was written as a clapback, it was more likely in response to the previous BS between KQ/ATEEZ and Mnet. "Nobody can stop me"? "Even devils call me up, I don't cheat"? They know how often others have copied their homework. As for the video ... again, performance version means the focus is meant to be on the dance moves. Minimal sets and costumes designed to draw attention to the flares both help with this. The swooping camera moves, not so much, but then again also sort of yes? But the more I watch it, the more I'm wondering if any ATINY might be familiar with Japanese sign language? A lot of those hand/arm moves could just be flares to highlight the musical moment, but a few of them feel like they're intentionally saying something? But I barely know anything in ASL, so I'm not qualified to really go there. And now...the lore paragraph! As I said, this is a performance video, so the lore elements are fewer. Fewer but not none. Again, we're maybe peering at Z-teez, but which one (I still maintain that A and Z are clusters of parallel timelines)? Visually, this feels a lot like a part of the Deja Vu storyline, but there's so little here, it's hard to say, especially when the blue set also feels like a callback to the door we see opening in the Wonderland MV ... which is an A plot. A connection that's further supported by the art on the cover of the EP. A whole new world, a whole new paradigm. The A team walked through that door and after Wonderland came Answer, which could be anywhere (and any time), but shows A-teez (Pirateez) meeting Z-teez (aka Halateez) making their alliance as the end of Treasure era. Does this connection (Paradigm and Wonderland) mean we're back to rolling forward from "now" instead of still in flashbacks? Only time will tell. Of course that particular location has been used by a number of groups over the years, looking for that very same dystopian vibe, but my silly little fangirl brain can't help connecting it to the maze in EXO's Overdose. Because I have a sickness and the only cure is EXOTEEZ. XD The World Ep.Paradigm is out now on all streaming platforms and for physical sale wherever you buy Jpop releases. As an aside, given the year it's been, a part of my heart is grateful to see Mingi wearing the safety pin. Maybe I'm fooling myself, but with ATEEZ's history of vocal support for the LGBTQ+ community, I like to think that was a purposeful choice and not just a fashion statement. And it's Mingi, so it's probably both. Want to see Music Monday deep dives more often? Sponsor a song selection! For the low, low price of one (1) KoFi, I'll write up the song of your choice. ANY song of your choice. Yes, even that one that's been played to death. Yes, your obscure faves too. With sponsors, I can stop skipping weeks and falling further and further behind in the releases! Sponsor a current CB for the next open Music Monday slot or sponsor a throwback for a Thursday feature! But seriously, if you've been enjoying my selections and analyses, we (me and the foster kittens) would love a KoFi in thanks. DW | Twitter | Ko-fi | Patreon | Discord | Twitch

[raymondebidochonlifechoices]

To summarise:

Archie decides to take a break from saving The Town Formerly Known As Riverdale to go save the honour of the American Army. Robin Givens directs this white man’s heroic journey probably as a quid pro quo for being allowed to direct the Pussycats episode.

Stop! In the name of love Jason! Penelope puts a stop to Cheryl and Kevin’s singing, thus immediately and completely redeeming herself from any and all wrongdoing ever. Jason’s ears stop bleeding and so are mine. Unfortunately, she doesn’t push for full monastic silence.

Wonky Timeline Alert #1: Jughead is now 7 days sober. This means that the AA meeting at RHS from 4x14 happened 1 to 6 days ago. Or did it?

Alice once again has only a vague idea about what her children (in this case Betty) are doing. Consistency.

Betty, dressed as Polly, is searching for serial killers down the Lonely Highway. She hasn’t been successful, which comes as no surprise, since -in the words of Tucker the Trucker in 4x14- there have been stories about some crazy rogue FBI agent looking for her sister.

Wonky Spacetime Alert #2: Jughead goes to the Cooper Jones Smith house but Betty can’t come to the door because she’s out, working at the Lonely Highway wearing the same faux leopard coat that we can see hanging behind Alice.

“Let it go! Move on!” says Eric. “Like Hell!” replies Archie, whose whole raison d’être in Riverdale is never letting go.

Principal Weatherbee has finally acknowledged that he will never be able to provide basic education at RHS. He puts the English lit teacher on leave and focuses on football/cheerleading/drama/auto shop courses. Is this a comment on privatized education or a coincidence? Only time will tell.

Wonky Time Alert #3: Jughead has missed weeks(!) of work.

Chadwick sics the SEC to Veronica. If only the She Wolf of Wall Street hadn’t told him her plans over their last skype call ...

We don’t learn about Reggie’s big ideas but we do learn about Reggie’s big dick energy. Nana Rose isn’t the only gal he’s been sweet talking to! He also had a thing with Hermosa.

Kevin, having finally found an audience, conspires with Cheryl to overthrow Penelope’s leadership in her own cult. I didn’t catch the details because I was distracted by Cheryl not wearing any red item of clothing.

Uncle Frank tells Archie that he’s carrying a heavy weight, so now we all get to share the burden of another war flash back … Thanks a lot, uncle Frank.

Hiram -I’m-not-a-16-year-old-nerd- Lodge has hidden his palladium in the little SoDale town model he has in his office. Where he keeps the figurines remains a mystery.

Veronica will sell the palladium in an auction after she smelts it down into something “new and unrecognizable”, i.e. Spanish doubloons. I guess palladium Spanish doubloons are both  new and unrecognizable …

Did someone say “forgery”? Cheryl makes an appearance at La petite bijoutière.

Sober Jughead doesn’t think of checking his computer for a copy of his book: it must be the addiction withdrawal syndrome messing with his cognitive functions. Or aftereffects from the rabies.

He retrieves Cora’s manuscript from his bachelor pad (aka the Bunker). He needs half a bottle of whiskey to go through it.

Kevin had a magician period growing up. This explains so much.

Cheryl performs a series of faux miracles, including turning water into maple syrup and having her hands manifest the stigmata of the holly wounds of Jason. The last one is indeed a miracle, considering Jason was shot in the head.

Wonky Time Alert #4: The Voicemail™ took place half a decade ago. But also 2 years ago?

This also means that TBK has been active for half a decade. Because living through a pandemic is not enough.

Scratch out the auto shop course at RHS: Betty is on the Highway 24/7.

Bughead finally have a talk. They admit they’re both addicts. Not to kinky sex, like they were in high school but to alcohol and serial killers. Adult stories. Yikes.

Jughead doesn’t go through with plagiarism. Hurray! Samm, however, after having waited for either 5 or 2 years for Jughead’s second book, finally drops him as a client.

Veronica successfully (and legally!) beats Chadwick at his own game. This is a new and unexpected storyline for Veronica. I need time to process.

Archie hears from Jughead that you can be put on administrative leave if you don’t show up for work, so he hastens to make the rounds of all the soldiers’ families and go testify in one day.

Archie’s testimony is conveniently not shown, probably to cover up for the fact that he has no tangible evidence. Peak Riverdale writing. The Army Tribunal members, who have never met Archie before, probably could not take more of his monologuing about saving Riverdale, so they convicted general Taylor. I guess he shouldn’t have sent Archie back there.

It turns out that Tabitha might also have an addiction: taking care of seemingly lost causes. She makes Jughead promise he’ll go to his AA meetings and then puts her best bra on to go hitch hiking with Betty at the Lonely Highway.

Alice has been really down during the whole episode. She has probably received her credit card bill. Those cooking lessons Toffee took at L’Ecole Ritz Escoffier in Paris weren’t cheap …

One down. Three more opportunities to get depressed.  

[simply-ellas-stuff]

Tbh I think Katherine should've been moved to The Originals sometime after the Mikaelson's settled in.

Her storyline after the Mikaelson's leave TVD honestly gets wonky as shit. Especially because they fuck with her characterization so much and I hate the idea of her being the 'final villain' after she got to say goodbye to her daughter AND I think her going to hell is bullshit. She's a very grey character, if she couldn't have gone to heaven - purgatory would've been fine. Hell was not.

I do genuinely think that Elijah and Katerina had real feelings for each other, so I do think Kat would've been interested in following Elijah to New Orleans even on the risk of Klaus possibly killing her. She ran for 500 years and is Katerina Petrova. She can get around Klaus without getting caught - we've seen her do it before.

I do think her storyline with Silas makes sense, the whole stealing the cure thing, the headstone thing, and the whole compelling a town thing. But I think the part where she tries to kill Elena for 'stealing her life' is where they deviated from Kat's personality.

In a way, it makes sense, but at the same time - Kat's had 500 years of life to live and Klaus had disappeared from the world for a long time, so I do think Kat would've at some point been able to spend a few years with a 'normal' life [I mean… Salvatore Brother Loving years? I mean, c'mon that could NOT have been the only time she did that].

I think after the whole part where Kat is linked to Bonnie, when Bonnie fails to give her Silas-Strength immortality, I think Kat would've cut and run because it got a little too close to Elena killing her and Kat is nothing if not a survivalist. I think that's when she should've gone to The Originals.

Now we know the TVD/TO timeline is fucked because Timeline-wise Rebekah is both in New Orleans helping Hayley and Klaus look for Elijah while also in Mystic Falls looking for the Cure. So, that's fucking stupid but maybe in this storyline - Kat is the one who takes Rebekah's place in the first season sort of? Maybe mini-disappearances from the first season of The Originals would've been the island, hiding the cure, and the whole bound-to-Bonnie moments. Which in grand scheme would've only been a few weeks of time and thus the disappearances might've made sense in the whole 'hiding from Klaus but also trying to find Elijah when he doesn't answer the phone' thing.

I don't know where I'm going with this lmfao - I can't really rewrite the whole series to add Kat in without making a timeline and I'm not that patient tonight.

But I do think it would've been so much fun to see Katherine and Klaus sort of find this shaky middle ground because = They've both lost a child who then returned to them later. I do think the whole Nadia storyline would've been fun for season two of the Originals too, especially since Hayley would've just given Hope to Rebekah, who'd come in towards the end of Season one, and it would've been fascinating to see the whole storyline go down - Klaus just gave his child away, only for Katerina's to show up and cause some bullshit.

Also, Katherine's death in TVD season 5 was fine - emotional and it made me happy that she got to make Nadia happy towards the end BUT - I don't think that should've been the end for Katherine. I think both Nadia and Katherine should've gotten happier endings.

I just think Katherine moving to The Originals would've been a fun storyline, especially due to the whole Hayley/Elijah side of it. AND we would've [hopefully] gotten a sort of reconciliation between Klaus and Katherine [and ya know, if Klaus ends up in Heaven I think he owes one of the biggest apologies to Katherine tbh] and maybe even some form of kinship after sending Hope away and the whole Nadia of it all.

As Kat said, Her and Klaus a lot more alike than they think. I do think it would've been fun to see it. Also because the Tatia of it all, seeing Hayley and Kat have moments where they don't hate each other but don't like each other, bonding over the Mom-situation they find themselves in. And Also, I think it would've been fucking funny watching Kat fake-gag at Klaus and Cami because you KNOW she would've had some form of sarcastic commentary about it.

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

Okay, so I’m still a little confused as to how the DCEU version of “Flashpoint Paradox” is going to go but, based on the teaser and the released information, I’m assuming that:

1) The storyline is either mostly the same or at least it hits the main beat of Barry preventing his mother’s death

2) Michael Keaton is not Thomas Wayne, he’s an older version of Bruce from the Flashpoint timeline

3) Reverse Flash might not be Nora’s killer this time? Eobard wasn’t listed in the cast. Unless Saoirse-Monica Jackson is playing a genderbent Eobard, which I doubt (only saying this because her role hasn’t been revealed yet).

So what I’m confused about is that since Keaton is reprising his role as Bruce Wayne, does this mean that the Tim Burton Batman movies take place in Flashpoint? Did Barry retroactively create the Burtonverse? Because that’d be kind of cool, albeit a little wonky with the timeline.

Honestly, I might be overthinking things. I wouldn’t be surprised if the movie just brought back Keaton as older Batman as a tongue-in-cheek wink to the audience. DC does that type of casting all the time anyways.

[kaiparker-avengerssmut]

Their Doll 6

Righteous and Condescending

B.Barnes x Reader, S.Rogers x Stark!Reader

series synopsis:  y/n Stark, all records of her non existent, and yet Hydra still find her. When she is kidnapped by a certain super-soldier and no one believes her, she finds herself searching for unexpected familiarity in her not-so-distant past.

Series Warnings: smut, violence, torture, swearing

Chapter Summary: Tony and Steve are dicks

Warnings: angst (I think), swearing

A/n: The timeline in this has been altered, as there I things I wanted to include but I also wanted this fic to follow the storyline/timeline of Winter Soldier and Civil war.So for purposes of this fanfic, Peter Parker was discovered by Tony at a much younger age - when he was bitten - and has been an intern with him since, almost like a protégée.(For the purposes of this story Peter was bitten much younger too - more like when he was 9 or ten rather than 14/15)

Masterlist | Series Masterlist

"You're kidding, right?" Tony drawled, chewing obnoxiously on another blueberry. When Bruce didn't respond, Tony frowned slightly, turning to Steve. "He is kidding, right? I mean, she doesn't even look like Lily!" Tony said harshly, but Steve wonky sighed heavily before closing his eyes for a moment. When he opened them he passed Tony the sheet of paper that held all of his answers.

Tony snatched the piece of paper from Steve's hand, eyes running over the black ink cynically over and over until he finally looked back up at the table of avengers. Bruce and Steve had hard expressions, whilst Thor and Clint looked genuinely amused with the situation, and y/n had a resentful glint in her eye.

Now that she met him again, seen him up close, she couldn't help her bitter tone as she snapped.

"How's Peter?" Her eyes were cold - colder than ice as she glared at Tony, hand balling into fists in her lap. Tony gulped, eyes darting around the room and avoiding her's.

"At school," he said slowly, "and living with his aunt May." Y/n scoffed, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms.

"I'm surprised you even let that kid out of your sight. I mean come on, Dad, we're to too busy pampering your little protege to even spare a week to come and find me? Do I mean that little to you?" Y/n asked, a glint of tears now in her eyes. Tony made a face, as if he'd been wrongly accused, and held his hands out in defence.

"Come on, kiddo, that's hardly fair - he was only young, and struggling at that." Y/n gasped at her father.

"And I wasn't? After years of loving me you just decided he needed more than me? It hurt, dad, and I tried to tell you that but you didn't listen!" Y/n's voice broke on the last word, a tart finally slipping from her welling eyes.

"Maybe you should take this to another room?" Bruce asked weakly but his comment was lost the second Tony began talking.

"You think that kid didn't need my love too? His parents died, y/n! It's not like I just picked him up from the streets and discover he had superpowers!" Tony almost shouted, his raise in voice making y/n flinch. Her eyes blew wide at his statement and the man seemed to realise what he'd said the second her reaction was seen.

"I-I didn't mean to-"

"Mean to what, dad? Didn't mean to abandon me? Didn't mean to let HYDRA torture me, force me to kill for them?" Y/n interrupted, completely ignoring the bulging eyes glued on her and Tony as they bickered.

"Y/n, I-"

"You what? Are you sorry, dad? Do you feel bad?" She snapped, pushing harshly from her chair and standing inches in front of him. "Well fuck you, because you were so wrapped up with your little Spider-man project that you forgot me. And I deserve better than that." Y/n stormed away, fists clenched at her side as she tried not to punch her dad or anyone else in her fit of rage.

"Y/n!" Steve called after her, but the girl was already gone. Steve was out of his seat a second later, charging after the girl who he considered completely out of line. "Y/n!" Steve snapped, wrapping his nimble yet thick fingers around her bicep and spinning the girl to face him when he caught up to y/n.

"What the do you want, Rogers?" Y/n seethed, face burning with anger.

"You're completely out of line, cut it out." Steve grit through his teeth, grip on her arm only tightening as he pulled y/n closer to him. It was like they were sharing the same air, with how close he was now standing to her.

"So you're telling me that if you saw the man who left you to die - or worse - for the first time in years, you wouldn't be angry too?" Y/n demanded.

"Yeah, but unlike you, I wouldn't react so brashly." Steve countered. Y/n raised her brows.

"Oh, really?" She challenged.

"Really." Steve confirmed, jaw clenching and unclenching. "If you want to remain here, without rotting in a cell, I suggest you straighten out your attitude."

"Oh yeah? And what're you gonna do about it? I hardly doubt Natasha would approve, and Thor seemed very fond of me." Y/n smirked, crossing her arms over her chest. Steve's jaw clenched again and he quickly pushed her backwards.

Y/n made a 'hmph' noise as her back collided with the wall, air rushing from her lungs rather unpleasantly.

"I'd watch your mouth if I were you, little one." Steve was now the one seething, whilst y/n had become rather amused at his little 'lecture'. "I'm the one pulling the strings around here, so you better watch it." He continued, before pushing away from her and turning to walk down the hall. Before he was out of range, he called over his shoulder, "I want you down in the gym and ready to train in ten. Don't be late."

...

"Harder." He demanded, arms crossed as he watched y/n punch the bag. "I said harder, y/n, not faster." Steve scolded, frowning as the girl seemed to think speed was much better than technique.

Y/n's knuckles were sore from punching the bag repeatedly, the wraps that once acted as a thin barrier between her skin and the bag long gone as they'd unraveled after the relentless punching. Steve had scolded her about that, of course, remarking scornfully about how if she'd wrapped them better it wouldn't be an issue. He had done nothing but criticise her - from the way y/n wrapped her fists down the the damn way that her fist hit the bag.

She could do nothing right, in his eyes, and it was infuriating. They had been at it for three hours, and Steve had only allowed two drinks breaks over the whole course of that time. They started on hand-to-hand combat, and when Steve decided she couldn't even punch him right, he had taken it upon himself to teach her. And now here they were, two hours in and Steve was still making the same criticisms. It was hard to tell whether y/n just wasn't listening to him or if Steve just didn't like her.

It was most probably both.

"That's enough." Steve finally said and y/n came to a halt, breathing so heavily it was as if she'd been exercising for hours with no break-

Oh wait. She had.

"Let's take a look at your aim." Steve decided, already walking towards the target practice.    Y/n finally caught her breath, striding over to join the super Soldier and picking up a belt from the rack on the nearby wall - one filled with an array of throwing knives that she'd been itching to use once she'd gotten in there.

Despite wanting to use them, y/n couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness - tinged with nostalgia - when she eyes the knives, the silver, glimmering blades only reminding her of The Soldier, and how he'd been left behind. Not that she figured he minded, after all, he never seemed to mind being HYDRA's assassin as long as he got fed.

"C'mon, Stark, let's hope your aim is much better than your punch. For your sake." Y/n clenched her teeth. Did he not remember she was a trained killer and assassin by HYDRA? Or was he just that self-righteous and condescending? The question was swiftly answered, and in the following moments y/n chose the latter option.

Y/n set herself up, pulling her shoulders back she made sure her stance was correct - just like the soldier taught her - and her wrist was loose - just like the soldier taught her - and threw. The knife pierced just to the right of the minuscule centre point, y/n's breathing steady and yet still heavy.

"Almost. Fix your stance."

[annebrontesrequiem]

CLAMP Timeline BS: How xxxHolic and CCS are Connected

Major spoilers for xxxHolic, TRC, and minor-ish spoilers for Cardcaptor Sakura and Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card

Also it long

Backstory

Cardcaptor Sakura run: 1996-2000

xxxHolic run: 2003-2011

Clear Card run: 2016-present

What I have read: The entirety of xxxHolic

What I have watched: The entirety of Cardcaptor Sakura, the entirety of Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card, xxxHolic season 1

 Crackpot Theory Time

So I got the idea for this after seeing some post somewhere (I’ll try to look for the post later) something along the lines of “maybe Sakura in Clear Card will be so powerful she’ll be able to influence the TRC universe/help the members of the CLAMP universe.” Then I started thinking about how, though there have been many posts on the TRC/xxxHolic timeline, I haven’t seen an xxxHolic/CCS timeline. I’m sure it exists somewhere, but since I’ve got my own theories I’m not writing one myself.

This is less of a timeline and more of a “how are they connected”, basically I’m going to be going back through the anime and the manga and saying whether I think CCS and xxxHolic take place in the same universe, and whether or not they’re taking place at the same time.

Let’s start with the most stuff (and apologies the manga scans are ones I made myself so if they’re kinda wonky that’s why)

Also one day I’ll update this when I actually read TRC (lol)s.

Also some of these are a bit crazy.

 Plot Points

Since xxxHolic came second it’s unsurprising that the majority of the things I’m going to be discussing comes from this series. So I’m going to start by framing this around xxxHolic, dipping inThis is going to be a bit all over the place but since I’m focusing on a specific chapter it shouldn’t be too confusing.

1.      In Chapter 2 of xxxHolic we see the most references to Cardcaptor Sakura. Namely Watanuki and Yuuko have an argument about the plastic replica of the Clow Key that Yuuko owns.

2.      Now the version that Yuuko has is the first iteration of the key. That means that when Yuuko acquired it (whenever she did) it was most likely during the first part of Cardcaptor Sakura (although yes I understand in meta it’s because it’s the most iconic iteration). Then again the key has been around for a long time, as it’s the original iteration. It’s possible that Yuuko got a copy of it from Clow, or some point before Sakura got hold of it. Although that’d most likely have to be before Kero fell asleep for 30 years, and before the cards got into the Kinomoto house.

3.      Another thing to note is that Yuuko only has a prop version. Although you might use this to say CCS is a show in this version, it’s pretty obvious that this is just for a gag. Considering the fact Watanuki doesn’t recognize it, there’s little chance that CCS is a beloved kid’s show in the xxxHolic universe.

4.      This is further proven by Yuuko’s words: “…The one who owns the original now is the creep’s [Clow’s] blood relation, a cute young girl.” This is probably the best indicator that CCS is taking place at the same time of xxxHolic. Although it’s possible that CCS takes place in an alternate world/universe, that also seems unlikely. Although Yuuko never seems tied to the shop in the way Watanuki is in the latter half, there’s also (in xxxHolic) no proof that she’s jumping around worlds. Besides, it seems unlikely she’d bring it up to Watanuki in the present-tense if that were the case. Thus we can pretty safely say that Sakura is both alive and still a little kid in the xxxHolic world.

5.      Now the most confusing part in regards to the CCS/xxxHolic timeline is Watanuki’s existence himself. In Chapter 11 Watanuki and Yuuko go to see a fortune teller. During said interaction the fortune teller explicitly states: “Your parents have safely passed into the afterlife” after noting that they died in an accident. Now this could cause some issues, as we know not only that Watanuki’s parents are Sakura and Syaoran (from what I know it’s specifically their clone versions but again I haven’t read TRC so I could be wrong). This could point to two things, either A. This is just a lie or something that CLAMP retconned later, or B. Sakura and Syaoran are dead. Assuming that this isn’t just a retcon or a sort of lie (since Sakura and Syaoran clone’s weren’t actually dead at this point, I’m pretty sure in TRC they don’t even know about Tsubasa Li yet) we could explain this via Eriol. Eriol is confirmed to be the reincarnation of Clow Reed. As of such if we assume that there was another Sakura and Syaoran running around in this world (plz god no), then the accident which caused their death doesn’t actually mean that CCS happened way earlier. It just means that they might’ve reincarnated.

Random Exposition

I’m just going to be talking about technology and geography here

1.      Firstly I had to go back and check and unfortunately the name of Watanuki’s school doesn’t match with the name of Sakura’s school (or rather her brother’s old school). Cross Private School has nothing to do with Tomoeda. Although that could actually further point to them existing in the same timeline, since if they lived in the same place it’d be weird if they never ran into one another.

2.      Tomoeda is said to be close to Tokyo. In fact in the second season we see Sakura and the gang taking the train to Tokyo. Watanuki obviously lives in a city, or a very dense suburb, and in Chapter 5 he mentions that Ginza would take hours to walk to. Having lived in a very dense city myself once (Paris I miss you baby) I know that walking from one side of the other could theoretically take hours. Though I’m not sure how large Tokyo is and I have no real sense of distance, I’d guess that Watanuki lives either in some made up part of Tokyo, or in the suburbs directly connected to the city. As famous landmarks are never mentioned, it could be either or. He could even be from a neighboring city theoretically, although then it’d prolly take much longer to walk to Ginza.

3.      Lastly I want to talk about technology. In Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card we can clearly see that this is meant to take place in modern times, as Sakura has upgraded to an iphone, in keeping with the time. This definitely disproves CCS coming before xxxHolic, as nothing in xxxHolic suggests it takes place in the future. I also think that there’s no way xxxHolic comes before CCS for any real period of time, after all in Volume 1 there are many chapters dedicated to the woman who cannot stop using the internet. This too points to me that xxxHolic and CCS are running in conjunction to one another, or are at least only a few years off.

Conclusion

So this is all very crackpot and weird, but I do think it’s interesting to ponder. As that forum post said Clear Card definitely seems to be upping the scale of Cardcaptor Sakura, the magic is greater, the stakes seem higher, and characters such as Yuna D. Kaito point towards a storyline that seems more tonally in tandem with the greater CLAMP extended universe, as really ratcheted up by xxxHolic and TRC.

You could make the argument that CCS and xxxHolic are from different universes, though considering what I’ve written and read I don’t think you can argue that they’re utterly disconnected. Overall I’m still missing a huge piece of the puzzle, that being TRC as well as the rest of the Clear Card chapters. One day I’ll prolly remake this post, but until then I hope you enjoyed!

[thatgamefromthatad]

3 more games like Merge Mansion - the genre is evolving!

More and more games like Merge Mansion (two-item merge games) are being released and I can hardly keep up, but I’m glad because I find this genre so satisfying! Here I’ll review three more relatively new games, which are all unique in that they break off quite a bit from the original Merge Mansion, and include their own mechanics not seen in the other Merge Mansion-esque games I’ve covered!

You can see my original Games like Merge Mansion review here, although it’s quite outdated as many of those games have made significant changes since I wrote that in early March. I’ll try to add some updates to the original post sometime in the near future to better reflect that current status of each of those games. You can also find links to the other two-item merge games I’ve previously reviewed in my final ranking at the end!

Read my full reviews of Plantopia, Merge Adventure and City Boom below:

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Plantopia: Merge Garden (Early Access)

Developer: Voodoo

Release Date: May 7, 2020 (Early Access)

This game is an interesting one because I only found it recently and started seeing ads for it recently although it’s apparently been around for about a year. I’m thinking it was soft launched and only recently made available in my region. The title screen indicates it’s still early access so that would make sense.

An initial release/soft launch date of May 2020 would actually make it older than Merge Mansion, which I believe was released in Sept. 2020. However I’m not sure about the exact timeline as they could have been in development/soft launched around the same time and the games are actually quite different overall so the basic similarities could be a coincidence.

This game truly amazed me because although it has the basic elements of what I would consider a Merge Mansion-like game, that being the two-item merge mechanic on a two-dimensional grid-like board viewed from the top, with item generators and item collection objectives, it’s otherwise very different from the other two-item merge games I’ve played. There are at least three separate boards, possibly more considering the tool shed and flower lab unlock a bit later in the game, and instead of completing objectives by getting items right off the board, you use items from the greenhouse and tool shed boards to start growing plants and then harvest the resources. The flower lab adds an additional step, as you can take the plants you’ve harvested to that board and merge them further to create bouquets and oils etc.

This game is probably the most complex and challenging out of all the two-item merge games I’ve played, which I think makes it more fun but less relaxing. Basically if I want something to play mindlessly while chilling out and watching YouTube videos I would play Merge Mansion or Merge Friends, but when I want to play something more advanced and for a longer period of time I play Plantopia.

🌼 Art: 3/3 (although I mostly prefer all 2D art, this game does the 3D/2D mixture better than some other games and I just love the colors and style of the different plants, boards and products. It all feels very “cottagecore” as the kids these days would say lol. The 2D character designs are also OK and pretty cute)

🌼 Story: 2/3 (it’s definitely a step above the “moving into this old mansion with my grandparents” story, I did get to know the characters a little better and some of the objectives are plot-related, such as growing aloe to help another character with his sunburn, or growing a special flower that reminds another character of her late husband etc. But I wasn’t really feeling like I wanted to learn more, and the storyline didn’t have a huge influence on my overall experience)

🌼 Gameplay: 5/5 (definitely the strongest game in terms of gameplay in my opinion, like I said it is more challenging and there’s more to think about but it makes for a really fun and varied experience!)

🌼 Variety: 2/3 (although there are three whole boards and you unlock different plants as you go along, there isn’t as much variety in the merging part since you basically just merge seeds into sprouts, sprouts into younger plants etc. until you have the full plant to place in a plot. You know exactly what you’re merging up to and there’s no thrill of discovering a new item by merging up. The items also come from boxes or from preset, unmovable generators so there’s no fun in discovering new generators either. But it is cool that each plant has its own planting requirements like more water, more fertilizer, more light etc.)

🌼 Playtime vs. Wait Time: 4/4 (another huge advantage of this game, there’s no energy system so you can play for very long, the only time constraint is waiting for plants to grow)

🌼 Overall Enjoyment: 4/5 (I’m definitely very impressed with this game but the things I mentioned in the Variety section are probably the biggest thing that prevents me from giving it a 5/5 overall. It is exciting when you unlock something new by progressing through the game but I especially enjoy moving up item ranks and discovering new generators, so in that area this game didn’t really do it for me. But otherwise it’s really a great game and a very unique entry within this genre!)

🌼 Total: 20/23

Merge Adventure - Dragons!

Developer: Ludigames

Release Date: March 25, 2021

First of all, even though the full name of this game includes the word dragons, I haven’t seen a single dragon unless one was mentioned in the written adventure logs, which I don’t usually read.

With that out of the way, this is another very unique game in terms of merge games as it is also an RPG. Some of the items you merge on the board are used to equip your hero, while others are used to unlock new adventures that yield different loot upon completion. You don’t actually get to engage in battles since the adventures themselves run on an idle system where you just get an adventure log to read to how your hero is doing and then collect the loot after a certain period of time. It is definitely something new for two-item merge games and deserves credit for the unique concept, but execution-wise it unfortunately fell short in a lot of ways.

🗡 Art: 1/3 (the art here isn’t necessarily awful but it is on the uglier side compared to a lot of the other games in this genre, specifically the board pieces. Maybe I’m biased because I prefer fun and colorful items, and these items involve a lot of wood and metal and such, but the board often seems so monochrome I can’t even tell certain items apart or remember which item track they belong to. Some of the level 1 items are just differently-shaped scraps of metal. The hero design isn’t bad but I only have one character to base that opinion on. We’ll get to that later)

🗡 Story: 2/3 (I honestly can’t remember if there’s an overarching plot but I will give it a point for the adventure logs, even though I usually don’t read them, it is cool that you can read what your character’s doing and how they obtained the loot they ultimately bring back)

🗡 Gameplay: 2/5 (I want to give it more points for being unique but despite the interesting concept I did have trouble with the gameplay. First of all, it has one of the smallest boards out of all the games I’ve played and a lot of different generators, which guarantees your board will become clogged very quickly. The numbers in the corners of each tile are supposed to help you keep track of what level items you have I presume, but they only make an already cluttered board look more cluttered, and the fact that I already couldn’t tell some of the item designs apart means having all the items crowded and jumbled makes for a very confusing and frustrating experience. Getting new items through loot from adventures seemed cool but then led to more frustration with more items to squeeze onto my fully packed board. Also I have no clue how to get more heroes, I’ve only had one this whole time playing so far, so there’s not much more to the RPG experience other than equipping more powerful items)

🗡 Variety: 2/3 (technically there’s a wide variety of items but as mentioned previously the very monochrome nature of the items makes the experience feel less varied and you can barely enjoy discovering new items when you’re just trying to find space on the board 90% of the time. Also, most of the item tracks just go: item, bigger item, bigger fancier item, biggest fanciest item, or, piece of item, more pieces of item, mostly put-together item, fully assembled item)

🗡 Playtime vs. Wait Time: 1/4 (your time is limited by the energy system, generators needing to refill AND waiting for your hero to return from an adventure)

🗡 Overall Enjoyment: 2/5 (sadly I didn’t really enjoy this game, although I guess my favorite part would be merging up weapons and other equippable items to make my hero more powerful, which isn’t something I could really do in any of these other games)

🗡 Total: 10/23

City Boom

Developer: Playwind Ltd.

Release Date: April 9, 2021

This game is very interesting as it’s the only merge game I’ve personally played that has you compete against other players. This game actually works pretty much exactly like a game I played loooooong ago called Coin Masters, where you gain coins by attacking or raiding other people’s bases while spending coins to build up your own base. The main difference here of course is that the other way to get coins is to merge items and complete requests, while in Coin Masters it was like a slot machine thing. I checked and they are not made by the same developer.

Anywho, the multiplayer aspect of this game was exciting since I definitely have a competitive streak, and I’ve been playing every day to try and climb up the leaderboard (I’m in the top 1,000 so far lol!) However this game is still new and pretty wonky, and it aggressively tries to get you to buy things, much more than any of the other two-item merge games. Also, this game is one of those games that’s very reliant on a constant internet connection so if you don’t have great internet (which I don’t) you will have a lot of issues with the game freezing, just a heads up.

💰 Art: 3/3 (I got to admit I’m a sucker for the cute, colorful and cartoony, and I just can’t get enough of the silly little cats in this game 😂 I appreciate that the 3D art style in this game is very consistent in all parts of the game, and this game also has 3D animated sections: for example, when you go to attack another player a cat rolls up in a little tank and rockets fly around)

💰 Story: 2/3 (there isn’t really a linear story but I give it a point for the different themed areas you progress through as you grow your town, plus the personality put into the cat characters)

💰 Gameplay: 3/5 (I do enjoy this game, especially the fact that I get to compete against other players, but there are a few issues. This game has a lot of limited time events, there’s seriously like 2 or 3 running at a time and seem to change every day, which does add some fun and variety, but creates a unique problem of having event-specific items on the board that I don’t know what to do with when the event ends. I don’t know if that event will come back again or if those items are just completely useless and should be sold now. Currently they’re just keeping my board very clogged. Also, this game really aggressively pushes overpriced microtransactions, which can get very annoying, but I will say that I was still able to play and enjoy the game a fair amount without paying anything. Lastly, the items make a really off putting clunk sound when they merge. May not seem important but it makes the merges less satisfying for me personally)

💰 Variety: 2/3 (There is a variety of event items but as far as the main items there’s very little variety, basically just four categories of items, so I put this in the middle)

💰 Playtime vs. Wait Time: 2/4 (what I like is that there are a lot of chances to get extra energy but what I don’t like is that rather than having energy refresh one at a time every few minutes, you have to wait like half an hour for all the energy to refill at once)

💰 Overall Enjoyment: 4/5 (honestly despite all my criticisms of it I kept coming back to this game, I really enjoy the competitive aspect and none of the problems with it are to the point where it seriously impedes my ability to play. That’s why I kind of have a separate category for overall enjoyment to begin with, because even if a game scores well or poorly in specific categories that won’t necessarily reflect my overall experience)

💰 Total: 16/23

Rankings

Plantopia (scored the same as Travel Town but after playing Travel Town for a while I’ve gotten more bored with it. Plantopia is the new reigning champion! 🎉)

Travel Town

Merge Design

Mergedom: Home Design

Merge Friends

Miss Merge

Merge Mansion

City Boom (scored the same as Merge Mansion but I preferred it less)

Merge Life (note: the linked review is outdated as the game has undergone a lot of updates since I wrote it, I will update it at some point but take the current version with a grain of salt)

Merge Matters

Merge Villa

Merge Adventure (scores the same as Merge Villa but I think I was a little harsh on Merge Villa to begin with, this game is much less playable)

Thank you so much for reading!!! I hope these reviews helped you if you enjoy merge games as much as I do! 💖 You can find more of my full game reviews here and follow me for more stuff about mobile games. Have a great day 🥳

[kirkwallsquad]

shadow and bone: a rant

so i quit watching shadow and bone about halfway through episode 4 because i realized that, as someone who adores the books, i wasn’t going to enjoy it. i ended up reading spoilers and looking at gifsets to determine if i was going to continue and decided not to.

rant under the cut.

quick disclaimer: i hadn’t been paying attention to the show’s/bardugo’s/any of the actors’ social media or w/e so i have no idea how much of the show’s premise they explained, so my expectations might not have been the same had i done that.

but i was hoping for a proper crows prequel? timeline wise it would’ve still been wonky but like... the dekappel heist or how kaz met nikolai or any of that would’ve been super interesting. the crows duology is bardugo’s best work imo and giving those incredible characters the time and attention they deserved would’ve made for a great show.

when rotty mentioned the dekappel was already stolen i was a bit sad, because that’s a story i’d love to see. we might’ve even gotten a hint at wylan! so then i wasn’t sure what to expect and someone mentioned a conductor and a weird machine, leading me to think of nikolai immediately, only for it to be someone new. which is fine, new characters are fine, but the way they forced the crows into the og trilogy’s timeline just didn’t do it for me.

this is in part because i do also like the grisha trilogy a lot and i believe it could’ve easily made for a series by itself. i noticed parts of the books that were cut (the whole part where alina decides which kefta colors to wear, for example, or grisha from all three factions trying to win her over that emphasize the fakeness of their friendship towards her) which was a bit of a shame because i felt those were important to the narrative? and by adding in the crows it took away moments for alina’s storyline to breathe and have more nuance.

obviously not every single thing from the books has to be in the show, and again i was fine with it for the first two episodes, but then i just kept noticing more and more things that bothered me.

nina was what ended up making me realize how difficult having read and enjoyed the books would make watching this show. in the books, nina mentions being part of the children/young teenagers who were evacuated from the little palace. her kidnapping happened after the darkling was defeated, when she was on an expedition with zoya, who was her commanding officer. nikolai was tsar.

and then i couldn’t stop thinking about how irritating this show is to watch when you know what the original canon is. and i’m just frustrated because i feel like there were more interesting, less irritating or alienating stories to tell here.

the show has things going for it, of course: ben barnes plays the darkling in a wonderfully creepy way, and his relationship with alina is (rightfully) shown as gross. the fact that their age difference is so apparent makes it all the more wonderful. i love milo. the actors are all incredible and you can tell they had a great time shooting.

and there are little things that i noticed that annoyed me just a bit: the fact that mal doesn’t sleep with zoya, the fact that zoya (who is half-suli) calls alina a half breed, the fact that inej has a brother? which means that, rather than her motivation coming from herself, it (partially) comes from a man. wonderful. we love feminism (/s) (this is bad and misogynistic writing) (made all the more irritating by the fact that inej in the books is such a well-written character, and even in the show it’s unnecessary for her to have a brother).

but at the end of the day it’s not a bad show, and i think if you’ve never read the books it’s very enjoyable. i know people who have read the books and enjoy it, because they can separate it from the books, but to me that’s not possible. it feels like fanfiction. and maybe if i try to watch it again from that angle i could enjoy it.

[mmprviolet]

❄🌺 Frosted Flakes❄🌺

To kick off Jareka Month here's my analysis describing the basics of the young couple :)

Type: Opposite Elements/Seasons

Tropes: Birds of a Feather, Mayfly-December Romance, UST (as far as teenage crushes go), Not So Different, Defrosting Ice Queen

OC: Eureka, a runaway foster child who discovers her latent magical abilities and now works with the Guardians of Childhood to find the remaining Guardians of Nature. Eureka's fc is Gratuity "Tip" Tucci from the 2015 movie Home.

Inspo: I was inspired by the books to make OC, and given how wonky the book timeline is with the movie, think of Eureka as an expy/adaptation of Mother Goose. I was also kinda put out by the lack of diversity in the Brave Tangled Dragons fandom, especially since we have had more movies with POC leads in them. Since Tip is the same age as Jack I decided to use her as a guide for Eureka's appearance so this isn't Jack x Tip.

Other: There's an AU where Eureka met the guardians far much earlier in the movie and helps them out. She still can't see Jack but can here him; it's when she fully believes in him is when she begins to see his physical appearance (and much to her own shock she finds him very cute).

Eureka is also a redesign of my previous OC Eva Holloway. Since Word of God states that Jack also represents Halloween I decided to scrap Eva in favor of Contrasting Seasons. In this case Jack helps the figurative Ice Queen Eureka see the fun and joy in life, while Eureka helps Jack to cope with his lost teenage-hood. I know it doesn't make sense at first but I'm developing their storyline as I go on.

All posts relating to this couple is tagged under ship: frosted flakes

Also if you'd like I am open to curious asks or submissions if anyone is interested in hearing about Jareka and my plans for the ship! 😊😊