#and plot wise as well

[qcoded]

I fear sonic prime would've worked better as a game. jus MAYBE .

[orykorioart]

What if TAZ Balance, but isekai? (Or, voidfishing woopsie made Taako think he’s an isekai protagonist.)

[Image description:

Digital Illustration styled like a manga cover featuring Taako, Magnus, Merle, and the Red Robe. Most prominent is Taako, dressed in purple starry wizard hat and cloak atop his chef’s outfit, holding onto a chef’s hat with little chibi Merle and Magnus excitedly popping out. Taako is looking down at them confusedly.

In the background is the Red Robe, their figure faded into the dark background, but their hand is visible, holding up seven red strands trailing off into the background.

In the middle is the title, in ornate lettering, says “Transmigrated into a (disgraced) chef, destined to save the world?!” Beneath it says “Vol. 1”, stylized as a closed umbrella.

End description.]

[unlikablefemaleprotagonist]

i keep thinking about the possibility that if there's ever a senior year, emily might choose to come back as a different player than fig. i say might because even if she felt like she wanted to play as someone else before junior year, by the time senior year rolls around (if ever) she might change her mind again, or feel that fig's story has taken a unique enough path at the end of junior year that it's compelling to continue playing with it.

and while i would certainly miss fig, and i think the team dynamics would change a lot if a new sixth character was pal-ing around with the bad kids, i hope that if she goes that route, she takes inspo from murph, and the greatest replacement character in d20 history: cody walsh.

because what was great about cody was that finding someone everyone would like as much as kugrash was a very tall order! so instead he veered the other way (on his moped) by creating this perfectly annoying drip of a loser, that everyone else would have strong feelings about, and more importantly, conflict with.

[lord-squiggletits]

I think the key component to my personal reading of post-Delphi Pharma is that he's trying to be a horrible person on purpose. Not "on purpose" in the way that people have free will to exercise their own choices, but in that Pharma's "mad doctor" persona is a performance he puts on to deliberately embrace how much everyone else hates him. Basically, if people already think you're a "bad Autobot" and a horrible doctor who just kills his patients for fun, why try to prove otherwise to people who have already made up their minds about you? Just fully embrace the fact that people see you as an asshole. Don't try to change their minds. Don't plead for their forgiveness or understanding. Just stop caring. If you're going to be remembered as a monster, you might as well be a memorable monster, and eke as much pleasure and hedonism as you can out of it before karma catches up to you and you inevitably crash and burn.

I mean, I guess you could just go the route of "Oh, Pharma was always a fucked up creepy guy and Delphi was just him taking the mask off," but I really don't like that interpretation because, for one, it feels really wrong to take a character like Pharma becoming evil under duress and going, "Oh well clearly he did the things he did because he was evil all along," as if somehow Pharma breaking under blackmail/torture/threat of horrible death was a sign of him having poor moral character. As opposed to, you know, suffering under the very real threat of horrible death for himself and everyone he cares about while being manipulated by a guy who specializes in psychological torture.

The second reason is that it just doesn't make sense to write Pharma as having been evil all along. I mean...

Occam's Razor says that the best argument is the one with the simplest explanation. Doesn't it make way more sense to take Pharma's appearances in flashbacks, his friendship with Ratchet, his stunning medical accomplishments, and the few we see of him speaking kindly/sympathetically (or in the least charitable interpretation, at least professionally) towards his patients and conclude "This guy was just a normal person, if exceptionally talented." Taking all of these flashback appearances at face value and assuming Pharma was being genuine/honest is a way simpler and more logical explanation than trying to argue that Pharma for the past 4 million years was just faking being a good doctor/person. I mean, it's possible within the realm of headcanon, but the fact is Pharma's appearances in the story are so brief that there simply wasn't room in the story for there to be some sort of secret conspiracy/hidden manipulation behind why Pharma acted the way he did in the past.

I just can't help but look at things like Pharma's friendship with Ratchet (himself a good person and usually a fine judge of character) and the fact that even post-Delphi, pretty much every single mention of Pharma comes with some mention of "He was a good doctor for most of his life" or "He was making major headways in research [before he started killing patients]" which implies that even the Autobots themselves see Pharma's villainy as a recent turn in his life compared to how for "most of his life" he "used to be" a good doctor.

And although Pharma doesn't know this, we as the readers (and even other characters like Rung) know about Aequitas technology and the fact that it actually works, so... if Pharma really was an unrepentant murderer, why couldn't he get through the forcefield too? The Aequitas forcefield doesn't require that a person be completely morally pure and free of wrongdoing or else how could Tyrest get through, just that they feel a sense of inner peace and lack feelings of guilt. Pharma has murdered and tortured people by this point, and put on quite a campy and theatrical show of how much he sees it as a fun game, so why then can he not get through?

It circles back to my headcanon at the start of this post that the "mad doctor" persona is just that-- a persona. Delphi/post-Delphi Pharma's laughing madman personality is just so far removed from every flashback we saw of him and everything we can infer based on how other people see/saw him before that, to me, the mad doctor act is (at least in large part, if not fully) a persona that Pharma puts on to put his villainy in the forefront.

To avoid an overly simplistic/ableist take, I don't think Tarn tortured Pharma into turning crazy. To me, it's more like the constant pressure of death by horrific torture, the feeling of martyrdom as Pharma kept secret that he was the only one standing between Delphi and annihilation, the physical isolation of Messatine as well as the emotional separation from Ratchet, being forced to violate his medical oaths (pretty much the only thing Pharma's entire life has been about), etc. All of that combined traumatized Pharma to the point that the only way he could avoid cracking was to just stop caring about all of it. Because at least then, even if he's still murdering patients to save Delphi from a group of sadistic freaks, Pharma doesn't have to feel guilty and sick about doing it. As opposed to the alternatives, which were probably either going off the deep end and killing himself to escape, or confessing to what he did and getting jailed for it.

In that light, Pharma becoming a mad doctor makes sense. It avoids the bad writing tropes of "oh this character who was good his entire life was actually just evil and really good at hiding it" as well as "oh he got tortured and went crazy that's why he's so random and silly and killing people, he's crazy" and instead frames Pharma's evil as something he was forced into, to the point where in order to avoid a full psychological breakdown and keep defending Delphi, he just had to stop caring about the sanctity of life or about what other people might think of him.

Then, of course, the actual Delphi episode happens, and Pharma's own lifelong best friend Ratchet basically spits in his face and sees him as nothing more than a crazy murderer who went rogue from being a good Autobot. Then Pharma gets his hands cut off and left to die on Messatine. At that point, Pharma has not only been mentally/emotionally broken into losing his feelings of compassion, he's received the message loud and clear: He is alone. Everyone hates him. Not even his own best friend likes him any more. No one even cared enough about him to check if he actually died or not. He will only ever be remembered as a doctor who went insane and killed his patients.

So in the light of 1. Having all of your redeeming qualities be squeezed out of you one by one for the sake of survival and 2. Having your reputation and all of your positive relationships be destroyed and 3. People only know/care about you as "that doctor who became evil and killed his patients" rather than the millions of years of good service that came before.

What else is there to do but internalize the fact that you'll forever be seen as a monster and a freak, and embrace it? People already see you as a murderer for that blackmail deal you did, so why not become an actual murderer and just start killing people on a whim? People already see you as an irredeemable monster who puts a stain on the Autobot name, so why beg for their forgiveness when you could just shun them back? You've already become a murderer, a traitor, and a horrible doctor, so what's a few more evil acts added to the pile? It's not like anyone will ever forgive you or love you ever again.

Why care? Why try to hold on to your principles of compassion, kindness, medical ethics, when an entire lifetime of being a good person did nothing to save you from blackmail and then abandonment? Why put yourself through the emotional agony of feeling lonely, guilty, miserable, when you could just... stop caring, and not hurt any more?

[nessacousland]

Well, I finally finished Dragon Age: Friendship is Magic and that is *my* biggest regret.

[razzafrazzle]

another character from die as lovers may, my funney vampire story... had this design bouncing around in my brain for years honestly

[image description: a reference image for an original character named dr. pranali guin, a fat, older dark-skinned woman that has black hair with a white streak pulled into an updo. she is wearing a tight white dress with a cropped black jacket and an orange ribbon around her neck. next to her are blurbs stating that she is 55, that her pronouns are she/her, that she is an aroace woman, and the following: "acclaimed sexologist who is rather humorless. incredibly suspicious of rowan, but isn't quite sure why. not as stern as she looks. has really bad eyesight, but refuses to wear glasses out of spite. loves melodramatic soap operas and keeps a journal detailing every plot point in them. probably autistic." end id]

[painfully-unoriginal]

Let's have a party

There's a full moon in the sky

It's the hour of the wolf

And I don't want to die

I'm so happy

Dancin' while the grim reaper

Cuts, cuts, cuts

But he can't get me!

I'm as clever as can be

And I'm very quick, but don't forget:

We've only got so many tricks!

NO ONE LIVES FOREVER!

[ottosbigtop]

Thinking abt trolls 3 and why it picked up so much traction compared 2 the other 2 movies. Like technological advancements aside I think the main thing is just the character lineup.

Movie one was mostly branch and poppy. All the kidnapped trolls operated as One entity really so it’s not like u could particularly??? Care about them too much. Bridget and Gristle were really really fun but the villain wasn’t anything particularly special or noteworthy judging by just how little people. Talk about her. OH and also creek was there (literally forgor im rereading this for typos and adding this now) but like. Oh no the guy who showed up for like 5 minutes is a Bad guy and im supposed to care about the quest to save him mostly just because theyre telling the audience they should care because Poppy cares . But theres just not a lot of setup (and Creeks just not that. Interesting?)

Second movie had considerably More bangers and was definitely going in the right direction character wise. But it had the Opposite problem with wayyy too many guys that were really interesting and not a lot of time to do anything with them. You get King Trollex’s intro, Biggie, Cooper and Prince D and their parents, Delta Dawn, and Allll the bounty hunter trolls, PLUS Barb and the rock trolls. Barb was definitely a prime example of a major upgrade from the movies, having a villain that the audience actually vibed with and u could Tell by fan reactions I think. (Parb sweep) But there was just. Sooo so much, on top of the lore dump and a plot that you really had to get cool with really quick to get invested in. theres a bunch of new trolls and these strings that are definitely super important promise (lie)

The third one feels like they finally like. Know what theyre doing. With their own universe. No big lore dumps, theres not even any Explanation for what Mount Rageous is, they just introduce you to it and the Rageons with confidence thru Velvet and Veneer and expect you to get it. Plus, theres still a lot of characters, but theyre much more tangibly connected now. All the brozone brothers are well established and have preestablished relationships with each Other so even if we dont get much time with them it doesn’t feel like theyre that out of place. It still requires some suspension of disbelief vis a vis “Branch had Four super secret brothers hes Never mentioned,” but they make it work and frankly, the set-up is a lot more easier to get invested in than “secret magical strings that Invented Magic I Guess.”

And with Brozone and Viva theres a connection To the main characters rather than just being tag-alongs for tag-alongs sake. They’ve all got their own niches to make them individually compelling but theres a connecting thread here so they still feel like they’re a part of the story. And they’re all there to do something!! And then Velvet and Veneer of course continue the vibe that Barb had of being villains with enough screen time and personality that you like them As characters and arent just viewing them as The Plot Obstacle. Which is cool i think. Overall i just think the third movie felt a Lot more confident to do what the fuck ever and thats Really good.

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

Our Lady Of Mysterious Ailments & The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle

books 2 & 3 in the Edinburgh Nights series

paranormal mystery set in a climate-ravaged future Scotland, plagued by ghosts and magic

follows a 15yo Black girl who’s finally gotten an in to learn scientific magic properly - but it turns out to be an unpaid internship, so she has to take more jobs delivering ghost messages and investigating mysteries to take care of her gran and little sister

in book 2 she’s investigating a strange illness centred on a magic school for boys

and in book 3 she’s attending a global magician conference held in a creepy castle - when someone’s murdered, and they’re locked in until she figures out the culprit

Zimbabwean magic, friendship, disabled characters, no romance (so far)

[marenwithanm]

Does anyone else lay awake at night thinking about the fact that skyward sword link and twilight princess Link's outfits are identical?

[onion-morty]

he was so me fr

Morty canonically loved to write so I like to think he probably started off somewhere like in RP chats and wattpad or smn like a normal 14 yr old kid, eventually moving to ao3 (like i did LMAO AM I PROJECTING). His writing would have some errors, a little unpolished but its got heart

Rick probably stumbled upon his acc when Morty left his laptop open and idk, we all know Rick loves to snoop hes a rascal w no boundaries lol

Probably would be judgy abt it at first and laugh at the clumsy writing, something he'd pull up for a little light hate-reading. But despite the clumsiness Mortys writing's got legs. It would be funny if Rick actually looks forward to the next chapter. Like 4am hes crying over the latest update when it was revealed that Brick lost his family before meeting Max. And the story is riddled with spelling mistakes and excessive exclamation marks so the dissonance is real hahdhjakaj.

He makes a code that can give multiple kudos from one account.

Idk I just want an inverse of the crewcoo's morty heist episode where Rick actually supports Morty's hobbies :((

[eugene-da-potato]

The finale is tomorrow, guys

I'm not feeling good

Osctwt is mostly saying to be prepared for the worst soooo here we go

[trashcanwithsprinkles]

On the topic tho of like. The archons switching up domains, what do you think could be other interesting changes? Like. Zhongli and Eternity vs Erosion, or how contracts could be subsumed by Justice. Similarly- I think Nahida, with her domain of dreams- could honestly be really fun to play with a Freedom domain, considering the irony of a caged god of freedom to parallel Ventis current story. Alternatively- Freedom in the nation of hydro, where they’re cursed because of the flouting of the rules, and Furina is trapped in a centuries long gilded cage- like. There’s interesting things you can do!! -☁️ (hi it’s me again, I forgot to tag the previous backreading one)

oh yeah absolutely, honestly since the game is about solving problems and dealing with Situations, you could reasonable slap freedom onto any nation and find an interesting outcome. like- freedom from the shogun's dicatorial rule, freedom for ei from her own fears and isolation, freedom for nahida from her prison, freedom of knowledge in sumeru, freedom for furina in how she wants to live life, freedom as it is seen by the people of meropide choosing to remain underwater, freedom for the people of fontaine to finally be people as their ancestors wished without celestia dictating what they can and cannot do, freedom for zhongli to retire and live life at his leisure, freedom for the humans of liyue to carve their own path forward on their own two feet (i admit that's the weakest one); and now natlan will probably be freedom to coexist or freedom from violence or freedom from natlan itself since it's closed. snezhnaya, too, could be about freedom: freedom from celestia's rule, freedom from the heavenly principles (or whatever the fatui are doing); same thing for khaenri'ah and the abyss sibling. freedom from fate and to be able to decide your own destiny. at the end of the day any plot with any conflict can include freedom as a motif, so like- yeah, freedom would be the easier to switch around.

as for the others, that would be the more interesting part i think. like you said, contracts and justice, eternity vs erosion (which is already ei's plot so zhongli wouldn't be all that new honestly), wisdom for zhongli too with the whole witnessing history thing. eternity for nahida in the way wisdom perseveres through time but also in the irony of knowledge is beholden to irminsul and knowledge in irminsul is apparently subject to erasure. stuff like that

we'll have to see how we can play around with natlan and snezhnaya. if snezhnaya is about love that could also be really interesting, as you could also feasibly slap it most of everywhere, too.

[telesodalite]

I need to be weirder about the scavengers and cannibalism...

[sugarlesswriting]

Chapters: 3/? Fandom: Total Drama (Cartoon) Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Courtney/Duncan (Total Drama), Gwen/Trent (Total Drama), Bridgette/Geoff (Total Drama) Characters: Courtney (Total Drama), Duncan (Total Drama), Gwen (Total Drama), Trent (Total Drama), Devon "DJ" Joseph Additional Tags: cryptid, Mystery, Paranormal, Murder Mystery Summary:

It's October 31, 1986 and Courtney Flores thought she would have a fun Halloween night, but things turn creepy when she and her friends stumble upon a mysterious shack. A creature known as Chimera that was thought as a myth in the town of Shadowcreek turns out to be real. After ten years the old group of friends are brought back to the town just in time for the Chimera Festival. Some wanted to leave it in the past but strange stories and a suspicious murder force them to face down the monster that changed their life all those years ago.

[cryptocism]

i know you've said before that you had a lot of missed opportunities with moments between three and four in the past, (mainly to keep the story moving through six's perspective,) and i'm just curious if you have any specific instances in your brain that you'd like to share? i wouldn't blame you if you didn't but i love these guys and i thought i might as well ask !!

oh yeah there was a handful of scenes i had outlined. originally my idea was to have short flashbacks from Three's POV at the beginning of each chapter, basically functioning as a simultaneous vehicle for empathy and to flesh out his backstory. A lot of it was going to be retellings of canon Inertia Moments from Three's perspective, sort of like "missing scenes" in canon.

a lot of those discrete moments i ended up reusing and combining into the scene that Six witnesses, but originally they took place over a handful of instances.

one of those "missing scenes" bits was going to be referencing F:FMA #7 where Four brings CRAYDL some CD's from the past:

basically taking place in the gutter between those last two panels. lots of drama and unspoken tension: four's much more positive relationship with CRAYDL, the fact that CRAYDL calls Four "Thad", and lil sprinkle of foreshadowing for the CD's and other "artifacts" from the past that are clearly ferried to the kids in the basement without Three or Four's knowledge.

throughout the flashbacks would be a narrative thread where Three is holding tight to some hypothetical future where Four lets his guard down and Three can kill him and take his place. Then gradually the existential doom of the situation seeps in through the cracks of Three's psyche while he watches Four (failing, despised by hero and villain alike) and realizes that existing as Inertia is just a shadow of a real life, and that taking Four's place would doom him the exact same way. plus the bonus drama of wanting Four around even when he's terrified Four is going to come back, connecting neatly with the way he keeps Four's corpse in the future because he needs the reminder that Four is dead but can't stand the thought of letting him go.

anyway it all ended up staying in the outline phase because at that point i was more committed to Six unwillingly bearing witness to the past in a bid to avoid his doomed future bc it felt like it got more mileage story/character-wise. as much as i love Three and Four's insanely toxic dynamic, i think if i wrote out their scenes as originally outlined the tone would really blend together as one long bummer.

however i did really like this one line that went something like: "Being without powers was a helplessness that caught in Three's throat like a fish hook." so rip to that one ill have to find a way to repurpose it in something else.