#and a lot of people were also having a real BAD time

[paragonrobits]

honestly this whole thing being treated as an exclusive problem to superhero tropes in general, or implying that superheroes as a concept are inherently bad because I guess people assume they were specifically created to Keep The People Down or what-not, REALLY ANNOYS ME A LOT so this seems a good opportunity to make a point:

this trope is not specific to superheroes, and has been a thing for quite a while in fiction overall, specifically in TV and films (and at the risk of being snappy and letting irritation doing the talking, thus in mediums that get the most coverage and it makes people sound like a series doesn't exist if its not in TV or movies)

At its worst, this is basically a low-effort way to give a villain some nuance without putting much thought into it. It's not really meant to imply, at least in most cases, that their goal or motive is BAD, as some people seem to suggest. This is probably an outgrowth of the common idea of a villain being the hero of their own story; its common to suggest that a villain MUST have some kind of moral point or heroic quality to them, and that's basically where this comes up; its a less well-written handling of that concept by using it to get some pathos into a villain that can often be counterproductive.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and suggest that its not suggesting that their cause is BAD; indeed, the writer implicitly means that their cause is good, because that's where the villains Good Cause Points come from; if it wasn't a good cause to them, they wouldn't be trying to humanize the villain by rooting them in that cause.

It's not exclusive to superheroes by any means, and the general trend predates the modern superhero genre in film and television, at least in the post-MCU sense.

The other point to be made is that sometimes, the supervillain isn't actually concerned by a problem at all, and they're just using it as an excuse to satisfy their own personal grudges, because it gets them support as they pursue their own goals, or because they're cynical manipulators who never gave a damn about that problem but it furthers their own goals to manipulate others who DO care about that problem.

There is also one other aspect; sometimes the villain does genuinely believe in solving a problem, but their understanding of it is completely divorced from reality, or their intended plans are inherently a bad thing. For example, lets take the common idea of Poison Ivy as a heroic eco-heroine fighting corporations who pollute the planet. All well and good, but Ivy actually doing that is an extreme outlier in her established character. More often than not, what she's actually doing it is causing massive destruction that gets a lot of completely unrelated people killed because her explicit end goal is the complete genocide of all human life, and at extremes, all ANIMAL life as well. This makes her a textbook ecofascist of the 'kill all people, especially the ones that have no power to do anything about ecological destruction' kind.

This is closer to the sort of villains you're actually likely to see; their stance on a problem is completely destructive, counterproductive and generally just kind of evil. Thats why heroes stop them; because their entire plan is to kill lots of people while making vague comments about 'x thing is the Real Evil' or something like that.

This, uh, also tends to be the actual nature of villains that fandoms often present as enlightened True Heroes unjustly antagonized by heroes. Almost every time, they only give lip service to any real goal and mostly just want to kill lots of people or do large scale disasters to satisfy their own grudges, and as such they're not really meant to be taken seriously.

And from another point of view, its like this: the reason we don't usually see the hero solving that problem is because that's not the focus of those sort of stories. If you're going in for an adventure story about someone with fantastical powers have action-filled showdowns with larger-than-life antagonists, its not really reasonable to expect it to suddenly swerve into a political treatsie about sociological phenomenon just because the villain of the week makes some vague references to societal ills as they start kicking orphans into a giant blender to fuel their giant robot that's going to burrow to the core of the earth and blow it up.

Its a fairly basic writing bit to give a villain some apparent nuance without having to do much more, and that's basically it. And to follow the metaphor, I don't think its really reasonable to give a go-ahead to the sort of person who kicks orphans into blenders just because they make some vague references to a greater good and then never follow up on it. As a villain, their only real purpose is to be an entertaining roadblock, rather than 'a hero but kinda edgy' as the term seems to become around some fandoms.

[skulkingfoxes]

A post-mortem of "Good Morning, Rose"

A few weeks ago, I posted my addition to the comic anthology GLIMM*R, a short comic called "Good Morning, Rose".

The reaction to it has been so uplifting and exciting. It really seemed to struck a cord with people, which, really, the best thing for me to hear as a creator. I absolutely love writing and making short comics, you can do much with so little, explore such interesting stories. The feedback I've gotten has been very heartwarming! It makes me want to explore short stories even more!

But, first, I want to talk about some of my feelings and about the process of making "Good Morning, Rose". This got a bit long, so you'll have to indulge me a bit. You should also read the comic first before reading this. Don't worry, it's only 8 pages.

Now the preamble is out of the way, lets go back to the beginning.

The idea of "Good Morning, Rose" was a nugget in my brain for a long time! Originally it was actually from the Dreamwalker's point of view, where she was a faceless entity who had a long term relationship with Rose and was trying to figure out how to explain that their relationships only were in Rose's dreams. It was a story about seeing, accepting, and loving each other truly and fully, and the trials and tribulations of getting there. Also a cute girl with an ancient eldrich being is always fun to explore.

A lot of it was too convoluted, emotionally and storywise. It also required to get into what the Dreamwalker actually was, which I ended up really not liking. So, ultimately, the idea didn't work, and I put it down. I ended up going to do my short comic Twigs instead.

When I was invited into the wlw anthology GLIMM*R and was told that the theme was "dreams", I decided to take another stab at the concept. This time, I inverted the pov, it's now Rose's story. And instead of a long term relationship, it was about the powerful first feeling of a perfect (maybe even too perfect?) first date.

One of the hardest thing to write in romance is getting readers to care about the relationship in the first place. To have the readers believe in the character's feeling, to be invested in their romance. This is even harder to do when you only have 8 pages to do it. Focusing it around a first date helped a lot in that case. There I'm not trying to sell that these two character will love each other forever and forever, just the fluttering first butterflies of realizing you're developing feeling for someone. It's why I leave it so open-ended about whether the two of them meet again at the end of the comic, or even if it was real in the first place. It's just not the point of the story.

That's something important about writing short stories, I find. You really have to hone in on an idea, on a thought. Take a simple idea and try to find all of the interesting layers. It's too easy to try to stuff a short story with too many ideas that ultimately go unfulfilled. In fact, the first draft of the comic, at the time called "Dream Date", there was a big problem with this and the pacing.

Here, take a look at the first stab at the roughs:

(BTW, there is something so fun about roughs for me lol. The art is so kinetic and loose, all about just getting the story across)/

As you can see, a lot of the ideas and imagery made to the final version of the comic. But both the initial readers and I agreed that the beginning and end were good, but the middle was messy and slowed things down. You can also see that I got stuck in the same problem I did when I first conceived of the story, it's bogged down trying to understand the Dreamwalker in a way that actually hurts the story. You simply dont have any room for bad pacing a short comic like this. I need to focus more on the character's and their emotions and exploring their actual relationship rather than blandly trying to explain the situation. A friend also suggested that I should hone in on the fluid dream-like aspects of the first couple of pages, especially since it's so fun to explore in the medium of comics. So I got to work gutting it out and trying again with the new, much stronger imo, direction.

Also there were some issues with the page format that needed changes for printing, thus the final spread had to be split up. Which is a shame, but oh well, it still works. I also honed in a lot more on Rose and her insecurities. I ended up putting a lot of myself into Rose. I'm glad readers seems to able to relate to her.

After figuring out the the story and the pacing, I went and, well, made the comic. Once you've done as many comic pages I have at this point, once you figure out a process, the actual drawing is fairly straightforward. Eventually, after thinking, and drawing, and toiling, and revising, and thinking hard about my life choices, I come out of the other end of the tunnel with a comic. One that I ended up really liking. One that other people ended up liking, which is always crazy to me.

I got a lot of interesting reactions to the comic. One demographic thinking it was sweet, wanting more of it (always a flattering thought), and enjoying the romance. Other remarking on the bittersweetness of it all, finding your soulmate in a dream, maybe never to see them again if they were even real in the first place. There were a lot of people remarking how they had a similar dream, one where they met someone they seemed totally and completely convinced that they were real and told the dreamer so, until the dreamer woke up. There was one person who asked if I had met the dreamwalker myself. Alas, my dreams are not this romantic and straightforward.

But all of us can hold hands, nod at each other, united by one universally true statement: big eldritch lady hot.

There's a lot of little bits I can talk about, like how Rose's dress is actively modeled after selkie dresses because I think they're cute, or some other trials and tribulations. But I think I've finished all I have had to say. I hope you enjoyed this and will stick around for my future projects! I definitely want to explore more short stories in the next year, especially as I am illustrating big graphic novels for my day job and don't have the time or energy for huge projects.

Till then, thank you so much! Happy holidays and have a good new year!

[rainebelowzero]

May I request an abduction-play story? :3 (sorry I didn't know how to word this x3)

Kurt Kunkle X Dom Male Reader

notes: sorry this took so long :') anyways, I think this is the last request I had in my inbox and I have lots of time on my hands so please request stuff, also I love all of you guys, I've seen so many people that have been around since the beginning in my notifications so I wanna thank you guys for sticking around and also welcome the new people, I plan to be way more active so don't worry, I won't disappear again😋

cws: kidnapping, having sex on stream, roleplay (technically), the reader is mentioned to be an influencer but it's up to you if that's real or just part of the roleplay, using spit as lube (i know that's cringeworthy in real life but lets just pretend its an acceptable replacement for lube in this)

‘What the fuck?’ You think, your eyes opening hazily. You're….in some room, but not one you recognize. Your head hurts, and you can't even remember where you were before this. You were leaving a party one of your influencer friends was having, but other than that, you couldn't remember what happened.

You look around and realize you're tied to a chair, and you try to yank your arms back but they refuse to budge, making you wince at how tight the rope is. You huff, leaning back in the chair, trying to examine your surroundings and figure out what to do next.

Suddenly, a man comes into the room, a crazed look in his eyes despite his calm demeanor as he stares at you, holding his phone. You squint up at him.

“I wasn't expecting y-you to be awake yet.” He says with a small laugh. “Do you…remember anything?”

You don't even really want to talk to him, but knowing it's probably the only way to get out of this, you do so begrudgingly.

“...no.”

Kurt frowns, almost like a kicked puppy. “But..you said you would give me a shout out, you can’t- you don't r-remember any of that?” He asks disappointedly, his voice whiny and kind of annoying to you.

But something else he said…you said you would give him a shout out? It makes you remember what happened better. He was your weird Spree driver that you got on your way home. He made the conversation super awkward when he brought up your following and kept asking to collab, so you agreed to give him a shout out just so he would leave you alone. You drank out of a water bottle and then…you woke up here.

You glare at him.

“You're that fucking freak from the rideshare, aren't you? What the fuck is wrong with you?” You ask, once again pulling at the rope.

Kurt frowns again, moving a little bit closer.

“There's no need for insults." He says softly.

“This is seriously pathetic, you expect me to, what, just tell people to follow you? Maybe make better content, dude.” You say with a bitter laugh.

He looks genuinely hurt by what you said, and for some reason it briefly makes you feel bad, though that feeling instantly goes away. It makes you realize that he might be easy to manipulate. You could work with that.

“H-hey, I work hard on my content! And I’ve- I have a lot of fans.” He replies defensively. You put on a fake guilty expression.

“You're right,” Saying that makes you cringe, but you continue. “I shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry. But I can't get into my phone if I'm tied up.”

You can see him considering letting you out, but then he grins and leans forward, pulling your phone out of your pocket.

“That's okay, I can do it myself.” He joyfully holds up the phone to unlock it with the face ID, but he frowns again when you start shutting your eyes and moving your head to stop him from unlocking it.

He grabs the back of your head, trying to force you to stay still to unlock the phone. You wince and glare even harder at him before turning your head and spitting at him, hitting him in the face. He steps back, shocked with wide eyes as he loses his grip on your hair. You swear you can see his face flush as he wipes it off, suddenly very fidgety. You squint, watching him as he avoids eye contact with you, his hand holding the phone slack at his side.

“Were you fucking into that?” You ask. This man is a freak. Little does he know, there isn't a person alive you can't outfreak.

You finally see a way to get untied, and you slide forward a little bit, spreading your legs as you stare at the man.

“Your name is Kurt, right?” You ask, lifting your leg and nudging him with your shoe, trying to get him to come closer. He does, hesitantly. He nods at your question, glancing down at your lap and then back at your face.

You're slightly uncomfortable with the silence, but it seemed like it was going to work, so you kept going with it. “Well, Kurt…I could give you something way better than views.”

He shakes his head. “There isn't really a-anything better.”

You sigh, rolling your eyes. “Fine, I'll….I don't know, give you a way to get views if you untie me.” He seems more interested after you say that. He gets closer, reaching behind you and untying the rope, and you rub your wrists because of the pain of the rope digging into you. You glance back up at Kurt, and pull him into your lap. He looks surprised, for some reason even though you were pretty obvious with your intentions.

One of your hands grabs hold of his waist while the other slides down, taking your phone out of his hand. You can feel and see his growing erection, his face flushed as he stares down at you.

“You want to be famous, right?” You ask. He nods, looking pretty pathetic, which makes a feeling of warmth shoot down to your dick. You open your streaming app and go live, pointing the camera towards Kurt’s face. It makes his clothed cock twitch, and you gently nudge him to get off of you. He does, and he gets on his knees as you shove your pants down. Nestled in between your legs, face resting on your thigh, you continue to record as the viewers slowly trickle in, the chat confused about what's happening or commenting on the man in front of you.

Kurt slowly lifts a hand, pulling your semi-hard cock out of your boxers, visibly drooling when he sees it. He looks up at you and the camera as if asking for permission, and you give him a little nod, burying your free hand in his hair. He starts to move his hand slowly, watching it twitch and grow harder before hesitantly pressing his lips to the tip.

“Look at the camera, Kurt.” You say, and his eyes lock on the phone as he licks and sucks at the head of your cock.

You start to push his head down, and he enthusiastically takes more of you into his mouth, even when he starts to gag. You pull his head back up and then push him back down, and he lets you, completely giving up control of the situation almost immediately. His eyes never leave the phone, and you take a glance at the amount of viewers.

“200 people here so far.” You tell Kurt. He lets out a muffled moan, his eyes starting to tear up as he continues to let you manipulate his movements, bobbing his head up and down. You start to get rougher, making him take you down to the base before pulling him back up for air, and then shoving him back down, drool dripping down his chin.

He gags almost every time you shove him back down, but that only turns you one more, your cock slick with his spit. You pull his head up again, watching the tears run down his cheeks.

“Tell ‘em your channel, Kurt.” You urge him as he gasps for breath.

“K- Kurtsworld- Kurtsworld96 on e-everything.” He responds shakily, still staring at the camera. You push him back down without any warning, thrusting in and out of his throat.

“If you guys wanna see more of this cockslut, go follow him.” You say teasingly as the sounds of him choking and gagging on your cock fill the background. He whines around you, and you can tell even the thought of him getting more followers because of this was turning him on even more.

You force his head back up, saliva connecting the tip of your cock and his lips as he looks ruined, spit and tears running down his face. You slap your dick against his face a few times and he moans softly, staring up at you and your phone, the amount of viewers climbing higher and higher as you make sure you give them a good view of his face. His phone goes off a few times across the room, and he whines again as you push him back a little bit and stand up. You move the chair and gesture for him to lay down on the floor, which he does instantly. You kneel between his legs, roughly getting his pants and underwear off, his cock throbbing as it's exposed to the cold air.

You press yours against his, wrapping your free hand around both of them as you make sure you're still filming. You jerk the both of you off, making Kurt squirm and moan, his cock practically leaking. The size difference between you and Kurt makes the pool of heat in your stomach even warmer. You take your hand away, gesturing for Kurt to turn over. It takes him a second to register, but he does, and you use your free hand to lift his hips, getting him into the position you want. His ass presses against your hips, your cock against his hole.

You realize you don't have any lube on hand, so you move back a little bit and spit down onto his hole, making him whimper. You do the same for your hand, wrapping it around your cock and pumping it a few times, using that and your precum to make yourself slick enough.

You move the phone so that you're holding it directly in front of you, letting them watch as you rub the tip of your cock against Kurt’s tight hole, thrusting against it a few times and hearing his soft moans. He wiggles his hips a little bit, trying to get you to speed up, so you start to push yourself into him. He gasps, moaning as you get a little less than half way in. His hands are desperately trying to grab onto something, and you groan as his walls squeeze tight around you.

His hole greedily sucks you in, and once you're fully in, you roll your hips a little bit, making him whine. You start to thrust in and out of him, gripping his waist tightly. He pushes his hips back, fucking himself back onto you the best he could, letting out loud moans and whimpers. You were a little surprised he was that vocal, but you weren't complaining at all. His legs shake, his forehead pressed against the floor. The people in the chat are saying all kinds of things about Kurt as the view count gets higher.

You reach forward, slipping two of your fingers into his mouth. He starts sucking immediately, moaning around them as his tongue laps at them hungrily. You pull them back out, swiping the saliva you collected against his hole to keep it slick enough to keep going. His cock throbs again, rubbing against the floor, which can't be comfortable, but he seems to not mind, clenching tightly around you. You groan again, squeezing his ass and pulling him back into you at a quicker pace.

His moans and whines get louder, more high pitched and you can feel he's getting closer. You bury your hand in his hair, pulling his head up and holding the phone in front of him, turning the camera around so he can see himself and the amount of people currently watching. He moans loudly, his eyes rolling back as he cums. He shoots his load against the floor underneath him, clamping down tight around you. It makes you feel your own release approaching, and you bury yourself deep inside of him, causing him to whimper from the oversensitivity as you dump your seed into him, thoroughly stuffing the man who had kidnapped you.

He falls fully onto the ground, panting heavily as you pull out and end the stream, Kurt laying there shaking, and you, completely satisfied.

BONUS

You wipe sweat from your forehead as you catch your own breath, and after a little bit, Kurt turns and sits up, his used hole leaking your cum. Your demeanor changes and you gently run a hand down his arm.

“Did I do good?” He asks, exhausted.

You lean forward, pressing a kiss to his forehead. “You did. Just don't tie the rope as tight next time, that really hurt.” You say, putting your phone down, rubbing at the soreness in your wrist as Kurt nods, getting comfortable against your chest.

[irrealisms]

hi! yr probably not lookin for asks anymore, but. what's your lifesteal elevator pitch? i know absolutely nothing abt it or any of the folks on the server except the vague things i've absorbed frm reading yr analysis as it crosses my dash, but it compels me, etc.+ also merry christmas! <33 🎄🌟

good news: i am always looking for asks

bad news: my parents DID go to sleep and i was able to wrap presents and put them beneath the tree and so on, so i wasn't going to do more asks tonight

good news again: i actually already have a lifesteal pitch. in a google doc. bc i'm normal

the pitch does assume you're basically already into mcrp and just curious about lifesteal in specific BUT we went to dsmp together so this works out

I really love shitty little tryhards causing problems via impressive feats of minecraft, and lifesteal is full of those. if you like people being good at minecraft, I really recommend lifesteal--in s2, clownpierce was top 50 worldwide at crystal pvp, and now he's washed and in s6 there are 2-3 (depending on who you ask) lifestealers who are better than him at pvp (admittedly maybe not at crystal); in s4, there's some stuff that's impressive in ~vanilla (eg parrot wins a 1v1 while on one heart) and some stuff that's impressive through exploits/social stuff (eg a group of people use a glitch + social engineering to get /op and prove to mojang that the glitch is a security issue that needs patched). every season is like this! lifestealers have backdoored the server 3 seasons in a row (s3-5). for a more recent weird Lifestealer Behavior, rekrap and jumper filled in every end portal room and built new fake ones to make it look like the world glitched and generated without them. lifesteal is weird and constantly coming up with new weird yet impressive things to do. a lot of stuff that's currently banned on lifesteal (F3+A, pie ray) are things i only learned were possible from lifesteal. (on the flip side i'd say: if you are not into shitty little tryhards making weird impressive clickbait, you probably won't like lifesteal, although you may still like hearing about it from time to time.)

related to them being shitty little tryhards causing problems: the rules are...more of a suggestion. getting around the rules, and hiding from the server owner and/or other players that you're doing so, is often part of the fun of lifesteal! (see also the thing where i mentioned that it's been backdoored three seasons in a row.) if that's intriguing: check it out. if not: once again, you have been warned.

lifesteal absolutely has lore and some people roleplay on it, there is nonzero c/cc divide, but it's more like traffic life than, say, late dsmp--it's fully improv, not scripted, and even more than traffic life it is genuinely adversarial. you can sometimes be confident that someone is in character but you can never be sure if someone is out of character, on lifesteal-- things like "going to someone's house irl to turn off their computer" or "lying about your homework/school/sleep schedule" or "changing your entire discord layout so that when you DM someone they think you're someone else" or "claiming you need their footage of an event for your video when actually you just want to see where their spawn point is" are all things that have been done on lifesteal that are considered fair game! everything on lifesteal is real; sometimes this goes well, sometimes it doesn't, but both are interesting to see imo because they are real

partially for this reason and partially for other reasons, lifesteal is fascinating to me as a piece of unique storytelling? a lot of mcyt is doing interesting things with its medium and being improv, lifesteal's not fully unique in that, but definitely if you like that you might like lifesteal. along with the improv, there's the fact that many lifestealers lie about what actually happened in their videos (comparing different videos with the vods, or in some cases with "what people say in various vods" when events weren't streamed, gives some fascinating insights imo--how do people frame their stories? how honest are they? what do they blatantly lie about, what do they gloss over or omit, what do they include in full? who, if anyone, do they see as the heroes or villains? whose videos agree with each other, and whose present a totally different story?), and the fact that conflict about "where do we want the story to go next, what do we think would be an interesting video/the best ending" is often the driving motive for in-character wars and conflicts! if you're interested at all in lifesteal and storytelling, check out barrier blocks part 2 by @mering/@myrmica, which is a deep dive on eclipse federation and the end of lifesteal s4 (those are my special guys); it dips into some academic game studies and it's really, really good. i genuinely cannot recommend it highly enough. (part one is also real good for non-lifesteal-specific discussion of mcrp!)

if you want a more specific plot summary (esp of s4) and/or "how do i actually, like, watch this" (of any seasons): hmu! but that's my pitch. also, read barrier blocks

[shitpostingsapphic]

I feel like a lot of people who weren't fond of Arcane S2 got the mistaken impression that the core plotline of S1 was the class conflict between Piltover and Zaun. I wouldn't say that's the case myself; I'd argue it was more of a backdrop than anything.

I think the Piltover and Zaun conflict was A core tenant. Key word, A. Season 1 had a lot of shit going on, and for some reason that's the plotline they hyperfixated on. But I think you are 100% correct. Because of that hyperfixation, they deluded themselves about what season 2 was going to give them, and for some odd reason it also distracted them from the fact that Arcane is not a happy show.

Because here's the thing.

The Piltover and Zaun storyline? Wasn't ignored. Wasn't pushed to the side. It followed a very realistic arc of being a cycle that repeats and is never fully fixed, at least not in a short time. Longstanding strife between two groups of people doesn't usually see resolution in the timeline the show gives us. And besides! It's not like it's entirely hopeless. It DOES end on a note of hopeful uncertainty.

I think people are upset at the idea of a "bigger bad" coming in and that being what unites the cities, instead of Zaun fighting for independence and achieving it and Piltover never intervening again. This is where people are too caught up in what they WANT to happen instead of what is realistic TO happen based on the events of season 1. Which is why it pays to pay attention. The Arcane plotline was always going to be the focus of the finale. It's the show's namesake. Ambessa and the Noxians were always going to be an issue, and chances were, it would have demanded the unity of the two cities for their survival, which it did.

It's not fair. It's not satisfying. It's realistic.

And there's no denying the fact that current world politics are influencing how people feel about this storyline. I guarantee if that weren't the case, people would think of the Piltover and Zaun arc differently.

But if we are going to draw from real world politics, a bigger military power coming in to a country that already has some internal conflict and using that as an excuse to intervene? The American Military Industrial Complex, anyone?

There comes a certain point where you have to acknowledge that Arcane is fiction. We all draw on real life experiences to interpret shows, yes. But at the end of the day, it's fiction. And you have to take the story for what it is and the information you're given, not let real life influence how you think it should play out.

[low-budget-korra]

Activism for likes

Okay, let's talk about something serious that thankfully I don't see here but in other social media is everywhere : Activism of likes.

That's when I truly feel my age because every time I see a - 25 having the same Ctrl c Ctrl v arguments, being hypocrite, only seeing things as black and white and playing white saviour...I lose a bit of faith in the future.

In Avatar fandom, an older show, I don't see much of this but in Arcane... People thinking they are doing woke comments when in reality they are just exposing themselves as someone who didn't even watch the show.

Ekko forgives Jinx , who quite literally killed his buddies and was his enemy for years. He also befriends Heimerdinger, a 200+ council member who never did anything for Zaun. Why do some people fully believe that he wouldn't forgive Vi for becoming an enforcer for a brief time? Just bc y'all don't understand her reasons to do it, doesn't mean he also wouldn't. He would be disappointed (as he should) but he would understand and forgive.

They also give Jinx a pass just because she is poor. And I say this bc when a rich girl (Caitlyn) does the same shit, she is fully hated. Talk about projecting your world frustrations in a fantasy world right... And again, you should disagree with Caitlyn radical action bc they were bad, but pretend that she didn't have a solid reason to do so or even ignore the fact that she was also manipulated, is just dishonest and hypocrite. I don't know y'all, but I would not care if Jinx also had reasons to blow up the council but if my mom died there, I would do the same as Caitlyn (and, you probably would too, if you have a good relationship with your mom. Don't play the all righteous here.)

And it gets me because if ppl are unable to understand that a fantasy world such as Arcane, where as viewers see both sides of the wall. Imagine they trying to talk about real world problems, which is a lot more complicated and nuanced.

Activism is only "true" when it has substance, when it has argument, when the person behind study stuff and it's always trying to learn more and more. It's when they can hold a discussion without insulting the other person.

(yes, I understand that there's radical activism but even for these. People need to study or else it will be violence for the sake of it and the bigger enemy will destroy it)

Be unable to hold a discussion with people who think differently, oversimplifying the world and seeing everything as black and white is conservative agenda and not activism

[sufferu]

Out of all of your IFs, which Subaru is having the best Christmas?

Pffft, alright that’s fun. I’ll keep this limited to the ones that are significantly different from canon:

Crusch IF: Assuming this is post-Whale and not that crack fic prompt I wrote last year, it’s…honestly it’s a pretty good Christmas. He’s practically the darling of the Crusch Camp at this point, so like at least half of those people have decided to get him at least something small. This is especially the case since they still haven’t actually publicly acknowledged his contribution to the Whale/Sloth fight due to him being in no condition to receive that sort of recognition, and even though that was absolutely the kindest thing they could have done at the moment a lot of them STILL feel pretty guilty about it. Then there are people like Crusch, Wilhelm, Ferris, Julius, Reinhard, the Pearlbaton triplets, Ricardo, Joshua, Emilia, etc. who actually have a personal relationship with him of some sort and very much want to help this psychotic mess that he’s devolved into regain some semblance of holiday spirit. —Plus, if we’re taking that crack fic as canon, them celebrating Christmas this year is in and of itself a bit of an inside joke and a way to try and nudge him into participating in something that he’s already demonstrated a level of real joy towards.

Of course, from Subaru’s POV he’s still surrounded by all his murderers/living echoes of the loved ones he watched die fuck knows how many times, so. There’s that. But…this is a level of genuine affection that’s actually genuinely difficult to misunderstand as a threat, so…there’s a good chance it actually breaks through after all.

If it does go well, then Subaru is both incredibly touched and also mortified at the realization that he didn’t get anyone any presents. Everyone points out that they didn’t get HIM anything last year, so, it kind of evens out. He probably cries. When he sits down to eat with everyone, it’s the first time in months he can actually taste his meal.

Back to Zero IF: …Look. They TRIED. They really, REALLY tried. But everything went to hell at some point or another — the meal got completely fucked up, a bunch of gifts got destroyed, someone set the tree on fire, another Mabeast somehow got loose across the Estate — and now they’re all scrambling to make sure they don’t somehow murder Subaru via this abomination borne from the holiday spirit. Julius shoves a handful of snow down the back of his shirt at one point in an attempt to cheer him up. At one point they take their eyes off of him and he falls into freezing water, and now he gets to spend the rest of the season bedridden with a really bad cold while Wilhelm angrily berates the poor landscapers about the pond that everyone had previously thought couldn’t possibly kill anyone. Subaru is not having a great Christmas.

Nect Reveal IF: Julius wanted to do something nice for him, and also Subaru is apparently just a couple months old and therefore the baby of the Anastasia Camp. It’s not as over the top as Crusch IF but everyone is having fun. The Pearlbatons have decided that Subaru makes for the best chair, whether he wants to be a chair or not. He’s not as annoyed by this as he pretends to be and everyone knows it.

Runaway IF: Assuming that Subaru actually figures out the date, he manages to celebrate by stealing a little more bread than usual — and even some berries! He looks so pathetic that the shopkeeper just lets him, even though he really could have stopped him very easily. Holiday spirit for the win I guess.

House Arrest IF: Absolute chaos. Tonchinkan, Subaru, and Felt all set the Astrea Manor on fire somehow while they were trying to put together a holiday surprise for the rest of the camp. It was Subaru’s idea, and the other four are going to be very loud about that fact once Reinhard gets back from running errands.

Nameless Wanderer IF: Schwartz and Julius are going on a date. Neither of them realize that this is a date.

[impala124]

Bad Buddy Ep 2

My thoughts on Ep 1

Guys, y'all weren't exaggerating about OhmNanon chemistry. I was in a trance whenever they were on the screen together. Now onto my thoughts—

It speaks a lot about my affection towards Pran that I'm willing to overlook him cutting his sandwich into rectangles and not triangles.

Pat sleeping with a dog plushie just makes me double down on my he's just a lost puppy running after Pran agenda.

Not my boy Pran cooking up lore on the spot just to avoid them fighting at the pavilion. And Pat following the lead. I just can't 😂😂.

I like how they don't know that the person in the opposite dorm is the one they've been told to dislike since birth. The anonymity might help them realize their genuine feelings for each other without their familial rivalry coloring it.

Once again, Pa keeping it very real with Pat and not feeding into his delusions.

Pat's signature move when he wants to distract someone seems to be to treat them with food. I love that for him, but bestie has to come up with alternative moves if he doesn't want to end up going broke. I can already tell that Pran is going to be the haver of all brain cells in his and Pat's relationship.

Pran's friends teasing him about a man crushing on him and the camera cutting to Pat laughing. So, it seems like we aren't going for subtlety here.

Well, the anonymity didn't last long. Gotta applaud Pran for letting Pat know the truth instead of leading him on, which he could've if he really hated Pat.

Pat's dad being the quintessential Asian dad by saying, I'm not putting pressure on you; you have to maintain my reputation. Sir, how about I don't see your face for a while?

Okay, I'm not taking sides about the family rivalry, which I know nothing about, but Pat's dad definitely seems like the instigator. Just saying. We'll have to see if I change my opinion of him.

Again, the irony of the father saying that Pran followed Pat around with his guitar when the Freshy Music contest wasn't (probably) even on Pat's radar until he followed Pran to the registration area.

I'm very interested in their individual friend group dynamics, though. Pran's friends, after they discovered that a guy might have a crush on him, responded with teasing but not in a malicious way. On the other hand, Pat's friend's reaction when they found out that the person Pran thought might have a crush on him was a guy was just total avoidance of the matter at hand. Will they address it in the future? We'll have to see.

Is Pran's mom the coach dad from High School Musical to Pran's Troy??? The familial rivalry better be something serious given the way the parents are acting.

I love Petty Pran. His I want you to continue being guilty; coutinue owing me to Pat is giving me life.

Awww, the ticke fight/tussle shows us that even though Pat is physically stronger, Pran is the one who'll end up on top.

Not these dumbasses fighting at the fucking pavilion. All their friends need to just fuck each other to get rid of the tension. Because what is the purpose of men fighting with each other if not a heterosexual excuse to touch another man?

Not mentioned in this episode, but if I'm remembering correctly, Pran has one of Pat's shirts with him from Ep 1. Will he return it or keep it with him just for old times sake? Will they ever mention it again? Only time will tell.

(Tagging some people here because I've seen some express interest in following along. Let me know if you also want to be tagged in the future)

[mymoodwriting]

Request for Anon (yandere TBZ '98z) 2.2k, sirens, yandere, alcohol consumption, beach party atmosphere, campfire gatherings, attempted kidnapping, kidnapping, manipulation, hypnosis, siren song, minor hydrophobia, bleeding from the ears, possible hypothermia, supernatural creatures (@starillusion13)

“I need some air.”

  You stepped away from the dance floor, giggling and waving at your friends, careful not to spill the drink you had in hand. You were spending the weekend at your friend’s beach house, and the vibes they were going for were a three day party. When you arrived you helped set up and by the time dusk had come around the party had already started. There was music and drinks, and lots of people mingling. You were used to this type of life with your friends, so you were certainly enjoying yourself. After a few drinks and hours on the dance floor you knew you needed a break, so you stepped away, going up to the second floor balcony.

The sound of the waves was louder than the muffled music, creating a peaceful atmosphere. The fresh air was also welcomed, needing to clear out your airways. You swirled the drink in your hand, wondering if you should call it here. You did drink, but you weren’t looking to get really drunk tonight. You closed your eyes and took a deep breath. It was good to get away from home and work and just have fun, this break was highly overdue. As you were listening to the waves a new melody caught your attention. Your gaze shifted down to the beach below, seeing a small campfire and four individuals around it.

The beach here wasn’t private property or anything, but you were curious as to who they were. The nearest residence was a good couple miles away. The party was up here in the house, but those people were having their own get-together down there. You went back inside, intending to go down to the beach, but you ran into some friends along the way. They were curious as to where you were going and you told them you wanted to go down to the beach to see what was going on. They liked the idea as well, so you all went together. The air would do them good too. As the house music died down you could better hear the guitar and the beautiful voices singing.

You didn’t recognize the melody but it was nice nonetheless. Although the music stopped when your little group was noticed. Four boys sat around their campfire, looking over at you and the others. They were friendly from the start, asking if you wanted to join their circle. The boys spread out, letting you and your friends sit. They introduced themselves, and let you all do the same. Soon enough the guitar was strumming again and a simple conversation was started. For now everyone seemed content getting to know one another. Although from there a few conversations branched out and mini groups were formed.

“So, how long have you played guitar?”

“For as long as I can remember.” Juyeon answered. “Music is a passion of mine.”

“I can tell. You’re very talented.”

“Thanks. So what do you do?”

“Nothing special, just office work.”

“A cubicle?”

“Yeah. I don’t mind it at all. The work is easy and the pay is good. Way less stressful than my old retail job.”

“You worked retail?”

“My greatest trial.” You chuckled. “It had its good and bad days, but I’m glad to have the experience. I know what the employees go through and have great respect for them.”

“You see the bright side in a lot of things, don’t you?”

“I try. I want to make the most of my life and enjoy myself. What about you though, what do you do with your time?”

“I focus on my music.”

“Ah, a real musician. Where can I find your music?”

“Right here.”

Juyeon changed the tune he was playing and began to sing, his friends joining in as well. You listened with a smile on your face, seeing how quickly everyone got into the song. You couldn’t help but wonder who they were. Most of the people at the party you knew, one way or another, but these guys seemed like total strangers. With that in mind you should probably be worried, but they didn’t seem like bad people. You were captivated by the music until it was interrupted by cheering and yelling. Apparently the bond fire out on the beach had been noticed and a good amount of people were moving the party outside.

Soon enough the soothing sound of the waves and guitar playing was drowned out by the stereo and the conversations all around. You didn’t mind much, especially considering this party wasn’t supposed to end any time soon. Your friends got up, dragging some of the other boys along to dance. You got up as well, although Juyeon grabbed your arm and pulled you back down. For a moment he seemed annoyed, but quickly changed his expression. Perhaps he had come out here to get away from all the loud partying, and your arrival unintentionally brought it to him. You wanted to apologize but weren’t sure how to go about it.

“Let’s go talk somewhere in private.”

“You’re not much of a party person?”

“Too much noise.”

“I bet the house is quieter now, we can go up there.”

“I know somewhere better.”

“Alright, lead the way.

You got up with Juyeon, and he kept a hold of your arm as he led you through the crowds, moving away from the house. Although along the way you were yanked from his grasp, surrounded by familiar faces and dancing bodies. It seemed that the party didn’t want you leaving again. You tried looking around for Juyeon, but he found you first, grabbing your arm once more and pulling you close. This time the annoyance was clear on his face and his grip was firm. You were starting to get this uneasy feeling about him, deciding it was best to part ways.  Yet you couldn’t get yourself free.

“Juyeon… let go…”

“…”

 “Let go! I’m serious, this isn’t funny!”

Without another word Juyeon started dragging you away from the crowd as you continued to struggle. No one seemed to notice your distress, and screaming probably wouldn’t get you anywhere. The only other option was to fight. So without hesitation you punched Juyeon in the stomach, causing him to double over and let you go. You quickly ran off, looking for your friends in the crowd. You spotted someone, waving your arm and shouting to get their attention when this ear-piercing screech filled the air. You fell to your knees covering your ears, trying to drown out the sound. You weren’t the only one affected as you saw others around you doing the same thing as you.

It was hard to tell how long the disruption lasted, but when it stopped things seemed different. Your vision was a bit blurry, and there was a muted ringing in your ears. As you pulled your hands away you felt something warm and thick, looking at your fingers to see blood. You were trying to process when your arm was grabbed and you were pulled up to your feet. For a moment you could make out Kevin’s face before he was dragging you behind him. You stumbled over others on the ground, trying to regain your own sense while attempting to free yourself. Although just like before, Kevin’s grip also seemed impossible to break.

Next thing you knew you felt wet sand beneath your feet, starting to realize Kevin was pulling you towards the water. You screamed and let yourself fall to the floor, hoping your body weight could stop him in his tracks. It did jerk him back, but he was only annoyed for a bit. Someone from behind pulled you up to your feet, pushing you forward into the water. You continued to yell, trying to free yourself and not let the fear of the approaching water scare you. When you glanced back you could see Changmin pushing you along, a smile on his face. You didn’t understand what they were doing, but you were terrified.

“Stop! Stop it! Please!”

“Relax, you’ll be fine.” Changmin assured. 

“Let go! Ple-”

You were so distracted by Changmin that you were completely clueless about the oncoming wave until it hit you. For a moment your whole world was underwater, and then a calming atmosphere seemed to wash over you, pulling you under into the darkness.

🖤

You gasped awake, taking in deep breaths as you looked around. You were lying on sand, the waves receding just a few feet from you. It wasn’t that cold, but you were still wet, which made you shiver. You looked around, but you seemed to be completely alone, the only light coming from the moon. After a moment you managed to get on your feet, properly taking in your surroundings. This place was completely unfamiliar. Besides the water and sand, there was nothing but endless trees. You thought back to what happened before you woke up here, but your memories seemed impossible.

Those boys from the beach had dragged you into the water, and before that there had been that loud noise. As the helplessness of your situation was starting to settle in you noticed what seemed to be smoke rising into the air. Someone had started a fire. Without much thought you headed into the trees, following the smoke trail, hoping to find someone, anyone else. Once you were further in you saw the inklings of fire light, feeling hopeful. That is until you broke through the plants to find a small little campsite. Four familiar faces gathered around a fire, merely watching the flames until their gazes turned to you. A golden glow from their eyes froze you in place.

“I’m glad you found your way to us.” Chanhee giggled. “Sit.”

“… what… what’s going on… what happened…”

“Nothing you need to worry about. Sit down, I’m sure you need to warm up.”

“No… no…” You took a step back. “… you guys…”

“You’re on our island.” Kevin stated. “There’s nowhere else for you to go. So sit down, before you run off and get lost.”

“… what are you…”

“We’re not gonna hurt you if that’s what you’re scared of.”

“… then… why’d you bring me here… how did you-”

“You wanted to come here.” Juyeon remarked. “So we brought you.”

“I never said that…”

“Actions speak louder than words. Of course it was a bit difficult at first when you came to the beach with friends, but we found you eventually.”

“What are you talking about…”

“We sang a song, it was an invitation.” Changmin explained. “For a pretty little human to run away into our arms, and you came to us.”

“No, no I didn’t, I…”

“Sh, it’s okay. One’s innermost desires are always hard to understand, but we heard you loud and clear.”

“Liars… take me back! Now!”

“And why would we do that?” Juyeon questioned. “When you don’t actually want to, do you?”

“I…”

There was something in his voice that didn’t sound right. It created this sensation, a sense of calm and peace you had felt before when you heard them sing. Then it all clicked into place. Sirens. That realization snapped you out of it, so you turned and ran, not daring to look back. Although as badly as you wanted to escape, eventually you escaped from the trees, coming upon an endless expanse of water. They said you were on an island, and you had no way of knowing that was true. Your best bet now was to pick a direction, but then you heard rustling behind you.

“You’ll get lost if you go off on your own.” Kevin said. “If you don’t freeze to death first.”

“Stay back!”

“We already said we’re not gonna hurt you.” Chanhee added. “Don’t you believe us?”

“Just… just send me back… you… you don’t need me…”

“But we do.” Juyeon corrected. “You think we’d go anywhere near humans without a purpose? No, no, no, darling, we were hunting for you.”

“What… what do you want with me…?”

“For now we just need to keep you close until we can make the proper arrangements.”

“Arrangements…?”

“The island is just temporary, silly.” Changmin teased. “I’m sure by now you’ve figured out what we are. Your human body isn’t suitable for us, but we’ll rectify that soon enough.”

“… please…”

“Just relax and come here, we need to warm you up, and I have other ideas besides a fire.”

You stumbled back a few steps, grabbing your head. You could feel that calm sense starting to wash over you, but you were fighting back. As you continued to move you eventually felt your feet dipping into water. They had you cornered, and there was really nowhere to run.

“… please… don’t…”

“You’ll be just fine with us, better even.” Chanhee held his hand out to you. “We made an excellent choice with you.”

“You’re perfect, darling.” Kevin added. “Come now.”

“I…”

Your head was spinning, the world getting a bit blurry as your own identity was being drowned into the back of your own mind. They were getting closer and closer, and your own fears were disappearing. Without truly meaning to you were reaching out to Chanhee’s hand, the inklings of a smile forming on your face. The golden eyes, the soft voices, it wasn’t so scary anymore. If anything it seemed rather welcoming. When you took Chanhee’s hand you felt lighter, as if all your worries had been washed away.

“Good girl, you’ll see, you’re perfect for us. At least you will be, eventually.”

[mllemaenad]

I'm ... assuming whoever wrote this doesn't care much for the idea that those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

There's so much that's odd here. The Tevinter empire already had its day, and it already had slavery and blood sacrifice. It also picked up its magic from the elven empire, in a time much closer to the fall of Elvhenan. So honestly it feels like "the Venatori" probably already have access to a lot of this stuff. Orlais, as the new empire, also has slavery and the only reason it isn't using a lot of old elven magic is because it specifically hates and fears magic (and even then, it's doing more dubious magical stuff than it will readily admit). No empire needs this specific compendium of knowledge to figure out how to oppress people.

But honestly, they've probably got a lot of it. The elves don't have access to a lot of this information because their civilisation fell twice. Their records were stolen or destroyed and they were forced into poverty and servitude. Even the Dalish, the self-appointed keepers of elven culture, only have whatever they could haul out of the Dales on their backs. Elven texts still exist – I still remember Kirkwall's Band of Three – they're just largely not accessible to the elves.

This could be a way for the elves to reclaim some of that information.

There will be stuff in here that was genuinely lost, though, because neither conquering civilisation had use for it – history, literature, religion, art – all things that would be valuable to the elves. Things that Tevinter and Orlais discarded because the elven civilisation was considered inferior to their own. The big, bad secret, that the elves once had an empire of their own ... well, that's already out.

On top of that ... this bizarre idea about the superiority of "ancient" knowledge. Look, ancient people were not stupid – at least no more stupid than we are – and they came up with clever ways of doing things. But we have largely built on their efforts to find even better ways. And even if some skill is genuinely lost, it can be rediscovered. It is not doomed forever unless you find the Secret Ancient Texts. This feels ... uncomfortably along the lines of "the people of Atlantis were real, were magic and were responsible for all civilisation!"

And there's this weird idea that knowledge could somehow corrupt the elves.

The story they've given the elves is deeply disquieting in several ways, but ... well, since this is what we have, we've got to live with it. But if the elven people got things "wrong", it was through a lack of knowledge. If the evanuris were "incorrectly" worshipped as gods, it was because the elves lost their history. Ignorance isn't some magic safeguard against error.

I know I've been making jokes about the "chatbot" but ... behind the chatbot is an encyclopaedia. Why on earth would you destroy that?

[genericpuff]

hate to be cynical on main but it really do be like this every single time a new "not like social media" art platform comes out of the woodwork and then people migrate to it in droves just to find out the only other people using it are other artists that they're competing with for any scrape of viewership from an increasingly oversaturated internet that didn't exist when we were teenagers in 2009

[gurggggleburgle]

the reason why Luo Binghe and Shen Yuan can't attic wife each other in their house and never leave is that they don't have internet or anything else around to help keep them moving. I think we chalk too much of Shen Qingqiu being a super productive person post transmigration often too much to reading into things and treating his unreliable narration as fact.

But like, what is he supposed to do all if not actually go outside and talk to people and get a job. Luo Binghe needs to do things other than be a housewife for his own sanity so he doesn't cabin fever. He can't live focusing his day around a singular person being in the room its not healthy and would drive him insane. These are not overly productive constantly doing things people. These are people doing things to make sure they aren't malaise slugs feeling nothing in their day to day drudgery.

This is just what a healthy post/pre internet mental state kinda looks like.

[captain-space-kin]

”Skybound ruined Jaya for me” Skill issue.

[batsplat]

casey is obvs funny with this rivalry stuff because on the one hand he's very 'well I don't care who I beat' (lie) and 'I don't motivate myself using my rivals' (also a lie) and then he's also repeatedly emphasising that valentino was ONE of his biggest rivals and he only competed against him a few years... like a lil side quest in the story of his career. Those Few Years where valentino was his big rival. whereas dani and jorge were his cohort so he did compete with them for a greater span of time... and this is technically true and does MATTER but it is also extremely noticeable in his output which rivalry he has the most thoughts about. and yes casey would say that this is because everyone ELSE cares the most about That One Rivalry the most and also his opponent being an annoying dickhead means it's the one he has the most complaints about... but at a certain point, it doesn't really matter, because there's still one rivalry you're talking about way more than any other. you can tell that he's at least given jorge's interiority a bit of thought, kinda went 'well he was arrogant but also Learnt From The Error Of His Ways and was maybe misunderstood so' -- but also he's not going beyond that, he's not examining jorge's soul, and he's not even doing any of that with dani. it's very much a rhetorical commitment to those other two rivalries. ultimately the point is that he's doing what he can to not talk up his biggest rivalry TOO much, because, you see. he Did Not Care That Much. (lie.) now objectively speaking this kind of framing literally does not matter, who cares which one of these was the most meaningful rivalry, but it's interesting that it matters to him!! casey's problem is that he is extremely sensitive and cares deeply about what other people say about him, but one of the things he's most sensitive about is the idea that he could let himself be mentally affected by ANYTHING, worst of all his rivals. they cannot be granted that much power over him. and all of this has kinda funny consequences in that he has pretty rigid patterns in how he talks about this stuff that are at times quite convoluted because he has to simultaneously emphasise that a) none of his rivals massively mattered to him, b) That Rival didn't matter more than the others, c) what That Rival did to him was completely beyond the pale, and d) none of that affected him mentally whatsoever. at most one of these is true. there are so many things casey wants so badly not to care about but it keeps spilling out of him anyway, this oozing sludge of resentment and repressed hopes and desires and frustration and longing and bitterness. he keeps giving himself away... he cares so much and he can't stand it

[cute-little-fly]

This is what I think about the tumblr critical communities. I have seen good comments that come from good places, and is good to be critical about things you like so creators can put attention to it and improve. Criticism has a good side but also a bad one.

But criticism needs to be more objective. Try to understand what was meant, consider all the elements in the scenes and dialogues with the overarching story and at the end see what could have being done better and what was done good. List what did it fail? What did it worked? Why? This is the usual kind of criticism I have seen from movie analists, and how I think those should be. We will always disagree at some points, but at least try to see more.

But most criticisms here and in other webs are like: this is bad because it should be this way or this other way. Because it should have ended like this or that. Then, you will see somebody else comment the entire opposite. There is no real objectivity or deep analysis most of the times. Or they villanize characters.

Like, you are seeing Jynx arc bad because you don’t detach to how you think should have been. So, no wonder why you don’t understand the one being shown in the series. Is true that some themes in the series were left out and even softened, but we need to accept it. Is true Zaun and Piltover could have had a better resolution, and is kinda bad that they were in the focus in season 1 and that season 2 couldn’t make much place for them. Is true some arcs that the one of Mel could have been shorter. Some other scenes or desitions are also less thought. But even with all of that Arcane is still GOOD. For me this is what they fail to see. Arcane ending was anticlimactic and rushed in some parts, but if you consider the series overall and what it says and happened, is clearly good and super worth the watch.

We can’t do nothing about the fact that the writers room went from 13 people to 3 people. I don’t think the 3 people left are bad writers, but, the work of 13 people cannot be replaced by 3 people. The level of details and everything of course will be different because each person contributes with their best skill. Season 1 had a lot more details and things to analyze because of how many good writers they had.

I also hoped we were going to see a revolution Jynx and that she may redeem herself that way when Do you wanna come play was released. But it ended being a bummer and not happening that, and I am actually… fine? Amanda said that ending for the sisters was intended since the very beginning. Also, for me it makes sense to what we have seen of them. They were never revolutionaries but because of who they are they were always in the middle of the conflict.

So yeah… I think is a combination of all the headcanons people had after season 1 not really being intended by the show runners, that rubbing people the wrong way, and also some things being teased to misdirect made the series look bad because how few time there is for everything and those things teased keep the people hoping for certain things to happened.

Of course, I think some of those things people headcanoned really appeared to be what the series was going to be, and is a possibility that they changed those plans, or the writers in charge of that were the ones fired and the ones left didn’t knew how to do that properly with that short time…

Buuut, at the end, my point is… we should cherish what we have, the good, talk about what we could have had in a constructive way (not saying how the show was ruined and super bad, because you are shoving the amazing things under a rug) and how they should try to balance better the thematic elements for the next shows (and maybe plan better the level of production and see that having more writers is important and have a better team communication); without falling into only seeing the negative and ignore All the amazing things this series has. Even with its imperfections…

I saw a lot the critique of a writer that saw both the good and bad things this season had. He actually criticized mostly act III and how the sisters lost relevance being the ones more important at the beginning. Which is a very valid one. Arcane seen overall as one single thing is an amazing series. Is one of my highlights of 2024.

Yes I am very emotionally invested in Arcane, yes I do draw real life inspiration from it, yes my favorite character is based on who I relate to the most, but you know what I DON'T do? I don't equate the story as a complete mirror to reality. I don't think it's bad to tell stories with unhappy endings. I don't think it's bad to have problematic characters. I don't think it's bad to LIKE problematic characters. I can still separate fiction from reality. And I think it's great practice to have morally ambiguous stories so that we can have actual conversations about moral ambiguity outside of the sphere of real life.

Art is a great conduit to talk about real life issues. AND it's a great way to look closer at dark topics without drawing from real life situations. It is BOTH.

True critique knows the distinction and when to bounce between the two.

[icewindandboringhorror]

I occasionally wish to reach out to old friends/acquaintances I haven't spoken to since high school/some other even earlier time in my life, but I have SOOO little social energy even for required tasks (like making dr phone calls or etc), I never have any leftover for extra ones, and it would be very odd to message someone I haven't spoken to in like 5 years out of the blue but then take 4 entire months to respond back lol.. My natural curiosity with nostalgia/collecting details of the past/etc. (literally if I were born a little earlier I would definitely do scrapbooking or something lol) is very strong, but, alas, not strong enough to beat out the Social Issues Demons apparently