#and still can be kinda spoilery so keep that in mind!

[ace-shenanigans]

Hi! I've just gone through your and your friend's sword spirit au and it's so cool! My mind keeps hanging onto the snippet of XY getting really injured and XS believing him dead, and with how things were phrased I know XY isn't gone! But how do, you know, SQQ, YQY, XS, LBH and XM react at having him back? And will he still be kinda weak and injured?

If this ask is too spoilery, can I instead ask how XY and XS talk if XS doesn't have a spirit form?

Not too spoilery at all! Its not like we're postin stuff in order lmao (also @greeniegaes feel free to lore dump here cuz i know this was somethin you spent a lotta time on!)

SQQ: The sheer relief at having him back is only matched by his anger at XY sacrificing himself in the first place. Safe to say SQQ becomes extremely possessive and clingy for a long while after that, snapping at anyone daring to get too close and getting hissy about XY talking to anyone else

YQY: Hes the most conflicted here because hes still trying to work out which feelings are his vs which ones are XS's, however hes just happy to have his friend back he didnt fail another one

XS: Literally possesses YQY long enough to kiss him, it startled everyone including himself

LBH: He's elated by the news, already plotting with XM on ways to steal XY away from that bastard SQQ so he can keep the nice, pretty spirit for himself

XM: Literally trying to possess LBH to get his ass in gear so he can go retrieve his wife rival

As for the second question: they talkin in 'dreamscapes' usually, but YQY can also act as a go between/translator for them if he needs to!

[obsidianpen]

Tell me Tom is bad at feelings without telling me.... Loved your new B&G chapter, kinda knew that we'd have to see the Dark Lord version of Tommy sometime soon, but didn't think it would be THAT soon. I want my fluff back.

Anywho - kinda funny that he's all in Hermione's face about being her 'Master' when he's quite literally a slave to that WAP. I think Hermione needs to put him in his place ASAP. Here's hoping that whatever they see in the vision really shows just how 'worthy' she is of being his equal.

I am also honestly jealous of all the people that are able to fantasise about the ending - I honestly have no idea and I'm loving it.

My only (silly) question is - will the lines ever stop spreading? It's clear that they are literally everywhere (thanks Tom), but surely they are running out of space to spread?

Also - the hand shaped mark on Tom's chest that Hermione did - are they somehow connected? Sorry I know that's 2 question.

Feel free to ignore them if they are too spoilery! x0x0x

okay I’m glad someone else sees this too haha! Yeah, so not to get to into revealing toms inner turmoil (if you don’t like knowing what’s going on in his head stop reading this),

but I’m totally about to ramble big time because I think a lot of people are missing this. Lots of comments like ‘he’s such an asshole!! How dare he!!!’ Well. Toms definitely spinning. And can you blame the guy? He went from getting a bouquet of symbolic wildflowers from hermione that was even sweeter than she realized (he often gave flowers to his clients as a shop boy, and he even stole some for her accidentally - never imagined once in his life that he’d ever get any - yes because he’s a guy but also because he has a lot of hang ups, he is not used to gifts, he gives things to manipulate and he takes the things he wants), and after deciphering all that realizing (even if he wouldn’t say as much) that he’s fucking down so bad for this witch, fully enamored, must keep. And THEN she’s sick and THEN she doesn’t take his nice ‘take a nap, love’ potion and THEN she gets kidnapped by Dumbledore and the freaking MACUSA and THEN he’s pleading with freaking Hepzibah like some lovesick peasant for help and THEN, when he’s knee deep in imperious curses and dark marks and internationally kidnapping metamorphagi bartenders, THEN, while retrieving her wand from the Ministry despite how tricky that is (like a true gentleman)… he finds out this bitch stole his ring. Which means she knew about his horcrux (well it was horcruxes but he didn’t know that then poor lamb) and in his mind, the only reason anyone would go after a horcrux would be to destroy it. Tom had to process a lot, still had to save her because he can’t have this seer who knows all about him in Dumbledore’s clutches, had to short term delude himself into pretending everything is totally fine until he gets her out, that whole grand escape thing happens, and THEN she wants to give him a blowjob??? Which he’s never trusted anyone to do, let alone this witch he’s obsessed with who destroyed his SOUL??? Who at this point he thinks is a world class psychopath, btw - but he lets it happen because even in his most crazed moments, he’s actually exactly what you said. And he knows it deep down, but can’t accept it, so yeah, he’s doing the whole ‘have to reassert my dark lord dominance’ thing, and while a lot of people reading seemed really hung up on him being a manipulative asshole (rightfully so, this is him), there was also a lot of pretty blatant worship in that chapter too (and in case this has also escaped the general notice, Tom is actually obsessed with pleasing her)

[illarian-rambling]

Day three: Will Anarac get reunited with those he lost if not what lays beyond end?

Ok so this is gonna be spoilery fr, but in a weird way, since I'm not sure if this is actually gonna be included in Starbreaker. Let's get into why the Araunian desert is the way it is and probably way more lore than you ever wanted >:)

(For this askmas game)

Beyond End, there do indeed exist the last of the Araunians, in the form of eternally preserved bits of magic. Why are they stuck like that? Well, a few centuries after Anarac kicked the bucket, there was this really important historical figure named King Pashuar IV. He was the elected king of Araun, having taken the name Pashuar upon his coronation. Before becoming king, though, he'd been a mage - and he most certainly did not leave his mage ambitions behind.

In all of Illari history, only one mortal has used the Veil to ascend to something like a god: the Gloaming Queen. King Pashuar IV intended to be the second. However, instead of concentrating the power of the Veil within himself, he screwed up and essentially ripped the soul out of every person in his country and bound them within the Veil instead, doing the same to the already dead souls of his people as well. The resulting vacuum of magical potential ripped a hole between the Veil and reality, which is why the Araunian desert is so polluted by rotting magic.

So where does that leave the Araunians? Every Araunian, living at the time or long dead, is now made of magic, essentially. A lot went insane, a lot still haunt the Araunian desert, but a few realized that they have a lot of potential as beings of magic. Namely, End doesn't care about magic from the Veil, only from the gods. So, a decent amount of Araunians decided, fuck it, we're starting over beyond End.

They've kinda just been chilling out there for a while. They've learned how to fabricate spaceships (of a sort) and how to erase their nonessential memories every so often so they don't go insane from eternal life(ish). They've learned how to shape the Veil and live within it. They sort of just wander now, searching for other bastions of life since, if they're gonna be here forever, might as well have a hobby, right?

The important part of this is that Baerdyn and Finlay, Anarac's sons, are a part of this spacefaring group. They've been around so long that they're adults in a mental sense, though they still look the age they did when they died. Baerdyn works as a news anchor, announcing daily goings-on aboard one of the Araunian space stations. Finlay is a researcher, still trying to untangle the mystery of how exactly his and everyone else's souls are bound to the stuff of magic itself. Both are coping pretty well - they go to therapy and keep in close contact with each other and stuff. They can erase their nonessential memories (schedules and meetings and boring stuff) while keeping the important ones (friends and lovers and, importantly, their lives as mortals) so they don't go insane under the weight of their own minds like their father is busy doing.

So yeah, this is what Anarac and the crew of the Starbreaker will find beyond End - several ethereal space stations of an ancient people stuck in time. It'll definitely be strange for Anarac, reconciling who his kids are now after several thousand years of them living their own lives. Baerdyn and Finlay have had a lot of time to heal, but that doesn't mean being murdered by their possessed father wasn't, you know, traumatic. And even if it ignores them, that doesn't mean they aren't still highly wary of End and any residual connection it might have to Anarac. Baerdyn will be a little more welcoming of Anarac, whereas Finlay will be more suspicious since he actually had to watch Anarac do all the killing and dismembering and such.

Either way, I'm optimistic. No matter how they've grown up, Anarac would never be anything but overjoyed to see his boys and finally get a chance to apologize. And he's got the rest of his crew at his side.

This was probably, like, way more lore than you wanted but hey now you know what's up with Araun! Thanks for the ask <3

[einsatzzz]

Hello ❤️ I have some meta asks for your ocs

Kana: What controversies/drama would your character incite in fandom?

And (yes she gets two because I am biased and looking for crumbs)

What is the quote between your character and their love interest/whoever they might be shipped with that their fans would latch onto?

Kurumi: What would be the ‘incorrect but wildly popular’ interpretation of your character in fandom?

Yui: If your character had a breakout show/film/comic, what would the plot be? Who would be in their supporting cast?

- 🍎

Hello 🍎Anon 🫶✨👀 Thank you for sending this over and enabling me to yap more about my blorbos 🥰🥰🥰 I only know what to talk about when I draw them, but for pure text posts I often blank out on what to say, so I love asks! I will try my best to give you Kana crumbs too!

🍎Kana: What controversies/drama would your character incite in fandom?

If Kana were a canon character, Kana and controversies/drama are like blood brothers, like soulmates. They are a set package. It wasn't there at the start or perhaps there will be initial discourse about her gender. But fandom will find out eventually that they have bigger fish to fry. As more and more layers of her character gets revealed, the more fandom discourse there is. She is certainly not a character for people who view things in a black or white manner or those with low reading comprehension 😭🤣😭🤣 *looks at those gear grindingly loud mfs on twi//ter*

On the surface, she would prob be reduced to either a some kind of siscon (memes included) or straight-up a cruel/heartless character with ulterior motives ("maybe her love for Kurumi is just a facade? and she has ulterior motives?"). If you peel off the first few layers, you will see that she really does genuinely love Kurumi and her family, for better or for worse. If you peel off more layer, you will see an asshole. If you peel even more layers, you will see an even bigger asshole banned from hell.

Also do you know that one meme where they keep putting Oi\\kawa (from Hai\\kyuu, a VOLLEYBALL series) in a line up of actual villains/war criminals?

Kana would be there, except she kinda deserves to be there. People who don't get the joke would complain about why Oi//kawa keeps getting included in these fuckass lists that includes Kana and other messed up characters lmao (truthfully i didn't get it at first when i saw it and was lowkey pissed since im an oi//kawa oshi lmaooo now it's just funny every time i see it. still crazy to see him lined up with characters like d//io or aiz//en or gri//ffith like damn wwwwww)

Did you know? My favorite character from Monster is Joh//ann Lieb//ert hahahaha nothing important, just wanna say it haha,,,hahaha,,,,, pls ignore if you don't know Monster sdkjfsdhvfsd

🍎Kana: What is the quote between your character and their love interest/whoever they might be shipped with that their fans would latch onto?

The least spoilery thing I can come up with on the spot on is Hibari telling her "You're so stupid (affectionate & relieved)" after she does (and says) something objectively very stupid that could even give YuiRumi&family a heart attack & a stroke simultaneously.

Short, simple, effective. ME, personally, I will lose my mind and latch onto it even on my deathbed.

If you want something that could potentially come from a Kana POV, I do have a quote like this saved:

🎀Kurumi: What would be the ‘incorrect but wildly popular’ interpretation of your character in fandom?

For Kurumi, I think modern fandom would focus too much on her gender? There would be a divide in the fandom based on how they interpret the "Gender: ?" in her profile lmao We can see a lot of people insisting that she's non-binary. That's fine and all, everyone is free to interpret characters as they like (except if the creator has reiterated clear rules and boundaries for it). The problem is that we can also see people say that you can't refer to her as anything else but non-binary sjdgbhjsdfvhjsbfd

🤖Yui: If your character had a breakout show/film/comic, what would the plot be? Who would be in their supporting cast?

My understanding of this question is that it's asking for a Yui spin-off where he's the MC! It would be in a light novel format under the romantic comedy genre (with some sci-fi, perhaps? because he loves making robots hahaha inb4 it becomes a mecha story). The story's main couple would be him and Hiyori, because that's what Yui would've wanted. He is delusional and down bad.

In terms of shipping, we actually have three main ships we've committed to. It's just that I often end up posting about the two CanonxOC pairs more sjkdfjskdf but the third one is an OCxOC pair between Yui and Hiyori (YuiHiyo). Sowwwwyyy Yui! uwu Hiyorin is holding me at syringe-point and telling me to shut the fuck up about it.

[dia-smthidk]

if this is too spoilery to answer that's fine-!!! but I'll ask anyway!!

is ragatha friendly, and just so happens to be infested with centipedes? or does she control them and make them kill you on purpose?

i love the au!!!! keep it up :D

she is quite friendly, it’s just the centipedes aren’t big fans of people going near their home

Still kinda debating on if she can control them or not, so for now they’re just minds of their own

[storytellers-and-co]

Ya boys about to hit Shadowbringers

I got through Stormblood post-game last night and BOY what a ride it was!? I could barely put the game down, even when I was trying to pace myself so I don't leave certain friends too far behind. Adding spoilery stuff below the cut, because I know one of 'em reads this blog (I just need to gush a little while things are still fresh in my mind)

Okay so. All the revelations of Garlemald and how, WHY it was created? I loved that, it so easily explained why a whole ass country has been the default 'evil conquerors' for so long without any real challenge or change until now. Because the real man behind the whole thing is STILL AT IT. Change don't happen if the original reason, the original driving force is still kicking about.

Also I wanna kick Solus. I wanna kick Solus so hard. Props for the animators, writer and Rene Zagger, it's on sight now old man, I'm coming for your kneecaps!

Speaking of voice actors, Luke Allen-Gale! Hot damn did he do a good job as Zenos (and the possessed Zenos)! I have complicated feelings about Zenos, ngl - He's one of those characters that I know cannot be saved, fixed, or redeemed, but I can also see why he's such a popular character? Personally it's the voice and certain lines that did it for me. Got some shivers out of certain line-deliveries.

He's actually a character that makes me kinda sad - it's a reminder that there is some characters that are doomed by the canon, they'll never be good people, and yet you can see a glimmer, a potential of what-ifs, could-have-beens and all that. A road that was there but refused by the character because that's just not who they are.

Also Varis is also on the kick on the face list. Black Rose is bad. Stop it.

AND NOW ON THE LATEST THING that actually got two of my friends laughing: The final fight against Zenos-Zombie! Zenbie? Zomnos? The- the dead body possessed by the Ascian who I keep calling Ildi because names hard. Ildinos.

So the final fight against him. One, I absolutely loved being Hien for a moment, he quickly became one of my faves through the Stormblood (he's such a fun, up-beat character that takes the life by stride while also not being a pushover, and that's such a good quality to have!).

Two.... GOD DAMMIT WHOEVER YOU ARE, COULDN'T YOU HAD PICKED A BETTER TIME FOR YOUR BLOODY HOUSECALL, YOU NEARLY COST ME MY HEAD! If it wasn't for our local stray cat of a dragoon, we would've lost then and there and you would've lost your chance to have the WoL helping out on the count of NOT HAVING A HEAD, pick your times better oui raatmacc raqan! (This is a joke I know he couldn't have known I was locked in a death-match. I hope.)

Now if ya wondering why I am not more outraged about the fact they've effectively kidnapped my friends, I uh. I actually felt a huge surge of sympathy at the start for the character. idk something about the voice painted a picture of someone desperate and... sad? Upset? Distressed? Something like that just got my empathy flaring up. So while I am mad that I keep getting these calls and everyone around me is panicking in fear, I also want to get to the bottom of this because apparently my empathy levels are far too fucking high.

(Yes I am the type of person who wants to help everyone in any of the games I play in. It's my ultimate power fantasy, being able to help and comfort folks without my actual personality coming in the way)

I think that's all for me now folks, I am taking a small break before heading to Shadowbringers - I have few alts that need to catch up to HW at the very least, and a laundry-list of things for my main to go through. Like all the gathering side-quests, Eureka, unlocking all the primal fights and fixing my glamors etc. We're also trying to get a house for Storytellers, so i gotta help gather some extra funds + items.

[fatherentropy]

I know a lot of you aren't going to read this or care but I needed to get my thoughts about Veilguard out of my head so I can go back to just indulging with it's content without caring anymore so: Veilguard review.

Gonna keep it non-spoilery until it's not then I'll put a big ol warning there for you to swerve outta there if needed.

(warning for 4000+ words) TL;DR:

I think this may become my favorite Dragon Age game to play and I love these characters so much

This is by far one of the worst Bioware games I've ever played

Firstly and to be completely transparent, at the time of writing this I have STILL not been able to get past Lothering in Origins (my computer got worse while i was running a playthrough.). DAII was my first Dragon Age game and is my favorite of the series. Inquisition is pretty good, much better imo after some DLCs were added and it feels more like the full on epic it deserved to be I think. At the end of the day, I am a Mass Effect fan first and a Dragon Age fan sometimes. I'm also not terribly versed in every single development problem Veilguard has gone through except for the unfortunate canning of important developers and some notes from articles I spied.

So, you know, keep that in mind.

I!! wanted to start this by talking about the things I loved in the game. Because I do in fact love this game. It's just that the love gets tangled up in the things that are disappointing because I can see the big picture and see how much better it could have been and it gets wrapped up in one big ball of-not to be overly dramatic-kind of hurt? Thus me needing to talk about it so I can get back to just loving the thing and hopefully not being haunted by my regrets like it's Christmas Eve and I'm a wealthy businessman with questionable practices.

The story is pretty great and fun if you don't think about it too much but Dragon Age fans think about these sort of things a lot and if you put a little scrutiny on some of these things it's gets kinda ???? Funky.

It feels like a lot of the heavy lifting for why anybody is willing to work with you is done by Varric in whatever he was doing the past 10 years which you aren't really told. Except in half a dozen comics and books I frankly don't have the money for and should be bonus material instead of things-you-need-in-order-to-know-what's-up. Kind of spiel.

I also think a major pain point is the neigh absolute lack of contention in most areas of the game outside the bad-vs-good guy shit (and Solas) and the lack of any meaningful choice really did shoot the game in the foot. Now I do understand that choice in particular was a thing that was eventually going to get hit. There were just too many big world wide decisions you've made in the past couple of games and that shit gets kind of hard to keep track of. However, there were choices made in Veilguard that is made for the longevity of the series while also salting the earth and it severely undercut the narrative.

I think one of the things people love and adore about the series is the choices you make. Many of these aren't even about having a hold over the narrative but having a place in it. It's been a minute since I've played it, but I think even DAII has several choices that literally have no baring on anything but netting gains or loses on companions and just choose what kind of menace you're going to be. It's fun! I don't need them to be big. Maybe just if I refuse the reward or push for bigger rewards or yadda yadda yadda. It's the little things! You cannot get rid of these things entirely but boy howdy did they ever try.

I also have gripes about the choices they make you make but I can't bitch about that without spoilers so... LATER.

I wanted to talk about the lack of contention first but realistically it combos in with the choice thing so here we are talking about it after but there is just no political or social nuance in this game at all except for maybe exactly only Solas. After playing the first three games (or playing the last two and reading about Origins like me) you kinda get the impression that Northern Thedas is actually mostly fine except a little inequality and the Venatori and maaaybe the Antaam but mostly everyone's friendly and the South is just REALLY fucking violent about everything for no reason.

With the reputation grind and the narrative's insistence that you hAVE to strengthen your allies and friends this would have been kind of a great time to have quests about winning them more strength by actually kind of doing important shit? Like maybe having to make decisions about whether or not to convince factions to accept help from shady persons or forgo it knowing you'll be weaker but maintaining the faction's ethos. Maybe some negotiations between greater nevarran Mortalitasi politics and why they should let the Mourn Watch concern themselves with shit outside the Necropolis? In fighting between in-faction groups that feel one way or another about choices you've made. It all ends with them helping you in the end, just maybe not as strong or stronger but what we get is kind of some bare bones sidequests that don't always feel connected to the faction you're helping or... important?

Which I don't think I'd have a problem with if there were more of them that gave greater scope to the world but that's also not really a thing. Tbf, there's no reason to have them. You're only grinding to 50 and faction reputation and you probably wouldn't want to do all the sidquests in Inquisition to get there. I just want to have ones that matter, give more shape to the world and aren't hunt-monsters-that-aren't-even-in-this-faction's-jurisdiction. (game that simultaneously made me fall in love with Nevarra while giving me fuck all about it outside Emmrich's quests)

I think it should be noted that this is the first time we are seeing some of these people as not enemies or illusive factions from abroad.

I need you to know this is my third draft of this document and I keep having to leave and come back because I just have a lot of thoughts. So to start off with, I have to reiterate that I am a Mass Effect fan first and a Dragon Age fan sometimes. I can see Mass Effect's influence all over the game and as a Mass Effect fan I have to say: I am... upset. Which is a thing I have been planning to write about since the beginning of trying to write this document but today's dev AMA confirmed that this was supposed to be a "Love letter to Mass Effect 2" and I am no longer upset! I am LIVID.

To recap for those of you who don't care about Mass Effect but are reading this for some reason: Mass Effect 2 has one of the worst main stories in the entire series. Nothing you do actually matters in the long run because ME3 undoes all your work and everything set up for you at the beginning of ME2 you destroy yourself by the end.

Most people regard it as one of the better if not the best game in the series.

This is because the characters are fucking phenomenal and make up 90% of the game so you know this journey is about THEM who gives a shit if your mission is whatever, it's about the satisfaction of winning their loyalty, making sure they're a team so you can focus on being Big Goddamn Heroes at the end (or fucking it up and watching a few or all of them die).

This is the game that made me paranoid about doing all sidequests as soon as I got them because *I* managed to get all my companions to live BUT at the cost of my ship crew dying which I did not know was a thing that could happen and your medic's traumatized lines "I watched them die. they were processed ─ rendered down into some kind of raw genetic paste ─ and pumped through these tubes." haunts me forever. (partly because I listen to the death whispers from ME3 to feel something but nevertheless, the delivery? raw)

This may sound familiar to you if you've played Veilguard because they... tried but there's just a fundamental misunderstanding of how ME2 impacted it's players and how players impacted the world in ME2 that made it feel the way you were supposed to despite the plot being silly.

This brings me back to the lack of conflict which especially fucks over your companions and your relation to them. Yes there's like one kind of weird conflict between Davrin and Lucanis while they're going through shit and yeah Taash and Emmrich have a situation briefly but there's nowhere near the heat there has been in past games. One of your crew in DA2 will straight up tell another one that he is sad her mother died for her not because it's sad but because she's not worth dying for. And that's the game regarded as having the best found family dynamic in DA and probably a better comparison to ME2 in the regard of fighting to keep your crew together.

In ME2, what you do matters and the order you do things matter. Mass Effect has a Paragon/Renegade system which are ways you can change a scene IF you've accrued enough points in being more diplomatic or more points in being a complete asshole. Some of your companions are diametrically opposed to one another and the minute you complete both their loyalty they WILL come into confrontation and if you don't have a sufficient enough paragon or renegade score to get the appropriate response either then or after you WILL lose one of them. If you dedicate yourself to Paragon or Renegade or the other it's easy enough to get the points but if you're trying to get an optimal playthrough, doing solely paragon or renegade isn't always the best way to go.

I'm not saying I want some of your companions to hate each other. I enjoy the friendships they've developed but the moment Rook said something like "We're a family" I cringed because I realized what was happening because they just weren't putting the work in to make that believable to me. People are messy and the stakes in DAV are the biggest they've ever been so our crew should be at their worst and there is material for contention THERE but what we get the Disney Channel version of it where they almost immediately makeup and you're really not apart of it.

One of the confrontations in ME2 pits an Alien girl who's people were forced off their home planet by the own synthetic life they created and have suffered severe biological and cultural degradation because of it and one of said creations who's rebellion for autonomy caused that. The next game, they come back and if you don't (or can't which is an important distinction in it's possibility) use their work as a catalyst for peace but choose one people over the other they both express regret for the loss of the other's people despite the contention between them and stringent desire to save their own people. The kind of orchestration required to pull off peace and this dynamic feels earned and heart wrenching and that is the level of story telling old fans of Bioware expect from it's games.

The 3rd Mass Effect game was largely disliked despite the complexity of choices that intertwined and character dynamics. It was very obvious the ending didn't match up with the narrative spun by the rest of the game and was changed last minute from another which probably would have been liked less but the choice was too big and landed the series in hot water which lead them to try and do a complete divorce from the series with Andromeda which was also largely disliked because it was just a weird jump with a very weak story. I didn't actually mind it. It had no lasting impression on me so I can't tell you exactly what happens in that game but I didn't mind the leap conceptually because I understood they did back themselves into a corner with the last decision made in ME3.

So I sit here looking at Veilguard NOT disgruntled by the prospect of change. Change is usually good and made in order for the greater prosperity of the series. The problems in Veilguard isn't simple change but the lack of care that resulted in a lesser product over all. DA2 suffered in a similar respect with it's over use of previous assets in a repeated and monotonous level design and the fact some fans felt that it didn't successfully break away from feeling like a glorified DLC to Origins. But the storytelling is still done in a way that it lives rent free in many people's minds. It's not an epic, it is a story about some shlub and their crew of messy nobodies who try vainly to protect the city they all live from increasing social pressures of the world which boils over and consumes all of them no matter what you do.

ME2 is about a soldier who is forced to work with a human supremacy agency because they are the only ones that are taking a new threat seriously so without support from the usual greater forces, you seek out specialists and old friends to go on what is quite literally called a suicide mission.

Veilguard is a direct continuance of Inquisition where some random agent is made the herald of a revived religious movement that leaps up around them after an accident only to find out that one of your friends is directly responsible for that and going off to put the world in even greater danger.

Veilguard wants the found family in DA2 to fight a threat even greater than Inquisitions while honoring ME2 (badly) but also there are a bunch of disjointed small focused factions that are helping you and while I think this could have worked and been quite possibly one of the best Bioware games of all time, the ghost of its would be greatness haunts the narrative buried under the bones of development issues and missteps which just makes it hurt in a very not good way.

I don't think old fans who complain about Veilguard are upset it's not the same as what they were expecting but, to go back to my scrooge analogy, we're haunted by ghosts of Bioware past that laid the groundwork for what to expect, and the ghost of Bioware present which is incomplete and the future which can only really get worse under the capitalistic pressures that have long run the video game industry in the ground in the name of greater profits over quality. The only people producing good games at a reasonable price are indie developers who aren't really trying to produce a game with the scope that Bioware games have typically provided.

I'm sitting here and thinking my main take away from this is that I simply don't care about the new Mass Effect game Veilguard is getting abandoned for to produce. If this was supposed to be a love letter to ME2 then it just showed a fundamental inability to create Mass Effect games that would honor it's predecessors while bringing it into the new age and if it somehow manages to be good it's just another slight to Dragon Age fans and the fumbled production of Veilguard. I don't want to see Ryder or Shepard or another N7 specter at this point. I want to see Rook and their crew in a game where I feel okay leaving them in there because DA has a very specific need to abandon it's old protags and I'm not okay with that this time! I don't feel good about where any of them were left and the state of the world!

SPOILER WARNING! I'M NOT HOLDING BACK ANYMORE. GOING ON HERE'S YOU'RE WARNING.

(don't ask me about the image, it was there. it's big, has the vibes. She was iconic for that.)

POV: You are me. Your controller has some slight drift so the little laser beam managed to slip from the target and you're trying to figure out how the fuck you messed up the puzzle because there's no way to get to an island and this is how you accidentally spoil yourself that there's a secret ending and you're about to get a part of it.

Then like the genius I am I googled it again to try and figure out how to get it, skim read something that makes you think they based this off of ME2's model and go oh! Okay. I should look up optimal assignments so nobody dies.

Then I find out Davrin or Harding dies no matter what depending on you choose to lead the distraction team and you just have to stare at a wall for awhile because that is NOT Mass Effect 2 where everyone can absolutely live if you do everything right. That is Mass Effect 1, Virmire come to haunt me again.

I need you to know when I got to Mythal it's almost the earliest you could get to her give or take a side mission because I'm bad at combat and those fuckin' ogres were kicking my ass. So when Rook drops the "We're a family" line while taking to Mythal I had to once again stare at a wall because I already spoiled this for me and I was going "what the fuck are you serious? This is what we're doing?"

I'm telling this to you because I need you to know after I figured all this out I was turning over the plot while going through it looking for one specific thing and that's the narrative that would have supported the kind of storytelling that would have gained the right to kill off one of your companions. (the wording on that was labored but I really needed to say all of that like that because I meant it like that.) It just is not there. Or at least not in a way where it feels like the inclusion of that actually added ANYTHING to the narrative and honestly reading interviews under headlines that say shit like "Devs know that you had no problem leaving stroud in the fade 🤭 and made sure they were gonna hurt you this time" feels like it was literally just thrown in for shock factor rather than a conscious effort to create a compelling story and I'm just not here for that kind of garbage.

Like, I need you to understand I straight up had to save mid mission to kill Ghilan'nain and leave in order to leave and watch the last part of Arcane. I came back and immediately rolled into the fight with her and the bit where you're trapped in the fade and yeah I cried but I was feeling ever so fucking JARRED by the difference of satisfying tragedy I felt at the end of Arcane to that stupid ass bullshit in Veilguard.

And the fact this is a wind up to reveal Varric is dead is just further insulting to all three of these characters. Two returning characters and one new character who, and I hate to be this guy but I haven't seen ppl point this out and as guy who's played a lot of Bioware games, is black. Which, Bioware has historically been REALLY FUCKING WEIRD with it's black companions. (No, I have not forgiven for the shit they pulled on Jacob Taylor and I shan't ever I don't think considering they pulled this.)

I don't mind that they killed Varric. That one I picked up on almost immediately from the hints they were putting down and I was waiting for more hints and shit but the longer it went on I realized the game wasn't even interested in setting up a pretense of giving him and his fans a satisfying ending and goodbye. This man has been here since DAII. There's not enough lingering around his memory because he's competing with whoever else died.

Frankly Rook's connection to him has to be kind of made up by the player because they don't really set up anything for you except you've been traveling with him for almost a year and he's just an amicable guy which also just kind of has to lay on the laurels of having to have known him. I love the cold opening into Minrathus, it's very cool but I feel like THIS would have been the game to go back to it's roots and have a personalized opening to each Rook's origin to establish both a connection to Rook, Rook's place in the world and their connection to Varric and Harding and just had you kind of live with Varric as a leader for a hot goddamn minute making the transition of power feel more natural and not forced. It's weird.

But then the player just doesn't feel like they mattered to the greater story actually. Not as Rook and not as Inquisitor. Not that Rook is a bad character, just weirdly hooked into the plot. Gods forbid your Inquisitor wasn't romantically involved with baldie then they're only role is to tell you every choice you've ever made doesn't matter anymore because Southern Thedas got wiped the fuck out.

I know everyone and their mothers have been kinda leering at Taash's companion quests and like yeah they're not great. Neither is like the Rivain. Like not the map tbc, I love that map and all the maps actually. Down with empty open worlds, long live intentional map design with fun puzzles makes my brain go brrr. Kissing guy who made those on the mouth. At least I think the maps are built around the needs of the script and not the other way around unless problems arise in making the stage (which happens) because that'd be kinda silly. It's just our glimpse of Rivain is around a Grey Warden keep with some chasind stuff and Antaam. All of Rivain is kind of just not about Rivain and it annoys me deeply like where the fuck is the people who aren't Lords of Fortune. I don't even know what the culture is supposed to be inspired by besides like orientalism I guess.

ALSO I need everyone to know I had JUST got done ranting about one reoccurring trope with biracial/bicultured people in another game only to turn around and run directly into Taash's dumbass choice about making them pick between their cultures.

THAT IS NOT HOW ANY OF THIS WORKS.

I'm a Filipino German American and I look Asian so I have to fight to be German American because that's what I fucking am no matter what anybody expects from me from my face. Meanwhile my Pinoy roots were stolen from me by a woman who came to the states with the idea that her kids would be American but that just ain't the way the world works when you're not white passing. You cannot run and "choose" the other culture. You will forever be expected to be what you aren't because you look and there's not a lot to do about that brokeness inside you but try and come to terms with it and embrace all that you are anyway.

I also just find using modern day identity labels to be boring and lazy world building for a fantasy world. Even modern day LGBTQIA+ folks can't agree on what to call our shit and we're so very messy about everything and we have been here for so very goddamn long and have had many different names. That's just a bit of a pet peeve, I'll admit.

I think the crowning moment of Taash's quest their mother's moment when she declared Taash's strengths before sacrificing herself for her and Taash's grieving over her passing but I'm also gonna attribute that last bit more to Taash's VA doing good work.

Think the weakest quests for me otherwise were actually Bellara's? Not that it's bad conceptually. Just that it feels like duct taped together oddly where I kind of lost track of the emotions and logic in any given scene. Like over all I got yeah turning people into demons bad but we go from 0 to 100 real goddamn quick and I just felt left behind. Just confusing. Like it's fine, but confusing.

Kal-Sharok should have been it's own faction and I will die on that hill. Dwarves have gotten the short end of the stick for SO long and they finally have a fairly comparable moment in the story and it's just nothin'. BYULLLShit

You know I haven't really cared for Solas. I think I was on copium for a bit during Inquisition because my friends liked him so I was like "yeah I like this guy" but nah, I've kind of considered him a poor man's Ascian after playing Shadowbringers (sorry) but they really leaned into making him kind of a fucked up dude in Veilguard and I do enjoy him a lot more. But also the Rook/Solas dynamic is so much more messier than Lavellan/Solas dynamic. I feel like it was a loss to not have a meaner romance path there if you weren't a Solavellan. Guys who are dragging each other down to hold the other accountable by the throat.

NGL I think I kinda hate endings where it's like "and the bad guys lost and everyone who lived were happy :)" endings like man I wanna know what they're all up to now so I can be sure they're good. That's probably a me thing but it does put me on Copium that they'll drag Rook and co back out to do more with them but I know I'm asking for too much. I am in pain.

I'm descending into less concentrated rambling now I think I just!! Love the game but like I want it to be good and it's not and that hurts me a lot and I'm afraid what corporate will take from this because it's never the lesson they should because everything is all numbers.

EDIT: oml I forgot the line I tied to complaints I'd have later about choices they make you make. Like it was largely about Taash but also like Neve where the Thread guy is like "yeah we're gonna help you for this" like isn't that why we're here? Why am I getting a say in this? Why is this the place I'm suddenly putting my foot down? Why don't I get to ask Neve for her opinion before I just become the most annoying person in the world about this like ayo? WEIRD

Lucanis, Davrin and Bellara at least straight up ask you for your opinion and Harding, Emmrich and Taash obvs need some help even if they don't explicitely ask for it and this one for Neve isn't even the BIG choice it's just a dialogue choice that can lock you out of being able to make the choice which is kind of cool because it's about the only way to shoot yourself in the foot with any of the companions which I'd like if it just didn't just kind of come from nowhere. It's like Rook suddenly remembered they're a person who has opinions in the middle of a conversation and it's just OK. anyway

[azaracyy]

what color does your love feel like?

tagged by @einsatzzz thank you for tagging me! reading the results for your OCs are so fun (and the accuracy based on parts that i know too? holy cow??) in this post i'll also be putting the result with elise, along with my thoughts kept under cut so for once i'm not gonna be yapping in tags lmao

elise: warm burnt orange

Riding off into the sunset, the hope of a happy ending, the bitter after taste that still in it's own way smells kinda great. Your love is all bitter hopefulness, all about a broken heart that refuses to quit, all about the unshakable knowledge that a burning fire has a great comforting warm and a soft glowing light, all about the way when the sun comes down there's a beautiful starry night. It's stubbornness, it's the refusal to give up, the clutching of broken shards despite the searing pain and being adamant that dammit you can still make a beautiful stained glass window out of it. Yours is a screaming heart, a pleading love, a bitter and almost belligerent hopefulness that things will still work out even if you have to roll up your sleeves and make them. And god, aren't you tired? Isn't your heart heavy? Is all your hard work worth it? Don't you just want to curl up and let it be? Let the fire turn to ashes and the sky turn dark and let love die down and watch people leave? But you don't, do you? You're the bravest out of all of us, so you pick up the pieces and you keep going, you keep believing and you keep your heart full of hope because some day. Some day you know you'll get it. You keep riding off into the sunset and you keep filling my heart with hope as you go because god, how do I wish you finally get it too.

thoughts:

ein wasn't wrong when she mentioned some of the results were spoilery for her OCs because honestly, same?? 😭 except i haven't even gotten to share anything plot relevant about my OCs the mention of "hope" is spot on for elise because if she were to be assigned a crest like the adventure kids, hers would be hope. elise is for the most part not that attuned to the concept of love. especially when it's related to romance, she's in fact leaning to frigid - though calling her ice-queen-like isn't right either. though, if she were to reach that point with (for?) someone, i'd say this sounds about right. i don't mind that this doesn't make any sense to people right now, perhaps one day when it becomes more relevant, this post will get dug up once more from the depths haha

[justaduckarts]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAJSHDUSBSISBSJSHSH DUCK HOW COULD YOU DO THIS

I've finally read the most recent chapter of OWHAS and I'm heartbroken. I feel so bad for Star Holder, they're just like the rope in a tug of war with gods and people on either side, and it seems some have started pulling them in other directions too :(

Also, this is, what? The second time Eclipse has interrupted an important moment for the Star Holder? But this time I'm actually upset. I can't wait for the next chapter! You're writing is just so good, it's better than any food to ever exist or ever will exist, I'm sure.

But I've been putting off asking some questions for the sake of going through your other asks to see if anyone has asked my questions before, which has led me to forgetting my questions more than 10 times already. So I'll just do it now before I forget everything tomorrow.

You said this story has a happy ending, and I'm glad it does because my heart can't take losing anyone in this story, I've grown too attached (except for peepaw Willy and Aurelia, hate them both). Does Peepaw Willy ever get taken out of Sun? I don't know if that's the correct way to phrase the question, but that's the best I can do. And I know that that's most likely going into spoiler territory, so I understand if you can't answer that at the moment. Do we ever get to see Sun happy, like genuinely happy again? Do we ever get to experience any sweet moment with him and Star Holder? I don't like what he's become, but I know it's not him, it's the stinky rabbit. But I still want the best for him and Star Holder, I want them to get along when peepaw willy is gone. Has Pluto taught the Star Holder how to keep other gods from pulling out the star? I know she said she will while the staff is making, but I'm kinda slow, and I just wanna know if she's taught them that already.

AND LUNARRRRR! Never thought I'd simp for Lunar, given his first impression in the story and how he's been appointed by Sun to be our friend (as a distraction but still), I thought I'd only see him as a friend. But stars above, you must use magic because your writing and drawings seem to make the impossible happen. And I don't know if the burnt place Lunar showed Star Holder was their village or not, but if it wasn't, then does Star Holder ever get to see their first home again? Do they ever get to see the ocean? Do they ever get to experience childlike wonders and heal their inner child? Because I know it's broken. And do they ever get to have a familiar? And since they're a god, does that mean they get eternal life until offspring(s) happen?

Once again, your writing is amazing and this au has taken almost every part of my brain. Every time I think "Well this is already amazing, how can it get any better?" You always just come back with even more and it's so mind blowing just reading any of your works. You're doing an amazing job, I hope everything goes well for yyou, and don't forget to take breaks whenever you need, eat and stay hydrated! We'll all be here for you Duck, and thank you for blessing us with your writing. :)

Hello!

WOW this was a big ask! So many questions!! <3

I'm right there with you. Our poor star is so overwhelmed and doesn't know what to think <:(

Yeeeeah Eclipse does have some poor timing. :) A shame. <3

Yes! This story will have a happy ending... eventually. Onto your questions. <3

Does Peepaw get exorcised? Hmm.. Can't say. Too spoilery. But given that it's a 50/50 chance, the odds are good, right?

Do we ever get to see Sun happy, like genuinely happy again? Yes. :)

Do we ever get to experience any sweet moment with him and Star Holder? Also yes. Eventually. :)

Has Pluto taught the Star Holder how to keep other gods from pulling out the star? No, but it's not needed. The Star will become fully merged with the star holder over time. At that point the only way it could be taken is if the Star Holder were to die. :)

And I don't know if the burnt place Lunar showed Star Holder was their village or not, but if it wasn't, then does Star Holder ever get to see their first home again? It wasn't their village. And, yes, they will get to see their village again... Eventually.

Do they ever get to see the ocean? Do they ever get to experience childlike wonders and heal their inner child? Askin' the real questions. Yes and... yes? I'd like to think so.

And do they ever get to have a familiar? Can't say for spoiler reasons. Again, odds are good.

And since they're a god, does that mean they get eternal life until offspring(s) happen? Only if they can maintain strong bonds with at least two of the other gods <3 Even then, they don't have an unending flow of magic to sustain them. If only they had worshippers...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA Thank you sm <3 <3 <3 I'm so so glad and flattered and honored and fghiopwheogeb :') <3 <3 <3

I hope these answers were fun for you and thank you for this ask! You take care, too <3

[nerdierholler]

October Writing Day 3

I was tagged by @serenpedac and @evilbunnyking for WIP Wednesday and right now I'm working on prompts for the October so here's my Wednesday offering!

Sticking with Baldur's Gate Prompts and Kerric, here's the aftermath of the first major spoilery Dark Urge camp event. Followup part tomorrow!

Control (or lack thereof)

There’s no doubt in Kerric’s mind as to why his hands are covered in blood. He knew it as soon as he saw the body. This was him and him alone. Like so much else, he has no memory of what he’s done. Perhaps that’s for the best. Seeing the aftermath and finally knowing what he’s capable of is enough, remembering the deed would make little difference. 

Kerric sits down beside Alfira and waits for the others to wake up. At the very least he can watch for predators who might be attracted by the scent of so much blood and attack the camp or try to steal the body. Their gnashing jaws could hardly do more damage than he’s already done but Alfira had been through enough, she didn’t deserve that indignity in death just as she hadn’t deserved the brutality he’d inflicted upon her to end her life. 

The others begin to wake, he hears their shifting movements in the tents as they ready themselves for the day. Kerric waits. There’s no hurry. Not that he’s trying to delay the inevitable, he almost welcomes it, he would be deserving of any punishment the other’s found fitting. He wouldn’t even fight back. No, it’s mere practicality that keeps him silent, there’s no reason for the coming confrontation to begin with everyone else sprinting over alarmed and in their underwear. 

After some time has passed, Kerric calls out, “Over here! There’s something you need to see,” and stands, dry bloodied hands folded in front of him, comfortable with the idea that the next few minutes might be his last. 

I just think it’s weird that even if you decide not to hide the body or clean yourself, that the game kinda still acts like you did. You don’t get the option to be all, yeah that was me, I did it. Either in a proud or distraught way. And then you can still try to say what happened to Alfira wasn’t your fault in individual conversations. Kerric is like, “Nope, I did it. I understand if you hate me and want nothing to do with me. I don’t remember anything that happened or why but clearly something is wrong with me and you have every right to be concerned. I know that my feelings of guilt do not change the facts of what’s happened.”

[softpine]

Would it be too spoilery to ask if you can reveal a plot or two that would have gone differently if you weren't worried about people's reactions? I've been so curious ever since you said your characters are meant to be way worse people

oh sure!! it's not always that i'm worried about people's reactions, sometimes it's just because i dropped the ball or had other stuff going on. i just don't want anyone thinking they made me feel this way!!

the biggest one is that caroline and beth were supposed to get a divorce 🥴 back when they were fighting a lot over asa's worsening condition because caroline was adamant that asa was seeing ghosts while beth thought he was having a mental health crisis. but when asa went into another coma, they ended up reconnecting and slowly rebuilding their relationship (mostly because caroline stopped pressing the ghost issue). it felt natural to me and i think it worked out fine, but i wish i had gone with my gut.

my original plan was for them to drift even further apart when asa went into his coma. caroline would've gotten REALLY desperate, like séance / psychic medium kinda desperate, and beth would've gone the opposite direction and start contacting every doctor she can find. finn would've watched them fight and felt guilty for "destroying" asa's family, who seemed pretty damn perfect in finn's eyes. finn would wake asa up as normal, but the damage was already done, so caroline and beth would continue fighting. finn would beg asa to stop messing with ghosts/time travel and focus on his family (of course it should never be a child's responsibility to save their parents marriage, but finn spent his entire life placating his family and feeling guilty for their actions, so naturally he feels this way). asa is stubborn and doesn't listen (like usual). so that actually drives a wedge between asa and finn too. at the same time, danny and mikaela were not on the best terms because danny lied about going on tour. so everyyyybody was fighting 😭

in the heat of the moment, caroline would've suggested they get divorced, expecting beth to disagree and keep trying, but beth went completely silent instead, and it was an "oh shit this is really happening huh" moment for both of them. they would separate for a while, things still wouldn't get better, so they start talking to divorce lawyers. finally, asa steps in and does some light time traveling (lol) and revisits a bunch of his parents' best moments together so he can go back to the present time and drop hints, like "hey mom who taught you how to swim?" "did you guys have a favorite coffee shop?" "is it true you worked at the diner before i was born?" etc. just little comments that make beth and caroline remember the good times without being too obvious. and it kinda works?? caroline is waiting with her lawyer one day when beth shows up in a fancy dress and says "get up, we're going on a date". everyone is like ??? but beth explains that although they've known each other their whole lives, they never really got to just date each other, because asa arrived so soon after they got together. so they go out to dinner but they pretend it's a blind date. and they get really drunk and do karaoke to 'love is a battlefield' because duh. the next morning, they both call their lawyers and say oops never mind about the divorce thing :') and they stay separated / casually dating for quite a while, still building up their relationship. it would've had a happy ending, but it would take much more work to get there!

overall i just thought this story line would be too bleak and frustrating rather than being "fun" drama, but idk... i wish i went for it anyway. it would've been fun to deal with adult drama rather than teen angst for a change. i still have a bunch of leftover dialogue if you're curious!!

later, after they've been fighting for a while:

this was the other option that would've had basically the same function as the scene above:

i repurposed this sex planner discussion here lol:

[formula-fun]

Ugh, can’t wait for the final chapters and the sequel!

I swear, your writing is so good and detailed that sometimes I think I’m watching a real good show based on real life events and not reading a fic. How does your mind keep coming up with so many incredible ideas?! I bet you’re a genius and a kick-ass arch student!!

I wonder if Max would hold growing up without his mom against Charles? Project his trauma, loneliness and exasperation of being a new parent to a newborn baby and staying at home with her onto his relationship with Charles and unconcsiouly guilt him (like he needed more of that) for being mostly away and not being a “proper” mother? From missing doctor’s appointments, milestones to the baby not feeling as comfortable with him compared to Max.

I feel Charles not being able to calm the baby and the baby possibly not recognizing him, would maybe be more painful than the pressure of the external sources and Max? Like moms are always expected to know what’s going on with their baby at all times and God forbid they miss something.

My guess is their internal battle is still going to be at the center but for different reasons this time.

Anyways, I’m too excited and I’m sorry if none of this makes sense but I’m typing this at work thinking of ways to kill time so I can go home after thinking about it all day yesterday instead of my final presentation for school. So yeah.

Lots of love and virtual hugs to you!!! 💛💛💛💛💛

Hi my dear, so sorry for the delayed response!!

That's so sweet of you, thank you so much <3 I'm definitely super detail oriented at this point in my life, but it's probably having a positive impact on my writing so i dont mind so much dfjdfjkdfkd I'm so glad you like my little fic though!! its my favorite distraction from school so it makes me really happy other people are enjoying it too.

Kinda spoilery answers ahead so i'll put a cut!

I think the answer to that question probably relies more on Max's relationship with his mom than his relationship with Charles! if his stance is that his mom did NOTHING wrong and he is definitely NOT fucked up from his childhood then he's not as likely to hold it against Charles, plus at this point he'd do anything to make Charles happy. That's not to say this definitely won't be an issue, but he's more likely to worry about himself fucking up as a father and primary guardian than he is to blame Charles for wanting to continue his career. Mostly though he probably just really, really misses him

You're definitely right about Charles and about motherhood though, that's going to probably be most of it! Motherhood is hard, not being around is hard, missing Max is hard, traveling alone is hard and then there's also the issue that any postpartum effects he's had have had to be shoved aside in favor of getting back into the car as fast as possible. I'm not gonna get too into the team and the sport and all that but a lot of his internal conflict is going to be about whether or not this is worth it.

Thank you so much for the ask!!! I hope your presentation went well, or if you havne't done it yet good luck! would love to hear about it either way <333

[icharchivist]

As someone who has never played FF7 its always kind of funny to see FF7 characters be talked about, because I am aware of a bunch of the big general plot beats but also I know a lot of the cultural images of the FF7 characters from years of fan characterization and spinoffs so trying to reconcile the characters as symbols with the knowledge that the characters are characters can get kinda funny.

Zack's the biggest example of this, I think, because I only found out about his plot beats from cultural osmosis after years of the cultural image of Cloud and Sephiroth's toxic yaoi thing. So with him especially its hard to think about him and focus on the stuff I academically know actually matters.

So people talk about Zack and I go, yeah yeah The Tragedy and all that. But I also immediately think of how the Kingdom Hearts series does Final Fantasy character cameos that never really have major plot stuff going on, and they put Zack in a prequel game full of doomed characters because like. Of course. But because it's just a cameo Zack comes out of that game fine, except for an ominous black feather that floats down near him in the credits sequence.

So in my heart Zack's kind of like. An ill omen in presence. I see Zack and he feels like someone doing tarot readings flipped over The Tower. And then my brain catches up and goes "Well that's just because he is himself the protagonist of a doomed prequel" but its too late. It's like with Aerith where I see her and I think about The Obvious and then go "Well she's also a character in the game before That Happened".

oh god, yeah, i sure imagine!

ff7 is kind of a legendary game and i think that a lot of plotbeat have been talked about so often people just know it. Like Sephiroth's homoerotic obsession for Cloud gets brought up everytime Cloud gets added to a crossover game because Sephiroth is sure to follow (hi Smash bros), the Aerith's thing has been brought up time and time again, and then there's the KH games that had peppered some of the story lore here and there.

But i also think that players actually don't talk about a lot of the plotbeats. Not to mention the shipwar that ends up completely eclipsing the story and its themes at times.

(im vaguing a bit but this may be spoilery)

Zack is in this really weird position, especially before the remake came out, because Zack is simultaneously Square Enix's most popular male character (across all the games) and also a character who's massive element is that he had to remain a mystery for the longest time. (and it's why i have a problem with the remake just spoiling it right from the start).

Like, even i was introduced to the game by Zack's tragedy, but i didn't know about it going in, so to me i really jumped in to his last scene and then lost my mind.

But even so personally i played Crisis Core first, so i have a very distinct image of Zack in my head. Of the charming, cheerful, sweet, even if not the smartest boy, who joined in to follow his dreams only to realize he signed on for a nightmare he had no way to sign out of. To me Zack is the guy who tries to be so optimistic, blindly at first, then forcing himself to shut his eyes to be optimistic, then who realized he couldn't keep is eyes closed to it but he had to still hold on to hope, only for it to run him into the ground by the end of the game and he's just breaking under the weight of it all.

there's a lot of tragedy to Zack way past just How It Ends, and it fascinates me personally. But i also have a "got obsessed about Zack Fair when i was 12" disease so i have so much i could say for those last 17 years of stuff to talk about.

(also the feather in KH is a reference to two things: first, Zack's obsession with wings that follow him through the Prequel, and second, the implied fact both Sephiroth and Cloud have reason to be looking for him. in the KH mobile game from the way back they even had Cloud grabs the feather Zack was last seen in in the credits. and obviously that went nowhere since KH3 didn't include any of the FF characters in it. But i still remember.)

But i think Zack is also in a fascinating position because people don't want to talk about what's up, yet people mostly know he mattered to Cloud for an instant, and it makes going through the OG with just the knowledge "Zack mattered to Cloud" genuinely earthshaking.

I remember watching a let's play of a guy going into ff7 totally blind, he didn't know anything about it, and he took everything Cloud said at face value as you do without the benefit of foresight. And then Zack was namedropped, and Cloud reacted in a way the let's player didn't expect. And i remember the actual shock in the voice of the guy going "but. but wait isn't Zack the guy the prequel is about? what the hell is going on, why is he namedropped now, why is /this/ happening."

And, in the sense Zack haunts the narrative, is that if you know Zack exists, you'll start picking it up and it'll make you approach the game differently.

Zack was made from the start to haunt the narrative, meanwhile Aerith was there to be alive first. Everyone knows what happens to her, and sometimes people see her as a doomed figure, but people fail to realize that she is this doomed and sad /because she was so alive/, because she had so many plans for the future.

Another one who gets to be different than you'd expect at first is Sephiroth, because everyone knows how he is about Cloud /in the movie/late game/in the others content they appeared in/, but Sephiroth doesn't start out like that, neither in Crisis Core nor in the OG. And it's why i have beef with Sephiroth in the remake because it's "late game Sephiroth", not early game Sephiroth showing up.

And i think people know Sephiroth is a villain of legends that they just take it at face value, but it's not how he works. I was discussing with a friend who started ff7 by the remake and came to me really dubious because he thought a lot of things didn't make sense or broke the momentum and he was asking me to clarify. And the thing that took him out at the time was that he didn't understand how this Sephiroth is supposed to be anything "legendary". Like, nothing about his appearance in the remake was interesting to him and he was really peeved about it. The moment i told him "because Sephiroth doesn't appear in this part of the game originally and he has a slow built and doesn't start obsessing about Cloud until after their encounter in Junon" he understood everything, the moment i explained HOW Sephiroth was built of he got it. People know Sephiroth is a homoerotic threat to Cloud but people don't know how it actually built on that regard.

FF7 exists a lot in people mind in the way they think they know about it from what was told online, but trust me it's not the actual experience of the game. But how can you properly interreact with a game so legendary that it influenced so many new tropes? How do you come back to it? and so forth.

People in general will put it therefore in this type of gaming pedestal everyone has some idea on, seeing the characters more like archetype than they would know them.

but, yeah, personally i got into ff7 when i was 12 or so. I don't see them as archetypes as much as i see them as my friends. The plot of this saga is really dear to me in a way that runs way too deep (so deep i had to explain the plot to my therapist because it comes with "here's what you need to know about me")

ANYWAY i got lost in the sauce, but *coughs* i really do love how you explain the way you see Zack in particular though. Like, the way he's an omen. You are actually super right in a way you can't even imagine. Everything we know about Zack brings a reckoning and it's just. He's really my favorite example of "haunting the narrative". Once you know how he does, everything builds up only for it to explode when it comes to it.

Anyway. I could ramble about that all day long i have so many ff7 thoughts. There's def something about "what people expect from decade of cultural osmosis" vs "what's actually in the game", all of which also got muddied by the additions to the franchise.

but. yeah. man.

anyway very glad to be your window into what it is when you've been made insane by ff7. There's so much i could say, not enough time,

But thank you for reading o7

[awsydawnarts]

So I will definitely not be making more of these any time soon bcs school is kicking my ass, but I dug up this drawing from months ago that I kinda felt like sharing??? You get a gold star if you guess who they are without clicking for more lol

Contrary to what the stuff I reblog might lead you to believe, I really don’t inherently hate the concept of reboots, they just have to be *done right*. This is probably not an example of that lol, but I have a little au sitting in the back of my mind about the Magic School Bus characters aged up and attending college, and this is my first attempt at getting an idea of what the girls would look like (we’re going back to the og cast with my girl Phoebe obviously, Jyoti can have a cameo or something). I haven’t actually drawn the guys and I probably won’t any time soon bcs like I said, school’s kicking my ass, but I have Thoughts about them as well. I kind of want to save my full detailed thoughts for if I ever get around to making individual character sheets with outfits and stuff, but who am I kidding that’ll probably never happen so here’s a brief rundown:

Phoebe’s always been big on animal rights and whatnot, so I took that and ran with it. She’s this chill bi vegan chick who lives in an rv and has like five pets that she rescued. I’m not super sure what anyone’s studying just yet (except Keesha) but I’m thinking Phoebe’s somewhere on the environmental science side of things.

Speaking of Keesha, I kind of want them together 👀 Keesha’s getting her BFA in dance with an emphasis on ballet. One of the episodes has her mention a dance class and as a dancer myself that’s all I needed lol (just realized how hard I’m projecting here, since Phoebe was my favorite character growing up).

D.A.’s probably the most thought out of this group. She’s great at pretending she’s put together but she’s actually a huge mess. She’s a perfectionist about every aspect of her life, to the point where is starts taking a serious toll on her mental and physical health. Maybe she needs a certain former classmate to help her realize she doesn’t always have to take everything so seriously 👀 I don’t know what she’s studying yet but it’s some obscenely difficult thing lol, she’s probably trying to get her PhD in like five years or something

Wanda I’m thinking doesn’t have a major decided on just yet, not because I don’t know but because she doesn’t know (I could be convinced otherwise). I feel like she’d grow into a bit of an adrenaline junkie and get a motorcycle and shit. She’s pan(?) with a heavy preference towards women. I’m most sold on her hair but least sold on her face shape, so I guess we’ll see. I have her personal life worked out pretty well but that’s kind of spoilery and not just about her, so I’m probably not going to share unless I post more for this. Maybe knowing that I still have things to tell will keep me invested and creating for this lol.

That’s the girls!!! Maybe over spring break I’ll do the rest of the class? Maybe not. It’s a mystery to everyone.

[circular-time]

All caps for my favorite for each Doctor and bold for my alltime fave; I've listed a smattering to give you glimpses of most of the companions and some vague non-spoilery comments since different stories appeal to different tastes.

First Doctor: The Daleks although slow-paced by today's standards set the show on its feet as the second serial and there's some extraordinary visuals for a 1963 show with no budget and almost no precedents to work from; The Aztecs has Babs being awesome some interesting perspective on white saviour syndrome trying to avert colonialism filmed when the last of the British Empire was still throwing out the Brits (also blink and you'll miss it gender discussion), THE ROMANS is a Funny Thing Happened on The Way To the Forum Meets Doctor Who, The Dalek Invasion of Earth was groundbreaking for the time (post-apocalyptic Earth was not yet a setting many mainstream audiences had seen outside of a few blockbuster films) a chewy story plus the first companion departure

Second Doctor: MIND ROBBER is just fun watch it, Enemy of the World with actual ( gasp) sharp acting all around partly because Troughton is the villain as well as the lead

Third Doctor: Spearhead from Space so you get at least one with Liz who is Great and the Brig in fine form, a lot of fans will rec Inferno for very good reason but be warned it drags in the middle, Terror of the Autons for a great Jo & Master story, The Daemons ditto plus one of the Brig's signature moments, no one ever remembers Carnival of Monsters because it's not important or epic and there's a lot of running about but it's a fun little D&D adventure like Ghost Monument, THE TIME MONSTER which is a bit naff but we love it to bits as The Gift That Keeps on Giving there's so many dumbass and funny and heartwarming moments in it

Fourth Doctor: MASQUE OF MANDRAGORA fun melodramatic costume drama with bonus gay couple don't talk to me I shipped Marco/Giuliano before I knew what gay WAS, Brain of Morbius has Sarah Jane and the Sisterhood of Karn and Four in fine form with bonus throwaway Hey That Totally Screwed Up Canon (What Canon?), The Deadly Assassin which established Gallifrey as we know it today and therefore pissed off fans tremendously, Face of Evil as an all around fun story introducing Leela Who Is Great I wish I could rec more of hers but i've already got too many of Four here; Horns of Nimon for a drinking game ep that's so bad it's hilarious (moreso if if you know the camp villain was considered for the role of the fourth doctor) but Romana is in a different story acting her socks off LIKE A BOSS, City of Death aka the Doctor and Romana's Paris honeymoon, Keeper of Traken because I just love it (preview of my favorite companion though she's only a side char) plus it kinda sets up spoilers spoilers still relevant in new Who

Fifth Doctor: Castrovalva is a fun regeneration story but find the Blu-Ray if you can where they were finally able to achieve the MC Escher effect intended, Black Orchid (I dunno why some people dislike this one it's Who meets Agatha Christie!), Kinda which is a little crack but there's some great acting and classic quotes even if my fave is out with a migraine, Mawdryn Undead for an interesting reunion with an old friend even if the writers once again can't juggle an ensemble cast, ENLIGHTENMENT is awesomesauce ok not as much now as then when the first cliffhanger literally pulled mom and me out of our seats but the story has aged well even if the FX now look quaint, Planet of the Shorts of Fire for some Master/Doctor shipping although they nearly had the Master say he was the Doctor's brother and cut the line mid-word!

Sixth Doctor: oh this poor guy didn't get enough good scripts until the audios showed just how fantastic he can be but The Two Doctors (which shows his era had gotten a bit grim for classic Who, but it's good), VENGEANCE ON VAROS which believe it or not predates the reality TV fad and I haven't seen it since the 80s but it was a damn good episode at the time

Seventh Doctor: Delta and the Bannermen is nutty and joyful and unique and a palate cleanser after Sixie's era got too dark and I will defend it to the death even if it's kind of insane, The Happiness Patrol for a strong Sylvester ep with Ace being great (these two are always great), BATTLEFIELD with the Brig (both of them!) and a girlfriend (we wished) for Ace and random Arthurian bullshit and Kate Stewart's mom and oh this was LOVE when it came out Doctor Who was BACK baby (poor Colin), Remembrance of the Daleks which should have been the 25th anniversary special and we all pretended it was and there is the most awesome cliffhanger ever (it's like the punchline to a joke 25 years in the making for fans) but really it's so good the guest chars in this story have a popular multi-season spinoff audio series; Survival as the very last story of classic Who with more Doctor/Master shipping which may have been deliberate and this time we know Ace's "girlfriend of the month" plotline was deliberate although it's coded and cloaked because the queer author had to slip it past the censors

Okay so I'm continuing to venture through Classic Doctor Who. I've watched chunks of Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker and adore the TV Movie. I've also seen a few of the "specials" like The Three Doctors and The Five Doctors. I know some episodes are considered much better than others 👀 What's your favourite or must watch episode??? Help me out

[wigglebox]

NYCC The Winchesters - 1x01 screening, panel

Good morning/afternoon/evening people! 

So I had to take a break from art in order to write down my first impressions on things for the prequel pilot and the subsequent panel after. 

Note that I haven’t had any time to watch any interviews the folks did before the screening/panel, so this is just me writing what I experienced in ~*the room where it happened*~. The bulk will be behind a read more! 

** Note, I try to avoid mega spoilers but I do go into my impressions of the pilot and my emotions with it, AND I do outline the characters. I try not to get into the nitty gritty since y’all will mostly be seeing it tomorrow anyway, but if you don’t want even a HINT of a spoiler, just don’t read it lol. 

The tldr; I loved it, it has so much to expand on, and I can’t wait to start speculating with y’all again on something SPN based. 

—

I won’t lie, I was nervous.

Not because I didn’t think this show wouldn’t do a good job, because it’s made it this far — which is a lot considering the last two attempts at a spin-off were dead in the water. I was more or less nervous of the audience reception.

Living in one's own head as a Supernatural fan makes you and your goldfish bowl of friends in your Twitter GC and Discord servers, have a set of parameters of what makes a good Supernatural episode or not. But not everyone else shares those parameters that you have convinced yourself are right.

And I was nervous because, given those parameters, I had to keep reminding myself that this isn’t Supernatural. It is its own thing. It’s its own form, own show, with a connection to the main show. These are new characters, even if we knew the older versions of two of them already. Everything is still basically brand new.

My nerves came from a mixture of anticipation, fearing audience reception after the year and a half wait we had to think about this show, and not knowing if I or the audience can see this show as its own individual self and not just another Supernatural episode.

Suffice to say after like, the first five minutes those nerves were gone.

The Pilot

I’m going to get this out of the way before I continue. Pilots aren’t ever perfect. Even Supernatural’s pilot, which is a pilot that I consider to be top-tier, has some clunkiness. 

Pilots can drag, or pilots can speed — there’s rarely an inbetween. The Winchesters pilot seemed to be a little fast paced, trying to introduce the premise of the show a little too quick. The pacing of events and understanding and dialogue kind of felt like this should have been a two hour episode and not the 40 minute one we’re going to get. 

And, some of the dialogue, just like in its predecessor, was indeed clunky exposition. 

But I’m saying this as someone who yes, understands that’s what that was — but also someone who doesn’t take this into account when it comes to what makes a pilot successful. In fact, I never expect perfection in pilots. 

The Winchesters pilot has a lot riding on it. Not only is it the third attempt at a spin off, but it’s having to perform two duties where the original Supernatural pilot only had to do one.

The Winchesters pilot has to both grab old fans, and intrigue new ones. The original Supernatural pilot just had to attract new fans and build up a new world.

So, given that The Winchesters has to do a little extra work, and given that it’s a network pilot, a pilot in general — for me — the fast-paced nature of the episode doesn’t really affect it negatively for me. I expected it, and I’m sure others did as well.

A successful pilot for me is 1) am I interested in this world/characters 2) did you make me ask enough questions to come back next week?

And, The Winchesters scored on both of those accounts!

The episode opens up with its standard cold open where you mostly see a character you have no idea who they are, doing something that’s going to launch you into the next 45 minutes of adventure with the main characters. But, this cold open also has to launch us into the entire season. It’s the first-ever cold open for The Winchesters and it worked very well.

I’m not going to get too much into plot, to keep this spoiler free, however I will say in my head I described it as the Scooby Doo Avengers. When I say Scooby Doo I don’t mean campy, zoinks, goofy monsters of the week — but that there is this team, that is clearly already close, willing to do what it takes to figure something out. And... they have a van lol. 

In the group there is tension already from the get go, which I love. By group, I mean Lata [Latika but Lata is her nickname], Mary, and Carlos have already known each other.

Small spoiler, but at once point Lata tells, not asks, Mary “You’re still mad at me.” Carlos and Mary have tension and unresolved past things that they gotta talk about at some point probably. And John blends in with them rather effortlessly. I will say I’ll be keeping my eyes on John and Lata right now.

But all four of them had a chemistry that already worked. Not like “Oh we all love each other here, no problems at all!” kind of chemistry, but chemistry where you can tell that interactions aren’t being forced. Almost like they’ve been acting together for years by that point, even though they hadn’t.

That was another thing I enjoyed about this core four, the fact that they’re each their own characters but they’re also not standing out too much from each other. That they both don’t blend into each other, but also they’re not so over the top it feels like a caricature.

Here are my first impressions of the characters:

Lata is a book nerd, clearly the “brains” but she’s also rather timid, nervous about hunts, and finds her satisfying success when it comes to what she’s learned on the page rather than hunting down a monster. She’s softer-spoken, and I can see her being the more level-headed grounded one of the group. However, I can also see where her self doubt can get the better of her, and her fear, and given a conversation she has with Mary in the van — I have to wonder if something bad happened in the recent past that made her like this.

Mary is the kind of Mary I felt like we got with Sam Smith. Marching forward, doing what she has to do, almost “going through the motions” of being a Hunter. She already voices her desire to walk away from this, and it’s hinted in that conversation with Lata, something went wrong recently that caused a big upheaval in her life. But that’s kind of a plot point that can be saved for when you watch it Tuesday. Of all four of the characters, it felt like I knew Mary the most because we got later-seasons Mary for a hot second. However, you can see how Meg Donnelly brings her own understanding of the character to the table. I am so very interested to see where she goes throughout this series.

Carlos will be the problem child (affectionate). When the role was first cast, and you got his description, you saw JoJo getting cast, and then seeing him in the trailer, folks already pinged on him being the fandom favorite and I can see that. He’s sharp, witty, already has some one-liners, and I can easily see him causing but also solving problems for the group. One thing that gets me is that he comes across as almost stubborn, not willing to admit when he’s wrong, so I can imagine that comes back into play. That indication comes with a small conversation with Lata over something that happened in the past. It’s played off as a “ha ha,” but if you think about it deeper, you’re seeing someone who knows what he wants and likely will do what he has to do to get it. There are definitely two Alphas in this group, Carlos and Mary, and I can see them butting heads at some point.

And now we’re at John.

When this prequel was first leaked onto Deadline in June 2021, folks (save for myself and a few others that were on my timeline and Discord) immediately rocketed to their feet to voice their displeasure at John being a focal point.

Accusations of trying to twist the narrative and make excuses for John’s behavior in Supernatural-Prime (neglect, child abuse, etc.), or that the constant reminder that John and Mary’s love story was manufactured so how on earth could you have a story about it — or just the attitude in fandom that’s been in there since I’VE started, back in 2013, that John Winchester is an Asshole.

But, a few pointed out that indeed we don’t actually know anything about John aside from his father, Henry, “walking out” on him and his mother, and… that was it. The flashback episodes we had with Matt Cohen’s John were that of a story that we kinda already figured. “In the Beginning” was more about Mary and showing Dean how that deal was made, and “The Song Remains the Same” served as a lesson for Dean and Sam to understand that they “can’t escape fate” with their bloodline. 

Nothing’s really known about John at all, especially before 1973. 

That being said, I really have to spend this portion completely cheering Drake’s John on because holy moly. 

Drake has, and will continue to have, an uphill battle trying to get the most hardened Anti-John folk on board (a struggle Matt Cohen didn’t have to have as much I think). But, given the life that he’s brought to John in this pilot alone, I don’t think it’ll be too much of a struggle. 

I joked that with them casting Drake that “it’s almost like they want us to love and adore him” but I’m not even joking anymore. I adore him. 

Indeed, it’s important to note that this John is not the John we wind up with in the main show. And the cast and everyone involved knows that and have stated as such in interviews. They’re not erasing or rewriting anything. 

The truth, for me, is far more tragic:

The John in the pilot is likable with an almost puppy-like innocence, looking to get answers but also someone dealing with trauma himself as someone who went into the Vietnam War way too early and suffered the consequences of that. I won’t get into specifics, but there’s a touching moment when he’s describing what he saw and what happened to a dear friend and I almost cried. 

You have a kid, and yes I’m calling him a kid, suffering from this trauma in a way that you see twice in the episode, while also someone keeping his head held high while following orders and the motions from his new group of Scooby Doo hunters that he stumbled into. 

When asked how he found someone so fast, John remarks that’s what he does because he was in the Marines. So we get little glimpses of that. 

His ending moment after the final climax of the action was so adorable I wanted to squish his cheeks and yes, I know that’s weird, but he was so proud of himself. 

But, in my opinion, it also demonstrated something that I think may or may not come back — and that’s that he did what he did down there in the tomb almost a little too easily and without freaking out. And was excited to tell his new friends about it.

John in this show I think will become someone that even the most reluctant watchers may come to find they really like. 

And to me, that’s making him automatically, from episode one, one of the most tragic characters. 

Already in the pilot, I was mentally screaming for John to turn back, don’t investigate, don’t do any of this, because we know what’s waiting for him down this path.

I have to mentally make a line in the sand to separate Drake from Matt from JDM because there’s no way I can continue going with The Winchesters and not completely support and adore John and his efforts to understand the Men of Letters and also being with his friends.

With characters out of the way, I’ll mention we don’t get much with Ada or Millie, however I can’t wait to see more of them in the future and what they have to offer. Millie seemingly already knew about the Men of Letters and Ada — in my head when she was first announced as a character I saw her as a Bobby character, just the know it all that can be their “save us because we don’t know what else to do!” character. However it feels like she can, and likely will be, more than that. 

As for the plot of the episode, this is where my “Is a pilot successful” requirement is filled for “Are there enough questions to keep me coming back.”

The answer is, holy shit yes. 

Particularly two things, which I can’t wait to speculate on when the episode airs. One involves John and his letter with the Men of Letters star on it, and the other of who the big bad is for the entire season. I’m so excited to speculate with people on that.

But also, this hunters world in the 1970s is so different to me than what we were first introduced to in 2005. They don’t have cell phones, they don’t have GPS, they don’t have computers, they don’t have quick ways of communicating with each other. They will have a network, sure, but its the 70s. They also don’t have access to THEE Men of Letters bunker, at least for now, which holds a lot of information as well. 

So I have questions about those too. 

I didn’t want this show to just be about “hey let’s do a case study on John” and it doesn’t feel like it’s going to be that. I don’t mind that, but I also wanted this show to stand on its own.

And it’s clear that they’re looking at it in a way that will provide an actual story that can get folded back into Supernatural-Prime.

The Panel

After the pilot screening, there was a 30 minute panel with Danneel, Jensen, Meg, Drake, and Robbie and holy wow.

I wish I could convey to anyone reading this, especially anyone who had any doubts over anything, just how much this group cares. 

Like, it’s not even just in their words saying it, but you can feel it, and I wasn’t even in the front row. It was this like, almost electrical current in the air that could reach you and make you truly, fully, 100% understand that they’re not doing this just for kicks. 

They’re not just tossing aside whatever they want, that they’re not just doing this as a cash grab or anything — but that they’re a team of creatives that really truly wholly believe in this world that the main show created and wanted to explore that more. 

They do treat the existing material with respect, and that they’re not going to just throw all those 15 years of blood sweat and tears down the drain.

I remember in the months following the Deadline leak, folks online kept stamping their feet about canon this and canon that. We haven’t had much press until just recently about it therefore come comments that would be made at a Supernatural convention by Jackles from time to time would have to suffice, but still didn’t convince many.

I think at the time also, when the Deadline leak happened, a lot of opposition I saw came from younger fans, or newer fans, who started season 12 and onward (or even after the show ended) and didn’t quite understand just how monumental it was that Robbie was brought on board.

Robbie stopped writing for the show in season 11 and I wanted to take an informal survey of fandom asking them if they truly understood the word that he did. Some folks don’t pay attention to who writes what.

His episodes I find tend to be some of the most gif’ed episodes on Tumblr or most talked about episodes in general. Any one of his episodes you’d likely find up in any fan’s top 10 list. He’s given us Charlie, Eileen, and even had a hand in bringing Chuck back both in Fan Fiction and in Don’t Call Me Shurely.

For many folks who were in fandom before Andrew Dabb took over some time in season 11, Robbie was easily one of the top three writers for many people.

And there’s a good reason for that. Between writing snappy dialogue and getting characterizations down really well, he’s also seemingly a master at these unconventional episodes. He’s had more normal ones like Goodbye Stranger, 8x17, and First Born (9x11) among others, but he’s also done Baby, Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo, LARP and the Real Girl, Bitten, Fan Fiction, Meta Fiction and the like.

He’s written episodes that were great for character showcasing while also having unconventional storytelling apparatuses as well. My favorite one of his episodes was Time After Time, 7x12.

Suffice it to say, them grabbing Robbie for this project really stood out to me, which is probably why when Deadline first leaked the project, I wasn’t upset. To me, if Robbie was involved, then that’s really all I needed to feel secure in knowing that whatever, or however, they were going to tell this story, he’ll have fun figuring it out.

And I can’t even begin to describe how much it really does come across how much Jackles cares. 

It’s very very easy for someone with that amount of talent to just peace out from a 15-year show that ended, a show that likely made taking other roles nearly impossible, and just go on to do bigger things. 

But the fact that he stuck around and that even before the show wrapped in Sept. 2020 (due to the pandemic) he was already starting on this? That means a lot to me. Like, no matter what he does, he seems to want to keep one hand on his roots and that can only benefit us because you don’t do that unless you really believe in it and care about it.

It’s also hilarious to me that in these press interviews, he’s basically being outed as THEE biggest SPN brain rot stan and, he’s not alone there. We have jackets, dude!

So yes, up on stage, with them answering questions and describing the process, how they’re viewing this — you can tell there’s a reverence they have for the material and understand truly how much time, energy, blood, sweat, tears, smiles, sadness, chaos had gone into the main show.

--

The pilot was good, it was something that would keep me interested with the characters they presented and the premise of the rest of the season to come. It established that we’re not in 2005-2020 anymore, it established a kind of big bad that we’re not used to seeing*, and it had enough easter eggs that satisfied my little Supernatural heart but not over doing it.

*This is something I can’t wait to speculate about.

On a personal note, I’ve been excited since that night, and had felt almost like I was in limbo for the last year and a half waiting for this moment and it was so satisfying seeing the pilot and understanding that my excitement and enthusiasm wasn’t misplaced in the slightest. 

I went into this with the question of “Will I be disappointed in all of this hype that I’ve helped build up for this, both in my head and outwardly?” And the screening and panel shot back: “Nah you’re good.” 

So I can’t wait to rewatch this Tuesday night, and then I can’t wait to watch it the following Tuesday, and again, and again. 

I’m excited for The Winchesters to grow its wings and fly!