#also just me realizing how much s1 sets up s2

[helluvagirlboss]

All of these are really good points and if you don’t mind I’d like to add onto this.

I was actually discussing with a mutual yesterday about the difference in how criticism is approached towards shows like Arcane vs. criticism towards the Hellaverse shows.

Just like Helluva Boss, I think Arcane is a really good show that has a lot of flaws in it, and it unfortunately didn’t end as strongly as it began.

But despite me really loving Arcane, I have no problem engaging in videos that breakdown where it went wrong? You know why?

Because Arcane is still regarded as respectable show to openly like. And because of that public regard, but also because Arcane’s fan base from what I have seen is overall more mature, the videos criticizing what Arcane S2 did wrong are approaching that criticism with a lot more nuance, maturity, and are giving actual critiques.

There’s been criticism of the speed rail pacing, how certain characters’ layers got flattened, how the themes and conflict it set up in S1 either got brushed under the rug or was concluded in an unsatisfactory way, or how S2 introduced WAY too many new concepts that never got fully realized because of the limited episode count.

So you know…actual critiques of how the show’s story was structured.

But with both Hellaverse shows, especially Helluva Boss, so many critiques are made in the worst faith imaginable and are often times they’re not actual critiques.

It’s just people who don’t like the art style, don’t like the characters, don’t like the humor, or just really hate Vivienne Medrano herself, and often times, even if they do have actual criticisms of the show and the way it’s structured, it is buried under a sea of vitriol towards the creator and its fan base.

And worst of all, it leads them to make blatant misreadings of the story and the characters intentions where if you took the moment to think for longer than a minute, the irrational things the characters do would make sense from their pov.

And you know why I think so much of Hellaverse criticisms drowned in a sea of vitriol and bad faith? Because it doesn’t take nearly as much effort to convince people that the Hellaverse is bad.

Unlike with Arcane, both Hellaverse shows, especially Helluva Boss, are considered the cringe and vulgar indie shows that only edgy teenagers on Tumblr like. They are not backed by the court of public opinion the way Arcane is.

So criticism of Arcane is well-thought out, nuanced, constructive, and engaging because you have to try much harder to convince people that Arcane did things wrong. You have to have sound arguments or else people won’t take it seriously.

Helluva Boss criticism, at least the overwhelming majority of it, is not well thought out or sound, because it doesn’t need to be, it doesn’t want to be. The critiques don’t have to be well thought out, calm, nuanced, hell they don’t even need to show that they actually understand the show they’re criticizing.

It’s the Vivziepop show therefore of course it’s bad, and a lot of people get a lot of views ripping her work apart, no matter how good or bad their arguments are.

I don’t post my criticisms of Helluva Boss on this blog often, but when I do, I always want to give the sound critiques that I wish most critics would give because I have said it before and I’ll say it again, it is good to be able to criticize the things you love and acknowledge when they get things wrong.

And I don’t think Helluva Boss fans are incapable of acknowledging when the show does things wrong. They just don’t want to attract the audience that is foaming at the mouth to trash Vivziepop, and neither do I.

Court of public opinion really affects the degree of thought out into media criticism and I don’t think that has ever been more true than for the Hellaverse shows.

why are my youtube recommendations all anti hb videos

[sandraharissa]

So what I loved about the conflict between the dads in s1 and how it sets up the stakes is that they believe the same thing but have opposing beliefs/attitudes about it, and that neither of them are wrong. Actually the narrative validates both of their views.

With Silco it’s more obvious, they need to resist, Piltover won’t just change its mind, nothing will get better by itself etc etc. however the narrative also proves Vander right. His stance was that the price for ‘progress’ is too high, that the base violence necessary for change is too much, and he’s right.

“Who are you willing to lose? Powder?” cut to Silco running up to Jinx on the bridge. And then follow it up with the independence deal. And then Silco’s is at Vander’s statue moping about how he understands him now.

However Vander’s attitude of borderline complete pacifism fails to protect the Lanes and his kids from enforcers and inside threats like Silco. And Silco’s quest for independence would have cost him a price that is too high for him to pay. Vander thought he could keep the peace by just ignoring Piltover and he was wrong and Silco thought that he could pull this off cos he’d do anything for independence and he was also wrong, even he had a limit, one he just didn’t realize before. Neither of them had the answer and it lead to their demise.

I was really looking forward to how they’d follow this up 😅😅😅

That’s why the idea of stuff being easily solved in the au rings so hollow to me. Silco giving up is just ooc but s1 also rejects the idea that things would have just worked out. In s1 there were steep prices for characters to pay for making the wrong choices and sometimes there were only wrong choices to choose from. In that way s2 feels like smth made for Disney channel. Same with the idea that Vander got radicalized. While more plausible if Vi died and maybe the other kids were in danger why do this time around things just magically work out? Where’s the ‘give me Jinx and I’ll give you your independent nation of Zaun’ moment? It’s so cheap to go back on what they established in s1 about how this world/narrative worked, that Vander was right, the price IS way too high to pay.

I’m honestly not even sure what happened with PnZ in the au or in the main timeline but whatever it was it feels like a cop-out. I’d think that in the au Vander chose to join Silco but in the main timeline they talk about ‘letting go and walking away from the cycle of violence’ so essentially just like Vander in s1a1, right? Even tho s1 proved Vander wrong??

That’s why I liked s1 and would say it was good cos it was complicated in such ways, there were no easy answers. what they’re doing feels so reductive compared to what was established about this narrative in s1 and I’m not sure if even the writers know what message they’re trying to convey.

[subway-tolkien]

Okay, this is 1600 words of (positive!) meta regarding the OFMD finale. Included is character analysis and a treatise on why a certain trope people keep throwing around does not apply here.

This is of course just my take, and I'm sure people will disagree, but I needed to get this out. Apologies if it comes off disjointed, I've had like no sleep.

Spoilers within, obviously. You have been warned. Heed the tags. I didn't tag any characters because I consider it a spoiler, but you know who this is about.

Listen. Listen.

Let me start off by saying I have been where you are. I’ve had beloved characters die, either because it was important to the narrative or for shock value. I’ve been there, so I’m not coming at this without empathy. I’m not an Izzy hater. I loved him as a character. I’m truly sad to see him go.

But from what I’m seeing around Twitter and tumblr, some of you do not understand the role of an antagonist in a story.

Izzy was always meant to die. The moment he said, in the first season, “the only retirement we get is death,” I knew he was meant to die in the end. The foreshadowing ran through both seasons. Izzy was the true antagonist of S1. He was there to keep Blackbeard tethered when he started pulling away, and yet he also set the plot in motion. He inadvertently introduced Blackbeard to the person who let him be just Ed. He put Ed on his own path to redemption without even knowing it.

S1 ended with Izzy getting what he wanted as Ed lost everything he had. S2 was about Izzy coming to terms with the fact that he’d gone too far, he’d turned Ed into a monster. It wasn’t what he wanted. He wanted Blackbeard back, just like old times. Instead, he got the Kraken, and it was more than he bargained for.

Especially after it cost him his leg and he realized how far gone Ed really was. The conversation that ended with Izzy’s half-assed suicide attempt was the final blow to Izzy—Ed really didn’t seem to care anymore. Where Izzy wanted him to stop giving a shit about his silly boyfriend, he instead got a Blackbeard who didn’t care about anything, and he was apparently now included in that category.

(I said half-assed suicide attempt because Izzy wasn’t meant to die then, THAT would have been an empty, pointless death. It wouldn’t have taught Ed anything—in fact, all it did was make him more self-destructive, which was Izzy’s purpose to the narrative, but not his endgame. That Ed thought Izzy killed himself pushed Ed to the brink. Ed wanted to die and take every scrap of Blackbeard with him. Had Izzy successfully killed himself, Ed and the Revenge would be at the bottom of the ocean.

It wasn’t until the crew left Izzy the unicorn leg that he realized the power of compassion, the incredible act of grace from a crew that suffered so much from Izzy’s own machinations and didn't need to forgive him. It moved him to tears, and it moved him to accept that maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea to let people in, to let himself be cared for. It was a foreign concept and something Izzy likely hadn’t experienced since losing his family (I fully expect a shit ton of fanfic of Izzy’s life before piracy).

Israel Hands found the capacity to let love all the way in and by god, did he pursue it.

But, again, Izzy was always meant to die, and I’m glad they stuck to the narrative they set out with instead of placating fandom and letting our influence dictate how they told this story That’s never good, trust me. Fandom should not influence a creator’s decisions regarding their own characters. It rarely if ever ends well.

[Stares in Voltron S8]

And I see a lot of people out here throwing the “bury your gays” phrase around—I beg you, please look up the definition of the trope. Izzy didn’t die because he was queer, he didn’t die because of his disability. He wasn’t one half of the only queer couple in the show fridged for shock value. He wasn’t killed off due to pressure from conservative viewers. He wasn’t the only queer, disabled character.

They didn’t kill off Lucius, or Jackie, or Wee John. Would you be as outraged if it was any of them?

Killing Eve is bury your gays. Supernatural is bury your gays. Pretty much any film, book, TV show, whatever, where a queer character dies because they’re queer, of AIDs, to further the narrative for a straight person, etc—that is burying your gays.

Izzy’s death was none of those things. Izzy’s death had meaning.

Izzy’s death freed Ed from the Blackbeard persona. It finally forced Izzy to say the things he couldn’t say until he realized it was his last chance. Izzy was also tired. I honestly think he stuck it out for Ed’s sake, because he was afraid to let Blackbeard go without making sure Ed would be ok.

He loved the idea of Blackbeard, but over time, he learned to love Ed. He finally understood what Ed tried to tell him the whole time.

“Fuck off, you twat. You’re surrounded by family.”

You’re safe. You’re loved. You don’t need me anymore. You don’t need to be reminded of who you’re capable of being, you need the people who will guide you to who you will become, and I’m not one of them.

I know a lot of Izzy fans are stung by his death, some of you are deeply upset. I get that. Like I said, I’ve been there. Sirius’s death made me throw that fucking book across the room. That Fucking Woman™ killed off my entire OTP, purely for shock value and, imho, a direct response to shippers. Trust me, I have felt betrayed by a creator for their decisions.

But I need you to understand that no, this was not a personal attack, this was not malicious, this was not “bury your gays." A show that celebrates queerness and diversity is not suddenly homophobic and ableist because your favorite character died and happened to be both of those things. But when the majority of your cast of characters is different in some way, and they’re in a show about 18th century pirates, you have to accept that one of them could, in fact, die. “Anyone Can Die” is also a trope and the more accurate one to describe E8.

If only being queer and disabled made you invincible.

Spoiler alert: it doesn’t.

And no, I’m not an Izzy hater. I loved him, I loved him as an antagonist, and I loved his redemption arc. He was fascinating and Con put his whole O’Nussy into that part. I’m sorry to see him go, but as a mystery writer who often has to kill off beloved characters, I understand that he served the purpose he had from the beginning.

I swear, if some of you had your way, there’d be no conflict at all in any form of media. This what a steady diet of nothing but fanfic gets you. This is not a fluffy one-shot with magical healing dick and a happy ending where everyone sails off into the sunset. If that’s what you wanted, what you headcanoned, you did this to yourself. It’s not David et al’s fault that we took that character and babygirled him. That’s the risk we take when we decide to love a specific character, when we take a genuinely terrible person (in S1) and woobify him.

So, please stop harassing and attacking David, Alex, et al. David did not and should not change his story to placate us. The fact he went ahead with it despite the backlash I’m sure he expected makes me respect him as a creator even more.

Anyway, I’m going to revel that we have three (!) queer relationships with happy endings where one or both didn’t immediately die (again, the actual definition of “bury your gays”) and that we got at least two seasons of a little show that celebrated individualism, diversity, queerness, compassion, and love.

In the end, it all came down to love.

“There he is.”

Goodbye, Blackbeard.

Hello, Ed.

[nutellatoppingsbread]

Taco sketches + closeups!! I drew these a couple weeks ago and posted them on my AO3 doodle-book, and I wrote lore for it back then too! Let me just copy-paste what I wrote there :3 (warning its very long)

ANYWAYS BRAINROT LORE IDEA DUMP:

when Mephone4 was coming up with the idea of a villain, he always saw red to be perceived as bad, so to sneak in little easter eggs that he thought was smart, he gave her red tomato earrings that have been the only consistent part of her clothing from S1-S2. In S1, he had her wearing a bunch of greens and yellows because those seem like happy colors right!! and her blonde hair was much more golden and bright blonde in S1 too. (this is meant to be hairdye, as her natural hair is the dull blonde)

now get this angst idea: he saw cobs as a villain in his eyes, so thats why he created her with the yellows and greens as her primary outfit in S1. because cobs didnt seem evil, and it slowly snuck up on you, and hes got yellow and green as his primary color palette right?? (in the human au hes got dirty blonde hair and a green suit with green eyes) so he took partial inspiration from TV and partial inspiration from cobs.

basically, in his mind, red seems like the obvious villain color. and green and yellow are the happy colors. but cobs had green and yellow and he was still evil right? so thats how he got the idea for a twist villain! 

I like to imagine that mephone definitely had the 'reveal her as a villain' thing set in like an automatic code command. After she ran into the forest and the day ended, her coding registered the command, and she woke up the next day wearing those clothes out of nowhere, and her natural dirty blonde roots were given the green light to start growing naturally. Also! being in the forest will definitely ruin the clothes, riiiight? so when she's up on the floaty thingy and taking over the challenge in ep 15, her clothes are obviously tarnished. but after reviving, she's wearing the SAME exact thing, but they're brand new. going to show how the 'villain' clothes were her coded default outfit. (btw for the hair, beforehand, he coded the golden blonde as hairdye and her natural hair growth was paused, and made it so once the villain reveal command registered, the dirty blonde was set to start growing naturally.)

and now after the finale, there's little things left and right that Taco notices and gets stuck on, like the exaggerated bright emerald green in her eyes, the way her teeth are naturally very sharp, and how her hair seems incredibly dull and bland looking- unlike some others who have dirty blonde hair, hers is unnaturally very very dull. of course, theres nothing wrong with this hair color, but she's severely insecure about it once she realizes it was coded apart of her villain characteristics. she sticks to wearing duller colors to not stand out, because she hates having eyes on her as she is now entirely self aware of what is going on (unlike before where everyone was kinda mindless lines of code at one point)

and the final nail in the coffin: when they all get restored and are standing right in front of cobs, Taco immediately notices how similar she looks to that man. they have the same hair, eyes, skin, demeanor, expressions, almost everything. she immediately is hit by a freaking bus of realization that she was based off a man as horrible as him, and that is one of the final blows for her mental health. It was bad enough that her entire existence and very being was based off a negative personality trait, it's even worse to know that she was created with cobs in mind.

[genericpuff]

Do you have any big plans for Rekindled this year? Like specific moments/events/developments? Also, would you ever consider going back to a weekly upload schedule?

welllll as for stuff that's like, in the immediate near future, we're gonna be tackling a VERY famous scene in LO that I have some fun ideas for that will hopefully make it feel familiar but with its own twists for y'all to enjoy. Considering the current roadmap the story is on and what's been established over the past few "days" within the story, I'm sure y'all will figure out pretty quick which scene I'm talking about ;333

But in the long-term over the course of this year... I don't wanna speak too soon, but I think this is the year that we're finally gonna enter the biggest turning point of the story, so big that it literally diverts LR's plot away from the blueprint of LO and we end up in truly new territory. Granted, there are still some elements of the original LO present after that point, but what we do with those elements is entirely different. I think it's gonna parallel well, because while LO's S2 era took a massive turn away from everything it had been building up towards throughout S1, LR's "second season" will be taking a massive turn towards those setups and outcomes that were clearly abandoned (or just not thought of entirely, even the stuff that was like... plainly obvious to anyone who was paying attention lmao).

I'm hoping that after we've reached that point, the path that LR walks will feel way more satisfying for the readers like myself who felt that everything beyond S2 of LO was a complete misfire and lost potential. Again, it will hopefully feel familiar to those who remember that era of LO - but still refreshing and interesting to really drive home how this is meant to be an interpretative rewrite of what could have happened if LO hadn't gotten distracted and had actually stuck with its original plotlines and themes. I think the biggest one of those themes that was present in LO but never fully realized will be everything concerning "Persephone" herself, the Act of Wrath, and everything that led up to her moving to Olympus.

It is a little nerve-wracking, because it'll be at that turning point where I truly have to carry this story's progression for real and can't use LO quite as much to guide me through the dark, but I'm also excited because it's where I finally get to loosen a lot of the limitations that were set from the foundation of LO and really go wild with everything that I had been hoping LO would be. It's when I'll really get to write some proper payoffs to the things that I've been building up to from the foundation of the original comic as my starting point. It's where things are really gonna start to feel truly "new", at least in my opinion!

As for what that massive "turning point" is... I'm not gonna say specifically what happens, but you will absolutely know it when you'll see it. Obviously there are already a lot of differences between LR and LO in terms of the plot threads and how everything is being progressed, but this one turning point in particular is a huge one that fundamentally opposes one of the biggest flaws of LO that would define its downhill decline in its storytelling for the rest of its publication.

But for now, until we get there, I'll leave the rest up to your imagination ;3

---

As for the update schedule, I would honestly love to be able to return to the weekly schedule again, but currently my work-life balance is just not gonna allow for it :'0 For those unaware, when I'm not making Rekindled, I'm also working my day job as a contracted tattoo artist which comes with its own load of responsibilities and obligations, many of which are what I need to fulfill in order to do things like pay my rent and, y'know, not die LOL In terms of the work-life balance, even when I'm not working on Rekindled, there's still a lot of work taking up my life LMAO (including a second retail job that I've been doing a seasonal position for, though it's wrapping up at the end of the month~)

While I love making Rekindled and spend as much time as I can each week working on it (and I wish it could be like, the only thing I had to worry about LOL) it is still just a fanfiction project that I create for free, and so it just can't be at the top of my priority list, at least not without sacrifices from those other obligations - but those other obligations are, again, what I need to do in order to not only survive, but to ensure that I can afford to keep making Rekindled, even if it's at a slower pace than I would like.

That said, Rekindled is still a very high priority for me! It's just a matter of balance, and changing to a bi-weekly schedule was part of maintaining that balance. It was either that, or stick to weekly and make the episodes shorter, but I ultimately settled on the former option because it allowed for a healthier work-life balance (which is still not even super healthy but I'm working on it lmao) and because the rhythm of my writing wouldn't have worked as well in shorter doses, especially not with many of the plotlines we've been tackling as of late. It can be a drag to wait every two weeks, but it means I can bring y'all episodes that are fully realized to their full potential, rather than hacking them up into tinier portions that might not read as well and would require a drawing schedule that wouldn't fit well with my current circumstances.

All in all, while I do wish I could be back to making episodes on that weekly schedule, it's really only because I would love to bring you all more of the story more often, because there's a lot that I'm really excited to show you all! But the bi-weekly schedule is currently more viable for both myself, Banshriek, and the comic as a whole, because it means we get the time we really need to make every episode feel special with every update <3

[deludine]

I'm currently thinking about the lion switch and I honestly can't decide if it was a horrible decision or a great idea that fell victim to the awful writing of the show. I guess I liked the potential or at least the general idea of what (I think) they were trying to do. It was especially good for keith's development. I mean, I like that keith, the loner, who it's kind of an outsider in the group and who struggles with his identity and with belonging in a place or a group, becomes the leader of the team. Setting aside the fact that it's not really that well exectued, I feel like it a nice way to... settel? his place in the team. And honestly, the more I think about it, the more I realize that keith was meant to be a leader. It sounds strange at first, or to me at least it did, because keith, at surface level, it the epitome of a soldier. He is loyal and quick to anger. He doesn't care about diplomacy, he wants to fight, because that's how he feels that he can make a difference, that he can contribute to the cause in a significant way. He is the perfect match for the red lion. But the reason he didn't feel like a leader (to me) in s1 and s2 is also because of his insecurities. Keith is meant to be the leader, he just wasn't ready. He especially wasn't ready in s3 while he was also grieving shiro and with the change in dynamics in the team. Because keith doesn't feel like he belongs, because he only sees his worth in how he makes the biggest contribution (e.i when he leaves), because no one ever sought to understand him and so he learned to do things by himself, because his role as "the loner" was conditioned. But then we see him in s6 (I think?) and he falls naturally into that role when shiro can't lead (or, well, more like he couldn't pilot bc he was missing a whole arm but yk).

Another thing I like about the lion change is how lance was the one to pilot red when keith was chosen by black. It has always been really interesting to me because in my mind allura and keith are pretty similar so you'd think that I'd match the red lion with her, but as similar as they may be, they are not exactly the same. In constrast, lance and keith appear to be opposites, but they both are great matches for red and not just because of their personalities, but because red is not just any lion, it's the right hand of the black lion. Because keith had a special relationship with shiro and lance had a special relationship with keith. Keith and shiro know and undestand each other like no one else can. Keith and lance see and understand the importance of the other in the team when the rest doesn't, not completely. And the blue lion is the most adaptable, but the red lion is the most difficult to bond with, which is why lance bonded with both and allura only did so with blue. Another thing is that many believe lance should have been the leader for the same reasons I think he is perfect as the right hand to keith's leadership. Because lance has many leadership skills, but they work best by guiding keith rather than by leading himself. I also believe that this position could have been great for his development as being the leader could have been for keith. In this way, lance is an essential part of the team, he keeps them together and makes a big contribution without necessarily being the one in charge. They both learn that they aren't indispensable, but keith learns that he can be and is part of the team, that he can make decisions, that he can guide others and that he can also rely on them, and lance learns that he doesn't need to be all that, that he doesn't need to be the one in charge to be important and to be needed and to be useful.

(god i love them so much)

However, there's something that still rubs me the wrong way about the lion change. I genuinely believe that keith and lance are meant for the positions they ended up in and I love that allura gets to fight alongside the others, but for some reason I can't get over the fact that the lions suppously bond with the paladins and that that bond is meant to be something special and unbreakable, and yet they change lions with minimal problems. Look, I love seeing keith as the leader, but I totally get his struggles with piloting black in s3 because keith is a great pilot and fighter. He's stealthy, he is agile, he likes going fast. And red is perfect for that because she's the smallest lion, which allows her to be fast, stealthy and agile. But black is the opposite of all that. She's the head of voltron, both figuratively and literally, which means that she can't go as fast as red and she's not ideal for stealth either. And lance, keith and shiro seemed really bonded to their lions. Heck, shiro had a whole arc about forming a stronger bond with black just to pilot her in like 3 seasons.

anyways, that's it, thanks for coming to my ted talk.

[thesupernaturalhouse]

So I cant.....I can't anymore, Stolas fucking sucks

Season 2 as a whole sucks and gets rid of a lot of character depth that characters had in s1. But this post isn't about that-

I was recording clips for an edit, and you know in ep9 s2 when Stolas tells Blitz about "you couldn't be bothered to come save me"

Yeah.....Blitz TOLD him why he was unable to go and save him. He was even genuinely concerned and sent milly and moxxie in his place

You wanna know what Blitz said??

"Ah shit Stolas I can't today- I'm sorry I am literally on my way to take loona in for her very important hellvis S-H-O-T" and "it takes years to book it, it took 5 for me to get this one"

Aka, a rabies shot, which, racist will immediately kill you. You DON'T survive that once you get it and symptoms start showing up, it's a death sentence, and considering Loona is basically a sentient/anthropomorphic dog, if she catches it her survival rate is probably 0 percent

And you know what? Stolas gets it, and then in ep9, "the one who tried to kill em and you couldn't be BOTHERED to come help me"

Bitch he told you?? He sent people in his place?? He was getting his kid a really important shot?? Yiu selfish motherfu-

I hate this bird

I hate this fucking bird so much more now

This is just the finale straw for me that breaks the camels back tbh like......

Apology tour is just, Stolas and the narritive/writing basically gaslighting Blitz and its gross

I liked Stolitz and Stolas in s1, it wasnt a healthy relationship. The circumstances for both characters weren't super good, but it understood that and actually showed those flaws, It set up these characters future arcs

Season 2 is, frankly, a shit show. It has its moments, but ep1 ruined Stolas and Stolitz for me, and it just keeps on getting worse and it isn't even in a way of "Oh its rough, but they can bounce back

This is gaslighting. This is hypocrisy. This is guilt tripping. This is abuse.

Instead of building off of season 1 it is retconning it, it is destroying the continuity and timeline, it's making these characters so much worse then what they were

Instead of having Stolas face actual consequences for his actions the narritive is backtracking and going "Oh actually its not his fault" over and over again

Oh he cheated in the marriage? No worries Stella is a bitch so it's okay

Oh, he's neglecting his daughter despite them already having this arc? Oh, it's fine she just needs to cut him some slack

Oh he constantly belittled Blitz and made him uncomfortable in season 1? Actually it was all of Blitzs fault for misreading the signs of love!

He is constantly shown looking down and abusing other imps like his butler? Oh its fine, they aren't the main characters so what he does to them isn't important!!

Another thing is that Blitz tells Stolas how he feels. He points out his shitty actions. And what does Stolas do? He fucking cries like Blitz is being a big ol means for no reason

This trial is just going to further victimize him and make him seem in the right. The fact the sins might even be brought into it is also so fucking stupid.

The writing went from a 8 to a 1 with the characters. And it's only a 1 here because there are some good ideas in s2.

Their basically trying to cover up, retcon, Stolas's actions instead of having him deal with consequences and go through real development

Honestly the best ending for Stolitz would be Blitz realizing Stolas is toxic as fuck to him and just, not contacting him again. Stolas could get some real consequences in that trial and move on and become better in his own right

Butttt of course since Viv likes them so much it's gonna be dragged on for fucking seasons and then their gonna get together.

If I were to rewrite the season, I wouldn't even try to rewrite Stolitz.

[monocle-teacup]

Should Earthspark been a sequel instead of a standalone? I don’t see anyone discussing this.

In ES, we got Optimus who is the same as in G1, Spike Witwicky exists (or he’s a nobody), we don’t know how they got to Earth or how the fight began on Earth, did they have selected allies, who died, what characters exist in this continuity, what happened during the war on Earth that could play a significant role in the post-war, what concepts exists?? A lot of the story is generalized. Nothing interesting, just ‘post-war inspired by G1; make it vague, fill the minor gaps, add some changes and let the imagination fill in the rest’. I could be wrong. But I love that they borrowed some IDW ideas.

New audiences are not going to understand what’s going on and not get into this story. Only fans can watch this with their existing knowledge from other continuities. Watching a standalone show as a fan kinda feels… unfulfilling, empty, I don’t how else to say it. I’m glad it’s a new idea but it’s less satisfying. We don’t know who or what the iconic characters (Autobots and Decepticons) are in this setting, they have smaller roles and don’t have much depth. Especially for new viewers.

IMO, ES should be separate from G1. Even if it was a sequel, it wouldn't save the show from writing quality issues which I'll get to later.

From what I've seen on other sites like tfw2005 and reddit, one of the only times ES gets brought up is when a person asks if it's a sequel to G1. It doesn't help how much G1 fan service ES has. While it's neat long time fans can have a "I understood that reference!" moment, there are also TF fans that are sick of the G1 pandering and want something new. ES was supposed to be that, but then it added the fan service like it knew some people would immediately reject the show because it strayed too much from the typical TF formula. It's pretty telling that ES S2 pretty much scrapped everything from S1 to the point that one of the staff made a tweet about it:

Budget and time constraints are most likely a factor for how how vague things are in ES. However, most of the vagueness feels intentional because the writing quality wasn't up the challenge of doing actual nuance. It'd be hard to really make the Cons and Megatron sympathetic if they were shown being utter bastards like most of them were in G1 and especially in IDW. The writing across all seasons of ES operates on the assumption/hope that the audience won't question anything.

And I know people are probably sick of me bringing this up, but the show's insistence with focusing on the Maltos as well as the way they're written is a huge reason why ES never realized its full potential. How are you supposed to look at the effects of war when the main humans behave like there wasn't a war most of the time? Wanna see more of the actual TF characters doing something? Too bad, this is the Robby and Mo Show. Sure, the TFs do get some time to shine, but they ultimately take a backseat to Robby and Mo. The Terrans were supposed to be a new subspecies of TF, but being a Malto is the most important thing.

So many people like to cite Nightshade as being THE reason ES failed when the reality is that the show's overall writing turned a lot of people away. It being a G1 sequel might've made more viewers stick around longer, but nostalgia can only get you so far.

If the writing was better in S1, I'm 100% certain that ES would've been one of my favorite TF series as well as one of my favorite cartoons in general.

[theredeyeswolf]

I know you love Gabenath, so how do you feel about Nathalie and Adrien only having a snugly relationship after Gabriel died? Some of their scenes together look sweet, but it feels like Too Little, Too Late for me.

I don't really see it that way. I think the setting is perfect. We saw Nathalie at times holding back in S1-S2 on Gabriel's decision making over Adrien (to which she tries to guide Gabriel into making the right decisions, like sending Adrien to school, which is something Adrien wanted). Also it always seemed to me that Nathalie didn't wanted to get too attached with Adrien on the very first seasons.

S3-S4 is more about on how Nathalie and Adrien started getting closer as Adrien sees Nathalie is getting sick just like his mother had before her, and him realizing that Nathalie has done a lot of things for him ever since his mother is gone.

Nathalie finally decides to stand up fully for Adrien in S5. Even if Nathalie doubts herself about how important she is in Adrien's life now in S6, (something that is quite normal as she isn't Adrien's biological mother.) I think it makes sense with the setting we got from previous seasons.

I really love the writers are touching upon this topic.

S6 seem like Nathalie is warming more to her new role as Adrien official caretaker and mother as he is an orphan now. She and Adrien becoming even more close its important as Adrien is on the grieving stage. He needs as much of emotional help as he can and Nathalie is the adult who can provide that.

It also makes Gabriel's sacrifice not to be in vain, as he gave his life for Nathalie, so Adrien didn't end up alone.

[oodlyenough]

arcane s2 act 2

so my main criticism of act 1 was that everything felt rushed. that has not gotten better lol

i knew going in that two seasons -- of nine episodes, and short 40 minute episodes at that -- was probably going to be too little. and it is. well. what can you do, i guess. i'm glad this isn't my number 1 fandom interest the way it was in 2022 because if it were i'd be much more bothered lol. many of the beats we're hitting are beats i like on paper but we are blitzing through them so fast they have no time to breathe or sink in before we're onto the next one.

also i respect the huge amount of effort that goes into creating an animated series that looks the way this looks, but these episodes are so short. the runtime is 40 minutes and five of that is credits and another five of that is our obligatory stylized music video. it's just too little time to dedicate to a large ensemble cast and a complex plot. it sucks to be watching the final season of a show and realize you haven't seen [Major Character] for entire episodes, or entire acts (!). outside of jinx and ambessa, it feels like everyone's fave is getting shortchanged on screentime, some more than others. with only three episodes left it's hard to imagine they'll manage to resolve everyone's arc and all the outstanding mysteries and bring everything to a satisfying conclusion. fans freaked out when they first accidentally let slip that after s2 they were moving away from these characters and fans were right. womp womp

more detailed spoiler stuff:

sevika. the hair. why :(

"jinx is a symbol of resistance" is one of those things that i didn't feel they entirely set up. sure, she has pushed back on piltover -- but every time she has, piltover has cracked down even harder on zaun. there's really no zaunites who resent her for that? hm

isha is a character i struggle with because i thought everything about her was too on the nose in act 1 and then we had open act 2 with jinx stating the thesis aloud to the camera. "gee you remind me of my old self powder. i wonder if this is how silco felt about me, powder." lol

i was DARING the show to have vi flashback to punching powder after she hit isha lmaooo. impressed they resisted

whatever tho i did enjoy the jinx-sevika-isha unit while it lasted

vander's werewolf self going back to the hideout he used to share with silco... their jackets hung together... bro...

i have to say i'm actually not sure i like the felicia stuff that much. i don't know. arcane isn't subtle ever and this felt like another sledgehammer. i think i also ... actually derive a bit less meaning from vander taking them in/silco raising jinx if actually vander and silco were besties with their mom and knew them growing up, too. not that it stopped silco from wanting to murk vi lmao so i guess it's no guarantee of his affection for jinx, but... yeah. idk. subtle as a brick: that's arcane

also was this telling me that vander saw felicia die during a rebellion they all incited, flipped out and blamed silco and tried to DROWN HIM ... like... jesus man that's pretty harsh lmao i'd start villain monologuing too

mel in the torture labyrinth was interesting, and i loved getting to meet a version of her sexy brother kino. as soon as [man's voice] appeared i was like omg is it her sexy brother... and it was! sort of! i'm assuming his look and personality and voice match real kino even if he was some kind of trick monster thing. i like the medarda family lore and i liked getting to see mel and kino interact, if briefly

on the other hand, mel being trapped in the torture labyrinth meaning that's her only 5 minutes of screentime for all of act 2 and the reveal is that she has magic powers which we already surmised from the s1 cliffhanger... i don't know... and an illegitimate baby plot? like... we have so many plots. please.

also she's totally pregnant and i hate that. lol.

i started this season ambessa's number 1 fan and i have enjoyed her but also there is a lot of her, when other major characters from s1 get little screentime. i had hoped seeing more ambessa would mean seeing more of ambessa and mel, bc their relationship with each other is very interesting, but... nope??? i mean, sure there's act 3, but we've had six episodes so far of little.

caitlyn's arc was such a disappointment to me. the end of act 1 with her was such a strong stark scene and by the time we pick up with her in act 2 we've already montaged past all her war crimes and into the part where she feels bad about them and is ready to turn a new leaf. like. come on man.

her reunion with vi was way too smooth. i would love vi to be angry with her for her bullshit. maybe they'll fight again next act, they fight all the time, but like... ugh. 2.1 was such a big falling out and then vi just shrugs it off and we're back to "cupcake". poor vi the writers dgaf about her

viktor's cult was not what i expected at all, i expected something more outwardly sinister lol. people on twitter are arguing back and forth about how obviously evil it was but i am not sure that's the case -- or like -- i mean i think as an audience member aware you're watching a tv show, it's easy to be like "this is clearly evil and will be revealed as such later", but just in terms of what the show is putting down in act 2 i think it's presented as this bastion of hope which is then destroyed. in act 3 we will find out why it was destroyed, i assume, and can retroactively decide if that was a good decision or not.

sky. sis. i wish they like. made you a person in s1. i have no frame of reference for if this feels like the real sky whose consciousness is now in the void (like viktor's seems to be?) or if she's like the hexcore's avatar for getting what it wants (which is what i feel act 1 implied), because they did not spend time in s1 to establish her

i joked in s1 a lot about salo getting a front row seat to jayce and viktor's weird gay thing over the years so it's nice he got to participate in their last conversation flkhghgl. but this was another scene where i felt the pacing was nerfing things -- i like the general exchange on paper, that there's been this time apart and viktor wants to show jayce what he's working on and jayce is all fucked up and bitter or whatever, but in real time their reunion, split, and then this scene happen in such a condensed time ... we haven't really seen either of them apart, we didn't see jayce's time growing bitter or whatever and even if we see it in act 3 it's belated?

i also thought it was odd how viktor was like "i was clouded by emotion" when honestly their breakup was the most emotionless he'd ever been to that point lol

it is very funny to think that jayce came out of s1 and the hell void and the lesson he learned was he should continue shooting first and asking questions never

i can think of several possible explanations for jayce's behaviour, ranging from "something i'd be super into" all the way to "i don't want to type it out in fear of invoking it into the universe". so i'm trying not to speculate all that much tbh, lest i grow attached to the former and get the latter

"peacock princes... an old family joke" and "you once told me every system has limits" are two great examples of stuff feeling rushed. these so clearly feel like they should be callbacks to scenes we actually *saw* but they just aren't. because we never got flashback kino, and viktor and sky never held a conversation until she died.

ekko and heimerdinger died on the way to their home planet...

this all sounds exceedingly negative listed out, when in reality i was mostly having a good time. it's just... the cracks are starting to show as the the show strains under the pressure of accomplishing all its goals in a measly 18 episodes. that crunch means any time someone's watching a scene about a plot or characters they like less they're going to start feeling impatient, any time a musical number doesn't hit (and i have to be honest, s2 is more misses than hits for me so far) they're going to feel impatient... i don't know. i find it difficult to see how they'll pull all of this off without leaving the audience thinking "jeeze that needed another season", or "why did they waste time on X when i wanted to see Y".

[eriochromatic]

As a character, what do you love most about Silco? As a subject matter, what do you enjoy drawing about him most? (personally, I love his nose), but his fashion ... GOD. I would love to see your take on Happy AU Silco's wardrobe options!

Also, do you do concept art for video games or animation for a living? Your work is so professional, I especially admire your coloring!

I think for fictional characters in general, I love those who have really strong convictions and would do anything for those set of ideals, and then the narrative continuously tests them and pushes them to the edge. Whether or not the character follows through in their ideals or finally reaches their limit doesn't matter to me, I just like seeing them wrangle with their decisions lol

This is why I didn't like s1 Jayce (who to me was a candle in the wind) but I loved s2 Jayce- for s2 Jayce's arc basically revolved entirely around Viktor, from the beginning where he made the decision to bring him back w/ the hexcore (despite Viktor telling him to destroy it), to the end where Jayce basically decides to die with Viktor in the ether. Jayce was brought to his absolute limit and we got to see him grapple with the decisions that he had to make.

Silco was the same in s1, to me he goes through his own personal "corruption arc" in the sense that in s1e9 he betrays his own ideals for Jinx and finally understands Vander's position. He and Vander probably started out as the same idealists, and then the narrative kept punching him in the gut and forged him into who we saw in s1e1. A lot of this is off screen but just the idea of him (after his fight with Vander) sort of losing his moral compass bit by bit which all culminates to producing shimmer just to prove how much he's willing to fight for Zaun, and then later on realizing there is a final line he won't ever cross...

Honestly even if he did cross that line and went like "haha I don't actually care about Jinx" I would still love him as a character (just in a massively different way since he would be like. A completely different person. Idk I watched the Penguin recently and I still fucking love Oz and also my favorite asoiaf character is Stannis so. LMAO.)

Sorry this turned into a bit of a rant HAHAHA but as for your other questions, yes I love drawing his nose as well, honestly it's funny seeing young Silco art that doesn't have his nose where he just becomes an emo anime boy. I'm just like who are you that's not Silco thats Simon LOL

Idk about specifically designing other outfits for Silco though, I just draw him in what feels right for the moment (?) I guess my art process currently is more like "what am I trying to tell with this" rather than just playing dress up dolls (not that there's anything wrong with that! Just not my thing) Like, for that AU last drop thing I drew, Silco, Mylo, and Claggor are all wearing smth more casual since the vibe was like 10am on a Sunday morning but Powder is wearing her normal clothes since she just pulled an all nighter with Ekko (well ok they fell asleep at like 5am before Ekko rudely ran away lol), and Vander was already up anyways probably to do bar admin stuff idk.. so if you're asking me directly what I think is in Silco's wardrobe I'm kind of drawing a blank fjskdmmsmfd

And yes I do concept art/illustration for video games for a living :)

[wildlybewitched]

This video is kind of a mixed bag, including even some small details I'm not sure I agree with - like does shimmer increase Jinx's insanity? idk. And of course I don’t view Jinx as a villain. I still hold that I don't think she was set up to be the central antagonist for S2, despite crowning herself as Jinx at the end of S1. I did always think/want there to be some redemption/healing for her character in relation to her and Vi (not Piltover, and not turning back to Powder - from my post the other day I realized there are a lot of ways to understand what redemption would look like for Jinx hah).

Anyway, there are a lot of good points too. Like, how she just is instantly removed from all the politics of the show, which I see is often commented on in discussions saying she was never political but I disagree. I don't think that's the Jinx that we saw in S1. It's obvious that the whole distraction with Isha and her unwillingness to do anything for Zaun (which was the dream of her last two father figures, her sister, and her friends when they were all young), is just the writers prepping her character to end up fighting for Piltover (barf). Like this is not the character that was left orphaned by Enforcers as a little girl in S1. Ugh, I can't believe S1 gave us strong voices from so many sides of this conflict just for it all to be flatted to "love and forgiveness fixes everything" and with no payoff.

I agree with him that the show was trying so hard to get away from the original Piltover/Zaun conflict which is why Sevika, the chem barons, Mel, and Ekko are so removed (well in Ekko's case they have to send him to another universe). And then it's insane that after months of occupation Zaun would come to Piltover's defense - that's obvious.

I like this line about Isha "you're telling me through the sheer cuteness of this child all of her mental issues practically disappear" lol fr. It was so cheap to create a character, dial up the "cuteness" factor literally just to tug on a few heartstrings when she’s killed off. She was literally created just to die and it doesn't have nearly the same weight as character deaths in S1. And why did she die for Warwick to still live I literally don’t get it.

Other complaints, is the unsatisfying reunion between Jinx and Vi over Vander/Warwick. It's like the writer's forgot how to write meaningful dialog. How Jinx is captured off screen (and really sooo much is offscreen). Something I hadn’t thought much about is how even Vi and Jinx fighting Warwick at the end doesn’t even feel like the central story anymore and they’re sidelined.

Also he points out the blaring plot holes that have been mentioned before as to why no one seems to know that Jinx killed Silco and how that is just soooo convenient to their shitty plot line. And why didn't Jinx just kill Caitlyn and Vi at the tea party just to decide to kill them later? I don't agree with him that she choose to kill Silco, I think it was incidental, but I agree that it all just makes his death feel super pointless.

[dumblucksers]

II 15 SPOILERS

here is my taco recap + analysis that I wrote after someone mischaracterized her in front of me:

just a disclaimer I have no idea what I'm talking about half of the time so sorry if some bits don't rlly make sense :P

ok so starting with her in season 1, literally all we see her as is this insane little cray say thing who has an iq of 7, apparently speaks French, spits lemons, screams randomly and says things that make no sense LMAO

she gets close to pickle and they stick together for basically the entire season

obviously we know now that her motivation this time was to become the fan favorite and get to the end so she can win the million (for reasons we don't know honestly, maybe find out in 16)

there are also moments in s1 where she'll slip up the act (but they play off as comedic effect) example when she calculated her fall in ep 12 or in 11 where she revealed her arms and was speaking full sentences to pickle for a second and a half

but anyway right at the end when she loses is where she reveals her true self and tried to steal the million after losing (and also severing her relationship with pickle)

one thing to point out before moving on is that taco is an analyzer, her act of being dumb gave her time to observe all of the contestants and pick the right allies and whatevs

n e way moving on to s2

taco has been stalking the entirety of s2 up until she reveals herself in 9, where she still wants the million (or rather half of it, and for reasons we still don't know) and she takes interest in the grand slams team, particularly microphone, who ironically doesn't exactly have a strong voice in the game and is, in tacos eyes, an easy target. So she reveals herself to mic and offers to help her advance in the game in exchange for 50/50 of the million

at this point taco only rlly sees mic as a pawn, and easily controlled. mic is unsure as all she's hearing is how useless and sad she is from a tiny British taco KSJSJSK

however mic is lowkey desperate herself bc she feels as though she isn't pulling her weight on her team, doesn't have much of a voice in the competition, she just lost soap aswell. so she accepts tacos help in the maze challenge using her gain setting.

now in 11 we see more of tacos strategies play out, as she further analyzes the grand slams, as it's categorized as: the alliance (baseball, nickel, suitcase) the friendship (suitcase and balloon) and the other ppl (knife and mic). Taco is more focused on the alliance and their relation to balloon, and she urges mic to get more involved in the pushing away of balloon to get him eliminated (and to further progress mic in the game) but rather than using the approach of attempting to make allies with baseball and nickel, we learn of tacos more violent tendencies. she wants to use a temporary paralyzer (courtesy of test tubes lab) to decapitate balloon. this is where mic draws the line, and also the episode where she proves herself to taco by instead of using violence, she substitutes subtle verbal and emotional manipulation instead. Taco is greatly impressed by this, and it's at this point where taco realizes that mic may not be as helpless as she originally thought.

now taco and mic are starting to reach equal ground, as in 12 they are more casual with each other and just chilling. it's also where the TIME TRAVEL STUFFF HAPPENS WHWOAOOAOAOAOOWOWOWOWOWOW

basically when they're down in test tubes lab and lightbulb activates the Time Machine portal thing, mic sees taco reach towards the portal, before it closes. this is (I think) the first time mic and the audience has seen taco look built a k o my god how tf do you spell vulnerable. ok there we go anyway this is the first time we see taco look vulnerable, and *possibly* regret towards her past actions. she reaches while saying "another chance, perhaps." and while at the time it could have been taken as another chance at stealing the million, ii 15 adds more context that she wants another chance with her relationships in the past, particularly with pickle, and she clearly regrets what she did.

now after this point mic is now a bit sus of what just happened, seeing taco reach for the portal. we also get to see another silly side of taco (not the cray say silly, just normal silly) as she tries to distract mic from the portal And from the fact that test tube and lightbulb are now in the time stuff.

oh yeah also at the end the episode knife finds out about mic and taco oh nooooo well go into that in a second

in 13 yknow they're trying to get knife to join them cuz now he knows and yeah yeah whatever. also taco and mic are getting closer as equals and as friends too so yeah

mic also brings up the portal and taco ignores, as per usual.

now let's get to the interesting stuff. Taco and mic are following knife around in the minecarts, and taco says smth like "is this you holding a grudge over my true self? For why? Everyone knows who I am now!" And mic says "doooo we thooooo????" this is like. 99% attached to the whole portal thing, bc mic saw that vulnerability and now she knows there's a teeeeeny bit more to the evil lil British Mexican food than what meets the eye

also there's another instance of taco and mics violence is bad bit, where knife is about to fall off, and while taco is like YIPPEEEE mic is like erm. No. And then saves knife

now here's where it gets even MORE interesting, where knife calls out tacos first alliance with pickle. Taco obviously gets mad at this, but mic doesn't rlly have a huge reaction except to tell knife that "she's(tacos) changing", which shows that she prolly put two and two together about the portal thing (prolly isss bc she stops pestering about it at this point)

now at this moment in 14 it's clear that taco and mic are partners in crime (well crime might be stretching it. Or not considering what happens), taco goes to shut down mepad so she and mic can teleport freely (and, to the prime shimmer spaceship) where the last violence is bad instance comes up. mic says PROMISE NO VIOLENCE and taco teeechnically doesn't promise, but yaknoww

now cut to when taco uses violence, she kills test tube and paralyzes fan to mics horror. she won immunity but at the expense of others , and that wasn't smth she was comfortable with, and that was her breaking point. she drops taco AND the entire show and eliminates herself

this is also tacos breaking point, in a way. where she realizes how much the game has shaped her into doing heinous acts, and for what, a chance at a cash prize? And now that she's completely out of luck for that prize, her work was for nothing. and it was at the expense of her two closest friends.

she pinpoints where she screwed up, and it was at the finale of season 1, where she broke her ties completely with her best friend just for a chance to steal the prize money. It was the game that fucked up her mentality, that every horrible thing that is done is for the greater good, and to use the rules of the game and the people you meet to advance for a extremely low chance of winning it all. Realizing all of this, taco doesn't want a repeat of this cycle, since the competition is so close to completion. She requests the challenge information from Mepad, and uses him as an incentive to Mephone.

But before we go there time to talk about her BANGER MUSICAL NUMBER YESSSS MY LIL THEATRE KID

anyway in the song id like to point out the banger lines "and we choose, to feel this pain, and we lose, more than we gain" which is basically everything I mentioned before about using the rules of the game and pushing away friends and whatever, and then eventually losing more than you get

next part "if I can't win the prize, I'll play my last reprisal, just to bring their lies all to an end" and then mepad is all like welll you gotta regenerate and tacos like, yeah that's prolly not gonna happen. And mepad points out how she believes she can't start on a clean slate. taco is like bro. with my track record? dawg there's no slate to begin with LMAO

but seriously with everything tacos done she believes it's too late to restart and that everything she did is irreparable (which ngl, kinda true maybe? but also not cuz she hasn't even apologized just yet) and mepad tries to convince her that yes you can change!!! youuu can make a difference...you can make it right... but taco doesn't rlllly listen

ok long story short she takes over the next part of the challenge which is truth or flare, where platforms rise if the contestants tell the truth and falls if they lie, and their fire has to reach the top and burn their rope. Taco, using her extended stalker knowledge of s2, quizzes the contestants on their interpersonal relationships and ngl as Mephone put it it's just a twisted group therapy session lmao

fast forward to nearing the end and the last question taco asks is to suitcase about what she thought she saw when she was being a floating bow tie. suitcase brings up her hallucinations, to which everyone, including taco, is horrified by. Taco sees how the game has affected suitcase, by making her so anxious that she literally HALLUCINATES, and that is yet another breaking point for her. She urges the remaining 4 to leave the competition before they go in too deep. She admits to her not caring about the cash prize anymore, as she "saw the desire took her to extremes" (the violence thing between her and mic) and how the game changes people based on how deep they get into it. She calls out Mephone for getting too deep aswell, as she brings up his challenges that clean up his messes, using tactics such as surprise double eliminations to add drama that mentally fucks with everyone involved in it. Her lil spiel is interrupted by a bush shake, since lightbulbs lil pen she's been clicking actually calls out a signal, and that anyone nearby could answer the call. Taco starts cracking out of fear? nervousness? Pressure idk anxiety any of those, because as knife points out, anyone could meannnn pickleeeee orrrr miccccc oh nooooo. knife says that she has to face her truths too, And then taco cracks completely and dies. annnnd everyone is horrified and sad, except for Mephone obviously, who is now threatened by taco since everything she said was true ngl jdhdjs

but also goes to show how mentally fucked taco is aswell, which while yes it is her fault that her relationships ended the way they did, the common denominator AND motivator is and was always the game.

anyway mepad and the other contestants force Mephone into reviving taco, and mepad formally resigns from the show convinced by tacos speech about leaving the game before it fucks them up. Mepad teleports away and stays with taco, urging her to stop hiding away from her truths and face pickle and mic, if for the last time. Aaand taco agrees

OK THATS IT WOW so tldr taco did some no no things But her unhealthy obsession with Winning a constantly (and unrightfully) changing game was the main factor, and her realization of this is leading her to a redemption arc that she and the people she hurt will (hopefully) heal from

weeee

[liliaeth]

Saw someone thinking of rewriting Teen Wolf, and it got me thinking what I would change if I were to rewrite Teen Wolf.

I'd say the first change I'd make, is to focus the show more on Scott, and his traumas. Now don't get me wrong, the other characters get focus as well. But Scott and his emotions would stand central, as well as Scott's relationship with his mother, and the other characters...

On top of that I'd make Scott starting to deal with being bi, and compare that to him becoming a werewolf.

the show already focused primarily on the horror aspects, and I'd focus on that even more so.

Another thing that would be shown more clearly, would be Sheriff Stilinski's corruption. The way he clearly prioritizes his son's wellbeing over not just his job, but everyone else. And the effect that this has on Stiles, who is used to just getting away with things, because his father has never held him accountable.

Storyline wise, for the other characters, there'd be more explanation for why Victoria is the head of the Argent family instead of Kate, even though Kate is the actual Argent, and start setting up the moral difference between Chris and Kate. While still starting out with Chris as one of the bad guys.

I'd also have Stiles called out on how creepy his behavior towards Lydia is, so that the show can then start a storyline with Stiles growing and maturing, as he learns to do better, and as he learns to accept responsibility for his behavior.

Lydia can pretty much stay the same, cause she's already got a great storyline, as does Derek, with his journey from antagonist to villain to mentor... I just love redemption storylines.

But Isaac can be brought in in s1, where we see him and Scott start a relationship. Now I'd keep s1 as being spread over about a month, so that relationship would not be dragged out too much. Just as Scott and Allison become friends. And there's the doubt for Scott, in that he feels he should be with someone like Allison, because she is kind and strong and beautiful, but he keeps noticing Isaac, and Allison helps him realize that he's bi. (if this eventually ends up in them getting together as a triad, that might be even better, might have to think that through)

By the end of s1, Scott starts finding out that Isaac is being abused by his father, with a emotional moment as Scott tries to protect Isaac, but can't, and it makes Isaac feel even more vulnerable, leading to him accepting the bite in s2. Which would be more meaningful, because by this point we've already seen him as a human, and are already caring about him.

We could have Scott figuring out his sexuality, be contrasted even more so with Jackson in s2, where Jackson will not accept his sexuality, and is filled with self hatred, and it's this, rather than finding out he was adopted (though it could be a combo of the two) which leads to him becoming a kanima.

And then as Scott is pushed out of the (werewolf) closet through Matt's actions, that could be combined with Jackson outting him as bi in the rest of the school, and have that storyline connect and contrast.

We could have Peter try to return, using the ghost in Lydia's head method he did on the show. And it's Scott and Lydia coming together as his victims, standing up against their abuser, that keeps him from regaining his power as the Alpha. And it remains an undercurrent theme of Scott and Lydia's parallels, as Peter tries to align with Gerard, who of course has no issue using him, with specific intent of course to kill him the second he no longer needs him.

Just some ideas of course.

[sunnyshinesunshine]

Okay so I’ve finally solidified my opinion on The Rings of Power and given that it is my opinion it is therefore very important and I’m sure everyone is dying to hear it (this is sarcasm)

I’ll start by saying I’m not a critical person when it comes to things. I consume media to enjoy myself, not to pick apart its literary or thematic flaws. It’s fine if you do, but that’s just not me.

I will also say I’ve never read the Fall of Númenor as its own story, so any Tolkien primary sources I’m vaguely alluding to (this isn’t a research paper been there done that got the high school diploma I bake cookies for a living I ain’t citing shit thanks <3) are the Silmarillion, LoTR, and The Hobbit.

I didn’t like TROP for the first season, but after catching up on S2, I’ve come to enjoy it.

S1 is the full of world building, setting up the political stage and the relationships between the characters that lead to the creation of the rings and all the other bad hullabaloo that ends in the Last Alliance.

Safe to say, I spent the whole time going ‘what? why is he/she/them saying/believing/acting like this? why is it/this portrayed like this???’ and felt very irked by the whole thing.

S2, the rings are being created, familiar events start happening, the puzzle pieces from S1 that were so unfamiliar and bothersome to me then come together to create a picture that I knew.

Once I got to thinking I realized I actually know a whole lot less about the fall of numenor and the creation of the rings than I thought I did.

When Tolkien writes about those events, he gives the broad strokes in a very history-book way. Celebrimbor creates the rings because he is deceived by Sauron. Tar-Míriel is overthrown by Ar-Pharazôn and marries him against his will. Elrond is with Gil-Galad as his herald.

These are the things, amongst others, that we know. Unlike in the Hobbit or LoTR, we aren’t given any glimpses into the heads or relationships of the characters in anything other than what amounts to almost a timeline of events.

This, of course, leaves a lot of room for Tolkien fans to ask questions. Questions that can be answered through imagination. Imagination becomes ideas, ideas become discussions, discussions become a collective understanding of what happened (fanon*. I’m talking fanon. please read the note at the end because I think fanon is awesome and deserves to be defended)

For example. We know Celebrimbor and Narvi built the Doors of Durin together and added possibly the most ridiculous riddle password possible.

When the Doors are first introduced in LoTR, it is also in the middle of Gimli and Legolas’ semi feuding, and before both of them have some serious moments regarding their histories and cultures (Khazad-Dûm and Lothlórien respectively).

All of this to conclude that at some point between Gigolas’s inter-species feuding and the password to the damn doors being ‘mellon’, as Tolkien fans, we came to the conclusion that Celebrimbor and Narvi were close friends.

Celebrimbor and Narvi are not really much more than acquaintances in TROP. And that isn’t inaccurate. The source material doesn’t have an opinion on it really.

Fanon says Celebrimbor and Narvi were pals. TROP says they weren’t. Canon doesn’t care either way.

I mention this example to explain why TROP felt so wrong especially at the beginning. Essentially we, or at least I, had this idea of how things should be, and when TROP diverged from that I felt lost and annoyed.

Now, I find watching TROP to be honestly kind of fascinating, like watching someone else painting using a model and comparing it to the painting I had already created of that same model.

It’s kind of fun. And every Elrond deserves all of us cheering him on.

*about Fanon:

I love fanon it’s awesome and great and it’s fucking collective story telling in a way that hasn’t really existed in modern times. Thousands of people from all over the world create and agree and discuss and add on to stories. The marauders fandom is almost completely fanon and that’s wonderful. Every single one of you who share your ideas about characters or settings or clothes or even (especially) who create the elleths who exist in the Silmarillion but don’t at the same time, you are awesome.

You’ve created a story and world together. Without being paid. You’ve agreed and created simply for the love of creation. And that’s so amazing.

Fanon is awesome and I don’t care for anyone who calls it cringe.

[rustonyourfingers]

Rambling about Vi

ARCANE S2 SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT

I've been going through arcane s2 tag but I haven't seen anyone mention this so far, and I really need to talk about it.

This post is about Vi, but more specifically -- Claggor's goggles and their symbolism. We know that Claggor's goggles were one of the things that Jinx kept after her bomb worked, and we know she used them frequently -- we see her wear them every time she works on something both in season 1 and in season 2 as well. Ever since season 1 the goggles were set up as a symbol -- of a life and identity lost, of Jinx's insanity and hallucinations becoming stronger and stronger, of lost innocence and fall into maddness and violence. And I love how now this symbol was passed onto Vi -- in such a vital moment of her journey as well.

Just moments before the group enters that hangout place (also, the way we keep coming back here, after all these years that passed between s1 arc 1 and s2 -- brilliant!) Vi decided to join the Enforcers -- the very people who for decades (at least!!) oppressed people of Zaun and treated them like animals, like dirt on the soles of their shoes that didn't deserve so much as to breathe. In that moment she's besically deciding to betray her people, but most importantly, herself -- the little girl who walked across that bridge and witnessed all the death and destruction the Enforcers sown, saw her own parents' dead bodies laying broken on the ground. She betrayed the older Vi, the one taken by Vander that followed him around, one that dreamt of getting the boot the Enforcers kept on their necks off and ripping it apart, so Zaun would finally be free of their brutality. She betrayed the Vi that was locked in Stillwater, beaten by the Enforcers for the simple crime of existing, to the point when anytime someone approached her cell, that's what she expected -- another beating. Young Vi saw the imbalance of power between the Enforcers and people of Zaun -- and she hated it. The Enforcers always had better weaponry, training, every advantage possible, and they used it in the most vicious way possible -- to oppress, to hurt, to make sure that people of the Undercity would never be recognized as human, as deserving to live and to have rights.

And now, Vi's putting on the badge herself. Now, she's the one with the advantage -- hextech weapons and bioweapons, things that even with the use of shimmer would be extremely hard to fight against. With that one action, Vi became the oppressor -- and while we see her refuse to acknowledge that until the very end of episode 3, to me her picking up those goggles was the first sign of her facing that reality.

Because Clagger's goggles are a symbol of the past -- the past where Vi was fighting for the right cause, to make her family's life better, to make sure there would be no more orphans in the Undercity. Vi is no longer fighting for the right cause -- she is now part of the causeless violence released onto the people of Zaun, onto the civillians, onto the kids. She not only stops to examine the goggles -- no, she picks them up and puts them on her head immediately, as a reminder of who she was, as a reminder of why she was fighting in the first place, as comfort because she no longer is who she was, she no longer fights for what she faught for in the past and she needs to belive that she's making the right choice in following Cait's lead, because if she faces the fact that she became everything she hated, the very thing that made her into the person she was in season 1, that'll break her. And Vi cannot allow herself to break. Not in the past, not now, not ever.

To me, the goggles are such a wonderful and important part leading to a) Vi's breakdown with Cait when she asks Cait to never change, and b) when she sees Isha protect Jinx with her body and aim a gun at her head, and realizing the fact that she's becoming to Isha what the Enforcers were to young Vi and Powder on that bridge, and that she was no longer fighting for the right cause.

Anyway, this is super chaotic, but I love how Clagger and Milo's memory lives on and still haunts the narrative for both Jinx and Vi. Just chef's kiss all around, what a wonderful show.

Also, English isn't my first language so hopefully this all makes sense lol.