#and of course they were in danger. the whole plotline was going on so there was no laying about and being happy together

[kikyoupdates]

Changing Plotlines ⭑˚💞⭑ 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟

yandere!ocs x f!reader

yandere, reverse harem, yandere reverse harem, original characters x fem!reader, slowburn, isekai

A desperate cry on your deathbed leads to you being given a fresh start at life. You're overjoyed at having finally obtained a healthy body and a real chance at living normally, only to discover that you've been transported into a yandere game, where danger lurks at every corner. Determined to protect your new life at any cost, you vow to stay as far away from the major characters of the game as possible. But things don't always go as planned.

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“Honestly, I thought you would’ve given up by now,” Sergei sighed.

“What? Of course not,” you frowned. “I’ll have you know I’m very serious about this. Look, I’ve even been practicing!”

You proceeded to swing your wooden sword with visible enthusiasm, making cutting motions left, right, and center.

Needless to say, he wasn’t impressed.

Today marked the second day of your lessons with the kind-hearted knight who ended up meeting a gruesome fate. Naturally, you had no intention of getting ahead of yourself. It wasn’t as if you expected to become some sort of prodigy overnight. But every effort counted, and the more you practiced, the better equipped you were to defend yourself if something went awry. After stupidly letting your guard down and helping out Flora, you needed to keep up with your training, now more than ever.

“So?” you huffed, wiping the sweat off your forehead. “What do you think?”

Sergei’s brows were creased. He looked like he was searching for the right words to say.

“I think that you have absolutely no talent with a sword.”

Okay, well he clearly hadn’t found the right words, because ouch.

“You’re so mean,” you whined. “This is only our second lesson! Don’t you think it’s too early to jump to conclusions? Of course I’m not going to be great right off the bat. I’m only a beginner. Were you immensely talented from the get-go?”

“Yes,” Sergei said calmly. “My talent is the whole reason I decided to become a knight.”

“Ugh. Okay, that’s beside the point. What I’m trying to say is that someone can suck at something at the beginning, but that doesn’t mean they can’t improve one day.”

“I agree with that,” Sergei acknowledged. “I’m not saying that you can’t learn, but from what I’ve seen, it’s already quite clear that this isn’t the sort of activity that will come naturally to you. Everyone has different types of skills. Why not take up a hobby that you might be better suited towards? It could save you a lot of frustration, and sword-fighting really isn’t the sort of thing a lady like you will ever have any use for...”

But I can’t learn something else. It’s not like I’m doing this for fun. I need to make sure I’ll have some way of protecting myself.

Obviously, you couldn’t tell him that for you, learning to use a sword was absolutely essential. So, you did what you did best. You lied.

“As I’ve told you before, I am a very prudent woman,” you said.

Sergei snorted. Okay, rude.

“Lately, I keep having nightmares of criminals attacking me in the middle of the night, and I can’t do anything but quiver helplessly. I refuse to be helpless,” you frowned. “I never want to end up in the sort of situation where I just cower in fear and hope for the best. I want to take charge of my life and fight until the very end.”

“This seems to be an ongoing concern of yours,” he remarked, looking a touch concerned. “Being cautious is all well and good, but there is such a thing as worrying too much. If you’re really so afraid, why don’t you just make sure to take a personal guard when you go out in public?”

“Yes, I can do that.”

“So, then...”

“But if they fail to protect me, then I’m right back to square one.”

Sergei shook his head in disbelief. “Alright, alright. If training with a sword will really help to put your worries to rest, then I suppose it’s the least I can do for you. But you really should know that the odds of you getting hurt, especially if you aren’t on your own, are remarkably slim. Infinitesimal, even.”

Ha. You’d be surprised.

“Yes, I know,” you said, mustering a smile. “But this really does make me feel better about the whole thing. I feel powerful, even though I realize I’m far from it yet. And now I have the added challenge of becoming so good that you’ll be forced to eat your words. Hehe.”

“At the very least, your enthusiasm is certainly admirable,” Sergei chuckled.

Right. That was all you had, really. Enthusiasm. And fear. Fear for your life. With such emotions driving you forward, you were certain that you could somehow compensate for your lack of athletic abilities.

As proof of your readiness to train your butt off, you swung your sword several times in quick succession, building up a noticeable burn in your arms. Sergei wasn’t saying anything, just watching you in silence. It didn’t matter if you sucked. Hell, you knew you sucked, but that still wasn’t going to change the fact that you were going to do this, no matter what.

“Lady [Name], please stop,” he eventually said.

You looked back at him in confusion. “Yes? Am I doing something wrong?”

“You’re doing many things wrong, but that’s not what I was getting at. How would you like to try using a real sword today, just to get a feel for it?”

You could hardly contain the grin that burst across your lips. “Really?!”

“It would be good to try,” he nodded. “If the point is to protect yourself, a wooden sword won’t do much to achieve that. It was just to get you a bit familiar with the length and girth of the weapon you’ll be holding. Keep in mind that the real thing will be quite a good deal heavier, though. It will be difficult to adjust to at first.”

“That’s totally fine!” you babbled, eager to finally try out the real thing. You’d never held a sword before. It was difficult to even find swords back in your previous world. All of this was to learn how to protect yourself, but it was still so exciting!

Sergei bit back a smile. “It’s not that amazing. But I have to admit that it’s quite amusing to watch you react so expressively.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re amused. C’mon, gimme!”

“You certainly don’t speak like a noblewoman, though... anyways, here you are. Be careful. Don’t move too suddenly with it.”

He gently placed the hilt of the sword in your hands, with the blade pointed downwards. You couldn’t feel the full weight of it yet, not while Sergei was still gripping it as well.

But then he let go. And the sword fell to the ground.

“Ouchie!” you squealed, frantically shaking your wrist. “My hand nearly broke!”

Sergei clamped a palm over his mouth. “Pfft... n-no, you’re just exaggerating. I did warn you, my lady. Perhaps you were just surprised. Care to try again?”

You grimaced, cheeks glowing bright red. Okay, maybe you were exaggerating just a bit, but that thing was heavy as all hell! In the interest of staying as safe as possible, you knew wielding a sword was practically crucial, but you were slowly realizing that it was an even bigger obstacle than you’d once presumed.

“I can do it,” you huffed, crouching down to pick the sword back up. “It’s okay. I have muscles. Weak, underused ones... but they’re still muscles!”

Sergei was trying not to laugh at you—and failing horribly, at that.

But by some miracle, you managed to pick the sword up. Granted, you had to hold onto it with both hands, and the strain it was placing on your wrists was enough to make your arms shake, but you were actually holding a sword. God, you felt like such a badass!

“I-I’m amazing,” you said, grimacing in between breaths. “Showstopping, incredible, phenomenal. S-Super epic... ugh, I just can’t anymore!”

You dropped the sword once again, sighing in relief. Okay, so it was a work in progress. Strengthening your wrists would likely be crucial. Maybe you could practice by repeatedly opening jars.

“Good effort,” Sergei mused, flashing you a thumbs-up. “It was—pfft! —very entertaining."

“Well, I’m glad one of us enjoyed it,” you eye-rolled.

“Weren’t you going on earlier about how you’d make me eat my words? Surely the weight of the sword isn’t enough to make you quit?”

“I have no intention of quitting,” you reassured. “That being said... is it all possible to make my own sword? One that’s a bit lighter? I’m not as tall or strong as you. I can have one personally customized to better suit me, right?”

Sergei nodded. “Yes, you can have one made by a blacksmith. If you provide him with the rough dimensions of the sword, and what sort of materials you’d like to have used, I’m sure he can craft one that’s more comfortable for you to use. It still won’t be too light, not if you want it to be sturdy enough to deal damage, but you can figure out the details and strike a good balance between what you’d like to achieve.”

“Is there a particular blacksmith you recommend?”

“As a matter of fact, there is. Remind me to write down his name and some other details for you later.”

“Alright. In that case...” You picked up the wooden sword instead of the real one, smiling sheepishly. “Um. Until I have my personal sword made, I’d like to stick with this one, if that’s okay...”

Sergei was clearly holding back the urge to laugh again. “Whatever you say, Lady [Name].”

“Back to training I go,” you hummed. “Watch this! Consecutive wooden sword slashes, but at a dizzying speed. Hyah!”

“Again with the battle cries...”

Even if you were still a noob in the purest sense of the word, over time, your body was bound to adapt. You were intent on getting by through muscle memory alone. Besides, as far as you knew, only two of the yanderes were proficient sword-fighters themselves—namely, Triston and Friedrich. So long as you were armed, and they weren’t, you would probably stand a chance.

Point being, it was best not to skimp on your training. Even if you probably looked like a fool flailing around all over the place.

Still, it was certainly tiring swinging a heavy wooden sword continuously. With every motion, you could feel your arms progressively turning to jelly. Coupled with the fact that it was so hot out, you were really starting to break a sweat.

“Time out,” you groaned, throwing your sword down. You tried to fan yourself off with your hand, but it wasn’t doing much good. This goddamn tunic was making you burn up. It needed to go.

So, you proceeded to get rid of it, stripping your outermost layer and exposing the thin camisole you had underneath. The relief was almost immediate. Granted, it was still hot as hell, but your skin could finally breathe now.

“L-Lady [Name]!” came the horrified splutter. You turned to find Sergei gaping at you in disbelief, several shades redder than he’d been a few seconds ago.

“Yes?” you frowned.

“You can’t just get undressed like that all of a sudden! Please remember that you are in public!”

He looked away in a hurry, and you had to admit, it was kind of cute. In the game, Sergei made every effort to act the part of a knight. He was sometimes guilty of being too serious, although he eventually came to let his guard down around Flora, after falling for her gentleness. From what you recalled, he’d never been much of a joker, yet in the few interactions he’d had with you, you’d already gotten to see him laugh it up plenty of times at your expense. And now he was even blushing. It was refreshing to see such different sides to a character you liked.

But honestly, you didn’t really get what the big deal was. The camisole was pretty thin, sure, but it wasn’t all that revealing. A tiny bit of cleavage and bare shoulders, but that was about it. Back in your world, people showed plenty of skin, so you definitely weren’t used to such an innocent reaction. Your case especially was rather unique. Countless doctors and nurses had seen you butt naked before, so something like this hardly fazed you.

Watching Sergei get increasingly flustered was rather amusing, though.

“You can drop the title, you know,” you chuckled, still fanning yourself off. “Just [Name] is fine.”

“No, I really mustn’t,” he insisted. His face was buried in his palms, and it almost seemed like he was itching to move them out of the way and steal another peek, but his willpower remained undaunted. “This is already quite improper... and you allow me to speak to you so casually in the first place. Now, please, will you get dressed?”

“Aw. But it’s way too hot out. I’d rather keep practicing like this.”

“Lady [Name], what you have on leaves almost nothing to the imagination. Please, for my sake, I’ll ask that you cover up again.”

“Prude,” you muttered under your breath. Alright, alright. You could sort of understand that this was set in a different time period, with different standards and all that, but you were really struggling to feel modest given your previous lived experiences. Guess that was yet another thing you’d have to get used to here.

With a great deal of reluctance, you put your tunic back on, cursing the fact that they didn’t even have air conditioning in this world.

“You can look now,” you announced. “Rest assured that my breasts are back in their rightful place.”

Sergei gritted his teeth, still red as a tomato. “In the name of all that is holy, I am literally begging you to stop.”

“Hehe.”

“Don't hehe me!”

It was safe to say that Sergei was too embarrassed to look you in the eye for the rest of your training session.

Cedric Lightsteel, huh?

You stared down at the piece of paper in your hand. It was the name of the blacksmith Sergei had personally recommended to you. Sergei spoke very highly of him, so you didn’t doubt that he’d be able to craft you the perfect sword. Once you’d obtained a weapon tailored to suit your needs, you were confident that your skills would improve astronomically.

Anyways, things were looking good. As expected, it felt good to plan everything out in the event that you got caught up in something dangerous. Based on the natural progression of the plot, you still had plenty of time until the yanderes began exhibiting their dangerous tendencies—not that you planned on ever seeing any of them again.

There had been a little hiccup with Flora, sure, but you’d ignored her letter. By now, you were confident that she would’ve gotten the message. Even if you did feel really shitty about it.

“Man, I’m pooped,” you yawned, stretching your arms out. Living in a healthy body really was incredible. You’d worked your butt off today, and you were definitely tired, but it still didn’t even come close to the fatigue you experienced every single day back in your old life. Even with minimal activity, you’d been in a perpetual state of exhaustion back then. You slept just about always, lied around doing very little when you were awake, and your body struggled to do even that much.

It almost made you want to cry. The fact that you actually got to live like this now. That was why you needed to hold onto it with all your strength.

You decided to unwind by taking a nice, hot bath. Modern day luxuries were certainly missing in this world, but that just meant that you had more time to enjoy the simple pleasures in life. You could even feel some of your vigor returning to you as you soaked in the delightful bubbly water. You’d trained for hours, but with this body, it felt like you’d be good to do the whole thing all over again after just a little bit of rest.

Sighing happily, you eventually decided that you were squeaky clean and stepped out of the tub, wrapping a towel around your body.

Then, you walked back into your bedroom.

Only to find a strange man sitting on the bed.

“Ah,” he smiled upon locking eyes with you. “Did you have a nice bath? I was waiting for you to finish. Come, let’s have a chat."

Unsurprisingly, you screamed.

More chapters are available on Quotev!

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💞 main masterlist ♡ character appearances

[aleclightofmylifewoodbane]

Do you know what the absolute worst thing about Jem Will and Tessa is? They really only had a few months of all three of them being together in the grand scheme of things. They all lived long lives, Jem and Tessa especially, but they only really had all three of them as themselves together for a few scant months, and those months were fraught with danger and miscommunication. They were never able to love each other fully and openly as three full people together and that is the worst thing that has ever been taken from us I think.

[0aurelion-sol0]

My Arcane Season 2 criticisms:

Things I actually disliked:

How the Hextech plot turned out, I though it was very badly executed especially in terms of Viktor's evolution through the whole show. Lack of proper explanation about what was actually happening, unnecessary and horribly executed twist at the end, clumsy established rules and dissapointing payoff for anyone involved in this plotline. Final battle was cool and I like the Commune's designs but dear god, was this storyline confusing...

Ekko's community plus the tree's state at the end of the show. You really couldn't put a 15 seconds shot of the community being well and tree being ok ?! Seriously I know you had to make choices given it's animation but come on now... It was like one of the main driving points to stop Hextech for him & one of the safe haven of Zaun & Piltover and it's completely shoved to the side but no, we have to see minutes of Loris, Steb and Sky being there just being a representation of our characters' inner conflicts as if them doing it and/or saying it out loud wasn't enough...

Ekko convincing Jinx to not kill herself by telling her what he experienced, Jinx rallying the undercity to protect Piltover & Zaun from Noxus & Viktor and a proper conclusion to Sevika's story regarding all of this. WHAT THE HELL ?! We needed to see this, this is so important & it's completely ignored. IN WHAT world, did anyone think cutting this was a good idea ?! We needed to get a proper closure & development about Ekko & Jinx's relationship which was already thin to begin with. We needed to see Sevika affirm what she truly thought about Jinx and a moment about Isha regarding the two of them even if Sevika wasn't super close to the kid, we needed to see Sevika get to see the Undercity finally rallied together after spending the ENTIRETY of the show trying to do that and see how that whole thing came about for them to fight with Piltover. It is ridiculous to that me that this was cut... It was so important!

Things I didn't necessarily dislike but I have mixed feelings about:

Jayce not getting a single scene with his mom. I know she was there at the end, in the crowd, mourning him but come on, not even one scene with her before the end where she could allow him a form of reflection and comfort before putting his life in danger or after, I don't know... DISSAPEARING FOR WEEKS IF NOT MONTHS! I know you could interpret it as Jayce being so lost on his mission that he forgets about her and her importance but she was one of the reasons they ended up in Piltover in the first place. It's of course not as vital to the story but it could have provided some breathing in this fast-paced season.

Vi's character arc this season. While there are some part that I like, I feel like it wasn't explored as deeply & as fully as it could have been. The foundations are there but aspects like her relationship with Vander, violence and Zaun could have been pushed far more than they were in this season.

Caitlyn's arc and how the most important bit happened off-screen, again, just like with Vi, the parts it would have been better to see or being more developped weren't as much as they could've been. I am not of the conclusion she didn't face any consequences or was let go by the narrative of the things she did, but her coming to terms with her actions happened mostly off-screen and that is a shame because it was one of the more interesting parts of Season 2.

Singed's characterization. Now I understand why he was developed the way he is, in terms of what he represents for Caitlyn and for the show, but I don't think it was as compelling to me to have him be yet another parallel for the themes of the show or being a reminder of them was completely necessary for me. We got it the other times, I understand why, it had it's purpose; I just prefer how evil Singed was in the original lore & the story he had back then. I understand humanizing antagonists & reinforcing the theme of your story but sometimes it's nice having an element that's a bit of an outlier and explore other themes to give some variety to the story.

[tanoraqui]

Dungeon Meshi Liveblog: Kabru & Mithrun's Life-Changing Road Trip

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safhkjkhf no but also fake!Kabru is entirely flat because Mithrun doesn't have depth perception...

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Between this and the information that the team has a 1:2 ratio of guards to criminals, with the guards often appointed by their families as a melodramatic show of loyalty to the realm - which is...possibly literally true, considering the prestige of badassery; but, considering the criminals and the danger, also very possibly a polite euphemism for what amounts to a public sacrifice... I kind of ferally want to know about the dynamics of the Canaries. Are they loyal to each other, or to the cause? Are they all just under the threat of execution? Kabru expected the captain of the squad to be an aristocratic guard, them being more trustworthy than a semi-pardoned criminal ofc, but instead he's...whatever exactly Mithrun's legal status is; I've avoided some details of his backstory.

...I might have to go back and try to actually mentally distinguish these people from each other.

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Laios Heaven is actually Kabru Hell, and vice versa. It's a very efficient system!

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*giggles* Kabru is having a weird, upside-down day.

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"Don't wish often" is such a threatening thing to say, honestly. Don't want. Don't try. Don't be alive, or this place will try to kill you and eat you, for it, too, wishes to live, and that is how the continuation of life works.

It's so so interesting how elves clearly have ANSWERS, answers that our party have been searching for, which would've made their whole adventure easier, and the elves just aren't telling people. To maintain their own power over other races? Probably. Because knowing about demons who'll offer you unlimited power would be a dangerous temptation to many? In fairness, probably that, too. But it sure as hell serves them first.

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Oh yeah, this definitely reads as aristocratic youths joining the Canaries isn't per se voluntary on their families' parts. It's the elvish Suicide Squad.

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The timeline isn't making sense. When Mithrun banished the giant mushroom, it was clearly implied that it went to where and when Team Touden were when we'd last seen them, just after their first incident with the changeling mushrooms and then the dwarvish cable car. However, now the pop-up side panels are saying that Kabru and Mithrun's week in the dungeon together is happening at the same time as Team Touden goes through their shapeshifter adventure, barometz, Golden Country, griffins... Which makes sense if one assumes the Canaries & co went into the dungeon right after Kabru first spoke to them, which does seem right in terms of those characters' plotline and personal timetables. But there was no indication, when it cut over to them, that we'd suddenly gone backwards a week in the comic's timeline; indeed, the giant walking changeling mushroom incident suggested it was a single continuity...

Is this just a continuity error? Did I miss some clarifying signifier?

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Kabru: [tells Mithrun his own backstory back at him]

Mithrun: You left out the soap operatic relationships rooted in royal intrigue, which in turn was rooted in millennia of other royal intrigue.

Kabru: Yes, but I need it to be understandable to a man who's mostly just going to ask me how the goat-demon tast– I mean, uh... Your story structure was bad, so I simplified it.

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Oh shit, that's the thing Marcille is studying! She doesn't know it summons demons!

...My instinct is, "if only someone told her instead of completely outlawing the knowledge, forcing her to stumble blindly into the consequences on her own!" But, uh... I'm not sure this would actually stop her. She's very determined, and also has her share of wizard hubris. This is, of course, a driving question of the story.

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It wasn't easier to kill them? It wasn't easier to simply stop drawing magic from the infinite-power dimension?

...ok obviously not the latter, because, y'know. Fossil fuels. But seriously it wasn't easier to just kill them?

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It's sooo intersting how everyone else views Laios's love of monsters as a dangerous moral failing, when it's really just...ecologist enthusiasm. The man thinks this class of being is Neat. He is harming literally 0 people about this. He isn't even forcing anyone to eat them, just inviting them really enthusiastically and/or pointing out that this is necessary in order to achieve their shared goal of saving Falin.

Yes, obviously this could be subverted into something terrible by an encouraging demon. Just like, obviously, a desire to protect and preserve people can be! Or a desire to live happily with your loved ones! Laios isn't worse than any other Lord of a Dungeon; y'all just hate monsters!

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Kabru that is SO gay, jfc. I object on principle to the phrase "no heterosexual explanation", but--

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M! V! P! M! V! P!

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Friendship? Teamwork? Mutual respect and shared understanding of goals? Mithrun is a very useful ally because he really does Only want to stop the demon; he doesn't care about the geopolitics of it. Though his perspective is still very elvish and he definitely will kill our beloved protagonists without hesitation if they seem like they're going to be a problem.

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I would read an entire novel about the formation of the halffoot union, honest to god. I bet it was very exciting. I bet someone tried to kill Chilchuck at least once.

[journey-to-the-attic]

alright so i've just spent most of the morning catching up with nb s3 so here are my thoughts immediately in retrospect (spoilers of course)

it became very clear with the last few lessons that the writers either were on crunch time to round things up (most likely) or just could not give a shit (feels less likely, and i want to have more faith than that in them)

so i guess we're never going to find out what nightbringer's deal was? or what he meant by sending mc back in time to find happiness?

or what that prophecy was about

or how nightbringer 'made solomon the man he is'

or why barbatos was so mysteriously knowing in the opening movie, as if he had something to do with the time thing

or what the deal is with michael

story ended before we could date thirteen :(

not really to do with s3 but i wonder if they ever intended to have mc make pacts with diavolo or barbatos

thirteen and mephistopheles did not have arcs at all? there were some points where it felt like thirteen was deliberately excluded, even

raphael's arc is over so abruptly as well. he's anguished and distraught and then babel explodes but not really and he's completely fine again afterwards?

did not need lucifer to be in angel form for the master moment. and i feel like it would've hit harder for lucifer as a demon to break through the illusion anyway!!

it felt like there were so many cop-outs in general

rule of three: mc does fall from things three times in total but there doesn't seem to have been any real narrative reason for that

the last fall had a whole dramatic foreshadowing dream about it! but mc just has a brief vision and then it turns out lucifer caught them and everyone's fine

got real tired of the angel stuff.. the celestial realm's done a complete 360 in terms of its perception in the narrative and i'm really not a fan of it

simeon just. decides to keep being an angel. and it works??????

well it immediately turns him back to human apparently anyway

and the implication at the end is that he's just going to go back to being an angel, too, which... COME ON

i audibly went "oh ffs" at that part

i wasn't that mad at them just reversing the demon-simeon thing because i think the most interesting way to explore his character was to keep him human

then they kept going and i was like GUYS NO WAIT

the magical science is really frustrating because it's just close enough to real life science but a bit too hand-wavey about the magical mechanics to be interesting

beel gets done incredibly dirty in general - it felt like the majority his dialogue just continued to boil down to "i want food"

barbatos has basically nothing to do, which is crazy given the nature of nightbringer and his... you know... time powers

i really do not buy mc being totally fine after all of their exploits. surely there must be SOME physical repercussions even if they're so powerful?

the implication that the brothers are eventually going to figure out the time travel thing (and that diavolo already knows) interests me, but of course now we'll never know

the unwillingness to bring up any real conflict around mc's increasing power was really frustrating in general - couldn't the 'it does that to defend out of a manifestation of their kindness' thing have come after they genuinely struggled with it for a bit?

couldn't anyone have debated what they might have to do if mc became a danger to the devildom? because that angst could've been great

mc's magic in general isn't really handled well

the moon plot in lesson 60 felt like it was intended to be the big climax of s4, which was then hastily repurposed into the s3 finale when it was announced that the story wouldn't continue past there - it felt similar in vibe to the three-world-imbalance plotline of om s2, something that really needed a lot more time for both the build-up and fall-out

for a hot second i was convinced this was gonna be an atla 'my lover turned into the moon :/' thing but of course not

the premise of the moon plot was really good though! i can imagine a better planned season, with writers who actually had time, that could have done it really well!

the idea of 'the moon is in love with mc too' was a really funny plot point (/positive), kind of loved it

i genuinely didn't realise that the moon plot had been resolved until diavolo started making his science fair speech. i thought it had failed because mc and [demon brother] got blown up or something, and they'd have to try again

so for a good while i was just going "guys?? guys the moon? it's still coming? the big moon? it's gonna kill everyone ??"

i got excited by the chapter name 'the sleeping demon' because i thought the king was going to get involved, but it's just whichever brother you picked passing the fuck out after the moon explodes

there's a lot more routes in lesson 60 - almost certainly because they had to get in an obligatory end-of-season kiss with all the romanceables and couldn't fit them all

the generic references to 'he' and the lack of any dialogue from the other brothers during 'the sleeping demon' made it feel really stilted and awkward - i suppose they didn't have enough time to really tailor the dialogue to each brother, which is fair enough, but also the plot point of the brother passing out didn't feel necessary in the first place

if they needed a branching point to pick a brother for their obligatory kiss, they could've just had mc get moon blasted and then they can choose which brother is there when they wake up

they'd need a different plot point for the others after that, but it gets rid of the awkward references to a nameless 'he'

the thing that puzzles me is that seasons usually wrap up their big plots by the end anyway, but the pacing of the end of s3 feels like they were expecting to end at, like, lesson 70 instead - my best guess is that a pre-existing lesson 60 had to be modified to feel suitably end-game (brings me back to the idea that the moon plot was meant for a future season)

also i don't purport to know what's going on behind the scenes but at times it felt like they could have spent maybe ten more minutes adding a little more dialogue (the bonus story in lesson 60 comes to mind)

all in all... it's a weird place to end the story on. i probably still need to gather my actual feelings regarding that but right now i'm just kinda like "okay. huh. well nice knowing you guys i guess"

[brw]

Would you consider the Xmen to be neglectful. I asked because the krakoan era has made me reevaluate how I see the Xmen, and nowadays I can't help but see them in a negative light.

I think definitely up to a point, although to be perfectly honest I don't think this is an X-Men thing so much as a general superhero team. The Avengers were massively neglectful and failed hugely in the ways they treated Hank Pym, Wanda Maximoff, and Carol, and there are massive injustices with the ways in which Monica was treated, etc etc. Alpha Flight, who I've been reading a bunch of, also fail massively with Aurora, and Heather and arguably Purple Girl. Even the Fantastic Four have many issues where their members go unsupported, have their issues not taken seriously, etc etc.

So I think up to a point a lot of it is down to the fact that it's more dramatic for an audience to have a character uncared for and feeling broken and be allowed to indulge in their worst behaviour and their worst impulses. The problem, of course, is that you can really only do that plotline a couple of times before it does read as a character or team as being horrific friends who mistreat the people around them. Janet, as an example; I am massively sympathetic to Janet in the context of Yellowjacket. I think she was young, she was scared, and she was in a position where actually trying to have a conversation with her teammates about her husband's clearly declining mental health would have likely resulted in him being institutionalised. She was caught in a horrible position where he is unstable, clearly so, and a danger to both himself and other people, but she can't reach out to anyone because the last time she did they stuck him in an electric chair. But Janet in the buildup to Avengers Disassembled? All that sympathy leaves me. Because Janet at that point should know better. She should know far better than to ignore the warning signs of someone clearly mentally unstable, because it has resulted in tragedy before, which she has a direct and very personal experience in. And the vibe there is that Janet simply is a neglectful person, and a bad friend to the people around her who would rather prioritise keeping a fun party atmosphere than look after the people around her.

She's just one example, but my point is that I think a lot of superhero teams end up being neglectful to their members simply by proxy of the soap opera elements of the genre that have defined it for ages. But I also do think it's fair enough to also want more calling out of this behaviour, which never really happens, and extended periods of resentment are rare unless they're villians. Carol, very understandably told the Avengers to take a hike for what they let happen to her, but that resentment and fury isn't there anymore. Hank only ever got angry at the Avengers in any way when Ultron was puppettering his corpse around, so that barely counts, Jeanne Marie was allowed to briefly divorce herself from her brother, but no mentions of his abrasive, misogynistic and ableist behaviour is found in any contemporary comics, and I can't recall any time Wanda was allowed to be furious at the Avengers for what they allowed to happen to her because of their neglect and mistreatment.

Anyway. Yes, I do think the X-Men are certainly neglectful to many of their teammates, but for me, this is also just a general part of the cape comic genre as a whole, so I don't necessarily blame them for it as a specifically X-Men issue, however there are certainly characters like Kwannon and Hank and Warren and whoever else who I think do deserve a bit of righteous fury, because I think it makes for interesting team drama and is often nice for an audience to see.

[sorcerersandskillusers]

This probably isn't the final arc of BSD

A lot of people seem to think that the Decay of Angels are the final antagonists of bsd and that the series is gonna end after their defeated.

But I highly doubt that, there is way too much that has been left unexplored, and so many important plot lines to resolve.

I think this arc if more of a precursor arc to establish the effects of The Book and introduce more key players into the story, as well and round off many characters arcs.

I have a few reasons for thinking this:

1: This arc is about the page not the book.

2: Agatha Christy, Despite being hyped up through out the whole series we haven't seen her properly yet

3: The currently unresolved plot lines

1. The number one thing that makes me sure this isn't the final arc is the fact that this conflict isn't over The Book. The Page which is the centre of the DOA's plan's is just a tiny fragment of the real prize and the end goal of this arc is just for the Agency to undo everything the DOA did with the page.

This mad dash for the book hasn't even started yet, but I think I know what will start it-

Ranpo announced the existence of the page to the entire world, and the DOA are currently proving just how powerful it is. Once the current vampire crisis is over, there's no way loads of dangerous and powerful skill users aren't going to come storming into Yokohama to try and get it. Setting the stage to move into the final arc.

2. Through out bsd we hear about how Europe is the centre of gifted power in the world. Ability users like Fyodor, Gogol, Bram, Verlain... all come from Europe and they also produced the only Skill weapons we've seen so far in the series. Despite this we've only seen brief glimpses of The Order Clock Tower, who seem to be the main gifted organisation in Europe.

She appears in the same sequence as Fyodor and Fitzgerald, and if you go in reverse order you get the order of the antagonists:

Fitzgerald, Fyodor and maybe Agatha?

All this makes me sure that she will lead Europe in its attempt to seize the Book and will probably be the final antagonist of the series or at least one of them.

3. We still have tons of unresolved plotlines in bsd, so heres a list of the ones I think will be important.

Tanizaki's character arc and history .

What are abilities really?

Who wrote Sigma?

We need to meet the Transcendents ?

What the fuck is Steinbeck up to?

Adam and Shirase, they were clearly both sent to london for a reason and it was teased in Stormbringer that Shirase was going to make a return.

What is the Storm that Verlaine is waiting for?

The transfer of a detective to the Mafia.

Who were the seven traitors?

And of course Dazai's full history.

I'm sure I missed loads, and maybe some of these will get resolved in this arc.

Anyway I defiantly think there is at least one more arc to come, and I have some theories about Fyodor's involvement in it that Ill post later.

[quirkwizard]

Assuming that Mustard didn’t get caught how do you think he and his Quirk might have evolved? Like what do you think he would be like as a character if he stuck around more? Maybe he could have some form of telekinesis over his gas so he can either avoid his allies or hit his enemies with dense clusters while letting him function without his mask.

While I do have some ideas for how "Sleep Gas" could change, even I'm willing to admit they aren't that varied or noteworthy. So while I can still try to writing about that if you want, I'm focusing more on the story since that is way more interesting to talk about.

The issue with Mustard as a character is that there isn't a lot to springboard off of. I've already talked about the issues with using his powers. However, I just don't think there's an interesting hook with him from what we've seen. Like, what story would you tell with him? What commentary would you make about the world, like the other League members? I suppose you could go the route of how the world can't handle "bad" Quirks and the feelings that come from that. However, that's rather redundant since that's the case with the whole League. Now, if I were rewriting things from the ground up, I think I'd have him take on the role of the Stain fanboy. Look, I like that as Spinner's gimmick, but it doesn't really end up going anywhere or relating as much to his story, especially in the final arc. A lot of it is either focused on the comradery with the League or the mutant plotline. With this, it gives Mustard something and allows Spinner's plotline some more focus before the final arc, focusing more on "kid in way over his head in with a bad crowd" with Mustard.

With the traits given, you could focus on his apparent vendetta against the Hero Course kids and how they have it easy. You could extrapolate this into being a failed hero student because of his Quirk, someone who can't see himself as a success unless they are a hero because of how much heroes dominate the world, or someone who himself is inferior to more powerful classmates. Because of this, he acts out and becomes a villain, admonishing any and all heroes and talking about how he's. Kind of like those people who make it by doing something only to then act like it's all a sham. This could then evolve into him having some interesting interactions later on with the MLA, considering how they view the usage of Quirks and could be used as a counterpoint to their plans, as people freely using their Quirks could be dangerous in his case. And during the final battle, he could go up against Ojiro, Sato, and Sero, thinking about how much he had to evolve as opposed to the "spoiled heroes". The irony being they've had to train more than anyone else because of how weak their powers are.

[bonesandthebees]

Okay so I'm just about to start part 3 age of fire of adofn and I have SO MANY THOUGHTS. Not even half way through yet but omg Samantha Shannon you have done it again.

First I absolutely love the Priory plotline in the South with Tunuva, Esbar and Siyu. I love sapphic romances with all my heart and especially with representation for older women. Give me two middle aged women loving each other fuck yeah !!!! I adore how it tackles how some people lose faith in their religion when they feel lost / disconnected to it. Of course some sisters of the Priory, especially the younger ones or ones who have been away from the tree for a long time would not see the point in it anymore as they have not seen the danger the world could be in. Very excited to see how Esbar is going to be as the Prioress as I'm assuming that Saghul has finally kicked the bucket judging by the last scene w Tuva and just generally how she will deal with the draconic plague and the whole general disruption she's going to have to deal w so early in her time as the Prioress and how things will change with her in charge.

Glorian my absolute beloved, I want to shield her from everything that is wrong in the world. Her and Sabran's relationship is so unbelievably tragic I am so insane about them and the fact they will never get to make up and Glorian won't ever know how much her mother truly loves her because she will forever live in her mind as the cold queen. Sabran had an uphill battle to climb when she became queen and while her reign marked the end of the century of discontent, she would always be compared to the three that came before her because the wound was still so fresh and she knew Glorian would also be subjected to that and just wanted to prepare her for it but all Glorian wanted was to know that her mother loved her like her father did and I just ugh. Also I love her relationship w her dad, they are so cute and it's such a nice contrast in how the two parents were raised / their environments. Where he wants to show affection to Glorian and ensure she doesn't ever question that she is loved, Sabran wants to make sure she can survive the courts even at the cost of their relationship. IT'S ALL JUST SUCH GOOD CHARACTISATION !!!

And I love her friendship with Wulf, they are so cute especially with the sparring match and I know from the Priory that he holds like a high position in her court as a knight or smth so really excited to see how their relationship develops following Glorian's coronation.

DUMAI !!!! GOD I LOVE HOW WE GET A LOOK AT THE POLITICS AND CELEBRATIONS OF SEIIKI MORE HERE!!! Dumai is my favourite lesbian absolutely love her so much. Watching her traverse the court tensions as everyone's eyes are on her and she has few allies that actually want to see her on the throne is soooo good. And her being the first dragonrider in centuries !!! That's my girl !!! I wonder if this is the start of like the dragonriding training & the sea guard being founded as seen in Priory w Tané since the long haired comet is on its way and I believe that's what causes the Seiikinese dragons to be more powerful rather than the fire wyrms if I'm remembering how their magic works right but I could be wrong lol.

Anyway I'm gonna get back to reading, will update on my progress again (at some point)

I hope you're having a great night/day Bee :))

- 🦈

AAAAA SHARK ANON I'M SO GLAD YOU'RE ENJOYING IT SO FAR you're making me want to reread adofn but I have to finish my current book before the end of the year oh nooooo

ok putting this under a read more bc this is going to be a wall of me rambling

god yes the priory plotline with esbar and tunuva is SO good. I absolutely love those two, they're such an enduring and loving couple with such a strong bond but it's also so nice to see the struggles they go through. I love seeing their differences especially when it comes to siyu and how they deal with that. it's also especially interesting seeing how the priory functioned before the dragons came back and how some of the girls were even starting to doubt what they were training for because it had been so long since the founding. it's a very understandable and interesting glimpse into things compared to how we see the priory in ead's time.

GLORIAN IS MY BABY OH MY GOD. I love her so much. sooooo much. my darling. my child. she deserves the world. her and sabran's relationship is SO tragic because you can understand exactly why sabran is the way she is with glorian. she bore an impossible weight of bringing inys out of the darkness it had fallen under during the rule of her predecessors at such a young age and she also had the burden of trying to ensure things didn't fall back into that darkness after her reign. she wanted glorian to be prepared but that led to glorian feeling as though she was never good enough for her mother. her father is soooo sweet her relationship with him is so dear, but in a way it's also understandable why he's able to be the favored parent with her. she barely ever sees him since he has to rule his own country most of the year so it's far easier to be the loving, light-hearted parent when you only ever see your kid once a year or so compared to being the parent that actually has to properly raise them. and it also like you said really shows the difference in her parents upbringing. sabran has suffered from the generational trickle down of abuse while bardholt didn't have the same struggles. you're so right it's just such incredible characterization and oughhh my poor baby glorian suffers because of it.

wulf and glorian's relationship is one of my favorite dynamics in the entire book. you'll understand why as the story progresses but god I just love their friendship so much. they're so dear to each other and have such a sweet, trusting relationship. I can't wait for you to see where things go with the two of them.

DUMAI YESSSS I absolutely adored getting to see so much of Seiiki's politics in this one. dumai is in such a tragic position because she never wanted any of this in the first place but she has to suddenly play these royal games for the sake of the entire country. all she ever wanted was to become the maiden officiant of the temple but suddenly she has to be a princess and try to prevent her father from being overthrown. I absolutely can't wait for you to see more of what dumai gets up to because the second half of her story is really where things get interesting with her (and some other characters in her story will become veryyyy important very soon you'll see what I mean)

so so happy you're enjoying shark pls update me more as you get further along

[villainsandvictimsalliance]

So my man what do you think of how bnha act 3 has treated the villains so far?

I think it's going exactly the way the story hinted it would. No surprises there.

In terms of narrative, people should give Horikoshi his flowers. MHA might not be as flashy as other mangas, but Horikoshi keeps it consistent and to the point. I'm glad that he doesn't sacrifice the writing of a plotline in order to create flashier or more action based fights. I'm also glad he's been with the villains' ideologies and their reasons to do what they do.

It's funny, the hero side might be the one who's more surprised with the current outcome of the final showdown. You have moments like Ochako risking it all for Toga, which is a dream come true for villain fans yet might be hard to process for other people. I'm personally satisfied with how the author treated the Enji and Dabi plotline, because in the end it was not Shoto who alone could do a miracle. A bit of a "family issues must be solved by the whole family" opinion, but I'm glad to see Rei, Natsuo and Fuyumi getting involved. They all had the spotlight in a heartwarming moment to stop and help Touya. They all took responsibility for their role in what happened to their family.

So far, so good.

To be honest, my perception is that Horikoshi has great respect for some of his villain characters. He has so far dedicated a lot of the story to Tomura alone, to his connection with Izuku. At least when it comes to the League, sacrifices are not simply plot twists, you know? They held meaning, they're respectful to the character.

I can't say the same for other antagonists and villains, tho. It's understandable, those secondary characters won't receive as much screen time and that's okay. It's just a bit sad to think that some of them have a lot of potential, but the story keeps them backstage. I certainly miss seeing some of the members of the Meta Liberation Army, for example. I loved the implications of corruption of power in the hero society. I miss Lady Nagant too, I can't wait to see her reaction to knowing that AFO is finally dead. Right now I wonder what the hell Horikoshi had planned for Hawks, lol. Every time I think his plotline is getting kickstarted, it runs for a second before stopping again. If he's there it's because there are unfinished businesses with him, maybe we will finally get a resolution on his connection with Toga and his past with Twice, but that's for later.

I have faith in Horikoshi, I guess. He has shown us that he does what the story demands and doesn't change the course of it for the public as much as other mangakas do. That is what movies are for.

I'm sure we'll see Spinner and Compress again, but most of all I'm curious worried about Kurogiri. I insist that the resolution between Kurogiri and Aizawa and Yamada will wreck me. In my wildest dreams I see Kurogiri begin for Tomura's life aka to save him, to give him a chance. I saw Aizawa's face when he heard Kurogiri talk about Tomura. He knew it was not only an order, but also a part of Oboro still alive. Oboro would do anything to help someone in danger, he'd pick any stray cat, give his life for anyone. I'm on the edge of my seat with that trio. Teachers on opposite sides of the war, once friends. Don't even get me going about Yamada and Kurogiri. Whenever I think of Mic and his role in that situation, it's pure torture.

If you ask me, I'm getting what I wanted. Act 3 has been great. It got a little boring for me when the whole focus was fighting AFO (I don't know why, maybe AFO is just not my favorite character to focus on). The rest? Amazing. Beautiful panels and drawing style, emotional instances that reveal the heart of the villains, their determination and dreams were respected, they got treated for once as real humans and not just villains... I'm behaving like a total kid with what is happening with Deku and Tomura in the 415 chapter.

Now, post-battle is another matter. We will cross that bridge when we get there, but they must be all alive and well or I'm ending what the League started and taking this whole world down with me (I'm not exaggerating at all haha why you ask?)

[myloveforhergoeson]

i really think one of the craziest parts of btrtv was their school situation like. yeah we never see them in school after the second season but in theory they were getting an education and i simply think the writers handled it in the only way they could. let me explain.

typically young people in the entertainment industry are schooled either through the company they work for or through their parents. obviously, since btrtv was aimed at a younger audience they couldn't just not have the boys go to school - what kind of example would that set for the viewers? moving to hollywood equals never having to learn again?

while i was thinking about this topic earlier i was trying to come up with some different ways the show could have gone about this but managed only a few examples:

jennifer could homeschool them. but when? she's barely at the apartment as is and would have to juggle two different curriculums, one for the boys and one for katie. we already know thanks to bt school of rocque she also isn't caught up on modern schooling practices. plus i feel like, though she is their mother in many ways, she'd have difficulty controlling those 5 for 4 straight hours. i feel like they'd always be able to convince her to run off on a tangent instead of actually teaching them anything. next!

the boys could have been enrolled in regular high school. in theory, this would work for maybe a few months. until their first tour at the very least but after that i believe it would likely be dangerous for them to leave the sanctity of the palm woods or rocque records and venture out into the real world. while this could open up plotlines like people only wanting to be friends with them for their fame, crazy fans finding out where they learn, the boys being in trouble for being a genuine safety risk to other students when the paps follow them to school... seemed like more trouble than it's worth! also pretty similar to the plot of jonas which was airing at the same time on disney channel. next!

school at rocque records... had potential i believe. if gustavo had put the proper amount of funding to a quality space and quality teachers, i think the boys would have (aside from generally hating school) been alright there. while not ideal, it could have served it's purpose for the whole four hours they'd have to spend in school. it's very similar to how most industry kids learn now. in addition, they could have worked hard to graduate early, as many industry kids do, but i also believe this would have been a hard plot point to achieve. overall, i'd rank this option pretty high for the guys - it could have had everything they needed, except for the socialization they so desperately craved. next!

online school? in the early 2000's? yeah right. next!

this brings us to what i see as the final option, being of course, school at the palm woods. while not ideal, it does serve all of the boys needs to the best of the writers abilities. i do, however, feel the need to speak on the quality of education they are being granted. no shade to miss collins, i know that poor woman is doing her best and juggling probably six or seven grades worth of curriculum in her classroom, but as someone who was in a split grade class (4/5 when i was in 4th grade, 5/6 when i was in 5th grade!) i can assure you she was not giving her full attention to any of the grade levels she was trying to teach. i'm so sorry they set you up for failure queen.

while this probably worked out in the end for the guys (logan can snatch all A's and look amazing on college/med school applications and his friends could just coast by on the grades they need to pass) i think the episode in which they come back from tour and earn their final grades speaks the most to the education they're afforded. no way they (logan really) did weeks worth of work in one afternoon and earned straight c's lol. hope the band lasts forever and ever and ever after btrtv ends because if not... yikes.

but at the same time... i think this was the best option for schooling both from a writers perspective and the band's needs! socialization, check! normal school events like dancing, check! adequate enough education (how much do they really learn in four hours anyway?), check! it always fits into their working schedules. and it's union-approved! while not ideal, at the very least it's something.

in all, good luck boys! hope miss collins offers some office hours if you ever have questions... maybe there's a reason we never got to see them graduate <3

[walker-extended-universe]

4x07 Review

The writer's threw us a bone and gave us a somewhat lighter episode this week, probably to make up for the angst coming at us in "Witt's End". That's not to say "Hold Me Now" is without its share of strife- the Walker family continues to deliver on the dramatics (and I wouldn't have them any other way).

Today, I'm going to shake things up a bit and focus more on specific characters rather than specific plots. That's just the way it's lining up in my head with how condensed the plotlines were this episode.

Let's start off with the shortest character line this episode: Abby and Bonham's Great Retirement Debate.

This one starts with Bonham complimenting Liam's PT. During this conversation, Bonham finds out that Ben and Abby are officially going into business together with their wedding planning at the ranch, something that catches Bonham by surprise. Abby can do as she pleases, but this is his ranch too and, as her husband, he should know more about what she's up to.

Later, after his and Stella's quick self defense lesson, he confronts Abby on her making that choice without him. After all, this is not his idea of what their retirement looks like. Abby rebuffs him and makes an odd comment about supporting her son's dreams and they get into a staring contest, leaving Stella in a very awkward situation.

I'm not gonna lie, this is one of my least favorite stories they've given us this season. I understand they need to give these characters something to do but this whole thing feels trite compared to what's going on in the rest of the show and it doesn't seem to fit their relationship much, especially with all the development they had. At least the other characters are having interesting reactions to it.

Moving on, let's look at what Stella was up to this episode.

We see that Stella finally recieved footage of the break-in at her dorm but there's not much to go on and campus police don't seem interested in doing anything (related too hard to that one). She's also getting more desperate texts from Witt about the necklace. When August once again points out that they should probably loop Cordell in, she again rejects it. At this point, they're in too deep and telling him would only land them in more trouble.

August makes another good point in telling her they need to play a little offense. Until they get the necklace, she's in danger. If she won't get protection from their dad, she needs to learn how to take better care of herself. This prompts her to go back home. While she was looking for Cordell, she finds Bonham and he's more than happy to give her some self-defense lessons. Let's hope that's enough.

Next, let's talk August.

This one starts off in the morning, with Cordell and August talking in the kitchen. August offers to do a make-up family dinner when Geri gets back from her trip and Cordell accepts, acknowledging that he may have been wrong about why he and Stella went AWOL. However, August is still stuck with a 5pm curfew.

This is also the day of his bootcamp graduation, which is the entire crew finishing an obstacle course. Everyone who finishes the course in under 8 minutes will be a step ahead at the military training. Durin ghte early practice run we see August is at the head of the pack and one student is struggling more than the others. Trey reminds them that it's never too late to help otu a struggling trooper as they all need to be able to rely on each other before they break to run it again.

We pick up here when it's time for the actual run. August runs the course very well, so well that he's on track to break a record. But, just as he's about to finish, we see him look behind to see the student who was struggling from earlier. After a moment of hesitation, he runs back to give the student advice and encourage him through the rest of the course. Both of them still finish on time and Trey looks on with pride.

Side note: Trey has officially made it up to August for lying to him about still being a guidance counselor way back at the end of season 2.

While everyone is celebrating, we see a brief flash of disappointment on August's face when he processes that Cordell wasn't there to witness it. He puts a smile back on when Trey comes over to congratulate him and ask if he's ready for bootcamp. For the first time, we see August hesitate a bit about his military career as he says he's not sure and that he has a lot of options. Whether this indecision is related to Cordell's absence is unclear but it's nice to see him considering other options for his life.

Up next (for better or for worse) is Cassie and her work/life dilemna.

We start with Cassie arriving at work- and Luna arriving right behind her. We also get her calling him by his first name, David. As they head to the conference room to get back to the case, we get a conversation about their potential relationship- or rather why Cassie doesn't really want to explore one publicly. Not only is she up for lieutenant, but after everything with Kevin she doesn't want to rush into another workplace relationship. Luna respects that but we still get some playful banter.

Side note: I'm glad to hear there are candidates from outside the office; I feel like that makes this all more suspenseful than if it was just Trey and Cassie.

Cordell immediately gets them all focused on the job, starting with running down the suspect lists to make sure they have up-to-date information. While this doesn't seem to lead them much of anywhere at first, Cordell points them at a potential lead which- unfortunately- doesn't lead much of anywhere. Cassie and Luna are both disappointed, but understanding. It wasn't that likely that a grainy security camera that caught a partial on a guy's face would grant them a concrete lead right away. However, they both notice that Cordell is taking this whole case very hard and won't listen to anyone who tells him to take it easy.

This only adds to how overwhelmed Cassie feels by the case. The Jackal is not going to be an easy killer to catch and now she's seen it wreack havoc on both rangers and civilians. She asks Luna for advice on how he keeps it all from getting to him and he has an idea: karaoke.

While Cassie is apprehensive of this idea at first, she's more than happy to try it out. And we the audience are treated to both of them singing in between them getting closer to each other. While it does seem like their relationship is moving a bit fast, I can't blame Cassie one bit for wanting to jump on that.

Side note: I refuse to believe anyone would cheat on Luna.

The next day, Cassie and Luna are more than willing to leave the office after James dismisses them from a good day's work. However, Cordell's reluctance to move on gives them pause. They listen to Cordell's questionable theory on the zookeeper and, when Cassie realizes he's not going going to let it go, she offers to go with him and Luna is right behind her.

The zoo search is short but intense and, surprisingly, they do find something. Whether this is related to the Jackal or not is still up in the air but it's enough to call in the cavalry and check it out. While this is all going on, James takes the time to let Cassie know he approves of her and Luna, even though it's none of his business. This gives Cassie the confidence she needs to hold Luna's hand at the crime scene, which is a very sweet moment.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for: Let's talk about Cordell.

As we all predicted would happen the moment he picked up that notebook, Cordell is completely throwing himself into this case. It's clear he's taking his responsibility as leader seriously in James' stead and he's not going to let his old partner down again. He's not going to stop until this lunatic is off the streets, regardless of the consequences.

At least, that's the intensity he gives off at work while he struggles to make connections between their potential leads and what little they know about the Jackal. I noticed he relied heavily on James' personal notes during this episode, which I think speaks a lot to the trust between them. Even though Cordell knew this case made James a bit crazy, he's still trusting his old partner's judgement here.

While he's leading the game at work, he's letting things slide at home, missing out on family dinner in favor of eating cereal and reading James' notebook again. When Abby tries to confront him on this, he assures her that everything is fine. He just has work to do. She accepts that answer, but I doubt that will last very long.

After the disenheartening failure of their first lead, Cordell seems more determined than ever to find some kind of connection between the Jackal and their suspect list, diving down to a former zookeeper that doesn't really have any of the hallmarks they're looking for. He's so determined to find that connection that he's willing to risk missing August's bootcamp graduation to check out the old zoo, which just happens to be near the Jackal's first kill. Despite the stretch of the lead and the fact that this could wait a day, he insists on going right away and lets Cassie and Luna tag along.

Side note: I have to wonder if he really thought he could search a whole zoo and make it back in time for August.

As they search the zoo, Cordell finds footprints in the mud and soon finds a strange figure to hunt down. He gets close, but doesn't get their man, getting a concussion and a good look at his shoes instead. While it's more than they had before, he's not satisfied. He wants to catch the Jackal above all else, even at risk to his own life.

Later, he comes home with his work duffle to find Liam sitting at his dining table. And he's got a lot to say, starting with berating Cordell for missing August's event. This leads into him pointing out how he's been ignoring Stella's needs after the break in. He then goes as far as to compare this current case to the Rodeo Kings mission- Cordell leaving his kids behind for work and leaving Liam to pick up the pieces.

Cordell brushes him off, insisting that he- and his kids- are fine and Liam can back very far off. Liam leaves the house in a huff, leaving Cordell to go back to his Jackal Investigation Porch, where he drops the duffle bag. He puts on gloves and we see that the bag is full of evidence, including some rope. We then get a very odd sequence where Cordell wraps the wrist around his own wrist and gets flashes of images of similar rope going over a victim's wrists. Which leaves us with the very big question of: What the fuck?

And that wraps up this week's episode. As usual, I'm left with far more questions than answers. Why does this retirement plot with Abby and Bonham need to be dragged out so long? Why did they tease us with Liam being an addict and just drop it? Will August ever convince Stella to own up to everything? Why is Luna so perfect and does that mean he's the Jackal?

Hopefully we'll start getting more answers next week. See y'all then!

[maychild]

ep 7 the sign

i didn't get tharn apologizing to phaya (and i really thought they would parallel that but so far it's only been phaya saying sorry so many times now!! it's like dudeee, once is enough, cuz yeah, u shouldn't go around assaulting people but from tharn??? zip nada zilch...it's making me so mad. and i love tharn, i do, he's a precious bean, but i need him to admit when he's wrong too. i dont think that's asking for too much).

i loved the sex scene, i did, and the whole convo leading up it gave me a lot of butterflies but...

i keep saying i'm not disappointed, but sitting with it, i still don't know what to call it *but* disappointment.

and dont get me wrong: i'm obsessed with phayatharn, and that sex scene was so beautiful and emotional, but the whole pacing felt off. i just honestly thought they moved wayyy too fast. they did confess to each other, but did anything truly get resolved??? phaya is all for the relationship and has been from day 1, but tharn still has his issues and they're not going to go away after one night together--one veeeery steamy and hot night together, sure, but phaya is still going to be in danger, and phaya's still going to die so *hands* i just needed them to talk more and clear more things up, have something concrete that made tharn change his mind and attend that dinner with phaya and his family and have that emotional conversation with phaya...because as it stands right now, it feels like tharn's change in attitude came out of nowhere. was he just tired of pushing phaya away?? and didn't want to anymore? not that i need everything laid out explicitly for me but tharn's character remains very much a mystery.

because tharn said "don't force me" and it honestly felt like phaya DID force him. (everything was consensual of course, except for the part where the sex showed up to hastily move along the phayatharn relationship, and not even organically.)

i loved the ep, i did, it was exciting, and of course, the best parts for me were the phayatharn bits, but the writing let me down. and i dont have high hopes for future episodes fixing their pacing issues or copaganda. i fear those parts are here to stay (esp. considering we have only five eps left + the special episode and we haven't really ramped up the full plotline with dr. slow motion--he's still hidden deep in the shadows, not fully revealed but on the outer edges, so to speak, spying, and being manipulative, and shady, so that we never forget he's around but he's very much still "just" a side character).

anyway, the tl;dr of it all is that the phayatharn chemistry remains stellar and why we're all rooting for them, but the writing isn't up to par.

[wutheringmights]

Do you have any random ctb lore that you couldn’t fit into the story for any of the characters/plotlines?

I've been kicking around the idea of doing a short one-shot about Icarius and Nephus's backstory in the style of STP, just to explore their fucked-up dynamic. Neither of them are really main characters, so I can't really derail the whole story to go into more detail than I have already provided.

Here's a few scattered ideas involving them:

Icarius is probably 2-3 years older than Nephus, which meant that Icarius was Nephus's caretaker and much more the one in charge of Nephus than he should have been

Nephus's friends and family refer to him as Vas (I think this is in the story somewhere, actually)

Nephus is the youngest son in a huge family, which basically meant that he had a lot of money growing up but no responsibility to go along with it-- because all of his siblings were so much older than him, he really clung to Icarius as a peer

Nephus's fascination with Hyrule began when he read a book of myths about the various Heroes of Hyrule

Everything Icarius learned was so that Nephus would have a partner/assistant for all of his activities, which includes education (like learning Hylian) and sports (Icarius ended up being much better at boxing and wrestling than Nephus)

That being said, Icarius has always had a smart mouth that has gotten him in trouble. Nephus always had to bail him out

They both have always been a little possessive of the other. Icarius was jealous of Nephus's friends and flings while Nephus was suspicious that anyone who was nice to Icarius would try to take him away

Icarius was very isolated from the rest of the thralls; like Nephus, any other thrall of his station would have been much older than him and those who were his age saw him as narc

Icarius did have a family though: mom, dad, grandparents, and siblings

Nephus's mentor in school was his father's political enemy. That relationship ended up saving him. When a house is sentenced, it's traditional to leave a member alive so that it doesn't die out completely. This mentor advocated for Nephus to be spared both because he was perceived as harmless and because he could be controlled.

Icarius was almost executed with his family-- he was yanked out of the execution line at the last minute because he was deemed Nephus's property

After he was spared, Nephus and Icarius made a bloodpact to exact revenge and rehaul Faovaria in their image-- this of course meant Nephus got his shit together and grew the fuck up

(dialogue that should have happened:

warriors: fuck faovaira! foavaria sucks!

nephus & icarius: we know that and we want to destroy it too)

Nephus's power nowadays comes from that mentor who spared him

Because Faovaria is a military state, Nephus and Icarius joined the military in order to gain more social power

Nephus's campaign in Hyrule is literally just a stepping stone for gathering enough power in Faovaria-- conquer the unconquerable Hyrule and bring back a weapon that no one has seen yet

Oh, remember when Ganondorf said that Nephus had sent a woman to ask if he could look at the library? That was Icarius in drag

Nephus and Icarius saw a lot of places in Hyrule on their travels, including Castle Town, the Zora's Domain, and the town surrounding the Knight's Citadel. They were smart enough to not ping Lincoln's attention, but they definitely attended a sermon at the same temple Warriors went to that one time

Icarius did not tell Nephus who Link was until they were hundreds of miles away from Kakariko, and only because he knew it would piss Nephus off

(Nephus, trying to flirt: aren't you glad you didn't run away with that Hylian loser?

Icarius, who has been a little pissed off all day: oh, you mean the Hero of Hyrule?

Nephus: the

Nephus: the WHAT?????)

Nephus's worsening treatment towards Icarius was a gradual change; like boiling water, Icarius didn't really realize that things were getting dangerous for him until it was too late

The day Icarius realized that Nephus wasn't different from any other Faovarian, that Nephus's feelings for him weren't anything as dynamic or complicated as his own-- that Nephus didn't see him as anything other than an object to possess... it genuinely destroyed his whole world

Philo was literally this orphan Faovarian kid they found on the streets; Icarius was the one who insisted they take him home. It took a while for Nephus to warm up to him.

Icarius could tell his relationship with Nephus was falling apart, and taking in Philo was a way for him to fix things. Like getting pregnant to fix a broken marriage.

That was a terrible analogy. Basically, if Nephus wouldn't value him then Icarius wanted someone who will

As you can probably guess, their dynamic greatly resembled the Brothers' at first. Icarius cared and doted on Philo, and Philo relied on him for love while seeking Nephus's approval. Meanwhile, Nephus was just annoyed that there's this brat ruining his life. Things changed when he realized Philo was a dark magic prodigy. Icarius didn't want Philo to get involved in the fighting while Philo wanted to be useful, and add that Nephus's treatment towards Icarius was always worsening...

Philo witnessed Icarius getting his tongue chopped out. Philo did not take it well, and he tries to rationalize it as being something Icarius deserved

The thing is that nothing special triggered it. Icarius was being his usual smartass self when Nephus just snapped

Philo clings to Nephus as much as he does because if he doesn't make Nephus happy, then Nephus might do the same to him

Meanwhile, Philo has picked up on how Nephus and others treat Icarius; so while Philo had previously regarded Icarius like a brother, he often treats Icarius like he is below him now

And poor Icarius is more isolated than ever: he can't talk, he's all alone, he can't trust Nephus, and Philo won't listen to him

Nephus waffles between knowing he's irrevocably fucked up and believing he was 100% right-- either way, he bulldozes through Icarius's feelings to continue acting like everything is normal and it's still them against the rest of Faovaria, and they only need each other

He does not know he is exactly the thing he hates

It's all a big mess

[tsarinatorment]

i've been keeping up with eclipse and I love it but I do wonder: if you were chained to a desk and told to write a nico & will book- presumably like rick was- what would that be like? their ending in tower of nero always felt different from the others to me; like everyone else is moving on with their lives and finding their place, but nico and will are still at camp half-blood, and they're both year rounders.

Hi, anon! I'm glad you're loving Eclipse :D I had a lot of fun writing it and the reception it's got so far has been amazing - almost overwhelmingly so, at times, given the amount of people so far who have told me they prefer it to TSATS...

As for what would I write if I was told to write a Solangelo book... I'm actually not going to go into any real detail here because I'm actually working on a new longfic right now which is exactly that - taking the epilogue of TON as it is and drawing that out into a Solangelo-focused quest rather than the detour I took with Eclipse, so hopefully you'll see that appearing in a few months' time :D

I will give a few little hints, though:

More Will-centric plotlines and story. I love Nico, but one of my main issues with the overall TSATS concept long before it was published was that Nico's story arc seemed to be over (he's found his place, he's in therapy etc.) so I wasn't sure what exactly Rick thought he could do with him that didn't ruin what he'd already achieved... Will, on the other hand, has a lot of untapped potential to unlock still, so I want to highlight him a bit more here

Supportive, healthy, Solangelo. I don't believe that you need to put a rift or relationship drama in a story just for the sake of it. We see so much of this healthy support in TOA that I'd love to keep going with that, expanding upon it. That's not to say that they're each other's yes-men, of course, but small disagreements that they resolve with respect for each other's points of view? Always good

Apollo and Hades ares still present and involved. I've actually described working on this plot so far as feeling like I'm having to bat Apollo away with a cardboard tube, because he still doesn't want them to go on a dangerous quest, but also this time I'm not letting him lock them up and go in their place, otherwise that would defeat the whole object of doing a different fic on a similar premise

Plot twists. I'm not saying what they are, but I will say that this quest is probably not going to go the way people think it is - not even Nico and Will!

Regarding your comment about how it feels like all the others are getting on with their lives while Will and Nico are still at camp - Jason's death broke Piper, and Leo's found a family that works better for him than camp did. The likes of Percy and Annabeth are off to university.

But Nico and Will are younger than them. It's difficult to remember at times, especially with Nico because he's been floating in and around the main story since TTC, but as of the end of TOA they're both fifteen, to Percy's nearly eighteen. There's two and a half to three years between them and the original PJO (human) cast, there's about two years between them and the HOO cast - it makes sense that they still have years left at camp. Percy's story as the camp's Big Three Kid has come to an end, and good for him - Nico is now the one stepping up into that role. In many ways, Nico's story, or at least this new, better, chapter of his life, is just beginning. Let him have fun at camp, let him be the child he's suppressed and get up to mischief! Let Will take time to be less responsible, less in charge of not just a full cabin of siblings but also the entire camp's health, and be a child himself. It's true that neither of them will be fully free of their responsibilities, or their trauma, but they've still got so much time to adapt in CHB's understanding environment.

Really, they shouldn't be forced into another Big Thing at all, but we're also looking at the Olympic Revolution looming threateningly in the background, the natural progression that the overarching story Rick's been telling is heading towards, and of course we have this quest teased in TON - which, again, I think should be far more geared towards focusing on Will and his trauma rather than rehashing what we already know and have seen resolved, as much as trauma can ever be resolved, with Nico.

[gatheryourships]

So, because @gunslingerorchid asked, here's a post about my self-insert Tav, Rosenna.

-

I’ll be honest I don’t have a whole lot about her fleshed out. And even trying to write this up for you, so much got changed and rewritten a number of times, and even this response is a complete start over from the very long and honestly confused lore bit I wrote.

Basically what I wrote for the fake BG3 intro post I reblogged on here is pretty much all I got, lmao. But I’ll try to give some more info, as much as I got nailed down right now. Maybe some more that’s not so concrete yet either.

Um, so. Rosenna is an only child, born and raised by a farmer and his wife (last name undetermined) in a little hamlet (also name undetermined) located along the Chionthar river a little ways down from Baldur’s Gate.

Right around that little nook maybe, where the red dot is. I still haven’t decided which side of the river it’s on. But around that area. So that’s it’s between the Fields of the Dead and the Woods of Sharp Teeth.

Rose (for short) lived a nice, little life with her parents. Helped her mom with house chores and what not as commoner daughters do. Also helped her dad a little with the farm - probably a bit less common for daughter to do, but eh. She likes helping and only doing house chores drove her crazy. And it’s something different so she was fine with it, despite getting a little dirty sometimes because of it. Also it was spending time with dad, so… That’s nice. xD

From a young age, Rose had been immersed with stories about heroes. Not necessarily intentionally mind you. Just parents telling their kid stories, censored versions of course. And from there, as she grew up, just got into reading stories about heroes herself.

And between having a good, kind, caring heart and just being a feisty, determined woman who only wants to do right she naturally felt an inclination towards such a life.

However… her mother had another plans for her. Not out of ill-will, just normal life plans that a commoner daughter would typically live. Help her mother until she (Rose) found someone to marry, which her parents were starting to push that onto her, except Rose didn’t have much interest in that. (Yet, anyways. Hero thing first, romance later possibly, ya know.)

What Rose did have an interest in was going to the docks and rubbing shoulders with people who came from Baldur’s Gate and even elsewhere afar, wanting to hear real stories of adventures and journeys from real people that they’ve had, especially recently.

Now it’s here where I’m unsure whether to spin it off as how she picked up some sense of handling a sword. One way is that because going to the docks and rubbing shoulders with strangers is obviously a terrible, dangerous thing to do and her father (and mother) become worried for her and so her father (who’s also maybe part of the citizen militia for the little hamlet - no standing army) decides to teach her (in secret/aka behind mom’s back) so she stops trying to go to the docks (and possibly end up kidnapped or worse one day). Fun, nice, gets interaction with her dad. But like, I just realized it’s the same as the other self-insert for another character I like/liked. So, since I’m already doing that plotline with another character, I’ll probably go with the second option then lmao.

The other one was an idea I had before but was unsure about it (then not now) where she does meet someone from the docks. Not a romantic interest, but thankfully a friendly and honorably decent person. He obviously realized that she’s young (20s, since I didn’t mention that before) and a bit starry-eyed, but she means well and was looking for more in her life, more than this little hamlet could give her. He befriended her and indulged her in giving her stories of his travels and interesting little adventures and happenings he found himself in every time he came into town (only ever stopping by, as did anyone else whoever found themselves at the docks there). Eventually, he himself buys her a sword and trains her how to use it.

From there to BG3 events however… One day it’s too much. Rose’s reckless immaturity has become too much for her mother. So Rose and her mother got in an argument. Her mother had not been oblivious to Rose and her love of heroes, but had hoped that Rose would grow out of it as she got older (she didn’t, it only grew stronger). And enough was enough. It was time to be a grown woman, look for a partner, and settle down and become not just a wife but mother herself. To say Rose was unhappy about this would be a completely understatement. After a yelling match with her mother, Rose quickly packed some things (including her stashed away secret sword) and left home. She got on the first ship to Baldur’s Gate and that was that.

For a year, Rose tried her best there. She got jobs. But they weren’t great. Didn’t pay great. By the end of it, things were… pretty bleak, mentally speaking for Rose. (In my playlist, as confused as it is with this summarization of character, I literally have The Parting Glass (Walking Dead version) followed by the instrumental version of I Want to Live from BG3. I think that says plenty.)

The next morning as she’s going about town is when the mindflayers come and she gets unfortunately (or technically speaking, quite fortunately) snatched up. (Only way to become a hero is go on a crazy adventure right? 😉)