#and i loved their story in s2 even more so i don't think the writers would ruin it 🤞🏻

[crazykuroneko]

I knew people are still anxious about how much Louis' involvement will be in the future seasons no thanks to Anne, so let's go back to Day 0.

"I really wanted to write a love story". Yes, Rolin said TVL season is the part he's most looking forward to, but even before looking at The Vampire Chronicles, he wanted to write a romance first. Only after he saw there's enough he could build on from TVC that he said yes.

You can see this from each decision the writers have made so far. And just like how they changed Madeleine so she'd fit the AMC Claudia, they gave AMC Louis a lot more "meat" to go against Lestat (due to the big disparity in the amount of material available on each character, again no thanks to Anne)

So, unlike the books where IWTV is about only Louis' grief and being lost and the rest of the books are just Lestat going "fuck around and find out", AMC IWTV has been about Louis, Lestat, and Loustat since Day 0. And we still have the S2 finale, which Rolin says will show what they'll do with Louis next. Louis we know now is a lot more of Rolin and co's son than Anne's imo (Mark said Rolin feels like a proud parent of them both here), they've been painstakingly building him, so I don't think they'd just sideline him.

(And we already have the confirmation they'll explore the relationship between Loustat + Gabrielle. In TVL, Louis really only has one scene with her)

Added:

There's also this. It's originally in Spanish, I had to look for it first OML

[love-byers]

one of the things that makes me so confident in byler is the sheer amount of byler scenes compared to mlvn. and ESPECIALLY the final byler scene

we get like 2 solo mlvn scenes

their fight in el's room

and their talk at surfer boy's pizza

now let's count byler:

rink o mania fight

talk in jonathan's room

talk in will's room

talk on top of the car

talk in the van

talk in the cabin

SIX. COMPARED TO TWO

the last big scene/interaction we see of a character/couple in a season is super important and says a lot about what's to come

like at the end of s1, the last interaction we see nancy have is kissing jonathan on the cheek and going back to steve. she ends the season with steve. HEAVILY foreshadowing that the story is not over between them and there is more to come, there will be a big plot point related to nancy and steve in s2.

in s2 the couples are together by the end, like literally together.

lumax are dancing, mlvn are dancing, nancy and jonathan are both volunteering at the snowball, and hopper and joyce are hugging.

and the last solo interaction we see dustin have is with steve, implying their friendship will continue and be important in what's to come, which it did in s3. 

it's the same at the end of s3. the last 4 solo interactions we see are will and mike, jonathan and nancy, el and mike, and el and joyce. 3 couples, and then the moment that begins hop's letter. all very important.

in s4 we get a solo jancy interaction, a solo byler interaction, and a solo el+ hopper interaction. the final scenes. the jancy scene isn't exactly happy, they're awkward and jonathan is still lying to her about college.

so in the same episode that mike confesses his supposed love to el, the last time we see them in the same room she doesn't even spare him a glance? the final time we see a couple together is important. and they give us nothing. not only do we not know if they're together anymore, it's making us lean towards them not being together at all.

then there's this:

in s2, jonathan and nancy take a big leap from friends to lovers. HUGE leap. but after that, it's not acknowledged at all. things continue as normal. i remember watching 2 for the first time and getting a teensy bit worried that no one was talking about it and more drama would happen.

but then we get that last look, and we know without a sliver of doubt that they are officially together, and in love.

this is more proof that the final scene together between a duo is very important. imagine if they hadn't give us that jancy moment, we would've been so confused and upset. we'd think they were together, i mean they legit smashed....but then they don't acknowledge each other? that would've implied trouble.

it's slightly different for mileven because mikes monolgue wasn't their leap from friends to lovers, it was supposed to be their leap from childish, puppy love to real love.

but it WASNT

after the monologue, we don't see them speak. and this may have been okay if they'd done something. something to let us know they're still together in love.

with jancy, we did see them have moments before the snow ball scene, like nancy comforting jonathan and jonathan seeking out her comfort (a hug) when he saw will unconscious. but the last scene was still so important. they didn't leave us with nothing

with mlvn, we aren't left with nothing, we're left with less than nothing. we get to see them in the same room, and el doesn't even spare him a glance. she even seems annoyed by mike. it leaves mileven unanswered.

the jancy snowball scene is living breathing proof that the writers know how to leave 0 doubt surrounding a couple. they know it doesn't take much. all it would've take. was one look, one smile, to let us know mlvn are okay. and they chose not to.

not only did they choose to have el not acknowledge mike, they chose to have his last scene be with will.

let me repeat that. after mike confessed his supposed undying love for his girlfriend, his last solo scene with another character, the last we'll see of him for years until s5 is him with will, the person who's in love with him.

and it's intimate. it's mike reassuring will during a moment of fear and weakness that they'll kill vecna and save hawkins, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder as sunlight cascades down on them.

and the final scene of s4 reinforces everything i've said.

this has always given me the vibe of, 'there'll be petty arguments, drama, little crushes and lies, but when the world is ending, who do you grab despite all of it?'

jonathan and nancy grab each other. joyce and hopper grab each other. mike and will grab each other.

once again i want you to imagine you confessed your supposed love to your girlfriend, and then a week later the apocalypse starts. wouldn't you go to her?? stand by her??

mike didn't. he stuck with will. because mlvn just aren't that kind of relationship. but byler is that kind of relationship.

[damneddamsy]

hiiiii, everyone! I hope you're feeling great after that TLOU S2 episode godddamnnn ✨🦋 So, I just want to address this real quick. This may also go out to all the other wonderful, fantastic writers and bloggers on this website.

I have noticed that some of you might feel like my (or any other writer's) chapters are a bit too long, too wordy, or “too much” at times, and I get it. I don't know what prompts me to say this, but I need to put this out there for anyone else who relates.

Writing for me is such an unrestrained experience. I get off work, I eat, I turn the valve on my pressures, and I just... write. It's the best part of my day (sans writer's block nights?) I pour a good maybe four, five hours straight, and I know it isn't healthy, but I can't go on without it, you know? It's my way of taking every single fucked up thing in my mind and rushing it out on a page.

Look, I don’t just want to tell a story—I want YOU to feel it, to explore every layer of my characters and push myself to dig deeper into their own little arcs. We writers do it because we feel, and there’s beauty in letting that uninhibited journey of your favourite characters outside the bracket of their fictional world take its time.

And that’s why sometimes I tend to get a bit carried away with expressions and depictions.

But here’s the deal: if you ever find yourself halfway through and thinking, “aw, mate, this is a lot of fucking stuff for just a fic,” don’t you worry! Just take a breather, maybe grab a bite, scream into an abyss, and come back.

Trust me, the extra time you spend will be totally worth it. When you’re done, come on over and hit me with your thoughts—good, bad, worse, whatever transpired, or anything in between! Honestly, just seeing your thoughts spill out, whether in a comment or a reblog, is everything. I love hearing your reflections, even if it’s just a “this fucking killed meeeee omggggg i died dead xx” or a few creative emojis. Anything. I love it all.

It’s what keeps us writers going, right? We write because we want to share, and your feedback? It fuels us more than you know.

And for those of us on this crazy writing journey together—let’s keep supporting one another and sharing the stories we really want to tell, no matter how long they take to unfold.

It's not about the time, it's about the effort. We put so much effort, you guys. We put so much heart into this. Give them a chance. Don’t let your writers go uninspired. Don't let them fall off.

Support your writers. Share with them. Be kind. Become friends, they are all so nice! And even if they don’t always respond (they are a forgetful, shy, edgy bunch of cuties), just know they’re reading every word.

They're smiling, kicking their feet, doing it for you.

[markantonys]

i'll be interested to see if this holds true for WOT s3 since the s1 finale had so many extenuating circumstances and can't really be included in the comparison, but based off of the s2 finale, i believe that season finales tend to bear the brunt of "It's Different From The Books!" ire because they are the culmination of all the smaller changes made throughout the season.

this turned into a bigger analysis post than i expected lmao par for the course with my blog! read on for exploration of how the 2x08 conclusion of each season-long arc is the the most emotionally satisfying conclusion and/or the most thematically appropriate conclusion possible based on the show's particular version of the story, plus a bonus tangent on the nature of adaptation.

for a finale episode, the writers' prime concern 100% has to be "wrapping up all the season's arcs in a way that feels satisfying with everything that's happened in the first 7 episodes, using the book version of the finale event as the framework" rather than "recreating the book version of the finale event exactly as it is with all the same scenes and themes". the nature of storytelling inherently means that every single person who tells the same story will focus on different themes (just think of how many versions of the hades & persephone story there are), and a good adaptation knows that being internally consistent with its own Emphasized Themes is more important than copying-and-pasting scenes from the source material without making any changes to account for the specific way this adaptation is telling the story.

(but a lot of people can't even get past this first point because they don't understand that this is how adaptations - how storytelling in general - work. like, person B literally cannot tell the exact same story that person A told without putting their own spin on it. it's not possible! unless they're simply reading out the exact words that person A wrote, which can't be done when putting 14 massive books into maximum 64 hours of tv. so many readers like to meet this point with "but why does the books' version of the story need to be changed at all?" which is just a non-starter because a) medium differences require a ton of changes, and b) even if no changes were *required*, they would happen anyway because that is human nature when it comes to storytelling. when it comes to story-listening too! ask a hundred different book fans what WOT is about and you'll get a hundred different answers. rafe & co can't possibly make an adaptation that captures every single reader's idea of What WOT Is About, and nobody in the world could ever re-tell the story of WOT in the exact same way that RJ told it, not even the most die-hard book fan; all rafe & co can do is focus on making sure the show honors the core of the books' story while also telling a good story in its own right, independent of the source material.)

i was a classics major, okay? it gets to me! anyway, corralling myself back on topic.

for 2x08, it's very telling just how far Minority Reader Opinion deviates from the general audience opinion. general audiences fucking LOVED this episode (it's the highest-rated on imdb out of the entire show, currently at a 9.0; most episodes are in the 7-8 range), but a bunch of readers call it disappointing and one of the worst episodes of the show. if it was actually a poor quality episode of television, the general audience ratings would reflect that too (as they do for 1x08, currently at a 6.4 (i personally think 1x08 gets way more hate than is deserved and i thoroughly enjoy that episode, but i accept that's just me)), but they don't.

so what does that mean? to me, it means that 2x08 is objectively a very good episode of television which general audiences found satisfying, but which some readers disliked because it prioritized the emotional & thematic needs of its own version of the story over the exact nature of the falme events in the source material. which is exactly what a good adaptation should do! if you forget the books and just look at the show (which the vast majority of viewers are doing), then every resolution that happens in 2x08 is the most satisfying resolution possible and/or the only resolution that was thematically permitted for that particular season storyline.

egwene: her season arc was about learning to stand on her own two feet and not cling onto her mentor figures or compare herself unfavorably to others. thus, her freeing herself from the a'dam is the most satisfying possible conclusion to her season arc. nynaeve and elayne freeing her in the books is nice, but in the show version, thematically, it would've undercut egwene's Overcoming Impostor Syndrome arc to go "yeah actually it's true that she's not good enough on her own and when it comes down to it she does always need nynaeve to help her out". that version worked in TGH where she didn't have an Overcming Impostor Syndrome arc, but it wouldn't have worked in the show where she did. (but, yes, egwene learning in 2x08 that she doesn't have to rely on others is a double-edged sword, which nicely sets up her later-series struggles with trying to shoulder too much herself and not letting even her friends or partner help her.)

rand: his season arc was about learning to lean on others and not isolate himself or try to protect his friends by withholding his burdens from them. thus, him failing to defeat ishamael until all his friends come to lend aid in various ways is the most satisfying possible conclusion to his season arc. rand defeating ishy singlehandedly in the books is nice, but in the show version, thematically, it would've undercut his Learning That Strength Is In Numbers arc to go "yeah actually it's true that rand is capable of winning his biggest battles all by himself and thus it's no problem for him to push his friends away". given the themes that s2 emphasized for rand, the only appropriate finale outcomes were either success with his friends' help or total failure on his own, and they chose the former. (that being said, rand pushing his friends away is a continuous issue for him throughout the series, so i doubt he's perfectly learned his lesson after 2x08; we shall see!)

interesting to note that rand and egwene have inverse arcs in a way (foils!) and that some elements of their book falme climaxes were swapped, and that the way the show has done it subverts the expected gender roles. typically, men are expected to be Lone Wolves and women to be Team Players, and the WOT books absolutely play into these stereotypes throughout the series (sometimes intentionally as social commentary, sometimes unconsciously as an accepted truth of the world), but 2x08 and s2 more broadly did the opposite with our yin-and-yang co-protagonists. it's egwene who has the arc about learning to be a Lone Wolf and rand who has the arc about learning to be a Team Player. and imo these subconscious gender role expectations are a part of why some readers (esp reddit) got SO heated about "how come egwene can succeed by herself but rand can't", because it feels Wrong to them and Not How Things Are Supposed To Work (they've never questioned why rand can succeed by himself but egwene needs her friends' help in TGH, or all the other times in the books when men succeed by themselves and women succeed by relying on each other). but it's a totally apples-to-oranges comparison because egwene and rand had totally different season arcs and focal themes (but many paralleling & foiling moments within that), and so they each get a conclusion tailor-made to their individual stories.

mat: his season arc was about realizing he's a good, worthy person, finding the inner strength to overcome his worst impulses and temptations, and coming through for his friends after leaving them at the waygate. thus, him getting his Big Damn Hero moment with the horn of valere, getting validation that he is literally a hero, and overall spending the episode doing all he can to support his friends is the most satisfying possible conclusion to his season arc. (but stabbing his bff just as he was flying on a confidence high and trying to save the day was a downer note to end on, so we've complicated his relationship with heroism and set up some more internal issues for him to wrestle with next season.)

perrin: his season arc was about learning to acknowledge his inner wolf but also coming to regard it with fear and to believe that wolf & human sides can't coexist and he must Choose One (.......suddenly being struck by the bisexuality metaphor of it all. nice!) thus, him giving into violence to murder a human to avenge a wolf is.....well, it's pretty upsetting for him and serves to reinforce his growing belief that his two sides can't coexist, but thematically, it's fascinating and sets him up for some really great internal (and external) conflicts in s3. he's just gotten what he thinks is pretty strong evidence to corroborate ishy's claim that embracing his wolf side means embracing the shadow, so he's set up for a season 3 of deep-diving into his relationship with violence and his inner wolf. it's also a neat parallel with 1x08: there perrin's avoidance of violence allowed fain to escape, whereas here his embracing of violence has traumatized him (again), so our poor guy is really feeling conflicted in the pacificism-or-violence question because both sides seem wrong to him right now. huh, i guess perrin's full-series arc is about finding a middle ground rather than one extreme (pacifism/tuatha'an/human) or the other (violence/aiel/wolf). i feel like i've just had an epiphany lmao this is why i love the show! it tells the same story as the books, but tells it in a different way that makes me think about it differently and gain new insights!

nynaeve: her season arc was about learning that she, on her own, as she is today, is not enough to protect her loved ones. this is a tough pill for both her and the audience to swallow! but it's needed for her character, and we see it in the books too. nynaeve has an incredible amount of power, but she's terrified of having that much power and wants to pretend it doesn't exist. she's resistant to change, she's used to being in charge, and she's very "my way or the highway". these are all things she needs to grow out of (or moderate, at least) in order to be able to step up and do her part for tarmon gai'don. she has to learn how to embrace her power instead of being afraid of it or being too stubborn to let other people guide her and teach her, so s2 shows her what happens if she doesn't, first hypothetically in the accepted test (everyone she loves dies because she's blocked and refused channeling training) and then for real in falme (she couldn't help elayne fully or rand at all because of her block). so her 2x08 conclusion being Total Failure is not emotionally satisfying, no, but it's thematically exactly what she needed and will goad her into facing her block head-on next season. thematically, like rand, nynaeve only had 2 options for falme: break her block and succeed, or retain her block and fail, and it was too soon for the former (we gotta let her cook a while longer, plus the story will become too easy if nynaeve, or rand, reaches supernova capability too soon), so it had to be the latter. if the show had gone with a third option of her succeeding without breaking her block, then that would've taught her and the audience that it's fine to leave the block in place and she doesn't need to challenge herself to grow as a person, because when it TRULY matters she can always get around the block.

other characters get appropriate resolutions too! moiraine and lan get to work together to succeed after being at odds and failing on their own all season (rand foils!). elayne gets validation that she is an essential and trusted part of the friend group after feeling like somewhat of an outsider earlier in the season. ishamael getting vanquished and lanfear betraying him only to be betrayed by him in turn is exactly where their mutual mistrust was leading them (and it shows us why it's so important that Team Light be able to work as a team rather than as self-interested individual operators; the contrast between ishy & lanfear looking at the seals together while plotting to betray each other vs. rand standing on the tower with all his friends behind him makes me cry your honor. imagine hating that ishy's defeat was a team effort, could not be me!)

(it's also worth noting that the characters who had the least individual success/victory in 2x08 (nynaeve, rand, perrin) are the ones who will have the biggest individual storylines in s3 (tanchico & moggy, waste arc, two rivers arc), whereas the characters who had the most individual success/victory (egwene, mat, moiraine, lan) are the ones who will be taking a bit more of a backseat (of course they all have their own stuff to do, but none of them is *the* lead character of their TSR/s3 traveling group). this is intentional!)

so there you have it. 2x08 is adored by the general audience, and it's because of this: it gives us some damn satisfying conclusions to all the season arcs (and some exciting and visually stunning battle sequences to boot), and all the viewers who AREN'T beleaguered by "But The Books!", which is most of them, recognize that for the good storytelling it is. i for one will always care far more about the show telling a good story within itself than the show being identical to the books, and rafe & co will too, as they should.

the only downside to the episode is that, yes, it is quite cramped for time because there are a lot of arcs to wrap up. this should be less of an issue in future seasons when the season finale isn't "every single major storyline converges in the same place at once". for example, judging by the "goldeneyes" episode title it seems s3 might split it up so that perrin's conclusion in the two rivers is in 3x07 while other conclusions in other locations are in 3x08, giving each more breathing room. whereas 2x08 had no choice but to stuff everything in that episode into that specific episode because it's not like perrin could just do his falme stuff an episode early and take a nap while everyone else was doing THEIR falme stuff in the next episode, nor could the full falme sequence have been split into 2 episodes since that would have disrupted the flow of the story. the only solution would be for 2x08 to be extra long, which is nice to imagine, but we all know that streaming shows almost never deviate from their set episode lengths and so there isn't much point sighing about "this episode should have been 90 minutes long!" because that just is not on the table, never has been, and never will be. the first step to being able to jive with an adaptation is making peace with the limits of its particular medium!

plus, the only things i might deem "missing" from 2x08 are non-essential (ingtar darkfriend reveal - that is NOT important fight me, it's only important in the books as our first example of a morally-gray shadow-aligned person but the show has already been doing that in spades) or will likely be included in 3x01 (the gang spending some time together to breathe and process and catch up). at the end of the day, the show is always going to need to be paced very very tightly with not as much breathing room as those of us accustomed to entire books dedicated to reacting to the previous book might expect. and 2x08 did manage to pack in a LOT of character work amidst all the action and did a good mix of resolving s2 arcs while leaving some unresolved to carry into s3 and introducing some new arcs/issues/conflicts, all within 70 minutes, which i find pretty impressive. in conclusion, 2x08 my fucking beloved <3

[nylloth]

My opinion about Arcane s2 (mostly Viktor)

I'm trying to be neutral on this, but I'm upset with what they did to Viktor.

I was wrong about their relationship with Sky (but I had hope), you can see he never really cared for her and the animators put their all into conveying that. Plus, let's say Sky represents Viktor's humanity and Viktor himself gives up on her. And it's a lot easier for him to give her up than it is for Jayce, who he's trying to show this new “world” to.

They have a lot of gay moments with Jayce, I don't know why the writers call it “family”. It's really hard to see family in that. It seems like at some point they decided to change the plot, because at the end Jayce and Viktor just disappear and no one just doesn't care what Jayce has with Mel.

The thing I didn't like the most was how they changed Ryze, that now Ryze is Viktor, the all-powerful mage. We know from the documentary that it was Ryze at one point. That would make more sense than Viktor traveling through time and constantly dooming himself to a series of miseries. But then again, they added the “all for Jayce” aspect to it.

You can see it's supposed to be a different character, right?

I really didn't like how they treated Sky because obviously she wasn't an evil manipulative core. Viktor killed her twice for his own purposes. Once by accident, the second time on purpose. Look, you add a girl who is IN LOVE with a man, make her die twice for him, and show WHY he doesn't care. It's a dirty act. Amanda said she was “proud to write Sky”, I don't know what there is to be proud of. As a woman, it was painful for me to watch. You didn't have to do that. Did you mean to say the character is gay? You don't have to humiliate women to do that.

I always hoped Viktor wouldn't have any romantic innuendos because feelings, for Herald, are a weakness. But the fact that they're indulging JayVik fans makes it look NOTHING like that. Like, I'm not a fan of this ship, but even I don't consider what they showed as brotherly feelings. Especially from Viktor's side. He is literally too concerned with Jayce's opinion.

I also think that the writers largely emphasized the clips and fights, but didn't add to the story itself. I mean Silco's deep thoughts in the first season on political topics and the theme of family in general was shown much better.

Herald is essentially non-existent. It's a character for the last two episodes who is immediately killed off because of a few words from Jayce. Viktor returns and they vaporize somewhere. I take it this is starting a recurring time loop.

They kind of tried to put in Viktor's “here he's come to the realization on his own that humanity is bad”, but they did it SO FAST and literally because of one event that it looked bad. Yeah, it's not about hexcore. VIKTOR SUPPOSEDLY CAME TO THIS ON HIS OWN. Why? Because Jayce shot him, and then Jayce helped him realize otherwise. No, really, what was that?

I also didn't like the redesign. I was hoping the mask would look different, but it looks HORRIBLE.

It's supposed to give the impression that Viktor “shut down and withdrew into himself”, they also tried to make him a “deity”, but since it only lasted 20 minutes before he went back to his normal state, it didn't make any sense… Anyway… I sympathize with everyone who loved Viktor specifically, outside jayvik ship (happy for you guys). I know they are excited, but this is not Viktor's story. You see, Viktor doesn't have his own personal story now, he's too connected to Jayce. You could say he did everything and nothing at the same time. Because he keeps running this time loop, but he's running it because of Jayce's influence.

Waiting for his updated lore to read….. idk I'll read it and forget it like a bad dream.

[morisbasement]

oh and in celebration of the emerald wirch arc anime coming out next year, i have some tips for the new black butler fans!! or old if they apply to you lol

ALWAYS read the manga first.

the anime deviates so far from the manga that season 2 can't even be considered canon. im not even joking here. after the second half of s1, the animators just pulled shit out of their rears and called it a day. they didn't pull it together until book of circus, but to anyone who had watched the anime before reading the manga, the story made zero sense. i watched the series three times trying to understand it but it wasn't anything but crack until i read the manga.

if you can't buy the manga, read it on mangakakalot.com manganelo or mangareader.to, but PLEASE read it before watching.

sebaciel is (somewhat) canon, heavily implied at times, but so are lots of ships, so for the love of god please don't hate on shippers

yana toboso, the writer, has admitted that kuroshitsuji was originally intended to be a yaoi, but her publishers warned her against it. (← im told that's a rumor) there were still some sebaciel-esque scenes in the manga, so be warned! but there are also other implied ships (which is basically the entirety of s2), so suffice to say there are bound to be lots of ship wars. please don't turn the kuroshitsuji fandom into another mha fandom 😭

if you're sensitive to proship content, especially adult × child, STEER CLEAR of black butler.

while an argument may be made that it's not technically a proship since pedophilia isn't a crime in japan or since it's a human × nonhuman, therefore age gap rules aren't as cut and dry as they would be otherwise, sebastian is still portrayed as an adult and ngl it can be kind of triggering for victims of this kind of thing, and just icky in general if you don't know to expect it.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE pay heed to the content warnings, not the actual rating.

some streaming services say that kuroshitsuji is tv14. TRUST ME. it's not. here's a full list of content warnings:

severe violence

lots of sexual themes including rape, not once but TWICE (in the anime, only once in the manga) by sebastian, and pedophilia

intense gore

there is a character who is somewhat minorly important who is a lolicon (duke whatever his name was)

deals with themes including cults, rejection of the christian faith, demons, rituals, supernatural phenomena, and generally disturbing stuff. for crying out loud a TWELVE YEAR OLD kid has summoned a demon servant, is a major underworld crime god, and has survived some major cult shit.

language is pretty bad

cults

arson

murder

murder

murder

mafia/underworld crime/organized crime

organized extreme abuse/ritual abuse, mind control, organized abuse, etc. is a MAJOR theme. it's basically the precursor to the entire series and is heavily discussed and shown. please please please don't get into it if you're triggered by that, ESPECIALLY if you're a victim/potentially a victim and healing. nobody would want you to uncover memories or harm yourself because of the series. stay safe!!!

one of the character's main things is he's basically obsessed with stepcest (lao)

lao is also a drug dealer

oh yeah, drugs and drugs and drugs and drugs and–

arranged marriages for kids (ciel and lizzy)

the second season (say what you will about it but i enjoyed it) had a LOT of torture and mindbreak over some dumb shit and was generally really really disturbing, objectively more so than the first season. we're talking waterboarding (i think is what it's called? correct me NICELY if im wrong) and making the mc's relive their trauma to achieve a certain goal.

also the second season deals with twice as much pedophilia, arson, demons, and murder since the second mc (alois trancy) is basically ciel phantomhive but blonde and a lot gayer (olé!)

stalking

lots and lots of murder

it's a horror series, what do you expect

both explicit and implicit sex scenes aplenty

manipulation, mindbreak, and abuse

there's a whole jack the ripper arc and it is MESSY

it's bad at the start and only gets worse! please please please only get involved with kuroshitsuji if you can handle that!

both the manga and anime are ongoing, so don't treat it as a one and done!

yana paused production of the manga to work on a game called twisted wonderland (edit: and apparently to focus on bb too? dunno how that works) , but more chapters and arcs are expected, and the series is far from over despite starting over a decade ago! i reread and rewatch every now and then to stay updated (and because it's a great series)! while i realize that can be a bit of a task, trust me when i say it's worth it!!

lastly, have fun with it!!!

kuroshitsuji fandom has been dying. REVIVE IT!! engage with fan works! cosplay! talk to other fans! make friends! convert people to the dark side!! be down bad!! be weird, be cringe!!! do whatever as long as it isnt toxic!!!

[eriochromatic]

I love your Silco takes so I was wondering if you could share yours on Vander and the drowning incident because no matter what angle I look at, it doesn't make sense.

As far as I can tell from what we're shown, the riot was well under way before Silco threw that molotov, and it's confirmed that enforcers killed Felicia. Thing is, it's implicit that Felicia chose to participate in the riot because a.) Why else would she be there, and b.) She was down with Zaun being independent for HER KIDS. Also, anyone who participates in a riot, or even a peaceful protest, knows they're putting their life on the line. So while I understand reacting to loss with intense grief, it's not exactly a surprise? It's something you have to mentally prepare for when you take a stand against an oppressor?

But then, if you go the ideology route with Silco taking it too far and the riot was Silco's idea, that stunt on the bridge was most likely pre-planned, organized resistance. This means a sizable number in their community, including Felicia and Connol, supported it. Even if Vander had doubts, he went along with it. Otherwise, why does the show open with him beating an enforcer on the bridge? Vander had other options: he could have split the resistance group down the middle by sitting it out and/or trying to stop Silco, neither of which he did!

The letter highlights the loss of Felicia as Vander's triggering event, and Vander admits that there's blood on both their hands. To be honest, I kind of like this because it hints that Silco's violence was acceptable to Vander within the context of revolution, and he thought he could handle the sacrifices required. Ironically, when he couldn't handle it, HIS violence pushed Silco towards any-violence-necessary because you can't trust anyone ever anyway!

Anyway, I know this is the fault of flimsy writing in S2 and what feels like internal censorship with challenging political status quo during production, but two drowning attempts (which for Silco came out of nowhere), followed by expulsion from the Lanes (which he helped build), the guilt of Felicia's death, and the total loss of the friends and community he was fighting for ... I mean, at least Silco's villain era makes complete and total sense???

Ugh honestly I try not to think about the drowning incident or even make sense of it anymore because every time I do, it's just so obvious to me that the writers themselves had no idea what they're doing. Timelines are completely off, character motivations make no sense, so why is it up to me to untangle the mess they made?

I have a huge love hate relationship with season 2 because on one hand, I didn't expect as much Silco crumbs we got in the first place and I'm SO HAPPY we got to see him normally in episode 5 and thriving in episode 7. But the retcon… I was so pissed when Act 2 dropped because the whole bridge incident just stopped making sense like you said.

Then when Act 3 happened, it all clicked together, but not in the "ohhh the story makes sense now" way but in the "oh the writers needed to set up smth previously so this would work." and it completely took me out of it. Like. The writers wanted Vander and Silco to make up with each other. But they don't know how to do that. Let's add some underlying sentimentality between Vander and Silco and Vi's mom, then kill Vi off. That'll make them go back together (along with that STUPID LETTER Vander wrote). Sure that's a bandaid solution and on surface level it works, but I don't think the writers really thought we would think about Silco this much so the moment you peel back the layers nothing makes sense anymore. I think they could've crafted a way more interesting story if they ACTUALLY SAT DOWN AND TRIED to have Silco and Vander reconcile without using Felicia as a crutch, but season 2 has an overarching problem of "lets have all the important things happen offscreen and only imply that they happened" which is just… so lazy…. so I'm not surprised that this happened.

It just weakens so, so many parts of the story and raises way more questions than answer them. Why does Silco pull away and distance himself from Felicia's family? Surely Vi should know him from before? Does Silco only take in Powder because he knew she was Felicia's daughter? Why, WHY does Vander go like "there are worse things than enforcers out there" (implying Silco) in s1 while talking to Benzo????????? when he's apparently felt guilty this whole time ??????? what happened to "I've looked everywhere????" etc etc idk man. from s1 I always thought the bridge incident happened way, way earlier from Felicia dying bc Vi looked like she was about 7 years old during the bridge and around 14 during act one, but then if you see Silco during the s2 warwick flashback he looks like he's 25. maybe 30 at the maximum. aint no way he aged that much in 7 years, in act one he and Vander both feel like they're in their mid 40s idk.

This is lowkey why I kind of only want to draw young Silco.. I love old man yaoi but like. If everything I draw is just flashback version of him, I don't need to worry about logistics of the bridge thing bc it hasn't happened yet lmfao. Or the AU version where everything is solved and no one rlly thinks about that time anymore.

Honestly I've tried to write this response several times trying to spell out my version of the timeline but just. nothing makes any fucking sense. I don't like thinking about how badly the writers fucked up on this part. Silco magically gets an eye injury caused by Vander and they had yaoi divorce but it's fine now. That's just how it is for me and if I think about it even a little more in depth my head will explode and I have better things to do with my time like draw zaundads yaoi

[jesterkoops]

What worries me is there’s no Markhelly in Dan Erickson’s original outline.I think it’s pretty safe to say it’s only there because Adam and Britt improv and they also seem very willing to do the bit when often co-stars aren’t often very enthusiastic about.But when a romance is shoe horned in it always impacts the end of the story which they say it hasn’t.Because they are pretty adamant about the ending remaining unchanged.So idk how Helly/Helena amounts to the plot in the end.Mark is the sole protagonist and I am very worried how the romance might affect Helena’s charecterization.I am very concerned where this is going.

Hi anon,

I am not particularly concerned about this for a couple of reasons.

Original outlines are just that: original outlines. From the sound of things (and I had a chat with @kestrel-of-herran over the weekend about this), it's likely that Dan's vision was more about the more philosophical/ethical/psychological and sci-fi aspects of the story that provide the scaffolding, and they then developed the human aspect within it. Basically, I think they realised that introducing a romance would drive home those points even better, raise the stakes even higher, simply because romantic love is such a quintessential part of human nature and especially in the context of such a dehumanising environment as a severed floor created for consciousnesses that exist to be purely machines for their outies (maybe a similar realisation to the one I had). So while his overall goal was not about romance, it also does not preclude a romance to now be crucial to the story and the endgame.

Dan talked about how he sees the story to be primarily about discovering one's true self, through facing pain and grief, accepting all parts of oneself, and the excitement that comes with it, and so on. So I think this is probably his vision for the story as a whole and what he talks about when he speaks of an ending. To take these characters from where we first meet them to an end where they become whole. This is not incompatible with a romance (even an endgame romance) developed subsequently, quite the opposite. And it is most definitely not incompatible with Helly/Helena being essential to the plot since she embodies that discovery of one's self perhaps even more than Mark.

Finally, I think it's clear from the interviews, from how much Mark and Helly/Helena are front and centre, from the fact that Adam knows how it ends and he is so enthusiastic about Hellyna and Mark/Helly, that this is what the story is about. Like, they're not vague or subtle about it at all. It doesn't guarantee that they will end the story in a relationship (although I think it's very possible) or alive (although this doesn't seem to be a show that is heading towards killing its main characters) but, personally, that is not a dealbreaker for me. The main thing I care about is that, no matter the endgame, the characters and their bond are not cheapened and shat upon causing everything I loved about them to be retroactively, irreparably ruined and I can no longer enjoy the story and don't want to go anywhere near it again. And idk... I am getting good vibes from this team that they care a lot about their characters and the story and are not the kind of writers that are cruel to their characters because they get off on traumatising and upsetting their audience.

ETA: I also want to add that I think (I am pretty sure) that the ending to S2 was envisioned with the possibility of the show not getting renewed/to work as a stand-alone ending. So I think that partly answers your question about whether Markhellyna/Hellyna can be relevant to the endgame (yes).

[miwiheroes]

Dropping Byler Evidence Every Day Until Season 5

. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁ Day 10: End of Season 3 pt 1/3 . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁

Yep, there are going to be three parts to this because there simply is just so much to talk about regarding the ending of S3, and I think it's one of the most pivotal scenes for byler and mileven. I'm going to start off by talking about the contrast between Mike and Will's goodbye scene versus Mike and El's.

Prior to this scene, we see through the whole season that Mike and Will drift apart due to Mike being in a relationship with El and prioritising that over anything else. The story really is about Will being sad that he's drifting apart from Mike, DND being the medium that it's being told through. Basically, DND is the symbol for their relationship and we see that, immediately, Mike is worried that Will is going to throw away their friendship/connection when he goes to California.

This whole scene is literally just a double meaning. It uses DND and childhood memories like that as a stand-in for how they feel about each other.

Will then saying this^^ basically is him asking if him and Mike will still be friends when he comes back to Hawkins and whether things will still be the same between them.

With this, Mike could just be asking if Will is going to make another friend group that he prefers to the original Party. But I don't think he alone is worried for Dustin and Lucas as well, they could have easily had a group scene, but this whole DND arc has really focused on Mike and Will, showing that their relationship is special, and that DND is more of a stand-in symbol of their relationship too.

He sounds worried and anxious, and this makes sense to close their arc in season 3, since it leads into the next season where they have problems about Mike being worried that he's 'losing Will'.

This scene is basically:

Mike: "What if you want to be friends with someone else? Not just friends, but have our specific friendship?"

Will: "LITERALLY NEVER. WILL NEVER HAPPEN."

This scene really erases any doubt that they're just gonna have Will get a new love interest, especially at the very end of season 5. This scene is just another scene to perpetuate the idea that Will is committed to Mike, and the fact that the creators knew in this moment that Will was in love with Mike, just proves that even more. Along with the quote 'Yeah [I] need you, Mike. And [I] always will' in S4.

Afterwards as well, the smiles they give to each other are literally the flirtiest thing ever I can't even watch it without getting some vibes I don't know how anyone could ever think that they are just straight dudes having a moment yea sure

Now onto my next point about this scene. The end of S3 has all these little scenes because they are transitions scenes from S3 to S4, kind of like at the end of S1 and S2 to show you which stage the characters are at in their relationships with other characters and what needs to be addressed in the next season.

There are moments where they try and show you that there needs to be a next season. The writers have these little moments with a couple where you think there's going to be a turning point, but it ends up being the opposite. Instead, one of the characters chooses the 'safe path' where they were at the beginning of the season, BUT things have changed in their character, meaning if feels a bit wrong/off.

This exact thing happens with Jancy in season 1 and it happens with Byler in season 3.

Exhibit A: Nancy and Jonathan have a moment that implies something between them, satisfyingly rounding out their arc for the season, but still leaving the audience wonder what's about to happen next.

Nancy then chooses 'the safe path' with Steve, which is where she started out in season 1, but her character has changed enough that we see a moment of uncertainty in her:

Exhibit B: Mike and Will have a moment that implies something between them, satisfyingly rounding out their arcs for that season surrounding each other and their friendship, but it still leaves the audience wondering if they'll be okay next season.

Mike then chooses 'the safe path' by getting back together with El. Mind you, when Mike and Will had the first conversation, he thought he was broken up with her. But now she's saying they're back together, which is where they started out in season 3, but Mike's character has changed enough that we see a moment of uncertainty just like with the Stancy scene.

After this, in both their respective next seasons, we have Jancy and Byler talking about the missed opportunities from these two scenes:

Jancy's is: "I waited" "Only like... a month."

Byler's is them talking about how they barely called each other and everything, so they're clearly similar and a very obvious parallel. I mean we even have the Stancy and Mileven arcs where one of them can't say I love you to the other!!

(also while making this my tumblr started to freak the fuck out what is HAPPENING CHAT)

[perseidlion]

So I am a certified Catwin shipper. I have written a series that currently sits at 90k words that is casefic but also them getting together. But I am also a multishipper and have written some Payneland stories as well.

So I was understandably quite happy to hear we would've gotten Catwin in S2 because I love the dynamic and I love Lukas Gage and his performance.

But it has made me very sad to see how some people are genuinely upset by this news. I don't think it's justified, frankly. People are doing a lot of filling in the blanks, guessing, and supposition. Just because Catwin would have happened doesn't mean Payneland wouldn't have. Also, we have no idea the context in which all of this would have gone down.

It's important to remember that The Cat King also went on a journey and changed as a person throughout season 1 (as did all the characters.) He is not the same person who slapped the bracelet on Edwin when they first met and not just because he died and was resurrected.

He's matured, settled and grown. It's very possible this arc would have continued. Even if you hated TCK in S1, you may have come to love him in S2, or at least hate him less. Redemption arcs are great fodder for stories and I have no doubt the writers and Lukas would have done that kind of arc justice.

Or maybe Edwin would have had his hot girl summer and TCK was the same old lothario. In which case, he'd definitely be no threat to Payneland endgame. This scenario would make me sad for TCK because he does seem to have genuine feelings for Edwin beyond the sexual, but that was certainly a way they could have gone with it.

My point is, we're missing a lot of context. If you were to take plot points of S1 out of context as well, it would be very hard to envision the final product.

I mean:

Niko gets infested with dandelion sprites that nearly kill her. These sprites manifest with cartoon sparkles around her head and they feed on attention. When they get out of her brain, they're tiny snarky humans she keeps in a terrarium.

Jenny gets set up by Niko with a quiet librarian who turns out to be psycho killer stalker.

People jump off a lighthouse and get swallowed up by a giant angler fish who is siren-ing them to their death. Their ghosts linger, and this annoys the ghost who mans the lighthouse so he hires the boys. Charles yeets the Night Nurse into the fish, and inside she has a talk with an oddly calm and optimistic man. Oh, also the fish is called Angie and she didn't do any of this maliciously.

My point is, this show is camp. That's part of the charm of it. Camp plotlines sound absolutely wild when you distill them to one-liners. When you add in inciting incidents, context and character interactions, these turn from wacky scenarios into full, entertaining stories.

Please don't catastrophize based on crumbs! Whether we get a S2 or not, it's really not worth getting that worked up over. We can't draw conclusions based on what we've been given. It's all guesses, and it could have changed a million times before the episodes were finished.

Also please don't get upset at Catwin shippers for being happy about this. We just wanted to see more of Lukas and George interacting. Most of us are Payneland fans, too and understand that would be the most likely endgame.

[bloominglegumes]

judging earthspark s3

contains spoilers!!!

(my own opinion + not that serious :))

not in order bc i sketch-wrote these down while watching first but guys im so im so .head in hands

-15 pts for the character development, relationships, ideas, etc set up in s1 that were thrown out in s2 and s3. war trauma, immigrant experience, ghost aftermath, individuality, healing process, autobot guilt, byebye. so much character assassination still happening

+1 for following through i guess

+1 shockwave 'all are dead' comic cover reference and having him react to it

+5 every appearance of frenzy and laserbeak. theyre professional hecklers i love them

-1 bc of how the art direction was already established having 2d handdrawn effects but obv their animation has been toned down, there are quite a few instances of 3d smoke made to look like 2d shading which is not necessarily bad on its own but doesnt feel like it fits here

+1 rage virus had nice potential for bringing simmering resentments to surface,, wish the show delved deeper into the characters thoughts + fallout

-1 megatron's va sounds like he was given direction to hold back somehow on his delivery ?? idk it just feels like forced gentleness compared to earlier performance like his lines don't fit him

-2 animation lacking feeling of weight, movements are stiff, unnatural esp for huge guys made of metal. how in the world did twitch push megatron over

-2 fight choreo is more generic and plain,, characters tend to fight in similar ways when they wouldnt, considering different sizes, abilities, personalities etc,, everyone is just tossing each other around

-2 teasing us with breakbee and then actually setting it on fire and then killing bumblebee's personality too and while we're here thrash and mo as well

+1 escape room ep overall was kinda fun. i like the idea of leaning into twitchs big sister role but like u dont have to water down the others when highlighting one character?? the maltos are kids, but theyre not like.stupid

+1 optimus pushing megatron down to protect him and megs glancing down where optimus' hand is on him. someone in story room is pushing megop

+1 prowl being a skilled Hater on entrance

+1 "organics" (derogatory)

-1 optimus tells prowl that the war is over in defence of megatron but literally theyre fighting decepticons again two seconds later so make up your mind earthspark

-5 what are the autobots and decepticons even fighting for at this point? let's shoot them into space so we don't have to worry about that conflict anymore except megatron but he's our friend so don't think about that trust us this is earthspark our show was formed on the basis of being the aftermath of the war hasbro im going to kill you

+1 constructicon mention

+3 prowl being huggable and pickuppable (+1 optimus, +1 elita, +1 arcee)

+1 "terran thrash" "terran nightshade" "stygi-terran" "clan malto" can't tell me thats not objectively cute

+5 blaster feature

+2 megop being deeply embarrassing about robby's weird girlfriend

+5 dramatic megop fight. intense music, personal arguments, falling through the ice sinking to the bottom of the lake together, if i'm going down you're coming with me etc i love it

-1 grimmy not having a single speaking line?? am i tripping

+1 thrash throwing the hat perfectly onto prowls antler tip

-2 duller lighting and colours overall </3 my guy was seriously looking grey in ep 6..,.

+1 "romantic entanglements have hobbled many a soldier. ask optimus." thank u es writers

+1 "there are no implications. there are only facts." banger

+1 multiple pronouns used for the shapeshifting quintesson i just thought it was fun

-1 thrash's character being largely reduced to That One Kid

-1 might just be me but the whole plot with the fake girlfriend was just weird as hell ?? what purpose does it have in robby's character development,,,

-1 dot and alex being less compelling as caring responsible parents. like they're still nice,, but the way they've been written just feels less careful

-1 that movie and confession scene sorry i know it was on purpose but i could not handle the secondhand embarrassment

+1 mole-bots tbh i thought they were going to pull scraplets but they were fun

-4 starscream neglect. where is the justice. nothing but a silhouette all season and then finally all he does is go crazy and get pulled back to jail??wtf

+1 quintesson ship entrance

-1 generic character body language/performance

+1 weird al yankovic going so hard

+1 saving civilians

-2 quintus powers being suddenly able to save the day when they need it because plot

-2 how the chaos terrans are not written

-1 environments are sometimes not that fitting for the action taking place there?? like for the final fight i know theyd need a lot of space for the titan but seriously just a green grassy field and blue sky come on?? give us some artistry,..,.

-1 slightly weird voice effects for quintesson characters but that might just be me

+1 sharkticon pit plucked right out of g1 movie i love it

+1 mo being so polite "mr optimus" "ms elita" "mr prowl sir" sweetheart

+5 what the fuck do you mean "i appreciate you, megatron"

+1 hard confirmation prowl is a hugger

+1 epic titan fusion

+1 prowl being nice. dialogue with bee in that scene felt kind of in your face but it was cute

-1 arresting starscream. girlie was probably starving in there

+1 "little bird"

+1 i'm just happy to have an animated prowl having so much relevance to the main story again.tfa prowl i miss u every day

-2 tarantulas never being seen nor heard from ever again. he had an awesome design, fantastic voice acting, super well written just for hasbro to be cowards

-1 again for just dropping pretty big story points from season 1 for unclear reasons. like i said,, current state of earthspark works fine as a kid's show alone but after how mature and well-handled season 1 was it feels like watching the tv spinoff series to the actual thing. sorry but like zero integrity to the shows basis and values and what the original writing had set up for the world and the characters

[lost-inanotherlife]

Okay so this post continues a conversation I've started re: the "Let's hate on Jack Shephard" trend and how, I think, it's quite unfair towards the character first but also towards the themes of the show itself.

I finished my post by saying that on the island Jack is trying to be a better person but he's doomed to fail because this is what the rules of storytelling dictate. I mean, we the audience need him to fail because we're following the story primarily through his lens so if he resolves his arc the story's over.

Now I understand that the likability of a character is one of those really unfathomable things that escape even the finest narrative techniques. Some people will love a character, some others won't. I'm obviously fine with that. After all LOST has, like, almost two dozens characters on top of Jack so, you know, if you don't like him you can literally pick whoever else and all of these 20 characters are completely fleshed out and realistic. So, you know, there's space for everybody on the island, lol.

That doesn't change the fact that these techniques are in place and must be taken into account if one wants to analyize a character. So let's analyse Jack from the character arc perspective.

One of the reasons people seem to hate on Jack is because of the supposedly bad choices he makes: he's emotional, stubborn to a fault, he thinks he's being rational but it's a play pretend because he's an extremely emotion-driven character. This is important because, although he's presented as the "Man of Science" side of the dichotomy, he shows solid nerves almost exclusively when it's about health problems/procedures etc. Which, duh! He's, like, one of the best and youngest surgeons in his father's hospital, the man knows his stuff.

On the other hand, John Locke as the "Man of Faith" is actually more logical, rational and reason-driven than Jack. And OF COURSE he is! Because here's the crux of the matter: we the audience KNOW that Locke might not be right about his decisions but he's right about thinking that the island is not like any other island.

We the audience know how he had to use a wheelchair before crashing on the island and, once there, he miraculously stands on his own two feet like nothing ever happened. On top of that, the presence of Rose re-inforced the idea that Locke is, indeed, right to believe, or at least justified to believe, that they're there for a reason.

Like, people on the island think of him as this old, crazy guy in the jungle and, yeah, John is a little too sure of himself at times but from a characterization point of view it totally tracks.

Now Jack doesn't know what we the audience know. He's asked to believe what a totally random stranger tells him and yes, this is one of the core tenets of "faith": believing without knowing. So okay, cool, the conflict is totally justified at this point (S1-2).

Starting from S2, however, and the totality of S3-4 and beginning of 5, Jack is asked to believe and show faith in people who actively manipulate, betray, exploit and abuse him.

You guys know that on this blog Kate Austen is a religion but even she manipulated and literally drugged him and then had the audacity to be offended when Jack didn't believe her. Come on, girl be real now.

But the worst part of this is that he's asked to believe Ben. Benjamin Fucking Linus. I repeat: Ben Linus, ever heard of him? The IRONY of this situation finds its climax in "316" when, in front of a reproduction of "The Incredulity of St. Thomas" by Caravaggio, Ben asks Jack to believe him even without knowing, therefore not so subtly comparing himself to Jesus Christ and Jack to St. Thomas.

Mind you, this is not writers' pulling tricks: Destiny&Cons&Deception is a theme established since season ONE. I'll quote myself here but my question, I think, is still valid:

Season 1 seems to silently ask: are Destiny and Deception the two sides of the same coin? Is Deception inherently weaved into the fabrics of Destiny or is Destiny at work through Deception? Is Destiny itself a Deception? Or is it lie we tell ourselves so we can pretend to not care about the consequences of our actions, like Jack's father Christian ("That's why the Red Sox will never win the World Series")? Oh, so many questions!

This isn't a random theme. Having faith in your Destiny means that you have to have faith in the unknown. But what happens when the unknown is known and it's deceptive, it's a long con but it's also the only thing you have? How is one made into a comfortable position to make the "right" decision if one has to literally trust the same people who had betrayed them one second before? Ben's parallel is interesting because he fancies himself as Christ but we all know who's the real Christ-figure of the show: "One of You Will Betray Me" might be Jack's tagline, honestly.

Jack Shephard is a character who's asked by the narrative to be in that uncomfortable position from beginning to end. How can people not symphatize with that? This isn't about character's personality, this is about understanding one of the foundational themes of the show.

It's easy to believe when you know. It's difficult to believe when you don't know. It's existential to believe when you know that the probability that you'll get conned are high. When the odds are against you. When the Red Sox have never won the World Series.

Until, one day, they do win it.

How do you approach these questions? This is up to us as viewers to answer. But it's Jack who guides us through these difficult questions. Hating on him without seeing him is like being St. Thomas: you want a story where everything's transparent so it's easy to believe in it.

What happens when the story is not so clear? What happens when the characters are a little good and also a little bad? What happens when, regardless of how they are and what they've done, the same characters are faced with impossible scenarios where they are CALLED to choose and can't escape from making said choice?

This is the beauty of LOST in general and this is also the beauty of Jack Shephard because it's LITERALLY through his eye that the show begins and the show ends. If people want to hate on him, sure, they can, of course. But if they fail to realize the importance of the choices he makes, the reasons behind them, the consequences of them, I'm afraid they've missed some of the key aspects of the show.

[waywardwhispersblaze]

about Vi's ending

So, I get that a lot of people are unsatisfied with Vi's story arc in Arcane. I feel unsatisfied too. Here are some of my reasons. I wrote this as a response to another post initially, but I wanted to elaborate a little bit more.

So we know that the question the writers had for Vi was "what would happen if Vi had no one left to protect?"

"she would fall in love" is a lovely answer. I don't hate it, but it does feel like the bare minimum they could come up with... and even that had to be stripped for time. For instance, what does she want to do for a living?

That's not a random question. Her lore in the game tells us that she ends up working as an enforcer. Arcane makes it difficult for her at the beginning (you know, the enforcers-killed-my-parents thing), but we all expect that it's coming regardless.

I know a lot of people here never liked the idea of Vi becoming an enforcer. Not me. Give me Enforcer!Vi! Just make it a story, instead of skipping over it.

They had her join the enforcers in s2 act I for all the wrong reasons (guilt + fear of losing Caitlyn + thinking violence is the answer to her problems), which is not a bad thing, that's expected at this point of the story. They did skip over her motivations and left a lot to read between the lines, and that's frustrating in itself but that's not the problem. My problem with it is that it doesn't go anywhere. How does she feel about working with them in the end? Now that she's no longer blinded by her rage towards the Chembarons and Jinx's actions? Is it really just for Caitlyn's sake? Is there room in there somewhere for wanting to be a protector to the city, like Grayson did, if she even cares about that at all? (it makes sense that she doesn't in Arcane, but what about in the future? she's still a protector at heart, even if she has no family left) If she does, how does she reconcile that with what the enforcers are to the Undercity, does she genuinely think she can do some good? I could answer some of these with "oh well, she does end up as Caitlyn's partner so I'm just gonna go with 'yes' for convenience". But I wish Arcane had answered this for me.

What about the enforcers, how do they feel about her? Do they respect her? How would she interact with them in the future? Her only friend there, Loris, died at the end of S2 (I'm annoyed about that. not mad, not sad. Just annoyed), so she's effectively alone.

I suppose the root of the problem is that I watched Arcane with the expectation that Vi would end up as a Piltover champion by the end of it. That's not an unreasonable expectation considering her lore, but I can accept that Arcane just wasn't about "ending" character stories or bringing them to their lore counterpart. That's fair. Even within the story of Arcane though, where she ends up isn't fully satisfying. She's physically in Piltover, but mentally she's in a place where she doesn't really belong anywhere except with 1 (one) person, and we still have no idea what she wants to do with her life (outside of banging Caitlyn that is). Don't get me wrong, I love caitvi! I love what they did with them as a pair! But I have so many questions about Vi specifically that are unresolved.

Maybe that's the point. Arcane's ending is an open ending after all. But Caitlyn had a story arc outside of her relationship with her. Jinx had a story arc outside of her relationship with her. Even if their overall stories are not over, the Arcane story does leave them both in a place where they have grown from what they went through and even if we never see them again, we can feel like their story had a proper conclusion. Arcane doesn't leave Vi with a conclusion outside of her romance arc. Or to be fair, maybe it is a conclusion, just no one that I like / was hoping for. I sort of get that her not being able to grow was the point (to further Jinx's development. A lot of their scenes together were always more about Jinx's development and framed from Jinx's POV, which is a different complaint and an entirely different post). Not having agency at all was the point. But where does she go from there? Genuine question. Her character arc doesn't feel finished.

A lot of my frustrations would be soothed over if we had the certainty of having spin-offs. But 1) nothing is ever certain, 2) if something's coming, it's probably far in the future, 3) if and when it does come, there's no guarantee that Vi wouldn't be more than a background character.

Unfortunately, the general feeling I get from the writers' interviews is that they do feel like they really did get her where they wanted, so I'm not particularly hopeful that they have more stories to tell with her. Outside of being Caitlyn's partner that is.

(no, I don't think they "don't care about" or "hate" her character by the way. That's twisting their words beyond recognition)

So that's why I can't feel fully satisfied with Vi's story. I still love Arcane. I'm still looking forward to seeing more of the Runeterra universe. But as someone who really liked Vi's character from the start, I'm left with crumbs. Hints of what could be, but never the full picture, and more questions than answers. And that's disheartening, to be honest.

[nyxtsu]

Yap session about Zane~Chan

Zana/Zane~Chan gets a lot of hate as a ship, but I think it's the healthiest romance in the series.

I personally don't think it's THAT rushed, maybe towards the end, but they didn't just come out of nowhere, it was set up in s2 and they had moments here and there in seasons after that. It was clear even before Starlight that it was set up to be something in the future. But that's besides the point. Their relationship shows healthy communication and growth between two people, and an overall good representation of how a relationship should be. It shows mistakes and flaws within the relationship, and how it's important to communicate and try to fix these things.

Despite how Nana is in relationships, and despite how Zane had never been in a relationship before, it's surprisingly the most mature romance we see.

In the beginning, we see Nana sort of trying to rush things, like she's known to do. Zane tells her that it's okay to go slow and that it's best for them. She takes this criticism and tries to better herself. Zane comes out of his shell a bit more thanks to Nana. In the 'Nana accidentally kissing Garroth' thing, Zane showed true maturity in the way he handled that. He was sad at first, but once Nana explained, he said he believed her. He believed her because he trusted her. That kind of trust is so important in relationships. I think they both truly try to understand each other, because they genuinely care. I think that's a great representation of problems within relationships and working past them. For a Minecraft roleplay.

A lot of Zane's growth as a character was on his own or with the help of Aphmau at the beginning of Mystreet, but we definitely see even more of it in his relationship with Nana. This is how it should be! A character going through self improvement on their own, throughout a series. We see him grow as a character, we got more lore as we went on, saw him warm up to the people around him, etc.

But Nana... my babygirl... what did they do to you...

In Starlight, Nana felt like a character thrown in there as a love interest for Zane. Her character didn't have much growth or depth before that, and all of a sudden in Starlight she's telling her deepest darkest secrets to Zane. While I think that they really did grow closer in "Aphmau's Year", and I do not think she was wrong for suddenly telling him about her past, it felt like bad writing on Jessons part. It just gives the feeling of "oh lets finally give this female character some depth so she can be with this male character." If that makes sense. I wish she had that growth or that lore was revealed earlier on, not just for her relationship with Zane.

So, of course Zana has its faults here and there, but I don't think it's because of their relationship dynamic or anything, I think it's the fault of bad writing (especially on Nana's part). If their story had more thought put into it, and the writers weren't so focused on one ship(Aarmau), it would have been much better. I still think it's great, and I love them, but it could have been better.

Nonetheless, they have a healthy relationship, and they send a good message to the young audience about how things work in relationships. They don't have a very suspicious age gap! And they don't punch each other or sexualize each other to a concerning degree!! Stares at Aarmau and Travelyn.

[tessarionbestgirl]

I'm absolutely sick of every ship in HOTD being about Rhaenyra.......... Even Alicole is paralleled with Rhaenyra/Criston, IT'S SO TIRESOME. The creators emphasize that Alicent lives in the same room, she drinks tea in ep4 of the season just like young Rhaenyra in the first season, hell, she even probably thinks about Rhaenyra while she has sex with Criston, why not... Rhaenicent, Daemyra, Rhaesaria, Rhaewin. We get it, Rhaenyra is the center of the show, but it gives off a Mary Sue vibe when everyone is in love with her, even her enemies switch teams for her, because she is sooo wonderful and special. Is this an adaptation of a YA novel or a GRRM work? It's especially annoying when there are other interesting characters and relationships that could have been explored, but won't be because the writers can't move past Rhaenyra and her romantic and sex life:

- Jace's potential romances have been cut, Sara Snow is not in the show and his relationship with Baela is more of a friendship, they don't look in love. Also Baela's interest in boys was removed.

- Daemon/Nettles. Cut from the show because Rhaenyra needs to be the center of Daemon's universe. GRRM is particularly mad at this one, I'm sure.

- Helaena and Aegon. Not saying it's a romance, but they could've still had scenes together.

- Aemond and Alys. It's unclear, but Alys is team black or team prophecy in the show, so she is also Rhaenyra centered.

I really don't understand this even from a marketing perspective. Everyone should just be a fan of Rhaenyra, there are no other option. GOT had so many characters, ships and dynamics that you could pick anyone to follow. And the whole thing for HOTD is "stan the rightful queen or go away". I used to like Rhaenyra after the first season before I read the book, but after reading the book, I started to dislike and borderline hate her because of how the showrunners push her as the lead and center of every character's life, it's just frustrating. Rhaenyra already has 4 hours of screentime in just 18 episodes which is equal to or even more than Dany's entire screen time, by the end of the show she'll probably have 8 hours of screen time, it's insufferable. This story that is meant to be an ensemble cast was turned into a one person show.

Olivia tried to distance alicole from Rhaenicent, but in the inside interview of the episode Ryan was so much implying that.

So you are right anon. In everything you said. And this goes beyond relationship too. It affects even small scenes. Like, I saw and heard so many complains about tb council scenes in S2, because the writers start from the premise that Rhaenyra has to come out as right or look good. She needs to stand out on her team. And this probably a condition that Ryan or Sara set for the writers. So all characters around her suffer from it.

That is why all tb characters are less and have no particular motivation. With Daemon as a exception, because he never stay in one place for to long and that includes interacting with Rhaenyra.

Is not that Tg had way better written in S2. It was just that they are not interacting with her so they suffer less from this problem. So the writers have more freedom to develop them as individuals even with the small screen time.

Now regarding the relationships. I think S2 was the biggest disappointment for me in this sense too. That is why people asking me about Alysmond, i know they will fuck up, because all their relationships are either focused on Rhaenyra or is read in a incredible cynical way .

Baela and Jace have more siblings energy than Helaena and her brothers.

Alicent and Cole, had some good moments but started to bad. Besides the weird parallels to reminds us of Rhaenyra. Alicent as character wouldn't just have sex with someone so casually. Sure there is a lot passion on the act, and sure they do have feelings for each other, but the way the things led to this moment makes no sense when you consider Alicent in s1.

Helaena and Aegon/Aemond: I had this conversation with someone a long time ago. And this person ask me, who do you think won more in S2, Helaegon or Helaemond? And to me both lost in ways. Because Helaegon has the most complex dinamic but is not romantic at all. They are strictly platonic. And Helaemond is framed as one side love based on Aemond ideology of Targaryen supremacy. And I enjoy all their scenes but when I think about it. I realise how poorly explored they are.

Actually that is my biggest fears for S3 when comes to Alysmond because I think they will frame as a rebound relationship.

The only relationships frames as good are Rhaenyra relationships.

And oddly enough the only one out of the curve is Alys and Daemon but it because at end served Rhaenyra.

[brynnsasha191]

I am telling you right now the reason Aegon and Viserys weren't at Luke's funeral was because when they were writing the script for S2 C&H forgot the boys existed.

Then whilst they were filming Rhaena and Joffrey's depature scene some intern who was handing out the cast's salad bowls off handedly quipped "gee boss, I thought the Queen had two other kids?". Realising the writers' mistake the director threw wigs on the makeup artist's twins, who she only bought to work because her babysitter had joined a cult, telling Emma to give them a quick kiss from the back to cover the fact they stilld had Paw Patrol pacifiers in their mouths.

But the intern then scratches his head and says "I dunno, shouldn't we see the boys before they go?". It's too late to greenscreen them into the funeral so they haul the twins back, promising to get the makeup artist a babysitter who doesn't think a guy named Steve controls the universe from his mum's basement, for a ten second scene with Emma on Dragonstone.

I don't care how innacurate this is, my scenario still makes the crew look 100x more competent than whatever their real reason was.

Oh, please, get out while you can. I'm so certain they're going to give Aegon iii's story line after the dance to Alicent. I honestly wouldn't put it past them to just kill Rhaenyra's last sons and have Jaehaera become Queen or some shit.

They completely forgot about them. And their relationships with their older brothers who they missed and loved.

Daemon doesn't even get a moment with his sons. And we only got Rhaenyra playing with them for a second.