#and I do think everything involving the situation was handled really poorly

[emptyrainbowz]

You know I was agreeing with everyone on Twitter cause Kiswe also killed my friends and family, but some of those fuckers are WEIRD and SCARY so I like, gotta log off

[cookies-after-dark]

okay but Shmilk would be such a back seat driver if he let black sapphire cookie fuck reader

“Move ur hand lower”

“They like being pinched there”

kiss em like u mean it cmooon”

and whoes to say he won’t get strings involved and fix their position himself if they keep messing up :3c

okay no wait 💡 you dropped this because that is one hell of a good idea.

(additional tags because I went loopy here: explicit content, unhealthy power dynamics, possessiveness, humiliation, exhibitionism, degradation)

See, my lame ass was just thinking of Shadow Milk Cookie using this as powerplay, you know? Like a, 'my pets are playing with each other!' scenario where Shadow Milk Cookie actually lets one of his minions knock you around a bit in his stead. Let's be honest, Black Sapphire Cookie's been eyeing you up and down since the moment Shadow Milk brought you here! He's such an eager, helpful, obedient little servant! You could learn to be more like him, Shadow Milk Cookie thinks.

And Black Sapphire Cookie is more than willing to show you just where you stand, riiiiight at the bottom of the hierarchy! No one can tell me that little purple ball of lint isn't secretly a dominant control freak who needs to have everything go his........- I mean, master Shadow Milk Cookie's way. You're adorable and endearing enough, but you need to be taught a lesson or two before you go strutting around the Spire, thinking you're all that just because your the master's newest pet.

Hence, this situation. Shadow Milk Cookie sees the most perfect opportunity to humble you and get his rocks off at the same time! Well, he has many ways to do that, but plan in partocular has him hardening in his tights already. Passing you off to an underling really paints the whole picture for you - you belong to the Spire now! You belong here, this is your new home, you won't be going anywhere, and the first thing we'll do to make sure of that is to fuck you on every piece of furniture in sight! Lovely, ain't it?

Shadow Milk Cookie also loves giving you yhe illusion that you can choose - would you rather have your legs be folded over your head whilst Black Sapphire Cookie mercilessly fucks you while recording your moans and squeals through his beloved microphone, spreading rumors all over Earthbread how you're just some hungry, poorly trained slut? Ooooor~ you could play with Shadow Milk Cookie instead! Those are the only two choices by the way, so choose carefully.

So that was my lame ass. But this ask is hysterical because this also makes Shadow Milk Cookie sharing you with anyone else an absolute godawful nightmare. Black Sapphire Cookie would never talk back to his beloved master, but even he must admit it's getting difficult continuing when Shadow Milk stops him every few seconds with some kind of criticism.

"Pfft! Well, of course, only one Cookie on all of Earthbread could handle this task correctly! Even still, you could at least *attempt* to have a bit more tact than that~!"

Because the Reader, his darling little popper, isn't just some common whore. No, they're just a speeeeecial whore, deserving of only the best treatment! Shadow Milk's words (he cannot help but through a dirty little nickname for you in there).

Honestly, the fact that Shadow Milk Cookie loves you just so, so, so, so much should be obvious! So what if his love is a little rough? Sooner or later, he'll have Black Sapphire Cookie show you the pleasure you deserve, as Shadow Milk Cookie's beautiful, lovely little pet!

[aliteralsemicolon]

what do u think about Maeve as a character and as a love interest for Spencer?

Well she definitely exists. She was definitely a canon love interest 😐 I choose to forget a lot of details from that whole incident on purpose. Talking about this is just beating a dead horse bc I think my opinion is just a general consensus.

but here's what I think anyway:

The storyline

I won't talk about it for long because I feel like it's obvious, but the whole situation was handled so poorly. It kinda just showed up out of no where on one random peaceful day. What do you mean Maeve didn't want Spencer to get the BAU involved because 'it could endanger him'? Babe, he's already in danger just by being in a relationship with you, but I guess that just doesn't fucking matter. Also, what the fuck do you mean that Spencer just went along with it? I'm sorry? Spencer Reid, who becomes very impulsive when it comes to the wellbeing of his loved ones? He just agreed to sit back? Not even investigate in his free time?! By the time ZUGZWANG happens, we as viewers know how the BAU operates. The BAU was more than equipped to successfully deal with Diane. We know what they're supposed to do in a stalker situation, but for some reason they ignore nearly every goddamn protocol and then they're surprised when Maeve dies??

Maeve as a character

Listen, I don't dislike her because she was Spencers love interest. I'm actually somebody who's very keen on love interests for Spencer. I want that poor man to be happy. I dislike Maeve because she's one of the worst recurring characters on the show. She's very morally annoying. Not grey, annoying. Maeve is a geneticist. Geneticists, for the most part, study gene interactions and evolution. She has no fucking business diagnosing and prescribing shit from one look at an MRI scan. I don't even wanna talk about how medically inaccurate the migraine bit of the storyline is. Somehow it gets dumber. I don't know what she said for sure, but I know for a fact that she said something like she had to get to know Spencer because of how interesting he seemed. FROM HIS MRI SCANS?! Are we ignoring how unethical this is? Please, I cannot fucking do this. But there's more. Apparently she loves Spencer. She says as much at the end of a phone call AND literally writes that one love quote in the Narrative of John Smith for him. She loves Spencer, but fails to mention how she was engaged literally not long before she met him. And she doesn't feel an ounce of guilt or sadness when he ex-fiancé (whom she also supposedly loved) gets shot in the head in front of her? Also there's certain times where she just comes off as very emotionally manipulative, but in the dumbest way possible. The thing is that I don't even hate her because she's like this. Some of these things actually give the character potential to become a really interesting and complex character. It's because she tries to come across as the opposite. The writers try very hard to portray her as an intelligent, good and innocent character, but everything she does is very selfish and stupid. Personally, if I was a geneticist and some fucker reached out to me to ask about his MRI scans I would redirect him to a fucking neurologist or something.

Maeve as Spencer's love interest

She's introduced to us a mysterious woman over the payphone. We get glimpses of her body in a dark room and we watch her fiddle with things while walking around, but we don't actually get to see her face until later. Her voice is meek and sultry. If this sounds like some wattpad introduction then that's because that's literally what it is. Maeve is introduced to us in a very Y/N esc way. The whole relationship is very much wattpad story written by a 14YO back in the day. Wait I take that back, even fucking 14YO's writer better shit. At least their stories were worth ruining your sleep schedule for. I can't even be upset, Maeve is literally not the first female character portrayed this way on the show *cough* Jane Seaver *cough*. MGG didn't want Spencer to have a love interest so Maeve was written to die. I just wish they at least tried to do the characters and the story justice. Viewers couldn't even connect to Maeve because she was just thrown at us one day and then literally killed a second later. Even if she wasn't unlikable I find it very hard to imagine that I would've cared about her death, because I literally had no time to bond with the character. It's also just very awkward when she shows up after her death because I feel disconnected with Spencer's emotions. Mentally, I know that she's his first great love or whatever, but emotionally, I do not give a fuck. She does not match Spencer's freak. What she is, essentially, is a female version of Spencer (but through the male gaze because she's a woman so ofc she's slightly dumber and Y/Nified). Spencer is one of the most complex established characters on the show and Maeve as a partner for him is just very boring. And even if she's was interesting, I PERSONALLY FEEL LIKE the actors have no chemistry together. He's had more chemistry with love interests that lasted for a way shorter period than he does Maeve. Ironically, the most chemistry he has is with the one person he despises the most (Cat Adams) and I think that speaks volumes. God, I wish so badly that they utilised the bar tender he did a magic trick for or the forensic scientist in that bombing episode.

Again, I'm pretty sure most of the fandom feels this way. I'm fairly confident that I might have more to say, but I cannot be bothered anymore.

[darcytaylor]

Hi there, I stumbled upon your blog and I am so glad I did! I really enjoyed reading your deep dives. I agree with a previous commenter; your posts have been articulate, understanding and compassionate while also being on the nose with your critiques. With all the heightened emotions right now, thank you for keeping things calm while also being able to explain your take on everything - it’s been very interesting to read! I’ve been desperately trying to find other posts/people that have similar vibes because this whole… situation-ship has been a bit much. I have to admit I learned a lot about Luke from your deep dives, mostly because I wasn’t really paying much attention to him until the press coverage started in earnest earlier this year. And I’m not entirely sure what to make of him now; it was very eye opening and gave me plenty to think about. I genuinely liked him up until this all happened, and I think I still do, but my god, has he (and his team) created a mess for himself. Some thoughts, in no discernible order: 

Saying he was most like his character/Colin. I 1000000000% agree with you here! I think that’s why it was so jarring when people found out about the (not so secret, I now realize) gf. “Colin as a character made them feel seen. They couldn't separate Luke from Colin because he kept saying he was like Colin” Ugh, that’s some heartbreak right there. 

I also feel very strongly about the age thing, and I’m heartened to hear I’m not alone in this. The age gap would be one thing for a “normal, everyday couple,” but I agree when there’s also a power dynamic involved, it just makes me feel even more uneasy. Then you add in his comments about how he remembers being in his early 20s…

His social media is a fucking mess. Someone else needs to take control ASAP. Especially if he claims he was moving it into a more professional direction. JFC, there are literal professional who get paid to do this; hire them.

I agree that he should be booked for, like, the next 2 years from this point, and that’s a huge mistake that he isn’t. He can’t just seriously think he can fuck off to Fashion Week and this will all blow over, right? Right!?!?

I think we can all agree that Nicola is fucking perfection. 

(Can you tell I have a comms background? Everything about how all of this has been (mis)handled has made me want to cry, scream and throw up - and not in the funny meme way. But seriously, how can his team bungle all of this SO POORLY???) Anyway, I have a lot more thoughts but I’m now worried I’ve flooded your ask box. Thanks for humoring me!

Thank you for taking the time to read all of the deep dives and your kind words!

The whole situation has been wild to look at from the outside. I could see so much hate going around from all sides and felt that maybe if I put everything together, people could look at the situation with clear eyes.

I think that Luke still has the potential to go places in his career and hopefully the situation that he has found himself in will help him. You know the saying "sometimes you have to hit rock bottom", this could be that for Luke.

[mayhem-neverending]

The Big Bad Wolf

Part XXIII

Word Count: 3,251

Warnings: none

“I see self isolation in your eyes and I’m going to tell you right now that you better not even think about it,” your voice was laced with irritation, though it wasn’t at all directed at him.

“But it’s obvious I’m an issue and your mom is right about me,”

“My mom is probably worried about her reputation at work. She’s been there fifteen years and they only stopped looking at her immigration status when Pain came and destroyed the village,”

He opened his mouth, likely to remind you of his involvement with Pain, but you waved a hand and gave him a look to silence him. He reluctantly shut his mouth. 

“My mother’s anger has nothing to do with you or me, really,”

“How? It sounded an awful lot like it had everything to do with ‘us’,” He used air quotes with his fingers.

You gave him a deadpan expression. You could still feel your adrenaline pumping from the call and lacked your normal delicacy. “You can’t control a person’s actions or emotions unless they’re under a Genjutsu. Maybe what she thinks I’m doing influences her emotions, but that damn well didn’t make her essentially call me a whore,”

“I can’t believe she said that to you,” Obito blurted. 

You were grateful he decided to focus on you rather than turning inward. You thought for a moment before you waved a hand, although you had some level of disbelief, too. “She’ll apologize once she’s calmed down enough to realize what she said,”

“That doesn’t make it right.”

“No, it doesn’t,” you agreed. You inhaled deeply, willing the frazzledness to dissipate. As soon as you felt everything calm inside of you, it struck you how very wrong your mother was to do that. She had never been good at handling her emotions, and you usually gave her some grace, but she had really crossed a line this time.

“I don’t… I don’t know that I want to associate myself with her after that,” You looked anywhere but at Obito, who was agreeing with you wholeheartedly in your peripheral vision. 

“Okay, well. I guess that’s decided then,” you looked over at him and shrugged.

“Wait, it’s just done, just like that? You’re not going to rant or… get angry or something?”

“No,” you said slowly, raising a brow.

“You’re just.. Making a decision and letting it go,” he stated unconvinced.

“Yes,”

“How?”

“Uh, with practice. A lot of practice. Works better in some situations than others,”

 “With practice,” he imitated you poorly, rolling his eyes.

You looked at him where he was seated with his back against the wall, a small twinkle in your eye. “You sounded mean just then, what a big bad wolf you are,”

He shot you a dirty look. He reiterated, “She was right about that,”

You got up, stretching so that the shirt you wore rose and just barely covered your behind. You weren’t going to let him start into a spiral, not after the shitty night you had last night. The two of you were going to at least have a nice breakfast beforehand. Damn Toma and his big mouth for making what you were hoping would be an idyllic morning into a whole show.

“Obito, ‘The Big Bad Wolf’. Y'know, if you're a wolf I’d be happy to be Little Red Riding Hood,” you winked. 

He spluttered. You started towards the door, a little extra sway in your step. The door swung open and you left it ajar as you walked out. 

“Hey,” he called after you. “What the hell’s that supposed to mean,”

He came after you, catching up just before you reached the kitchen. “What’re you trying to say?”

“Nothing, Obi, I was just being silly,” you said as you dumped the old grounds out from the coffee maker. 

You rinsed it out and replaced the piece and turned towards him. He was thinking awfully hard, scrutinizing you and then looking out the window when you went to catch his eye. You almost hoped he saw right through you and knew that you had just outwardly flirted with him. 

“Now, what do you want to eat?”

“You don’t have to make me anything, it’s your day off,” he stepped close and reached over your head to grab the coffee grounds, pressing lightly against you.

“I want to,” you replied, looking up into his dark eyes.

He didn’t move away from you or break eye contact when he set the coffee grounds beside you on the counter. 

“Really,” he said. “You don’t need to. I’ve caused you enough trouble, I can at least make something for you on your day off,”

“I’ve caused you way more trouble than you’ve caused me, I’ve got it,” you said testily.

“You haven’t. Let me,” he leaned down a little more into your space to argue. 

You got on your toes and pressed a finger to his firm chest. “I have. I’ve got it,”

“Y/n,” he warned, coming closer still.

“Obito,” You moved closer until you realized how close you really were. Your eyes flicked down to his lips that were now mere inches away. He did the same, and like magnets the distance began slowly closing without either of you aware of who leaned in first. Your chakra started to intermingle, excited and unbidden. You were a hair’s breadth away, eyes half lidded and a fire already blooming against your lips from where his uneven breath brushed against them. Your phone started ringing loudly from the bedroom and the two of you jumped apart like you were struck by lightning and you excused yourself to scurry to the bedroom.

Obito waited for you in the kitchen while you answered, catching his breath. His heart pumped loudly in his chest, the sound of it thumping in his ears making it impossible to hear anything else. He thought he must still be dreaming because there was no way you were about to kiss him. Absolutely not, you were one hundred percent not interested in him like that, he thought to himself in full denial. That’s why you trusted him to be around you in just his long sleeve shirt and nothing else, right? Because you trusted him not to do anything like that. Oh Kami, had he just breached a boundary?

He pinched the skin of his left forearm, and the pain indicated that he was indeed awake. His heart beat harder at the realization. Were you really going to kiss him? Was he really going to kiss you? He recalled in vivid detail your soft lips inching closer, your lashes fluttering closed as he pressed in. It was like an invisible force had taken over for him, he knew if whatever it was hadn’t he would have never been brave enough to do that. 

He looked down the hallway, only to see you coming out with your outfit from the previous night back in place, acting like nothing had just happened. He was immediately confused, and hurt flashed in his chest. He was right. He breached a boundary and you were so uncomfortable you had to leave. He deflated, shoulders slouching. 

“Hey, Kakashi called and said I needed to go down to his office NOW. I’ll be back as soon as I can,” 

“You mean Monday,” he said dispiritedly. 

You paused, one arm halfway through your coat sleeve. “Uh, no. I meant today. So we can have breakfast?”

“Oh, uh,” Obito looked confused, brows pulled together, heart rate starting to pick up again.

“Do you.. want me to wait until Monday?”

“No,”

“Okay, good. I’ll see you after this, then. Have breakfast ready for me, okay?”

“Sure, yeah. Will do,” 

You zipped your boots and straightened out. You waved to him and he waved back a little awkwardly, relieved he was wrong. And wondering what the hell he was going to make for you. 

…

Kakashi was about to jump up and start pacing when your knock finally sounded at the door. He called you in and you made your way to his desk. He gestured for you to have a seat, so you took one. He reluctantly sat down across from you, his hand landing atop an open scroll. 

“I’ve received a letter from Akujia’s military committee,”

His features that had struggled to stay neutral in his worry smoothed into that of marble, cold and expressionless. “You and Hina were not only spotted, but recognized by a man who could name you. It’s lucky he couldn’t identify Obito, too,”

Your whole body tensed and you sat stock still, eyes wide as you processed the information. Who? Who recognized you?

“The head of the committee, a General Casus, is demanding Hina’s return. He explains in length that they have a right to finish what they have started, by law, because she is an enemy of the state by association of the Zen’in and avoidance of ‘fair charges’ brought against her. You and Obito have also been charged in aiding her escape. Their terms are that charges will be dropped against the two of you if she is returned,”

Your jaw dropped. “No!”

Kakashi held out his hand. “It’s okay, I’m not turning her over to be executed for false crimes. No one here is facing charges from the Akujian government. I brought you here to explain the situation and to let you pick where you’ll be staying,”

“Where I’ll be staying?”

He nodded. “I can’t let you stay unguarded in your current apartment. I also can’t afford to put you in another safe house and thin out my Anbu ranks. You and Hikaru can either stay with Hina or Obito for the time being. They both already have a barrier and I’ve just assigned an Anbu guard to Obito’s location,”

Hina’s place was cramped from visitors and she didn’t have an extra room. Plus… you wouldn’t say it out loud, but you could only take the newborn stage in doses when it came to other people. Your eyes roved the room as you tried to make a decision. Would it sound weird if you asked to stay with Obito? A part of you was almost anxious that he knew about what had just transpired between the two of you.

He did have the extra room across from his, and it was your job to care for him so it made sense to pick his home. Would you tip Kakashi off about your crush by asking to stay with him?

Very slowly you replied, “Obito. I’ll stay with Obito,”

He nodded, satisfied with your decision. His face didn’t betray any emotions as he called out for an Anbu. A behemoth of a man entered the room and stood in the center. You couldn’t help but think he was definitely someone you wouldn’t want to mess with. 

“Ox, please escort her to her apartment for her things and help her move them to Obito Uchiha’s home,”

He held out two extra large scrolls to the man. “These are sealing scrolls. I don’t know how much time she will have to stay there, so get as much as you can in these,”

That statement surprised you. If he didn’t know how long, you were concerned about what was in the Akujian scroll that he had chosen not to mention to you. What he said was pretty cut and dry, something that shouldn’t take too long to figure out, especially between Kakashi and Shikamaru who was a master strategist. 

Kakashi turned to you and picked up a smaller scroll from his desk. “This is a message to Obito, detailing some of the information I have shared with you,”

You nodded and took it from him, standing from your chair and actively keeping your suspicion from your expression. “And Hikaru? Will I be able to pick him up?”

Kakashi shook his head. “I’m going to personally go get him. A rumor his father has started is spreading like wildfire,” His penetrating gaze made you wish the floor would crumble beneath your feet. “I know that it’s not true, but I can’t have him starting fights with you out in the open after receiving this… request. I need you secure as soon as possible,”

“Of course,” you said quietly, completely mortified. 

“Who will take Hikaru to and from school?” 

“We can discuss the details later,” he dismissed you with a wave of his hand.

You nodded and you left with Ox trailing closely behind you. The walk was silent and rushed. You knew better than to try to start conversations with Anbu while masked, not that you particularly wanted to at that very moment. The first thing you did was change your outfit once inside. Then, you took your own sealing scroll and piled your clothes and shoes on top of it. You told Ox to use one of the scrolls to get Hikaru’s bedroom cleared out, and could hear him moving things around while you worked. 

You felt a little dazed as you went along, pulling blankets and some odds and ends into your pile. You sealed the scroll and pulled out another from your bedside table. You went into the kitchen to grab some things before you forgot. Who knew when you would be going to a store again. Ox followed you in, tucking the used scroll in his uniform. 

“What else, ma’am?” he asked in a deep voice befitting his stature.

“The rest of what’s in my bedroom, if you could, please. I think I have anything else covered,”

He nodded and walked back to where you had been while you emptied the fruits and vegetables you recently bought from the refrigerator. Whatever you thought would fit ended up in the scroll, and you hoped it would be plenty. Obito’s fridge was pretty full as it was, but the man ate, well, like a man, and there would be three of you to feed. 

You also hoped he wouldn’t be upset or overwhelmed by this sudden change. Living with you would be one thing, you were obviously familiar enough with each other. Which might also be an issue, but you digress. Adding Hikaru to the mix was a whole different beast. You loved him very much, but that didn’t change the fact that he was still a two year old. 

You were a little nervous walking through the woods to his house. And by nervous, moreso excited. It had dawned on you that you would be staying with someone that you really liked, if almost kissing him this morning indicated anything. It was hard to accept before, but running to him for safety really opened your eyes to the idea that it might be okay to like him. And what your mom had said to you made you want to be with him more. It had only solidified to you your belief that he was a good person. Obito being a wolf in sheep’s clothing was a ridiculous notion. From what you had seen first hand, he was actually a scared sheep in wolf’s clothing. 

Ox didn’t have access to the barrier, so he handed off the scrolls at the clearing before joining his team in the trees. You walked through normally, feeling a little odd knowing that you now had an audience. You noticed that the snow had almost completely melted, a shame for Hikaru who would now have a yard to play with it in. Konoha was never cold enough to keep snow for very long, it was lucky you had had it the past few weeks. 

You opened the door and the smell of coffee and eggs wafted straight to your nose. Obito had already stood from the couch, his own mug set on the floor next to it. You couldn’t help but grin at him. 

“I have some news,” you related a little more excitedly than appropriate.

His brow raised. “I’m guessing good news by the way you’re smiling at me,”

“Both!” You pulled the scroll Kakashi gave you out of your coat pocket and handed it to Obito. 

While he read it, you went ahead to the spare bedroom down the hall. It had been awhile since you had opened the door, and it was probably in dire need of dusting. Your suspicion was confirmed by your sneezing the moment the door was yanked open. You left it ajar and went to the linen closet for a duster and some rags. 

You had just walked in when Obito appeared in the doorway. “How is any of this good news? And what are you doing in here?”

“Oh,” you said and put the duster down. Of course you had gotten ahead of yourself. “The good news is that I’m moving in with you for the time being. Kakashi wanted me safe inside a barrier. Lucky the place I work already has one, right?”

Obito blinked at you in surprise. “You’re moving… here? With me?”

“That is what I said, yes,”

“And you’re okay with that?” He shifted on his feet.

You had a very strong urge to roll your eyes. You placed a hand on his arm. “I’m okay with it if you are. I mean, who knows how long I’ll be in lockdown. It could be months before we see each other again otherwise,”

“You mean you could be stuck here for months?” Despite his wording, his features became more animated, almost like a child about to receive a birthday present.

“No need to get too upset about it,” you joked. 

He shook his head, but the light shone in his eyes despite his best efforts to look neutral. You imagined yourself kissing him to make him give you his goofy lopsided grin again. You cleared your throat as soon as it passed and tried to think of anything else. “Uh, you made breakfast, right?”

“Oh, yeah.” He remained in the doorway for a moment longer before willing his body to move away from you.

You followed him out. He poured you a cup of coffee and handed it over to you before stepping over to the oven where he had been keeping the food warm. He opened it and pulled out a plate with two egg sandwiches. 

“I don’t really know how to make anything else breakfast-wise, so, ta-da. I hope it tastes okay,”

You reached out and he placed the warm sandwich in your hands. He took his own and you could tell he was waiting for you to take the first bite before digging in to your own. You held yours out towards him. He looked between it and you, quite confused. 

“To our new living situation. I think it’ll be quite the adventure,”

“You want me to like, touch my sandwich to yours?”

“It’s a toast, Obito,”

He blinked slowly at you. You waved the sandwich at him. “A toast, get it?”

“Do I… have to live with you?” There was a slight curve to his lips.

“Hush up and toast with me,” 

He rolled his eyes while his smile grew. After an eternity, he touched the corner of his sandwich to yours. You grinned, satisfied, and he couldn’t help it that he broke out into a crooked grin to match yours. 

He took a slow bite of his dry sandwich. Internally, he repeatedly thanked whatever universal force it was that decided it was finally time to have his back. Maybe he could have a little something good, just this once.

Part XXIV

Taglist: @mostlyunsure, @humongousdreamlandbear, @ichaichahatake, @mandy-yeager, @detectivestucks, @faces-ofvenus

[mbti-notes]

Anon wrote: Hi mbtinotes 22yo INFJ here. I recently lost a friend (INTJ) after dating her briefly. After breaking things off, there was a lot of hurt on both sides that we weren't able to reconcile. I ended up blocking her to move on, since then have unblocked but never reached out. This loss has been eating away at me every day since and I can't stop thinking about my mistakes or feeling like a failure. At the same time, I don't think maintaining a friendship was benefitting either of us.

There was a lot of drama over how I handled the breakup, and it was messy since we both still had feelings but she no longer trusted me. I also think we were in somewhat of a codependent relationship and my thoughts about her are obsessive. I constantly wonder what she's thinking and whether or not I can "fix" things despite the damage done. I've always had self esteem issues, social anxiety, and I believe have struggled with depression for a long time.

I know I have good qualities and my friends remind me all the time, but I just don't see myself that way, and I've always struggled with dating and this falling out with my friend has put me even deeper into my issues and made me more aware of them. I still care for her a lot, but I don't know if reconciliation is possible and am afraid of repeating the cycle, and she's villainized me at this point anyway. I honestly have no idea how I'm supposed to build myself up from here.

----------------------

The best way to have healthy self-esteem is to be a person of integrity. It means making decisions primarily from the perspective of your better self, with a view of the bigger picture (Ni). It means doing whatever is necessary to preserve every person's well-being, including your own (Fe). It is never too late to choose integrity. The sooner you choose it, the sooner you can get to a more positive place in life. The path to integrity is a lifelong process of learning how to be the person you're really meant to be.

When it comes to failure, having integrity means owning up to mistakes and learning to do better. The way is: face facts, take full responsibility for everything that was in your hands, and resolve the situation to the best of your ability.

Resolve is not the same as fix. "Fixing" is usually motivated by an egocentric desire to assuage guilt, silence regret, or unload resentment. By contrast, "resolving" should be motivated by care and empathy and a genuine desire to do what is best for everyone involved. Negative feelings must be laid to rest and everyone must be allowed to move on in the most positive way possible. Resolution can be a difficult process and might require several steps, for example:

Contrition: For the sake of learning and personal growth, do a full accounting of all the things you have done that were hurtful, harmful, or morally problematic. Make a list and review the reasons why you engaged in such behavior. Feel your remorse fully, and make a choice to forgive yourself by accepting that you are human and still have much to learn about how to make moral decisions.

Atonement: Issue a detailed and heartfelt apology to everyone who was negatively affected by your behavior. Provide an honest explanation for why you behaved poorly, without making excuses or deflecting responsibility. Ask for forgiveness, recognizing that you are not entitled to it and do not have control over whether it is granted. In your own mind, forgive others their mistakes, for the sake of your own well-being, because you do not want to keep carrying around the heavy burden of a heart poisoned by resentment, anger, or hate.

Closure: Do a full accounting of all the things you appreciate about the person and the relationship you had together, and say thank you to them. Express that you hope the negative experiences won't erase all the positive experiences you've had together. Sincerely wish them the best going forward. Grant everyone the freedom to open a new chapter of life.

Blame is always counter-productive to relationships. Since the relationship is basically beyond repair, continuing to play any kind of blame game (whether blaming yourself or her) is only going to keep you stuck in negativity. It sounds like blame was a significant factor contributing to the breakup, so it's time you learned a better way of handling painful feelings via improving your emotional intelligence. You need to get back in touch with your caring and empathetic side in order to let go of blame and leave the past behind.

You've had many opportunities to end the situation but instead chose to continue it. At some point, you have to make a decision as to whether your energy is better utilized moving backward or moving forward - you can't have it both ways. When you choose to move forward, feelings will fade as time passes, and you'll get better perspective from which to learn important lessons, lessons that will hopefully better equip you for success in future relationships.

Remember that the process of grieving a loss and healing from it cannot begin in earnest until you release yourself from the compulsion to fix and, instead, move toward full acceptance of reality.

[rockofeye]

I saw somewhere talk that Puff Daddy aka P Diddy has a tattoo of Erzulie Danto on his back. Another person says that’s a mistake, and it’s actually Erzulie Mapyang.

I don’t know enough about Vodou to tell which it is, if any. I was wondering if you could tell me your thoughts on it.

This is just speculation on my part. But I was thinking that maybe Puff started serving a lwa. And that lwa is eating him because of all the bad things he’s been up to the past few decades. Like maybe the retribution he’s dealing with now is from angering a lwa. Since he seemed to have gotten the tattoo pretty recently, and then all of a sudden his life started falling apart. Before this, it seemed like the feds just looked the other way. Just wondering what you think may be going on with that situation.

He's had that tattoo for awhile, at least five or six years. Maybe it's a thing, maybe not; he wouldn't be the first celebrity to ask something of the lwa or be invested in relationships with them, and he wouldn't be the first to get a tattoo in the hopes people would think he is invested. He is a sociopath, and so appearances are just as important--if not more so--than actual substance.

This isn't a lwa eating him up; this is the consequences of decades of bad behavior finally catching up to him. In another lifetime, I worked in the music industry (way back when), and none of what is coming out in public view was ever really a secret nor is it isolated. I was pretty low level overall, and the shit I saw in my little corner of the world was deeply unsettling. I can't imagine what I would have seen had I had the capital to move higher.

He isn't the first person to do this kind of stuff and he won't be the last. This is how people with massive amounts of money and inherently flawed personalities move; they take advantage of what they want when they want without ever thinking there could be consequences, because money makes consequences evaporate...until it doesn't.

Federal agencies never really look the other way. They just don't care until a particular bar has been met; either it is so vile, so visible, or so poorly handled that it can't be ignored, and then they go in. The stuff he is charged with (RICO/racketeering, human trafficking, etc) dates all the way to 2008, and those kind of charges take a long time to build to. The federal government does not file a RICO case unless the conviction is certain; , it is really the only time you can say that someone is honestly guilty without seeing anything further...the burden of proof to bring those charges is incredibly high, and the federal government does not lose. This case was built long-term, and their witness and co-conspirator lists are very likely LONG. They haven't even gotten around to charging other people, because it's likely folks are going to agree to testify to avoid charges. This isn't new or sudden, it's been happening. The publicity is new.

The lwa (or any other spirit community) don't need to lift a finger in any of this because why would they waste their effort? All they have to do is nothing, and just sit and watch the downfall. The lwa don't need to be angry, because--if they did deal with him--they already knew who he was before he got to them and knew he would hang himself when the time was right. They operate very differently than people do, so they're not going to react or process how we react or process, or approach situations how we would approach them. They are not infallible or all-knowing, but they see way further and way farther than we do and know way more about the potential outcomes. If he was involved, they knew before he even got close to the present moment who he was and what he stands for.

If anyone is getting good spiritual guidance in this whole mess, it's Cassie. Her moves were brilliant. She got him to shut the fuck up about her almost overnight, then got an admission, and publicly positioned herself in opposition to everything before it all came out....and it all happened really publicly, so everyone sees her in a positive light. My guess is that folks knew this was coming for awhile because questions started being asked. In a RICO case, the feds look very, very closely into everyone around their target, including significant others etc. I bet Cassie got wind of it and decided she wanted none of this heat. She was around him a long time and saw a lot of shit (in addition to what he did to her), and she made her move before anything else could drop. Even victims can be charged as accessories.

Retribution in Vodou is really the act of people, not lwa. The lwa don't need to expend the effort to lash out to get their messages across. Instead, they do what is infinitely more frightening and potentially life-destroying, and that is just sitting down and staying still. They stop contributing anything that they have done that has benefitted you; all protections, stability, luck, financial success, etc. You have a life where you have been stripped of what they blessed you with because of your actions/inactions and missteps, not because of their decisions. They will have told you and warned you and showed you the path(s) that you needed to take to change the outcomes that were coming for you and told you what the consequences would be if you didn't...and you didn't listen or didn't do it or thought you could act in a way they wouldn't see.

And so there you are, all alone with the dawning realization that You Fucked Up. Sometimes that's fixable, and sometimes it's not. Sometimes you can crawl back to them and they'll show mercy, but sometimes that mercy is it's own consequence: maybe you're going to prison for 20 years instead of the rest of your life. Maybe you're going to live, but you'll never hold a regular job again. Maybe they'll let you come back, but every ceremony you go to you are publicly reminded that you don't like to listen. Or maybe it's not fixable, and you're just going to bob along for the rest of your life knowing you blew your own opportunity.

Basically, the lwa don't have to do a thing to punish their people because by the time we get to where we are experiencing the punishment, it's really just the consequences of our repeated actions against our own best interests. When they get to where they just shrug their shoulders about you, you're way down the road of your own demise.

So...if he was dealing with the lwa, they shrugged their shoulders about him a long, long time ago. They don't need to actively participate in his downfall because he assured his own outcomes by the sum of his own actions. He's honestly done a way more thorough and complete job of assuring his own destruction than the lwa ever could, and now he gets to Diddy bop all the way to the SHU. Maybe he and R Kelly can get adjoining cells and write sad songs together!

[proudfreakmetarusonikku]

the way you’re handling this is sad. Quackity is not only ignoring Dream but some of the people on his own SMP who also reached out with concerns. Dream has been nothing but mature, concerned and empathic throughout this entire situation and your response is to call him pathetic?

Quackity ignoring a friend that he’d been very close with before is concerning in itself and I personally find his silence to be very worrying. It isn’t right to just. go after dream for no reason when compared to Quackity i’d say he’s handled this drama with a good amount of maturity and concern for someone he considers a friend.

And bringing up dsmp lore in comparison to this rubs me the wrong way. Dream admits that he’s been being stalked, harassed and threatened because of *minecraft server drama* and your response is to compare it to c!dream knowing.. c!tommy didn’t want to be his friend?

i’m just overall a little bit appalled how you can possibly respond to the situation like this when it is Quackity who has been the one handling this poorly by putting off an issue and allowing his fanbase to harass and attack other creators.

“Dream has been mature” he’s been constantly going on about how omg quackity hates me when he didn’t have any communication with quackity about it. that’s not mature. that’s the fucking opposite of mature. that’s petty high school mean girl shit.

cutting off someone who got nudes of fans at the Very least and potentially groomed minors is Normal Actually. why would you wanna say a tearful goodbye to a sex pest. Plus, the thread indicates that other people struggled with getting into contact with quackity meaning he was probably fucking busy and had a life and not focusing on Twitter drama!!! how tf is he meant to know about drama and shit if he's spending most of his time working on his server.

quackity has done Literally Nothing, yet you blame him and see him as the aggressor. everything quackity does he gets judged a million times harder than any white creator. when quackity doesn’t engage with a situation at all, that he has no reason to because hes clearly uninterested and has busy work of his own, he’s at fault for the harassment his community sends, but when dream quote retweets someone and makes fun of them for petty shit it’s all uwu he can’t control his fans! when dream buys a trump flag it’s swept under the rug, when quackity downloads a popular mod that has racist mobs in it (which is bad and I’m not trying to downplay it but it’s nowhere near as intentional as buying a literal trump flag) hes irredeemable even when he removes it. and it’s so obvious that you’re doing this because he's a person of colour. maybe not consciously, but you’re condemning him for doing shit dream has done that you defend. do I think quackity is perfect? no, of course not. but it’s weird to condemn a poc for things you let his white peers slide on.

and there’s like 0 indication that the threats involved anything to do with the usmp. dream himself doesn’t even provide any evidence or proof they’re related. a lot of people really hate dream. from racist kiwi farmers who hate that he’s openly nd to people who don’t like misogynistic creeps. we have no indication which one of those groups tried to harm or stalk dream and his family, and assuming it was Quackity's fanbase with zero shown evidence or even ancedotes is fucking weird. it’s weird to put that into a statement about how your friend fell out with you- it’s implying they’re somehow related when they’re not. even if they were, there was literally no way quackity could have known and it’s wild to bring it up in a post about him ghosting you. it’s guilt trippy and weird. no one should trivialise or accept what happened to dream, but you shouldn’t try and tie it into private friend drama if you’re not gonna provide any proof of it being relevant.

[phantomoftheorpheum]

i am just…. floored by how the writers misread how the audience would respond to jen x noa x shawn. it honestly felt so rude to make us sit through that mess the entire season but then not even resolve it in a meaningful or satisfying way? criminal. i thought we would get some villainous reveal about jen (not necessarily related to Bloody Rose) and Noa would realize how poor her decision making has been, then she would end on this low note feeling remorseful and guilty. Then we would catch up with Noa in season 3 dealing with the aftermath of it all. we never get any more info on Jen’s mother and what exactly all of this money she’s stealing for is going to. We never see Noa be self-reflective at all. Just a quick little phone call to ask Jen how to hot wire a car :)))))) this is my villain origin story. spoiler: i’m going to be the big bad next season.

You and me both!

I have seen some poor readings of the audience before in my day, but this one is way, way up there. Like... why did they make Shawn so nice until the "he punched the wall" thing? I mean, they made him absurdly nice and supportive all season. I really thought "Okay, this is either to set up a legit villain reveal for him, OR it's to dig the knife in deeper with how horribly Noa's treating him and we're supposed to be upset about it, OR it's so that when Jen is revealed as an antagonist it makes Noa's choices look even worse." But it was just... none of things? They just really didn't see how Shawn being so sweet would make audiences mad at Noa for how she treats him?

My only guess on this one is that they wanted it to be a "Shawn's really sweet, Noa's heart is just elsewhere," kind of scenario, which is FINE in theory, but because she was continuing to use him (quite literally, for money, for sex, etc.) that just feels absolutely heartless. And no one ever calls her out for it! I mean, she calls it cheating a couple of times, but everyone around her is just like "Aw, cute!" In the past, I've felt that they've handled some bad behavior by the girls poorly (like just dropping the "Tabby was filming a locker room which is super illegal and a massively violating thing to do" storyline, but at least she got yelled at by her mother. I think they didn't ever adequately address how bad that was, but at least they didn't have everyone else find out and just be cool with it), but this doesn't even feel like that, it feels like they didn't even want to acknowledge that it WAS bad behavior.

I had scenarios on top of scenarios in my head which I thought could explain this love triangle situation and give plot relevance and everything, but they took none of these paths. In my head, I thought- 1. Jen met BR online (Wes, basically) and was paid to return to Noa's life gather information/steal the phone numbers etc. (we know he was hiring "lost souls" and a girl with a record, a stealing habit, and a mother dealing with addiction could definitely apply!) 1a. She is completely financially motivated (we get a little more explanation of her relationship with her mother and the pressure she is under), and is completely using Noa to get paid. 1b. She was completely financially motivated, but now that she's back with Noa, she regrets her involvement and is trying to cover it up. 2. She is not in any way affiliated with BR, but we get some reveal like "her mom isn't really an addict and she usually does live in that big mansion and she's basically just a rich girl "slumming" it with Noa for fun." 3. She's honest (I mean, except about the stuff we know she lied about), but Shawn is working with BR or has, in some way, betrayed Noa, and they want to flip the situation on its head. 4. They kill Shawn in the finale, so even though Jen is honest, this is an issue for their relationship moving forward because of Noa's guilt about how things played out. 5. BOTH Jen and Shawn are affiliated with BR (perhaps loosely, but they are) and she has changed her mind about wanting to be involved, but since she knows Shawn is, she feels like she needs to stay in the loop to try to protect Noa- she and Shawn are basically holding each other hostage over it, because if she tells Noa he's involved, then he tells Noa about Jen's involvement and ruins their relationship (which she doesn't want to happen), and vice versa. This would explain why she is so hostile to him and is constantly undermining him with Noa, because yeah she wants to be with Noa, but she's also worried about what might happen if Noa trusts Shawn. And there are easily a hundred more scenarios! What we got is just so underwhelming and didn't address any of the questions about her character and also felt absurdly out of touch with the audience base.

I find myself looking at this plot point and it's screen time and thinking "Why, though?"

[tearose26]

A Defense(?) of Holly

I’ll be upfront: I do not think Holly has done anything wrong across the books and that Lucy’s contempt can be mostly (but not entirely) attributed to having a huge case of bitch eating crackers. That said, I do think a lot of the friction between the two is exacerbated by the fact that to Lucy, Lockwood and co is her home, while to Holly, Lockwood and co is her workplace.

Lucy’s coworkers are her roommates (and, though this is more unspoken in the books, her family); her work life and private life are intertwined to the point of being almost inseparable. This is not something Lucy dislikes; I don’t have the book on me at hand, but I distinctly remember Lucy at the beginning of The Hollow Boy reflecting on how busy they were but how contented she feels with the life she has. Holly’s introduction feels incongruous in part because her presence is purely professional. She does not move in with them and thus develop the kind of domestic closeness with them that comes from being roommates; she arrives at 9 am, works her contracted set of hours, then goes home.

As such, Holly does not share in the informal bickering that Lucy, Lockwood and George engage in. She, like most of us who work, puts on a professional work persona and sticks to it. It does mean that she is going to come across as kind of fake and insincere, because all professional work personas (particularly of the white-collar, secretarial kind that Holly does) necessarily involve a bit of faking and insincerity. This kind of exactingly agreeable, pleasant and polite behaviour is, coincidentally, something that Lucy is extremely bad at both doing and engaging with.

This is not really anyone’s fault, I would say. Just as Lucy treats her home as a home, Holly, quite reasonably, treats her workplace as a workplace. She sees herself as under no obligation to share her private life and true feelings with her colleagues, and where annoyances/disagreements among the trio are normally resolved through direct arguments/bickering, she does so through trying to come up with for the most conflict-defusing, maximally diplomatic response.

I have to admit, if I were in Lucy’s shoes, I also wouldn’t take to the workplace-ification (so to speak) of my home particularly gracefully. Imagine if you were lying in bed having a nice sleep-in and a work colleague knocked on your door and asked, hey sorry hope I’m not disturbing but I was wondering if you were coming to the 10:30 meeting? I would feel kind of uncomfortable and imposed on! At the same time, it wouldn’t be fun for the person knocking on the door either; it’s an awkward situation for all! I know the example I used is not quite the same as the actual event in The Hollow Boy, but in my opinion Holly’s main sin was being a bit gauche in how she handled it.

While we aren’t privy to Holly’s thoughts throughout The Hollow Boy (worse yet: everything we get is through Lucy’s perspective), I see no evidence that Holly is being deliberately manipulative or underhanded towards Lucy. All I see is Holly doggedly trying to maintain a professional relationship with a colleague who, let’s be real, is being an asshole to her. (In my head I like to imagine she goes home each night and vents to her flatmates about ugh this bratty teen who has decided to hate me for some goddamn reason) When Holly loses it and finally goes off at Lucy, the vast majority of her complaints are (very reasonably!) about Lucy’s unfounded and poorly-disguised contempt towards her.

(On a slightly unrelated note: I do think, strangely enough, that The Hollow Boy may be the book I enjoyed the most. It certainly has the most going on, psychologically, with Lucy regarding her feelings of jealousy, inadequacy and displacement. But you do need to have a certain patience for teenage bullshit, because frankly a lot of it is teenage bullshit. All this drama is really just Lucy not knowing two basic co-worker skills: How To Interact With Colleagues You Don’t Personally Vibe With and How To Use Your Words To Tell Someone That What They Are Doing Is A Bit Annoying.)

[youngerfrankenstein]

I was enabled. And somehow this wound up 1700 words long. And it’s still not everything I want to say.

So I have personally been making my way through several Transformers shows over the last few months and sort of doing writeups. Long story short it's a love/hate relationship. But my most recent one was EarthSpark, a show which was a lot weaker than I'd hoped. But in the middle of watching that show I figured "well Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is also on Paramount+. It might be fun to try out the other recent take on an 80's cartoon." And then the show was so much better I almost got angry.

Now, admittedly the shows are not THAT similar, but they are both about groups of non-human characters trying to get by on Earth with the help of human friends, they are both somewhat fresh takes on an 80's classic and they both have family as a central theme. And Rise just works so much better as a show.

Now there are a couple of reasons. For one I think the split-episode structure keeps the Turtles episodes flowing at a really brisk pace, and the far more episodic structure allows for more freedom, while EarthSpark feels more like it's trying to tell one story that keeps getting broken up. Rise also just has stronger writing. But I think the main issue for the difference in quality is just that Rise, unlike EarthSpark, knows what it wants to be.

And what exactly I mean by that is hard to pin down. A lot of it just comes down to how something ~feels~ and that's not very helpful. But I think it mostly comes down to two things. Clarity of Theme and Consistency of Tone.

-

Clarity of Theme

Stories have themes. They just do. Themes are what a story is about.

So what is EarthSpark about. Well. The two main themes I've seen people mentioning are Family and Identity. Which are definitely major themes! Don't get me wrong, the show is pretty blatant with them. But those are far from the only themes. We also have things like second chances, racism/xenophobia (handled really poorly in my opinion), growing up (which I would argue overlaps with identity but is still it's own thing) and the fallout of a war. None of these are bad themes inherently! But trying to tackle all of them in one 26 episode season means you can't go into much depth with any of them, so all the lessons come off as pretty shallow with kids just kind of being told what to think about the situation. There are also a few laboured political points (and before you jump me NO. I am not talking about Nightshade. A nonbinary character existing is not political. I'm talking about shit like the "undocumented cybertronians" line that make me want to drown the writers in a kiddie pool.)

Overall it feels like the MAIN concept behind the show is using Transformers as a second-generation immigrant story allegory. Which I actually think is a neat idea! But so much else is going on the concept has no real space to breathe.

And what is Rise's main theme? Family …and that's about it! Yeah there's the episodic morals and such but the over-arcing theme really is just family. Largely brought about just by how the brothers and Splinter interact. You just buy them as a family because of how they interact. They love each other, they get on each other's nerves, they support each other, they argue. You can see Splinter becoming more involved as an actual father as the show goes on. Everyone gets through the trials because they go through them together.

And of course, how the villains tie into this. Now most of the villains in Rise are just there to be silly obstacles, but one does stand out, and that's Shredder. In this version, Shredder is a demonic set of armour and the corrupted soul of Karai's father. His defeat means the two can finally reunite. And his long reach and the feud between the Hamato and Foot clans all tie into the theme of family well. His defeat ties every character together and emphasizes the theme.

Krang is the movie villain, and they made him terrifying by the way, and he ties more into the movie's theme. It's a more character-centric arc of Leo being humbled. Learning he needs to give his ego a break and help and be helped by his brothers. Since Krang is all about personal strength it sets him as a fitting foil, ready to be brought down by self-sacrifice and further humiliated by people working together.

Heck even Draxum ties into the theme. He is technically one of the Turtle's parents and is the reason they and Splinter ever became a family. It all ties into the theme.

So what about the villains of EarthSpark?

Well you have Croft, who is meant to represent the institutional xenophobia aspect. She does not like the robots even as she works with them and wants to get rid of them. Fine. Though it is frustrating that there's things she's not really wrong about, but she's clearly meant to be entirely evil. But sometimes that just happens. The bigger problem is she has no real impact on anything. There's no showdown with her, she just dies (maybe???) to try and up stakes. Also they called her Karen. You can't tell me it wasn't intentional and I HATE it.

And Mandroid! Who… well he doesn't like the robots because he lost an arm in one of their battles? I think? But he also sort of wants to become one? And that ends up driving him insane as he gets really sick? And he's just kind of a dick. …Look Mandroid is just a garbage villain who doesn't really tie into ANY of the themes and that sucks. You could argue he represents hate. On a deeper level you could argue he represents a perversion of the Transformer/Human cooperation dynamic. Or that his portrayal is just kind of ableist. But he just kind of wants to kill robots because he's angry at them, and is very boring.

-

Consistency of Tone

And here's where it doubles down on how it feels, since tone can be harder to pin down. But I'll try.

Rise is fully committed to being utterly absurd. It embraces the stupidity of its own concept and sets about building a setting nominally our own world but honestly nothing like it. Its action is completely over the top. Its villains are rarely taken seriously and their general mayhem blends with the mayhem of the world. No concept too ridiculous, we are in a world with teenage mutant ninja turtles after all! The final episode of season 1 has a sixteen year old girl whack a baseball at a toy left in the head of an ancient evil that a rat had been using as a teapot. And the rest of the series set up the world so that I was 100% willing to buy that.

It also helps with the more ridiculous plot points. Baron Draxum getting forcibly adopted into the family after his defeat is stupid. But the tone of the show makes it work, he's just another silly character silly things happen to. And again, it ties into the themes of family. The tone helps it flow better than say, Starscream or Shockwave's random changes of heart in EarthSpark which are played more seriously and with characters who have little to no build up.

Really the only times Rise stops being silly are the season 2 finale and the movie. Which are still kind of absurd but much darker in tone. And honestly by that point? The show had earned it. I care about these goofs and their world. Seeing all that in genuine peril felt awful.

EarthSpark's tone is a little harder to pin down. What it seems to be going for is a deeply idyllic feel that gets shattered by the darker things in the world when they show up. Which is fine, it could work really well! But, likely in part because of the way it released in batches, the darker points largely seem to come out of nowhere and then things go back to idyllic until the next batch opener or finale. Now on a more personal note, idyllic crosses over fast into cloying for me and a LOT of the show crossed over and never looked back. The attempt at a somewhat more serious tone also makes the goofier moments feel out of place.

I do think in large part it's the execution. If you want to have a tone that keeps swapping you want to balance it better. If you want a tone to shift once you have to earn it. And I think the balance was off.

-

Nostalgia Factor

One other note is harder for me to write about because Rise is the only TMNT show I have watched. So any appeal to the nostalgia factor here would be lost on me. Aside from maybe noticing that the two main Foot Clan members were voiced by Pinky and The Brain. (Side note: The more I look at the cast the more I hope the casting director got paid well) Which means I am kind of biased here. But I will say I know most of the villains were new characters the creators made to mess around with. And they are very fun.

Because ES really needed to ease up on the nostalgia. I think part of its problem is being unwilling to let go of the past, to focus entirely on the new cast rather than hyping up legacy characters. If you wanted to write a story about them, then do that! Again, I have no doubt this show was written by fans. What I doubt is whether that's a good thing in this case.

-

P.S. Rise also has significantly better animation. One of the things I did quite like about ES is the action sequences, but Rise completely blew it out of the water with theirs. And stylisation helped make even the simple scenes feel more energetic. Am I saying that Transformers should go back to 2D animation? YES.

[elfdragon12]

So with the caveat I am splashing around in the shallows of the franchise and everything I see makes me not want to go deeper. I do think it depends. I definitely get wanting fewer humans in Transformers. Multiple times watching the shows I’ve wanted the human characters gone. And yet. I have a soft spot for a bunch of the G1 humans and Bumblebee is probably my favourite thing from the franchise. A movie that’s mostly about a human. Though I still wish there was more with just the robots. But then they just make the robots humans anyway would be what I gather. And it would not necessarily make it better.

For example, I really do not like the Prime kids. Raf and Miko are annoying in their own ways and Jack is one of the blandest audience surrogates I have seen. But then they eventually got replaced with a robot, Prime Smokescreen, a character I despised. Prime had a LOT of issues, and a fair few good things, and I think the kids were just one of the symptoms overall. They largely had no reason to be involved with the actual war so reasons had to be contrived.

And I will say, I think part of it is that it’s a kid’s franchise at the core. And a bunch of the shows feel the need to have a token kid involved. Whether or not it makes sense. Like I also disliked Sari. Then I thought “would I dislike her if I were still a kid?” And my answer was that given the kind of kid I was, “probably, but less.” And as such people write off humans in the story entirely, when if used well they can make the story better.

Which is all I guess to say that I think it mostly boils down to what purpose the humans play in the story and how well said role is handled. For what it’s worth I did find ONE fun enough for the most part.

Sorry Beast Machines turned out to be such a dud. Hope it doesn’t affect your love for Beast Wars. And hope you like whichever one you watch next better!

Here's the thing (which you've touched on in this message): humans don't make a Transformers show bad, the writing quality does. Humans just tend to be the default scapegoat for a story's flaws.

You just gotta find what clicks with you. I tend to find the older shows more endearing, flaws and all.

I feel like a lot of Transformers stories that go out of their way to exclude humans tend to lose a lot of the heart that makes the best shows good. They usually try to be Edgy™️ and Mature™️, but don't do a very good job at it because they're trying too hard to be those things. (Folks try to claim Energon Universe is edgy, but apparently they didn't notice the tender moments sprinkled across the story.) While Cyberverse would not be considered edgy, it does try during the Quintesson/Matrix for preschoolers arc (Hot Rod's VA even tries to reflect this, but I don't think he executed it well). No one even dies via a smelter or a pool of lava! However, most of CV's flaws are in the absolutely atrocious pacing and "it's a kids' show" (derogatory). Rescue Bots is a preschool show through and through, but is much better written. It's often silly, but it's fun silly.

Maybe if there were more shows without humans, the ratio of good to not good would be less skewed towards not good. So far, TF One is the only one I'd say is good without a bunch of disclaimers, like "just skip the whole first season" or "it makes sense they're all acting like that because they're in a stressful situation--even though it's not inherently more stressful than the other show". It knows it's a kids' movie, so it works to tell a mature story that is enjoyable to their intended audience.

Beast Wars is great because it creates a good balance of serious, fun, silly, and thoughtful. Beast Machines has been called "too dark" for kids, but BW covers more serious topics. However, BW is a more brightly lit show and has humor (also Shakespeare quotes) so that it isn't too heavy for the child audience. (Don't worry, a poorly written follow-up couldn't possibly make me love BW less.)

TFA and TFP are pretty hit or miss when it comes to human characters. Personally, I think Sari generally works just fine as a child appeal character. I probably would have liked her if the show aired in 1997 on KidsWB. I did like Jade in Jackie Chan Adventures. Where TFA misses the mark is with the human antagonists, Prometheus Black/Meltdown being the only good one, Porter and Headmaster and Slo-Mo being okay, and the others being... Not great. The good TFP humans are June, Raf, and Fowler. There are people who like Miko, but I'm not one (maybe if her character actually grew and matured at all, it'd be different), and Jack is cardboard.

I think one of the big reasons that the original show's humans work so well is that they are supporting characters rather than main characters. Yes, even Spike. They rarely take over the story and they are typically quite competent in their support roles. The only humans I don't really like through the show are the BOT episode kids and Dirk Manus (no one came here for human/human romance!). Daniel is fine in the original show, in my personal opinion. I loved Rodimus remembering their friendship. There are also a lot of humans and it's a revolving door. Don't like a human? Don't worry, they probably won't show up again!

I've actually started another show! Victory! So far, it's pretty cute! The pacing of the episodes is kinda wonky and they introduce a lot of characters really fast so I'm having a hard time pinning names to bots. However, I think Holi and Jan are very cute friends and it's sweet how all these robots are this kid's foster family. Also, I've been watching Rescue Bots with my sister now it's on Tubi (seriously, at this point, there's very little reason to pay for a streaming service for TF shows now. Almost all of them are on Tubi or YouTube). There's a lot of focus on interpersonal relationships early on in Rescue Bots.

[mirrorred-star]

whumptober fic update

working draft : 20,539 words*

completed draft: 4,341 words*

finished one and almost finished a second scene towards the completed draft - I am one completed scene away from getting everyone out of the mines. First scene is the first whump scene which I thought was going to be more of a mess than it was, but its also not as good as I would like it to be. Second scene only needs a tiny bit of cleanup atm, and maybe checking whether it works where I'm planning to put it because it might work poorly from a pacing perspective.

I realised yesterday that there's not really any good reason to be cagey about the actual premise, especially since this whole fic idea started from a scene in FMAB. So premise is this - during the events of episode 41, when the sniper is setting up to shoot Kimberly, they shoot Ed instead. Which causes a couple of major changes - one of Kimberly's guards catches up with the group travelling through the mines, Al doesn't manage to catch up to them anyway, and Miles got arrested for Ed's murder. Which he saw Kimberly commit via philosopher's stone.

Winry is going to be having a very bad time.

The way FMAB handles Winry's plot arc kind of bothers me even though all the reasons it works the way it does make sense on their own, its probably mostly that I saw all of FMA03 first and Winry commits a felony and also is handy with lockpicks, so going from that to... being okay with faking kidnapping by someone who is highly unlikely to take advantage of that situation feels kind of weak, even with the rest of that situation going on. I kind of developed a headcanon that if she got near a fight-situation and had to participate, she would do that by getting a good vantage point and throwing things. And the more I figure out what fma is actually doing and why, the better I understand why that take is, I guess irrelevant, but also not wrong? Because Winry can stay completely the fuck out of the violence because she's not there when it happens and the one time she is directly targetted is in fma03 (and also would make her keeping the fuck out of the bad everything make more sense with the rest of fmab) but it still kind of bugs me that she spends a lot of time involved in the plot and she's the only person not in or near Central during the endgame apart from Pinako - I guess it would be nice if there were either other characters who were noncombatants but involved enough to help or not immediately useful enough to be in Central, but every single other person who has been involved in the plot is either military or a combatant. Except for Sig Curtis maybe, but I think he backhands Sloth.

I don't know. Sorry to get rambly, its 3:30am rn.

*completed draft - finished scenes in postable condition; neither of these are accurate to track new words - working draft contains copy-pastes of draft scenes for editing, completed draft only has new stuff in it once its done

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

The issue with showing serious topics in a kids show is two fold. The first hurdle is finding a way to explain the trauma without traumatizing the audience. For example, Avatar the Last Airbender could talk about the genocide of the air monks, but it could not have gotten away with showing the full details of the air monks actually going through that genocide. Instead, we get an episode where Aang thinks of what things were like before the genocide while seeing the aftermath of the genocide. We also see the skeletal remains of his former teacher.

This is about as graphic as a kids show could get, but I'd argue that it ends up feeling just as poignant (or even more poignant) than simply showing the genocide. It was brilliant storytelling that handled a serious topic in a way that conveyed everything it needed while working within the limitations of the show's rating.

It's pretty clear that Miraculous never had to worry about these kinds of limitations because Derision showed the full details of Marinette's bullying. You cannot argue that a specific trauma is too serious for a kids show if the show is able to get away with showing the trauma while maintaining its rating. The writers, the network, and the censors all looked at Derision and said, "Yeah, this is fine for a Y-7 show."

The second issue with writing trauma in a kids show is dealing with the fallout from the trauma in a way that kids can understand. It's on this point that I actually somewhat agree with whoever you were talking to. Miraculous is not set up in a way that allows the writers to give Marinette's trauma proper attention because it's a fast-paced action show where every episode needs to stand fully alone while also having some sort of fight.

Avatar didn't have those limits. While most episodes stand alone, they were allowed to have episodes where there was no fight. Episodes where the tension was processing the characters' trauma and loss. One such episode is the one I discussed above, which is largely dedicated to letting Aang mourn. You could not do an episode like that in Miraculous which is why it was utter bullshit to give Marinette trauma on the scale they did in Derision.

If your defense for a show handling a serious topic poorly is, "well, they couldn't handle it correctly because of the limitations of the show" that's not a defense. That's an argument that the writers suck at their job because they chose a bad story line. The only way I'd give them a pass is if the aforementioned limitations are things like the show getting canceled, unforeseen network meddling, or other limitations that the writers could not have predicted when they picked a given plot, which does happen!

As far as we know, none of that is the case when it comes to Derision. It appears to have been played exactly as intended. The writers actively chose to give a character incredibly serious trauma and then solve it in the background of later episodes with things like the Marinette making a phone call to her boyfriend. That is a terrible way to handle a serious topic.

If the writers didn't want to properly handle Marinette gaining control of her PTSD symptoms, then they didn't need to give her PTSD. Going through trauma doesn't always give you mental health issues. Even if it does, they aren't always extreme even if the situation was extreme. We actually see this in Miraculous since Marinette apparently has no serious trauma from the end of season four or from Chat Blanc, so it's not like the writers are big on having traumatic experiences effect people in major ways. Derision is, for some reason, the big exception, but it didn't need to be.

If they really wanted to do Derision's plot, then they could have massively toned down Marinette's trauma. Have it be nothing more first-date jitters that were quickly overcome by Adrien and her talking. It would still be a stupid episode that makes no sense in terms of the behavior of the characters involved, but it would be a lot more palatable.

One last question for tonight: do you think the show should address a mature topic at all if the age rating prevents them from treating it with the gravity it deserves, or do you think that might be counterproductive?

My answer would change heavily based on the topic as there are a lot of very serious things that can be addressed in family-based media. Bluey has an episode about infertility. Avatar discusses war and genocide. Rugrats has an episode about losing a parent. Kids deal with all kinds of shit, so it's not wrong to find ways to address those things in the media that they consume.

Even if the kid in question is living a perfect childhood, it's still good to expose them to complex topics to make them a better person. Studies have found that exposing you to other points of view and cultures helps develop empathy, which is not surprising in the slightest. It's also why it's so important to expose kids to good media when you can. Reading books is especially important for understanding others.

With all that being said, if you are writing a story for young children and want to include a serious topic, but you cannot find a way actually discuss the topic while making the story work or keeping the story child-friendly, then you should not address that topic in your work.

For example, Miraculous has handled the topic of absentee parents in an utterly embarrassing manner. Jagged Stone and Audrey Bourgeois are written like they're just part of the family now without any discussion of what their absence did to their kids even though Jagged's kids didn't even know he was their dad and Audrey is implied to have been gone/rarely around for years. I actually retcon the Jagged thing so that Juleka and Luka always knew about their dad and even have a relationship with him, but it's mostly through phone calls since he's on the road a lot. I do this for two reasons:

This show has way too much drama and I needed to cut it down somewhere!

The way Jagged, Luka, and Juleka are written fits my setup way better than canon's setup. If I acknowledge their canon backstory, I'd have to completely change their dynamic because I have literally never seen a parent reunification go this smoothly.

[doublel27]

Agreed! I can't imagine Carlos saying that about his and TK's relationship. It truly wouldn't make sense.

But he's currently thinking that Iris is missing because of him asking for a divorce and TK pressing the issue. He's dealing with a situation that maybe would never have happened if he just would have dealt with ending this marriage ("let go of a bad relationship") a long time ago.

Then he never would have had to get TK involved at all and it would have saved them a lot of pain. He's upset here, but I genuinely think his anger at TK was short-lived and quickly turned into anger at himself. TK is fearful enough of being abandoned that he's still assuming Carlos' frustration is with him. I really don't think it is at this point. Carlos is scared and self-blaming and wants to fix this all by himself because it's his mess to clean up. He just doesn't know how to reassure TK in the meantime. He doesn't have the bandwidth to see the insecurities in TK right now and find Iris. So everything just comes out wrong.

I mean, what we haven't discussed in all this is that Carlos is terrible when he FEELS blindsided.

I'm not saying he was actually blindsided. TK was the one who was blindsided, BUT TK handles being blindsided better. His parents have been doing it to him his whole life (like moving out when he's not going to be home) and he comes home to find his life altered. Carlos actually aproaching him with the Iris rather than TK stumbling upon it (see season 2 TK asking to meet Carlos's parents several times until they stumbled upon them in 2.04 and everyone was blindsided with awkwarness) and TK handled being blindsided with Iris (because that's still what this was) with grace.

Carlos being "blindsided" with TK visiting Iris (and there was legit not a lot of time for TK to tell Carlos because their conversation got cut off by Iris going missing) during an investigation with a detective, and like...here's the real thing.

Talking to police is never a good idea. 911 Lone Star has a fantasy idea of what policing is (As do all procedurals) but there is no way to talk yourself out of being a suspect in a murder investigation, but there is definitely a way to talk your way into it. And the husband and the fiance of the husband of a missing woman who served her with divorce papers before she went missing and then visited her begging her to sign them is NOT GOOD. Like, that's NOT a good look. They were suspects even though that was a casual conversation in their home, and that's a typical tactic to get people to talk is doing a casual interview rather than a formal arrest if they don't have enough to hold you, because they don't have to Mirandaize you but you are still allowed to keep your fifth amendment right to remain silent. Offering up these details only makes them more suspicious from time to time, especially elaborating. So there's that factor of surprise/upset that could have cropped up in Carlos that moment and caused him to want to get the detective out there and not talk about it anymore. Especially as he and TK aren't married, they can be asked to testify against each other.

Additionally, Carlos was already blaming himself for missing signs, feeling like he handled this poorly and sent TK after Iris because he knows how much TK wants to be married (none of us will ever forget that impassioned proposal) - and if he'd just handled it in time...well...maybe none of this would have happened.

There's so many interpretations, but Carlos has never felt wrong about his relationship with TK. In fact, Carlos has always pretended he could let TK go every time, but it was always a lie. TK has never felt like a bad decision, even when Carlos wanted to talk himself into believing maybe he was.

[theliterarywolf]

1 I decided to buy Bayo3. I'm against the mistreatment of Voice actors, and regardless of what the actual situation, I do feel bad for her, but she didn't help herself with the response. There can be so many reasons for this situation, and so many end results, but we won't know unless we get the papers slapped onto the table after this entire clusterflock. I don't think anyone was wrong for initial reactions, unless they were aggressive or abusive. I'm also against people insulting and ANYONE

2 involved. The claim she allegedly wanted "6 figure" and "royalties", and calling her entitled also seems weird, maybe she overshot her shot, but asking a really high salary isn't unusual in employment situations? No clue. (Though royalties for everyone involved, VA's and programmers, designers seems fair in all games Imo. : p) I also think the situation was handled poorly regardless, and I hope she's actually alright, because she doesn't seem well if we take everything into account. Anonymous asked: Even if Hellena wound up screwing the pooch on this incident, it doesn't take away from the fact that VAs should be treated better in the industry. I only hope that others are aware of that (and I'm not talking about the whole transphobe/walk the blue line deal. That's her own deal. Lying about this though is not okay.)

I think we all just need to acknowledge that:

VAs are mistreated in mainstream media.

Hellena's stunt does not reflect well on the current discussion about proper pay and rights for VAs because people are already trying to use it as an excuse to say dumb shit like 'Um, even $4,000 is too much! All you're doing is talking into a mic~!'

Those people are, in fact, idiots and no one should listen to them, but idiocy is emboldened by mistakes and foot-in-mouth-itis.