#and then never at any point ended up back in the prism??? and i was like well.... i guess we have to commit to helpong the emperor

[kalashtars]

going to finally finish baldur's gate 3 for the first time tomorrow. the journey comes to a close (for about 5 minutes and then inevitably I will start the game again)

[idkaguyorsomething]

The Problem of Susan Fic Recs

For many reasons, The Last Battle is probably the most contentious addition to the Narnia canon. The standout, though, has to be the infamous Problem of Susan, wherein the Pevensie children are all killed in a train crash and brought to Narnia 2 Electric Boogaloo aka heaven, then declare that Susan is no longer a friend of Narnia because of her interest in “lipsticks and nylons”. Hardly any time is spent on this, but the implications have been the ground for a lot of argument and discussion. What exactly would happen to Susan, and should it have happened? Over the years, dozens of fic writers have thrown their hats in the ring and weighed in on the subject, making the Problem of Susan almost a prism for the fandom: everyone shines through it a bit differently, resulting in a wide spectrum. Here’s some of the highlights under the cut.

http://shedletsky.com/blog/the-god-who-loves-you

Starting with the fic that coined the term, written by Neil Gaiman himself, this fic is a reflection and deconstruction of the idea that Susan would be able to find Narnia again by delving into the trauma that the experience of losing all her family at once as well as the social injustices that a young woman of her time would’ve faced, something that the narrative of The Last Battle never really addresses. It took off for a reason, as it presents a lot of good food for thought, but it’s also got some pretty weird shit that can feel like it’s conflating adulthood with edginess. Well worth a read for all the points it raises, but if you’re fond of canon you probably won’t like the way it takes a hammer to it.

Now this one is exactly what you’d want to read if you wanted some feel-good time. This story is probably the closest to how C S Lewis would’ve written Susan’s return to Narnia, detailing her rediscovering all the things she put away as well as what led up to her rejecting Narnia in the first place. It falls more to the end of being almost uncritical of canon, with the focus on Susan basically having the same sort of religious rediscovery that C S Lewis himself had in his life. Because of how she was treated in canon, that can be pretty frustrating, but the ending feels nothing short of joyous.

Swinging back to the other end of the spectrum, this fic is very critical of the idea of The Last Battle being a pretty happy ending for everyone, unambiguously stating that life is always worth living for all the Pevensie kids. It explores what their lives could’ve been like if they didn’t die, being a rebuttal of C S Lewis’ themes rather than a continuation of them while feeling equally as happy as the fic directly above.

And this story feels like a midway point between the above two. It dives really deep into the emotional damage that Susan would’ve suffered before and after the train crash in some absolutely gorgeous prose, showing both her and Aslan with great sympathy while maintaining that what happened to her is not a punishment in any way. Bittersweet and very, very good.

Heading back towards the more critical end of the spectrum, this fic presents a Susan who is not interested in finding Narnia again, only her family. She is very much a character straight out of an ancient myth rather than a teen trying to make sense of a senseless situation here, filled with determination as much as desperation. It’s probably the closest fic on here to having something close to a plot as well as a character study, with the exception of The Queen’s Return and one other:

Being a crossover with what’s pretty much the antithesis of the Chronicles of Narnia, His Dark Materials, it’s probably easy for you to guess which side of the spectrum this story falls on. It’s more of a HDM story than a Narnia one, but the two worlds blend together surprisingly well, and it gives us a rare look into a Susan who’s lived decades of her life when the story picks up. She’s pretty much the Professor and it is fascinating, as is everything left to interpretation by this gem of a fic that is ambiguous yet deeply satisfying.

¡And here’s Susan as a Doctor Who companion! This isn’t directly a Narnia story so much as it is one about two people much older than they look mourning the loss of their worlds, with a Susan who is a queen wise beyond her years. Reading it is like taking an ice shower. It doesn’t hold back on the grief, and as a result it manages to feel honest as it reaches a warm ending.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/24311

Despite also being a crossover, this is in some ways the opposite of touch the sky with two arms. Susan is more of an everyday young woman than a queen, and [SLIGHT SPOILERS] Narnia itself does feature directly. But y���know, that’s part of what makes fandom so interesting. Not everyone is going to have the same take on everything, and the ending of this leans more happy than melancholy.

¿A shipping fic that’s also a crossover with Peter Pan that features neither Neverland or Narnia? Yes, this one probably has the least to do with Narnia or Aslan, but it tells a very compelling story about living life and growing up, something that isn’t perfect but can be good if you find someone you want to spend your life with. Susan Pevensie and Wendy Darling are a really good couple, pinky promise.

Technically more a series of ensemble oneshots, but Susan features very prominently in a lot of them, and they will make you feel every feeling that everything else on this list might’ve given you. Satisfaction, devastation, simple joy, just go give it a shot.

[essycogany]

Hot Take! Nine’s Redemption Arc Was Rushed

I’m usually positive on this blog, but I believe it’s important to have a balance. This’ll be my longest post yet, so buckle your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Quick Positive Points

I like the idea of an antagonistic Tails. Nine’s amazingly voiced by a VA I recognize. His design is awesome. His attitude and sarcasm can be entertaining. Nine saving Sonic’s skin when dealing with the Chaos Council was nice. The scene with Nine and Mr.Doctor Eggman talking about Sonic is one of my favorite moments. The thought of creating robots who look like the other characters as if Nine still wanted friends was neat. (even if he tried to kill with them) And despite my grievances, I thought Nine’s hug with Sonic at the end was adorable. The animation is what helped with that.

Introduction

While I do like Nine, I’m going to talk about my glaring issues with his character development. I can see both sides of the argument, but let me tell you why there’s more proof of Nine not being well written. I will implore you to think for yourselves regardless of what I have to say. We all have our opinions and I’m only here to share mine.

Nine’s Characterization

This is how the fox carry himself throughout the show and why most of it isn’t written well. I’ll state my issues with Sonic in certain moments too.

Season One

Nine’s reasonably defensive at first when Sonic came to his home out of nowhere. He became annoyed by Sonic’s immaturity yet concerned for him once they’re captured. After they meet the Rebels, his sassiness begins to show. Replying “You’re welcome,” after saving Sonic by taking control of Rusty. Having a direct and harsh tone when advising others to take the Chaos Council’s shard. And not seeming to care about the rest of the group who gets trapped with Mr. Doctor Eggman.

Nine: “Sonic we have to get to the core!” “You heard her come on!” This I understand because Nine doesn’t know them, so they don’t really matter to him. But then Nine dismisses Sonic’s feelings even after he asked “are you okay?” Because he noticed the hedgehog was a little off.

-Because Sonic started remembering the events that happened to him before he broke the Paradox Prism.

After Sonic realized the prism shattering was his fault Nine says, “Snap back to reality! Grab that shard and we’ll sort the rest out later!” Then when Sonic stated the original Tails told him not to touch it Nine states, “Well, I’m telling you the opposite! Now grab it and let’s go!” Not realizing if Sonic is the reason for the prism being small, his original variant might’ve known touching it was a bad idea. I also can’t forget about these lines.

Sonic: “If there’s anyone who’s got the brains to put it all back together, it’s you.” Nine: “That’s the first thing you’ve said that I agree with.” Nice ego for a person who ends up getting Sonic sucked up by the prism after being warned. Back to what I was saying before, Nine seems to only care about stealing the shard away from the Eggmen here. Which is proven later on in season one. His care for Sonic has progressed, but Sonic learns from the Rebels that Nine abandoned them. And it’s never addressed by Sonic.

-Sonic also insist Nine’s “not a traitor” without any proof. Sonic hasn’t known Nine that long. The last time Sonic saw the fox, he ended up getting the hedgehog sucked into another shatterspace. Unless Sonic’s talking about Nine working with the group. But I’d argue it was more for Sonic and his own sake. Especially since Nine left the Rebels and Rusty at the drop of a hat.

When Nine comes to help Sonic, he shows off the Grim and discuss how it’s “Their bright new future.” Wanting to live in the Grim with Sonic. Even after the last time he saw Sonic, Nine knew how distraught Sonic felt about losing his home. Again, Sonic stated he believed Nine could put the prism back together. Meaning his original friends and world would come back. But Nine immediately assumes Sonic would be happy living with him for the rest of his life. Which is sweet on paper but very messed up in execution. I’ll get into why later. To be fair, Nine’s never had a friend before and was bullied for most of his life. His social skills aren’t the best and he isn’t use to caring about others. But even if Nine didn’t understand empathy, he has no reason to believe Sonic would forget about his home just because Nine didn’t care about his.

Nine: “That city hasn’t brought me anything but misery. I owe it nothing.” He hasn’t been around Sonic for long either, but Sonic’s demonstrated his loyalty before. By worrying about the Rebels instead of the shard while Nine did vise versa. Anyways, Sonic explains he needs to save the Rebels. Nine being Nine didn’t care about them, but came to help anyways because he “cared about Sonic.” I’d say Nine only helped because he thought Sonic would join him after getting the other shards, but that’s my opinion.

Nine: “With enough fortifications and enough shard energy, this could be home.” Because of this line, I believe he already knew about the other shards before Sonic. Which is also why he knew what Sonic was doing in season two. He also says, “When this is over, I’m going home and never looking back. Whether I go it alone is entirely up to you.” Still assuming things.

-Sonic doesn’t give Nine an answer for some reason. Only responding with “I knew you’d come back, buddy.” Projecting how he’d expect Tails to act. Which becomes a serious problem later.

Season Two

Throughout this season, Nine helped Sonic collect the shards. Which was a bonus to keep developing the Grim.

-Sonic and the Rebels have another debate on trusting Nine. At least this time when Sonic says “He saved you,” it’s true. Nine took down the Doctors before Sonic and co got killed. I’d still argue it was for Sonic, but Nine still saved their lives despite his intentions.

I’ll also admit when Mr.Doc used Nine, it was reasonable for him to feel as if he had no choice. He even apologizes to Sonic. We even learn how Nine first fount the Grim and see him make a hammock for Sonic. But the positives goes down hill once we get into the shard chase between Nine, Sonic, and the villains. Once away from the Docs Sonic stated, “Oh, things are finally coming together. We’ve got the shards! We can finally fix everything!” He’s still obviously talking about Green Hill and his friends. But Nine doesn’t notice this. Instead he says, “It’s going to be perfect.” Very specific you two. Nine seems to suddenly believe Sonic changed his mind and Sonic still thinks Nine and Tails are one and the same.

Dude even calls the fox “Tails Nine,” while introducing him to another character. What are the odds? Later on Nine says, “If you like surprises, wait until you see what I’ve got going on in the Grim.” Sonic responds with, “Grim? Cool. Can’t wait to here more. But right now, we’ve gotta get to Ghost Hill.” Talking as if if the Grim was an afterthought. Then the two talk about bringing the prism back together without knowing what the other’s thoughts were behind it.

Even if they didn’t have time to discuss things, I think they should’ve explained something to each other during the chase or before Sonic left to help the Rebels in S1. That way the unfortunate occurrence could’ve been avoided later on, but we’ll cross that bridge soon enough. Anyways, after the goose chase, they meet up with Shadow, who reasonably doesn’t trust Nine.

-The Blue blur defended the fox again with his projecting his friends onto strangers self. It’s also weird how often this dude doesn’t listen to anyone while also wondering why no one won’t listen to him.

After Nine put one of the shards back together and it brought everything back for a split second. Sonic: “Reality was flipping out over here.” “Green Hill was back and so were my friends.” Which must’ve went in and out of Nine’s ears because this show has no time for the characters to communicate properly. Instead of listening, Nine interrupts the hedgehog and shenanigans ensues.

After said shenanigans, another argument scene happens. Except somehow, it’s worsts then the last. I’ll criticize both characters. I want to address the “Sonic projecting” discussion first. I know people think Sonic’s wrong for doing it (he is) but I believe he’s doing it as a coping mechanism. Since his friends are replaced by ghost who repeat themselves and a bunch strangers who look like them, he might not be able to help it. I give him a bit of slack because we all know what he’s been through. Prime!Sonic is also a very sincere version of Sonic who instantly feels guilt. Even if he doesn’t completely understand what he did wrong.

For example, in the first episode, Tails didn’t tell Sonic why he was upset with him. He just said, “It’s cool really.” Tails brushes things off instead of discussing them. I can see where Sonic is coming from. What I won’t excuse is Sonic having a terrible amount of trust in Nine. I’ll discuss this in S3’s issues. And the rest I’ll summon up to Sonic never addressing problems which might’ve needed to be addressed. Like Green Hill almost coming back and other stuff I’ve already mentioned. Onto the fox. This argument might be a great time for Nine to explain what his plans are instead of saying, “We’re not making your old world. We’re building a better one.” Implying Sonic’s original world is inferior and he should deal with it being gone.

When Sonic says, “I think we can get it back.” Nine responds with, “You’re wrong about that.” Despite Sonic in the same episode said minutes before, “Green Hill was back and so were my friends.” Did the fox forget? Is he lying? Or does he not care? I’ll go with the writers forgetting about this line since it never gets mentioned again. Which seems to be a trope in this show. I understand Sonic’s done plenty of wrong when it comes to Nine as well, but I don’t see how Sonic wanting to fix the problem he made in the first place as selfish. Especially since Sonic’s not the only one who wants Green Hill back. Shadow’s dealing with the consequences too.

The “what’ll happen to me when you bring your friends back,” issue is never explored. There’s no confirmation on what happens, so this comment basically means nothing. Also, Sonic living with Nine forever is messed up. It implies Sonic and Shadow never going home. And their friends would stay ghost forever. Dead to be specific. Not to mention Nine’s home would be a copy of what Sonic use to have. You’re telling me Sonic The Hedgehog would allow his freedom to end because of a self centered fox who wouldn’t care if he wanted to go home? I could continue, but I’ll stop here. In the end, Sonic and Nine were both wrong. You could argue Sonic never said “no” to staying with Nine, but Sonic saying in S1 “It’s not going anywhere” was all Nine needed to hear. Sonic thinking Nine would love Tails and discussing Green Hill was prominent when talking to Nine before getting to Ghost Hill too. Dude was completely set on getting home and he wasn’t subtle about it.

To be fair again, Nine hasn’t been in enough good relationships to know who to trust. Then finds someone he thinks he can trust. Then gets treated like a reflection of someone else instead of a different person entirely. This goes to show I actually don’t hate the idea of the miscommunication. I only feel the show doesn’t give them enough time to breathe and only focuses on rushing the plot. Therefore having contradictions and forced conflicts.

Season 3

Nine’s first statement in this season is, “This could’ve been everything he ever wanted.” I wish Sonic had a moment to explain why creating a new world is a nice but bad idea. That way Nine could get a better understanding of how close Sonic is to his home and friends. Giving it a sense of importance. He could choose to stay selfish or to be reasonable. Nine tries to capture Sonic in order to get his shard energy throughout S3. In the next scene Shadow says, “So, it was all about power?” (Shadow is the MVP of this entire show) Then Sonic defends Nine for the millionth time.

Sonic: “No, that’s not…” Nine: “Exactly!” Wonderful.

Moving on. Sonic tries to reason with Nine again. Nine: “You were only using me to get what you wanted.” Sonic: “That’s not true.” The hedgehog doesn’t elaborate before or after this conversation. I love how the two barely have a coherent conversation. It’s honestly my favorite thing in the world.

-Sonic tells Shadow if reasoning with Nine doesn’t work, he’ll be “theirs .” Probably implying they’ll have to hurt or kill Nine if necessary. Then Sonic never follows through with it and doesn’t actually fight Nine. Sonic only uses his shield powers or tries to convince others not to hurt the fox.

After that Nine tries to attack both hedgehogs with a robot copy of Sonic and states, “This time, you’re on your own.” Shadow: “He’s not on his own” Nine: “We’re all on our own.” Describing his perception on loyalty is a detail I actually like.

Later in the season Nine tries to disrupt the bystanders worlds to get Sonic, so they disrupt their agreement. Nine attempts to kill them again and wonders why they wanted to protect Sonic. Almost as if Sonic has been helping them since the fox met him or something.

After constant fighting and begging on Sonic’s part, he tells Nine to, “LOOK OUTSIDE!” And that’s when Nine at last sees the shatterverse breaking and realizes what he’s done. All of this mess lasted 7 episodes by the way. The big fight took up 6 of them. Nine knew beforehand the shatterverse was ending and it didn’t phase him as long as his world was safe. Now he suddenly he feels guilty?

Sonic apologizes because he didn’t listen to what Nine wanted. Or appreciate what he was trying to do. This is Sonic’s words not mine. Nine doesn’t apologize for trying to kill everyone, but to Sonic instead. Sonic asked everyone to leave Nine alone. And asked Nine to not cause anymore trouble. Knucks: “How can we trust him?” Nine: “You can trust me.” Outstanding dialogue. Plot needs to occur, so we’ll skip the part where Nine and everyone else gains trust in a none forced way. Great.

Nine finally helps Sonic even if those problems could’ve been avoided a few episodes earlier and say their goodbyes. The End.

I hate how Sonic had to apologize to Nine about wanting to go home. It’s absolutely unfair. Then Nine doesn’t apologize to everyone else for the havoc he’s caused. What I believe Sonic should’ve apologized for was treating Nine like Tails, but it never gets brought up. But my biggest issue is the only way Sonic called out Nine on his actions was by saying, “This isn’t you!” “Don’t do this!” “I care about all of this. You, the shatterverse, and everyone inside of it. I know you do too.” The last bit being a huge lie.

I don’t make these kind of comparisons often, but Game!Sonic would have everything nipped in the bud. I’d assume by telling Nine, “What you’re doing is wrong. This is why it’s wrong. If you don’t quit, I’ll do everything in my power to make you quit.” He’d understand Nine needed to be stoped and act accordingly. I’d assume everyone would have to make him surrender and he’d be forced to fix everything. No, it doesn’t reform him, but I wouldn’t have minded if he didn’t get reformed because sometimes you can’t change people. This might not have been the perfect solution, but I tried. Yes, Nine is a child who was treated terribly, but it shouldn’t excuse his actions.

What’s hilarious is during his last talk with Sonic, he unreasonably guilts the hedgehog and called him selfish. Saying Sonic didn’t save everyone because he actually cared about them. But because Sonic feels guilty about breaking everything from the start. Except Sonic actually admits to messing up which was shown in the third episode of Prime. And took the time to right his wrongs. It’s the most hypocritical and short sided statement in the entire show. And if that wasn’t enough, Nine gets upset when everyone came to attack him. It admittedly was a dumb idea, but Nine made himself the enemy. He didn’t give the gang a reason to trust him before or after his deal with Sonic. Yes, including the end of the show. It made no sense.

Why Nine’s Reformation Was Rushed

First of all, I’m not saying I don’t like Nine because of his negative traits. That’s the main reason he exists. He’s a antagonistic or I’d even say evil version of Tails. Nine is suppose to be distant, selfish, and such. I simply don’t believe after all he’s done and how his character was established that he suddenly changed into a good guy.

Nine’s focus was on his own pain while he ignored everyone else’s. Including the one person who saved his life on multiple occasions and who (even if it’s wrong) still tried to stick up for him. Giving off the, “I suffered so everyone else should suffer,” mentality. Then blames Sonic by saying he, “Put him into this position.” As if Nine didn’t already make terrible choices before going evil. Sure, the shards could’ve been corrupting him, but it’s never explored and can only be assumed. Which are too different things.

-Also other characters like Thorn and Dread made bad decisions before they had the shards. So, there’s zero proof regarding that theory.

These are obvious toxic/red flag behavior and it never gets properly called out. Things are only fixed because the plot demanded it. Not because there was a natural progression. The only thing that progressed was Nine’s uncaring attitude until it magically fixed itself…at the last minute. And I hate that for him because he deserved better. Sonic deserved better. All of the Sonic Prime characters deserved better. But they all fell into the pit of unsatisfying conclusions.

Side Note: What also bothers me is how Sonic is almost the only character Nine interacts with. No wonder he doesn’t care about anyone else. Nine barely talks to anyone. Like Shadow, the blue blur is the main center of Nine’s attention. At least most of the other characters don’t have the same problem, but it’s still ridiculous.

How The Show Is Flawed In General

I have more glaring issues with this show. Sonic Prime’s plot almost never stops to breathe. The repetition is unreal. None of the characters (especially the OGs) get enough attention. Some things are both over and under explained simultaneously. There’s reused animations.

Reused conversations and dialogue are especially prevalent. “This isn’t you, Nine!” “It’s over, Nine.” “Gotta go fast!” “Game over.” “We’re gonna end/fix this together.” “We’re friends.” “Me Beauty.” “We have to take the fight to them.” “You’re even dumber then you look.”

This isn’t half of the repeated lines unfortunately. Some of them aren’t only said by Sonic either. It’s almost as if they ran out of dialogue. I am only scratching the surface of problems, but I won’t go any further. At this point “the show’s writing” is the main issue of Nine’s arc. It’s also why other parts of Prime feels rushed.

Conclusion

Yeah, I have a love hate relationship with this show. It’s seriously hard to watch sometimes. I know this has been a bummer, but here’s what Sonic Prime does right. I adore Sonic Prime in terms of how it looks and sounds. With the outstanding animation, voice acting, music, editing, and sound design. I’ll even say it’s one of the best looking 3D animated kids TV shows I’ve seen. There’s so much attention to detail and quality of the character facial expressions and movements. Furthermore, when the lighting is really good, it looks near movie levels of quality. Not to mention great writing still exists. All in all, Sonic Prime may not be the best written Sonic show, but it does have the most polished animation. Even with its plethora of flaws and lost potential, I’m glad Prime exists to prove 3D TV shows can look fantastic when given enough care.

Stay Creative! 💜

[icearts]

A couple things about Sonic Prime that disappointed me

1. Shadow was in almost the entire trailer, but showed up for 3 out of the 7 episodes

2. An action scene that lasted for three episodes. It got redundant

3. There was an entire plot point where Sonic was dying from the prism energy being taken from him. This took 3 minutes of screen time and the risk felt minimal if it was there at all

4. No consequences = no stakes (literally there was no issue or "sacrifice" that came out of repairing the prism. Idk what i was hoping for, but the fact that everything was so easily fixed kinda hurt my feelings because it made the entirety of season 2 seem completely pointless and dumb)

5. Shadow was super protective of Sonic in the first episode, but never showed that same "Would kill and die for you in a seconds notice" energy he had in that first episode

6. The chaos emerald is mentioned again but never used as a plot point. Chekov's Gun is fake, apparently

7. It's said that Sonic can't exist in the Shatterspace without prism energy, but Shadow never had it in the first place. There is no provided explanation as to why this makes sense. The closest thing was "shadow wasn't there during the blast" but that only explains why he doesn't have the energy, not why he doesn't need it to live like Sonic does (I assume the others have at least a signature of it too which is why they cloned and Shadow didn't. Again this is unexplained in Prime. What does the prism energy even do for/to the supporting cast)

8. Why are there only 7 episodes? Why do they take up so much time in one place?

9. Rouge and Shadow only had one line of dialogue (this isn't a genuine critique I just wanted to see my favorite duo be a duo)

10. Sonic's Prism "Super Form" doesn't come back. Shadow doesn't get anything like that either. Another dud Chekov Gun. Why is this dumb little anecdotal metaphorical firearm never firing

I really loved the new season, and it was great and super fun, but those critiques really ruined some things because those were all things I thought would be a guarantee because of the trailer and because of how the other seasons were.

Why would they even bother to mention the chaos emerald, and this weird void thing if it wasn't going to be essential to the plot other than being an excuse to sideline Shadow. They could have just as easily said that chaos energy is neutralized in cyberspace because it's not connected to the world/chaos/master emerald. That works too!

Plus, why was Shadow sidelined so much? What's the reason? Why wasn't he allowed to use chaos energy and go apeshit? Why couldn't he take off his inhibitor rings in a desperate situation to protect Sonic and be able to teleport into shatterspaces even at the expense of his health?

I know it's a TV-Y7 show. It honestly did not need to be, but I'm sure it was a Netflix mandate to make sure their animation is all meant for kids and only kids, but they really ended up nerfing themselves by alienating their more passionate audience which would be teenagers and adults. Just make it TV PG that would've allowed you to work with higher stakes and a higher budget (oh wait that's what Netflix's intention was nevermind).

If you wanna see me make a list of things I genuinely liked, feel free to ask or comment that. I might do so anyway. I feel like the internet is too negative and critiques of shows tend to do too much of that, so sorry for contributing to that culture, but I really needed to get that disappointment out because it bothered me quite a bit. Feel free to disagree too, or say "bro it's a kids show. It's not that deep. Stop having passion and emotions for your special interests you dumb fuck" I get it. Anyways, good show, good season, highly recommend, it's very fun and enjoyable especially if you're a fan of Sonic

Last minute edit: I only saw the season once and my sense of media literacy isn't by any means perfect, and also, to clarify, most of my concern isn't quite "these plot points are 1000% absent and terrible" and more "I thought the distribution between the action scene in episodes 4-7 and the rest of the season's story was very poor and made the content I was more excited for seem watered down/unplanned/super easily resolved". Again the part of the show where Sonic almost dies because of the prism energy withdrawal was about 3 minutes long. Why did it feel so low-stakes?? I love action scenes. They're great, but when you dedicate over 30 minutes to one long fight scene, it becomes less interesting and there's still MORE OF THE SHOW TO GET THROUGH so those parts got super rushed

[kooldewd123]

Back in August, we had the anniversary of Ash’s famous Kalos League loss. It's a battle you see talked about time and time again. It's often held up by fans as the one big stain on XY, a disgraceful way for the writers to end Ash’s Kalos journey.

I beg to differ.

I want to offer a different perspective on this loss, because I don't really agree with most of the criticisms levied against it. I don't think it portrays Ash in a negative light, or goes against his development, or anything like that. In fact, I think it’s quite the opposite. I planned to make a post talking about why I feel the loss fits Ash’s character arc back when I started seeing posts commemorating its anniversary, but I had so much to say about Ash’s characterization in this series that it took me until now to write it all down (also i procrastinated).

First of all, I want to address one of the most common critiques of the loss, since it leads nicely into the main point I want to make. This take essentially boils down to "XY had an Ash that was stronger than ever before. Losing goes against that." It's not a wrong reading of the series per se, but it does feel a bit… reductive to me. Yes, XY is about Ash getting stronger. But so are DP, SM, BW, and all the others. Ash becoming stronger over the course of the series is just something we can expect by default. A good Ash story needs to do something else on top of that, and XY especially needed to find an extra angle to his character since he starts the series already near the top of his game. It's actually a similar situation to DP: he came into that series fresh off his victories in the Battle Frontier, and so rather than simply coasting with a story about how strong he is, the writers brought in Paul to challenge him not just in battle, but in terms of philosophy as well.

So with all that said, what is Ash's story in XY actually about, then? Well, the comparison is often made that Ash is the "Brock" of the XY gang, and it's not an unfounded one. He's the most experienced member of the group, as well as the most well put together. The others look to him for leadership, guidance, and inspiration even more than Ash ever did for Brock. More than in any other series, XY Ash is defined by the way he interacts with his friends, and the reverse is also true for them. Let's take a detour and try to quickly run down their character arcs so you can really see what I mean:

Serena starts the series aimless. She’s discontent with her life, wanting something more. Recognizing Ash on TV and remembering his words to "never give up" is what gives her the push to finally take the first steps of her own story. However, those first steps are all she takes. She wants to get away from her mother, but is once again adrift as soon as she meets Ash. She bounces from activity to activity for a while, only deciding to become a Performer after meeting Shauna and having the sudden realization that she doesn't have a long-term goal like Ash. Wanting to be as determined as Ash is, she finally has something to actively work for and even confronts her mother with her newfound passion. She thinks of Ash to give her strength as she starts her first Showcase, and after she messes up, she remembers his advice to "never give up" and continues onward, even incorporating a ribbon she had received from Ash into her outfit to signify her resolve. Ash is at the center of every stage of Serena's journey. Nearly everything she does can be somehow traced back to Ash in one way or another.

That's all well and good, but it's just one example, and Serena's a bit of an extreme case, anyway. For more evidence, let's look at Clemont. The first time he meets Ash, Ash gets thrown out of Prism Tower, immediately brushes himself off and challenges Clemont to a battle, fights off a group of Pokemon thieves (which is apparently a regular occurrence for him), goes after a rampaging Garchomp with his bare hands, and ends the day off by jumping off the top of the fucking Prism Tower with literally zero hesitation. Following that buck wild first impression, Clemont harbors an immense amount of both admiration and intellectual curiosity for Ash. He constantly praises Ash for his unique battle style, and wants to study it so he can become an even better Gym Leader. He begins taking cues from Ash's style as early as his confrontation with Clembot, as he has to think of unorthodox ways to outsmart the robot programmed to act like him. Following this battle, he and Ash agree to have their Gym battle once Ash has obtained his fourth badge. Ash becomes Clemont's goalpost: having seen what Ash is capable of, he wants to be a Gym Leader worthy of fighting him. And when we finally reach this battle, he proves that he has absolutely succeeded, incorporating everything he's learned from Ash and more into their climactic showdown. 

While Ash’s companions in other series generally have stories that run parallel to his, XY stands out by placing Ash right at the center of both Serena and Clemont’s personal journeys. Ash permeates XY in a deeper way than any series before or since. This might be a weird thing to say, but XY isn't really about Ash per se. It's about the idea of Ash. To Serena, Ash is the representation of all the personal qualities she desires, yet lacks. To Clemont, Ash is a new way of battling, something that can help him improve his own abilities even further. So then, what is Ash… to Ash?

I know I just set that up as a big question, but the answer’s actually fairly simple. It's pretty clear that Ash recognizes the effect he has on his friends, and so he leans into it for their benefit. He's constantly trying to improve both himself and Clemont for their eventual battle, and is incredibly encouraging towards Serena every time she takes another step towards her goal (in fact, Serena is possibly the female companion that Ash is least sassy towards, although he’s also just less sassy than usual in this series anyway). Even with his Pokemon, this trait shines through. Froakie was a trouble child for every Trainer that Sycamore had given it to before, yet it respects Ash nearly instantly after seeing him in action. Ash’s encouragement and support is what gives Goomy the strength to grow and take back its home. He acts more parental towards Noibat than any baby Pokemon he had before, but also steps back enough to let Hawlucha take the lead raising it since he sees how strongly the two of them bond.

So here in XY we have a strong, self-assured, mature Ash who takes on a leadership role among the main cast. It’s an Ash that truly feels like he’s been through years of journeys and growth. But if he starts out the series so well-developed, where can his character arc take him?

Enter Sawyer. Not long after Ash has his battle with Clemont, he’s introduced to Sawyer, a rookie Trainer who had lost to Clemont shortly before. On the surface, this doesn’t immediately seem like the makings of a particularly compelling rivalry: an experienced veteran Ash versus a novice with only a single Gym badge to his name. Ash is undeniably the superior one in this dynamic. But once the two of them begin interacting, it becomes immediately clear how much heart there is to their relationship. Ash, ever the older brother figure, sees how much potential Sawyer has and wants to watch him unlock it. Sawyer, the analytical battler, takes notes from Ash’s battles and studies him in a manner not unlike Clemont to learn how to improve himself. Sawyer’s notes pay off in a big way, as he improves at an astronomical pace, winning four more badges in the time it takes Ash to earn just one, and even reaching his eighth before Ash does. Ash and Sawyer have one last battle before Ash heads to win his eight Gym badge, but for the first time, Sawyer manages to surpass and beat Ash. Although he’s glad to have won, his victory shakes both of them. Although they don’t say it directly, they can tell that something’s wrong. Sawyer decides to follow Ash to Snowbelle City to watch him beat Wulfric, but again, Ash loses. Between these two losses, as well as his struggle to master the Bond phenomenon, Ash begins to spiral, and it’s the first time we truly see him grapple with self-doubt in this series. Sawyer looks up to Ash, yet he had failed to live up to Sawyer’s vision of him. And if he’s failed Sawyer, who else has he failed? His companions? His Pokemon? With the image of himself as a mentor and an inspiration thrown into jeopardy, he begins to act uncharacteristically, running off into the woods alone and lashing out at Serena when she tries to help him. After cooling off a bit, he helps some Spewpa trapped in a tree and is saved by Greninja when the branch breaks. One of the Spewpa is blown off a nearby cliff, and when Ash and Greninja both jump into action to save it, they perfect the Ash-Greninja form for the very first time. The entire experience causes Ash to realize that the image of himself as someone everyone could count on had been weighing down on him much more heavily than he had thought. Because of it, he had been placing too much responsibility on himself. He needed to master the Bond phenomenon to become stronger for his team. He needed to beat Wulfric to prove himself to Sawyer. But in the end, he couldn’t do it alone, and ultimately ended up caving under the pressure without even realizing it. It’s only with the help of his friends and Pokemon that he’ll be able to move forward and actually accomplish what he’s set out to do. With that in mind, he’s finally able to reach synchronicity with Greninja, beat Wulfric, and make his way to the Kalos League.

In the semifinals, Ash finally comes face-to-face with Sawyer once again. As the two of them clash, Sawyer recognizes Ash once again. The cloud that had covered him in Snowbelle is gone, and the two of them can have a proper battle. Sawyer can truly show Ash just how far he’s come (and maybe even surpass him for real), and Ash can prove that he won’t falter again. That he really is the person everyone thinks he is. And with Ash-Greninja’s final Water Shuriken, Ash does just that. This battle, not the finals match against Alain, is the conclusion of Ash’s arc in XY. The Trainer that everyone looks up buckling under the weight of those expectations, and yet still managing to prove them right by coming out the other side stronger. I feel it can often get sadly overlooked in favor of the finals, but it’s a satisfying way to encapsulate what XY Ash is all about.

So what’s the deal with the finals, then? Why go through all of this just to have him lose in the end? Doesn’t that undermine the whole message? Well, no, actually. In a vacuum, it might seem that way, but I feel that removing it from the context surrounding it (as you often see in discourse about it) is doing it a disservice. The most important thing about the finals match is that it isn’t really Ash’s battle in the way the semifinals were. Ash’s arc is finished. This is Alain’s battle. Alain’s arc throughout the series effectively boils down to the idea that he wants to gain power in order to protect the people he cares about, first to defend Professor Sycamore’s research, and later to heal Chespie. He’s drawn to the Kalos League by the promise of many strong opponents to train himself against, Ash chief among them. This relentless drive for power, while good-intentioned, leads him to work for Lysandre, blinded to his true motivations. Alain’s victory in the Kalos League is the tipping point of his arc. He’s won the League, proving himself to be among the strongest Trainers in the entire region. And yet, at his moment of victory, when he’s achieved the strength he desired, Team Flare attacks, threatening the entire region. Key to Team Flare’s plans are Z2, whom Alain had helped capture, and the Mega Evolution energy he had helped them study. I often see people upset about Ash’s League loss trying to spin it into a story about Ash learning that winning isn’t everything, but it’s actually the opposite. Alain is the one learning that winning isn’t everything. In his quest for power, he had inadvertently brought danger to the very people he was trying to protect, with Sycamore and Chespie both being directly in Lysandre’s crosshairs.

And all of this eventually leads us to a scene where Lysandre, Alain, and Ash are on Prism Tower together. Alain is paralyzed by his emotions, distraught at what he had unwittingly brought about. Lysandre imprisons Ash and tries to force him to work for him like Alain had, but Ash refuses and breaks free using the Bond phenomenon. And for one final time, we see Ash inspiring people to be better. Seeing Ash act without hesitation, never for a second even considering forsaking his morals and working with Lysandre the way he did, Alain snaps out of his stupor and finally confronts Lysandre. Alain may be the stronger Trainer, but Ash is the better Trainer. Captured, outmatched, and weary from the League, Ash still chose to fight. Win or lose, Ash is still the best, like no one ever was.

[luxlightly]

In line with my last post about getting good endings with companions, the writing of The Emperor really stands out in how it defies the expectations we have as players of a game of this nature. He's a very well written character who definitely wades through the very grey areas of morality and bends the truth so much he leaves you wondering just how much he's bought into his own lies,as well.

Major spoilers beneath the cut.

If you go through the same steps you do with other characters, endlessly giving him the benefit of the doubt, leaning into his comparisons of you to himself, helping him reminisce at the Elfsong. He seems to open up. You bring him back to his old home, seemingly listening to emotional secrets of his. All this culminating in him professing love for us. We expect this. It seems to be progressing normally as an ally would in a game. To the point where many might even kill the Gith prince for him.

So those who don't do so feel blindsided by his willingness to abandon us to join the elder brain the instant we won't do exactly what he asks.

But playing again, I picked options I wouldn't normally. I called him out for secrecy. I pressed him for the truth even when it seemed to truly hurt him.

And I didn't like what I found.

The Emperor is manipulative in such an organic way. He first pretends to be someone else entirely, but, when revealed, constantly poses himself as being at your mercy or otherwise making himself vulnerable to you. Every time he's caught in a lie, he says "ok this was a lie I had to keep to protect himself but only because it was basically the truth just with little details left out" and he does that again and again, each time pushing the truth a little farther, all while still insisting he has never lied to you.

He pretends that you just wandered into the prism in your dream because he was distracted and lonely, then he shows you little trinkets with cute stories attached at the Elfsong, giving you gifts in the form of his old armor and sword. He speaks so fondly of Duke Stelmane and acts so saddened by her death, then when you next see him in your dreams, he isn't wearing a shirt. All these things that make him seem so vulnerable. Like he's bared everything about himself.

Except he hasn't actually revealed anything. He tells you he was just some adventurer even though he knows how important who he was is to your quest. He acts like he and Stelmane were partners or friends. He never tells you anything about him, just anecdotes to make him seem relatable. Nothing but soft words to soften your heart and lower your guard.

And any time you express distrust or ask for proof or for him to be honest with you, he gets upset, he acts as though you are the one being cruel and unreasonable. As if you are hurting him after he made himself vulnerable for you.

So feels bad to select any dialogue choice that calls him out. That accuses him of what you suspect in your mind. Of what all the little red flags point to:

"You do a good impression of a human. But it's just an act, isn't it?"

And finally the facade comes down. He finally lets you see his thoughts. See something besides the story he concocted.

You see him torturing Stelmane, breaking her mind and reducing her to an empty shell. The same scenes he showed you before of them in a friendly partnership play again, this time revealing that she was just a glassy eyed puppet, her mind torn apart so he could use her body to serve him and control the city in secret.

"Be glad my methods have improved" he says. And tells you you were never anything but his puppet. That you never had a choice and you will not get a choice. That you are his thrall as much as Stelmane was.

And it feels like a real betrayal. Because he does a good job of acting the part. Even knowing you will mistrust him, even intending to mistrust him, you fall for at least pieces of it. And looking back the signs seem obvious and you see his you ignored them. Because that's how it was supposed to work. You were supposed to allow him to be vulnerable with you and be rewarded with his trust.

And that's exactly what he wanted you to think.

[whisker-biscuit]

Sonic Big Bang 2024

Close Encounters of the Grim Kind: Chapter 4

---------------------------------

The device still wasn’t back when Tails woke up.

He didn’t know why he was disappointed. The stranger had been very clear about their boundaries and had already ignored everything that wasn’t directly connected to studying the dimensions. There was a very good chance they were never going to respond, or even return the device. If it had been an Eggman he’d been talking to this entire time, he’d practically gifted them a significant dose of Prism energy on a silver platter after spending all night supercharging it with the other probes.

None of that mattered as much as Sonic’s life, though, and that was the biggest disappointment of all. Asking him directly clearly wasn’t on the table after overhearing that conversation yesterday, and asking his pen pal had ended up a bust.

There was one last person who knew the whole truth. Tails could only hope that he’d be more forthcoming than everyone else he’d turned to.

Feeling an incredible sense of déjà vu, he picked up his phone and began to dial.

---------------------------------

“Shadow, we need to talk.”

The hedgehog stopped mid-step as he entered the workshop. His eyebrows furrowed into a slight frown at Tails, who stood in the center of the room with folded arms and what he hoped was a firm enough expression on his face.

“What is it? Did you find something concerning?”

“There’s definitely something concerning, alright, but it has nothing to do with my research. At least, I thought it didn’t.”

Shadow’s frown deepened and he took a few steps further inside to close the door behind him. “Explain.”

The fox took a deep breath. It was now or never. “I need you to tell me what happened to Sonic when you two were in the Shatterverse.”

He watched the frown shift from worry to defensiveness in the blink of an eye. Shadow folded his own arms to mimic Tails’ body language.

“If he hasn’t told you already, then I won’t, either.”

“Why not?”

“It’s not my story to share.”

Tails growled. His frustration at Sonic, his pen pal, and the awful revelation he’d learned yesterday were all finally reaching a boiling point. “He’s my brother! I deserve to know!”

“You don’t “deserve” anything about this, and especially not from me. If this is the only reason you called me here today then there’s no point in continuing this conversation.”

He pulled out the green chaos emerald and held it out in front of him, about to teleport. Tails threw up his hands.

“None of you will tell me anything and I’m so sick of it!”

It had been meant less of a parting jab and more of an irritated exclamation at the situation in general, but it still halted the hedgehog in his tracks. His mouth stopped mid-chant of “chaos control” and he stared at Tails with a laser-focused gaze.

“What do you mean by “none of us”?”

The fox froze. All the frustration disappeared in an instant as he realized his verbal flub. “I mean – I meant neither of you. Neither you or Sonic will tell me anything.”

“That is not what you said.” A single blink and suddenly Shadow was directly in front of him, staring him down. “You said “none”. Who else won’t tell you anything?”

“That – it – that’s none of your business,” he said, wavering just a moment under the weight of those dissecting eyes. “If… if you’re not going to answer my questions then I don’t have to answer yours.”

Shadow narrowed his eyes as he studied him. The firm line of his mouth pulled even further as they faced off with each other in silence. Tails tried not to let anything show on his face, but it was too late – he saw the moment the hedgehog connected the dots.

“You’ve been in contact with someone from another dimension,” he began, slow and dangerous, “and you didn’t tell me. That wasn’t part of our deal, Fox.”

“Yeah, well – n-neither was letting Sonic in on all of this, but you didn’t have any problem doing that!”

“What are you talking about.”

“Yesterday! I heard you tell him that I was worried! The only reason you know that is from the conversation we had about all this dimensional stuff, but you kept acting like it had nothing to do with him. Clearly it does!”

The hedgehog’s eyes widened minutely, caught off guard despite his anger. Then they narrowed again. “Tails, who have you been in contact with?”

“I’m not answering that question until you tell me what’s wrong with Sonic.”

“Nothing is –” he took a deep breath and looked up towards the ceiling. When he spoke again, his words were careful and measured. “How much did you hear yesterday?”

“Enough to know you’re worried that whatever – thing happened to Sonic, it might happen again. And I don’t even know what that is to begin with.”

Shadow looked back down at the fox, who could actively see the internal debate in his eyes. They were in a stand-off with each other for a solid minute; neither was willing to back down without getting the answers they wanted, but neither wanted to give up their own knowledge, either.

Tails broke first. His shoulders slumped and he stared at the floor. “I…I don’t actually know who I’ve been talking to. It’s only been through text messages and they’re really careful not to give any identifying details. All I know for sure is they’re as intelligent as me, they’ve worked with the Paradox Prism before, and I think they know what happened to Sonic. I asked them to tell me but they’ve refused.”

He glanced up at the hedgehog, whose jaw was clenched like he was upset. Before he could speak whatever rebuke was in his mind, Tails gave him a pleading look.

“Please, Shadow. Please just tell me if Sonic’s life is in danger. I can’t help him if I don’t know.”

Something about that seemed to resonate. The anger pulled back just the tiniest bit into something more reserved and almost resigned.

“I don’t think Sonic’s life is in danger. I think he’s being foolish by not telling you or the rest of his friends about what happened, but I’d like to believe he isn’t so stupid as to not tell me if he feels off in any way.”

“But why won’t he tell me?” Tails’ voice began to rise. “I’m his best friend! His brother! Don’t I have the right to know if something is wrong with my brother?”

A grimace crossed Shadow’s face for the briefest moment; a flicker of old pain and recognition. “You do, and I will make sure you know if that’s the case, but as of right now it’s not my place to tell you about it. I’m sorry.”

“Does this have to do with why he thinks I’ll feel guilty if I learn about it?”

“Yes.”

Tails let out an angry huff and began to pace back and forth across the room. He really wanted to shout or throw something that wouldn’t break on impact, but the embarrassment over being seen as immature in front of Shadow won out over the frustration-fueled impulse.

“Could you at least tell me why I’d feel guilty about it? Did he risk his life for another version of me or something?”

Before the hedgehog could answer, there was a sudden flash of light above the desk. They both turned to stare at the interdimensional device hovering almost innocently in the air.

Tails was fast. Shadow was faster.

He snatched the device up before the fox could, keeping it out of reach as he scanned the messages on its tiny screen with a snarl that quickly disappeared. Tails stopped trying to grab it from him as he saw Shadow’s eyes go from furious to shocked to wary in the span of seconds.

“Shadow?”

The hedgehog blinked a few times before looking down at Tails. His expression was unreadable, but the anger was gone. Mostly.

“Here,” he said, not as curt as he probably meant to sound as he dropped the device into the scientist’s hands. “Respond however you want, but don’t mention it to Sonic yet.”

Tails fumbled to hold onto it, surprised. “What? Why?”

“I know who this person is, and I don’t want Sonic anywhere near him until I know his exact intentions.”

Shadow pulled out his emerald.

“Where are you going?”

“To get the Paradox Prism. I’ll be back shortly.”

Without any other explanation, he teleported away, leaving a very confused fox reeling in the wake of emotional whiplash. When his head finally stopped whirling, he looked down at the device in his hands and began reading its contents.

[ yes. i know what happened to Sonic. it was my fault he ended up that way ]

[ i’ll explain everything. i’ve been working on a better way to communicate with prism energy but first i need to know two things ]

[ is Sonic okay ]

[ are you Tails ]

Tails frowned, rereading the messages once he realized that was all there was. The revelation that Sonic’s near-death experience was because of this stranger was alarming, and suddenly it made sense why Shadow didn’t want them to interact yet. But why ask if Sonic was okay if it was someone wanting to do him harm? Why admit it was their fault at all if they wanted access to Sonic for that purpose?

Why ask who he was? How did he even know about him at all?

Uncertain, the fox waffled between answering immediately or waiting for Shadow to return. The determination to unravel this troubling mystery won out over patience, and he typed in two simple messages.

– Sonic is okay. I’m just worried about what happened. –

– Yes, I’m Tails. –

He hesitated. Wrote a third.

– Who are you? –

The device was released back into space-time seconds before Shadow reappeared with the Paradox Prism’s container hefted over his shoulder. He set it down gingerly, then gave Tails a careful once-over.

“Did you respond yet?”

“Yeah. Why did you bring the Prism here?”

“The battery was almost depleted. You didn’t notice?”

Tails blinked. No, he hadn’t noticed at all. “Huh.”

“I also wanted to ensure it remained safe with me when we go forward with this.”

“Go forward with what?”

Shadow’s mouth set into a thin, firm line. “How you’re about to communicate with this ‘stranger’ friend of yours.”

He didn’t elaborate. The fox bit his lip and played with his hands, waiting because that was all he could do anymore. It was something he was really starting to hate.

They stood side by side in weighted silence for several minutes before the device returned – and tied to it, a second, smaller piece of technology. It looked almost like a flash drive, but there was no plug-in port that Tails could see. The single message was an instruction.

[ set the drive on a flat surface and place the interdimensional device on top of it ]

The young scientist looked at Shadow, who raised an eyebrow but didn’t comment on what he should do. Refusing to second-guess himself, he did as directed and watched a small, purple hologram appear in front of them.

Tails’ breath caught in his throat.

“Hello, Tails,” said a stranger with his own face. “My name is Nine.”

[idollandhero]

I think in a year we'll look back at our time with Idol Land and think of it like a weird dream. A time when there wasn't a Pretty Series show announced and everything was in limbo. A time where King of Prism was a dead franchise. A time when songs were performed at Pretty Series live shows that wouldn't premier in the anime for years. The game teaser in every single Pretty Series announcement only for it to be delayed again. The YEARS long gap between episodes 2 and 3. The DISASTROUS launch. When we realized it was just a reskinned version of the switch game. Or when we discovered that it was mostly made by some unrelated dev who had only made one failed mobile otome game before Idol Land.

The Pretty Series' pivot to focusing on AiPri & KinPri instead of Idol Land & DanPri makes the past few years of Idol Land content, and the past less than a year of Idol Land actually being out, feel like an illusion.

It's frustrating because the concept of a PriPara mobile game sounds fantastic! When I play games like SIF2 or Idolish7 or whatever I think about what could have been. Was it money problems? or time problems? Or some combination of both. Regardless I can't help but yearn for a game with a budget that this franchise deserves.

And the web anime was great! But only 12 episodes, and its own budget problems, plus the games delay keeping it finished and in limbo for 2 years! (+ the lack of any western fansubs picking it up, seriously how is do we still only have subs for up to episode 6) meant that it never got the place in the spotlight it deserved. Some people speculated that it was meant to air on TV because the episodes are formatted as such, but with AiPri starting in that slot the same month the show is ending that doesn't seem to be true.

It's hard to say where PriPara is going from here. It's the series 10th anniversary and the arcade game is being shuttered to push players towards AiPri Verse instead. Idol Land's anime finale is going to air to little applause because it's stuck on an app with less than 20,000 active users, and in the same month as the launch of the new series that's slated to be a real PreCure competitor.

Idol Land's EOS hasn't been announced yet, but the missing Nino birthday coord, the April monthly update with entirely rerun coords, and the fact that Idol Land is getting very VERY close to running out of content from the switch game. Well, if not EOS I expect this game to go into maintenance mode pretty soon.

Yeah idk what my point here was exactly, but man Idol Land really was a blur. Sometimes I think we understate exactly how inexperienced the devs really were. The game doesn't have any type of Google Play integration, and when the game launched the account recovery only lasted 15 minutes. I have a newer phone and the game isn't compatible with my hole punch front camera. There's just a black bar there. I only have this problem with older games, anything made in the last 4 years doesn't have this problem except for Idol Land. I honestly think the lack of region locking is because the dev doesn't know how to turn it on. Someone on discord reported that they've been buying gold, and then contacting Google and asking for a Play Store refund. It's worked multiple times and they are not banned. How is a ban for chargebacks not something they implemented day one. Also this game doesn't have any deals or discounts, ever. It's hard to believe that, like every game I've ever played has a buy two and get 50% off the second one bundle. But it's like the devs don't know how to implement anything past basic gacha mechanics. I could also ramble about how expensive the prices are, but I've done it before I won't do it again. Also the photo room, it's implemented pretty badly. You upload a photo for the background and it crops it weird and squishes it and makes it blurry. I didn't know this at launch because it was a paid feature for like six months. The pass itself was a horrible value unless you were buying it specifically to get the episodes early, you got exactly how the amount of gold you paid for. Why not just buy the gold then. But they either realized that, or were preparing for end of service; because they took it down. I'm rambling about things the devs messed up but I haven't even mentioned the first three months of the game. There's been so many points in this game's history where playing a promise was borderline impossible for one reason or another. This game didn't feel finished until that November update that included immediate promises. God there's so much more. The photo competitions just being about editing for some reason. Also they went away, so clearly those didn't work. The amount of coords they've implemented that were broken in some way. Sometimes it was the wrong coord entirely, sometimes the cylume didn't work. It's like the dev team is so small that there's no QA people. Also on that note, Open Dream Land was just fixed in the mid March update. The game went more than 6 months where one of its two unique charts was off sync. Also remember the voice bug, that lasted forever.

I'm sorry I just started rambling lmao. This is the problem when I write posts with speech to text, I say way too much. Ultimately I enjoyed my time with Idol Land, but it's existence feels surreal. Especially because 80% of the features from this game I can turn on my switch after end of service and play, and it's free because I already paid once and never have to pay again. I even have Waku Waku O'Clock on Switch. One day, probably soon from the way things are going, I'm going to wake up and not be able to play Idol Land on my phone ever again. But instead of reminiscing of this game, I will think about the game that could have been if Idol Land got as much love as Prism Rush did.

KASHIKOMA ✌️

[marinthecottage]

“The night felt like an abandoned music box tucked away from time and space, where the world was made of ice and snow and everything shone like within a prism, it was overwhelmingly beautiful, a kingdom drowned in music, it made her cry happy tears, the firewhisky traversing through her veins didn’t help with matters either, with the utter relief of the warmth of her friends beside her, the reminiscences of another ball, once upon a december, when everything was coated in doom and hubris and broken sugary hearts. Everything had been so crucial and yet behind the film of youth of not knowing what was to come it had all been so simple too.

Things now carried an air of grief, the new ghosts haunting the halls, the scars and the empty spaces. But there was also the sweetness of being alive, of being able to keep loving as fiercely and unafraid as she could and perhaps that had also drawn her to this mess of a moment, the spices of the firewhisky making her head swoon, the baubles of magic that floated around and all the stars above that made her feel endless. But now here she was in the arms of none other but Draco Malfoy, looking into his silver eyes that matched the rest of the decor to the point she could almost believe him the lord and ruler of this frozen land. He looked at her and no one else with a parted mouth, barely breathing as if he made the wrong move she would simply evaporate. She realized she quite liked it, she also liked the way he smelled and the way that his left hand pressed onto the small of her back, each fingertip applying more force than it was necessary for such a dance, but it sent a thrill up her spine. They hadn’t spoken beyond him asking her to dance, her accepting by taking his hand. Her friends a bit stunned except for Harry, he looked at her as if he already knew it all, perhaps she hadn’t been as careful, maybe it had been the stolen touches as they passed through the halls or the stolen glances, that left her with a pit in her stomach. Maybe she couldn’t hide away from her best friend, this drew a smile to her lips.

“You find me amusing Granger?” His smirk always made her senses somersault, but the battle with him never ended and she was known to be stubborn.

“So what if I do?” She challenged staring deep into his eyes not daring to look down at his lips.

He leaned down their foreheads almost touching, his hand moving up her back, making her gasp. “I just like to know everything I make you feel Granger” he whispered, amongst the chatter and music no one could hear them she knew, and yet she couldn’t help but look around, just in case. Old habits die hard, as if not the entire school have seen them already.

He took this as cue to pull her away out into a balcony, the air was frigid and her dress did very little to cover her, the alcohol in her veins slowly burning away. Next thing she knew she was in his embrace once more. He smells of the deepest part of the woods in winter, of mint and smoke. His lips flutter over her forehead, her ear, the line of her jaw, her arms go around his neck seeking any sort of support, and he responds in kind pushing her against the cold stone wall.

“Draco!” She cannot help it his name escapes through her lips at the shock. He has her now surrounded. His kisses stopping at the mention of his name but continuing over her neck and up back to her face and over her lips.

“Please say it again” his breath is warm against her and he looks like a madman slipping away into her, a god of winter making her sign a contract to take her away into the woods. Oh Vasilisa what would you do?

She signs it of course by uttering his name one more time. “Draco” his tongue licks away at her lower lip and immediately his mouth is on hers, it is hungry it is everything that has been promised through the months they have gotten to know one another, all the fear and anger is still there too and it fuels the burning inside of her. “

- An 8th year Yule Ball inspired Drabble. What would it be like ? How bittersweet how filled with the want for something good? With new love sprouting of the impending winter like snowdrops ✨

It’s been a year since I joined this fandom and I’ve loved every second of it. The art, the people, voices and their writing. So I decided to make some art pieces to commemorate it. ✨❄️ have good winter and a magic Yule everyone ✨

You can find more dramione art on my Instagram @mar.s.cottageofdreams or more dramione works on ao3

[wizisbored]

wip wednesday sentences for 9th october

rabies time @eriquin, @zyrafowe-sny, @violet-prism-creatively, @somefishycat, @sourb0i,

@asha10100101010, @enigma-the-mysterious

As she does, Ballister drags a blanket from the practical nest she has on her bed and pulls it over her, giving her a little scratch on the nose for good measure.

“Just try to relax, okay?”

“...I’ll try.”

///

“Ah, shit-”

Ohly when Ballister wakes up does he realise that he fell asleep on Nimona’s bed. She’s lifting her cat-head off his chest - where she evidently somehow ended up asleep too - looking down in alarm at the dark patch of drool she’s left on his shirt.

“It’s alright, Nim,” he says, noting her wide eyes. “It didn’t get anywhere near my mouth, I’ll just have a shower and it’ll be fine.”

“You haven’t got any secret stomach wounds, then?”

“Not even one.”

With that, she hauls herself onto her paws. Ballister is nowhere near a cat expert - in fact, Nimona has probably skewed his knowledge there - but he doesn’t need to be to know that he’s looking at a pretty sick cat. He’s not sure how he ever slept with her feverishly hot body on him. Her head is hung low, breathing a little too heavy. As he watches, a shiver runs through her little body from nose to tail.

“How’re you feeling?” he asks tentatively.

“Shit.”

“You remember what happened last night?”

“I’m rabid, not drunk.”

“Fair point. But you seemed pretty… out of it.”

She sits down heavily. “I dunno, I just… I couldn’t sleep, and then suddenly it felt like the world was ending?"

eldrich madness @quietly-sleeping, @cataclysmic-writer, @post-and-out, @tamsinswriting, @oriharaizayadividesintoslytherin

“I know, Pumpkin,” he says quietly, lightly scratching the back of her head. “I think about it too, even if I don’t want to. Especially if I don’t want to.”

“Why don’t you want to?” she whimpers. “Don’t you want to know where she’s gone?!”

“I do. Of course I do, Lydia, that’s why I can’t think about it, because I know I won’t remember.”

Lydia shakes her head hard. “No. No, we have to remember. There has to be a way to remember.”

“Lydia-”

“You have to help me. You’re the only one who can help me, please.”

She grabs at his shirt, tears welling in her eyes. Charles keeps combing his fingers through her hair. He’s thinking about it again. It’s impossible not to.

blood red @whimsicalmeerkat, @kallisto-k, @enigma-the-mysterious, @stonemaskedtaliesin

“Yes! I never asked for this, you know. I bought a standard, no-funny-business horse. I didn’t want a traveling companion!”

“Yeah- Well- That’s just how it is, sometimes! Sometimes you buy a horse and it turns out it’s not a horse! It happens!”

“No it does not! Horses are horses! It’s not normal to try to buy one and end up with some- some grubby, ugly little freak.”

Nimona is on her feet before she knows it, throwing the grass to the ground. “Some what?”

“You heard me,” the woman says, unimpressed. “You know. So stop being a brat and just listen - we’re gonna get out of this goddamn desert, and then you’re gonna let me sell you on as a horse to make back what I paid. Stay with whoever buys you, sneak off, I don’t care."

nimona centaur au @auburnlaughter, @creative-girl

“Nimona, I’d like to propose a truce.”

She pulls out one of her earbuds. “Whazzat?”

“A truce.”

Nimona raises an eyebrow. “What’re your terms?” she asks suspiciously.“That the dormitory building is declared an armistice zone. We don’t fight in here, the washroom, the dining hall, any of that. That’s all.”

laboratory four @sourb0i, @kalira, @adhdavinci

Eventually, Henry Hidgens must have decided that he’s cooled off long enough, and therefore Emma’s had long enough too. As soon as he opens the door to the lab the energy of the room shifts - a sudden sense of dread. Emma’s eyes are locked on him as he approaches the cage.

“You were sick,” he says, when he notices the blue sludge.

“I’m stressed.”

“Hm.” He takes the phone from the worktop, not noticing that it's in a slightly different place than he left it. “Before I look at this, Emma, is there anything you’d like to admit?”

“No.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes.”

“Emma, this attitude is not going to help you.” He refocuses his attention on the phone, tapping in the passcode. Of course, she had to give him the code as soon as she set it, but this is the first time he’s used it.

sentences added to netherborne: 57

[celandeline]

Summer of Like // Farleigh Start x OC (23)

If there’s one thing you can say about the Cattons, it’s that they know how to throw a party. 

The extravagance is overwhelming - hundreds of people are scattered about the grounds and in the house, all dressed to the nines in midsummer night’s fashion. Glitter seems to float in the air from how the strobe lights flash pinks and blues into the night, catching on every slightly reflective surface and amplifying tenfold. Though it's been hours since the sun disappeared behind the maze, the heat of the day still lingers, trapped between all the sweaty bodies. On the lake, lotus shaped lights drift with the breeze. 

Music blasts through the grounds, and Venetia hasn’t let go of my hand since the crowds first started rolling in. It feels like Cambridge again - the dancing, the drinking, the way that it’s just us in a sea of people, laughing and smiling and shouting at each other over the music. It’s a high on it’s own - though there’s copious amounts of coke if I wanted any.

A man bumps into Venetia and sends her stumbling into me, gripping onto my shoulders for dear life. Still dancing, she turns as the man leans down to apologize, picking up my arms and wrapping them around her middle. I rest my head on her shoulder as the man retreats, and our dance renews, swaying and grinding to the beat. 

We simply dance for a while, until Venetia tips her head back to speak into my ear. “I need another drink!”

I press a wet kiss to her cheek before letting go. “I’ll catch you later?” 

“Always.” She says, winking at me before sauntering off towards the house, her spiderweb dress like a string of prisms in the night. 

I reach down to adjust my own dress - a strapless sheer thing peppered with strategically placed peaseblossoms to cover all my bits. Left alone, the craving for a cigarette hits me, and I wander off the dancefloor in search of something to smoke. 

Even off the dancefloor, the crowds are thick. I wish Venetia had chosen something a little more substantial for me to wear - something, preferably, with a place for me to store a pack of cigs and a lighter - but I can’t pretend that my dress isn’t simultaneously the sexiest and prettiest thing I’ve ever worn. And, this quest for a cig will be a chance to meet some new people that I’ll likely never see again - a favorite pastime of mine. 

The squeeze past a gaggle of girls all dressed as fairies, following the scent of smoke. I spot the burn of a cherry in the throng, and cut through the crowd until I’m standing in front of a guy that I don’t know on the edge of the crowd. In the distance, a fire flickers on the lawn, a pig slowly rotating over the flames. 

His eyes sweep over me, and he grins around his cigarette. “Hi.”

“Hi.” I return, putting out a hand to shake. “I’m Evelyn.”

He takes my hand, and shakes it twice. “James.” He says. “What can I do for you Evelyn?”

“I was looking for someone willing to give a pretty girl a cigarette.” I say, batting my eyelashes at him. “Are you my guy?”

He laughs. “I’d be willing, for a price.”

“What kind of price?” I ask. There’s no world in which I have sex with this man for a cigarette, but I’m curious to see where this goes.

“I’ll give you a cigarette,” He steps closer, narrowing the distance between us and pulling his cigarette out of his mouth. “If you give me a kiss.”

I grin. “Sure.” 

Tilting my head slightly upwards, I plant a kiss on his waiting lips. It’s too wet, and he slips his tongue in too early, and it makes me miss Farleigh. Farleigh knew how to kiss. 

James pulls back, and digs a cigarette out of his pocket, handing it to me. I press the end to his to light it, and tuck it between my lips, sucking greedily. 

“So.” James says. “You wouldn’t happen to know who’s birthday it is, would you?”

“Oliver.” I say. “Little guy, about my height, big blue eyes. I’m sure you’ll see him around at some point.”

“Oliver.” James rolls the name over his tongue. “I don’t know him.”

“He’s a friend of Felix’s.” I say. “From Oxford.”

James hums, placing his cigarette back between his lips. “I used to go to school with Felix, when we were both in secondary school.”

I nod along, my eyes drifting away from him and back towards the flickering fire in the distance. Two silhouettes stand in front of the flames, one with antlers coming out of his head - Oliver - and the other, tall with a halo of curls…

I watch the taller silhouette bend down, getting in Oliver’s face. It can’t be anyone else. It can’t. 

I turn back to James. “I’m really sorry, I just saw someone-”

His gaze flicks over to the fire, and then back to me. “It’s fine.” He cuts me off. “You’re not really my type anyway. I don’t make a habit of fucking Americans.”

I only acknowledge the comment by flipping him off as I slip away, making a beeline for Farleigh. The walk to the open fire isn’t long, and it’s made even shorter by the speed at which I dash over. He stands up from Oliver, and I catch the sour look on Oliver’s face as he stalks away, back towards the house. I breeze past him.

“Farleigh.” 

He turns, his face splitting into a grin when he sees me. “Eves.” He drops the head of his costume in favor of sweeping me up into a hug. He squeezes me for a moment before he realizes what he’s doing and sets me back down. “Sorry.” He says, sheepish. “I just- sorry.”

I can’t help but giggle. “No, it’s okay. It’s so good to see you. It’s been so boring without you here, I missed you.”

He smiles. “You make a girl blush, Eves.” 

“So did you sneak in, or..?” I prompt, raising my eyebrows. 

“Believe it or not, I was actually invited.” He says. “They just can’t resist my boyish charm.” 

“Is that what it’s called?” I tease. 

“That’s what I call it.” He says, dipping two fingers into his sleeve and pulling out a little baggy of white powder. He reaches down, grabbing one of my hands and shaking a line of powder onto the back before running his nose along the skin and hoovering it up. I watch, wide eyed, as he licks up the excess, never breaking eye contact with me. 

Letting go of my hand, he wipes his nose, and jiggles the little baggy. “You want some? It’s pure - I made sure.” 

“Why not?” I say, taking the baggy from him. He holds out his hand, and I do what he just did, shaking a line across the back of his palm and snorting it up. Only, instead of running my tongue over his hand, I simply look at him. “Go on. Lick.”

Pupils blown wide - from the coke or my words, I don’t know - he licks the back of his hand, swallowing the rest of the powder. 

“Where's Venetia?” He asks. 

I glance behind me, back towards the manor house. “Dunno. She went to go get a drink a while ago. Probably throwing herself at Ollie by now.” I look back at him. “Why?”

He shrugs. “Just wondering if she was going to tug on your leash anytime soon.” He says. 

“Farleigh.” I give him a look.

Undeterred, he continues. “Since she’s left you, how about hanging out with me?”

I grin, stepping closer to him. “I’d like nothing more.”

< previous part | next part >

[soulfullives]

good morning! today i want to talk about james potter.

(note: this is solely based on my interpretation of him, thr very same way other writers write james in their own way. this is the essay on how i see him, as a person, a writer, and someone who relates to him, and i am not implying that my characterization is better than someone else's; just my five cents on this!)

we're all aware of the general fandom consensus and characterization for him; sunshine boy, always willing to help everyone around him, never has any sort of problems and is often see through the prism of his relationships.

to start off with my last point, with him being seen and characterized through his relationships, i think it is tied to the fact that he, himself, sees himself that way. the relationships that he has with characters are often strong and intense, either like or dislike, and therefore, said relationships take a toll on him. he always surrounds himself with people, in order to not be alone with his thoughts, and have the time to see deep within him not what the world sees him to be, but what he really is, as imperfect as everyone else.

i also consider james to be the kind of person who runs away from his problems, and this is one of the fundamental differences that he and sirius have (while sirius confronts his problems — and the fact that he ran away from home is not running away from his problems, but actively confronting them. he ran away from home, his home life being a problem, which is exactly confronting it — meanwhile, james never confronts his problems because he's scared of the feelings that might be triggered in him in that case, he's scared of how deeply he feels things, and therefore he like busies himself with other people's feelings and other people's problems in order to not work on his own.).

this also plays into euphemia and fleamont's funeral. james was more focused on comforting the people around him about the death of his parents and not sitting down and thinking on his parents' death and allowing himself to grieve, because he was scared of the impact that it might have on him. (he had a son, and he had to be strong for him; which is also the tying himself to his relationship and putting other people above himself, his feelings, and his needs). after he did sit down on his problems, he started taking more missions and becoming more rash and being more reckless in general as a coping mechanism, which, in turn, hurt him.

moreover, him running away from his problems and helping other people instead of himself often times leaves him seeking something else in order to protect himself and to make himself forget everything he's thinking about; in some cases it may be quidditch, music, pranks, and, sometimes, more dsngerous things. he's a man of stability, in this regards, so therefore i don't thìnk he would do something as dangerous as to put the lives of himself and others in danger. (we see this with the prank; sirius is the one who takes rash decisions, james is the one who puts everything back together.).

james also suffers from savior complex. the criteria and definition for it is as follows "they only feel good about themselves when helping someone, believe helping others is their purpose, spend so much energy trying to fix others that they end up burning out", and "a savior complex, or white knight syndrome, describes this need to “save” people by fixing their problems". i see this more often than not played in jegulus fanfiction, but this behavior of his expands to other characters, too.

last but not least, and this is something i only see being talked about with sirius, respectively regulus, is the pressure put on one's shoulders to perform well when part of a circle of upper-class and talented people. his father invented multiple potions which significantly helped and improved the everyday lives of the wizarding world (i.e.: pepper-up). whether this pressure is put on by parents or yourself, the need to achieve as much as your parents did can both mess up the aspiring young person and burn them out. despite james being naturally talented, much like his parents, i feel like james definitely related to this pressure to perform.

so, in order to sum up; i believe that james potter, too, is a deeply complex and flawed individual, the very same way we believe of other characters to be. being a good person with a warm heart does not mean that one is always happy and that they are inherently a morally white character.

[smartzelda]

Okay

Sonic Prime theory time

(Because I'm going through it right now)

Specifically I want to talk about my own answer to the question "How will the show end?"

ㅤ

Thoughts/Analysis under the cut

Season 2 Spoilers

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So, as I see it, there are about three possible endings.

Ending 1: Goodbyes are said. The universe is reverted back to its state before the shattering and Sonic gets his original friends back. (May also come with sonic being the only one who remembers what happened, but I can't rule out the concept of his friends remembering anything as well)

Ending 2: Sonic comes to terms with the fact that he can't bring back the original Green Hill and his old friends as they were. The shatterverse continues as is. (This most likely constitutes in a bit of a bittersweet ending where everything continues as is, but Sonic swears not to forget what things were like before)

And Ending 3: Sonic gets to have his cake and eat it too (He manages to fix ghost hill and bring his original friends back while the new shatterspaces and his new friends/all the new characters also get to stay around)

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Originally, while being partial to option 3, I assumed option 1 would be most likely. After all, option 3 originally originated as my happy "everyone lives" idea. I liked (and still do) imagining the possibilities that would arise from the universe from Sonic Prime entering a Kingdom Hearts-like state (where either the characters can travel freely between worlds while still needing to be conscious of each shatterspace's order, or travel between them is nonexistent/extremely limited). While I liked the bittersweet nature/possibilities of option 2, I found that outcome to be more unlikely given the show's audience.

I'm not saying that shows that keep an audience of children in mind can never end bittersweetly or that it's never happened before. It's just more like I find it hard to see those involved in the show effectively rendering beloved characters as dead/gone forever and make Sonic move on while with "different versions" of said characters.

However, now I'm a bit more inclined to believe in version 3 (the "everybody lives" ending), and here's...my long winded way of saying why

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So, about where I changed my mind is when I realized that Sonic Prime...isn't a typical alternate dimensions/multiverse storyline, especially with what seems to be it's basic framework.

So, when Sonic shatters the paradox prism, all of his friends and Green Hill are shattered as well. So it stands to reason that 5 different facets of his friends became splintered between 5 different versions of green hill, right?

Wrong.

I've seen a few different claims on what's going on here (usually to explain the other versions of Sonic's friends and their personalities). One of the most prominent is that each of the Amys, Tails, Knuckles, what have you, are meant to represent different pieces of those characters (i.e. that Rusty Rose and Thorn Rose represent different parts of Amy Rose's personality), and thus each versions of a singular character make up the whole of the original one. This of course functions on the idea that there *are* five different worlds of which there five different alternatives of any given person (or at least of those caught in the original blast) and that they all (personality wise and/or objective wise) are different necessary pieces to make up the whole of said characters (should Sonic want his original friends back).

But the inconsistencies in this framework (for which most of this theory's merit hinges upon) start beginning in the very first episode of season 1 "Shattered".

After "The Shattering" Doctor Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik returns as The Chaos Council (five different versions of Robotnik from seemingly different points in a singular lifespan, who refer to each other by nicknames). Of course it would make sense if these 5 (the chaos council) all came together after conquering their respective shatterspaces, using New Yolk as a central headquarters; however, we soon learn that this is not the case. The council only begins to learn about the shatterspaces and more about the shard energy they posses later in season 1, and season 2 elaborates upon the state of (formerly) Green Hill during it's conquering (building upon what the audience can gather from Renegade and Rebel's testemony of the event). Specifically we note that the five conquered (formerly) Green Hill and built New Yolk together. Evidence of course suggests that the five came to be in the same shatterspace, even possibly at the same time. No matter how perfect it is that there are five of them (one for each shatterspace as they set out to conquer the shatterverse), they all originated in a single universe rather than being split up across five separate ones.

And speaking of there being five eggmen, why don't we move onto inconsistency two?

Outside of Eggman, there exists only three alternate versions of Sonic's friends (this includes Amy, Tails, Rouge, Knuckles, Big, and Froggy). The only alternates exist in New Yolk, Boscage Maze, and No Place. Otherwise, The Grim is devoid of all life and has a repetitive (but distinctly non Green Hill landscape), and "Ghost Hill" just contains...ideas or blueprints of Green Hill and Sonic's original friends. It's strange that the Eggmen would all originate in New Yolk while the rest are the only one of themselves in each given shatterspace, and stranger still that there would be five eggmen but only 3 of the rest, if we intend to follow the framework of this being a usual world shattered into multiverse story.

And so, there are two final inconsistencies.

The first is the idea that each of the alternates of Sonic's original friends (and Eggman) are just...pieces of the originals, that each piece represents a different goal or personality trait. I won't dig into peoples' complaints about the characterizations of the alternates in relation to the original characters, and another theory/analysis of mine (reasoning as to why each of the alternates in each shatterspace are the way that they are) is best left for another post. So for now, I hope you all settle on the fact that...the alternates aren't actually presented as separate facets of personalities or goals personified? There's no separation by "Oh this is is the impulsive Amy, and this is the loyal Amy, and this is the nature loving Amy" or "This is depressive Knuckles, and this is angry Knuckles, and this is hopeful Knuckles", or even "This Rouge who loves shiny gems more than life, and this is Rouge who gives her all to fight for her home, and this is Rouge who is a seductress" (please understand that this is just an example of what I'm talking about, not character analysis of Sonic's original pals). In fact, even after season 2's end there is still no mention (even from sonic's end) of the idea of them being pieces of his friends (and more to suggest that they are their own, whole, well rounded people). But, as I said, that's all I'll say about this until I get on that character analysis post.

The second inconsistency is Green Hill itself and (frankly) the mere *existence* of both Ghost Hill and The Grim. Like I previously mentioned, under the typical "multiverse x splintered universe/people" framework it would make sense that Green Hill would exist in each of them (especially given Sonic's fixation on it with it being his home, but again, Sonic's influence on the shatterspaces is an analysis post for another time) as well as his friends and Robotnik. Yet, there exists a shatterspace with nobody on it (and if we're going under the assumption that each version of Sonic's original friends are splintered upon each universe, needing each piece to be whole again, it would be tragic for one of those "pieces" to be dead before Sonic even arrives, wouldn't it?) and an embryonic shatterspace.

A shatterspace where no one and nothing exists, not even Green Hill. Sonic pinpoints the landmarks of Green Hill in each shatterspace (always the loop de loop and Hedgehog's pass, and sometimes Tails' lab), only to come across a shatterspace where...none of that seems to exist or ever have existed (and if so, there is no trace of it).

A shatterspace where nothing quite is yet. A shatterspace stuck in the stages of forming. A shatterspace that is...identical to Sonic's Green Hill and even contains his original friends?

Well, isn't that fascinating

It's almost as if the idea that Sonic's original friends and the new characters cannot possibly exist at the same time is a misdirection at absolute best and at worst–

Ah ah ah. We'll get back to that later. For now let's continue on.

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So, these "inconsistencies". What does the existence of them mean? Bad writing?

Well...I think not. Stories about multiverses with alternate versions of the same people or ones that depict the future outcomes of different choices are not new or hard to find examples of. The animated Spiderverse movie did it, Marvel did it, DC did it, the Invader Zim comics did it, Futurama did it. Heck, even the Archie Sonic comics did that in the 90s. The same can be said about stories that feature horrible accidents resulting in singular people split into multiples of themselves or multiple personalities, or even stories that feature physical representations of a characters motivations, emotions, personalites, or goals. There are *too* many examples to draw from for inconsistencies like this to be on accident. Heck, anyone right now could write a multiverse story about a person who shatters their world into five separate worlds and the people on them into five separate people, that each dwell in the five different worlds, and each represents a facet of the original world and the personalities/motivations of the original beings that lived on the original world, after a freak accident, to which said person may need to merge the pieces of the worlds and people to restore the original world and the original people who lived there (now that I think about it...isn't this kind of one of the plots of Yugioh Arc V😅😂 I haven't fully watched that anime, but...random thoughts, you know).

So all of these "inconsistencies" I think are conscious choices by the writers.

Conscious choices that are *meant* to make us realize that *something* isn't right or usual here.

This story does not run upon the framework one would originally assume (and one that plenty of people think it is running upon even now). That's what I believe the inconsistencies mean.

So what does this have to do with the possible ending of Sonic Prime?

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Carry forward our theme of picking the story apart from its assumed framework and analyzing what we see rather than what we initially assume or are told.

And let us begin with the season 2 finale before we backtrack.

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So, uh

That finale, eh?🥲

I rewatched it again myself just today, and (although I did see it in my first watchthrough) it hurts to watch the buildup to it. It shows in the way Shadow distrusts Nine from the moment Sonic mentions him. It shows in Sonic and Nine's first conversation together in The Grim. It shows in the way different people try to get Sonic to stop trusting Nine, in the way Shadow tells him point blank that they likely don't want the same thing. It shows when Nine meets the other alternate versions of Tails and meets his apparition. And it comes to fruition the moment Nine finishes working on the paradox prism (save one shard).

Shadow was working towards the goal of reverting everything back as it used to be before the shattering (after all, he doesn't consider Nine and the others "real")

Nine was working towards the goal of building a home—a new home for he and Sonic to be together in the Grim. (After all, he is real, he could care less about anyone that's not Sonic, and he doesn't believe it's even possible to ressurect what he believes to be gone)

And Sonic was working towards the goal of restoring Green Hill and bringing back his friends while the shatterverse yet exists.

Yes, you heard me right.

Sure, way back in season one his goal was just to make everything "normal" again, and in a way that’s still true (it's just his definition of normal has shifted from "everything should be exactly how it was" to "my old friends and home need to exist again"), but his perspectives on the shatterspaces and the new characters are different from how they were back then.

Back in season one he'd considered them just *basically* his old friends shifted to the left or like his old friends were buried inside them. It took him a little while to call them by their own names/titles rather than referring to them by the names of his original friends. He'd believed that Thorn would come around to friendship because she was like his Amy deep inside, and that Dread would return to captaining his crew because he had Knuckles' loyalty deep inside him.

But we begin to see this shift in real time, and the proof of it all is something Sonic tells Shadow in their first conversation about Nine.

Nine is real to him. They're all real.

And if Sonic didn't think they weren't, he would not have pushed Nine to take him back to New Yolk so he could save Renegade and Rebel and the people from being killed/beaten down. If they weren't growing on him, if he didn't still want them around, he would not have admitted that he wants Nine to meet Tails (or any of his original friends)

But again, full character analysis (even that of Sonic) is best left for another post (so I don't go off on too many tangents). So, I'll make my point.

I think Shadow and Nine each represent two opposing goals/outcomes (the outcome where everything reverts back to how it was originally versus the outcome where everything continues as is and Sonic has to move on) while Sonic is stuck between them (no longer quite as willing to erase all of his new friends and their realities, despite how desperately he wishes to have his home and original friends back). And what this framework (of Sonic being stuck between two different theoretical outcomes and ideology (whether he should try to get everything back just how it was or move on and start anew, possibly even forgetting what was before)) seems to lead up to is Sonic's inevitable choice.

Our original choice of Option 1 and Option 2. Will Sonic choose to restore everything to as it was before, or will Sonic choose to keep everything as is?

And yes, some people think he's already made his choice (whether he's come to terms with the possible fact that he may have to sacrifice one for the other is irrelevant). Some people are already planning the funerals of our new characters as Sonic can't bear to choose anything over his old home and friends.

But...really. Who says he has to make that choice? Is choosing between reverting everything "back to normal" or moving on as if his friends/home are dead and gone really his only choice, or is it what the characters (and some of us by extension) have just assumed?

ㅤ

Let's go back to earlier Season 2.

While Season 1 primarily focuses on Sonic trying and failing to collect the Paradox Prism shards in hopes it might fix something, Season 2's focus (aided by Sonic now making acquaintances out of the once strangers of the shatterspaces) is primarily Sonic's race against the Chaos Council to gathering and assembling all five shards (so Sonic can restore his home and friends and thwart the council's plan to conquer the shatterverse).

But while in Season 1 Sonic's attempts to gather the shards often fail once he accidentally touches a shard,

In Season 2 Sonic's attempts fail because of the conscious choice he makes to protect his new friends over making off with the shards.

Season 2 Episode 2. "Battle in the Boscage". Sonic takes the Boscage shard in hopes of luring the Chaos Council and their eggforcers away from Thorn, Prim, and the Boscage gang, allowing their lives to be spared as he takes off with the shard. Not long after he begins running, Dr. Babble throws a tantrum, throwing around his own eggforcers as he continues to fight the Boscage gang and topple trees. Seeing that the council did not follow him, Sonic is given the choice to keep running and make it out with the prism without trouble, or to save his new friends. Upon choosing to come back for the Boscage gang, he saves them at the cost of the council stealing the Boscage shard from him.

Season 2 Episode 4. "No Way Out". Sonic and Dread (in the midst of the 3 way battle between Dread's crew, Sonic, and the Chaos Council) begin a one on one fight over the shard. Sonic, who sees Rusty Rose about to be ambushed by an eggforcer, gives up taking the shard from Dread in favor of saving her life instead.

And then again in Season 2 Episode 4 "No Way Out". The Chaos Council, who has Sonic surrounded, gives him an ultimatum. The lives of his friends, or the No Place shard.

But the other two examples mostly stand to show off to the audience Sonic's morals and that he cares about the wellbeing of his new friends (and are more subtle about it being a choice, given that in Boscage he didn't assume saving the gang would result in him losing the shard, and earlier in s2 ep4 he had technically gambled on still being able to get the shard back despite his choice). This choice is much more clear and on a grander scale. Mr. Dr. Eggman outright says "Hand over the shard, or say goodbye to your friends forever". This is not just a choice in the heat of the moment. This is "the shard, or the lives of your friends".

And this scene of "give us the ultimate power we want and we'll spare your friends" too is not an uncommon scene in media (the season finale of mlp fim s4 does come to mind here).

Except, once again, despite the numerous examples for the writing team to draw on, there is again an "inconsistency".

Because Sonic *doesn't* make a choice within the framework the council gives him. Unlike in the earlier examples, unlike in similar choices in media, the story does not go down the route of Sonic willingly and easily giving up the shard as some of his friends yell "No!"

Batten makes clear her stance that Sonic should hand the shard over for their lives, Rusty makes her stance clear that her life is expendable if it keeps the Chaos Council from taking over everything, and Nine motions at him to keep gathering the shards as in the plan, to not give it over.

And just as everyone thinks Sonic is going to give the shard over, he throws it, and he tells the council to get it themselves if they want it so bad.

Yes, in the end the council ends up with the shard again while Sonic's friends are safe, but he did not yield to the "this or that" choice. He was stuck in the middle of getting the shard (possibly necessary to save his home) or giving the shard to the council (and making his goal of restoring his original friends and home harder), and he took the middle road (a choice which seems to please even Nine).

Taking the middle road allows him more certainty that his friends (save Nine of course) will be saved and allows him to gamble with the possibility of also getting the shard back. It is a choice that gets him closer to what he wants on his own terms.

And the narrative rewards him for making this choice.

Because after choosing to protect his new friends, which are equally as real as the old ones, and choosing to take the middle path he's on rather than succumbing to the "this or that" choice he's been given, so happens season 2 episode 6 "Double Trouble" and episode 7 "Cracking Down".

Sonic is allowed to get all 3 shards (which includs the two he'd lost as a result of his choices) and save Nine, and the two travel with Shadow to ghost hill.

Keep this in mind. What could have been a season long endeavor of plan (or plans) to get the shards back from the council (even after Sonic let them go to protect his friends) became a successful escape plan in which he and Nine stole them away.

ㅤ

So, back to the season 2 finale and beyond.

Just like with Sonic's ultimatum in Season 2 Episode 4 "No Way Out", Sonic is idealogically placed between Shadow (who is distrustful of Nine and assumes Sonic is trying to revert everything to as it was before with him) and Nine (who doesn't share Shadow's goal and assumes Sonic is on board with his goal to turn The Grim into a new home for the both of them).

(Perhaps Sonic, Shadow, and Nine's problems with assuming one of the other is on the same page as them would be another good essay topic, or perhaps it would function as a small piece of the analysis topic on why Season 2 ends the way it does)

But Sonic...doesn't get to make a choice. The shard is almost finished, but it’s incomplete still, and Nine takes it with him. Shadow isn't even in the room to exert his opinion as before. The scene is well, frankly, filled with miscommunication on the same scale as Nine and Sonic's first conversation in the Grim, because they both get something different out of it.

But I want to make my view clear. Sonic is still fundamentally in the middle of the two goals I mentioned. He is *still* stuck between Shadow and Nine (the difference is just that Nine thinks Sonic shares Shadow's goals, and Shadow most likely thinks Sonic shares Shadow's goals, and Sonic just...wants everything to work out fine for everyone). And I think Sonic will eventually be raised the outright choice or ultimatum (or at the very least, these assumed outcomes will come back for him to wonder over).

In Season 3, we will most likely see major parties fighting over the paradox prism (the council, Nine, etc).

I believe it's possible that Nine (because he's more attached to Sonic possibly than he even believes, and because he'd *still* made plans with Sonic after S1, even after he had every right to feel left behind and betrayed by him) may attempt to use this power not only to transform the Grim into his home, but to bring Sonic to his side. Likewise, as with the miscommunication that began Sonic and Shadow's fight in S2 Ep1 in Ghost Hill, I think it's possible we could see a similar fallout from the s2 finale with Sonic and Shadow (because I believe Sonic will make it clear that he believes his new friends' lives can be preserved), and I can see Shadow also trying to get Sonic to take his side (because he doesn't understand what there is to be attached to).

And I think when Sonic is raised this ultimatum (save Nine and the shatterverse or save Green Hill and his original friends), I think he will make his own choice.

The idea that he even *has* to make one of those two choices is a red herring.

For what other than speculation suggests there is no middle road?

I mean, the fact that for a moment Ghost Hill becomes Green Hill, Sonic's old friends begin to exist in the shatterverse while the Chaos Council and Nine work unperturbed show us that perhaps Sonic *can* have his cake and eat it too.

ㅤ

Tl;dr: Sonic Prime isn't a typical multiverse x shattered universe story. The narrative is building up to an eventual choice Sonic will seemingly have to make between his old reality and his new reality as it pits him between Shadow and Nine's respective goals. However, the choice itself is a red herring, as I believe Sonic will make a choice on his own terms (the choice to allow his old friends and home to coexist with his new friends and their homes). I think this story can plausibly end with an "everybody lives" ending.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

[lordgrimwing]

Teasing #02

[For C+C week hosted by @candcweek. Prompt: loyalty -- kind of, I tried]

The first snow fell in the late afternoon, blanketing everything in a thin layer of white that reflected the last rays of light. A glass prism hanging just inside one of the windows of the snow-dusted house gleamed in the light, spreading a burst of colors around the living room. 

Curufin sat on the heavy rug in the middle of the dancing light. “Oh!” He said in a delighted whisper. “Look at all the rainbows, Brimby.”

A black-haired baby rested in his arms. Swaddled in the same cloth his grandparents wrapped his uncles in, Celebrimbor was snug and warm and halfway asleep already. His little eyes opened slowly at the words, and he blinked blearily up at the red, green, and blue sparkles on the ceiling. 

The lights were interesting enough to pull the baby back from the edge of sleep. Blinking twice more, he opened his little pink mouth. His father grinned, constantly thrilled by any of his gurgles or burbles. This time, he blew a little spit bubble. It sat on his lips for several seconds before popping.

Curufin leaned down and nuzzled their noses together softly. Celebrimbor giggled. 

“I take it all back,” Celegorm said in a lazy tone, lounging by the popping fire in the hearth and scratching looping designs into a long bone (from a small deer or maybe a large goat) with the tip of his belt knife. “He couldn’t possibly be anyone else’s kid.” 

At the start of the year, the entire family had wordlessly agreed that the fifth son was more than a little crazy when he rode home with Mirioneth from town and announced proudly that she’d be the mother of his kid before long. The repeated reminder that she worked as a prostitute and might be having anyone’s baby fell on deaf ears. Curufin never wavered. 

In an uncharacteristic show of restraint, Celegorm kept his doubts to himself, or at least to between himself and the animals he spent most of his time with—he thought he ought to keep himself as a neutral shoulder for his favorite brother to cry on when the baby was born and revealed to not be his. He hadn’t thought for a moment that Curufin would be vindicated in the end. Yet, after the baby (a little boy with wispy black hair who screamed louder than his mother when he came out) was washed and fed and sleeping soundly, Fëanor took one look at him and said there was no denying that he was part of the family.

Curufin was so delighted with his son’s noises that he didn’t notice the sly jibe in his brother’s words. 

“Yes you are,” He said in a high-pitched voice usually reserved for particularly cute, hapless lambs or kids. “You’re my little boy. Aren’t you? My little Brimby.” The words dissolved into bubbly noises.

Celegorm rolled his eyes and bit down on a smile. He didn’t understand his brother’s obsession but a nagging feeling at the back of his mind warned him to not joke about it too much because once the baby was a little less delicate, he might love being an uncle just as much as his brother loved being a father. He recalled the way Maedhros and Maglor held and played with tiny Amras and Amrod when they were born (he’d been thirteen and more interested in the new responsibilities he was given than in looking after the babies). Vaguely, from the deepest recesses of his mind, he remembered Pa sitting him in his lap and helping him carefully hold new-born Curufin—he was so nervous and excited to have a little brother (Carathir didn’t count because they were only a handful of months apart).

“Curufin.”

Celegorm’s eyes jumped over to the sole armchair placed near the fire. Celebrimbor’s mother sat knitting a painfully slow scarf. Her expression was pinched and unhappy. 

“He’ll stay up crying if you rile like that,” She said.

“What do you know?” Celegorm shot back before anyone else could respond. He straightened up so that he could glare at her easter. The knife bounced in his hand as he pointed it at her. “You don’t care about him. You’re just here to feed him.”

“Don’t tell us what to do,” Caranthir snapped at her from the other side of the room where he was helping the twins warp table looms in the fading light. 

“Caranthir!”

The brothers flinched. Celegorm hastily put his knife away.

Nerdanel loomed out of the darkness in the hall to her and Fëanor’s room, hair half-undone from her braids for the evening. Her ire and flyaway hair seemed to fill half the room. 

“Sorry, Ma.” Caranthir ducked his head, already chastised for his rudeness. That didn’t stop his mother from laying on more, though she restrained her volume thanks to the nearby baby. The others kept their eyes averted, hoping to avoid drawing her attention to their own behavior. Curufin even hushed burbling Celebrimbor, rocking him gently until he quieted and yawned.

When she finished, Caranthir’s face was red with embarrassment. He turned to Mirioneth and, sounding sincere, apologized for what he said. She awkwardly forgave him, no doubt uncomfortable with how they were all looking at her.

Satisfied, Nerdanel turned to Amrod and Amras. “The light’s too poor to work on that anyway. Put those away and clear the table before going to sleep.” To Curufin and Mirioneth she said, “It’s high past time for Celebrimbor to be sleeping if you want any kind of a restful night. Take him to bed.” Her direction for everyone to be in bed before the end of the hour went unsaid but fully understood.

Caranthir helped the ten-year-olds tidy up their threads and move the looks. While their mother was assuredly still listening, Celegorm politely asked Mirioneth if she needed anything before she and Curufin retired; she was a guest after all. Caranthir shot him an annoyed look. She declined, shoved her knitting into a bag, and hurried to the unwed parents’ room, made private by evicting the twins and moving them to the open spot with Celegorm and Caranthir. 

(The rearranging of sleeping rooms was a sore spot for several months but they’d all gotten used to it. Caranthir insisted the twins were better roommates than everyone else in the house.)

Amrod and Amras excused themselves to run out to the barn with a lantern to say goodnight to the sheep. In short order, Caranthir and Celegorm found themselves alone in the quiet living room.

“So,” Caranthir said, face finally returning to a normal color. “Do you think she’ll try to run tonight?”

Celegorm considered the dark windows. “First snow, new moon, no clear road to follow. She’d be foolish to try.”

“So I should hide her shoes, just in case.”

The blond grinned like one of his dogs. “We’ll get Amrod to say he did it if anyone wonders.”

“Right.”

With that, Celegorm went back to work on his bone.

[pynkhues]

I don’t know if you’ve seen the cut lines from the S4 script yet (where Stewy references some semi-ominous sounding games he remembers from when he and Kendall were growing up like Punch-Chess and Dinners for Winners) but this kind of made me think back on the games throughline (motif?) with Logan. We get to see how insane Boar on the Floor was in real time and we’ve gotten a pretty good sense throughout the series that Logan has a penchant for framing violence through the lens of games (not dishonestly might I add – I think there’s a reasonable read of Logan whereby he himself doesn’t view his games as a means for violence at all but just as tools or in some cases, truly just games).  

Recently I’ve seen some discussion that kind of lumps together games the kids played (Bitey, Dog Pound) with Logan’s games (Boar on the Floor, Dinners for Winners) and that struck me as kind of odd. Rightly or wrongly, I’ve been mentally distinguishing between the games the siblings play with each other as different from the games Logan concocts. It might just be me, but Bitey and Dog Pound read to me as within the realm of reasonable kids games (noting that a ton of kids play kind of insane games lol). I also just feel like the power structure is…different when it’s just the siblings? Does that make sense? Whereas when Logan invests games for his kids, there’s something more…uneven and off-kilter about it to me. Idk – do you think they’re all part of the same motif or that there’s some level of distinction?  Maybe I just to think about it more haha – I guess this is a super long round-about way of asking: how do you view the use of games (“games”?) within the context of the show?

Oh, yeah, I totally agree that the games the kids play with each other are very different from the games that Logan concocts, anon, but I’m not surprised to hear that people consider them in the same sort of discourse. After all, the games that the kids play with each other, now that they’re all adults, are viewed through the prism of the power dynamics in the current family unit.

In other words, even games that are on paper the sort that any kid plays (Dog Pound being a good example – my five and seven year old nephews actually play a pretty similar game at the moment called Puppy and Person, although I think their game involves more patting and cuddling than Roman and Kendall’s probably did, haha), because we’re encountering it with Kendall and Roman in their late-thirties and through the lens of undealt with sibling resentments and adult competition, they can be mistaken for the same sorts of games that Logan played / still plays with the kids.

In that sense, I think the clearest point of distinction is the fact that Logan is never really a player in the games, he’s the overseer of them – the judge, jury and executioner – and we’ve seen that twice. The first time with the baseball game in the pilot, and the second, of course, with Boar on the Floor. Interestingly, the only time we’ve actually seen him participate in a game as a player was in I Went Shopping in the Thanksgiving episode back in S1, and well, we all know how that ended.

Games are integral to the show, and it’s interesting because I don’t think they have any one particular meaning. I think the writers like them as a shorthand to convey certain themes and relationship dynamics, I think they’re an efficient and compelling way to move plot forwards, and I think the writers like to use them to trojan horse the history of abuse within the Roy family, which is exactly what that new excerpt from the script of 4.04 demonstrates.

Critically though, I also think they’re significant thematically in depicting both childhood and masculinity, and I think that’s really where the distinction comes in when it comes to the games the kids play together (yes, even Dog Pound, as much as that game [and Kendall] wants to pretend to be about masculinity, I personally don't think it is at all), and the ones Logan does.

So, let’s talk about childhood.

Games are integral to childhood, there’s no getting around that. Games are what teach children social skills and curiosity, strategy and the ability to both win and to lose, which is, of course, also the skill to enjoy success and sometimes embrace failure too. One of my current jobs is in a company that does play-based theatre for children, with a special focus on traumatised children, so I could talk a lot about this and the evidence behind it, and how crucial games are in empowering children and helping them develop agency away from the family unit, but that’s kind of where this story stops, because while games should help children to grow into playful, empathetic and inquisitive adults, the Roy children do not play games with outsiders.

The Roy children have lived in a completely insular world – a playground their father has built them, as Marcia so aptly put it – and so these games don’t evolve. Instead, these games like Bitey and Dog Pound and even Kendall’s LEGO become manifestations of current anxieties, insecurities and resentments, and an encapsulation of Shiv, Roman and Kendall’s arrested development.

(Maybe interestingly, I consider Connor slightly less arrested than his little siblings, and I do think a part of that is from his parentification, but also a proxy result of effectively having been raised in those formative childhood years as an only child, especially if he was, as Alan Ruck has said, about fifteen when Kendall was born).

Of course, Logan encourages this.

Logan’s inability to face his own mortality or seal off his own legacy requires him to keep his children, well, children. He needs them under his thumb, sure, but he also, I think, needs to keep them young so that he can feel young. Needs the promise of his own future reflected in the length of their own, and his frequent infantilisation of all four of them is a part of what keeps them regressed and reading meaning into games they played and places they lived when they were too young to know any better.

Let’s talk about masculinity.

Funnily enough, I actually talked a little about this in the context of Tom and Greg back when s3 was airing here, but a few years ago, I read Anna Krien’s Night Games which is one of my favourite non-fiction books of the last decade.

The book itself is about masculinity, sport and sexual assault, in particular patterns of gang rape by teams in Australian football and cricket, but she goes a lot broader in terms of games and male intimacy, and in particular how team sports give men a sense of community which, as a result of toxic masculinity, is generally reinforced by ‘othering’ outsiders of the team / environment, whether that be players on the opposite team, perceived interlopers, women, or even members of their own team who don’t participate in the right way with the group.

I don’t know if any of the writers would’ve read Night Games (it’s an Australian sports journalism book after all, haha), but I think they do understand deeply the way masculinity operates in these circles and the ways games of any sort can be utilised as a shorthand to exert power and solidify connection. Boar on the Floor is, of course, the clearest example of this, where Logan utilises the context of the game to dig out his betrayers, and while the first round has everyone as an unwilling participant, once a smaller group of 'others' are picked in Tom, Greg and Karl, the safety of being on the right team makes everyone becomes complicit in the second round.

This is something Logan’s a master of and what he does routinely with his children in general, but also in the rules of the games Stewy talks about in the 4.04 script. Those games are about the othering of a person and the increased intimacy of the rest of the team. If Dinners for Winners has the loser acting like the help, the winners are the rest of the family celebrating their renewed bond as, well, winners.

I don’t think the kids are immune from this in their own behaviour. In fact, I think the biggest examples we see of the kids engaging in this particular type of game play is in Roman’s treatment of the child during the baseball game in the pilot (and I actually am reading the scripts [albeit very slowly, haha] at the moment and read 2.01 last night and was pretty fascinated to discover that the boy’s father is one of the landscapers at The Summer Palace), and in the sequence throwing back to Kendall’s bachelor party with the tattooing of the homeless man’s head with Kendall’s initials.

These aren’t complete games, and interestingly they don’t create the same sense of shared compliance and group intimacy in the way Logan’s games do – no one’s fully on board with Roman’s behaviour, and Roman betrays the group bond in terms of Kendall’s bachelor party by telling Gerri and trying to use it against Kendall – but I view that as more a reflection of Roman and Kendall’s failures in masculinity and authority than in anything else.

It’s that failure there though which, in many ways, further separates the games Logan plays with them to the games they play together. Roman and Kendall continue to fail to imitate their father in his particular brand of games, because Logan knows how to divide and conquer, which they simply don't.

That also though is a direct contrast to the games the kids play together, because those games, whether they be Bitey or Monopoly or even Dog Pound, those games are about shared connection. After all, Kendall wasn't the one who sent Roman away, Kendall was just playing a game with his brother, no matter what they both have inferred in it over time.

[spacemonkeysalsa]

Her Embrace, Her Tears

Multi-chaptered, fluff, angst, eventually smut

Lae'zel probably didn't need a good excuse, or further motivation, to go to war with Shar. But, she is about to get it anyway.

Five years post game, Dark Justiciar/Mother Superior/Chosen of Shar Shadowheart and (with a few notable exceptions) everyone got their bad endings, in that everyone is still alive, but shitty. Lae'zel is thriving though, aside from her relationship.

Read Chapter One on Ao3

or read the rest of Chapter Fourteen below the cut

---

Carrying the child, Shadowheart made her way back to the enclave so slowly that by the time she got there, Orla was already waiting. The young sorcerer nervously reported that a commotion from the lower floor of Elfsong had alerted them to the fact that things hadn’t gone according to plan. They had seen the red wizards scatter, and Lae’zel give chase, ultimately tracking her down. But she was too much for them. Predictably.

Only Orla had escaped.

“What a lot of trouble you’ve become,” Shadowheart sighed, one hand tracing along the gith child’s mousey hairline. He was still fast asleep, and she wasn’t entirely sure it was all the magic at this point. He’d had a rather eventful day, after all. Perhaps exhaustion had taken him as much as her cleric’s power. 

Or, he was faking.

“I don’t know if they’re dead,” Orla expanded on her story, nervous. “They were certainly hurt, but they just vanished. Like she pushed them through a portal. Only, I didn’t see any portal,” she finished, sounding unsure. “There was a kind of glowing little box in her hand. A curious toy.”

Shadowheart froze, “Many sided?”

“Dodecahedron, I’d guess.” Orla nodded.

“Covered in gith symbols,” Shadowheart concluded, unsure what it meant that Lae’zel had found some use for the astral prism years later. And even more unsure what it meant that she’d never mentioned it to Shadowheart before.

“If they’re alive… should we send a party after them?” Orla sounded truly shaken by her own question, and with a little grim displeasure Shadowheart realized that she thought she understood her feelings on the matter. Clint and Bree had fallen behind, fallen into enemy hands. Abandoning them was probably the right call, that was why they didn’t know much about the mission in the first place. They couldn’t give anything away. They knew the location of the enclave, but so did Lae’zel, so they couldn’t hurt them with that information. At the least, there was no rush.

“We focus on relocating the child to somewhere safe first,” Shadowheart didn’t want to sound like she was giving up on them completely. “With any luck, Lae’zel won’t catch up with us, but we will get the chance to encounter her again. We can learn of their fate then.” That was all the assurance she thought she could afford.

“He’s not staying here? I thought it was her Lady’s will that we rear—”

“We are not staying here,” Shadowheart clarified. They couldn’t. This enclave had grown strong in the last few years, but as the home of the Mother Superior of the church—of two Chosen of Shar. It was compromised. Shadowheart needed to take the child and go someplace where Lae’zel wouldn’t find them. And she needed to bring a few trustworthy and useful acolytes with her. This was her way of letting Orla know she was one of them.

The girl seemed to understand, and hid any surprise, fear or excitement with a stiff nod. “Should I make arrangements? Where are we going? Tonight?”

“Already made, you’ll see when we get there, and yes. Don’t ask so many questions,” she added the last part with a sigh. But first. They needed to get the child to cooperate. “Leave us,” Shadowheart cocked her head at Orla, shooing her. Surely, the girl would have a few goodbyes to say. It wasn’t exactly allowed to have close personal attachments within the enclave, but Shadowheart knew better than to stand on such small details of disobedience. The girl would be grateful for the little notice she had.

It didn’t surprise Shadowheart at all that Orla practically fled the room. She turned back to the child, deciding to take advantage of his continued slumber. She needed to make this as painless for both of them as possible. She gathered him in her arms again, feeling him stiffen.

She was left with the decided impression that he was only pretending to sleep now. But she let him. That suited her just fine. She kept her eyes flitting back and forth to his mouth, ready to interrupt, in case he tried to cast a spell and take her by surprise. She moved silently through the enclave, followed by scant whispers in the dark. Her intent had been to vanish without a formal goodbye, and without informing anyone who didn’t absolutely need to know. But, of course, a few people would have found out, or even guessed. She thought she could feel the nervousness in the air as her acolytes skirted the shadows, keeping a vigilant eye on her and the child.

She stopped walking as she reached her destination, then gently touched the boy’s face. “It’s alright. Please wake up. I need to say something to you, little one.” Sure enough his eyes came open almost immediately, though the second he looked at her he shut them tight again on reflex, his little fingers pressing over his eyelids as though to chastise himself for his quick obedience. She helped him stand upright in front of her, and crouched down, a hand on either shoulder. He still looked frightened, but wasn’t trying to pretend to be asleep or avert his amber gaze any longer. Progress.

“I’m sorry,” Shadowheart started softly.

For a moment the boy remained tense but the longer she held his gaze, she felt his thin shoulders relax.

“I’m sorry that we adults can’t get ourselves in order. That we keep passing you around. It must be so difficult, not knowing where you belong.” She tried to be gentle as she touched his little cheek, fingertips finding dark freckles and brushing at them as though they were tears. “Can I tell you something true? Something that I think will help?”

The child looked at her, wary, but shrugged after a moment’s silent contemplation.

“You belong anywhere you want to be. You don’t need to look for a home. You already have one. I hope you’ll want to stay with me, but if you don’t, we’ll figure out the right place for you. Alright?” She even managed to mean it, in the moment. He’d want to stay, of course. It was never going to be a matter of force. He would choose it. It would be the only thing to choose.

He stayed silent, but from him, Shadowheart had the sense of one who was full of words. Afraid then. That was alright. Good even, for the moment. “Do you like your name? Or would you prefer to choose a new one? What shall I call you?”

At that, his eyes fixed in the middle distance a moment before he shrugged again.

“You can call me Shadowheart. When I first came here, I had a different name. I don’t remember it anymore.”

He looked doubtful at that, amber eyes narrowing slightly as he cast them on her face a little more steadily than before.

“I really don’t,” she shrugged back at him. “But I know where it is, if I wanted it.” She turned her head to look at the looming darkness just to the side of them. The great black glass resembled a large scrying mirror, which in turn, Shadowheart had always thought looked like the depths of a deep well. “It’s gone. Where everything goes.”

“What is that?”

“A mirror. See how you can see us standing there?” Barely. The dark glass seemed to pull at the image, making their forms ever distant shadows. “What do you know about The Lady of Loss? Have you ever heard of her?”

He nodded, but didn’t answer directly. He gnawed on his lip a moment first, before he said, “she’s a goddess. An angry one.”

“You don’t need to be frightened of her. Or of any god, but especially not of the Lady of Loss. She’s above anger. But mortals aren’t so lucky. Don’t you feel angry sometimes?”

The gith child made  a face, contemplating that.

“It’s not pleasant, is it?”

He was looking at the mirror. That was a good sign.

“You can give anger away to her. She’ll take it from you. Sadness too. And fear. That’s all she asks, you know. That you take the things you feel, that you don’t need, and you give it to her. It’s no burden for her, the way it can be for us.” Slowly, Shadowheart began to orient them so that he was looking into the mirror directly, and she could stand, just behind him. “Try it. Think about something that makes you angry. Let her take it away.”

A strange twinge coursed through her body—a feeling she didn’t understand, but it was her instinct to ignore. She must’ve done this for the first time, once. Who had been standing behind her?

The gith child wasn’t so tense under her fingertips any longer, his little shoulders slumped inwards as he made eye contact with the endless void captured in front of him. “I just… think about it?”

“And then, never again.”

It was nearly palpable, when he began to pray in earnest. Prayer could be taught, but there was something instinctual about it as well, something that a person either connected with, or didn’t. Shadowheart watched him, some echo of the burden he cast to Shar weighing her down as well.

“I feel… funny,” the gith child murmured.

“Good kind of funny?”

“Yes.”

“What about fear? Were you afraid today?”

“...Yes.”

“I thought so. I would have been. Think about being afraid. About everything that happened to you today.” Shadowheart encouraged him. It wouldn’t be too much at once, surely. Especially not for a new initiate. All the same, some instinct within her told her to mark him closely as he regarded the mirror again.

An hour later, Shadowheart left the enclave for what she knew would be the last time. 

They were taking little, so she’d shed treasure and pointless memento and foregone the luxury of individual goodbyes.

She’d expected to feel something inconvenient and stabbing at the prospect of leaving the only home she could remember, forever. But she didn’t look back. She was alone again, having sent the gith child and Orla on ahead. The sun was down, and they would travel in secret, in silence, and cloaked under an unassuming farewell to the city.

Something tugged at the corner of her eye. Some temptation to look back, now that she was on the other side of the bridge? But no, it was a glimmer of light from a balcony up ahead. The home of the High Harper showed some signs of life.

Gradually, Shadowheart let her pace slow and swerve, ever so slightly until she was on Jahiera’s front porch. After she knocked, she worried for a split second that Rion would answer the door—or even one of the little ones. She wasn’t exactly here to transparently wish an old friend goodbye, but she still wasn’t sure she liked the idea of anyone seeing her before she vanished from the city. To her relief, it was Jahiera’s half-orc son Jord. Harmless enough. From what Shadowheart knew of him, he didn’t have enough of a social circle to gossip about her. She wasn’t even entirely sure that he really knew who she was until he didn’t hesitate to let her inside and said, “Jahiera’s upstairs—you can surprise her,” and removed himself from the entryway without further pomp.

Jahiera had been old when Shadowheart met her, but didn’t look older for the years that she had gathered since then. Besides, maybe, there was a little extra exhaustion around her scrutinizing eyes. She blinked a hello at Shadowheart, and cleared her throat before she arose from the chair where it appeared she’d been… knitting? Shadowheart was sure she’d seen a flash of needles and a spool of yarn when she first entered the room, but Jahiera must have stowed it away expertly. There was no sign of any such activity remaining. She would be determined not to play into any kind of stereotype.

“Ah, my friend,” she sounded tired too, Shadowheart was troubled to hear. Would she ever see her again? Would this conversation be their last?

And would she even remember it?

“I’m sorry to just drop in like this,” Shadowheart felt a distant pang as she noticed how her words, her tone, helped uncoil the tension from the High Harper’s body. Until she’d said something, Jahiera’s expectations had been decidedly less pleasant, it seemed. “I’ve been meaning to call for sometime, and I found myself with a few extra moments as I was passing by.”

Jahiera took back just enough tension to look as nonchalant as possible as she conceded, “I understand. You’re a busy woman, and we have to take advantage of what time we find for ourselves in the little moments in between,”she gestured to a chair, and resumed her own seat without betraying any hint of weakening bones. “Have you been meaning to call for some time, due to a particular inquiry?” She more wondered aloud than asked.

“Before this morning? No. Just meant to call. But then I heard something that made me think I perhaps did have a question for you.”

“How very appropriately mysterious,” Jahiera’s sometimes harsh mouth softened into a half smile. “Whatever could you have heard?”

“A hint of something. An implication that I ought to know more than I do on a topic. Not unusual for one such as myself.”

“Do such implications always eat at you so?” wondered Jahiera with a smirk that was somehow both compassionate and a little patronizing.

“No,” Shadowheart admitted, and it was the truth. In as far as she knew it. “Minthara told me once that the problem with prizing and hoarding secrets is that most of them aren’t worth knowing. Sometimes, when I worry that I’ve… forgotten too much, I remember that. I’ve made it a point to keep that little nugget of wisdom because I think she was rather onto something.”

With a roll of her eyes Jahiera’s smirk became a little more prominent, “that one usually is, though it’s not also such a delight to receive such treasures from her.”

For a moment, Shadowheart lost her train of thought, lost her planned preamble into the subject. Jahiera was observing her, content to wait in silence while she found it. Better to just get to it, “Did you ever know a Viconia Devir?”

Jahiera’s shoulders slumped, and Shadowheart observed something stirring in her eyes before she turned them away. “We met her together once, you and I.”

“Did we?” Shadowheart found herself worrying at her dress, and thinking of the piwafwi again. “I’m afraid I don’t recall the acquaintance.”

“That is a quirk of your people,” Jahiera reminded her unnecessarily. “But. I knew Viconia for many, many years before you did. She and I once traveled together in much the same manner that you and I did as well. She was my friend. Sometimes,” she added with a shrug. “Why do you ask?”

“Because I can’t remember her at all,” Shadowheart answered simply.

Jaheira was already nodding, like she’d heard the answer in the air before Shadowheart uttered it aloud. “In all the years I knew her, Viconia never forgot me completely. Though, she had many opportunities to do so, I imagine.”

Shadowheart could imagine that too. There were precious few people who Shadowheart had enough intact memories of to fully keep an accurate understanding of who they really were in her mind. 

“She would drop by, often unexpectedly, and we would talk about old times. I would tell her about some of the things we did that she couldn’t recall. She would leave. Years would pass, and she’d drop by again,” the exhaustion seemed more prevalent through Jahiera’s features. “Sometimes she would lie to me, and I would only know it because she didn’t remember that she’d told me the truth before—or that I’d been there,” she laughed, but didn’t sound amused. “If I’d known that she lived so close by, I might’ve made more of an effort to maintain the friendship.” With a sigh, Jahiera added. “I should have guessed about the enclave.”

Something about Jahiera’s tone caught Shadowheart’s attention, though she thought her suspicion a little wild for a split second before Jahiera confirmed it.

“And maybe I did. Maybe that was the arrangement. There are things I can’t remember either. Things I… might’ve given away.” Her confession was light and without guilt.

“You’ve been to the House of Grief. As a parishioner?”

“I have no memory of it. But then again, I probably wouldn’t, would I?” Jahiera shrugged. “My dealings with Sharrans have been largely negative, but we need not dwell on that. Viconia was my friend. She knew my grief. And I knew hers. Often more intimately than she did.”

Shadowheart contemplated that and decided it wasn’t so shocking after all. Even the more dogmatic paladins of Shar’s greatest enemies felt the pull of the Lady of Loss. Everyone did. That was entirely the point. Why had Lae’zel asked her to speak to Jahiera about this? If anything, it was rather affirming to hear.

“Curious, isn’t it, that I remember so much of Viconia, and you, so little?”

Nothing at all, and that pang hit Shadowheart right between the ribs. Was it curious? “I forget a lot of people. Remembering them at all is the exception, not the rule.”

Jahiera looked saddened by that. “Viconia would have been an exception. Unless you actively chose not to remember her. Now why would you do that?”

That pang lingered. “It’s not my place to know,” she said softly.

“I suppose you’re right,” Jahiera did have an irritating way of dropping her own investment in a topic to make you evaluate your own. “It doesn’t matter now, does it? And you can rest assured there’s no great mystery to Viconia. Not anymore. Even without remembering her name, you know her as well as you know yourself.”

“Oh?”

“Half a century ago, she tells me that she has a little half elf waif to bring up in the ways of The Lady of Loss. She wants to know if I have any advice, as the greatest mother she knows,” Jahiera rolled her eyes. “I suppose it could have been someone else she was speaking of. But, in retrospect. It certainly was not.”