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kumoriyami-xiuzhen · 4 years ago

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Hakuoki Yuugiroku 3 Fall Saito Story

managed to recover my first post of the year which seemed to have disappeared from tumblr via exporting it…

hope everyone had a safe and happy new year… recently hit 500 followers over the holidays so I’d like to say thanks for appreciating the stuff I’ve uploaded and my translations (I kinda feel the need to say this but: I am an adult who occasionally uses crude language so please be aware of that. Also, i don’t run an image-focused blog. i only wanted to post everything that I thought wasn’t available as clean images online so that people would be able to find and access more Hakuoki content… and i do believe i have done that for the most part).

Threw together a list of things that I hope translate this year into in one of my other posts today… here’s hoping that it will be less volatile than 2020… tho im not expecting much given the news yesterday though i can’t say that i didn’t expect it.

Anyway. translation. Story from the 3rd Yuugiroku game.

The CN of the title I have for this translates to the effect of “The fate/return/destination of (a) migratory bird(s),” which I think looks weird and I’m not sure how accurate that tl is, so I’m just going to categorize these stories by season and char lol. not that it’ll be any time soon before I go and translate another one of these since this did feel quite long…. and it’s not like anyone else is translating these (please someone translate these xD there are 2 side stories per route and i am not looking forward to torturing myself with them!).

also, a significant portion of the punctuation and stuff wasn’t used in the tl i found for this, so that will be reflected in this… will fix it later.

Hakuoki Yuugiroku 3 - Fall Saito Story

Translation by KumoriYami

That day I was delivering Hijikata-san’s message and came to Saito-san’s room.

Yukimura Chizuru: Saito-san, are you there?

[I] Called him from outside his door but he didn’t seem to hear me.

Did he go out?

But the other warriors clearly stated that he was in the room.

Using a slightly louder voice, I called again.

Yukimura Chizuru: Ah, Saito-san are you there?

Saito: Yukimura, is there something [you need]?

Yukimura Chizuru: Hijikata-san said that he had something to say to Saito-san so I was asked to get you.

Saito: Vice-commander? I see.

I got it/I understand I will go at once, you’ve worked hard, Yukimura. [I’ll check the game for punctuation later….probably?]

Yukimura: It’s rare, for Saito-san didn’t hear me calling you.

Saito: I was concentrating, [and] I didn’t hear your voice.

Yukimura: Concentrating? Was it on sword maintenance?

Saito: nn, more or less.

Yukimura: ．．．．．．？

It was rare for Saito-san to answer questions in such vague terms.

Saito: Isn’t (the) vice-commander calling me? I’ll hurry up.

Saito: You can go back.

Yukimura: I understand, then I’ll be going now.

I gently lowered my head and prepared to leave Saito-san’s side.

Yukimura:．．．．．．

His unusual mood made me feel a little worried.

Afterwards at dinner, there was a strange/unusual incident.

Saito-san who finished eating earlier than everyone else set down his chopsticks.

Heisuke: What’s wrong are you already full Hajime-kun?/Hajime-kun you’re already full?

Saito ……Nn.

Yukimura: There’s more of Saito-san’s favourite tofu.

Saito: I’ve had enough for now, I’ll be leaving first.

Leaving behind those words, Saito-san bought his plate into the kitchen.

Nagakura: What’s wrong with Saito? It’s simply unfathomable for him to only eat a small portion of tofu.

Harada: It doesn’t look like he’s feeling unwell, so maybe he secretly ate earlier?

Yukimura: What, Saito-san isn’t a person who would do something like that.

Toudou: Hajime-kun’s been acting weird lately. In the morning today, he went back to his room right after practice.

Nagakura: did he have a headache? Sano, did you ask him?

Harada: If he doesn’t want to say anything, then I can’t ask.

Nagakura: If this continues, perhaps something permanent might happen [gave up rewording for now lol].

Yukimura:．．．．．．

What was wrong with Saito-san?

Was something bothering him?

A few days later.

For the sake of mending the warriors’ uniforms, I went to the common room [tl is large main hall].

Chizuru: Ah, you’re here, Saito-san.

Saito: ! Yukimura——

Saito-san hid what he was holding behind him in a panic.

What was it?

It looked like a book.

Saito:……Will you be mending clothes here?

Yukimura: Yes, will this bother you?

Saito: No, it’s no bother.

Yukimura: Then I’ll be mending/sewing here.

I took out my needlework box and began mending the clothes.

Saito-san seemed to be hesitating about if he should stay or leave/ leaving or staying.

Yukimura: Um.

Saito: What?

Saito: Was Saito-san reading something just now?

Saito: Ah, um, nn, more or less.

Yukimura: Don’t mind me and continue reading.

Saito: But.

Yukimura: Am I bothering you?

Saito: No, but……

Saito-san looked very confused, after…

Saito: Yukimura.

Yukimura: What is it?

Saito: I hope you don’t tell anyone else that I was reading this book.

Yukimura: Don’t tell the others?

What was going on?

To actually not want any of the other warriors to know about this book.

Could it be that this book was on something, like assassination techniques, that shouldn’t be passed onto others?

I felt a bit uneasy.

Yukimura: I understand. I will never tell anyone else.

Saito: I believe you.

With a sharp glance at me, Saito-san began to read again.

The cover of the book looked badly worn.

Yukimura: Is that a manual on kenjutsu?

Saito: Yes, I happened to find it a few days ago, and took it to read. As a result, I’ve started reading this without stopping. If I have time, I’ll read. [reword later]

Yukimura: So it was like that.

That’s why Saito-san has been behaving strangely lately.

Yukimura: But why don’t you want to let the other warriors know?

There was no need to hide a swordsmanship manual.

Saito: That, because. The author of this book and I are not from the same school. Reading manuals from other styles is considered unethical.

Yukimura: I see.

I couldn’t help but laugh at such serious reasoning.

But, that truly was Saito-san’s style.

I started sewing again as Saito-san to read again.

We focused on our own things, and while we were in the same room, it however was natural for there to be no dialogue.

Retreating to the tranquility of the autumn night with only the sound of cicadas, [reword later] and the occasional sound of Saito-san turning a page.

Suddenly I was very interested in that sound and was looking in/looked in Saito-san’s direction.

Focused on reading, his entire posture was completely serious.

My heart felt happy just by looking at him, and I unconsciously smiled.

As a result, he noticed my staring, and while his gaze didn’t leave the book, he asked me a question.

Saito: What’s wrong? Is there something on my face?

Yukimura: No, Saito-san’s expression is very earnest/serious.

As a result, Saito-san tilted his head slightly, murmuring quietly.

Saito: So there’s nothing strange. I don’t understand what you’re thinking.

Yukimura: If I’ve upset you, I’m sorry.

Saito: I’m not upset.

Saito-san lightly sighed, adjusting the way he sat slightly.

Yukimura: Saito-san really loves kenjutsu.

Saito: I don’t have any other skills, but I do have some knowledge about kenjutsu/experience.

Yukimura: Ah, a talent/Oh my.

The conversation ended like this, and Saito-san once again began focusing on the manual.

From time to time, there was the sound of pages being turned.

The silence was soothing. I continued sewing the clothes.

A few days later.

I finished washing the clothes, and was about to head back into my room.

Nomura: Spare me, Saito-san. There’s no way we can defeat Saito-san./How could we beat Saito-san!

I saw Saito-san, Souma-kun and Nomura-kun practising with the blunt side of their swords [check jp mtl].

It looked like he was trying to put what he had read in that book a few days ago into practice.

Saito: A little bit more, just a bit more and I’ll have grasped it. One more time.

Souma: But we’re going on patrol next. Regardless of what is said, we can’t neglect our duties as members.

Saito: I’ll finish this as as [you?] obtain a point. There won’t be any problem.

Nomura: To quickly get a single point, what the hell is that! This is terrible.

Souma: But it’s pointless to continue like this…

As of the three of them talked, Nomura noticed me an started speaking with me.

Nomura: Ah, Yukimura-senpai, you’re just in time.

Yukimura: Ah, just in time for what?

Nomura: Why don’t you ask Yukimura-senpai to practise with you, Saito-san?

Saito: Ask Yukimura?

Yukimura: This, that’s not something I can do, there’s no way I can fight Saito-san.

Nomura: That doesn’t matter, we’re about the same [skill] level.

Yukimura: But…

Nomura: We have to go on patrol later, so please help us.

Souma: Nomura, don’t force Yukimura-senpai like this. Yukimura-senpai is also very busy.

Yukimura: ．．．．．．

Fighting against Saito-san will be incredibly difficult.

Yukimura: Saito-san, am I okay [acceptable?]?

Saito: Is that okay? Have you been instructed to do anything?

Yukimura: I’ve already finished with those things. However I don’t know if I’ll be of any use.

Saito: That is more than enough, thank you, Yukimura.

Yukimura: Not at all.

Nomura: The we’ll be going to work, so we’ll leave this to you, Yukimura-senpai!

Souma: Is this really okay, Senpai?

Yukimura: There aren’t a lot of opportunities to learn/This is a good opportunity to learn.

Souma: Then, we’ll be leaving/take our leave.

Yukimura: Okay. See you.

The two of them went directly back into headquarters to prepare for patrol.

Saito: Then, let us begin, Yukimura. Are you ready?

I took a stance a distance away from Saito-san, and held up my kodachi.

Yukimura: Please advise me. [well not sure what the JP equivalent of this is….]

Following the silence, my entire body was filled with a sense of tension [reword later].

After.

At the sound of my foot stepping forward, in a split second, Saito-san was facing me.

Chizuru: !

I hurriedly prepared myself, but he was faster than I was.

Yukimura: Ah!

My kodachi flew in an arc and landed on the ground.

Saito: Ippon.

Yukimura:……

Saito-san’s killing intent left me speechless.

Saito: As expected, knowledge acquired from reading needs to be tested in real combat.

As Saito-san spoke, he picked up my kodachi, which had fallen onto the ground, and handed it back to me.

I received it with trembling hands.

Yukimura: Thank you very much.

Saito-san became stronger again.

Saito: The fact remains that you have also improved, Yukimura.

Yukimura: Is that so……

Saito: Let’s return now. It’s about time to prepare dinner.

Yukimura: Yes!

Afterwards, Saito-san and I helped prepare dinner together.

—-end—

next week’s post is Saito’s 7th Ginsei no Shou chapter!

#hakuoki #hakuouki #hakuoki yuugiroku 3 #hakuoki game translation #Saito Hajime #Yukimura Chizuru #souma kazue #harada sanosuke #Toudou Heisuke #nagakura shinpachi #Nomura Risaburo

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littlesliceofmarvel · 5 years ago

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I’m Sorry | Part 2

Request/Synopsis: Reader dies during the events of Civil War.

Warnings: Swearing, detailed mentions of death and gore, ENDGAME SPOILERS!!!! Big Ol’ Endgame Spoilers below the cut!

Pairings: Avengers x Reader

A/N: So, after many people have asked, part 2 is finally here! I don’t remember all of the dialogue from the movie, so if there are some mistakes there, just ignore them! Also, the italics are flashbacks. Gif isn’t mine! Enjoy! xx

Also, Tumblr is being weird right now so the flashback scene isn’t all in italics, I don’t understand. I’m tryna fix that.

Part One

“Tony, I don’t want to fight you,” Y/N faced the man in the suit, his weapons lowered when she came to face him. She hated the fact that the Accords had separated the team, leading them to turn on each other, to turn on family.

“I don’t want to either, but until Rogers turns Barnes over, I have to do what I can to make you guys give in,” he said with regret, his heart breaking at the sight of the girl in front of him, bloodied, bruised and slightly decayed.

“You kill me later on, you know, it’s your fault,” Y/N spoke as the patches of blood started to spread on her body, the skin slowly peeling off of her face to reveal the bones in her skull, her legs giving in under her as she collapsed to the ground, reaching out towards Tony who could no nothing but break down, seeing her fall apart in front of him, his body threatening to crumble at the sight of her, blaming him for her death.

He knew there was nothing he could do now, he had this nightmare over and over again every night. So did most of the team. Y/N’s lifeless body haunted their dreams, each of them feeling the guilt build on their shoulders more and more every morning after she taunted their sleep. They knew that Y/N wouldn’t blame any of them for her death, that she would want them to move on and be happy, live their lives and save the world, but they couldn’t help it.

She was gone, she had disappeared from their lives, taking her bright spirit with her. For the first couple of weeks, the denial had set in, and they would wait around the table during meals, hoping she’d skip out of her room and laugh at them for falling for one of her many pranks. But she never did. She wasn’t going to.

And that hit them harder than they could have ever prepared for.

SEVEN YEARS LATER

Going back in time seemed like an almost impossible task if you thought about it. To go back in time would be to mess up your present, your future. This had crossed their minds, of course, Tony almost dropping out of the adventure completely to ensure the safety of his wife and new daughter.

But they did it. They went back, collected the Infinity Stones, and made it back to build an Infinity Gauntlet, props to Tony. They lost Natasha in the process, having sacrificed herself for the soul stone to save the universe. Clint was devastated, feeling as if she had deserved to live so much more than he did, but it was too late. She had asked him to promise her something, that if it was possible, bring back those that we had lost before her, those who didn’t deserve the death they were given. Of course, she meant those who had been wiped out in the snap, that was their mission, but the two of them knew she also meant Y/N.

“It’s her birthday,” Steve broke the silence in the room as they looked through a box of pictures, wanting to frame some around the tower of Y/N and her smiling face, brightening a room immediately.

“Remember... before it happened, she wanted sushi,” Wanda said, a small smile on her face as she looked down at a picture of her, Y/N and Natasha, the three of them bruised and bloody, sitting in the medical lab while getting treated for injuries, but each of them giving the camera a thumbs up. A classic.

“We should celebrate with sushi, then, for her birthday,” Tony said quietly, Natasha nodding from beside him as she looked over his shoulder to see another picture of Y/N, this time of her passed out on the couch, her legs flung over the back as Sam and Bucky held sharpies to her face, drawing ‘tattoos’ on her skin, big smiles on their faces as Y/N slept soundly, not noticing what was going on.

“It’s been eight months, she’d be pissed as us for still moping about her, you know that, right?” Clint asked, chuckling slightly, his head in his hands as he looked down towards the table before looking back up to face the rest of the team, all nodding slowly.

“Oh, she’d be furious,” Natasha grinned, picking up another picture out of the box, smiling down at it, realizing Clint was right. Y/N would be pissed at the team for sitting around in their sweat pants, looking through pictures of her months after her death, guilt still swirling heavily around each of them.

They wanted to move on, they knew that they should, but they couldn’t. If she had died any other way, they would have. If it were Thanos, Loki, Ultron, any other bad guy, they would have been able to move on by now, but it was their fault. They let their own problems get in the way, and she paid the price with her life. There was no turning back from that.

Clint broke the news to the team, telling them that Natasha sacrificed her soul for the sake of the universe, and if anything, they were so much more determined to make things right because of that. If they failed, they would have failed her, she would have sacrificed herself for their failure. They were distraught at having lost one of their best people, a wonderful soul and an important member of their ever-growing family, but they had to do this. Now or never.

“I’m going to have to be the one to do it, I hope you realize,” Bruce spoke, approaching the gauntlet, his voice filled with determination as he approached it.

“No, why does it have to be you?” Clint asked, crossing his arms to look at Bruce’s figure, approaching the gauntlet himself.

“The radiation’s mostly Gamma, I’m the only one who can handle that,” Bruce stated as if it were obvious, looking around the room, no one really volunteering to do it in the first place. They had seen the effect that the snap had on Thanos, nearly killing the guy, so they knew that anyone who’d snap it next would deal with the same fate.

Bruce approached the gauntlet, his mind racing over all of the possibilities that could happen to him once he put it on, but they all didn’t matter. He was going to do this, whether he survived or not. He slid his hand into it, the power of the stones completely taking over his body as he collapsed on the ground, the rest of the team approaching him to make sure he was alright. Bruce nodded, letting the pain settle down as the power coursed through his veins, igniting everything inside of him.

“Ok,” Steve looked over a small scan of the gauntlet before turning back to Bruce, “Just bring everyone back. That easy.”

Clint uncrossed his arms, looking to Steve, “Nat... uh, had a request, actually.” He ignored the crack in his voice as he mentioned her, the realization that she’s gone not completely settling in yet.

“What was it?” Tony looked up from the machine he was using to close off the room, large barriers crashing down around them to prevent chaos once the snap had been done. The sound vibrated throughout the building, but no one took their attention off of the conversation.

“She, uh, asked if there was any way we could bring back people who didn’t die because of the snap, people who were innocent,” Clint finished, looking down to the ground before looking back to the team, each of them understanding what he meant.

“Y/N.” Tony nodded slowly, looking to Bruce, “Do you think you can try?”

Bruce nodded, eyes wide, “Yes.”

Steve, Scott, Clint, Tony, Rocket, Thor, Rhodey, and Bruce looked between each other, each of them feeling an immediate weight on their chest. Rocket had never met her, but being around the team for the last five years made him feel like he knew her.

“Is there any way to bring Nat back?” Bruce asked, breaking the silence that over took the room, everyone trying to think of ways to make this possible.

“I don’t think so,” Clint said, looking back down to the ground as he ran a hand through his hair in frustration, “Her soul is what’s going to power that stone for us to use. Try it, of course, but I don’t think we should get out hopes up.” He knew what he was saying was true, but part of him wished that it wasn’t.

Unfortunately, everyone had already got their hopes up to see the two ladies again. They understood that the chance of seeing Natasha again was much smaller, but the hope was there for her anyways.

Bruce nodded, lifting his hand as if to signal he was ready. Steve lifted his shield, Tony and Rhodey covered themselves with their suits, and the rest of the team got themselves secure and safe, out of the way of the snap. Bruce closed his eyes, not letting his emotions get the best of him as he focused on what he wanted. When he was ready, he snapped his fingers, a gust of wind blowing across the room as everyone took cover.

Seconds passed, and no one dared to speak. Tony lifted the barriers in the room and Scott approached a window, looking outside to see birds chirping, settling themselves into a tree. Clint felt his heart drop when he looked over to his vibrating phone, a call from his wife signalling that their plan had worked.

“Guys, I think it worked,” Scott said almost too quietly, but it broke through the dead silence in the room.

“Um, what’s going on?” A small voice from the room next door made their eyes widen, a familiar soft voice enough to make seven years of emotions come barreling through. Tony felt his heart drop, running over to the sound of the voice and his eyes landed on Y/N, standing next to a window, looking down at her body in complete confusion.

She could feel all of the atoms in her skin forming once again, it was as if she was being re born. She could feel her blood, the pumping sensation of her veins feeling all too real. Her head was pounding as she looked around, seeing the familiar faces of the people she called family looking back to her.

“Y/N...” Steve whispered, not being able to look away from the girl, who looked as if she hadn’t aged a day since her death. Technically, she hadn’t, but the rest of them were so sleep-deprived and devastated that they seemed to have aged 20 years.

“What’s going on?” Y/N asked, eyes wide as she faced the team with shaky hands, “We were... in Berlin, I was asking for sushi...” To her, it was seconds after her death, it hadn’t felt like nearly a decade had passed.

“Oh, we’ve got a lot of explaining to do,” Tony looked to Steve who nodded, bracing themselves for what was to come.

#avengers imagine #avengers imagines #steve rogers imagine #tony stark imagine #clint barton imagine #thor imagine #scott lang imagine #marvel imagine #marvel imagines #captain america imagine #iron man imagine #hawkeye imagine #avengers preference #avengers preferences

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thenonbinarydetective · 5 years ago

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MID Overview/Review

Ok so I redid it because tumblr broke the first one. Luckily, it gave me the oppurtunity to fix some of my grammar/spelling mistakes.

It’s actually even longer than before.

I’m thorough what can I say?

besides please read this it took a while.

· On the menu’s Extra Section there’s a trailer for Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase (2019). A movie that came out way before this game which is kinda funny

· The movement is a little janky, to put it in professional terms, it’s a little fast and jumpy. It took a bit to get used to the navigation.

· The problem with the movement really jumps out in the end in the tunnels. I could barely get my cursor around the Hardy Boys or even Mei.

· Also in the tunnels, if I went slightly off trail the game would FREAK out. I wanted to look around the tunnels and maybe get a bad end but our Sleuths but I couldn’t look around without being yelled at.

· This happens in other mini games and puzzles, whenever you mess up the characters make a snarky remark in your direction. Every. Single. Time. It would be funnier if it was only on a few occasions but it was every time I “messed up”.

· The graphics were obviously terrible. They also were variable…Somethings looked kinda okay and somethings looked awful. Like the quality changed from time to time. Sometimes even in the same frames. Frank, graphically, looks better than some of the other characters. When he and Joe stood next to each other, they almost looked like they didn’t belong in the same game. This goes for some of the other characters too.

· I don’t get why Frank was always in that pose? Everyone else stood awkwardly but admittedly it was a bit more normal. They stood with their hands towards their hips like how people typically do. Although there was a few times where people just grabbed their wrists for no reason.

· As someone who loves mythology and folklore (and pretty much anything that can be tied to into those) it was really cool to see the Malleus Maleficarum or The Hammer of Witches in the game. I wish it actually had more use in the game and maybe helped in some way. I know the book did some terrible things but it is an interesting read. As I do own a copy of it.

· Also my birthdate was used on the puzzle. Which was cool. It’s fun to be born on special dates. Except my birthday isn’t part of the solution but that’s okay.

· There’s a couple times where Nancy(and Frank) starts talking about clues or reading things out loud before I got the chance to look at them which was super annoying.

· The game crashed multiple times while playing

· The closer look at the clues was nice but was only okayish for me. It didn’t always work that well. Besides I’ve seen other games with the same function that worked smoother.

· I’m not a big fan of the new chat format. I prefer the old way. In this new format a lot of the dialogue options were getting cut off or the option didn’t fully describe what Nancy was going to say so I didn’t know what I was choosing.

· The text boxes were a bit buggy and there were times I couldn’t click on some of the dialogue options.

· The cutscenes were slow and the game had WAY too much talking. There was more talking than gameplay. The game was honestly just walking and talking

· I liked the text messages, they were fun and cute but they didn’t add much to the gameplay

· Lots of objects were clipping into each other

· Loading screens were always glitch

· The audio was off a lot of times. There were times when I could barely hear the characters over the background music or ambience sound. In Austria, I called Ned and Carson and I wouldn’t have even known they were speaking if not for the subtitles. Even after lowering the music and ambience sounds specifically and I still had this issue.

· Also Ned’s voicemail has changed. Did he make up with his sister?

· There were a lot of spelling and grammar mistakes. Almost every other written thing (books, pamphlets, and notes) had some kind of mistake. Hotchkiss’ book is one example.

· There were times when the pop-up text box was harder to read than the written thing. Not all the paragraphs were spaced out far enough in the boxes but were fine on the written thing.

· No “Can’t check that off yet.” The Checklist was unusable by the player. Unlike every other game. It did it automatically which wasn’t fun. I liked using the checklist.

· The game was so linear that I couldn’t really look around or do my own thing. When one thing was down you were immediately shuffled to the next thing. It basically made the checklist unnecessary.

· Terrible Animation. People moved for no reason. Just stuck in the same cyclical animation over and over and over again. They were pretty janky and awkward. Joe was the worst for me, he was constantly twitching on the screen. Frank was stock-still in comparison. No one else was that bad.

· Many of the mouth movements did not remotely match what the characters were saying. Sometimes nonexistent.

· Everyone’s EYES ARE SO WIDE. IT’S LIKE THEY DON’T HAVE EYELIDS. THEY’RE SO OPEN.

· The Parry’s curtains glitch in the sink. There’s a few plants that look weird, they had a neon glow on them. Olivia’s hands are always clipping through her robe and hair. In Moosham Castle there is a thing that’s inside a table. Both the Hardy Boys’ feet (and maybe other characters) were entirely in the ground at times. There were plenty of other problems like that.

· If I looked around a certain way while everyone’s talking at the Parry kitchen table Frank’s entire body disappears with the exception of his neck and watch.

· Some of the windows had a view of the town outside but other windows have this shine that you can’t see through.

· I’m not thrilled about the bystanders. Only the protest guy really helped. Over all they didn’t add to the game or help me at all.

· Dr. Hirst’s silhouette was kinda weird

· Also why did the game start in Austria??? That’s just weird? I thought we were just gonna start with Deirdre calling us but whatever

· I really hate the needless and honestly misplaced drama. Why couldn’t we talk to Ned and why haven’t we talked to Ned. It really pissed me off. Why would you put this directly after Ned’s whole “I Love and Support- This Could Basically Be a Proposal” Speech in Sea of Darkness? It’s just super off

· Not to mention the fact that the “Francy” moments in this game felt super forced. I don’t like what it does to their characters too. It feels like Ned isn’t trusting Nancy, which is crazy because he trusts her with his life. Frank is the more awkward Hardy Brother but that was ramped all the way up. Also Nancy completely ignoring Ned? What? They don’t feel like themselves here. It’s just off. This tone should’ve been brought in so soon, chronologically, after SEA. It’s out of place.

· Who was the female voice that was in the phone call with Ned? That was never answered. Was that a drama plot that was unfinished? Why not take it out of the game if you’re never going to resolve it? Why start an unnecessary relationship drama that’s both half-assed and unfinished?

· It’s kinda weird how in the end Nancy leaves the Parry house and calls Ned and we can hear her side of the conversation but not his. She’s just talking to herself.

· The phone friends were basically useless. If it wasn’t for the flashlight and the checklist I would say that Nancy didn’t even need her phone. And I guess talking to Damian Faulkner. 95% of the calls I made just went to voicemail. I want to chat about the case, talk to my friends, and get hints like we used to. I didn’t even know we could call Dr.Hirst about the ergot poisoning. I only found out on accident. I don’t know how many conversations I missed. Calling people used to feel important but here it doesn’t even need to be in the game it’s so useless.

· Just because this bugs me I don’t like the Hardy Boys starting their own detective agency. They began their work by working for their Dad. Who is a private investigator/private detective. Who runs a Detective Agency. Why would they start their own?? If you’re gonna make this a family business why not make it a family business? Right?

· May February, 1692 was an actual date they used. I think it was supposed to be February and they changed it to May. Earlier in the same note they used May so I’m guessing they didn’t properly finish the rest of the note.

· The lockpick game was visually glitch for me and the game itself didn’t work that great for me

· Joe’s hair makes him look like a fake blond lol. There are parts of his head (by the nape of his neck for example) that have brown hairs. Also some parts of his hair didn’t load properly on occasion and underneath was brown. Did he dye it?

· Which brings me to my next point. The hair was animated horribly. Frank and any of the other short and simple haired characters were okay. But probably only because they had short and simple hair. The longer haired characters were not as well animated.

· I randomly got double the Johnny Cakes when I made them. So Teegan and Olivia got extra.

· I will admit that making the Johnny cakes wasn’t the worst cooking minigame we’ve had in the games before.

· Frank getting the Frankenstein ones were a little obvious. It also didn’t feel as personal as the other ones oddly enough. We had a fun little dialogue about the design with everyone but Frank. He just got some cringey “I’ll eat these right away” kind of dialogue.

· I wish the truth serum was actually useful. Solving Tituba’s poem and going a bit out of the way to get the ingredients led me to believe it would be used for more than some “fun” dialogue choices. Joe and Deirdre are the only ones to use it. Which leads to some cute moments in which Deirdre admits she actually kinda likes and admires Nancy. I love her. Joe says he always tells the truth (no) so he doesn’t know how to tell if it works. I love him.

· Maybe it’s just me or the audio was off but Carson sounded different in Austria than he did in Salem.

· The use of the ergot poisoning was kinda of awesome. It’s one of the most popular theories on why Salem went bonkers and it was interesting to see it used to trick our favorite sleuths.

· The note to save Deirdre didn’t appear when I clicked on it. Frank (and I think Joe) reacted to it but it didn’t let me examine it. The bug fixed itself by closing the examination and clicking on it again.

· I love how the “ghosts” were handled. Especially them being hallucinations. My favorite was in the cemetery with the Hardy Boys and Olivia. The screen got kinda weird and everyone started to get worked up and really tense. They started fighting and you could see Abigail before they did. The build up to it was fantastic. The other scenes were cool too.

· The tunnels where the “ghosts” jumped out at every wrong (and sometimes right) turns while you’re desperately trying to escape the tunnels with Mei was pretty awesome. One of the jumpscares even got me.

· THERE WAS NO ENDING LETTER. She wrote a letter to Ned in the beginning but she never wrote a second one. Sure we sorta got to see how everything turned out at the party but it’s not the same. It doesn’t feel properly ended.

· I lowkey ship Jason and Mei. I could totally picture the two of them making out in those hidden tunnel rooms beneath Salem. Not just because I would too. This easily could’ve been another unfulfilled romance sideplot.

· Some of the books/notes really didn’t feel that helpful. I did learn some new things about Salem but I don’t feel we used the knowledge we gained properly in the game.

· The Jack O Lanterns were fun.

· The parallels between the Judges of the Witch Trials and Judge Danforth was a pretty interesting plot point. There definitely is a difference between accusing witches and accusing someone of arson when they were 9.

· Teegan’s guilt for both the shed and Hathorne house was something I didn’t really expect. It was a good plot twist. I can see how it was hinted earlier on by Lauren who says “Teegan likes to protect what’s important to her, sometimes that’s Mei.” Sometimes being the key word.

· The Hardy Boys being home-made ghost hunters was hysterical and adorable. I want them to have their own games soooo badly.

· I am completely on Joe’s side that we can’t prove that ghosts don’t exists, even if we can’t prove they do exist.

· I knew Alicia was the bad guy the second she started shit-talking Ned without knowing him. Only bad people don’t like Ned. He would never force Nancy to become a housewife, that’s not who she is and he loves her for who she is.

· I did “OK Boomer” Judge Danforth. He deserved it.

· I loved the little tidbits that we got of Frances’ and Lauren’s relationship we got to hear about. It’s really sweet.

· The comparison of Jason being a fast food cheeseburger with extra extra extra cheese and Ned being a home-cooked meal is perfect. Home-cooked meal is a great way to describe Ned.

· Either way they’re both snacks.

· Ok Jason’s ugly in these graphics but it was implied he was supposed to be hot.

· Jason could’ve been a true himbo but unfortunately he wasn’t

· TBH Ned, Carson, and Damian were the most attractive characters in the game. Only because they weren’t subjected to these graphics.

· I loved the Ghost Wavelength Spectral Analyzer 2.5 the Joe Hardy Guide to Amazing Finds but I hate the spectral analyzer itself. That mini-game was the WORST. It took forever!

· Alicia was straight up just gonna kill everyone. I’m doubting her biology knowledge.

· Also if you wanna raise kids in a more “modern” environment just freaking move. I know there was money in that real estate deal but there’s real estate in other towns.

· I love Deirdre. She’s really funny and kinda sweet. Even though she likes Ned (and maybe Nancy too lol) she doesn’t try to break them up or get between them. At least not anymore. She knows how much Ned loves Nancy. She even gave Nancy relationship advice. Which Nancy desperately needs because she terrible at this.

· This is just me but I kinda wish Nancy had an original idea for their vacation instead of just going back to Austria. Maybe let Ned pick this time because he’s the one who has to play catch up all the time and it’s only fair.

· Carson’s an adorable dorky dad and the only rich white man I trust. I’ve said it in my tweets and I will say it until I die. No one can take that away from me.

· This may be repetitive but I don’t like what this game did to Ned, Frank, and I guess even Nancy too. Ned knows about Frank’s feelings for Nancy. And now needless, useless, meaningless drama is gonna happen. I hate it I hate it I HATE IT!

· Just the relationship drama didn’t add a thing to this game. It was stupid. Especially because it was unfinished. It should’ve just been taken out.

· Joe looks 13 and way to skinny. He’s the brawn to Frank’s brain. Yes, he’s smart too and Frank isn’t weak. However, Joe is way stronger than him. If there has to be a scrawnier Hardy Boy, it’s Frank and we all know it.

· To quote Joe he’s got Man Strength™.

· Cause “Boy” is only part of the title, but Hardy Men doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.

· At times it feels like that the creators forget that Joe’s supposed to be smart too. There were times where it felt like they made him a total idiot. Though that could be personal too.

· Frank being a total Captain Obvious, perfect.

· They’re both puppies that got turned into human boys. Frank is just a calmer puppy

· Love that Mei’s going to Waverly but some of the other references fell flat. The Cat thing and the “I only smoke when I’m on fire” thing. It’s just not the same.

· Jason deserves the Not-As-Much-of-a-Jerk-as-You-Could-Have-Been Award.

· Mei’s a sweetie when she finally lets you in.

· The multiple endings seemed to have changed from different culprits to just what happens to Hathorne House and/or Teegan (I think). They seem to be pretty much the same. I did expect that as that has often been my experience with “multiple endings” games.

· I’m glad that both the Accused Witches and Lauren can get the house. It seems right for that to happen.

· Olivia’s pretty funny. I have a thing for eccentric characters. And it was funny how she tried to induct us into the coven at the end.

· The red/ginger hair superstition is a real superstition and I’m glad it was used. It’s for witches, werewolves, and vampires. Not just that gingers have no souls. (from the Malleus Maleficarum)

· If there is another game, I hope it’s the Nedcy vacation. And that we actually get to see Ned lol. I don’t get why he has never made an in-game appearance. It’s a little unfair at this point.

· Considering Emerson College is 39 minutes away from Salem and we still didn’t get him, I doubt it. Even though they mentioned both Salem and kidnapping Ned in Labyrinth of Lies.

· Also that the next one feels more like a Nancy Drew game.

· There’s no puzzles and there’s so much changed that it doesn’t have the same feel to it.

· This doesn’t feel like it took 4 ½ years to make. It feels like it took less than ½ a year. I can tell that things have changed because pretty much all the people who worked on it originally got fired. And that the Austrian game development company that took over everything (besides licensing) struggled to match the quality of the previous games.

· It definitely wasn’t beta-tested or was barely beta-tested. Quite a few beta-testers have come forward to say they didn’t get the offer to beta-test until September of this year. A month before preorder. Yikes.

· I know I got a little mean for some of the points but coddling the company by just saying positive things doesn’t help. They’ll get comfortable and give the fans worse things than this. I’m not an expert but I’ve played and learned enough games that I know some basics about how they’re made. It’s not easy but that doesn’t mean we should excuse things because of it.

· There’s been a lot of controversy with HER and Penny and this game and probably more. I’m not gonna get more into that besides mentioning that things changed because of this and not for the better.

· I probably missed somethings but whatever this is over 3000 words. I covered the basics and then some.

· This game is just a 2.5/5 for me

#nancy drew #mid spoilers #midnight in salem #ned nickerson #nancy drew games #herinteractive #frank hardy #joe hardy #the hardy boys #the hardy brothers #mei parry #teegan parry #olivia ravencroft #lauren holt #judge danforth #jason danforth #alicia cole #deirdre shannon #carson drew

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mindthewolves · 7 years ago

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differential diagnosis of common problems in fic*

*not just fanfic, but you don’t see that much original fic from people just starting out because Gatekeepers

disclaimer – this is not a “god this is terrible writing how could you do that ever” but a “we all have blind spots and maybe would benefit from getting a beta reader” and yes, ofc that includes me too. also these are general Story Things as separate from Issues of Representation Things.

other writers, hello and feel free to chime in!

content:

characters that exist solely for another character’s development. write people as people, not objects.

relationships in which A Modicum of communication would save you 20 chapters of angst

infodumping, extensive and conspicuous exposition, the like

on the other end of the spectrum, not grounding the scene (can’t visualize what’s going on)

extreme violence without reason or as a shoddy excuse for character development, particularly as highly gendered tropes

perfection (I see this with kara a lot in supergirl fic. she’s invulnerable, with super strength, super nice, drop-dead gorgeous, and secretly a scientific whiz kid AND ALSO can paint you something to sell at Sotheby’s. this has gone too far.)

songfic with the entire song written out in the middle of the story while the plot slips through your fingers or random lyrics interspersed throughout. ditto poetry. ditto quotes by people who are supposed to lend Weight and Gravitas to the fic

medicine/science that is indistinguishable from magic. R&D takes a long time. you do not defibrillate for asystole. (hello, flash. i’m looking at you.)

the telepathic narrator: in which the POV jumps back and forth between characters (most commonly love interests) with every other sentence

see related cheat code: “character A knew that character B was feeling/thinking X, Y, and Z” just no

precocious toddlers Wise Beyond Their Years or grown-ass adults with the intellect and emotional maturity of children (again, unless done for effect)

extensive author notes that prescribe exactly what you should take away from the fic and what things were Supposed To Mean. stories do not work like that; they’re open to interpretation, AND they should stand on their own without explanation

formatting:

why is there extra white space on ao3 you guys

block text of more than ~5 lines per paragraph, i cannot read it

italics where they shouldn’t be; it’s like listening to an oddly accented musical line

weird formatting of glosses for non-English words

each character’s reaction/description should go with their dialogue

if character A is speaking:

incorrect: “What movie do you want to watch?” character B shrugged.

correct: “What movie do you want to watch?”

character B shrugged.

changing verb tense in the middle of a story

spelling and word choice:

the epithets, cease and desist. it’s distracting and it reduces your character to a single aspect (usually of their appearance) that is (usually) not relevant to the scene at all. particularly egregious: epithets based on race/ethnicity

unclear pronouns, esp with f/f or m/m ships

its =/= it’s, pls google. the first is possessive and the second is “it is”

their/they’re/there and your/you’re, remember google is your friend

lets =/= let’s and all other verbs in this pattern: the first is the verb conjugation (-s) for he/she/it in present tense. the second is “let us”

reign =/= rein. you reign over a kingdom but you “rein in” an impulse. like a horse.

taut =/= taught

weary =/= wary

bawling =/= balling

adverse =/= averse, you are “averse to” pickles but go out in “adverse” weather

it’s “another think coming” rather than “another thing”

there seems to be some confusion over the words lay and lie. you lie down on a bed, past tense lay, present participle lying, past participle lain. you lay an object down on a table, past tense laid, present participle laying. these are not the same word, despite the spelling overlap.

misspelling your character names. really?

that word does not mean what you think it means

see also: i looked this up in the dictionary no one will know it but ppl will think i am Smart

for the reader/audience side of things:

how to comment (an example, not an absolute)

thank the writer. fics are not tangible but they are still gifts

what did you like about the fic and why?

other things you’d like to see, meta about the characters, lines that stuck with you, what worked and what didn’t

if you want to offer suggestions and they are not constructive, stop right there. hard stop.

if you have constructive criticism, drop an ask and see if that’s something the writer is even interested in. you don’t walk up to someone who’s wearing a pair of gloves they just knitted and say, “that row of stitches, it’s going the wrong way.” keep in mind that ao3 or tumblr may not be the place for unsolicited critique, especially from strangers online with no established credentials. concrit is like dark magic and not to be tampered with lightly. people who actually know how to give it are probably not the people who roll up in your comments with Demands

should I even comment?

if you read The Thing, leave a comment. support your writers. it’s not just paying it back or being a good fandom citizen. language is about connection – we write to be read. the fic is the ask; the comment is the answer

fic is not a one-way street or it doesn’t have to be

& I promise that even a well thought-out comment will take a fraction of the time it took to write the actual fic

also if you are a reader who wants to write, or a reader who wants to read better, commenting (i.e. thinking about what makes fic work and putting that into words) will help up your game too

for betas and critique partners:

the diplomatic critiquer

more references

read fic that you admire, take it apart, see how it works

be clear about what the writer is looking for w a beta read AND what the beta reader is willing or able to do. for me this comes in three tiers:

1. content editing, story problems, representation problems

2. sentence and paragraph-level problems: internal echoes, issues w writing voice, things that don’t make sense, etc.

3. copyediting: spelling and grammar only

motion to add an opt-in “yes, looking for concrit” box on ao3

sites for critting original fic: critique circle, critters

#fanfic #ao3 #differential diagnosis #editing #obviously i am not the gatekeeper #and language is never set in stone #but there are still conventions #which are good to know #even if you change them up for stylistic reasons #writing advice

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segadores-y-soldados · 8 years ago

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Um hello everyone??

??????

I hit another follower milestone and like???

How are there so many of you here??

Thank you to everyone for your support! I hope ya’ll are enjoying the stuff I put on this blog!

So for new and old followers here’s some stuff about me and a mini writing showcase:

Tumblr username: Segadores-y-soldados AO3 username: clickclickBANG Twitter: https://twitter.com/SegadorYSoldado (I am very new at the bird website, please send help) Semi-personal info: transdude from California, please use he/him for me Semi-relevant skills: slowly improving my Spanish - feel free to correct my nonsense (also, 00halle, I saw your comment - I’ve been meaning to respond! Thank you again for the offer, I super appreciate it and will be coming to you with some questions when I get a chance)

Content: All Overwatch stuff, lots of Reaper76 shippy stuff - be sure to look at my About page to find my other ships I’ll reblog

Things I’m most well-known for: My essays (tagged as “my essays”) including references on Reaper, Soldier, and Ana; little dialogue scenarios (tagged as “dumb stuff”), usually involving Reaper/Gabriel and Soldier/Jack in some way; doing research on lore and locational stuff in Overwatch; writing fics about Gabriel and Jack being ridiculous smartasses who are in love (and oftentimes the poor people who have to witness their shenanigans).

Little writing showcase:

SEP: Sunsets (written for the amazing Vapewraith!)

They’re in one of the halls of the SEP facility - tucked away into a deep mountainside “somewhere out west,” the building is hard angles and brutal concrete and cut-steel, as soft as titanium and as gentle as the injections they get every morning and evening. Yet even here, in “wherever’s-range,” there is still beauty: the massive windows, normally just cold, crystalline glass, are open to the sunset, bleeding colors across the land and sky, dripping into the hallway with the vibrancy of oil paints. Reds smoke into bright, endless pinks, golds melt into bold, sunshine yellows, oranges shift into liquid amber, and at the edges of the atmosphere, velvet purples sigh into silky blues, tinting the more vivid colors and steeped clouds with the dusk of night and the emerging stars.

It’s a sight neither Gabriel nor Jack will ever get tired of -

No matter how exhausted they are.

“The doctors will see you shortly -” the SEP instructor starts to say, reappearing at the far end of the hallway, before he looks up from the papers on his clipboard and scowls at the group of crumbling supersoldiers, snapping, “Is that what you call ‘lining up?’”

“Maybe if y’all didn’t work us so damn hard,” Number: 141 growls, his voice climbing into a hoarse yell, “We’d still have the energy to fucking stand!”

There are shouts of agreement and calls of “Yeah that!” and quiet mumbles of assent. Gabriel huffs to himself, sliding himself onto the concrete barrier and trying his hardest not to wince as his muscles settle into a sitting position. He’s used to hard work and even harder workouts, but today had been…brutal. 3 am running through the facility and into the mountains and back, to 10 am sparring and boxing and hand-to-hand combat, to 1 pm “simulation training” where they ran teams in rubber-bullet fire-fights, to 4 pm regulated work outs of push ups and squats and curls, to now - 8 pm - where they fall to their pieces in concrete hallways, waiting for doctors to take their biodata and continue churning them into statistics for the U.S. government before jamming more needles in their arms and sending them to brutal, uncomfortable cots in the dorms.

Jack slides himself up next to Gabriel, sighing just loud enough for his best friend to hear, “Today…was pretty bad.”

“Would’ve been easier on you if you hadn’t burned yourself out on those push ups,” Gabriel grunts back, pulling a pack of cigarettes from a pant pocket. He taps one out, muttering with some confusion, “Why were you doing all those one-armed push ups?”

Old Habits (aka “the big fic”) - Rating: T - Action/Adventure for R76:

“PULL BACK,” Reaper’s shouting at the three goons who got blasted the fuck back with a concussive rocket, “ASSHOLES, THOSE ARE HELIX MARK VI, IF THEY FIRE A REAL ROCKET YOU’RE FUCKING DEAD.”

Louis is, remarkably, the only one who stays on his feet, although now that they’re all wearing their visors it’s getting difficult to tell who’s who. The other two roll backwards, flipping over a few times before slamming into the cliff wall behind them. Reaper could fucking push both of them off the ledge and into the depths of the canyon with how annoyed he is at them, but that’s not important right now.

Three of the Helix fliers pop up from behind the rock ledge, hovering just a bit above the ground - low enough to get shelter again, but just high enough to give them a subtle height and maneuverability advantage over the Talon and Deadlock ground units. He hears Widowmaker and Henri fire off a few more rounds, but distant screams are the only reward for that - they’re aiming at the U.S. military soldiers who are stupidly rappelling down from the stable parts of the train still up on the tracks and making themselves easy targets.

“Widowmaker, Helix units, on the ground, below you!” Reaper growls out over the comms before he fucking dematerializes -

- and reforms himself directly behind the three Helix fliers.

God, that hurt like a FUCK.

He punches one of them in the back to make up for it.

FUCK THAT FUCKING HURT TOO

WHY DIDN’T HE JUST FUCKING SHOOT THEM LIKE A REGULAR ASSHOLE

(More under the cut)

76 + 127: How We Were Made - Rating: E - Reaper76 SEP fic

Jack stands by one of the dull, concrete walls and bends himself over before slowly reverse-walking his legs up the side. The rush of blood to his already throbbing head just makes it feel worse, but the weird mix of exhaustion and energy courses through him and he -

He cannot tell if he wants to fight something

Or fuck something.

...Probably both.

That was the other thing: the fucking raging mix of hormones and chemicals - both natural and artificial - had only cranked individual personalities, energies, attentions, aggressions, and desires to the fucking max. It had been apparent from the day of orientation that all 150 of them were between 18 and 25 years old - all physically fit, largely martially-oriented people from a multitude of military programs across the country. Jack and Gabriel had been the top two picks from West Point, but Jack had recognized a handful of the others as being from the academy - like three upperclassmen and ten lowerclassmen and two from their own group - Adrien and Sarah.

So yeah

Of course both fighting and fucking had started occurring within the first week.

Pinche mierda, there had been packets of lube and condoms in their supply chests in their bunk rooms from the very first day onwards. The program directors had certainly known what to expect from a bunch of high-energy, high-intensity young adults.

Jack sighs again, not sure if he loves or hates the pressure in his head and neck, before pushing his arms up off his elbows and onto his hands.

Upside-down push-ups suck.

Gabriel’s wide, smug, fucking charming grin flashes into his head.

Sharpshooter: Hit Me Like A Drum - Rating: T - McHanzo meeting fic

Jesse flicks his eyes from the apparent quiver back to the man’s amazing face and his dark eyes and immediately knows two things:

1 - This man is absolutely the most handsome person Jesse has ever had the blessed fortune of meeting.

2 - He does not understand a word coming out of the man’s mouth.

“...Pardon?” Jesse asks absently, blinking awkwardly. The...archer (?) tilts his head a little and scowls a bit - oh jackrabbit turds, I pissed him right off - before saying in flawless English, “It is your turn.”

Oh. Jesse thinks lamely. English.

“Oh uh, thanks, partner,” Jesse says awkwardly, glancing back towards the counter where one of the chefs is waiting with an expression of stern politeness that is fading into increasing annoyance. Jesse makes eye contact with the chef and she gives him a small handwave of “hurry up, tourist, I don’t have all day.”

“Uh…” Jesse glances back sheepishly at the man behind me, giving him an embarrassed smile, “You wouldn’t happen to know which one is the spicy pork ramen, would you?”

The man’s scowl fades for a quick second before returning, and he says with startlingly serious focus, “Oh. You can’t read it.”

“Uh…no, sorry ‘bout that, darlin’,” Jesse apologizes without thinking and the man raises an eyebrow, asking, “‘Darling?’”

OH FUCK ME AND MY DUMB ASS

Why, yes, please do, the wiseass side of Jesse cracks in his head and he fucking flounders over the barrage of shame and embarrassment and attraction.

“Oh, damn, shit, sorry - oh cheese on a cracker, I shouldn’t be swearing, oh god you’re gonna think I was never taught manners - shoot, sugar, I’m so sorry, it’s a bad habit I got from my pa and - Shit, I just did it again - sorry, it’s been a long trip here and, oh Lord, I just swore again, this is so embarrassing -”

A startled look of wonder blossoms on the man’s face and if Jesse wasn’t so fucking flustered, he would love to try and mentally catalogue how the man looks so open and surprised. Jesse is in the middle of tripping over his words when the unthinkable happens.

A miracle occurs.

The man gives a surprisingly broad and genuinely happy grin and starts to laugh.

#personal #about #writing showcase #segadores-y-soldados #thank you all for your support!#you guys are amazing #<3

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bluephoenixdruidicprincess · 8 years ago

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Shadowhunters Season 2A Final Review and Hopes for Season 2B

So here we are. We’re a couple of weeks off from Shadowhunters 2B airing. As I promised in my Season 2, Episode 10 review, I’m going to talk about things I liked and didn’t like about Season 2A as well as hopes that I have for Season 2B. In reality, I meant to write this post much earlier but I needed a break from the Shadowhunters fandom. You spend too much time within a fandom that has a lot of single-minded haters (like Shadowhunters does) and it really wears you down. I needed to take some time away from the fandom to re-charge my Shadowhunters fandom batteries. And it was wonderful. A break was exactly what I needed because it really helped me sort through my thoughts and feelings regarding Shadowhunters Season 2A as well as the show as a whole.

As always, I do have a disclaimer to make. This is a post reflecting my opinions on the show. They, in no way, reflect anyone else’s. Opinions are never right or wrong. I’m not telling YOU how to think and feel; I’m telling you what I, MYSELF, think and feel. I do have positive opinions about the show but I also have negative opinions about the show. If you’re the kind of Shadowhunters fan where you just can’t deal if someone says something negative about the show, don’t read this. If you can’t respect other peoples’ opinions, I don’t want you here and you’ll be of no real loss to my blog. Now, if you choose to stay and are offended by what I may say, understand I will listen to your opinions and discuss them with you. However, I will not discuss your opinions with you if you come at me in a rude or aggressive manner. I won’t even respond to you. I will completely, 100% ignore you. I’ve found that by responding to haters, it only legitimizes that level of behavior and it will not be tolerated. If you follow me and you are disrespectful to me or anyone else who might be discussing on this post, I will block you. Also, when I talk about this show, I am analyzing it as a TV series. It has nothing to do with my love for the books. If I am negative about the show, it’s not me saying the books are better simply because I love the books. It’s me pointing out issues that the tv show has as a tv show. There also are going to be spoilers for the books, movie, tv show, etc.

Sorry, that disclaimer was a little more lengthy than my usual one. I felt the need because last year when I did my Hopes for Shadowhunters Season 2, the amount of hate I got was astounding. Up until that point, I had no real grasp on just how much single-minded hate there was in the Shadowhunters fandom and geez, was I in for a surprise. My ask box was just flooded with hate. People seemed to think that just because I had negative things to say about the show, that meant that I out-right hated it. I’m not a masochist, so clearly I must enjoy the show to a certain extent because I’m still watching it. I do not hate the show. I didn’t even hate Season 1. I didn’t particularly like it but I didn’t hate it, either. There were moments within the season that I did like. I love the Shadowhunters books and I am so happy that we’re finally getting another chance at an adaptation and I do want to support the show. But that doesn’t mean that I’m just going to blindly love everything that the show does. And honestly, there are things that the show does a decent job with and then there are things that the show does a really bad job with. A desire to not want to see the show cancelled is not a good enough excuse to not acknowledge that there are things legitimately wrong with this show.

I thought long and hard about how I wanted to do this post. And I’ve ultimately decided that I’m going to bring back my Hopes for Shadowhunters Season 2 post from last year and go on down the list and see if Shadowhunters made any improvements in the first half of its sophomore season. Trust me, the list is going to cover nearly everything I have to say about Season 2A. And yes, I’m going to be referencing the post that first exposed me to the dark side of the Sahdowhunters fandom but guess what? I don’t care how much hate I got with that post. I still stick to my guns and I still believe that the issues I listed on there were very important issues that needed to be addressed and I will never apologize for that post because, again, those are my opinions. You hated that post? Guess what? You don’t have to read this. Last I checked, freedom of speech was still a thing on Tumblr. Just leave if you don’t like it. Let’s get on with this now.

Hopes For Shadowhunters Season 2 List

1) Everyone involved with the show needs to read the books.

2) The dialogue needs to be fixed.

3) I would like to see more lines from the books.

I have three from the list here because they kind of go hand-in-hand with each other.

Okay, now with these, everyone seemed to think that I wanted the show to be exactly like the books. That is 100% not true. I am NOT a source material adaptation snob. I personally don’t really care if an adaptation follows its source material. I love The Vampire Diaries and The 100 so clearly, I don’t have a problem with deviations from source material. I expected Freeform to take its own path with Shadowhunters. I’m honestly surprised that this show follows the books as much as it does. What I care about is that the adaptation captures the essence, the soul of the source material. And that’s what I meant when I said everyone involved with the show needed to read the books. Because whereas certain elements of the books were there, the first season left me feeling like the showrunner had no respect for the source material – and that includes the characters and story. Season One completely neglected most of the emotional aspects of the book scenes they chose to incorporate in the show.

You may ask, “What do you mean about capturing the essence of the source material?” Well, here’s what I wanted from this adaptation. I wanted the show to develop this wonderful shadow world, create complex, dark storylines (the storylines could be from the books or the show could make up its own; I really didn’t have a preference in that regard), and to have a certain amount of fun with it. Meaning, have the characters be thrust into these dark situations but still make me laugh from time to time. The books have such amazing wit and humor. The characters are super funny, super relatable and all that I wanted from the source material was to have that translated into the tv show. And Season One does try to incorporate humor, but more often than not, the humor falls flat. Maybe because the joke wasn’t really all that funny to begin with or the actor didn’t deliver it right. Essentially, when it comes to jokes in Season One, a lot of times it had to do with the writing of it. A lot of the jokes felt like they were simultaneously being written by both a 12-year-old and a 40-year-old. Not a good combination. In fact, if you look on Youtube to try and find a compilation video of funny Shadowhunters Season One moments (like there are hundreds for Teen Wolf) you’re not going to find a whole lot. You know why? Because the writing wasn’t all that funny even though they tried to be. Clearly, I’m not the only one who thought the humor was off because those videos are really hard to find. And I’m not talking about funny videos with the cast, I’m talking about funny moments that actually exist within the show, itself.

And then, of course there was the cheesy lines. Season One was beyond cheesy. There were times I was watching the show and I had to ask, “Why isn’t this show airing on the Disney channel? This feels like a Disney channel show.” Ultimately, the dialogue felt like it was too young for me. And I’m in my mid-20s by the way. It was really weird. Like, who was this show really trying to cater towards? If you’re not going to do a good job and come up with your own good dialogue, then I would prefer you to just take the dialogue out of the book. At least that dialogue is somewhat decent. Quit making me hit pause on my tv just so I can try and figure out why that joke was supposed to be funny. If you have to think about why a joke is funny, it’s probably not all that funny. Again, my own opinion. Feel free to disagree but I won’t say that something is funny just because you think it’s funny. Humor is completely subjective.

So, did Season 2A improve with these issues? I have to say yes. The humor and wit definitely came out more. The characters just felt more like actual characters in these situations. And I really enjoyed that aspect. Huge steps were taken to make the story fit the characters and not the other way around and as a starting point, the show did really well with that in Season 2A. The dialogue also definitely felt way more organic. There was very little cringe within the dialogue once Episode 4 came around. The characters definitely felt like they were having conversations real people would be having. This is partly due to the showrunner change. The writing, and especially the dialogue, just got so much better after they came on board.

4) I need Jace to start being more like Jace.

Another big one that I got a lot of hate on. Although this one may be on me because of the way I worded it in the original post which is my bad. My problems with Jace in Season One were not because I thought he was too nice to Clary. My problems with him was that he was this super angsty character but with absolutely no wit or humor or charm to him. You remember how I mentioned that it felt like the show’s humor was written by a 12-year-old? The 12-year-old humor was extremely prevalent with Season One Jace.

“Sounded boring anyway”

“Better than binoculars”

Really? Those are Jace lines? Jace is hilarious in the books. I have no idea why the writers thought these weak-ass lines were going to cut it. The writing of him in the show is just so half-hearted and it’s really depressing. Jace was my first book boyfriend so I have strong feelings about him. Here’s the thing. If you want to write Jace as this angst-ridden character, ok that’s fine. It’s kind of how he is in the books, too. I don’t have a problem with that. However, while Jace was an angst-ridden teenager in the books, he was also a sarcastic, smart-ass and was very self-aware that he was a sarcastic, angst-ridden teenager and commented on it frequently. That’s where the humor comes in. If you just have Jace being this angst-ridden character without any other personality to level it out, what makes him different from Edward Cullen/Christian Grey, Stefan Salvatore, Oliver Queen, Derek Hale, Angel?…the list goes on and on. The point is that Season One Jace just feels like a really cheap, lazily written version of every angst-ridden hero we’ve seen in pop culture to date. What makes him different? What about him makes me want him to succeed? With Season One Jace, the answer to these questions is, “not a single, damn thing”. He is a bland ass protagonist in Season One. Just a cheap copy of every other angst-ridden protagonist we’ve seen grace our screens within the past 10 years. And that’s what I have a problem with. And it’s interesting whenever I talk to fans who love Season One TV Show Jace, because they all come off and say that they like him because he’s nicer than he was in the books. First off, I don’t know where they got Jace being nicer than he is in the books. Season One TV Show Jace was pretty much a complete douche to everyone except Clary. He was absolutely horrible to Alec. Some say Alec was also kind of a jerk to Jace as well but I say Jace had it coming. You don’t tell your brother, your parabatai, “Maybe your mother was right. Maybe your best isn’t good enough” and expect me to see you as anything other than a jerk. And he also doesn’t even apologize for saying it. Poor Alec just accepts it. During my reviews in Season One, I did not call Jace by his name. I called him The Douche because I simply could not associate him with Book Jace anymore. Honestly, if you ask me, Alec is the real angel for essentially forgiving Jace for saying such a horrible thing to him. Second of all, if you think Book Jace is mean, I don’t know how you survive in the real world. I crossed the street using a crosswalk, I had the right of way, and was almost hit by a car…and the driver was cursing ME out. I’ve definitely come across people who are far meaner in the real world. A lot of them, I’ve met right here on Tumblr. Book Jace does say some mean things but there’s always a reason for it. He is never mean just for the sake of being mean. If you think that the use of sarcasm is mean, I don’t know what to tell you. You would not be able to survive in my family, I can tell you that much. My family uses sarcasm to express our love for each other. And really, I can’t even imagine having a conversation that doesn’t incorporate sarcasm. I guess, if you have that issue with Book Jace, you and me just are not compatible as friends.

So, did Jace improve in Season 2A? Absolutely. He was so much better. His sarcasm finally started to shine through and it was great. Especially Episode 7 of 2A. Those scenes with him in the bar were just phenomenal. It was everything I ever wanted from sarcastic, witty Jace. At first, I thought Dom’s American accent was what was throwing him off with the humor but I guess it really was the dismal writing in Season One. I legitimately laughed at the things he said instead of laughing because I was making fun of what he said. He also definitely added a little something extra in his emotional scenes as well. I really felt connected to him in 2A. Particularly in episode 3, Parabatai Lost. That final scene where he’s holding Alec and begging Alec not to die and leave him…so many feels. My eyes were starting to tear up a little and that never happened in the first season. I’m really proud of the new writers and Dom Sherwood for how they wrote him this season. He was soooooo much better.

5) Clary’s personality needs some work as well.

I suppose my main issues with Clary is that she’s treated as this perfect, flawless, little angel who can do absolutely no wrong. Everyone besides Alec pretty much worships the ground this girl walks on and for the life of me, I cannot understand why. She’s self-centered, self-entitled, and oddly abrasive towards people she needs help from. She’s selfish while being toted around as selfless at the same time. It’s very weird and not in a compelling sort of way. Her selflessness comes across as very cheesy. She’s so selfless it’s cheesy. That’s a really odd phrase to say but think about it a little. Ordinarily, someone being selfless is not a bad thing. In fact, it’s an attractive quality. However, when that selflessness is the character’s core personality trait, that’s when it becomes too much. Basically, her character is missing some sort of relatability and complexity. I’m also not a fan of how self-entitled and abrasive she is. She expects the shadowhunters to help her. She expects Magnus Bane to help her. She expects Ragnor Fell to help her. She’s pretty much, “it’s either my way or the highway.” I would never treat anyone I needed help from the way this girl treats people. She’s completely unwilling to bend on anything that goes against her own interests. And most of the time, she doesn’t even have a solid plan to begin with. Hell, most of the time she doesn’t even have a plan. She just runs in hoping she won’t get caught and she, inevitably, always is. Now, to a certain extent, Clary is like this in the books. The difference is that characters call her out on it in the books. That doesn’t happen in the show. Alec calls her out on it and he’s reprimanded for being too mean to her. I don’t mind Clary being an impulsive character because it’s part of her charm in the books but I do want others to call her out on it. In the show, she basically suffers no consequences when she’s impulsive and dumb because everyone forgives her because she’s this precious little snowflake…for some reason. I don’t see it at all. There is absolutely nothing interesting about her personality in the show. God, I hate Mary Sue characters. Even her physical appearance is absolutely flawless. She’s supermodel thin. This girl’s hair is always perfectly curled…even when she gets out of bed. She also emerges from bed with full-blown make-up on as well which I legitimately laughed at. I really wish I looked as good as this girl does when I get out of bed but I normally emerge as a cross between Medusa and a zombie. And also, Season One Clary’s hair was absolutely ridiculous. I don’t care what kind of genes you have, no one’s hair is that orange. The actress even said in an interview that the color is a little more bright than what she would normally go for. It was toned down a little later on in the season but when I first saw it, I was like, “Whoa! This girl’s hair could light up a neon sign.”

Now, has Clary improved in Season 2B? Eh, it depends. They did tone down the red in her hair so it definitely looks more natural. I also like her new wardrobe. It definitely feels more Clary-like. It always bugged me in Season One when she says, “I’m a jeans and t-shirt girl” when I’d barely seen her in anything but leather and high heels and not once complaining about it. She’s still impulsive and self-centered and Alec is still the only one who really calls her out on it. And he still gets reprimanded for it. They threw us in for a loop when Izzy got angry at Clary for hiding something from her so that was nice. But Clary ultimately didn’t really seem to care. She was all, “I know I messed up but we need to stick together.” And everyone just kind of accepts that. Clary, that may be how it works in your friendship with Simon, but sometimes other people need time and space when they feel betrayed by a friend. Why are there two guys in love with her again? Clary still puts up a hissy fit whenever she doesn’t get her way and again, no one calls her out on it. I can forgive book Clary for behaving this way because she’s 16 but in the show, she’s 18. She’s an adult, she needs to fucking act like one. TV Show Clary really is kind of a weak character but the show totes around that she’s strong and then completely back pedals. There’s moments even in 2A where she completely kicks ass against hordes of rogue shadowhunters and then struggles later on with one or two of them. Besides all of that, I always hated how quickly she picked up shadowhunting. I’ve always thought it was incredibly unrealistic. Jace gives her a 30 second seraph blade training session in a graveyard (ugh, I hated that scene so much) and she’s an expert at sword fighting. Alec gives her a 10 second staff-fighting training session and she’s an expert on that, as well. Only about a month has passed since the beginning of Season One to where Season 2A ended. I’m a martial artist so I can attest that you cannot pick up fighting that quick. It doesn’t even make sense in show canon either. All of the other shadowhunters have been training their entire lives and she becomes an expert in a couple of weeks. Come on. She saves the Lightwoods continuously by poking the demon one time. It completely devalues just how dangerous demon-fighting really is. Really, it’s too late to go back and figure out how she learned how to fight. That ship has sailed but the show now needs to make a decision on what kind of fighter she’s supposed to be. They need to quit going back and forth between her fighting skills just for plot convenience. Is she going to be a bad-ass, is she even going to be a competent fighter, or is she going to be someone who doesn’t really know what they’re doing when it comes to fighting? The show really needs to make a decision on that front. And there’s no reason that she can’t jump from any of those levels into a different level; the show just needs to develop it. And that’s not what they’re doing here. Ultimately, I don’t have a problem with Clary being impulsive and self-centered and even selfless, I just want everyone to stop treating her like she’s a perfect, flawless, little angel. See her for exactly who she is, then I might believe these two guys are in love with her. Clary needs some sort of complexity to her personality. She is such a Mary Sue right now and I cannot take her seriously as a character.

But I’m not completely ragging on her character. She did have some nice moments in 2A. I really liked that moment in A Door Into The Dark when she goes to the Art Institute and starts painting. I thought that was a really nice moment for her character. The new Clary trying to get in touch with the old Clary again. I did like that she asks Jace and Simon to kill her if it ever looks like Valentine may legitimately be able to use her to destroy downworld. I also liked her moments when she was dealing with her mother’s death, particularly in episode 5, Dust and Shadows. I thought she was very realistic in that episode. So yeah, even though I ragged on her a lot in this. I don’t 100% hate her. She does have some nice moments.

6) The chemistry with Jace and Clary needs to get better.

7) A dark passionate portrayal of the incest storyline.

Again, these two kind of go together. Oh Season One Clace, how you disappointed me. Really, Season One was just a huge disappointment when it came to romantic pairings, in general. The show wanted so badly to get fans that they pushed every relationship in a way that was completely inorganic. They completely missed the point on why people like fandom relationships. It’s not important if these two character are together, what’s really important is how they got together. I hated the way Clace was developed in the first season. I hated their first interaction, I hated the graveyard scene, I hated the motorcycle scene, I especially hated their first kiss. The one scene I wouldn’t have minded (the 90% slap scene in the pilot) was filmed but they chose to cut it and I will never understand why. In the first season, their relationship is so cheesy that it’s impossible for me to take it seriously. After a certain amount of time, I was asking myself, “Are they trying to make a Clace parody? Is the intention to make fun of Clace?” It was that bad. And then, they had the first kiss which was extremely disappointing and rushed. I didn’t feel that Clace needed to be kissing in that moment. I wasn’t really feeling any Clace feels. Maybe other people were, who knows. I saw them kiss and I legitimately said to my screen, “What the hell is this shit? Why are they kissing? This makes no sense.” I guess Clary remembering how Jace said, “You have the sight” to her back in Episode One was just too much for her to handle. She just couldn’t resist him, his douche-baggery, and his non-existent charm anymore. What was even worse was that this scene takes place in the middle of the Institute with everyone watching. It boggles my mind as to why they swapped out the greenhouse scene for this shit. I will never understand it. In the book, their first kiss was a very romantic moment that was important to them as characters but in the show, it was nothing more than a make-out scene and that’s what I despise about it. They took out all of the emotion, everything that made their first kiss so special. The Clace chemistry on the show is also just plain weird at times. This could be because of the writing, though. Kat and Dom always felt really weird to me in Season One as a couple. They just didn’t feel like they were this ultimate pairing that I wanted to route for. They did get better later on in the season after the sibling thing was announced. That’s when their chemistry really started to improve. I don’t know if it was just because they were more comfortable around each other or if their chemistry just worked better as siblings. But regardless, it was much better towards the tail-end of the season.

Now, has the Clace chemistry gotten better in Season 2A? This is a difficult question to answer. Simply because they went through 2A believing that they were siblings and the showrunners clearly wanted to stay away from any of the creepy incest-like behavior that happens in the books. Understandable. It’s a very controversial topic within the fandom. But I am a little disappointed that the show didn’t really go into it. And before you haters start hating, I don’t say that because I like incest relationships. They creep me out just as much as you. What I like about the Clace-sibling dynamic was that yes, it was creepy, but it also showed the depth of their emotions. That even if they were siblings, something was still pulling them together and they couldn’t understand why and they couldn’t just ignore it even though they certainly tried to. I have a little head-canon theory that part of the reason why they’re so drawn to each other is because they share the same angel blood. You know, blood calls to blood. But that’s my own head-canon. I don’t believe Cassandra Clare ever stated that that was the reason in the books. And I also liked that those feelings are still very prevalent later on in the series even after the sibling thing is sorted out. They still are very much affected by their experience of being in love with each other despite believing they were siblings. So I am a little disappointed that 2A didn’t really go into those feelings. Jace really did feel like a supportive brother in this season and nothing more. We’ll see how their chemistry goes in 2B. It is interesting with Jace now knowing that Clary is not his sister but refusing to tell Clary because he wants her to be happy with Simon. I really liked that because it shows that Jace’s selfish love for Clary has turned into a selfless love. I get the feeling from the trailers that it’s not going to last very long though which is a shame. And to people who complain that they don’t like Climon, guess what? YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO. Their dynamic is always supposed to be best as friends. People who complain about Climon have no concept of a slow-burn couple. I love slow-burn couples. It may take forever and a day for them to get together but when they do, it is that much sweeter because we actually got a development of that relationship, a development of feelings that those characters have for each other. So Clace shippers, just be patient. Your time will come and trust me, you will be so much happier that the show took it’s time with them as opposed to keeping them together right at the start. Pairings that get together right from the start are boring to me. They are never done right. Trust me, slow-burns are 100% more satisfying.

8) Isabelle getting her own story arcs.

Izzy is a character that never feels like she’s actually part of the story. Most of the time, it just feels like she’s along for the ride. Pretty much, all of her story arcs were just plot devices to move along someone else’s storyline. She’s there to help Jace and Alec and to be a friend to Clary, that’s pretty much it. I guess there’s her relationship with Meliorn but really, their relationship creeps me out due to their lack of chemistry and I don’t find them all that interesting as a pairing. Then there was the whole “Izzy on trial” thing which is a plot point I’m not even going to get into because I have so many issues with the storytelling part of it. Really, that plot point was insanely dumb and absolutely pointless to the rest of the story. There’s also the “Izzy is the best pathologist in NYC” as well. But again, there are a lot of story-telling issues with that. Suffice to say, this plot point came about simply because Ed Dector was trying to turn Shadowhunters into the crime procedural show he really wanted to produce. He didn’t actually stop and think, “Is this really a good idea? Is it going to make sense?” And the show pretty much forgets about this plot point when it’s inconvenient for the story because, again, it doesn’t really make sense and it would hinder the plot more often than it would help. Now, Isabelle is one of my favorite characters in the books and she is also one of my favorite characters in the show (even if they did do a pretty bad job with developing her). Ultimately, I just want to see more story arcs that develop her as a person. At this point, we get it. Izzy loves her family. She wants the best for her family. This isn’t news anymore. I would like to see some more aspects of her personality. Actually, now that I think about it, this is a recurring theme with the characters from Season One. The characters really were rather one-dimensional.

Did Izzy improve in 2A? Yes and no. 2A incorporated this drug addiction plot point which, in the beginning, I really liked. Some fans think its absolute trash but I’m not one of those fans. Granted, no one likes to see their beloved character go through a drug addiction storyline and I certainly do not enjoy seeing strong, fierce Izzy being weak. But that’s kind of the point with a drug addiction story. The fact that even the strongest of us can fall to a weakness at some point. In a story, it is essential for a character to come into conflict. That’s what allows us to explore the character and figure out who that character is as a person and eventually even care about that person. A drug addiction plot can be a good way to showcase that. Up until this point, Izzy has always been toted as this strong, independent person but in reality she’s plagued with self-doubt. She doesn’t think she’s as strong as everyone else thinks she is and that’s why she ultimately falls into the drug addiction. And I found that super interesting. The drug makes her feel strong both inside and out. Drug addictions are never fun to watch but I was interested in this when it first came out because I was interested to see what kind of growth we were going to get from Izzy as a character. Which is what I wanted. I wanted to see more aspects of her besides this strong girl who cares about her family. But, as we went further along in the drug addiction plot, Freeform kept on disappointing me. First off, they chose to use yin fen (the drug from The Infernal Devices) and then changed what yin fen actually is. I’m actually a little unclear on exactly what yin fen is on this show. I’m not sure if it’s vampire venom or if vampire venom is just an ingredient within the drug itself. The show keeps on going back and forth on it. But regardless, I don’t like that they changed it to vampire venom, period. It just completely devalues the horror story that yin fen actually is. I could’ve let it slide if the show just opted to not include The Infernal Devices in its canon and that yin fen was just now going to be its own separate thing. I could’ve been okay with that. But the show continues to dig itself an even bigger hole when they mention that Magnus’ friend, Jem, almost died from it. If you think about what the show is saying yin fen is and then mix it with Jem’s story, it doesn’t really make sense and I really hope that TID does not get adapted into the same story universe as Shadowhunters. Because boy, are there going to be plot holes. Second of all, near the end of 2A, it became very obvious that the reasoning for changing yin fen to vampire venom was so that the show could reveal a new sexuality to the show. You don’t agree with that? There is no other reason that the show would logically change yin fen to vampire venom unless it was to progress a storyline having to do with vampires. That being that Raphael is asexual. Now, Raphael being asexual is not the problem I have with this storyline. I actually think it’s really interesting and I’m excited to see it get explored. The problem I have with this storyline is that once again, Izzy was used as a plot device to push along someone else’s story and not her own. Throughout the course of this drug addiction plot, I didn’t feel that Izzy has really changed all that much or that we even really got to see someone all that different from the girl we got in Season One. She feels pretty much exactly the same. Granted, we still have 2B. Maybe more of this drug addiction is going to be developed in 2B. But still, I was disappointed in the show for once again making this a plot device to push along someone else’s character arc instead of making it abut Izzy. But like Clary, I’m not completely ragging on Izzy. Izzy did have some really great bad-ass moments that did mesh with her character so I really enjoyed those. I would like to see the show incorporate more with her whip but I can understand why they don’t. It’s pretty difficult to fight with a whip and the fight choreographers may not have a whole lot of time to incorporate it.

9) Some tension with Malec.

Another couple that the show feels the need to rush. Geez, this show really has no concept of slow-burn. What was interesting about Malec in the show is that they were actually developing Malec pretty decently when they first introduced them in Season One. I was enjoying seeing their story unfold in a slightly different way than in the books. Then, the writers got lazy. I liked that Malec was being subtly pushed together. It was working well for the show until Lydia Branwell was introduced. Don’t get excited, y’all. There will be no Lydia bashing here. I love Lydia. I wish the show would’ve done more with her. No, once Lydia and the arranged marriage was introduced into the story, that’s when Magnus became increasing desperate and it just did not mesh at all with his character. I didn’t like it. What made it even worse was that of course, they would bring Malec together in the cheesiest, most cliché way possible because this show only knows how to be cheesy and cliché. Whenever there’s a wedding, you know the forbidden love interest is going to show up and put to a stop to it. The Graduate, anyone? Not only was the whole wedding aspect super cheesy, I had a hard time reconciling that 1) Alec would be okay with outing himself to the entire Clave in this moment and 2) that Magnus would expect Alec to be willing to do it. Now, keep in mind, when I say this, I am not saying that it is not plausible for a homosexual adult to come out like this. I am saying that it was unrealistic for ALEC LIGHTWOOD to come out like this given the character development he had within that season. The show had been alluding to Alec being gay and his feelings for Jace and by the time the wedding scene happened, he hadn’t actually dealt with any of those issues so I had a hard time believing that Alec, as a character, would actually do this at this point in time. In the books, in a similar scene, it made sense because he had dealt with his Jace issues as well as his coming-out issues. Really, this wedding scene was just a fanservice product and nothing more. The show wanted to get the Malec fans immediately instead of doing a slow-burn like they kind of are in the books. As I’ve said before, what’s important is not that these two characters got together, it’s how they got together. And Season One just completely missed the mark on that one. And whereas I love the kiss they have in that episode, I still feel cheated that we never got to see any actual development of their relationship that would’ve made that scenario plausible.

I got a lot of hate on the original post for this one so I really felt like I needed to explain myself. Understand, I’m not saying gay people shouldn’t come out in public like that, I’m saying it was unrealistic for Alec to come out like this given the character development he had up to that point. Malec in Season One ultimately turned out to be a disappointment for me. They are one of my ultimate bookOTPs so I had very high expectations for them. Really, I hated that we never got to see their relationship progress in any way. That’s the problem I have with the way Malec is developed in this show. They’re always telling us what’s going on with them instead of showing us. The writers are breaking the cardinal rule of story-telling: You always want to show and not tell.

Now, did Malec improve in Season 2A? Maybe? I don’t know. I’m a little off and on about this one. Malec was very cute in 2A. They had a lot of really nice scenes. The issue I have is that Malec, as a couple, didn’t have a whole lot to do with the main plot. They were given maybe two or three 30-second scenes in an episode and that was all we got and those scenes never had much to do with the central plot. It always felt like they were just slipped in there to appease the fans. And that’s what I dislike about Show Malec. Say what you want about Book Malec. You can say that it didn’t focus on them nearly as much but at least in the books, when we did have Malec scenes, they were done in a way that still made them relevant to the main plot. And that’s what I want from Show Malec. I want them to be relevant to the actual plot of the show and not feel like their scenes were inserted at the last minute.

Another issue I had with them this season is just how quickly they went through the relationship milestones. One episode, they’re going on their first date (which was a fantastic first date, I loved it so much), couple of episodes later, they’re having their first time (I’ll get to that in a few). Couple of episodes later, they’re professing their love for each other. I just wish the writers would take their time with Malec and develop the relationship slowly and organically. If it keeps at the pace that it is, Malec is going to become stagnant before we know it and I don’t want to see that happen.

Lastly, Seaosn 2A had the issue with sex scenes or the non-existent sex scenes as is the case with Malec. Ordinarily, I don’t care about sex scenes. Most of the time, they’re never done right so I find them to be a complete waste of screen time in general but I can say the show dug itself a hole on the Malec sex issue. First off, they brought up Malec having sex front and center, and then they took a fade-to-black approach when it came to the actual act. Now, normally I wouldn’t have a problem with this. The problem is that it’s weird that previously, the show has never had an issue with sex scenes before with its heterosexual couples but yet they’re unwilling to go the same lengths for the homosexual couple. I can definitely understand why fans would be angry. In this context, it would appear the show is displaying passive homophobia. In Season 2B, I really hope the show addresses this. I like the new showrunners and I want them to keep on working but this is going to be a very hard issue to overcome if something isn’t done about it. The network really needs to make a decision on just how “edgy” they want to be. If they want to incorporate sex scenes in their show, that’s fine. I don’t necessarily think it’s important for a show like this but whatever. For a show like this, I think epic-ness is going to sell more than sex. If Freeform chooses to have sex scenes, they have to do it for everyone. It boggles my mind that Freeform did not see this one coming.

10) Please, let us never, ever see Jace and Alec fight again…EVER

Not gonna lie, the Jalec fight in Season One is one of the reasons why I didn’t particularly like the season. Understand, I’m not opposed to main characters fighting. That’s not the issue. I want my characters to have disagreements and falling outs. It’s what makes the relationships feel real. I just did not like the way the Jalec falling out was developed. It was dumb, lazy, and ultimately didn’t really make sense. The parabatai relationship is super important in the series and Season One made it look like it was just friends having a fight. I absolutely did not like it. I never want to see the show take this approach again.

But on the bright side, the show did so much better with the parabatai bond in 2A. There were so many call outs to the parabatai bond to how it actually is and I loved it. As I said before, that one scene in Parabatai Lost between Jace and Alec was absolutely beautiful. There were other parabatai moments that I also really liked. Jace telling Magnus that he better not hurt Alec, Jace being worried about Alec when Alec was stuck inside the institute while it was being attacked. There were so many great parabatai moments. See guys? I’m not completely ragging on the show. Season 2A gets a B on the parabatai improbvement, though. I give them a B because I didn’t particularly like everything that happened in Parabatai Lost regarding how Jace and Alec got into that situation in the first place but I’m not going to get into it here. I have a whole review that talks about it. You can read up on it there. You should be able to find it in my Shadowhunters Review tag. But everything else this season with the Jalec parabatai bond was great. I loved it.

11) Give the extras at the Institute a purpose or get rid of them

These extras, man. They just mess with the logic of the show so bad. Season 2A definitely did a much better job of incorporating them but still, I don’t like that they just kind of hang out at the Institute. Most of them don’t really do anything. They’re just walking scenery. Really, I’ve kind of gotten used to them but I do secretly hope that they will just one day, disappear. I did like the minor characters such as Raj and Lindsey. I think they could be fun as random inserts into the show. In that regard, I hope the show keeps them around. But overall, the extras are really pointless and the show is wasting their money paying extras who don’t really need to be there.

12) Better fight scenes

13) Better CGI

OMG! The fight scenes were such an improvement from Season One. I loved them so much. As I’ve said before, I do martial arts, so fight scenes are important to me and I am critical of them. Particularly the ones in Season One. The fight scenes in Season One, by themselves, are not bad. The show just edited them badly because I guess the show didn’t want to put too much effort into the choreography and CGI, maybe. Regardless, there was a drastic improvement in Season 2A. It was great. The seraph blades actually look like swords now and not light sabers so that’s an improvement in itself. Izzy’s whip turns into a staff which I thought was super cool. I do wish we could see Izzy fighting with her whip more but I understand why the show doesn’t want to do it.

The new CGI was pretty great, too. Magnus’ magic was really fun to watch not to mention the demon in Dust and Shadows was incredibly creepy…like American Horror Story Season One scary. You remember, back in the day when American Horror Story was actually scary. No offense to those who may still find American Horror Story scary. I, personally, find it to be more of a thriller show than a horror show these days. But anyways, I’m so glad we’re past the days of Shadowhunters Season One crappy CGI. The show gets an A+ on that improvement.

14) No more huge, gaping plot holes or storylines that don’t lead anywhere

This is more of a problem with the show’s general storytelling. Season One was just a mess in terms of storytelling, I’m sorry to say. This was the number one reason for why I didn’t particularly like the show in its freshman season. You know how there are CGI snobs? People who will gripe and complain if CGI is not up to society’s current standards? Well, I am a plot snob. If a plot is bad or it has plot holes, I’m not going to keep quiet about it. I spend pretty much all of my free time watching movies, tv shows, anime, reading books and fanfiction, writing stories, etc. Storytelling is incredibly important to me and I will not apologize for holding Shadowhunters to the same standard of writing that I would hold any other tv series. The way this show is written at times is so unbelievably lazy, at times. Particularly in Season One. Plot holes, galore.

Now, did the show get better at its story telling in 2A? Yes and no. I say yes, because at least the episodes are arcing properly now. They weren’t in the first season. I can’t tell you how often a Season One episode chose to end on the climax part of the story and I was like, “Wait. What? Where’s the rest if it?” That’s an arcing issue. You don’t want to end on a climax all the time. It makes the show feel very disjointed. It should be climax, aftermath, and then end credits. An episode can end on a climax but it’s best if a tv series saves that for a finale type episode. Now, I say no that the show did not get better with its storytelling because the plot feels incredibly “easy” at time. So many really convenient things happen in this show and there’s not a whole lot of explanation for why it happened. The team is trying to find a kidnapped girl and the first homeless person they find knows exactly what happened. Convenient. In Day of Wrath, a demon gets into the Institute. How? Well, the demon has cloaking abilities apparently. No explanation for why it has cloaking abilities besides Valentine’s experiments. It’s never talked about again. Convenient. Madsie having the ability to get through the Institute’s wards. Convenient. The Mortal Sword just so happens to have the ability to decimate all of downworld which is exactly what Valentine wants. Convenient. An adamas stone can somehow be used to track a parabatai when it’s never been mentioned before. Convenient. The Mortal Sword doesn’t have to be powered by a bolt of lightning. Valentine can just use an angelic power core that’s located in every Institute. A plot point that has never been stated before. Convenient. You see where I’m going with this. There is no complexity to the world at all. The writers just pull things out of their asses when it comes to moving the plot along. No one actually works for the story at all and I would definitely like to see that changed in 2B. I would like the storylines to be a little more complex than what we’re getting. This show irritates me to no end in regards to its storytelling and if anything, that is what’s going to make me drop this series.

That’s pretty much all I had to say regarding the list I made last year. Here are some hopes I would like to see in 2B.

Luke

I really want Luke to become a more active character in this show. In 2A, it felt like we barely got to see him. He is a main character but yet it feels like he never really has a whole lot of purpose within the story. Luke is a bad-ass character in the books and the show really hasn’t even scratched the surface with him and I would like to see more of him. Hopefully, he becomes much more of an active character in 2B. It definitely feels like the downworlder community is going to play a bigger role in 2B so maybe by proxy, Luke is going to be back on a more consistent basis.

Maia

My hope for Maia is that the show develops her character a little more. I really liked her character when it was first introduced in the show but in 2A, she was doing things that didn’t really make a whole lot of sense for her character. I do understand why Maia wanted to kill Clary. I got that. However, I didn’t like how Maia just immediately jumped to killing when there was a scene earlier on in the season insinuating that she has a problem with killing. I just wish her decision to kill Clary actually had some sort of emotional weight to it. Maia was also incredibly overbearing in this moment, as well. I get that she made a decision to do this but at the same time she was also completely unwilling to accept the consequences that would come with killing Clary. That being she would’ve destroyed any relationship she might’ve had with Luke and Simon. Clary is pretty much Luke’s daughter and she’s also the girl Simon has been in love with since he was a kid. It boggles my mind that Maia would possibly think Simon and Luke would ever forgive her for killing Clary. She comes off in the show being all, “This is what needs to be done. Why are you two ostracizing me? I thought we were friends?” It would’ve been fine if Maia made the cold-hearted decision to kill Clary and that she also accepted the consequences of such an act but the fact that she can’t understand why Luke and Simon aren’t on her side is what bothers me. Particularly, since she knows what Clary is to Simon and Luke. Hopefully, she’ll be developed a little more in 2B.

Sizzy

I kind of hope the show start alluding a little more to Simon and Izzy’s relationship. Of course, I’m not saying that I want them to be together by the end of 2B. As I’ve said before, I’m a fan of slowburns and Sizzy most certainly is a slow-burn. I wouldn’t mind them starting to allude to it a little more, though. I know people are yammering on about Saphael and I don’t mind if Saphael becomes a thing. Or even Rizzy. The asexual thing is kind of interesting. I just want Sizzy to be endgame. That’s really the only thing I want from this show. There’s just something so fun and interesting about the nerd ending up with the hot, sexy demon hunter. I mean, I was hoping for Sizzy before Cassandra Clare even started developing their relationship in the books. They’re just such a fun pair.

Sebastian

Well, of course I have to mention Sebastian. I really hope the show does him justice. Sebastian is such an interesting character and an interesting villain. He is a completely different villain from Valentine and I really hope the show harps on those differences. I’m really excited to see what the show does with him. I saw a synopsis of what his character is supposed to be on the show and whereas it doesn’t really feel like that’s Sebastian, I’m withholding all judgement until 2B comes out.

The Destruction of the Shape-Shifting Rune

This is a really naïve hope that I have. I know there is absolutely no way they’d actually get rid of this rune but it still doesn’t change how much I hate it. This rune is such a huge plot hole. I called it when it was first introduced. I said the writers were not prepared for the huge can of worms that this rune was going to open and I was spot on. The rune completely devalues Tessa from The Infernal Devices. Infernal Devices aside, I hate this rune on principle, alone. It makes absolutely no sense to me that this rune exists, shadowhunters know it exists, they realize anyone can use it, and yet they’re duped by it EVERY SINGLE TIME. I suppose if the show doesn’t want to get rid of the rune, maybe they could create some rules for this rune. It is so important that magic have limits and I hate that this rune appears to have no limits. Also, Sebastian better not be revealed by using that rune. I will be so disappointed with Shadowhunters if they try to use that rune as a plot twist again. It wasn’t that surprising the first time around or the second time around; if they try to use it again, I don’t know if the show will ever be able to recover in my eyes.

Ultimately, I am still enjoying watching this show to a certain extent. They are doing some interesting things with the story. If I could tell the showrunners one thing though, I would tell them, “Quit the fanservice and just tell the story.” A lot of times, it feels like the main plot gets put on the back burner because the show feels the need to engage in the fans’ desires for the characters. I realize this is coming off a little hypocritical since I just finished talking about things I wanted to see in 2B. But if 2B chooses to ignore everything that I want, I would still be happy with the show if they ignored all fanservice desires and just TOLD THE STORY. I go off and on about whether or not Shadowhunters is actually a good show and part of the problem is that the showrunners care too much about what the fans want. For me, what makes a good show is just watching a story unfold and see how the characters develop within that story. If the showrunners were to ignore the fans to a certain extent and just tell the story, the show would definitely be MUCH stronger. But they’re always consumed with doing the politically correct thing and trying not to insult certain factions of the fandom and it’s actually hindering the development of the story. I can already feel the number of hate messages about to hit my ask box but you know what? I don’t care. I just want to see a story unfold and characters develop within that story in a realistic way. That is all I want from Shadowhunters. So if the showrunners were to ignore everything else that I would like to see in 2B, I would still be happy with the show if it, at least, managed to tell a coherent story. I can’t necessarily call Shadowhunters a good show at this point in time. For me, Shadowhunters is a conglomeration of nice scenes but without much of a story in the background and I sincerely would like to see that change. Right now the show is probably at a B- for me, overall.

Well, these are my feelings regarding Shadowhunters right now. Again, these are my opinions. They, in no way, reflect anyone else’s. I would love to hear what anyone else is thinking about 2B. Do you agree with what I said? Do you disagree? As a reminder, I will ignore anyone who is rude so if you are going to send me hate and you want me to respond, you might want to try moderating your tone. I’m an adult and I expect everyone else to behave as mature adults. Really, bullying is beneath us and I will not tolerate it. Let’s create a fandom that is supportive of everyone’s opinions. Fandoms can be so much fun if there’s support but they’re an absolute nightmare if you have to worry about the hate you’re about to receive every time you post. I left for a couple of months and delved deep within the anime fandoms which was great. I really needed the break. And along the way, I found Dragonball Z Abridged by Team Four Star. If you have not seen it, you absolutely need to. It is absolutely hilarious. I love it so much! Maybe even more than the original series… o

#shadowhunters #shadowhunters review #shadowhunters 2A #shadowhunters 2B #clace #malec #shadowhunters 2B hopes #shadowhunters 2A review

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