#and the minor character isn't actually in the remake

[cptsvensen]

when a fandom takes a minor character and adopts a certain fanon for them so they essentially just become a shared oc? that's fascinating to me. and by fascinating i mean annoying.

[jesterthestar]

☆ | author's note : I KNOW THIS WAS WIRTTEN LIKE A MILLION TIMES , but in my opinion shinobu is the most interesting to look over and i think she has alot of options and opinions soo. Anw im getting bored of my current layout , so maybe remake to another character ?? The poll will be after the said hc's. I hope you enjoy this piece !! <33

. . warnings ★ : MINORS DO NOT INTERACT nsfw under the cut ; two versions : for male and female readers ; oral sex ( both reader and char receiving ) ; anal sex ; masturbation ; somnophilia ; drugging ; fingering ; not proofread.

𔓕   ..     ┊    Afab reader !

When with a female reader she is probably a switch with a lean towards a dom. Sometimes she wants to watch your frame shaking from the overstimulation shes given you and sometimes she wants to a strap deep inside of her pussy.

Shinobu has a fair share of knowledge on how to pleasure a body of a female first of all because of her medical expiriance and second of all actually trying masturbation on herself in many different ways.

Shower heads , pillow humping , edging and much more and she is going to use it on your mercilessly when you have sex.

But it will be pretty hard to get.

Shinobu sees sex as something to show emotions and love for their partner so doesn't do it from just lust , in fact it's hard to turn her on in ordinary life so you'll have to beg and basically degrade yourself in front of her , so she'll finally understand that you can't deal with the ache. Which leads up to one of her kinks !

She like watching you trying to even muster a word as you're on the floor by her while she's doing anything , legs spread , arms tied behind your back and you're on the verge of tears. You're absolutely exposed and shinobu is not willing to cooperate.

BEST SCENARIO OUT OF EVERYTHING SHE MIGHT DO TBH.

Something i think she'd practice is drugging , though only if you give her permission. She finds something attractive in you waking up because of the immense pleasure that she is serving you, watching your cunt spasm around her fingers while you're sleepish face frowns snd whines from her , slowly but surely waking up.

I feel like she isn't really into anal if her partner is a woman, she might do it if you insist or really want to try if you like it or not. To her it's unsafe and unlike males you have a hole made for it.

But if you do she is really gentle and careful.

As mentioned previously you two rarely have sex, but if you do , oh boy , you'll be fucked or fucking her hours on end.

She likes eating you out. Softly massaging your clit , her tongue gliding against your folds. She holds one of your hands to give you some sort of support.

Would do again. 10/10

𔓕   ..     ┊    Amab reader !

I feel like she'd be a power bottom or a dom.

Something about her being so small and yet making you wonce and tremble makes her even more turned on.

Doesn't like 69 , so ya'll give oral tp each other seperatly.

Shinobu doesn't suck you off much , because again she is small and has a gag reflex, so she likes giving you small kitten licks more than actually taking your whole dick into her mouth. Likes tasting the salty beads of precum on your cockhead.

Probably edges you before plopping herself onto your dick and fucking borh you and herself until her brain is numb and dead.

( im sorry i didn't have much ideas for this . )

@P1ERROST4R ON TUMBLR. Do not repost / translate / copy my work.

[trekmupf]

Trapped in a Car With Someone You Don’t Want to Be Trapped in a Car With

Pro

Kirk being torn between his "duties" in the military structure of Starfleet and the duty to his crew / his friends

McCoy waking up and immediately doctoring

The way McCoy sits in the chair; Once again I'm stating the obvious: McCoy is very beautiful in this episode and his winged eyeliner is everything

We're getting to know Spock better: his problems connecting with the human crew and understanding them (something he learns later on, which is great character development), a new side to his logic, the fact that he's not driven by power (getting command)

Also the fact that the McCoy / Spock dynamic this early on the show is different from later on: the disagreements are less friendly banter and more actual fights, McCoy doesn't know Spock that well (thinking he's interested in power / command is wrong) and they don't work together as well, which is a great way to mark their development in later episodes

there's also a clear separation between Spock and the others, Spock's alone and doesn't have someone to confide in; later on Spock and McCoy are a duo

especially the scene where they're fighting over the funeral service highlights why McCoy, Spock and Kirk work best together and what can happen when one of them isn't around to balance them out

Spock is genuinely so irritated by his logic not working, he's so visibly annoyed several times

"Strange. Step by step I have made the the correct and logical decisions, and yet two men have died"

Spock's failures as a commander also highlights what makes Kirk such a great captain, as he manages to use logic and command while also balancing the human and empathetic side of it

Spock learning so much and growing during this, technically a great leader but he learns his own limits

Scotty best repair boy, the way he crouches and crawls into spaces to repair the shuttle and then engineer magic!

Also Scotty's attitude in the face of death is so great and telling about him. He realizes first what's going to happen and accepts it calmly, smiles and compliments Spock, having an air of comfort and peace around him

@ Kirk and McCoy in the last scene, how close do you guys need to be to have a conversation?

Kirk pointing out that Spock's action was based on hope and was therefore human and Spock trying to explain it away as a non emotional and therefore Vulcan action and the others just like him so much while he does so; it's not mean spirited but just lovely and such a great contrast to the tension earlier in the episode

So many of the shots inside the shuttle are accidently funny due to the camera angles they had use because of the tight space

Direct and straightforward episode set up: We have limited time (medicine needs to be brought to another planet) and the shuttle with two of our main characters gets lost in a phenomenon

Kirks desperation rising during his scenes the longer his crew is lost

great tension by the double plot: the immediate threat on the planet and the time pressure on the ship

I absolutely prefer the original special effects over the CGI remake. Look at how good the shuttle craft looks in comparison – taken from this youtube video which I recommend

Con

even for Trek the monsters are sort of shit

very minor but I'm annoyed at the uniform inconsistency, its yellow shirts not red shirt dying, the travesty

I know the commissioner is there to remind us of the time frame but his constant repeating starts to be annoying. I'm Kirk, just done with this guy (even though yes, he's right)

everyone but the yellow shirts who die have shit to do and opinions to have except the women who is just scared and doesn't wanna die

Counter: none

Quote "Did I? I may have been mistaken" - Spock "Well, at least I lived long enough to hear that" - McCoy

Moment: When the group sits in the doomed transporter together, knowing they're about to die but they seem collected

Free Bones because you can see his great make up in this one

Summary: Not quite bottle episode (even though it feels like it) that focusses on Spock and his struggles as a (half-) vulcan working with humans and his disconnect with them using a gripping and tense narrative; Over the course of the episode Spock learns a lot about humans, his connection to them and himself and he and his companions gather more respect for each other Previous Episode - Next Episode - All TOS Reviews

[peawinkls]

What's Up With Jack? - A JFK Clone High Character Analysis Written By a Mentally Unwell Highschool Student

I'm gonna start this essay off with 5 words: JFK is an iconic character. He's not as iconic as…Spongebob, sure, but he is the glue that holds together Clone High as a whole because of his character. I've written an essay on him once, and since then I've always loved him and he was so interesting to analyze. Though, I felt as if I had gotten a few things wrong in that one analysis. So, I'm remaking it. In addition, I'm adding some more stuff and correcting what I've gotten wrong.

We know who JFK is. Not the former US president, the cartoon character. The brute, dumb womanizing jock. The one that's used for comedic relief from time to time. The silly himbo that people have grown to love since 2020.

While Clone High is a very satire show that makes fun of various teen tropes, we get ourselves some very interesting characters like Joan, the shadowy board, etc. So in a way, making this analysis is very silly of me but I'm a Clone High obsessed nerd who relates to some of the characters. Most of all, JFK. I want to highlight some elements that most of the fandom doesn't really dig into that much. Good news for JoanFK and Jfabe fans, I can't infodump without mentioning both of these ships.

This is a JFK Clone High essay, and why I care so fucking much. Contains season 2 spoilers.

LGBTQ: THE SEXUAL MINORITY

To state the obvious, JFK has gay foster dads. Something that you don't see in many other 2000s cartoons. Most people would expect the last thing is for a jock to have same sex foster parents. Jack seeks advice from them. He loves them. However, we do get moments where JFK gets confused about his own sexual orientation at times. For instance, he messes up his words and gets flustered around "John Dark", who is actually Joan. In the end, however, he becomes relieved at the thought of not being attracted to the same sex.

This could either mean that he was "intimidated" by his own sexual orientation, or the fact that he's bisexual in a country that many sexual minorities struggle through– even today. Even if this might be a stretch, this is the 2000s, I must remind you. It was a VERY different time for people who identified with their orientations. Since JFK is so popular in the school, he could've become afraid of ruining his own reputation because he was simply bisexual. So what does he do? He goes to his foster parents for advice.

A lot of people in the world aren't very accepting of people who are queer (hell, people shunned Abe for kissing his friend Gandhi. And while Abe isn't attracted to Gandhi in any way, I feel like this could be a good example).

Let's put ourselves in JFK's shoes for a moment. You'd happen to be a kid growing up in the 80s-90s. You have gay foster parents. You'd get made fun of for having gay parents. I think that at some point during Jack's childhood, he was probably ridiculed for having parents of the same sex. It's possible.

His Personality, His Reputation, And His Feelings

JFK loves receiving praise. He pulls constantly, he's the captain of the football team, and he likes making himself look nice. But it's very obvious that he hides his feelings, he wants to make himself look tough SO much that he's almost forgotten the one thing: It's okay to feel human emotions. JFK has mentioned before that the only girl who ever gave him feelings (before Joan came in) was Cleo– and even if she did, the two were in a toxic relationship. They argued with each other constantly, they put each other down.

This could suggest that he's only ever felt way too empty when he was around with other girls, so Cleo coming into his life brought a little color into his world. Just…not for long. He has a deep fear of breaking up with Joan and losing her, because he has abandonment issues. Yes, JFK, the asshole jock, has abandonment issues, and it's been right in front of our eyes. He himself demonstrates a genuine fear of losing someone close to us.

Now to talk about one of my favorite episodes where JFK gets some character development. Litter Kills: Litterally. If you don't know the premise of this episode, JFK loses his best friend, Ponce, due to him being killed by litter. And. That's pretty much it, everyone go home

Seriously though, while the episode itself is pretty stupid and hilarious, it also remains one of the emotional Clone High episodes. When Ponce dies, JFK is devastated, clearly. He lost one of his only best friends, and as the funeral for Ponce went on, JFK didn't care about his reputation, he didn't care how insane he looked to everyone, he only wanted to be with his friend. But even in the current situation he was in, JFK first refused to be comforted by Abe. This is also the moment of one of the first ever times he ever felt a warm embrace. And by his enemy, of all people.

Towards the end of the episode, we can see that JFK is at least starting to move on.

Now, on to season 2 JFK, I do believe that he had some sort of character growth ever since Joan came into his life, which brings me to number 3:

Loneliness And Insecurities

JFK is noticeably happier when he's with Joan, correct. She's the only person he's ever felt comfortable being with compared to Cleo, whereas the two were in a completely toxic relationship back in season 1.

I want to remind you all that Joan is genuinely the only woman JFK has ever loved, so the thought of breaking up with her makes him…anxious. He has an irrational fear of losing her, same as he lost Cleo (though, the two remained friends). In Anxious Times At Clone High, JFK avoids Joan so she wouldn't break up with him. He runs away from his problems in this episode, to be exact. When he's not with Joan, he is prone to overthinking.

Joan and JFK do share something in common, they both struggle in actually making friends. But in season 2 episode 2, Joan makes friends faster than JFK does. He's spent most of his highschool years being a womanizing stud, that he came to the realization that he actually doesn't have any friends. His only friend was his girlfriend.

So, he resorts to crying in the boys restroom. Which is where we see him become friends with Confucius, as he invites him over to his mansion for a boys night. A very convenient thing that caught my eye was: Confucius also struggles in making friends. So he and JFK also share a thing in common. This is one of the first friends he ever made, mind you.

JFK admits to the fact that he's a "loser with zero friends", after getting absolutely demolished in an internet argument against Topher Bus.

So, JFK is a very insecure person, got it. He insults himself over having no friends. He's afraid of losing someone close to him because he fears he's not good enough for her. He's so scared about the thought of her breaking up with him that it pushes him out of his comfort zone. Though, as the episodes progressed, we do see JFK gaining many other friendships, even becoming friends with his former rival, Abe.

JoanFK (And Why It Didn't Work Out)

I will start off with this section by saying that I do not dislike JoanFK, I personally think they are very cute. They have a great ship dynamic. Goth girl x dumb jock. But, and this is a very lukewarm take: I feel like their break up was fair.

Saved By The Knoll was the breaking point, where in one of the scenes, JFK…cheats on Joan by making out with Harriet. And while they both apologized and admitted it to her, it's still treated as cheating by Joan (however forgives them both in the end).

I believe that JFK letting Joan break up with him in Spring Broken was a very responsible thing to do of him, and he goes on about how Joan needs someone with her that's not just sexually. And JFK…makes a lot of sex jokes. He's not a perfect person. He has flaws in relationships, this includes Joan. Even though it was a pretty emotional scene, and Joan was saddened by JFK's suggestion, they are able to work things out in episode 8, Sexy Ed.

You get where I'm going with this. I personally think that JFK and Joan are better off as friends, they have an excellent platonic duo dynamic that could work out so well. The whole entire relationship thing was doomed to fail, and couldn't last long as a result. And while they both look out for each other and care for each other, I don't think I'm the only one who thought that the relationship was quickly gonna sink like the titanic.

Jfabe (And Why It Does Work Out)

I'm not saying JFK and Abe have to be a romantic couple, like JoanFK, they could also form a cool duo dynamic that we pretty much have little to see so far. I can only hope that in season 3, we could have more moments between them where they're just a powerful brotp.

I'd like to point out that these two are complete opposites; Abe is tall and lanky while JFK is short and buff. I like the thought of the tall loser boyfriend x short jock boyfriend ship dynamic. They both influenced each other's goals, Abe was determined to get Cleo to be with him because JFK was competing against him to also get the girl, and JFK wanted to win the presidential election because Abe was getting himself into danger (as said by Joan). In season 2 episode 10 however, they both agreed to the fact that, "Hey, we actually do great as a team!"

I believe that JFK and Abe could work out things if they were to be in a relationship together, such as JFK learning from his previous break up that he needs to improve. I figured that Abe could be his emotional support. The one who's always there for him, willing to help JFK out whenever he needs it. Just wanted to share my thoughts.

Conclusion

For a satirical highschool comedy, JFK is an interesting antagonist to supporting character despite being the stereotypical highschool bully, and that's probably part of why people like him so much. While they have watered him down a bit in season 2 I couldn't be more grateful that we at least got some more JFK content to work with. He has been rotting my brain asides from the show itself i think i need help . Thanks for sticking around

[adarkrainbow]

By the way, speaking of the erasure of actors with dwarfism... Right after I have been hit by this Time Bandits mess, I have just watched the trailer for the live-action Disney's Snow-White. And... honestly all of the problems talked about and issues raised before seem truly non-significant compared to what I actually got out of this trailer. Which I think is the real problem with this movie.

The feeling of... unecessary. I watched the trailer, and I was left with nothing out of it, except a neutral "Why would they make that?" coupled with a tired "Why would I watch it?" Because there was nothing in this trailer that encouraged the audience or gave the audience the desire to go watch it if they already knew the original movie.

Here's my point: when the whole Disney live-action movies trend started (I am going to say "live-action remakes" to differentiate it from older live-action movies like the excellent 101 Dalmatians live-action movie), it worked with an immense success. Why? Because these movies had something to them. Yes they reused classic movies and stuck to them... but in their own, unique way and they didn't hesitate to change things up, to differentiate themselves from it. The most obvious being the Maleficent movie, which was a literal "perspective flip" with a ton of new stuff (moral reversal, backstory given to a villain, anti-villain situation, etc) ; but even the Cinderella live-action "remake" worked hard on having its own style, not hesitating to change the design of some key characters (Lady Tremaine would be my main example). Thus, they worked extremely well. Whether you like them or not, you can't deny they're their own thing and stand up on their own.

Cut to today. I am going to use mainly Disney's remakes of The Little Mermaid and Snow-White (though I could also use stuff like Aladdin or other movies). What's the difference? These movies are remake. Absolute remakes trying to stick as closest to the original as possible: same story, same shots, same designs. They are basically... transpositions. Sure there are some changes (in The Little Mermaid, making Ariel a different skin color and having a whole Caribean style) but they still feel very minor compared to all the efforts made to stick to the original animated piece. Compare the Lady Tremaine case above with Ursula or the Evil Queen in those live-action movies - there isn't an effort to reinvent the character to better fit a live-action universe or a different style of story. They are both created as an attempt to reproduce the original cartoon design as faithfully as possible. And this is what I mean by how "unecessary" these movies are feeling right now. They are literaly just retelling the same story, with minor changes. It feels like so much money and effort and special effects and acting is being thrown away at just... a repetition o what we already have instead of creating anything new.

It's not like Disney run out of fairytales to work with! Imagine that, we could have had a whole new range of live-action fairytale movies! But not it is just... recreating the exact same shots, over and over (I was particularly puzzled by how they worked so hard to recreate the shot of the Evil Queen going down the stairs while having her cape float behind her. You put a lot of effort to recreate this old animated shot, okay... But what's the point? Why would I pay to watch this same shot in live-action when I already did tons of time animated?)

In fact this is why these live-action remakes are bound to feel inferior to the original animated pieces - precisely BECAUSE they are trying to recreate and stick to the original... while being limited by budget and real-life physics and visuals, meaning they will have to tweak it slightly in unsatisfying way. If they had decided to go with their own style and stuff it wouldn't have been a problem (again, Disney's Cinderella live-action, the two Lady Tremaines feel like different characters and thus it is easier to separate these things and look at each on their own).

(It also doesn't help that Disney has been working a LOT of doing live-action versions of their own characters before, from Once Upon a Time to Descendants, so again... trying to recreate exactly things is just bound to cause unpleasant comparisons).

[0n3w1ng3d4ng3l]

roleplay server

this is honestly probably a super long shot but I have a Final Fantasy 7 roleplay server with a friend that we're trying to get like actually started. there's tons of open characters (Sephiroth, Rufus Shinra, Kadaj, Cloud and Reno are the only ones taken atm) it's set in the world of FF7, but without any of the major threats. there's not much of a plot (yet, I haven't entirely decided if I want to actually come up with one for later, but for now it's just shenanigans with the characters and stuff) having played/watched the games isn't necessary, but there probably will be references to things that happen in the games (og, Remake/Rebirth, Crisis Core remake and Advent Children), so if you're okay with spoilers or have played/watched any/all of it, then please join! it's also only 18+, as my friend and I are both adults, and don't really want to write with minors. there's no verification, it's just the honors system, but if you're caught lying or we suspect you're under 18, you will be kicked and/or banned, depending on the situation. aside from that, the only other super strict rule is absolutely no nsfw with minor characters. we are allowing people to play Yuffie, Marlene, etc, but if you're doing weird shit with them, that's an instant ban. if you're interested, send me a message and I'll send the invite link :3

[bamboopanda27]

I might be in the minority here, but I gotta say, it's kind of disappointing to see so many negative reactions towards Silent Hill 2 Remake. I get that Konami doesn't exactly have the best track record with how they've handled the series in recent years. I understand that people have reservations about Bloober Team's involvement and why that is. I know that the original Silent Hill 2 is a very beloved game. And of course, people are entitled to their own opinions.

However, I feel like I see way too much of people just absolutely hating on something online these days, rather than waiting for it to come out and giving it a fair chance. I've lost track of all the times people have completely rallied against a game, show, movie, etc. based off just a few scenes or bits of dialogue. It takes more than that to truly experience and judge media for yourself.

In the case of Silent Hill 2 Remake, I've also already seen numerous rants about things like James having too much expression in certain scenes and being able to block/guard against attacks. I saw that first point floating around online after the teaser trailer released and that was literally the only information to go on. Now, people are complaining about how the combat looks. I feel like people are forgetting or neglecting that Silent Hill has never really had smooth combat. It's always been clunky and awkward to some extent. In my opinion, combat has consistently been the worst part of each Silent Hill game I've played. Story, characters, and atmosphere have been the much stronger parts for me. If anything, it looks like the combat in SH2R will still be an improvement from the original. Just from the brief clips shown in the gameplay trailer, it already appears to be much smoother and more modernized without being too action oriented.

Another thing that bothers me is the trailer even discloses the game is still in development. This isn't a finished product yet, and it's very possible the combat will be more polished once it's done. It could also have been changed quite a bit by then. I think people need to actually wait for the finished game to come out, then experience it for themselves. Like I said before, there's too much of bashing things without ever giving them a fair chance and instead assuming that they'll be terrible, awful, trash, and a myriad of other negative descriptors from the very beginning.

Maybe the game will turn out to be bad and I'll end up feeling disappointed by it. For now though, I'd rather give it the benefit of the doubt and believe it has the potential to be good. I'd rather wait to play the game myself and form my overall opinion on it then.

All this to say I'm frustrated by how quickly and easily people completely dismiss things without giving them a proper chance first. And specifically, it's frustrating to see how much of that type of sentiment has been directed towards Silent Hill 2 Remake, a game that's still in development and doesn't even have a release date yet. At this point, it honestly feels like some people are nitpicking every bit of information or footage that comes out and finding everything "wrong" with it that they possibly can.

[asktheghosthost]

Some scattered thoughts on the 2023 HM movie

Maybe I'll do something more in depth later after the wide release and when I'm not so exhausted

But for now, here's some notes. There are a couple of minor spoilers, so I'll still put this under a read more. Be warned.

I really enjoyed the Easter eggs. I'm looking forward to getting the blu ray and pausing it every five seconds to see what I spy in the background.

Our mortal crew is very likable. Ben is definitely the stand out character for me. His arc is lovely and sympathetic and he almost made me cry.

I liked how the film approaches grief and loss and love. It felt sincere. And it was handled in a way that I think most kids would get, too. If anything, it may help open up conversations for some of the younger audience.

Lots of character cameos, and multiple new ghosts created just for the film. Really appreciated the new spirits. They fit right in. The extras and supporting cast playing these quirky ghosts were great. ... Pay them. Pay them what they're worth. You couldn't have this massive menagerie of the macabre without them

I've seen a lot of reviews say the jokes can fall flat. Most of them hit for me. "It'll cost you... three dollars," still made me giggle.

Hatty... I'm so glad Disney finally made a proper outright villain again. Not a twist villain. Just a straight up murderous, power hungry, manipulative, absolute asshole. It's been way too long. Pay your writers, and pay them well so we can get more of this.

The way the Mansion would change and rearrange itself was great. I love that the house is a character all on its own. It has a backstory. It's its own entity in a way. Love that. Properly pay your animators and special effects team, because their work is the only way that kind of thing is accomplished so well.

William Gracey is a total sweetheart and I love him. His backstory is actually super similar to Edward's, so that might bug some people. But he's different enough in his demeanor, I think, that maybe it won't be really obvious if you're not thinking that hard about it. But, yeah, there are a couple of things that feel repeated from the 2003 movie. I don't know how much of that to chalk up to tropes, or if it was some intentional reworking. This isn't a remake, it's still its own thing, but it's easy to see some inspiration from the previous film.

Loved Connie. No thoughts in that head except "WHACKITY-WHACK!" She's chaotically vicious for the sake of it, and that's fun. My perfect Constance is Debbie from Adam's Family Values. Or a slightly sympathetic schemer, for a more grounded route. But I'll take maniacal seriel killer Connie, too. One moment with her actually got the biggest laugh from me.

Thinking about it, it also borrowed plot elements from the 2003 video game, too. But did those elements better. For the most part.

That's all that's coming to mind right now. Might talk more about it later. I had a good time. I do recommend it. Are there things I'd do differently? Well, yeah. I still want something where the ghosts are the focus. But I guess I'll just provide that myself. And the IDW and SLG comics also give us that.

I look forward to discussing it more with the fandom once the film has been out a while longer. I think there'll be a lot of different opinions on it.

[amyreadsandstresses]

AMY'S DAILY FIC REC SAYS HI

Continuing to welcome this year and all the vibes, comes another installment. Today with BBC Merlin, Teen Wolf and BBC Sherlock

*A warlock's best friend is the floor - Lola_Rose_Robins

6k, 1/1, Gen, Hurt Merlin, Disabled Character, Chronic Pain, Fluff and Angst and a bit of Crack. Arthur/Gwen, Epic Friendship

Merlin has chronic pain. After a nasty flare-up, his friends are there to support him.

*Lace Among the Rocks - PottersPink

1k, 1/1, Merwaine, Scar Reveal, Magic Reveal

The stream opens up into a small pool, warmed by the sun and tranquil in a way that Merlin craves; isolated and a little bit magic, a place for him to drift and sink his roots into the earth and stretch his wings with the birds.

*The Curious Case of Aithusa - TyalanganD

6k, 1/1, Merthur, Mpreg, Dragon!Merlin, Fluff and Angst, Soft Arthur

In hindsight, Merlin should have known that as a dragonlord and a shapeshifter, he was capable of giving birth. After all, all dragons could grow eggs, no matter the gender. And that magical ritual he did right before Arthur took him to bed after his coronation, definitely didn’t help matters.

*Untitled (I'll Keep You Safe) - PottersPink

2k, Merwaine, Smut, Hurt/Comfort, Magic Reveal, Canon Era, Soft Ending

Camelot, Merlin thinks, is held up by my bones.

*In Your Heart and Flowers In Your Hair - Biromantic_Nerd

4k, 1/1, Merwaine, Fluff and Humor, Canon Era, Protective Arthur

Merlin's head tilted to the side as he stared at his friend in obvious bemusement. "No, but you've got that look."

"Look?" Gwaine asked coyly. "Merlin, that's just my face. Are you saying there's something wrong with my face then?"

*Save me - orpgan_account

7k, 6/6, Merwaine, Canon Era, Hurt Merlin, Suicidal Thoughts, Good Morgana, Drug Addiction, Grief, Hurt/Comfort

Merlin's struggling to deal with everything that's going on in Camelot, and the others begin to notice

*after the storm (are you leaving) - Imagined, Scarlet_Ribons

59k, 6/6, Merthur, Drug Addiction, Hurt Melin, Kinda Hurt Everyone, Slavery, Queen Mithian, Court Socerer Merlin, Getting Together, Canon Era, Eventual Happy Ending, Angst, Hurt/Comfort

Arthur lends Merlin's aid as a sorcerer to an allied kingdom. He doesn't expect to find Merlin, two years later, in shackles, and only a mere echo of the person he used to be.

*you know it's not the same as it was - softiecharlie

1k, 1/1, Merthur, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Court Sorcerer Merlin, Established Relationship, Married Merthur

“Do you love me still, Arthur?” Merlin whispered with a reverence that seemed like the only thing keeping him from giving in to his anemic state.

“Where is this coming from? Come here, you idiot, let me tend to your wounds first.”

“Arthur, just-- just tell me.”

*Bad Liar - cissathebookworm

8k, 1/1, Merthur, Established Relationship, Knights of the Round Table, Queen Annis, Episode Remake

Set series 4, episode 5 "His Father's Son" where Arthur kills that king in the forest and almost goes to war with Queen Annis. Arthur and Merlin are in an established relationship and Merlin helps Arthur realize some things.

Or: Arthur and Annis don't go to war because Merlin isn't actually dumb and has a lot of sway over Arthur and this is a Good Thing.

*When You Say Nothing at All - Skitz_phenom

10k, 1/1, Merthur, Minor Arwen, Agravaine, Leon, 5+1, Episode 0405 His Father's Son

Facing increasing pressure to assert himself as King, Arthur doesn’t allow himself the luxury of being able to speak his mind; not that he actually knows what to say. Until he does.

*Sir Merlin, Knight of Camelot - perish_the_thoughtless

1k, 1/1, Gen, Bromance, Fluff and Humor, Episode 0405 His Father's Son

An exploration of how that intriguing episode intro of Merlin dressed as a knight could have happened.

*fidelitas - theseourbodies

1k, 1/1, Leon & Merlin, Friendship, Class Differences, Dad Friend Leon

"It's heavy," Merlin mutters.

*The Only Reward Bestowed Upon Me - greatdumbking

4k, 1/1, Merthur, Fix-It, Angst, Love Confessions, Agravaine, Gaius, Canon Era

“You’re wrong Merlin. I don’t need anyone. I can’t afford that luxury. The kingdom's my responsibility now, and mine to bear alone. And you must learn to accept that.”

How could this hurt so much, a third time? Merlin could feel the façade of his casual indifference faltering. His face fell, tears were clawing at his throat, creeping into his eyes. It took all his effort to nod, steel his eyes, and swallow down the rising sob.

*Sharing Responsibility - Lolly047

3k, 1/1, Merthur, Fluff and Angst, Fix-it, Magic Ban Lifted, Humor, Marriage Proposal, Queen Merlin

In Arthur's humble opinion, Merlin comes up with the strangest ideas... But sometimes those ideas do turn into favourable outcomes. But this whole marriage thing may take it a bit too far...

*Destiny Says A Lot Of Things - Hollow_Whisperings

1k, 2/2, Crack Treated Seriously, Kid Mordred, Merlin is So Done, Druids, Kilgharrah, Hijinks and Shennanigans

For, rather embarassingly, Mordred's returning to Arthur and Merlin's lives seems to have happened... somewhat earlier than expected. It's a lot more difficult to harden your heart against your sworn nemesis, magical kin they may be, when said nemesis looks up to you and has decided you're their new big brother, after all.

*Rest, Now - TheAsexualofSpades

2k, 1/1, Merlin/Arthur/Gwen, Hurt/Comfort, Post Lamia

The second he sees the walls of Camelot, Merlin slumps in the saddle. Cara nickers in warning and he just manages to right himself before Arthur looks over.

*Dumb Luck - TheAsexualofSpades

2k, 1/1, Merthur, Knights of The Round Table, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff, Magic Revealed, Hurt/Comfort

Alright. Merlin’s going to be honest. Is the absolute best at hiding his magic from people? No. Is he a damn sight near better than some other bastards would be if they had his magic? Yes, yes, he is, thank you very much. They would do quite well to remember that he is magic, and he’s had it since he was born, so he knows what he’s doing when it comes to knowing that he has it. Yes, thank you, he doesn’t go around doing every single thing he could with magic because well, then he’d never get to do much of anything ever again.

And that would be boring.

*Base Instincts - TheAsexualofSpades

1k, 1/1, Merthur, Knights of The Round Table, Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Humor, Shapeshifter Merlin

It says something about Merlin, doesn’t it, when they find out he can shapeshift and it only explains about twelve of his weird quirks.

No, Merlin, that doesn’t mean we’re excessively monitoring them, it means you’re a strange man who doesn’t make a lot of sense on your best day.

Yes, you have good and bad days.

No, this is not a good day.

*it took new york to make me a cowboy - piratattoos

15k, 1/1, Sterek, Future Fic, Derek Leaves Beacon Hills, ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THINGS I'VE EVER READ, No smut, Recovery, Getting Together, Character Study, Slow Burn, Writer Derek Hale, Post Season 3B

After Beacon Hills, Derek heads back to New York. He doesn’t look back, lest he be turned into a pillar of salt. He leaves it all behind, a monument, a tomb, a thousand fuck ups and betrayals left to gather dust and slowly rot away to nothing.

He read somewhere once, that time is cyclical, that the universe repeats over and over, and that he will be reborn and make the exact same mistakes over and over again, helpless to change anything. He thinks Stiles told him about a Vonnegut novel like that once.

He doesn’t think about Stiles.

*Adventures and Explorations - Survivah

2 works, 30k, Sterek, AU-ish, Fox!Stiles, No Bestiality, Isaac Lahey, Stilinski Family Feels

Derek plans to spend the rest of his life holed up in the woods after Laura dies. Then he meets a stubborn young fox, and the stubborn young fox meets an urn of Deaton's magic powder, and his plans change.

*The Important Bit - Solshine

(Reread), 9k, 7/7, Queer Platonic Relationship, Johnlock, Beautiful, Marriage, Domestic

Just where exactly is the line between “to love” and “to be in love”? What difference is required between “flatmate” and “husband”? (Besides the rings, obviously.) No, the important bit is that they have each other. Thirty years, give or take, in an atypical marriage. Basically a long bit of platonic domestic fluff.

*Delirium - TheStrid

3k, 1/1, Developing Johnlock, Bipolar Sherlock, Hypomania, Suicidal Ideation, Self Harm, Mind Palace, Supportive John

Sherlock's sacked his mind palace.

*Case.Suspect.Chase.Jump. - MonkeySocks

2k, 1/1, Bipolar Sherlock, Mania, Protective Mycroft, Character Injury, John Watson

“I’m fine.”

“Fine?” Mycroft stands and pokes his finger to my arm. The one set in plaster and held to my chest in a sling. That was incredibly painful. I cradle the damaged side against me and away from Mycroft. I have numerous bruises down my left side, and I had a loss of consciousness for a few minutes because of the concussion. They said they wanted to monitor me. I know why I am really here.

*I Was in Your Arms - jhnlck

1k, 1/1, Johnlock, Soft, Depressed Sherlock, Soft John Watson, First Kiss, Dancing, Hurt/Comfort

John makes Sherlock dance to ABBA to cheer him up.

[sapphire-weapon]

Why do you think Capcom chose to portray Ashley & Leon’s relationship the way they did in the remake? It’s honestly kinda funny to me because Ashley was so hated in the OG that the last thing I thought Capcom would do is structure her in a romance with Leon. I know after RE6 they kinda pulled the plug on Aeon but I figured they after that they would’ve pulled on some more Cleon in RE2R, I know they do flirt, but it’s not a lot and not as blatant as Ashley & Leon.

Also, the fact that not a lot of people talk about Ashley & Leon’s relationship throughout RE4R is kinda baffling to me. Like their romance is so explicit and obvious, yet I don’t hear many people talk about it. Even heard more people talk & gush about the Leon/Claire flirting gate scene which is literally 2 seconds long and that’s like one or if not the only time they flirt. Nothing wrong with it, loved that scene too, just wish more people would talk and acknowledge Leon & Ashley’s literal entire campaign of flirting.

Honestly? Honest to God?

I think they did it this way because they knew they knew they could get away with it because they would never have to commit to it long-term. Ashley disappears after RE4, so any romance would disappear with her. It was their chance to play around with different ideas that wouldn't come back to bite them later. Claire is a recurring main character; to have an actual romance with her would mean bringing it back up again or just letting it drop as a red herring, and -- after the whole Aeon thing -- I doubt they wanted to do that.

And despite the "gotcha" that people seem to think the handholding thing is, the fact of the matter is that Capcom was probably very careful about not making it seem like a Leon/Ashley romance was meant to be a long-term, life-altering thing. The handholding probably was a step too far.

Because the goal of RE4make's meta story isn't actually The Romance(TM) -- it's to be a fairy tale. And it just so happens that romance is an integral part of fairy tales. So, they had to make the romance obvious enough that the fairy tale worked/made sense, but not so obvious that it was going to affect Leon's character long-term or any future canon.

That's why I keep saying that Leon and Ashley's romance is canon for RE4make and only for RE4make. It will never come up as relevant again, because that wasn't the point of it. The point was to tell the story of The Knight and the Princess Fair. And now that story is over. And now reality has to come back.

Because another minor theme of RE4make is that fairy tales aren't real. Salazar's fantasy play didn't pan out, Luis never got to be Don Quixote, and Leon and Ashley won't live happily ever after.

Leon/Ashley is canon, but it isn't endgame. And that's what so many people miss or misunderstand. They assume those two things are the same, and they're not.

[veebs-hates-video-games]

It really is nice finally having a genuinely good Mana game for the first time in over 20 years, not counting remakes. Even counting them I only really thought the Trials one was particularly noteworthy because of how much stuff they improved, especially compared to playing the original with the extremely iffy fan translation when the patch first came out over 20 years ago. The others have been fine but haven't really offered much over the originals aside from looking a little nicer and not needing a console from the 90s to play them legit.

Anyway, as someone who got started with the series as a kid in the 90s, Visions of Mana is a lot of fun.

The people who worked on it really did their homework figuring out what makes the series work and made something that feels like it belongs right next to all the others. It's very much a 90s action JRPG with modern sensibilities and quality of life features, and an actually good translation (which is mostly worth mentioning with how questionable most of them were back then, even from big companies like Squaresoft).

They really captured the visual style of the series and somehow made it work in real time in 3D, full of bright colors and lush landscapes and all the silly little quirks of the Mana games like turning into a snowman when you get frozen. The music's pretty good too and calls back to a bunch of themes from previous games while introducing some new ones too. I don't think most of them will stick in my head for decades like some of the originals, but it's still pretty enjoyable.

Also enjoyable? All of the characters. The story isn't super deep, but it's got the kinds of themes the series likes to go for, and it gives lots of opportunities for the main cast to play off each other in fun ways. I liked them all, but I think Palamena (the squirrel queen who just wants to pretend to be normal but doesn't know how) and Morley (the sad catboy who blames himself for the loss of everyone he knew) ended up being my favorites.

It's kind of funny that the previous game in the series I played was the Trials remake, where the main character I played was the glass cannon magic user who's a princess and the biggest brat the series has ever seen. Then I came here and mostly played the glass cannon magic user who's instead a queen and just wants to be friends with and help everyone. Good contrast.

One of the devs mentioned in an interview that one of the things that inspired the world design was Xenoblade, and it shows (in a good way). Large areas, but not open world, fantastical landscapes with plenty of verticality, running around collecting glowing dots that give you minor resources along the way to wherever you're going, usually something or other in every random corner of the map you poke your way into, and specifically like XC1 a lot of kind of uninspired side quests to go kill or collect however many of whatever. I still did most of them, but most of them are really not the highlight of the game.

Combat's fun though, which is good because there's plenty of it along the way. Could be a little better and a little tighter, and I'd love better feedback on stuff like whether I time dodges right or not, but there's enough variety and customization that you can probably figure out something fun that works for you.

Really the only part that I didn't really like was in the post-game stuff. I liked that they used it to tie together and wrap up a few random side things from the main story, and it was good enough most of the way through, but the final boss of that side quest storyline was probably the single least fun thing in the entire series for me so far. It's not even that hard, just incredibly tedious and designed to counter any of the ways I like to actually play the game. Kind of wish I'd just stopped after the credits and ending, because having that as the last thing I did instead made me like the game very slightly less.

Anyway, it was nice to have something that starts with a vaguely similar premise to the pilgrimage in FFX but then turns out to actually be something I like instead of just getting progressively worse as it goes on like FFX did for me. It kinda sucks that the reward for the people who made it was getting their entire company shut down at the same time the game launched. Hopefully they all find work somewhere doing something interesting, because they're clearly good at what they do, and hopefully Squenix keeps making stuff like this for people like me who've been sick of what they're doing with stuff like FF for years at this point.

[ikemenomegas]

Hey!! (animeomegas here <3) I don't know anything about jjk, but I love actor AUs and I was wondering if you have any fun ideas for Naruto, the arcana or Mystic messenger? For some reason I've been imagining how a Mystic Messenger TV show would work and sketching out poster ideas for it 😫 This isn't really intended as a request, I just want to hear your stream of thought haha. Hope you've been having a wonderful day! <33

Hi @animeomegas I actually had a really long day but it was nice! I got a lot of things done. I hope you also had a good day ^^. So, okay okay okay you know I love casual stream of thought... and talking ahaha, and I also love behind the camera drama (I am also avoiding any wip work because 9+ hours at work fried the thesaurus bit of my brain)

Naruto

Naruto is such a specifically anime show. The budget for a complete 1:1 live action remake would probably make people so mad, there would have to be so much CGI for the final battle.

I feel like it could work for actors au as either:

1. Make Naruto a movie series. It's probably got a cult following like Star Wars and started off as some kind of original idea in the 70s and then got acquisitioned by a huge conglomerate in the 90s-2000s era, and had enough films (like the fast and furious franchises XD, so... eight at least) that it was able to cover all the material up until our time lol.

I actually went and reviewed the arcs because I love procrastination through research oop, but if you cut out/combine the filler arcs/turn them into serialized shows for streaming, you're left with enough material for about 3 movies from genin-days (when the actors Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura age from 11-14) and 5 movies from the shippuden era (there the main trio actors age from 16-24)

Playing off that nostalgia factor, Jiraiya's actor either played Minato or Naruto in the 70s film. He's since become a very famous actor/producer/director. Kakashi's father also played Kakashi's character in the original 70s film, so having him return as Sakumo for the Pein arc was a little Easter egg. There's a couple of instances of this throughout the series. For example, Madara is actually played by the same actor who played Sasuke in the og series, and the makeup used to age him in the flashback arcs gets high praise. Hashirama is played by the same kid who played Rock Lee in the first films too. Tsunade was played by the same girl who was either Ino in the original, etc.

Kind of like marvel, there's a ton of actors who are only sort of or not very famous when the films start, and the kids are certainly no-name actors (kind of [Sakura reads to me like a former disney-channel kid lol]), and then as the films get wildly popular, the franchise gains the Midas touch and even all of the recurrent minor characters get arcs/spinoffs/or see further success in their careers.

And as with marvel, it truly becomes like... everyone famous in a certain generation was in the Naruto franchise.

Sasuke had some actual industry connections prior to casting, but that was only because his brother was a young up-and-coming model. They sort of spring-boarded one anothers' careers. Playing the franchise characters traumatized them oop, and irl they're very close. There's a noticeable uptick in viewership for compilation videos of the Uchiha brothers being best siblings after about movie 6 when Sasuke finally kills Itachi and movie 7's fight with Kabuto is one of the most watched clips ever.

Also marvel-esque, I think people have mixed opinions about the ending lol (just like they do the anime) because on one hand, explosions! amazing visual effects! the whole ensemble ready to assemble! stacked nostalgia value! answers to some of the most asked fandom questions! amazing physical feats (Naruto and by extension Sasuke mostly insist on doing their own stunts)! and on the other... you have some of the thousand story threads being lost in the sauce, lackluster characterization for a some of the ladies, leaning perhaps too much on nostalgia value, complete obliteration of power scaling, suddenly there's almost too much content, and you have to have watched all three spinoff series to understand some of the in-world references, also fighting between the original concept creator and head writer and the production teams :p (yes this is Io being too literal haha)

2nd option: The Naruto characters all belong to the same representative entertainment company (think SM or YG /pulls face because cabal culture disturbs me/). I think this is more like an idols AU, and the relationships are significantly more catty and have more drama, but they're all actors/other entertainment related career lol so it's also kind of actors au?

The company probably tried for a ninjas/powers theme during recruitment and promotion so that's where you get Kakashi associated with dogs and lightning, Sasuke associated with snakes and later hawks and fire, Naruto associated with frogs and wind, Sakura associated with slugs and healing, Itachi associated with crows and dreams, Haku associated with ice and mirrors, Sai associated with tigers and ink, Tenzo/Yamato associated with trees, Gaara associated with tanuki and sand etc.

Itachi and Sasuke have an infamous rivalry that never really "resolves" so much as disappears because Itachi retires for a few years to deal with physical and mental health issues. It would be during this time he goes public with a relationship and he gets married before making a comeback. Even after the brothers reconcile and do projects together, people still bring up their Fighting Era and it pisses Sasuke off because the public doesn't really know what happened and he hates the speculation. Part of the controversy is that Sasuke left the company only a few years after signing on, joined a small rival company that was later embroiled in scandal, and then returned to the same company as his brother right around the time Itachi took a break.

Kakashi is the oldest of the "new generation" that's promoted during that time, but he's a very successful child actor turned model and adult actor. He did a bunch of shows that have great repeat value though so he basically lives off residuals and picks his projects and is very obvious but rather quiet about the ways he critiques the current entertainment industry. He's very good friends with Tenzo, stagename Yamato

Haku is a musician first and an actor second. He made his debut as part of a short lived idol group before going solo and starting musical stages. He's an up and coming favorite for historical dramas.

Gaara and Naruto are child actors who have been best friends for ages and help one another work through the inevitable industry challenges. They separately become really popular role models for kids from their hometowns. Kankuro is Gaara's personal rock in the working world, even though Kankuro's bad-boy image and slightly freaky aesthetic don't surface level seem to match with Gaara's more reserved and authentic method of dealing with the constant press.

Shikamaru and Nagato both separately give me musician/model vibes, but in different genres. Shikamaru quits the music thing very quickly to become a producer lol because more math and less fighting with fickle public opinion.

Mystic Messenger

If you sketch the the poster idea you haaaave to post it, please pretty please Amy?? Because you're so right, the whole plot is absolutely like a thriller/romcom kdrama. (Because the characters are well fleshed out it could also work with preserving the character backstories but have them all have entered acting later on.)

I looked up some Kdrama posters and the one where the leads for "because this is my first life" are standing in a stylized apartment balcony reminded me somewhat of thee game, mostly because the MC is stuck in the apartment for a good portion of the seven days lol.

If the whole Mystic Messenger plot were a drama...

MC is probably a rookie actor with one or two well done but not widely distributed productions under their belt.

Yoosung was maybe a child-actor which makes the whole ingenue thing kind of funny for his fans. Like yes, this is his first "adult role" (his baby face means he otherwise plays a lot of high schoolers) but it's this odd mixture of experience meaning he plays the role perfectly, but lack of experience with normal people resulting in a lot of blushing and stammering and totally tunnel vision flirting during the press tour haha.

I'd love for Jumin to come from a similar but less severe situation as game-Jumin. Like maybe his father has remarried a bunch of times, but he actually gets along with the stepmother who's been his mother for most of his life and he takes her to premiers with him. He grew up poor so he finds playing a lot of wealthy heirs type characters because of his looks to be a very strange turn of events, but he overall doesn't talk about his past much in public.

Hmmm, Jaehee seems the type to play a lot of severe characters in her usual roles because of her appearance, but like game-Jaehee she's got a very cute and adorable side that's coupled with a very genuine personalty. The interviewers probably make her do a lot of aegyo T.T poor Jaehee. She probably also worked her way through a prestigious drama school, either in-country or abroad, so she loves to read.

Zen always offers to do the aegyo with Jaehee so she doesn't have to suffer alone haha. He on the other hand never went to drama school, he's been acting since he was about 17 so all his training was in-company, although his company helped to put him through college where he did an advertising and media degree. He didn't have the exposure Jaehee did to classical media and arts, so they are irl very good friends who bond over their interest in business and Zen's interest in gaining a deeper understanding of acting and theater.

I see 707 as the person who was probably an idol musician before he started acting and mostly left group music behind. I've never played his route through, but he seems like the kind of person who is sometimes frustratingly talented lol. He is a natural at almost everything he tries which sometimes stresses him out because he wonders if there's something else he should be doing besides acting.

V seems like the kind of person however who was maybe a model first, and then turned to acting? I hate to say this, but it's the kind of situation where his incredible looks and sweet irl personality have garnered him a very devoted following but his parts in dramas tend to be second-string or somewhat minor or... kind of weird lol, and when he is the lead the show is usually only "okay" because the writing will be strange 😅 which is technically not his fault, but to be honest most of his income comes from promotional deals.

You like Saeran, right? so I won't leave him out! He's got this doe-eyed look that makes me think of a new debut actor! This is also one of his first major roles so he and MC lean on each other a lot and have to work hard to make sure their relationship off-screen is comfortable because they have so many scary intense scenes later on. He and 707 are either irl siblings, or just because so close during filming that they're truly like brothers now and 707 is always seen supporting Saeran, especially when Saeran decides to venture into the music scene and his vocal style and color means he explodes into popularity almost right away.

The Arcana

Somehow I can see this becoming an HBO drama? or maybe an Akuzon special because it's very good about placing lgbtq themes in-world (which was sort of groundbreaking when the game debuted). This one is so hard because each route gradually ended up diverging so much and in such different ways and expanding on the world in such a rewarding diversity of directions that you could truly have a beautiful, successful show no matter what route was filmed.

You could potentially have a Witcher-type situation where you really do have multiple routes and timeline splitting. If someone who's got a really good editing team working with a really tight writing team I think they could do it.

But otherwise, this is another situation where the main cast has had friend configurations for a While and doing this project brought them all closer together!

Ilya and Asra have known one another probably the longest industry-wise. They did a smaller well received indie film once about five years before Arcana with the vaguest of nods to brokeback mountain (I've never seen it, sorry) but a much happier road trip lovers plot, so having to play disillusioned, one-sided pining ex-lovers who had a very toxic last year to their relationship is... something XD.

Asra and Muriel have been personal friends since their days as students - they went to the same camps and programs to study acting and in their interviews, they have a fun time talking about some personal anecdotes (like the fact they did indeed frequently camp at a lakeside together as children) which made it into their own characters' backstories.

Nadia and Lucio are very Nikolaj/Gwendoline during their press and off-screen interactions. They find their characters' personas to be sort of hilariously poorly matched.

Portia is a famously hard working actress who clawed her way through the world of cinema and still managed to stay a decent, well grounded person. She's not actually related to Ilya irl but they got along really well from the beginning so there's lots of videos of them acting like siblings off screen.

Because the on-site shoots for Arcana required so much travel, the cast got to spend a lot of bonding time together, and saw a ton of unique places. The cast always has stories of swimming and hiking or trying new food or pictures of each other at famous sites during their days off. Muriel is actually the one who plans the outdoor adventures the best, he was an athlete and had military training before becoming an actor and he loves being outside so he'll lead these kinds of outings. People adore his social media because he's got that outdoors guy vibe but he's very sweet and he smiles a lot more irl than his roles usually do.

Portia and Julian are the most likely to get lost in any place, but they're also super fun to travel with because they always find interesting people and places that are off the beaten path.

Nadia and Asra have the most normal but also most aesthetic social media feeds. They always seem able to catch the golden hour light somehow...

After Arcana, they each often end up cast in or around the same movies/franchises/series as well, because they do work very well together. The show also helped them break out of some type casting, to their delight.

Lucio trends towards action and romcom films, he does often get typecast as some kind of villain, but his redemption arc in Arcana actually helped him break into more of the antihero type roles. He can be adorably goofy at times.

Nadia used to play the femme fatale quite frequently but since Arcana she's been able to take on softer roles, still often playing a woman in power, but she's been able to mix and cross genres. She also has been working on a screenplay and wants to try directing.

Portia was famous before Arcana but the show helped enter her into some of the more mainstream conversation and she has her first action-type role soon after Arcana ends.

Asra has a delicate physique and had some trouble in the past with being passed over roles that required more "force of presence" in the past. However, since showing his side as the secretive, enigmatic, manipulative magician, he's been able to try on the hats of villains, return to some roles on the true stage (his first love), and play the lead in a more serious political thriller.

Muriel had the opposite problem with his large build often precluding him from anything but action films. Since Arcana he's been able to try a few romantic lead parts, and has embraced his popularity by searching out meaningful mid-budget films where he can broaden his talents.

Julian is very tall, so he used to play quite a few more domineering, dastardly types in the films he did before Arcana. The show also brought him into the spotlight. He still does well as the sneering, dangerous, tall and dark type, but he's found that he can and is willing to push for playing something softer, someone who follows instead of leads in the on-screen dynamics. You and Ilya end up in a bodyguard type of drama at some point where he spends a lot of time on his knees swearing his devotion and playing a lot of subtext lol.

MC in this seems like they would have been a more experienced actor before taking on the linchpin role for Arcana, but the show granted you the experience to step into other roles both in front of and behind the camera and we'll probably see an MC directed and produced short film or indie film within the next few years!

[justmenoworries]

It's really weird how the show basically tells us that Ever After characters are made to do their own things and then try to villianize them.

Like Jabblewalker, Red Prince, Herbologist, Curious Cat do stuff they are made to do. As we saw tree just eats you and remakes you if you don't follow your path. So why are we supposed to hate those characters cuz team rwby said so even tho they are basically forced to do what they do by the world they live in? Idk about others but I felt bad for all of them after Cat said that tree remakes everyone who fails at their fate path. Like are they really at fault when their world made them do this?

Honestly, this highlights another flaw of Team RWBY's that the story refuses to address: Their tendency to blame bad things on individuals, rather than acknowledge the bad thing is a systemic and/or situational issue.

Like when they put the blame for the racism against the Faunus on singular racists like Cardin or the random guy in Atlas, instead of thnking about how their world, their governments, keep encouraging this sort of behavior.

Or when they made Adam, a victim of said racism, out to be a) the actual reason the racism existed, b) the one solely reponsible for the White Fang turning to violence. The White Fang only became violent because peaceful protests and boycotts weren't working and the humans continued going after unarmed Faunus civilians. It was a logical response to Remnant's collective bullshit, but because RT wouldn't know nuance if it shot them in the head with an overdesigned sniper rifle, Adam is made the strawman for violent protest and taken down to prove definitvely that you should never ever do anything, or be anything than a good little minority who lets themselves get trampled on. Because if you fight back like Adam and the White Fang did, that makes you just as bad as your oppressors. According to RT anyway.

And we see this again with James. Team RWBY is very quick to make him the Bad Guy™ who refused to save anybody, instead of even thinking about how James was stuck between a rock and a hard place. He was trying to save as many people as he could and keep a super-powerful magic item out of the actual Big Bad's hands. Instead Team RWBY acts like James thinking about the bigger picture makes him evil and untrustworthy, never once acknowledging their own dishonesty and secrecy. The situation isn't black and white, it's gray and there really wasn't a perfect solution. It was basically a trolley problem. And yet, the way you hear Ruby and friends tell it, it was actually just this one guy going crazy and being unreasonable.

Which leads us to the Ever After. The Ever After is fundamentally different from Remnant and its inhabitants operate on a completely different morality system. This is something that's established in the first couple of episodes. But Team RWBY are so insistent on pinning the Ever After's less pleasant aspects, like Ascension, on singular Afterans. It's like they just plugged their ears and pretended they were still home where everything works the way they want it to. And then they throw tantrums and get mad at the Afterans when that isn't the case. The Cat is naturally curious and whimsy, because their world made them to be? Ugh, no, they're obviously just being childish and annoying to make things difficult for Team RWBY personally. The Cat didn't tell us stuff we didn't ask about? Clearly they're evil! And the same logic gets applied to nearly every Afteran these girls interact with.

God, I really want someone to tell these girls to shut up and listen at some point. They have the mentality of spoiled toddlers.

[ask-team-galactic]

Unpopular opinion: I think Cyrus is more interesting as a character when he isn't redeemed. I understand why the appeal of him seeing the error of his ways is there, especially given how much his traumatic upbringing shaped his philosophies, but I think that many of his incarnations, such as those in the original Gen 4 games, the remakes, the Diamond and Pearl Adventure manga, and the anime (though I dislike his portrayal in the anime) are more interesting as villains. In those incarnations, he shows no sign of doubting or reconsidering his plans- in the anime, he basically opts to kill himself rather than live in the world he despised, while in the games, even during the final confrontation at Spear Pillar/the Distortion World, he insists that he will achieve his ambition, and that the player's intervention is just a minor setback. With that level of belief in his ideals, I don't think redemption would be in character, nor would it be a satisfying outcome to his character arc.

I also find that, in the portrayals where Cyrus is redeemed, it's not done in a way that provides any sort of closure to his character arc. Masters is especially guilty of this- 90% of his "redemption" is Cynthia and the protagonist(s) telling him "you're wrong" with minimal clarification, and he seemingly just decides "okay, I'm wrong" out of the blue. The part with Sophocles was handled very well, and while I could see what the writers were going for with the Commanders talking him out of it, given that he called the entire rest of Team Galactic "uniformly useless and incomplete" in Platinum, I don't exactly buy that he'd be convinced by them, of all people. My big problem with this, and with his portrayal in the Pokespe manga, is that Cyrus was never proven wrong. He was never shown that his vision for the world was going to cause more harm than good. And it would have been easy to do- have any relevant legendary (Dialga, Palkia, Giratina, Arceus, the Lake Guardians- even Darkrai or Hoopa in Masters could work) show the world he would have created, and let him realize that it was a fundamentally flawed concept. If they really wanted to redeem him, that's how I think they should have gone about doing it.

Thank you for the very thoughtful ask and the opportunity to talk about my favourite character! I agree with some parts of this and disagree with other parts of it and I think you make some very good points.

Firstly, to give back a milder version of your controversial opinion, I would totally be down for more iterations where Cyrus isn't redeemed! For one thing, I would love an iteration where the commanders realize he's wrong, try to redeem him, and have to find the strength to turn against him. I think that would be interesting, and I say that as someone who LOVES iterations where Cyrus and the commanders act like friends or found family and where they're a big part of his redemption (the great thing about multiple iterations is that we can have our cake and eat it, too!). And for another thing, I think that Cyrus' absolute conviction is part of what makes him great. I actually first wrote him because I wanted to feel as confident in my own convictions as he does. I love that he's relentless and is willing to do anything- any evil, any personal sacrifice, any effort- to accomplish his goals. I love moments where he shows that, like when he decided to go further into the Distortion World in hopes that it would allow him to fulfill his plans, or when he's bleeding and wielding the red chain in Spe. I like seeing him willing to fight to the last breath.

HOWEVER, I also like iterations where Cyrus is redeemed. I'll explain why further down, but first I'm going to address the part of your analysis that I disagree most with.

I disagree with you that Cyrus needs to be shown that his vision is bad in order to properly redeem him. My reason for that is that I think that at least a part of Cyrus' ironclad determination comes from the fact that he would rather do anything than live out an unaltered lifespan in our universe. In Platinum and the anime short, he'd rather exile himself to the Distortion World. In Spe, he'd rather keep going even as he's battered and bleeding from his eyes. In Masters, he'd rather escape to a dream of utter nothingness and apathy. And as you said, in the anime, he'd rather die.

For that reason, I think you could show him a vision of people and Pokemon languishing in meaningless, empty lives in the world he's planned, and depending on where he's at he might still think that's better because he is suffering to the point where he'd prefer that. In some iterations he thinks that everyone else is also suffering and would be better off that way, too, and in others he just doesn't care about anything but his own relief. And even if such an experience did get him to realize he's wrong and quit, he'd be left utterly hopeless, with no hope for this world or the one he planned to create. That isn't a satisfying conclusion to a character arc, and realistically might still lead him to be destructive- either through senseless lashing out or finding a new villainous plan that gives him hope.

That doesn't mean that I think Cyrus should be portrayed as completely set in his ways, however. Through every iteration, they're actually very consistent with there being one thing that melts Cyrus' conviction like butter: hope for something better.

This isn't always a good thing. In the anime short, Cyrus abandons his goal to live in the Distortion World, convinced that he'll be happier there. In Masters, he abandons his plans to take a permanent nap in the woods so he won't have to feel anymore.

However, sometimes "something better" is of this world, and that's when redemption happens. I like that, because Cyrus isn't scary and dangerous just because his vision sucks. It wouldn't matter at all if he could just have his empty, meaningless world harmlessly in parallel to ours. Cyrus is the antagonist ultimately because the world and our ability to experience it is worth having and would be tragic to lose. I think that him realizing that he could actually be happy is 100% what would get him to choose a better path in life, so I'm glad that's the path we've seen in Spe and Masters. It's nice to see broken things heal, and for Cyrus, healing and redemption are and should be synonymous.

That being said, I do agree with some of your specific complaints on the redemption arcs we've seen. In both Spe and DPA, Cyrus softens on his ideas or outright changes his mind just because he had some time to think. Because it happened twice, I don't think it can be called "out of character," but it's really not my favourite part of his character and I do have a hard time squaring it with him being willing to fight for his beliefs for the 5+ years that Team Galactic existed. So, yeah, I agree with you. I think that Cyrus should have at least taken note of the trio's friendship before his cool-down period in Spe.

As for Masters... well, I only know about Masters through second-hand accounts so I might have some things wrong, but I honestly don't have an issue with the commanders being a big part of why Cyrus changed his mind. There are some iterations (and Platinum is one of them) where there is nothing to suggest that Cyrus has a bond with his commanders, and in others, like Spe and DPA, there's plenty. It seems like in the Masters iteration, Cyrus does care a lot about the commanders and they know that, even though he's far from open about it ("You're tools to me." "Sure, buddy. Let's go be attached at the hip for the rest of Masters"). Given that relationship, I think it's absolutely heartwarming that part of what caused Cyrus to turn around was to see that his commanders still wanted to be there for him even though they saw him at his weakest. I also like that Cyrus is still very dumb when it comes to emotional matters and hasn't solidly changed his mind about anything. He's just put his goal on hold and is looking at his options now that he's feeling a little more hopeful.

I'll end this off by saying that if you want a villain who 100% will never change their mind and will always go down fighting, Lysandre might fit the bill. He's also suffering because of what he's trying to do, and unlike Cyrus, it's unambiguous that he's doing what he's doing for the supposed greater good.

Thanks again for the opportunity to discuss! I hope you got something out my ramble, haha.

[wandringaesthetic]

Regarding the open world, the world map, and Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth

(no/minor spoilers, this is about world maps, I'm in chapter 9)

Gamers tend to call either Final Fantasies I thru IX or I thru X "classic" Final Fantasy. They mourned the turn-based or ATB based combat once it was gone after X, or they mourned the world map, gone after IX.

They also mourned pretty much every other change to the series before and after that, so they weren't necessarily right. Final Fantasy is a series defined more by crisis than identity and I personally wouldn't have it any other way. But the series *has* been even more difficult to define post about 2001, whereas before one could at least point to gameplay and structural similarities. Through the years, I've played and thought about Final Fantasy an amount that is probably actually insane, and my most honest answer to the question of "What makes a Final Fantasy a Final Fantasy?" is "checking most of the boxes on a list of about 50 things."

But anyway, the world map. The problem was, once it was gone, nothing really replaced it. Nothing made the gamer feel like they were trotting over the entire globe like that.

The world map was always a sort of placeholder, a conceit that was accepted because we don't have enough memory and budget to render an entire globe to scale. The map offers the illusion of being nonlinear, but isn't actually. You are driven in a certain direction in a certain order, dictated by what sort of transportation is available to you. Original Flavor PS1 FFVII offers a couple of detours that can be tackled whenever or not at all (Fort Condor, Wutai), but not many because it would interfere with the plot and with game balance.

Final Fantasy VII was the first Final Fantasy I played, the first JRPG I played, and also the first video game I had played in several years when I first played it. Midgar already felt huge. Stepping onto the world map was awe-inspiring. (Or... It was once I figured out what I was looking at. The polygons rendered Midgar as a huge but not to scale alien disc on a blighted landscape. It took some getting used to.) If you were already impressed, you ain't seen nothing yet. There is so much more. The world is your oyster.

I would argue that no other Final Fantasy has recreated that sense of scale. It's the time to world map (ttwm) that does it. You have trekked through several hours of city and reactor and slum before the game needs to resort to shorthand to render its world.

Final Fantasy Remake extends the Midgar section to its own full game, and Rebirth recreates that feeling of opening up onto something proportionately just as big.

But also, at this point in gaming history, in the year of our lord 2024, most of us have played an open world game. I am not an expert on these, since the only ones I've played are Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West, but even I have done enough to feel Open World Fatigue. As soon as I climbed the first communication tower, I was putting my face in my hands, saying ohhhh noooo it's an open world game.

Or, well, is it? It's subdivided into regions and chapters. Some chapters aren't or mostly aren't on the world map, you spend a lot of time in towns and dungeons. You can check all of your boxes in one region and then advance the plot and move on to the next. It feels a bit more manageable and directed than a "standard" open world. But it does follow the "about eight different sets of things to find" format.

Is this good? Bad? Indifferent? Is this just what video games are now? I've enjoyed it, but I'm willing to extend this world and set of characters and even developers more time than I would most, since they probably literally redirected the course of my life and all. I cannot be an impartial judge, probably of any Final Fantasy but maybe especially of this one.

How much did the old world maps have to do, really? They were just some scenery and random encounters as you moved from point A to point B. The "sets" of things to do in the new world sometimes feel contrived, but they give the huge areas purpose and give motivation for exploration. They make the world manageable without reducing its scale. I would be intrigued to see what an original Final Fantasy did with this format.

So is this the answer to Final Fantasy's identity problem? Is the open world the new world map? I'm a little chagrined to see Final Fantasy follow the pack on this one, and to follow pretty far behind at that. But FFVII Rebirth is so often so weird and goofy and has such a bizarre number and variety of minigames that I can't say it doesn't have its own identity. And after all, FF didn't do the world map first. It was taking cues from Dragon Quest and Ultima.

I can't help comparing Rebirth to Final Fantasy XVI, a game I overall enjoyed but have some mixed feelings about. I'm just having a lot more FUN with Rebirth. I haven't read any reviews and have avoided most coverage for Rebirth, not just because I want to be free of spoilers, but because I want a pristine mind, free of strangers' opinions on it, until I've judged for myself, but one can live under only so large of a rock. I've seen the metacritic score and a thumbnail with a bunch of 10 outta 10s on it. I gather Rebirth is being reviewed a little better, as well as selling at least a little better, than XVI. (Which reviewed and sold decently. I know subtlety is hard, but do not take the wrong message from me here, quit it with your FINAL FANTASY XVI is a WRETCHED FAILURE thumbnails)

Not speaking to the quality of FFXVI for now, I'm afraid Squeenix and maybe gaming at large is going to take the wrong message from this. More remakes, play it safe, play to nostalgia. And that SUCKS, because I can't even say Remake and Rebirth are low effort, low risk cash grabs. Rebirth is constantly doing The Most. So much more than it ever had to and possibly pissing a lot of people off by the end by changing things. (I'll find out just how much after, uh, 20 to 50 more hours of gameplay)

So what is the right message? Chop your open world into manageable chunks? Maybe what people mean when they complain about linearity is that they want rewarding exploration? Is Open World just being late to the party or is that the secret ingredient that would shut up people who have been saying Final Fantasy doesn't feel like Final Fantasy anymore for years?

[skaruresonic]

Here's a fun fact for you: the writer of this show, Warren Ellis, wiki broused to write it because he has never played the games and was never interested to do so, describing them as "games where you just make a bunch of pixels jump around"

This isn't even a secret, he repeatedly admitted it during interviews, also stating that the other team members were fans of the games and so would help him out which...yeah they seemed to be perfectly happy with his choices

This actually brought to a bunch of hilarious moments in hindsight:

for example there's an OC in the second season that he wanted to name Mathias because he had found the name on the wiki and liked it, but Konami presumably stepped in to tell him that he couldn't use it because that's Dracula's original human name in the games. This info is on his wiki page btw!

Imagine writing a Sonic adaptation and somehow missing that Robotnik is also Eggman's name when it's one of the first things his wiki page says

Also for your information Nocturne, the sequel show that's coming out at the end of this month, is going to have a native american vampire as one of its villains (he's technically a game character who wasn't native in the games and looked nothing like the guy in the trailers but creating OCs and giving them the names and backstories of canon characters is standard fare with the show)....and let's just say that, given the show's track record with the representation of racial minorities (especially two asian totally not twins in season 3) I'm not holding my breath for that one

the writer of this show, Warren Ellis, wiki broused to write it because he has never played the games and was never interested to do so, describing them as "games where you just make a bunch of pixels jump around"

God, fauxteurs piss me off. Go work in some other medium if you hate video games so much, yeah? When will we get creators who aren't crotchety boomers who thumb their noses at the medium? It's nearing 50 years old at this point, why are we still being subjected to Roger Ebert levels of "games aren't Real Art" cold takes? The other thing is that often what ends up happening is even though they're adapting well-known game franchises (which would imply they're well-known for a reason, but logic is seldom fauxteurs' strong suit), their Superior Vision(tm) rarely manages to match the source material's quality, let alone surpass it. Hence why all of their bluster gets really fucking annoying really fast. Their hubris is unearned, and yet they still have the nerve to thumb their nose at the source material, the reason they have work to begin with. Sit down, dude, you just made things worse with all of your fart-sniffing. And they never stop to consider that according to their own logic, it's almost like video games are still so poorly regarded by the mainstream that they know they wouldn't be able to get work in any other medium precisely because their work isn't up to snuff. It's like how David Cage keeps pumping out glorified QTEs as games because if he pitched his scripts as movies, he'd get laughed out of the room.

---

This isn't even a secret, he repeatedly admitted it during interviews, also stating that the other team members were fans of the games and so would help him out which...yeah they seemed to be perfectly happy with his choices Actually, I have certain fears that this will happen with Bloober Team and the SH2 remake, despite select members of 2's dev team working with them. I can so clearly picture Reddit in a few years going, "Team Silent approved of it, why are you complaining?"

Woodchipp and I have read excerpts from interviews that heavily imply Bloober Team is attempting to capture 2's vibes and relying on their, quote, "perfect memories" without actually playing it.

Creators will sometimes approve whatever just to make money or because they don't care. For example, Kikiyama, the creator of Yume Nikki, is an intensely private person, so private that some people believed they were dead for years. Kawakura Studios approached them with the idea for Dream Diary, a game that changes the fundamentals of the original's design and symbolism, and Kikiyama approved of it. So approval from creators doesn't inherently guarantee a quality product, or ensure that the new team knows what they're doing. Also, we all know how Sega approved Pontaff's scripts :)

---

for example there's an OC in the second season that he wanted to name Mathias because he had found the name on the wiki and liked it, but Konami presumably stepped in to tell him that he couldn't use it because that's Dracula's original human name in the games. This info is on his wiki page btw! ...That was literally the very first thing I learned when watching a Castlevania lore video. Am I now officially more knowledgeable than Ellis? ...that's sad lol. tfw you're such a peak writer that you can't even read the wiki. At least Pontaff READ Sonic and Eggman's Wikipedia pages. Jesus Christ the bar is in hell and fauxteurs keep finding ways to dig under it lol ---

Also for your information Nocturne, the sequel show that's coming out at the end of this month, is going to have a native american vampire as one of its villains (he's technically a game character who wasn't native in the games and looked nothing like the guy in the trailers but creating OCs and giving them the names and backstories of canon characters is standard fare with the show)