#and if the system had become at least a little less flawed over time

[lesbianwithchainsaws]

I haven't seen the new show yet and admittedly haven't even rewatched the original WOWP in years, but for some reason I keep thinking about this show again today and the systems that are in place in the wizarding world. Like one of the most important aspects of the show is the family competition and how only one kid in the family can keep their magical powers after a certain age. And like that's a really cruel thing to do to someone. Imagine having something as a kid, for the first 18 or more years of your life, which helps you immensely. You take weekly, maybe even more frequent, classes on how to do different spells, potions, learn about other magical creatures, etc. And then one day that just gets taken away from you and you have none of that now. From what I remember, it was instantaneous as well. Stevie tried to protest this ridiculous law and she staright up got killed for it even though she was right? Anyway I think that, after Stevies death, the show should've gone in a slightly different direction. Alex hears Stevies plan and agrees that having your powers taken away from all except one kid in the family is ridiculous. But maybe she isn't yet fully on board with Stevies plan. After all, if you've lived your entire life in a specific system, it might be hard to just immediately feel like it's the wrong one. So Stevie is still stopped and dies. But maybe this has Alex starting to wonder a little bit more about the family competition and what happens to the people who lose. And then happens the whole bullshit thing where the wizarding world straight up puts the Russo family in the middle of nowhere, forces them to escape without their magic powers and literally walk all the way home. And they're told it was all "a test" to make sure they don't expose magic. I think after that not just Alex, but everyone else in that family should've started realising that maybe the wizarding world has some major problems. After this, the Russo family, but specifically Alex, Justin and Max try to make some little changes to the system. Especially with someone like Justin, I think the wizards in charge would've at least heard them out. Maybe they'd bring stories of wizards who lost their powers. Or they'd bring up Stevie and how, again, she died because of the family wizard rule. And maybe the wizarding council agrees to look into it. And slowly there's some changes made, none huge ones right away, but at least some more help for people who lose the competition. And gradually it starts changing more and more as more people speak up. From a kids show perspective, this would also be good as it would show kids that the authority figures aren't always right and that you can make a difference in the world, if you put the effort in. In case anyone wants to say that disney wouldn't do that and wouldn't want to challenge authority, in the lemonade mouth movie, that's literally what happens. The authority there is the school principal instead of the wizarding world government, but still. I think its good to teach kids that adult and those in charge can be wrong too and that, just because something is the law, doesn't mean its right. Anyway idk why I'm having strong feelings now over a show I watched as a child, but whatever

[befuddledcinnamonroll]

Jack and Joker - final thoughts

Since the takes in the tags are... quite all over, I just want to be open about how I approach watching QLs.

1. I'm here to have fun. Real life sucks immensely right now, and QLs are my happy place.

2. I'm very aware that I am a white woman from a Western country and that I am a guest in East Asian spaces. I have internalized biases because of my background, and I believe it's my responsibility to learn and grow and figure out how to be open to other cultures & experiences without jumping to assumption.

3. I love metaphorical storytelling. I love when people take risks and try something new. I don't care if there are some logical inconsistencies or issues with budget. I am here for how it makes me feel, and what I can learn from it.

So, all that being said...

I had such a good time with this show!

I'm still processing a lot about it, and I know I will be thinking about it for some time to come. But they did so much that I appreciated. I don't have the time to go into great detail, but in very broad terms - what I loved:

Of course Yin and War. What an incredible job they did. I know this was a really challenging project for them, and they took a lot of personal risks. They are so conscientious about harmful tropes and stereotypes, and deliberate in working to break those down. I'm so proud of them, and excited to see where they go from here.

The characters. From the leads to the sides, I just adored so many of them. Jack and Joke were both such imperfect and flawed characters, but that made them so interesting to me. I loved our little troupe of idiots. I loved Toi Ting. I loved Grandma. Everyone was so vividly portrayed. Hope and Save's devotion to one another. Tattoo and Arun gradually becoming boyfriends without either one noticing. The fanfics are gonna be fire.

The storytelling. Yin and War could have easily made a fluffy romance, and people would have eaten it all up (and probably complained a lot less, lol). But it wouldn't have really said anything. They wanted to do something more complex than that. They had a lot to say about being trapped in a political & economic system that is not of our choosing and that we have no control over, and what it means for individuals to try and live out their ethics and values while knowing the system is not going anywhere. Save being the new Boss isn't a perfect solution, it's not a "yay, it's all better now!". It's a "well at least this position that will be filled one way or another is filled by a slightly less shitty person now, so maybe we can live our lives without being beaten up this year". And the Four Horsemen don't go anywhere, because systems of power are fixed. We remain beholden to them. But we can still try to carve out our little pieces of a place to hold true to ourselves and those we love.

Overall, this show made me laugh, made me cry, and made me literally applaud alone in my apartment. It wasn't perfect, there were flaws, but damn was it an incredible experience.

[sevikas-biceps]

[TLDR: me rationalising and then ranting about why Caitlyn and Cassandra are both in the wrong]

Y'all. We love Cait, and we do stan Cassandra in some regards—but be fucking for real. Think of them as real people, in the real world, doing real things. Y'all would hate them. I'm putting Cait's gay love and Cass' gay support aside—because I really do feel like a lot of people gloss over their flaws just because of the queer rep and allying.

Think of it. The Kiramman's ventilation system was the bare fucking minimum being done for the people of Zaun. Caitlyn weaponising it is literally a violation of human rights practices. We know how privileged Topside is, we know there are at least sympathetic characters out there—and both of these are true for the Kirammans. What does this imply? That the Kirammans were essentially one of those at the top of the hierarchy, and this put them in a complete position of ability to help.

But they didn't. That's the issue, people.

One of the previous matriarchs putting the vent system into place was to solve the matter of the air pollution, yes—but arguably, the people of the Undercity shouldn't have had to deal with that problem to begin with. Cassandra might've been aware it existed; she gave her daughter the key, after all. However, that does not mean she actively came to the aid of the people of Zaun. Hell, do you think she was even aware of Silco, for instance? At the beginning? Maybe she'd've heard whispers from informants, about some old peacekeeper people called the Hound, and then about some mysterious tycoon taking his place. Maybe Grayson said something about the Undercity's concerns in the past, during the time of the first insurrection, but the Council took no note of it. Maybe Cassandra had someone else in place to make her dealings, if ever she dabbled in that black market shit.

Whatever else you can think of with that line of thinking; at the end of the day, it just proves that Cassandra herself was only another person stuck in the cycle—she did her job, she was cunning and selfish, she played the game. It's just business. It's just politics. No more, no less. The original line-up on the Council had members that were either ignorant, negligent, or corrupt (and yes; that includes Heimerdinger, Mel, and Jayce you guys)—and Cassandra was no better. Again, they all were part of the same damn cycle to begin with.

What makes Cassandra remarkable as a character—to us, the audience—is that she's remembered as someone redeemable because of her love for her family, for Caitlyn; that she was willing to try for her daughter's sake and happiness. Caitlyn. Not the city, not her kid's new girlfriend, and most certainly not Zaun. Above all else, it boils down to her little girl. Her only child. Cassandra being on the Council meant that she could give that child the best life that she could; Cassandra being on the Council meant that the child has a future. It implies that peripherally, she was aware of the Undercity's issues—hence the little frustrations exchanged about Caitlyn becoming an officer and venturing into the Undercity in Season 1.

That's her redeeming quality. Duty for family.

[If you want a visualisation of her actual nature, I'd honestly recommend using Olenna Tyrell, Tywin Lannister, and Jon Arryn from ASoIaF/GoT as points of reference.]

Now, onto Caitlyn herself. Credit where credit is due; the girl is in the middle of grieving, and she's being denied the chance to have even that. She doesn't deserve that. No one does. It would be unfair to deal her an amount of resentment for going unstable, when we'd all been rooting for Jinx for half of the same reasons in Season 1. But that's the issue: half of the same reasons.

Let's be honest for a quick second here. Do we really think Caitlyn would've ever gone down to the Undercity had Jinx never attacked on Progress Day? With someone like Marcus hot on her trails, if he lives in this hypothetical alternate reality, I imagine she wouldn't even be placed near the bridge(s) to begin with. And if, in canon, he'd survived the explosion, I can also see Caitlyn being put on house arrest—because if Marcus himself is outed as working with Silco (similar to how Grayson did with Vander), then that's all the more reason to keep the Kiramman heiress away from danger, or worse, death. If things are so bad that the Sheriff, symbolically a paragon of justice and protection, resorted to consorting with the enemy...well, what then? What does that say about the system? What does that say about Piltovan society?

Back to Caitlyn. I'm a firm supporter of the idea that she never would've been put into a potential line of fire had life gone on normally. If Jinx never stole the hexcrystals, then Caitlyn would have no reason to snoop around; Vi is still in Stillwater, Silco is at large, and so on and so forth. Caitlyn remains largely ignorant of the world she lives in. It's noble that she genuinely wanted to help people. But in a place like Piltover? She'd be worse than Jayce when Season 1 began. I'm sure she'd no doubt notice the surrounding manipulations in her life, or how flawed their reality could be—but the point is, at the end of the day, it's still a privileged life that she leads.

Let that word sink in. Privileged. This isn't to disparage her original desire to make her society a better place—I do think that Caitlyn has the potential to do so if she exerted her efforts into long-term developments that could fulfil that vision. But this is where it gets tricky—especially in the context of Season 2. She had all of those resources at her disposal. She was aware of the consequences in using them—how it might affect civilians, innocents. And she still did so anyway. Strike one.

For all that she was a decorated officer, it's really the personal vendetta against Jinx that made her unfit to lead the strike team to begin with. I imagine Vi refused the enforcer position at first not just because of her and her people's history with the authority, but because it's so blatant that doing so enabled Caitlyn to act in her anger. By accepting the badge, Vi validated Caitlyn's need for vengeance. Not that Caitlyn is unreasonable in wanting such a thing, mind, but what is unreasonable was how tone-deaf she'd become in the process of grieving, forgetting that it's not just her own interests on the line, but others' too. Strike two.

There's nothing wrong with Caitlyn at the beginning—the girl just wanted so solve a crime. But then circumstances came up. And then, all of a sudden, she has to choose between duty or self-interest. What the show does is that it gives a convenient solution for Caitlyn to be able to serve both her duty and her own self-interest(s): invade/scour Zaun, she catches a criminal and delivers justice for the Council; find Jinx, Cassandra is avenged and Vi may find closure. The fight at Janna's temple is where it all indeed goes to shit, as we can see, and that's where Caitlyn really slips off in my opinion. She'd toed the line when she asked Vi to wear the badge—but it's really when Isha (a child) got involved and later on when she struck Vi herself (a betrayal), that her motives get warped. Strike three.

My main argument is that Cassandra and Caitlyn were both in the wrong, in one way or another, albeit for different and varied reasons. The former didn't do enough for the situation at hand, and the latter seems to be doing too much at once. Cassandra herself seemed to have enabled her daughter's worse traits, too, whether directly or indirectly; and this is what makes up much of the character that we see Caitlyn evolving into.

There are many aspects of both mother and daughter that have always been there, or, at least, have had the potential to be there, such as: the ruthlessness, the narrow focus, the determination, the strictness—and, most of all (and I have a feeling this is going to be controversial), the hypocrisy. We know, for a fact, that Caitlyn and Cassandra are at least self-aware. To merely label them as naïve or inexperienced (to life) is a gross disservice to their characters. On some level, they're cognisant of their status and ability in society (evidenced by baby!Cait's scepticism regarding Grayson's trophy, and Cass' agreement to support their case at the Council meeting)—and they both have exacted measures in the face of what is demanded of them.

This is the reason that Caitlyn weaponising the Grey, using the Kiramman's ventilation system, is more or less unforgivable. Just because it had Vi's hesitant approval, it didn't make it right. Vi counts as an unreliable narrator in this case—when we know that she, in multiple instances, easily caves when someone she's attached to doubles down on her.

We, as the audience, can at least agree on the moralities regarding the authorisation of the strike team; and that means that we, as people analysing the show, can also agree that the effects of an act such as using the Grey can be devastating. We see this in Viktor's chronic illness, we see this with Silco's asphyxiation trick on the Chembarons, we see this when Jinx knocks out Sevika, we see this in Cassandra's notes. Stop trying to downplay the Grey. Stop trying to justify a fucking war crime. 'Oh, but it's just knock-out gas'—baby, no it's not. It's really not. Smeech explicitly says this: factory smoke trapped underground. Smoke. It's still gas. There's no safe way of administering it in high doses. That's like smoking Marlboro Reds taken beyond the extreme, and fuelled by gasoline of all things.

I'm not villainising Caitlyn, but some of y'all also need to stop excusing what she did—and I'm saying this because a lot of you also did the same with Jinx in Season 1. For the lack of a better example; it's very much like excusing what serial killers of the past had done because they were 'interesting' or 'charming' or hell, relatable. Be Gay, Do Crime is most definitely not applicable here, you guys. Seriously.

That is literally the reason Vi snaps at Caitlyn after the fight with Jinx. Why are you the one acting like her? It's not just a comparison between Caitlyn and Jinx, it's not just vendetta against vendetta; in a broader context, Vi is asking: Why are you resorting to the same acts of terrorism? Why are you enforcing the same tactics your predecessors used? Why are you turning into what you once swore not to become? Why are you doing this? What are you turning into?

Vi asked Caitlyn to promise her not to change. But she did.

Why are you betraying yourself?

[rejectedfables]

rewatching House MD, and s1ep10 "Histories" is just such a masterpiece in crafting empathy for the unhoused, and it's striking me how much I miss characters who are allowed to be complicated and messy and deeply flawed even WHILE they impart a heavy-handed lesson to the audience. And how much more effective those lessons are when said characters ARE complicated and messy and deeply flawed.

In the episode, a homeless woman is brought to the ED, and House, Foreman, and Wilson clash over how to handle it. Wilson is immediately invested, Foreman is immediately dismissive, and House's interest in the case is piqued by wanting to learn why Foreman hates homeless people.

Foreman, who's perspective is the least sympathetic but the most like how the average irl person perceives and responds to unhoused people, is never given a backstory justification for his views. House assumes he's angry at an unhoused loved one, or perhaps he's just a snob, but the audience learns that Foreman's instinct to distrust Victoria was correct; she WAS trying to manipulate the system. AND she is also extremely ill. Foreman is merely forced, against his will, to observe her pain until he cannot ignore it anymore. He is dragged to empathy and compassion and emotional investment in her wellbeing, and he is rewarded with a lesson he will never unlearn.

Wilson starts the episode invested, remains invested, and is unsurprised by the ultimate tragedy of the episode. We are then told that, 9 years prior, he lost contact with his brother, who was homeless. We are shown that he was forced, in the past, against his will, to face the reality of homelessness.

In the beginning, Foreman dismisses Victoria's need to be there, saying homeless people lie about ailments so they can sleep in the hospital. In the middle, she admits that that is actually why she came in. He was right. By this point she is actually observably very ill with multiple serious ailments. In the end, she dies of something she would have been treated for long ago, if she were not homeless.

Wilson and Foreman dig into her past and discover that years ago she, while driving, had caused a car crash that killed her husband and son. We, the audience, are left to assume that that event led to a series of events culminating in her current unhoused status. She is an unreliable narrator of her own story, she is paranoid and scared and she attacks a doctor, she is an artist, she is a nice person, she DID lie to get help, AND she DID really need that help. And by the time she was in the hospital getting help from a team of atypically invested doctors, said help was too little too late to save her.

The complexity does not detract from this story or this lesson, it is an inherent part of it.

And I can't help feeling that the same episode, if it were filmed now (or perhaps what I mean is, if it were filmed at any time but with slightly less care), would give Foreman a backstory reason to distrust, and Wilson would NOT need a backstory reason to be compassionate, framing Goodness as default and Badness as other. Victoria would be a sympathetic victim of others evils, only ever kind despite her pain, dismissed despite pure intentions. She would be diagnosed with something that could affect anyone, showing that the homeless are just like the housed; we're all the same, actually. And maybe she would be cured, and offered help (money, a job, access to a shelter), to teach the audience, bittersweetly, that systemic problems can be overcome if you know the right people.

Instead, this episode was expertly written. Dismissal of the unhoused is commonplace and normalized. Compassion comes rarely and is hard won. People from any economic background can and do become unhoused. People in bad situations are inherently going to be complicated, and sometimes their situation IS their fault in one or many ways, and they still need help and support and medical care, and dismissing their needs is both easy and wrong. Unhoused people face many different problems than housed people do, their lives are different in many ways, and they are deserving of compassion despite and BECAUSE of this; being different does not make them less than. Systemic class oppression and the othering of unhoused people costs those people their lives in every way and at every level, and this is a tragedy. This is a tragedy.

This is a tragedy.

[adelrambles]

Idk if you’ve ever fully answered this on your blog but: DO YOU THINK Bishop fully redeemed himself in the future? By becoming president and uniting all races? Or is he still 🗑️

Oh man no, I don't think Bishop's Good Guy act is all that genuine. I think there's some change, but at his base, beneath all the subterfuge, he's still the same guy. I may have gone over this on the blog before, but like ey what am I gonna just get handed this opportunity to ramble ad nauseum and not take it? NEVER

There are a few pieces of evidence we can read into regarding the faux-ness of Bishop's new persona. First and foremost, for me, is the two instances where he presents the turtles with his "origin story," so to speak. In each instance, he keeps the details vague, and is very hesitant to admit to any direct wrong-doing on his part. The first story is so vague on the details that it feels like he's trying to brush past the turtles' concerns as quickly as possible. The SECOND, though. Bishop consistently dances around going into any detail about what he did or why it was wrong. And he goes on to push all of the blame onto Stockman! I mean honestly, he says Stockman "took things too far." Like dude!! We already know nothing is "too far" for you! It's very suspect to me that the subsequent lab collapse could have been ALL Stockman's fault. Bishop also elevates his own accomplishments and takes full credit for the success of the PGA. Idk but there's something really insidious to me about how he presents the information to make himself look as good as possible-- and the way he's able to convince at least a few of his former enemies that he's trustworthy.

There are other little inconsistencies in his behavior, like him writing off the turtles' warnings about Sh'Okanabo. The Bishop I know is a paranoid freak, he would never in a million years brush off a lead on a possible threat without checking it at all. And if we assume that, then that suggests Bishop said as much to give the turtles the impression it wasn't something worth looking into, meaning he was probably trying to direct their attention away for some reason. All of this tells me (if we just. ignore the possibility of it being a writing flaw agdhgshd) that Bishop is still a very cold and calculating personality, fully willing to throw others to the wolves for his own purposes, but he is WAY better at manipulting, now.

I've said before that I find it likely Bishop's weakest point is his social skills; we see that his superior officers (i.e. the president) dislike him-- which, frankly, is a detriment to his cause as it put his funding in jeopardy at least once that we know of-- and everyone he meets tends to come away some level of discomfitted. So what FF presents us with is a Bishop who needed to improve these skills for the sake of his ultimate goal. If the safety of earth requires friendly relations with aliens, then he needed to become an ambassador, and if he needed to become an ambassador, then he needed to be less overtly unpleasant. Thus, he changed tack. As a result, we have someone who appears trustworthy and is very good at lying and directing your attention, but is just as utilitarian as ever under the mask. That's just his job, after all.

Other details include:

- His intro. We see Bishop personally taking time out to go through monitors all over the city. He apparently has a very thorough surveillance system that he reviews himself. Again, paranoid freak.

- When addressing the turtles, we sometimes see him slip back into snarkier comments. This usually happens when he's frustrated (snapping at them for not attacking the Mouser fast enough for his tastes,) or when he's not being obeyed (making a snide comment about Cody having nightmares when they refuse to exclude him from a mission briefing.)

- As my friend Trauma pointed out to me recently, when storming the moonbase Bishop's men had their guns defaulted to lethal force, he had to give the order to switch to non-lethal. He was fully ready to wipe that place out.

- His willingness to include the turtles and later Cody on missions strikes me as, yknow, very utilitarian in its own right. Cuz those are teenagers, yeah. It could be argued that Bishop can't tell how old the turtles are but he definitely knows Cody is young, and knows well enough that he shouldn't be in a combat situation. But in the finale he praises Cody's decision to defy him and fight anyway. So what changed? In essence, Cody was effective. Bishop is fine with child soldiers as long as they do a good job (and can't be publicly traced back to him.)

Also like did you see that car chase? He ran civilians off the road and did not give a FUCK. That's the same guy.

[cienie-isengardu]

Now that you've mentioned it more than once, the old Lin Kuei and the Umgadi have quite a few similarities and differences. What do you think they all are? Does Liu Kang not intervene because the Umgadi is in Outworld, so it's out of his jurisdiction?

Generally speaking, I think it all comes to Liu Kang’s own flawed sense of duty that blinds him to the questionable nature of Umgadi and even of his own version of Lin Kuei. Not saying that duty is not important or there is no honorable thing about pledging your own life to protect others or even the whole realm, but that should be a choice made by each person, not something forced upon children fed by someone else’s idea (tradition!) their life means little compared to people they are supposed to serve.

Lin Kuei in older timelines were an assassin clan that for ages abducted children to turn them into killers. In more modern times, the abduction happened less often as Lin Kuei had their own share of children born into clan and some people even joined their rank on their own (Smoke and Cyrax), but generally speaking, the nature of clan did not change overall:

Lin Kuei served those who paid the best

clan members were indoctrinated to blindly serve the Grandmaster that could - and would - kill them for failing a mission,

friendship, as personal bonds between warriors, was seen as weakness and forbidden

no one was allowed to leave the clan - and those who did were hunted down and either killed or forced into C.I. project

In Mythologies: Sub-Zero, the original Bi-Han was introduced as one of the most cunning Lin Kuei assassinations yet during mission he plainly admitted if he did not steal ordered thing, he would end dead, which shows that even successful warrior is always one step close to own death, either by dying on mission or as punishment for failure. 

Of course, Liu Kang’s version of Lin Kuei and Umgadi are far away from what the old Lin Kuei was at its core, at least as the source material showed so far. However there are still things that personally rub me the wrong way. Tanya and Li Mei’s official bios and intro dialogues are full of the worrying details about Umgadi, the Palace Guard protecting the Royal Family we are meant to root for and see as the good guys... Only to learn how fucked up is the whole system maintained for who knows how many generations.

Umgadi recruitment & their ties to biological family?

[Tanya’s BIO] Chosen as an infant from Outworld’s first-born daughters, Tanya was raised by the Umgadi’s priestesses. She’s never known her birth family.

or

[Li Mei’s BIO] As her parents’ firstborn daughter, Li Mei was claimed by the Umgadi, the warrior priestesses who guard Outworld’s royal family.

or

Scorpion: Your parents' identities were kept from you? Li Mei: To ensure my loyalties were only to the Umgadi. 

or

Raiden: It must be hard, not knowing your birth family. Tanya: My Umgadi sisters are all the family I need. 

or

Kenshi: "Umgadi come from all over Outworld?" Tanya: "All first-born females become postulants." 

or

Kitana: "It's time to gather the First Born." Tanya: "And train the next generation of Umgadi."

Their personal bonds, including romantic/sexual ones?

[Tanya's BIO] As an Umgadi, Tanya is sworn to piety and chastity. That is why her bond with Princess Mileena, were it known, would cause a scandal. By following her heart, Tanya risks not only her position but also her life.

or

Tanya: "The bond I share with your daughter --" Sindel: "Is forbidden to an Umgadi!" 

or

Sindel: "You, above all, must obey Umgadi rules." Tanya: "I must obey my heart, Empress." 

or

Ashrah: There is nothing evil about you and Tanya. Mileena: There is to those wedded to Umgadi tradition.

Leaving Umgadi?

[Li Mei's BIO] But it all fell apart when a terrible tragedy unfolded. Li Mei was blamed for this and In the aftermath, she did the unthinkable: she quit the Umgadi. Friendless and alone, Li Mei needed a new purpose. She joined Sun Do’s constables, the Outworld capital’s rough and tumble police force. Over time, she became their First Constable.

or

Raiden: I thought no one left the Umgadi. Li Mei: The circumstances left me no choice.

-> as the story and tie-in material proved, Li Mei was unfairly accused and was a victim of Umgadi Matrons intrigue. Her stepping down from the role of leader of Palace Guard makes sense, as death of the king on her duty is a valid reason for resignation (an act often considered honorable), but there is no implication that Li Mei even got a fair trial? Granted, she chose to leave Umgadi and was allowed to do so, which is much better than old Lin Kuei's harsh punishment by death, but also shows that Umgadi does not have many options once accused of failure or ostracized by her own “sisters” & Royal Family.

Umgadi training and growing up?

Sub Zero: "The Lin Kuei are trained from childhood." Tanya: "As are the Umgadi, Sub-Zero."

or

[Tanya's BIO] As she grew older and saw other initiates wash out, Tanya feared that she would share their fate. But that fear spurred success; after many attempts, Tanya passed her trials and became a full Umgadi.

-> and if parents’ identities are kept from the initiates, what happens to those who did not pass the trials? Were they allowed to come back to a family they did not know at all? Did Umgadi even keep any record from which family each little girl was taken? Li Mei, who left Umgadi is said to be friendless and alone, which suggests no ties to the outside world, be it biological family or other people.

-> also, Tanya succeed because of fear of becoming one of wash out. Not the blind faith in the rightness of the cause, but fear of failure.

And sure, Umgadi is way better than old version of Lin Kuei presented in various source material, but it still share some serious similarities, like taking away children's freedom to choose for themselves or considering personal relationship (friendship for Lin Kuei, ties to biological family or the sexual & romantic one for Umgadi) as forbidden, to ensure their blind loyalty to the Grandmaster or Royal Family. And this is just what we learned about Umgadi in the first game, the introduction to Liu Kang's new era and I won't lie, it took me out by surprise because the game itself presents Sindel and her Family as someone we should like, while Umgadi system cast a different light. And I do not have an idea if NRS did that on purpose or if the studio did not think enough about the implication both for Edenian society and Liu Kang. Especially with intro dialogue like this:

Geras: "The Umgadi was one of Liu Kang's best innovations." Tanya: "My order sprung from his mind?" 

And if Umgadi was one of Liu Kang's innovations - a system whose whole purpose is to protect the Royal Family at the expense of countless number of first-born daughters, then maybe Bi-Han's claims about Lin Kuei's enslavement shouldn't be treated as baseless either.

[ridiasfangirlings]

AU with Munakata taking his prodigy child Fushimi to this school for the gifted and talented while Iwafune takes his own prodigy child Hisui there. I sense competition.

Between the parents anyway, I bet Fushimi at least doesn’t even care XD Imagine this in like an AU where there aren’t any Kings but Iwafune was some kind of well known figure, like maybe he was a government official in the department where Munakata is works and so Munakata is aware of who he is. After some tragedy happened Iwafune was used as a scapegoat and it made him disillusioned with the whole thing so he retired to a private life. The incident in question had a body count and Iwafune takes in an orphaned child, deciding to raise the kid instead of working for a system that doesn’t help the people and is too bound by rules and bureaucrats to make any difference. 

Meanwhile Munakata takes over this department, he’s young and untested and it’s assumed he’s supposed to just be like a puppet for the old guard but instead he purges the entire place and reforms it from the ground up with his own people. He also ends up taking in little Fushimi after some incident where Niki is arrested and Munakata becomes aware of this talented child that’s not being nurtured as he should be. Munakata is of course super excited to be a parent, he’s constantly bragging about his splendid child and decides to enroll Fushimi into a school where his talents can flourish properly.

When he arrives for orientation with Fushimi in tow who should he run into but Iwafune with his own child, even though Iwafune’s taken on a new name Munakata immediately recognizes him and greets him as ‘Ootori Seigo.’ Iwafune is pretty unimpressed with Munakata’s reforms in his old department, he thinks that Munakata is still an idealistic youngster who hasn’t opened his eyes to the real world yet. Munakata meanwhile finds the current Iwafune someone who’s given up on ideals and who thinks that one shouldn’t strive for better things, he finds Iwafune’s attitude towards him irritating and condescending…and so of course while he doesn’t say that Saruhiko should be sure to out-perform Nagare he’s really kinda hoping it happens.

So then after this imagine Munakata and Iwafune having this low key rivalry every time they go to any school function, because Munakata can’t resist pointing out that his child got the highest grades in the class again and Iwafune counters that it looks like that was only cumulative and Hisui beat Fushimi in a few key areas, must be a parenting flaw. Meanwhile as the two of them snipe back and forth Fushimi and Hisui are hanging out quietly coloring or something, like neither one entirely cares about this and they’ve just agreed that parents are weird and to leave it at that. Iwafune I feel like would be more chill about it than Munakata too for that matter, like he enjoys when Hisui beats Fushimi more because it pisses off Munakata than anything else and he likes watching Munakata get pulled off his high horse. Munakata is more invested in showing that his way of raising a child is best and that his Fushimi-kun is superior in general, though I think he’d also be careful that Fushimi doesn’t become too aware of the rivalry because he doesn’t want Fushimi to think Munakata will be disappointed or care about him less if he isn’t perfect.

[goldaegontargaryen]

Character Challenge for A Song of Golden Fire and Black Blood

Prompt:

Write a scene between your character and any other character within the RP that is not currently written or playable.

__________________________________________________________

It was not Viserys who gave Aegon the confidence to be a father.  

Two weeks after the twins were born, Aegon crept out of the Red Keep in the dead of night to visit the Sept in King’s Landing.  It was a place he often fled when he wanted to find refuge.  It was quiet and nobody would think to look for the degenerate prince in a place so holy.  That night though, Aegon had arrived to actually pray.  

He cautiously opened the doors and was relieved to find the main prayer room empty.  The doors to the Sept were never locked in order to allow people to pray whenever it was needed or desired.  He had a dark hood pulled over his hair to allow him some anonymity, but even the empty room didn’t make him feel comfortable enough to pull it down.  Someone could walk in at any moment and Aegon didn’t want to be perceived by anyone.  Not tonight.  

Aegon had never given much attention to the statue of the Father.  He’d kneeled before it many times, often in the company of his mother, but he had never examined the carved stone face or taken in the serious, almost brutal, expression carved onto his face.  The statue looked stern and strong, exactly as a father should.  It was everything Aegon was not.  

He knelt in front of the statue, mimicking the position he’d taken many times in this Sept but had never truly meant.  Even now, he hadn’t changed his belief system, but he was desperate enough to give prayer a try.  

Please, he thought, hands clasped tightly in front of him.  Father, do not let me ruin them.  

Before he could continue on with his prayer, he heard a soft voice inquire, “I don’t mean to interrupt your prayers, but my name is Septon Lark and I was wondering if I could do anything to help?  I could pray with you?”  

Automatically, Aegon turned his head towards the voice, taking in the appearance of a slim, older man with light brown hair that was beginning to gray at the temples.  It was only when the man’s dark brown eyes widened in recognition of Aegon’s face that he realized his mistake.  

“My Prince,” the man, Septon Lark, said, clearly surprised “What are you doing here?  The hour is quite late.”  

“Praying.  I thought that was obvious,” Aegon said flatly, hoping the older man would hear the hostility in his voice and leave him alone.  

“I hope all is well?  We all were very happy to hear that Princess Helaena had a successful and healthy birth.  And to twins, no less!  All of them are healthy still, I hope?” 

Aegon nodded.  “They’re fine.”  

“That is a blessing.  What brings you to the Sept to pray then?”  

Aegon ignored his question and answered with one of his own.  “How can you believe in the Faith?  There are clearly no gods in this world.”  

He expected the Septon to become angry or at least annoyed, but instead he chuckled as if Aegon had told a particularly funny joke.  “I’m afraid that answer is individual to every man.  Why do you not believe in the gods?”

There were many reasons Aegon could not believe in the gods, but lately there had been one stuck in the forefront of his mind.  “If the gods were real, then the Father and Mother would not have given me children who are so perfect.  I will only ruin them.”  

The first time Aegon had held each of the twins, he’d been overcome with a love so strong that it almost knocked him off his feet, an emotion that was quickly accompanied with a proportionate feeling of fear.  His twins were so small and tiny, with beautiful purple eyes and sweet smiles.  Little Jaehaerys had been born with six fingers and toes, but Aegon had not seen it as a flaw.  Only another way that his child was special.  No responsible god would have ever chosen to entrust those children to his care.  

“You’re not the first man who has been afraid of becoming a father and you will not be the last,” the Septon said, moving to slowly kneel down beside him, facing forward and clasping his hands.  “But I do not think you will be a bad father.”  

Aegon was sure the answer was supposed to be reassuring, but it only made him angry.  He did not want to hear false platitudes from a foolish man who didn’t even know him.  “I will be.  I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors about me.  They’re all true.  I’m a drunkard, and I’m cruel and irresponsible.”  

Septon Lark shrugged as if Aegon’s words were hardly a concern.  “So, you are not a good man.  There are many great men who have been terrible fathers and many bad men who are good fathers.  You do not have to be a good man to be a good father.”  

At his words, Aegon quickly turned towards him, heart pounding in his chest.  “Do you really believe that?”

Septon Lark nodded, though he didn’t take his eyes off of the father’s somber face.  “I do.  You’ll be a good father, Aegon Targaryen.”  

“How could you possibly know that?”

The Septon smiled, finally turning to look at him again.  “Because you are here trying to protect them. That is what a father does."  

[beeseverywhen]

I mean like. Not to bring the mood down but... you guys know that's because American media is everywhere right? Like the world is unable to avoid some version of American accent on a regular basis. Of course ppl find it easy to mimic. This is absolutely not restricted to ppl in the UK, its really common for ppl who learn English as a foreign language to have perfect 'American actor' accents (cause the reason everyone's so good at the American accent that's expected of them as actors is cause at large there's little distinction between regions in the 'Hollywood accent' that ends up on TV and films and stuff. You guys have massive regional differences in pronounceation, but what makes it on to TV (in 9/10 cases) is a very standardised version of American English.)

But yeah. It's not just actors lol. Most British ppl can speak in a passable american accent, as can loads and loads of people worldwide. I'm not saying this to be like 'you should feel guilty! 😡' but it does always stun me when Americans are unaware of the impact their country has worldwide on all versions of English (and even on use of native languages. Many countries are using English more and more over their native languages and dialects , and yeah, historical colonialism has had an impact there.)

But in the last few decades things have progressed way way faster and that, is thanks to the impact of anglo/american/ect lead capitalism. I'm in no way dismissing the impact the UK has on this, but in recent years, its the US that is largely pushing that train .While the UK and several English speaking commonwealth countries are very involved in this kind of capitalist imperialism, there's a reason that more and more people are speaking American English. Not one of the many UK dialects, not Australian English, or NZ English. Across the world more and more people are increasingly speaking in the same standardised american dialect that's in so much of the media you export. Hollywood based media, with that standardised accent/ dialect and the standardised 'normal american life', has a stranglehold on the world and I just find it crazy that a lot of you guys don't even know.

It's stupid stuff like. So many countries are importing american cars and are widening their roads/ changing town planning to account for it (this is less of a thing in the UK but I see it more and more when I travel). Its the food becoming avaliable everywhere. Its the influence that for profit healthcare has even on countries with socialised health systems. Its houses being built to account for American style appliances. Fashion trends. Worldwide, everything is slowly evolving to be closer and closer to this 'American standard' which honestly? I really don't think actually represents the lives of real American people either. You've been turned in to products, the system has taken an unrealistic snapshot of 'American life' and it's being sold to you all day in day out, but it's also being sold to the rest of us. It's being pushed on us all.

Kids in the UK go through phases of talking only in American accents. Anyone born later than the 90s is carrying round 2 sets of spelling and vocab, cause we're all so used to the American way, that you barely know which one you're using half of the time. In the UK we have always had really strong regional accents yeah, and dialects differ between areas that seem tiny to you guys, I know. But like. Those dialects are being lost cause all UK accents are evolving to become closer to this standardised american and yeah not great, but at least we share a language! US American society is largely rooted in the same foundations as UK society, largely we have the same flaws! But oh my god. What about the rest of the world.

It's global. This impact continues to be seen, steamrollering ahead, in places that had completely different starting points. UK culture isn't that dissimilar to that of the US, so we aren't losing nearly as much as cultures that had something completely different. So much is being lost.

Languages and dialects and everything else is just being wallpapered over so we all meet the same ideal of the 'American life' and it's not even real! It's just a product based on how ppl were actually living in the US, manipulated until it's the most marketable mould. You guys are victims of it as well but like. It's based on your culture so you don't lose as much if you conform to it. Just like how in the UK, if we conform, we lose more than US, but nowhere near as much as countries that had languages, dialects and cultures that were so so different to UK/US culture. The less like the US, your starting point, the more there is to lose.

And look. I said it to start with. I'm not having a go. That's not what this is. But you guys really need to be aware, you need to make an effort to understand the impact that this plastic Hollywood american culture is having on the rest of the world. You need to actively look for it, and make an effort to not pay in to it. Because when Americans see other cultures represented in media and say its not relatable, when you guys go on holiday and make no effort to learn local customs, and try and pay in dollars and spend your time abroad like you're still in America, when you see cultural differences and immediately argue that the American way is better and of course everyone should have giant cars and never dry laundry outdoors and live in American style homes, without any kind of critical thought. Just 'this is how we do it so why wouldn't everyone else do it this way. This is the only way. The American way is obviously best.' When you guys do that you are individually feeding in to this absolute bulldozing of cultures (including American ones!) to allow for better marketability.

It isn't any one individual American citizens fault that things are the way they are, and you guys are victims of the same system, but you need to have some self awareness when it comes to the fact that as individuals you are unknowingly, helping driving this forwards and as individuals, there are things you can do to limit your personal impact (and no arguing that you have no culture is not it!!! Being all self deprecating doesn't do shit. Take some responsibility and accept that individual Americans didn't create this system, but currently, individual Americans really are doing their bit to keep promoting it, to keep pushing it on the rest of the world.

And I've already rambled for an age so I'll stop here but I just want to make clear as an ending note here, that this really isn't about piling on Americans and being all 'boo it's all America's fault. They should apologise. Their culture isn't worth anything.' Not at all this is the opposite of that. The fact that millions of Americans have been convinced you have no culture, all while a mimicry of American culture is plastered on to the rest of the world, and while you as individuals are encouraged to help that happen, often without even realising what you're doing; is a crime. You've been wronged, as have we all.

And America is not the problem. The problem is imperialism and it didn't start with you guys. It started in Europe, and Europeans, particularly British ppl, have a responsibility to push back and be self aware, take some fucking responsibility and not inadvertently keep feeding in to that system, just as you guys do. The US didn't start the fire, imperialist capitalism is a fire that started burning long before the United States was even considered, but its on all of us, to do what we can to not feed that fire. And right now? You guys are the face of it.

This idea of what America is, is the face of imperialistic capitalism, and that means that even if you don't mean to, you guys are feeding that fire more so than the rest of us. You're responsible for spreading it, more so than the rest of us. And if you don't step up and take responsibility, accept that you're gonna get it wrong sometimes and you need to try to do better; if we don't all do that. There will be nothing left. They'll paper over it all, the lives of real Americans just as much as those in Scotland and India and the Netherlands, and 100 other cultures, that are at risk, thanks to this fire, that's currently, largely coming from America.

So yeah. It's absolutely not just on you guys and ppl who act like there's no racism or wealth divide in Europe or anywhere else for that matter are complete idiots, however, this Americanisation of the world (and I hesitate to call it that. Because its not a representation of real American lives. Its simply wearing an American face.) Its real. It's happening.

And we don't tell you about it to make you feel guilty (those of us who aren't dicks at least) ,we are telling you. We are kicking up a fuss. Because it isn't fair. It's not right and while individual Americans ignore that and refuse to take responsibility where they can (small apples. We aren't asking for you to call a violent revolution in our names. Just take some time to learn about the rest of the world. Stop assuming America is always right and examine your biases. When you find them. Stop personally pushing them.) , while that is happening, as individuals, you are contributing to this. It's not even altruism. This system is hurting Americans too. It's hurting us all. All we ask is that you do what you can to not personally contribute, and keep an open mind, be aware. That's all any of us can do.

when a british actor does an american accent everyone’s like “i didn’t even know they were british until they were on colbert.” but when americans do a british accent everyone’s like “they’re supposed to be from east cocksford but their glottal e’s are north dicksford. shameful.”

[lindira]

Uncommon Character Questions for Envy

Part 4! Questions taken from this list of Uncommon Questions for OCs.

Who are they the most glad to have met? 

Astarion. Envy thinks he's the most fascinating and fun person he's ever met. My tiefling falls for him completely.

Do they have a go-to story in conversation? Or a joke? 

Envy knows a lot of stories and jokes, so there isn't one that he falls back on in conversation. But his name is a joke that he tells a lot. "Envy O'Vall" is more of a stage name that came about because he doesn't remember his real last name. He thinks the pun is funny in a groan-worthy sort of way.

Could they be considered lazy? 

Some people look at him and assume that because he's a bard, he's lazy. But he works hard daily, even before adventuring. He works various day jobs to make ends meet then plays as many gigs as he can schedule in the evenings.

How hard is it for them to shake a sense of guilt? 

It depends on what it is. If Envy feels justified in killing someone, he doesn't feel much guilt (though the first time took a long time to get over). Stealing from rich people or assholes? He doesn't feel any guilt at all. Stealing from someone down on their luck? He'll feel guilty for a while and may anonymously try to make up for it.

But if Envy hurts someone who he feels is innocent or doesn't deserve it, he'll feel terrible about it for a while. And if he hurts someone he truly cares about, he will probably never forgive himself. He'll carry that guilt with him always.

How do they treat the things their friends come to them excited about? Are they supportive? 

Envy gets exuberantly excited about whatever his friends are excited about. He might not always "get" it - like if Gale comes to him with an esoteric bit of magical theory or if Shadowheart gets excited about religious relics - but Envy will still be happy if his friends are happy. He tries to learn at least a little bit about the things his friends are interested in so he can ask thoughtful questions and make their interests seem important.

Do they actively seek romance, or do they wait for it to fall into their lap? 

Envy gets lonely easily, so he seeks connections with people to fill that empty feeling. But he also keeps people from getting to know him beyond a surface level. He has abandonment issues and would prefer people think of him as happy and carefree instead of how he often is: sad or angry or desperate for love and intimacy. This has led to him having several short-lived romances. Envy seeks them out, because he's lonely, but also doesn't often let himself be vulnerable because he's convinced they will leave him eventually anyway.

Do they have a system for remembering names, long lists of numbers, things that need to go in a certain order (like anagrams, putting things to melodies, etc)? 

Anything Envy has to remember, he puts to song or rhyme. If he can set a good rhythm to it too, he can remember names or sequences pretty well. It's also how he remembers stories he hears since he can't read.

What memory do they revisit the most often? 

Throughout his life, Envy has flashbacks to the night his parents died. It was around 30 years prior to the events of the game, so the memory has grown fuzzy over time. But there are parts of that night that are really clear, like the hateful slurs the group of human drunkards had called him and his parents or the stillness of his mother's and father's faces as they lay dead in the street. He has nightmares about it sometimes, but they've gotten less frequent as he's gotten older.

More recently, he revisits the memory of how he lost his voice. I intend to write a fanfic about it.

How easy is it for them to ignore flaws in other people? 

Envy is pretty easygoing in that regard. People are who they are, and people are flawed. If their flaws make them an asshole, he tries to stay away. He can't change them, so why bother trying? Until their asshole-ness becomes his problem or hurts people. Then he becomes VERY intolerant of those flaws.

But sometimes flaws make people interesting or fun or different, and Envy enjoys finding out what makes people weird or wrong or stupid. I mean, his partner is a vampire... Envy is willing to ignore or embrace many of the things that are "wrong" with his friends.

How sensitive are they to their own flaws?

Envy is usually pretty self-aware. He knows he can be annoying and loud and "too much" for people. He won't always care that he's being annoying or loud, but he gets it and will laugh it off if people point it out or have to step away from him for a while.

However, he's very sensitive about the fact he can't read and will not tell people unless it's absolutely necessary. He will also deny the fact that he's a bit of an alcoholic. He'll say he "drinks socially", except he's very social and also "drinks socially" alone.

How do they feel about children? 

Envy has a soft spot for children, especially orphans and tieflings. He's not always the best influence for children - he gave Mol money to get her criminal empire going, for instance - but will do his best to make sure they're well cared for and safe. He also loves playing with children and will happily play tag or roughhouse or throw a ball around with them if they ask.

He doesn't want to have children of his own, however. He doesn't think he'd make a very good parent.

How badly do they want to reach their end goal? 

Pretty badly. Envy wants to be a famous bard, with the same renown as Volo. (Especially after meeting Volo in person because - WOW - that guy is a walking disaster.) But to do that, he has to get his voice back, which will take a fair bit of money and finding a high level cleric. Whenever Envy asks for money in return for saving people, he has that goal in mind.

If someone asked them to explain their sexuality, how would they do so? 

"I like men and male-adjacent people. I'm not exactly a man, so I wouldn't say I'm homosexual, but I'm not not homosexual, if you know what I mean."

[drnikolatesla]

Electrical Genius: C. P. Steinmetz

Charles Proteus Steinmetz was a German-American mathematician and electrical engineer. He was a very short man with a hunchback, but that didn't prevent him from becoming one of the more significant contributors to the knowledge of electricity. Steinmetz's mathematical work with regard to alternating currents helped revolutionize the electric power industry in the United States with his ground-breaking discoveries in the understanding of hysteresis (a lag between input and output in a system upon a change in direction). This discovery enabled engineers to design far better AC systems for use in commercial applications.

Steinmetz moved to the U.S. in 1889 after fleeing imprisonment in Germany for his socialistic political views. He immediately became acquainted with engineers such as Elihu Thomson, Mihajlo Pupin and Thomas Edison (all rivals of Nikola Tesla and the Westinghouse Co.). Although Steinmetz was new to the political differences in the commercial development of power distribution (AC vs. DC), it wouldn't take long before his new friends pressured him into joining their side against the opposition.

But before he teamed up with Thomson-Houston Electric (which later merged with Edison Electric to form General Electric), Steinmetz pointed out certain flaws in their understanding of polyphase AC generators. During a meeting of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (Dec.16, 1891), a paper written by Pupin on polyphase AC generators was discussed. One of Pupin's arguments was that Ferraris and Dolivio-Dobrowolosky created the first polyphase motors. This was key to GE engineers because this allowed them to combat Westinghouse and Tesla's AC patents. Steinmetz, in turn, was quick to call out the mistakes. In the discussion, Steinmetz says:

"Ferraris built only a little toy, and his magnetic circuits, so far as I know, were completed in air, not in iron…

"This three-phase current system has been brought up the last time as something entirely new. I cannot agree with that in the least. For already in the old Tesla motor the three phases of current, only that in the three wires that go out from the central station the three currents have not a difference of phase of exactly 120 degrees, but two have a difference of 90 degrees, and either one of these two currents has with the third a difference of phase of 135 degrees. But if now the "Allgemeine Electricitats Gesellschaft" transmits currents of less than 120 degrees difference of phase-well, then the Dobrowolsky system comes back exactly to the old three-wire system of Tesla, only that the motor is certainly built somewhat differently. But that does not matter. Mechanically, the motor is undoubtedly improved, for there are several years' time between the old Tesla three wire motor and the new German three phaser. Whether the latter shows any improvements in its principles, is a question which is anything but beyond doubt.

"But in the new Dolivo von Dobrowolsky system of electric distribution, I really cannot see anything new but the mechanical construction of motors and generators. That it became so famous is, I think, entirely due to the success of the grand transmission of power over such an enormous distance as 116 miles, which cast a halo around everything that was used with this transmission, and so made the rotary motor famous; but, in reality, I think ordinary synchronous motors might just as well have been used, and would have worked just as successfully, so that the choice of the particular motor had nothing to do with the success of the power transmission."

Unfortunately for Steinmetz, these refutations would later come back to haunt him. Tesla's patents would gain priority over Ferraris and Dolivio-Dobrowolosky. Thomson would succumb to hiring a janitor to steal AC blueprints from the Westinghouse Co. so his company could bypass Tesla’s patents and build their own AC system. Pupin continued to discredit Tesla as the true inventor of the polypase motor in lectures and in his Pulitzer Prize winning autobiography—even though the inventors he gave credit to admitted they got their idea from Tesla. Steinmetz helped Thomson and GE bypass Tesla’s patents, and later intentionally omitted any reference to Tesla in his famous writings on AC phenomena. Each of the afore-mentioned engineers made a name for themselves, and their deplor of Tesla has unquestionably contributed to Tesla being excluded from history and science books of today.

[gentrychild]

Some part of me wonders if the hsc was just waiting for the hero system to fail as badly as it did in canon. I don't mean it in the, they don't benefit from the working hero system, but I mean it in the, the hero system is working exactly as it is meant to. All Might brought peace and peacetime can make it hard to maintain power over a population because people have the luxury of questioning stuff. Obviously the entire culture around pro-heroes and villains would be a good deterrent to people saying "hmm, maybe that was excessive force and also that villain was motivated by poverty and maybe force shouldn't be the go-to way to prevent crime" but peace makes people feel safe enough to ask those things.

But disruption? Terror? All Might gone, heavy losses on the side of heroes, heroes failing to defeat the villains with mass casualties, a loss of faith a system with comparatively a gentle use of force to what the hsc might use, where daytime heroes were under intense scrutiny from the public and help to high standards of behaviour?

All Might made people feel like heroes would always win and so they could demand high standards of behaviour and ethics from them. Without All Might and a guarantee of victory, handing more power to the hsc or allowing more leeway might seem logical to scared people. Perhaps not heroes, but still individual actors using quirks with different branding. It's likely what happened during the Dawn of Quirks and historically, that's often how governments gain greater power as a result of instability. And even once Shigiraki is dealt with, this attitude will extend to all villains/criminals with harsher responses to mild infractions. Perhaps tighter Quirk laws as well, or at least more enforcement.

If left alone, the hero system as it is would likely go through cycles. Chaos, power granted to the government, use of this power to gain stability through force, and either this peace through force is maintained until a stronger disruption/villain, or the amount of force used is lessened through public demand. The hero system collapses once again because root causes are not addressed, chaos, and then power is handed over to the government to regain stability through force. Rinse, repeat, until it inevitably implodes.

I don't think the hsc predicted it failing as badly as it did, or how Endeavour's actions would bite them in the ass with Dabi. But I could see them betting on All Might retiring, the spike in crime and social unrest as a result, and using that to push through more authoritarian measures. Because that's how it often goes in the real world

Panem and circenses, Anon. Bread and circuses. That's how you keep a society from noticing people in power are taking them from fools and that's on what the hero system is based.

Civilians need big good heroes to protect them from the big bad villains. Add some cult of personality.... I mean, hero worship and quirk veneration (since heroes are the elite, the only one allowed to use their quirks, normal people can't use theirs in public places, and villains are usually people with ominous quirks), and you get BNHA!

And the great thing is that if people are brainwashed into loving hero, they don't question the statu quo too much and you don't need force to justify more and more power being given to the heroes.

Well, to a point. Because, as you said, the longer the peace lasts, the more people have time to think about the flaws of the system.

I think that the reasons why this lack of questioning lasted so long despite All Might's enforced peace was because:

1. again, the society worships heroes and propaganda is a nifty tool.

2. that peace was enforced by All Might. There is a real difference between "We live in peace because people wants to be nice to each other" and "Our protector prevents the bad guys from harming us." For the latter, there is still this sense of "the others would harm us if heroes weren't there to protect us".

But even with that, you're right, the public would have grown antsy sooner or later. So, the way to keep the system in place would have been to show that the villains were becoming more vicious, so the Hero Commission would have no choice but to say "See what happens when we don't have free reins to protect you?"

However, i am convinced that the HPSC never would have allowed the hero society to fail this way.

Endangering it a little bit is good to scare the public and make them long for the safety of the past. But when you let a system crumble, odds are that the opponents are the one to get in power and to become the new government. (Or, if said opponents are a bunch of anarchists who don't want to rule, you get chaos then, some time after, government slowly rebuilding itself but it's not the same guys anymore and the HSPC, since it's made of people who like power, would never willingly part with it.)

No, I think that messed everything up was All Might's sudden retirement + the fight in Kamino.

The Hero Commission probably knew that All Might was weakening (that was kind of an opened secret in some circles) but he would have lasted longer if there wasn't for the Kamino fight. So, and I am speculating here but that's kinda my thing, the HSPC probably had something planned so they would slowly introduce the idea of All Might's retirement to the public and a new number 1, ready to walk in All Might's footsteps but different enough for people not to constantly compare the both of them.

And if the HPSC had the time to make it happen, the new number 1 hero would have been that guy:

Alas for the Hero Commission, All Might not only retired sooner than intended but in a very public manner, and worse of all, he almost got killed.

Before Kamino, the LoV was a bunch of scrubs. They had their behind handed to them by high school children (on their first week at hero school, no less).

Then, the summer camp happened. UA being attacked and Bakugou being abducted was a golden opportunity for the Hero Commission if they wanted more power. They had THE excuse to have more influence on the hero schools.

Except that 1. Nedzu didn't call the top heroes to rescue Bakugou. He called the UA alumni, restoring some of UA street cred and (accidentally?) preventing HC heroes to fix the situation. 2. the Hero Commission, even if they were warned that AFO could be there, thought that top heroes would easily take care of the LoV, who had won against students and a bunch of low ranked heroes.

Instead, they got this:

SSS ranked villain. Someone who almost killed All Might. Someone who probably could have razed a town.

That's the kind of power backing the LOV.

And that's terrifying.

But worse than AFO killing so many people, worse than AFO almost killing the Symbol of Peace under everyone's eyes, he revealed the truth.

All Might, symbol of absolute strength, their protector, was actually reduced to this state.

That's the opposite of slowly introducing All Might's retirement to the world. For the moment, everyone who saw this had to live through the eventuality that the one guaranteeing their peace was going to die on this day, leaving the villains free to do whatever they wanted.

After that, they needed to comfort the public, to tell them that they could fix this. Once again, it could be taken as an opportunity to have more power, to have more authority, but now, there was a much higher risk for the Hero Commission.

So, they had the great idea of doing whatever happened during the war arc. To show the threat of the big bad villain and to assemble an army of heroes to defeat them, to show that 1. the heroes have it handled 2. that the Hero Commission helped preventing things from becoming worse so they should be granted more powers.

This was a high risk, high reward situation.

And the Hero Commission failed to assess how great the risk was.

[generation1point5]

tagged by @ashacadence​ 

What are some difficulties you had/have when coming up with designs and lore for your character vs now that you find yourself may or may not be struggling on? Could be personality to design traits/style to progression in story. Anything. Coming up with back stories, aesthetics, personal quirks and tics and making it all fit together in an organic way can be a little tough. Most of these challenges have presented themselves with my fantasy project, and its slew of protagonists: it has three separate systems of magic, a wealth of principalities, fiefdoms and other complicated socioeconomic dialectics that is difficult to encapsulate into a coherent narrative. These things must be considered even before attempting to express them through the lens of ultimately unreliable character perspectives, which inevitably color reader’s view of world events that in turn further alter this entire dynamic. It is oftentimes difficult to contextualize their lives and understand their place in the world when considering all the factors that affect their lives and each other, and how their decisions would affect each other. It can quickly become a paralyzing prospect. 

Favorite junk food oc of yours you like to indulge in. Why? Koter Modalius, having spent years in the Hierarchy Navy as a pilot, has developed a taste for tupari. It has virtually replaced his water intake.

Least favorite/most difficult? I haven’t really created anything that I would say I rank as a least favorite. As far as the characters that I have most difficulty writing, it’d be the minor characters I develop chiefly for plot-related reasons, whom I’ve not given the time to flesh out with a particularly distinct voice and perspective. One such example would be Darc, a high-ranking knight of considerable authority over many fiefs.

What gets your creative juices bubbling? Creative media I consume that compels me to create in turn. Can be anything, really: books, shows and movies, and of course videogames. Can even just be conversations with friends equally invested in the same interests I have, as many would probably attest.

Introduce an oc. How and when were they created? Aeos was someone I had originally created as a Jedi character for Star Wars back in my high school days, who had stuck through multiple subsequent iterations of other sci fi settings until he had become something of a moniker for a period of my life. While I still retain his Jedi persona, he is better known by how I've written him in Mass Effect, owing to the online presence that I had garnered at the time. For the purposes of this prompt, I'll be describing his Mass Effect rendition.

If said oc above was given a difficult situation, how do they handle it? Aeos is best known for being cool under pressure, and can quickly and violently resolve issues when they start going south. He exhibits a tremendous capacity for composure under unfavorable situations, and often uses it to conceal his intentions to suddenly and violently escalate matters in his favor.

What’s the most notable feature about your oc? His piercing and hard gaze is probably the only standout trait to an appearance that is otherwise intentionally kept subdued and normal. Even when he isn't feeling that way, Aeos almost always comes off as unhappy to some degree.

How would you like your oc to be perceived? Above all, I want Aeos to be as best as I can enbody my understanding of the human condition. I want him to be seen as human and all the baggage that is attached to the word, no more, no less. He is a man possessed by both good and evil; a man who cannot escape his own conscience.

What’s a flaw of theirs? His cynicism often limits his perspective. He is apt to see the worst in others and himself, and often limits his ability to avoid the situations he'd rather not find himself caught up in.

And finally…just tag people. And come up with a random number ten question. What does your OC do in their spare time? Aeos catches up on news and galactic events, and on longer breaks, might catch up on his reading list. I'll tag @bioticplaneswalker @sektoth and @bootytron. No pressure. And anyone else who's interested feel free to say I tagged you too.

Thought I’d try a little something but also just answer or reblog and/or store and such. Thought I’d start a oc questionnaire and world building train.

What are some difficulties you had/have when coming up with designs and lore for your character vs now that you find yourself may or may not be struggling on? Could be personality to design traits/style to progression in story. Anything.

Favorite junk food oc of yours you like to indulge in. Why?

Least favorite/most difficult?

What gets your creativity juices bubbling?

Introduce an oc. How and when were they created?

If said oc above was given a difficult situation how do they handle it?

What’s the most notable feature about your oc?

How would you like your oc to be perceived?

What’s a flaw of theirs?

And finally…just tag people. And come up with a random number ten question.

That’s the skeleton above.

[shootingstarwritings]

Hans Off the Computer!

The human mind, when boiled down to its most fundamental building blocks, was simply a system of ON and OFF switches. In that sense, it is functionally identical to that of a computer’s mainframe. When putting both of those thoughts together, the idea that the human brain can be completely digitized and transferred through networks isn’t too far-fetched an idea.

At the very least, that was the thought of Hans Hopper, a freelance software engineer. Currently, he was working at a computer repair shop to get some extra money and to kill time between projects—including his own.

“It could be possible,” he voiced his dreams to his boss, Carl, as they took a look at some guy’s gaming PC. The components were state of the art, some not even out in the market yet. Just the graphic card and motherboard made Hans drool at the sight. Streamers get all the luck, he thought. The owner, some small-name star with a big ego, took poor care of his machine, leading to landing on Carl's shop.

“Y’know, Hopper,” Carl began as he cleaned some dust off of the PC’s parts, “I think if you put that head of yours outta the clouds and into reality with the rest o’ us, you’d really take off. Least you wouldn’t be stuck in this freelancing business and get a real job like some o’ your peers.”

“And be like those corporate suck-ups?” Hans snorted. “As if. I’m not gonna be another cog in the machine. Now being in a machine." He grinned, already fantasizing about the things he'd do if he could ditch his flawed, physical form for a future full of infinite potential inside of a network. "That's what I'm after."

“Least those corporate suck-ups can afford their own places,” Carl sighed. “You’re still living with roommates at, what, 30?”

“...27, actually.”

Grinning, Carl said, “And there’s my point. At your age, Hans, I--” he paused as his phone began to ring with an irritatingly catchy tune. “Aw, shit. Lost track of time.” Before Carl ducked to the back of the store and towards the hall that led to his home, he glanced back and said, “Can you wrap up here and close the store, Hans?”

“You got it, boss," Hans said, waving him off. "Take care." Carl left without an answer, and Hans found himself alone with a PC he could only dream of. "Well well," he said, digging into his pocket and pulling out a flash drive. "Looks like it's just you and me from now on. Let's see if what's under the hood's enough to get my program running."

While Carl had a point that Hans' dream was beyond the capacity of current human technology, the world of sci-fi and fantasy lacked such rules. "Just like that ol' title," he muttered to himself as he inserted the flash drive into a USB drive. "A machine can't act like a human mind, but it can calculate runes with no trouble. Sometimes when we can’t use tech to get somewhere, we gotta use shortcuts.”

This PC was his best chance to experiment on his little program to see if it worked. After checking to make sure the drives were all up to date and the whole thing was running smoothly, Hans executed his program. A few keystrokes later, a magic circle formed on the screen. “Let’s gooo—WOAH!”

Although Hans should have figured that the ritual wouldn’t be painless, having his physical form ripped apart and turned into data was nothing short of excruciating. Reforming himself later wouldn’t be any less unpleasant, but he could never turn down the chance to become data and revolutionize the field of… magic? Science? Magitek?

He witnessed his fingers slowly fade as if turning into dust and flow like a stream of water into the screen. As the entirety of his arms completely disappeared, sprites that resembled arms appeared on the screen. "L-Least it works?" Hans nervously said as more and more of his body faded away.

Eventually, Hans' ability to feel, taste, hear, and see waned as his body fully waxed into the computer. The sensation… was nothing. There were no nerves or sensors to feel with, but he could understand the data that his mind had access to. Overwhelming, yet the sensation felt like precious wine on his lips.

The network… Though small, Hans was amazed at how he could travel through the network of the shop—including Carl’s personal PC.

“No, no,” Hans realized he could hear. He saw Carl through the uncovered camera and heard him through a microphone that remained plugged in. For a tech-savvy guy, Carl was real lenient in terms of privacy. "C'mon, Elise, be reasonable here. We got a meeting with the divorce lawyer tomorrow. Can’t you have your little wine party another day?” Carl rolled his eyes as he pocketed his phone. “Fuckin’ bitch. Can’t give me a break.”

And now, as Carl sat down to work on his computer, Hans realized he could attempt the other upside of the ritual. With his mind now data, he could reach out and override the "data" that was another's consciousness.

“What the hell am I supposed to—MMGPHF!”

It wasn’t the most graceful exit, but Hans couldn’t deny the results. Black tendrils—an unnatural amalgamation of data and flesh flew from the screen and landed on Carl’s face, causing him to fly back a few inches. His body twitched and convulsed, back forming a C,  as Hans’ essence flowed into each of Carl’s orifices. Carl’s feet kicked at the ground, fingers gripping his chair’s armrests, as Hans’ essence attacked and invaded his brain.

“A-Ah, ahhh.” Carl helplessly moaned as Hans override any freedom and control over his body. After a few painful seconds with his back arched and his toes curling as the sensation of being overtaken overwhelmed him, Hans awoke in his boss’ body.

“Well, well,” said Hans, feeling his new arms. “Not exactly my first choice for a body, but not a bad test drive.” He stretched in the comfortable office chair, a gift from another customer. “Man, Carl, for an old guy you don’t feel half-bad.” Now realizing that he was alone, a mischievous thought crossed Hans’ mind. “Well, got some time to keep doing some more research on my little program. Maybe I can find a way to hack into other networks." Grinning to himself, he stood up and slowly stripped out of Carl's clothes. First, the shirt came off as the nipples hardened in the cool air, then the shoes were chucked to the side to allow his feet to breathe. The pants came off next, and finally, the underwear flew across the room as Hans embraced his newfound potential—and his borrowed pole.

“Who knew old farts like you still had crazy stamina like this!” Hans cried out, furiously and desperately thrusting into his grip as he jacked off his boss’ body. “F-Fuck! Fuuuuuck!” Hans let out a roar as he came all over his boss’ keyboard. “W-Woah. Gonna have to clean that up later. Dunno where he keeps his tissues, but...” Hans paused and grinned once more. This wasn’t his body, so what the hell? He bent down and began to lick the keys clean, making sure to savor his boss’ taste with each slurp.

The next day, he sat in his boss' room, giving another client's laptop a check-up. It was a Sunday and so the shop was closed, but Hans' mind was far too wired to relax by simply lying around the place. No, tinkering around and keeping his hands busy was how he would wind down.

Although, Hans remained without any clothes. The feeling of the chair against his naked skin was intoxicating. Never in his life had Hans worked in the nude, but he might have to start doing it more often as he tried on new skins. For now, though, might as well enjoy Carl’s life for a few more hours before trying on someone new.

Hans’ roommates were certainly appealing prospects.

[the-lone-witch-and-secret-room]

The Owl House and pacing, a perspective from a fanfic writer that works with a large cast

I’ve seen a bunch of complains about the way The Owl House is paced lately. People claiming that it’s bad writing, and rushed, and whatnot. But from how I see it, you’re complaining for all the wrong reasons, and to the wrong people.

TL;DR: this is an overlaying issue with Disney and the industry that doesn’t allow long shows anymore, essentially forcing writers to pick between good pacing and complex stories being told with large casts.

For context: the fandom I wrote for before I got into The Owl House had a pretty small main cast. There were a few reoccurring characters, but most of them only showed up like five total times over the course of four seasons or had little personality, so my main cast I was writing about always consisted of my main five characters, with occasional cameos here and there. All characters were living together and experienced the adventure from the same perspective. There was one overarching storyline and not multiple. The interpersonal relationships still varied, though, for obvious reasons.

Now think about how large The Owl House cast is, and why that’d send them running into issues. Or don’t, because I have a whole-ass in depth analysis under the cut because this got unreasonably long.

(Also I’d appreciate a reblog, I spent… an unreasonable amount of time on this, lol)

The Owl House is different. There’s the main characters: Luz, Eda, King, maybe Hooty, technically (someone recently pointed out that he’s technically the titular character of the show and I’m still processing that, lol).

But they also have a HUGE additional cast to work with. There’s Lilith, Eda’s sister, and the main antagonist of season one, who has a lot to her character and gets a ton of screen time. There’s Amity, and there’s Willow and Gus, Luz’s friends. They’re all very fleshed out characters, and got a bunch of screen time and development, despite “only” being reoccurring characters and not the main characters.

Then there’s characters that have played a fairly minor role so far. There’s Belos, the big bad villain, who we will likely learn a lot more about this season. There’s the Golden Guard, the new main antagonist our cast deals with personally, who we’re just starting to learn more about. There’s Camila, Luz’s mom, who, despite only showing up a couple of times in the show so far, is very relevant to Luz and how the plot will ultimately turn out. There’s Edric and Emira, Amity’s siblings, who despite only showing up a few times as well seem to have a very worked out personality and background and also have a story that is (at least to some extent) going to be told according to the AMA.

There is at least one more seemingly important character whose role in the bigger story is hard to tell at this point, Raine, but according to the description of the episode, they’re probably going to influence the story a bunch.

There’s Alador and Odalia, who are responsible for a lot of their children’s toxic behaviors, and seem to have bigger plans that will probably be relevant later on.

The characters that are only focused on for an episode or two (like Matt and the troublemaker kids) all have very worked out personalities and even short arcs.

And heck, even characters like Boscha, who is extremely minor and seems like a very one-dimensional bully for the most part, get their moments that hint at there being more to them. We know Boscha has a clingy mom, that apparently has a rivalry with Odalia and works with Amity’s parents. The scene at the beginning of Wing It Like Witches tells us a lot about her general mindset and how she’s embraced that winning at whatever cost is the only thing that matters.

This leaves us with: 3-4 main characters

3 friends with fleshed out stories

Lilith, who is probably the most relevant aside from the main cast

Belos, the main antagonist, and the Golden Guard, currently starting to become a lot more relevant

A whole handful of minor reoccurring characters that have the potential to become bigger characters at any point in time

A handful of minor reoccurring characters that mainly seem to be there to further the story, but still get to have distinctive personalities and motivations (looking p.e. at the troublemaker kids)

That is AT LEAST 9 pretty major, relevant characters whose stories have to be tackled in the same show, in addition to the people that joined in season two and a huge supporting cast of well-developed characters that clearly also have stories of their own, even if not all of them will get told.

On top of that, the Owl House lives from exploring different relationships and different storylines. There’s the overarching story of how flawed the system is that will likely end with them overthrowing Belos, but there’s so much more.

Eda and the curse. Eda becoming a better mentor for Luz. Eda coming to terms with the loss of her magic.

Luz learning to cast magic with glyphs. Making friends for the first time. Slowly falling in love with Amity. Fighting to be able to learn whatever kind of magic she wants to. Learning that she’s not a burden to people. Struggling with her relationship with her mom, and trying to restore the portal so she can get back to her. Figuring out her future and what she really wants.

Lilith trying to cure Eda, and now in season two coming to terms with the loss of her magic and fixing her relationship with her sister. Lilith learning to ask for help.

Willow switching tracks. Willow growing more confident.

Amity becoming a better person, fixing her relationship with Willow, standing up to her parents, falling in love with Luz. Starting to fix her relationship with her siblings.

King finding out where he came from.

Hints at Gus struggling with decision making and stressing himself out less. Gus learning to be more selfless. Struggling with his magic track and being the youngest in his grade.

The newly introduced plot point with the Golden Guard. The plot point about the rebellion that will get introduced next episode.

The mystery with the letters.

And I’m like 90% sure I’ve forgotten something.

That is… a lot of different plots and relationships that are in some way important to the story.

In comparison, as stated, the last show I wrote for focused mostly on the same five characters and their relationships with each other, and one overarching plotline aside from some minor interpersonal relationships with two people’s family members that weren’t even introduced for several seasons. The first season fully focused on establishing the bond within this found family with exactly 1 important reoccurring character, an antagonist that had little personality and got a total of one line of backstory before he died.

If you have 90% of a season to develop 5 characters who live together, that’s a lot easier to do than developing twice the amount of important characters + introducing reoccurring characters season one of The Owl House has—the majority of which have separate lives and do not live together and thus can’t be focused on at the same time.

I’ve seen a bunch of people complain recently that the pacing of The Owl House is off, that the writing is bad, that the show is rushed, etc. etc.

And I get those complains. Believe me, as a viewer and also as an author that takes a lot of time to develop each character and their issues individually, I 100% get it.

But as an author that’s currently learning how hard it is to tackle a cast of the size that The Owl House has, I’ve also come to a whole different understanding from the perspective of the writers on the show.

For context, Locked Out focuses on a couple of serious themes, in the same way that the show does. It has 4 main plotlines: Amity Camila and Luz, Edric and Emira, Eda and Lilith, Willow and the Grudgby Squad (as well as a Gus arc that ties into the last one while also being its own thing, we’re getting to that part). So far, it prominently features: Luz, Amity, Camila, Eda, Emira, Edric, Willow and Gus, and to a lesser extent King, Lilith and Boscha, Skara and Amelia in relation to the separate plots.

That’s eight main characters across five different households. And then there’s the reoccurring characters that will have a larger role later on that I’ve not even had the opportunity to bring into the story yet/feature in a more prominent way. The cast is still growing.

And heck, I have all the time in the world to write this thing, because I don’t have an episode limit, or a deadline, or a limited amount of money to produce it.

For Locked Out, it took me 120k to get through a single week of plot at a very high level of character development, with about as many important characters as TOH has in season 1, and with an equally high number of reoccurring characters, some minor, some major. I think you can compare it to the show pretty well. I’d say, if I were to split Locked Out into episodes, I’d set one episode at about 10k. That would be 12 episodes. 12 episodes to get through a single week. Heck, even if I said 20k words were to be one episode, which I’m pretty sure is too much realistically, that would still be 6 episodes for one week.

And TOH covers more than three months.

That would be at least 72 total episodes to get through the three months of summer camp. And we’re currently progressing past that point.

72 episodes.

Let that sit for a while o.o

Everything that’s happened in season one (which as we know now was about 2 months) would have happened in 48 episodes rather than 19. Pacing-wise, everything would happen at less than 0.5x the speed. The first four episodes of season two would’ve been 24 episodes, assuming we hadn’t skipped a week and a half and had instead shown the immediate aftermath of the petrification ceremony, too.

And I’d love if we could have that, and if we could actually develop the characters and their relationships that thoroughly.

But the sad fact is that shows like The Owl House do not get the amount of episodes that would be required to develop every single aspect of the show to its fullest potential. Disney rarely greenlits shows of 150 episodes anymore. They used to, once, (Phineas&Ferb for example had 130+ episodes—you could tell one hell of a story in that many episodes), but that’s not a thing anymore. And the writers know that going into a show. They know the chances their story will be told in that way are very low.

And thus, the writers, especially ones working with large casts, have to make a choice: cut characters they love, and plots that are important to them, because they know they won’t get the amount of episodes required to do everything perfectly, OR include most of what they want to do, but at the cost of the pacing being off and everything seemingly happening too fast.

The Owl House crew went with the second option. The biggest issue the show has isn’t bad writing. The show’s biggest issue is that its cast and the story the crew members want to tell are too big for the amount of episodes they’ve been given (especially now that Disney decided to cut season 3 down into just three 44 minute specials).

And that’s on Disney, and Disney alone.

The crew is making the most of the amount of episodes they have, and unfortunately the lack of time forces them to rush things, and to sometimes sideline characters to focus on others.

Lilith got a bunch of screen time in the first four episodes. I’m sad to see her go, but she’s basically guaranteed to be back by season 2B. And there’s other people that have gotten way less focus than her so far. We‘ve seen basically nothing of Willow and Gus for the first few episodes, and I’m super happy Gus finally got some focus! We haven’t been inside Hexside all season except to see Luz expelled! And episode seven is even going to introduce a new character. Sometimes there’s parts of the story that certain characters don’t have a place in. And it sucks if they’re characters you like. But Lilith has to go for a bit so other characters can get the same amount of spotlight she did. At the end of the day, Lilith is not part of the main cast. She’s a very important reoccurring character, yes, but so are Amity, Willow and Gus. The main characters are Eda, Luz and King, and they’re the only ones that will always be around. And heck, even Eda got sidelined for a bit in the last two episodes, because we needed to focus on other characters. If not even the main characters are always around because we need some spotlight time for other characters, you can’t expect any more minor reoccurring cast member to be.

God, I wish they’d be given more time and more episodes to bring every part of the plot to its full potential, but they don’t have those, so they sometimes have to take shortcuts that unfortunately cheapen the story here and there. It’s the only way they can hope to tell their story to the end at all. And that makes me hella sad because it’s so obvious that they have an incredible story to tell, and that there’s so much more to so many of the characters we just don’t have the time to focus on.

The thing is: I liked the episode with Gwendolyn. It sends an important message that will hopefully get some parents who watch with their children thinking, and I’ve seen a couple of people talk about how close to home it hit for them. I have also seen a couple of people complain about that being too fast—and also just in general about things in the show getting sorted out too fast. And I get it. At least with this particular episode, I 100% get it.

(I’ve also seen some people complain that “Amity stood up to her parents too fast in Escaping Expulsion”, but I vehemently disagree with that. We’ve been building towards that moment since season one, with her doing more and more things that were technically defying her parents. I don’t see how this was rushed.)

Just… please don’t blame the writers. Dana even said that Keeping Up A-Fearances is one of the episodes that hit very close to home for her in the recent stream iirc? So I highly doubt this was rushed on purpose, or because the whole thing is “bad writing” when the entire writing quality of the show says otherwise.

A lot of shows in general have the issue that they have to be written season by season rather than as a full story these days, because there’s always a chance that they won’t get a next season. How large scale the story they want to tell actually is doesn’t matter if there’s a solid chance they won’t get to do any of it.

From a viewer perspective, I get being frustrated at the pacing being off. But from a writer perspective, the chances are very high that this is a choice they had to make, rather than one they wanted to make. And I don’t think you can truly see this if you’ve never worked with a fleshed out cast that large—Locked Out was really eye-opening for me in that regard.

This isn’t simply a case of bad writing/bad pacing by choice. It’s forced. They’re forced to rush through their plots because otherwise they won’t get the chance to tell certain parts of the story at all. And the saddest thing about this is really that those 72+ episodes to flesh out these plot points further wouldn’t have been an impossible thing to get, at a time.

Go for Disney’s head. Yell at the industry for being what it is today, for constantly axing shows before even giving them a real chance. But this isn’t on the crew.

[enamouredfae]

♡ Pick a Card ♡

What you need to know in order to be ready for the love you so longingly seek!

This reading is looking at anything you might need to heal or grow into in order to enter future relationships as your higher self. I am not looking at your future, but simply trying to guide you towards your highest good in the field of love. Many of us have internalized certain perceptions of love that we must unlearn, or have lived through difficult moments which have closed us off or made experiencing love more difficult. If you are in a toxic relationship/situation, please do not take any messages that might seem to tell you to stay in it. With this reading, I will hopefully open you up to some introspection and hopefully growth. You may very well be attracted to multiple piles and that is ok! Read all that attract you and take what resonates. Each pile has three pieces of advice, so mixing and matching is invited!

This reading is for entertainment purposes only.

This is a timeless reading for the collective, therefore it is likely that some messages will not resonate with you. Please only take the messages that do! The messages that do not, are meant for somebody else. Remember that the future is never set in stone and that you possess free will! Love you! ♡

Pile 1

Charm: Knot

1. Yang

Yang tells me that you need to learn to become more proactive in love. You cannot wait around. You must act! You need to manifest your desires into the material world by doing. It's perfectly fine to do the first move, no matter what society deems "acceptable", it is even invited with this card.

23. Peace

Radical acceptance is necessary for inner peace and in this case for a higher love. You must first love yourself fully, light and shadow self, before loving someone else in the way that you both deserve! And you deserve radical acceptance, we are all flawed and intricate people! As long as we are willing to change and grow and put in the work, past mistakes can be atoned for.

38. To be fair

This card tells me that you need to learn to be more balanced in relationships. Are you giving more than the other parties? Are you giving less? We must be fair to both others and ourselves. When someone in the relationship gives more, they may feel underappreciated which can become unmotivating, but they can also overwhelm the other person. You must learn balance.

Pile 2

Charm: Cactus

7. To the sea (reversed)

"When fishermen cannot go to sea, they stay at home and repair their nets." This is a quote from the guidebook that I had to rewrite here because it encapsulates the advice perfectly. You probably long for love like fishermen long for the sea. This card is telling me that the problem isn't coming from you, but the external world. An idea that just popped up in my head is a queer teen living in a homophobic area or with homophobic parents, so it is likely that this could be your situation. If it is, I love you, please take care of yourself, love and better days will come, don't worry! But you must wait a while longer until the external world matches your vibration, perhaps you'll have to move, wait until you're safe to go out to the sea. Until then, go with the flow.

50. No place like home (reversed)

This card seems to work perfectly with the previous one, it reminds us that what is familiar isn't always the best, because it keeps us from growing. If you want change, you can't keep going to the same things/people that haven't worked before, it's counterintuitive. It is natural to go back to what's familiar, but try something new. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Choose unfamiliar.

34. A leg up (reversed)

You are carrying the burden of your world all alone. You probably don't feel safe sharing what you feel, or are very uncomfortable with vulnerability. To be honest with you, right before writing this part of the reading, I started tearing up, you are holding in so much hurt... You need to voice your struggles, being vulnerable is proof of immense strength, believe me! I know it's hard! Start little by little with someone you really trust!

Pile 3

Charm: Star

35. Loyal Heart

Ok if one pile is ready for the beginning of a relationship it's this one. It is the perfect time for you to create loyal commitments. It is possible that you are already in a committed relationship, but at the very least you are surrounded by loyal, devoted people. Don't forget to be devoted and loyal in return!

4. Higher Power (reversed)

This card is inviting you to trust in whatever divine power you believe in, trust that the universe is divinely guiding you and protecting you. I feel like if a certain religion or spiritual path attracts or fascinates you, you should start looking into it, careful with being disrespectful or appropriating it, especially with closed practices, please do your research! But connecting to Source would be beneficial to you in the long run!

25. Round and Round

You are stuck in a cycle that you must break. Do not worry, you shouldn't feel bad, it's all part of the learning process. Remember: you've been through this before, think back on how that made you feel the previous times, are you sure you want to go through that again? Breaking this cycle is a form of self-care, and you need to care for yourself! You are subconsciously punishing yourself by staying in this cycle, try thinking about the root of why you're doing so! It could help you in breaking it!

Pile 4

Charm: "Love"

8. The tribe

You may want to find your tribe, or you have recently found it. You might feel like you finally belong, or are longing for that feeling. Whenever I get this card, I think of the astrology/witchcraft/tarot community here! It may be the same for you! You are welcome here, and hopefully, you feel like you belong! Contributing to any community that you are passionate about, whether online or in real life, will bring you great joy and satisfaction. Your tribe awaits and needs you! It's possible that that's where you'll find love as well!

6. Not for you (reversed)

Let them go. Whoever you first thought of, it's time to stop obsessing over them. "Don't chase after what flees you." I'm sure you realize this is not serving you, but how do you stop? This card is suggesting radical acceptance and surrender, that this is a sign that someone or something much better is waiting for you. I suggest reminding yourself that they aren't perfect and that you have just come to idealize them.

52. Mending (reversed)

You are very likely going through a grieving period right now. There is so much hurt and disappointment. "Heartbreak is a strange healer of souls." It may feel awful now, but trust that when you look back one day, you will see that the hurt you're feeling now, transformed you in a powerful way. This card is inviting you to accept the heartbreak and push through it, situations like this open us up to seeing the world in a new way, to growing. Better days are coming!

Pile 5

Charm: Angel

28. Building blocks (reversed)

Are you acting according to your belief system? Are you following the advice you give others? You must look carefully at your core foundation. It seems to me that you have done a lot of inner growth, but are still stuck in your old ways. Your outer self isn't matching your inner self. Start doing what you preach!

47. Go the distance

I feel like you're someone that wants love right now! For it to come fast and smoothly, like a sprint. You must learn to see love more realistically, as a long-distance race of endurance. You may be the type to immediately run at the sight of a problem. You must learn to be dedicated and work in love, it won't always be the idealized version you keep reading about or watching. Love demands work!

32. Here and Now (reversed)

You live in the past, don't you? So much regret and nostalgia... Or perhaps you live in the future? Daydreams and ambition. There is a need to learn to live in the here and now, you cannot change the past, and the future is infinite. They're both elusive, and unreliable; now is tangible, real, and full of immediate possibilities.

Pile 6

Charm: Mars Symbol

22. Blessed

This beautiful card talks about an unexpected and "unearned" wonderful event, that seems like divine intervention, a gift from the universe. The advice I take from this card is to practice gratitude because you seem to be blessed in the love department. Perhaps you already know who "the one" is for you. If you don't, trust that the universe has someone wonderful for you!

31. Why?

Ask yourself why you feel as you do about/in love? It is time for some introspection. You need to think and identify unhealthy patterns in your love life. Why do you act as you do in a relationship? Identify what in your past has caused this behavior. It won't solve the problem right away, but it's a good first step. Understanding the problem will be validating.

27. Exchanging gifts (reversed)

"Be careful what you pray for because you might just get it." You need to be ready for the energy exchange that will happen if this happens. This card talks about an imbalance between giving and receiving. You must learn that if you receive a lot, you must return a lot, love needs to be balanced. If you give more, you aren't actually in control, the other party could be consciously or unconsciously taking advantage of your generosity!

Pile 7

Charm: Eternally Open Heart Locket

17. The Fates

You must learn to accept that there are things and people you simply cannot control and change. You cannot blame yourself for things beyond your control, nor can you blame others for things they cannot control. Just be wise enough to tell the difference between things one can control and things one cannot!! If you have a tendency to mold people into your ideal, making them lose their essence, you must learn to accept people for who they are. It is not your job to change them: the desire to change must come from them, for them.

15. Message in a bottle

Try asking for specific signs from the universe, or start becoming more aware of them. Synchronicities are all around you, they're the way that the universe confirms that you're on the right path! Listen carefully to those you communicate with, they could be delivering a cledon to you. This card itself is a good sign, a favorable answer to the question occupying your mind.

9. Treasure Island

You might've already, but if you haven't, MANIFEST YOUR LOVE!! You will be greatly rewarded when you embrace the law of attraction and your intuition. Depending on your belief in how manifestation works, try being mindful of free will! If you believe that love spells on specific people are influencing their free will, then it is immoral to manifest a specific person. If you don't believe that that is how manifestation works, do as you will, just be in line with your beliefs! This card is also a great sign, you're on the right path, and have good fortune on your side. Very lucky pile!!

Pile 8

Charm: Boot

2. Yin (reversed)

You must learn to receive, only being the giver isn't good for you. You deserve to receive! Be open to embodying yin and yang equally. "You stop the flow of abundance when you constantly insist upon being the giver." Be the listener, the one that learns, the one that is being led.

33. Chaos and Conflict

You may be afraid of chaos and conflict, but you must remember that they can rid you of what's no longer serving you. Conflict also implies two sides, remember that yours isn't the only one, and conflict can lead to mutual understanding. Learn to put up boundaries, but also to respect those of others. When you finally see the potential of healing that conflict can cause, you'll be ready for mature communication in relationships.

20. Imagine

Remember that you can create what you imagine! Your imagination is powerful in manifesting your desires, but it can't do everything for you! Manifestation is work, when an opportunity arises, act! This card can also be a sign that the person you're manifesting will be entering your life soon. When they appear, don't just wait, and daydream! The imagination part of manifesting is done, now it's time to act.

Pile 9

Charm: Knife

21. Clean it up

It's time to let go and declutter your mind. Think about what is no longer serving you, about the things that only overwhelm you, and make you overthink, they aren't good for you. It might also help you to declutter in general, your house, your closet, your phone, your feed, etc. Make room for the new and the better.

48. Poised (reversed)

Think carefully, are you really ready for love right now? Because this card is telling me that you aren't. It's ok to be a "late bloomer", and it's important to be ready for love, as to not hurt the one you love, and yourself. Being single isn't a sign of "failure", it gives you the time and space to focus on yourself, on your growth, on your healing, on exploring and understanding yourself. Being single can seem like a curse, but it's a blessing, it's what you need right now.

16. All that glitters

Are you being yourself in love? Are they? Don't succumb to the power of superficiality. Either let go of the mask or look beyond theirs! "Imagine that all the glitter is gone. Would you still desire the object or person?" If one falls for the glitter, what will happen on the day they forgets to glue it on?

Thank you for reading! Love you all.♡

You can buy me a coffee if you feel called to do so! This is never necessary, but always appreciated! ♡